There’s plenty going on in The Wizard of Oz, with all its plots, subplots, flying monkeys, forces of good and evil, small yappy dogs. But we choose to focus on the shoes. Not the ruby red slippers - they’ve already had their day in the sun. We’re obsessing about the Wicked Witch of the West’s footwear, and how they seem to have struck a few marketing deals of their own.

Like this candy dish from Sur la table, all sweet and full of treats ($15). Set it by the front door on Halloween night, and watch those trick-or-treaters’ eyes open wide.

Send your little goblins out into the night with Current catalog’s imaginative treat bags (above), shaped like witches’ boots with wild heels in multiple colors (6 sacks, $7). After they come back all sticky and sweet, just hand them these hand towels that certify the Witch Is In (and she likes purple, $3, above right).

(more…)

No, there’s no deadly mercury in these soft, shimmering pieces of art glass. Sure, back in the 19th century, when they were created, “mercury glass” contained that dangerous element, but now shiny silver nitrate rests between two thin layers of glass and shimmers like liquid gold (or other precious metals).

You can still find mercury glass in antique stores, but better to go for the versions popping up in trendy home décor boutiques and stores. Go for standard silver or try other colors (like these luscious pears and pomegranates for $22, below).

Feeling mercurial about your autumn decor statement? Here’s a sampling of our favorites for fall:

Rian Rae’s lamp ($312)

Spheres (on sale for $30)

(more…)

There they sit, in the dish, all innocent in yellow, orange and white, plotting. They have the power to ruin your dinner and send your diet over the cliff.  You know this, and yet your hand still creeps toward the tri-colored demons. The battle is lost. And for heaven’s sake, it isn’t even chocolate.

Resistance is futile when it comes to candy corn, and the candy’s time of year draws near. Did you realize that an estimated 20 million pounds of it is sold every year, (and that Oct. 30 is National Candy Corn Day)? Therefore, in an effort at diversion, we offer candy corn fanatics some alternatives to the evil little triangles of tubbiness made of corn syrup and sugar.

Juicy Couture is on the job with a pretty little candy corn charm that says, appropriately, “Live for Sugar” on one side ($42).

Proclaim your allegiance with an “I Love Candy Corn” T from Café Press ($20), or  hang your feelings on the door with Lillian Vernon’s candy corn wreath and garland, where giant candy corns are all dressed up in silk leaves and organza ribbon. Crate and Barrel creates candy corn cookies ($6), of all things, as well as a candy corn tray ($15) and candy corn mugs ($5-$9).

(more…)

With fall now officially here, it’s time to transition your home from that breezy summer look to something more mellow and golden. The simplest way to make the seasonal switch is to swap out accessories. Oh sure, you can break out the pumpkins, autumn leaves, wheat stalks and scarecrows and scatter them across every available surface. But do you really need a look that screams, “AUTUMN LEAVES EQUAL FALL! TIME TO PULL OUT THE PUMPKINS!” We’re more intrigued by the challenge of implementing a stealth harvest theme.

Go for the golden with a subtler nod to the season with some of these delectable accessories:

• This elegant feathers bouquet with pheasant and guinea hen feathers would look divine on a coffee table, mantel, or even on a wall as art ($55; below).
• For tabletop storage or to hold autumn fruit or potpourri, consider  Shaker-style circular wood banded boxes ($89)
• Add a scent of the great outdoors with lovely aroma cone arrangements from the Home Decorators Collection. We liked the simplicity of the Door County arrangement in a willow basket ($24) and the Hampton arrangement (above) in a patina-finish metal basket ($129).

(more…)

Fall is such an uncomplicated season compared to the rest. Winter is all slush and muck, boots and coats. Summer oozes wet swimsuits, humidity and screen doors slamming. And don’t get us started on spring, what with all its fever and cleaning. But fall is a cup of tea, a chenille sweater, a break in the heat. And fall is layers and layers of red, orange and gold pillows falling into your living space, making it warmer and more inviting by the minute. First, stock up on the deals at Overstock.com, with the garnet, terra and brown channel quilted pillows (set of two, left, $25) or the velvet throw pillows (set of two, $20) in burgundy, gold or chocolate. 

