Okay, for those of you who didn't feel the last nursery I featured was girly enough, I hope this one pleases your desire for pink. Yvonne decorated this nursery for her little baby girl with a splash of bright green on the walls and pink accents throughout.

I love that it all looks so doable -- in case you wanted to replicate some elements for yourself. See what I mean with more photos below.

This serene nursery created by Christine proves two things: First, just because your decorating for a girl doesn't mean you have to douse everything in pink, and, second, a DIY project doesn't have to be difficult to be effective. Take a closer look at the details to see what I mean. 

There's an art to decorating with vintage pieces, and Vicki Eastland is an expert in the field. Not only does she know a good find when she spots one (ahem, that phone booth door), she knows how to mix vintage and modern finds to create a look that is far from contrived. While the red door stands out, there is an abundance of other details that you'll love in each corner of the room. Take a look.

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:

It's no surprise that Scandinavian design inspiration has always been sought after in American interiors. They definitely have the clean, bright, and sleek look down -- evident in this soothing gray nursery.

Accented with bright white furniture and a hand-painted forest, it's the kind of space you'd be delighted to have your baby living in. See the full room tour below. 

Look at this black Forest Canopy Bed from Anthropologie. Gorgeous, isn’t it? I mean, it’s like a fantasy -- so ornate, so fabulous, such a great way to ensure dreams of sleeping in an enchanted forest.

Or so I would have thought two years ago. Now, I look at this thing and think, "Forget it. One of the kids will lose an eye on that branch at the foot of the bed. If they don’t get impaled first."

It’s not about finding it impractical. It’s that my very tastes have changed since having kids. I can’t see the beauty in things, because all I see is the danger, or the stains, or the frivolity of dropping five grand on something when that money should be going into a 529 plan.

Is it just me, or does having kids completely reboot your aesthetic -- and rob you of the ability to simply enjoy?

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?

There are a lot of stereotypically feminine gifts I will toss back if I fish ‘em up. Box of chocolates? My tush is big enough, thanks. Bath products? At this point, I only take baths when one of the kids says “I don’t want to! Will you come with me?” (Which is lovely, but not conducive to relaxation.) A spa day? I would seriously sooner have a root canal.

And scented candles? The bane of my existence. A fire hazard that stinks like a flower threw up? No, thanks.

And now I've been given the best argument against scented candles ever: They’re as bad as cigarettes. So if you’re the type to flap your hand across your face when you exit a building past a crowd of smokers, well, get flapping in the Yankee Candle store, too. And prepare yourself, scented-candle-burners: I'm bringing a jumbo-sized hand-fan to your sickly-sweet-smelling home.

So what’s so bad about scented candles?