Congratulations to our winner, mamakin616!

When it comes to home decorating, I love heading to my local Lowe's because it has everything I need in one place. Sure, I might get lost in the massive warehouse while looking for that extra can of semi-gloss paint, but hey, that's half the fun of it, right?

Now that the holidays are here -- Lowe's is the perfect spot to snag great gifts for everyone on your list. That's why we're giving one lucky Stir reader a $100 Lowe's gift card. Whether you're looking for carpeting, window treatments, or that fun doodad your father-in-law just has to have this Christmas, Lowe's is sure to have it all.

To enter to win, simply tell me:

It was with great interest that I read that the standard thermostat had been redesigned by a team that took Steve Jobs and Apple as their inspiration. It’s so genius. I mean, it seems that stores like Skymall and Hammacher Schlemmer exist only to convince us that we need things we’d never use, when in fact what we want is new twists on the ubiquitous items we use every single day.
 
The new thermostat, called The Nest ($249 at store.nest.com), is more than just sleek and sexy-looking -- it learns your family’s habits so that it can turn on and off even when you don’t think to do so, which is supposed to save you energy. Which is great and all, but really, it’s kind of amazing that we accepted this ugly ecru-white box as a must-have for as long as we did.
 
Now, I’m hungry for more home utilities that look better than they have to. Here’s what I’ve found:

While fall has many wonderful aspects -- warm, sunny days coupled with cozy, cool nights; dappled sunlight; crisp, changing leaves; apple orchards; football; hay rides ... I could go on and on -- there is one downside. No matter how much you like cooler weather, at some point, you just have to close the windows and lose the powerful air-freshening aspect of, well, fresh air. And given that we tend to enjoy spending more time indoors in the fall, pet odors, kid messes, sports equipment, and generally stale air become really obvious really quickly.

If a good cleaning doesn't improve matters as much as you'd like, it's time to take out the home fragrances to make the air inside your house smell as good as the air outside.

Even though I haven't been in a position to buy much of anything lately -- broke like a joke, if you haven't noticed! -- I've persisted in staying in touch with my flash-sale sites. It's a little form of torture, I guess, or maybe inspiration: Keep on plugging and when things get better, I'll be able to indulge my shopping jones again!

Gilt Groupe started the flash-sale craze in 2007. The idea was to bring very short-term sales to a national audience. Daily email alerts announce new sales, and if you want it, you have to act fast.

Tons of other companies jumped on the bandwagon, and now there are many flash sale sites -- but only a few for home decor. Two new contenders have just joined the market. See what you think about this modern-day way to shop smart.

Please note: These sites don't let you browse until you've signed up, so clicking through is going to be frustrating. That's just how they work, though. That's why I scouted ahead for you!

I love my darn iPhone. Every time I try to quit it, I find myself in need of its services – as a Filofax, a research tool, a camera. So when it comes to home and garden help, it’s seems like it would be a natural fit.

The trouble with apps (many of which are also available for the Android and BlackBerry, if you swing that way) is they’re only as good as their makers, and people who are skilled at coding and designing apps aren’t necessarily the same people who have a deep and meaningful knowledge of vegetable gardening. On the other hand, coders do tend to know about making things look nice, so ...

Here are some apps I find most useful for all things home and garden. Have you got more to add to the list?

Are you a stamp geek? I don’t mean a collector -- come on, that’s just weird. I mean, when you get to the post office, do you find yourself drifting over to the board of new stamps and going, “ooh ... Simpsons! I need those!” even though, in this age of online billing and Evites, you almost never actually get through a page of stamps?

I am. And the latest stamp-fest is made for me: it celebrates pretty, pretty industrial design -- pretty appliances, fancy furniture, and classic tchotchkes. Do you think these designs are stamp-worthy? What would you nominate for the next round, if you could?

My husband knows that before we make any major home purchase, there are two things I’m going to need: My drawer full of Bed, Bath & Beyond 20 percent off coupons, and my back-issues of Consumer Reports. My mom may not have taught me to keep the house clean or separate my laundry -- she’d rather be writing ... and who can blame her? -- but she did teach me to stretch my pennies 'til Abraham Lincoln looks like Gumby.
 
Consumer Reports is a non-profit organization that tests household products and rates them by durability and whether they’re worth the money you pay for them. They don't take ads, and they don’t care if companies get mad at them. So when it’s time to buy a vacuum cleaner and you want to know if Dyson really never loses suction, Consumer Reports is your impartial third-party, removing the hype from the infomercials.
 
And today (July 5, until 3 a.m. EST on July 6), they’re free.

Raise your mug if you love design-school products -- and hate that they never seem to hit the market. The latest ooh-ahh-WANT item is this: the Espresso Gun.
 
Little story: I worked at a coffee shop in college, and no matter how often I ran that espresso machine, it always exploded on me. Most notably when someone told me about Lucille Ball’s death and I seemingly re-enacted some unaired episode by instantly covering myself in Italian mud. I don’t know if this single-shot maker would have saved me from that fate, but let me tell you, I would have really enjoyed dressing up in cowgirl drag and slinging this thing around the Hungarian Pastry Shop.
 
Tangent over: I love the idea of handheld espresso makers, and guess what! They really exist! Not that they’re all that affordable or I even get how they work, but they're allegedly more environmentally-friendly (they don't need electricity). Here are the options to make the most of the latest health craze: