It's Great To Be Home

Homebody Query: A Mailbox . . . Or Slot . . . Or Basket?

Ah, mail. It’s so fun to receive, but not always a pleasure to retrieve. I remember in college I always looked forward to receiving care packages – but the common mail center was waaay on the other side of campus, not at all on my daily route. Even with the promise of a mailbox full of goodies, I would only swing by to check my mailbox about once a week just because it was so darn far! The same thing applied in law school when I was living in an apartment with a common mail center – but then only bills awaited me, so I was certainly in no hurry to check the mail back then!

These days, I’ve gotten a little spoiled – my mailbox is right outside my front door. It’s pretty awesome. I could check the mail in my jammies if I wanted to.

You see, our house was built in the 60s, back when the mail carriers walked from house to house instead of pulling up to the mailbox in their little trucks – so that’s what they still do in my neighborhood!

And if we ever get too lazy to walk three steps outside to get the mail, we could always reap the benefits of our superfluous mail slot.

I was walking in our neighborhood the other day when I noticed that one of the houses didn’t have a mailbox. Or a mail slot. Surely the homeowners received mail, didn’t they? I scoped out their front porch a little further (yes, I was being snoopy), and noticed a large basket next to their front door – that was filled with mail! A mail basket! Just imagine a basket like this perched on the porch next to the front door:

It’s certainly a more decorative option than some of the mailboxes out there, but I wondered about practicality. Without a lid, would the wind just blow the mail away? What about rain? Was this a temporary solution while they were replacing their mailbox? Alas, no answers.

So that brings me to you guys – what do you think of this basket as a mailbox thing. Is it a fun twist on the traditional mailbox, or just a funky fad? Have any of you tried it? And while you’re at it, tell us about your mailbox situation – do you hoof it to the curb or a common mail center, or does it magically appear on your door step? Spill the beans!!

Images courtesy of GemFireAir, Zyber, cindy47452, neon anomaly, Trish Mayo, and Flickr.

A Tisket, A Tasket . . . An Overnight Guest Basket

Even though most of our friends and family live right here in Dallas, from time to time we get a special treat and I get to play hostess when someone drops by to stay with us for the weekend.

My friend Abby is our most recent house guest – she was in town to attend our friend Jen’s engagement party (which you saw here). Prying Abby out of Austin for the weekend is no easy feat, so I wanted to make sure that she felt right at home while staying at our house.

When you’re staying at someone’s house, it can get really old always having to ask them where everything is – so when Abby came to stay, I decided to cut out the middleman (me) and just give her the goods. That way she would have everything that she needed right at her fingertips!

It turns out that I already had everything I needed on hand, so this project cost me zero dollars. Here’s the little goodie basket that I whipped up in no time for Abby’s bathroom:

I started out with this cute wire basket that I snagged at Home Goods awhile back for only $7.99. I was instantly smitten when I saw it, and had to have it. Months later, inspiration struck and I knew it would be perfect for a guest goodie basket . . . with just a few little changes, of course!

While I loved the deep wood handles, the problem with this little guy is that he was an off-white color – it didn’t really have the spa-like vibe that I was going for in the jack ‘n jill bath. No worries, it was nothing a little spray paint couldn’t fix! The first step was to mask off the handles with painter’s tape:

Then I busted out my trusty silver spray paint, made especially for metal like this wire basket:

Just a few quick sprays with the paint (check out those lovely plastic gloves) and the basket was ready to bask in the sun and dry. Don’t ask me why we still have that old rusted thing that’s supposed to corral gardening hoses – but I’m glad we do, ’cause it was the perfect place to hang the basket to dry.

You may have noticed that I always spray paint outside on the grass – that’s because of all those lovely fumes. If I’m painting something flat on the grass, like a mail slot, then I’ll usually put something under it to protect the grass. But in cases like this where I can just hold the to-be-spray-painted-item in the air, I don’t bother protecting the grass – so far, none of the little paint particles have marked the grass and even if they did we could just mow them away. However, I do always make sure that I’m far away from the house or the fence – I don’t think a big blotch of spray paint would do much to help the exterior of our house!

The last step was to add a few goodies to the basket – things like lavender shampoo and conditioner, soap, toilet paper and washcloths are sure to make any guest happy.

So there you have it! Using just items that I had on hand, I was able to whip up this pretty little basket in about an hour. Not only was Abby a happy camper, but now I can just replenish it for each new guest – how easy is that?