Then pick a couple of  accent pillows to catch the eye and help it rove around the room. Bed, Bath & Beyond offers a slice of the season in its quiet Amherst nutmeg feather toss pillow ($30), or its sophisticated block patch toss pillow ($20, right) in natural.  (more…)

It’s a shame the harvest moon only comes around once a year.

That huge, glowing, gold-orange circle that will rise slowly from the horizon tonight has inspired poems, plays, books and Neil Young, not to mention a thousand romances. There’s a Harvest Moon brewery, a Harvest Moon Café, a Harvest Moon Estate & Winery and a whole slew of Harvest Moon video games, wherein you plant crops and hope to heck you survive.

But those are mostly loud and busy things, and we’re in a quieter mood. We’ll focus on Paul Kozal’s gorgeous black and white photograph, “Harvest Moon,” at allposters.com ($10-$18). We love the peace of Joel Sartore’s “A Harvest Moon Rises over a Pier Where a Group of Fishermen Cast Their Lines” ($265), despite the fact that Sartore seems unacquainted with the picture-is-already worth-a-thousand-words thing. (more…)

It’s like Craigslist, except there’s a panel of judges waiting to disqualify the bad impersonation of a Mies van der Rohe chair you once found cool enough to buy and are now hoping desperately to sell. We’re talking about Feel More Human’s Modern Flea Market, the classified advertising section of a site devoted to modern design goods. Here you can buy and sell (with no fee to list items) previously owned gems such as a trio of Nuevo white and chrome Opener barstools, which are said to be “like new,” for just $125 (plus $85 shipping). To give you some context, we found a pair of the same barstools, new, for $340 (shipping free). That makes them $170 each new. Now that’s a flea market! The judges must be very picky, though, or else the items are flying off the site. We only found five things for sale on our most recent visit. (That’s a very small flea market.) There were two pieces by the Canadian design firm, Hot House: a modern coffee table ($150, plus $65 shipping) and a modern side table (same price), with the set going for a mere $225 ( plus $70 shipping). Buying an item is as simple as e-mailing the seller. The idea is a good one, we think, providing more sellers discover the site, but it’s the brand-spanking-new section of the eco-friendly store that gets most of the action. We were impressed by the solar LED house numbers ($20 each), which take around one hour to charge on sunny days (2-3 hours otherwise), and by the Rekindle coffee table ($360, pictured), which uses just three pieces of environmentally friendly SmartWood.

I’m an old-fashioned girl when it comes to recipes, and although I’ve printed out my share of instructions from FoodTV.com, I also treasure the recipes from my mother and mother-in-law handwritten on pieces of paper and given to me over many years. All good cooks should own a recipe box, filled with recipe cards for favorite family dishes, great-for-entertaining appetizers passed on by friends and special versions of classics (that unique oversized chocolate-chip-cookie, the yummy bread pudding). At Fine Stationery, the “Funky Chickens” recipe box ($18) is decorated with stylized art-deco chickens, and comes with dividers for appetizers, salads, main dishes and desserts. The Jasmine recipe cards from Fine Stationery (30 for $10) have a simple floral pattern on green paper and would match many different types of boxes. At Etsy, which sells handmade items from individual artists, there’s a treasure trove of recipe cards to be found, including these personalized ones from Your Picture Fixer (16 for $10). Buyers choose the colors and indicate what name they want on the card-for example, “Carolyn’s Creations” or “Rachel’s Recipes.” The available design themes include pitchers, ladybugs, utensils, and fruits and vegetables.  For a more avant-garde recipe box, Etsy sellers Christopher and Tia have an electric green “Cricket” box with matching cards, $31. The box is also available in other fluorescent colors, including electric pink, electric blue and hot orange. If you’re looking for something more sedate and classic, try a powder-blue box ($15) made of steel: very 1950s. It’s available at Macy’s and is part of the Martha Stewart line. At My Secret Pantry, their recipe box selection includes a roll-top wooden box, which holds 4-by-6 cards. Finally, to help your holiday recipes stand out from the others in the box, use these Christmas-themed cards from Kent Creative Ink (50 cards for $9) decorated with a drawing of a sprig of holly.