apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

A large part of your home is the state and town you choose to live in. This year BusinessWeek's rounded up the best town to raise kids in each state. The Chicago suburb of Tinley Park ranked top in the nation. The other "best places" below...

We spotted this little playhouse in the latest Anthropologie catalog. It's similar to the Color Me House we blogged about in the past, but includes the modern motif of tree branches and a few critters on the house.

The home takes center stage during the holidays, and we've been doing a little freshening up here and there to get things ready before the actual decorating happens. Below find our ideas as well as a few from Parenting.com...

There's a lot about this that makes sense, and a lot that just sounds so strange to us. Basically, you create private pages with special messages for loved ones, as well as add your contacts so that someone can "activate" it and let them know of your death and services.

Whether you're hosting a party for your kids or adults, you may find yourself doing a little last-minute cleaning up. We found Mary's list of "Top Ten Things That Must Be Done When Cleaning My House in a Hurry" both humorous and quite realistic for us at times...

In our home, we use a simple basket filled with small slips of recycled paper for family members to write down what they're thankful for on any given day. Then we fold them up and don't read them again until New Years Day each year. Thanksgiving would also be a great time to start this tradition in your family...

We thought this post over at Simple Kids was a great reminder that hanging your child's art doesn't have to be complicated. Megan covered a wall of ugly wood paneling with her kids' art using...Scotch tape.

We can't remember where we stole this sweet and simple idea from but we're glad we did! As we got closer to a very large, traditional Korean first birthday party for our little girl, our initial plan of baking our own cupcakes had to go...

We haven't seen it yet, but it just came out on DVD and we love this idea for a cupcake cake for an "Up" themed party...and it's so very simple!

If you'd rather not deal with a dirty bib while you're away or out for the day, these tear-off disposable bibs are a simple (and cute) solution. Toss a few or the whole pad in your diaper bag.

We saw this at Target a few days ago while we were picking up a larger first aid kit for the house, and were captured by both the design and usefulness. We ended up tossing one in our basket.

We love the convenience of online shopping, but we're not quite sure how we feel about this one yet. There is definitely something very appealing about it though...

If first dollhouse is on your list, this one comes complete with a couple of trees, a welcome sign, and a white picket fence!