Spam sucks whether it’s in the comments (where we try to kill it as fast as we can) or in email inboxes, where it makes it less likely we’ll get your awesome missives. Unfortunately that describes Christa Terry aka Never teh Bride’s inbox to a T, forcing her to make up a whole new email address to ensure that she gets your emails about decorating, lighting, paint, gardening, and more. So update your address books, please, and never hesitate to send along a tip or a question!

THE DEETS: Christa can now be found at Manolohome@gmail.com

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I’ve known the joys and sorrows of occupying and decorating small spaces, which is why I tend to come back to the topic again and again here at Manolo for the Home. And there’s no shortage of blogs dedicated to small space living, though I’ve just recently found one I simply have to share. loving. living. small. is written by a female in marketing in Los Angeles. Hey, that’s just what the blogger’s profile says!

So what’s great about loving. living. small.? From decorating small to eating small to effectively working clutter in a small space, loving. living. small. is like a bible for those of us whose houses or apartments aren’t exactly what you’d call expansive. My own home only clocks in at 1,100 square feet because the seller decided to include the finished basement in the equation. Take that away, and you end up with a four-bedroom home that is totally teeny. Maybe not as small as some of the apartments I lived in post-university, but small enough to ensure that I’m still a huge fan of this topic. If you can relate, go and check out this blog.

One more thing: loving. living. small. will be updating to a custom url soon, so be on the lookout for that change. The good news is that when it happens, loving. living. small. will still redirect via Blogger so it won’t just disappear.

It’s that time of year again… that’s right, the time of year when we here at Manolo for the Home open our blogroll doors to any and all! We’re always looking for new friends with whom we can exchange links, whether they are individuals blogging about their own homes or home improvement projects, design bloggers, or even designers and crafters who blog about their creations.

So if you’d like to be included in the ranks of our home and lifestyle blogging peeps, leave a comment on this post and be sure to include a link to your site!

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1. Paloma’s nursery:

All right, so by the time Paloma actually has a proper nursery (hey, she was early) she’ll probably be extremely embarrassed to hear me even saying the word. For now, she spends most of her time in my black-and-red themed home office — the space that will eventually become her room. And we’ll probably keep that theme. But until that dream becomes a reality, I can fantasize all I want about building the perfect nursery from the ground up… or letting ducduc do it for me.

2. The color gray:

Cool, somber, elegant. What’s not to like? Don’t think gray is too dark for small spaces. It’s not. A lighter gray can actually make a small space look bigger!

3. Houzz

The Washington Post calls it “the Flickr of design idea sites,” which isn’t too bad of a description. You can search through thousands of photos of interiors by professional designers and save the ones that inspire you in your online idea book… Which means yours truly can finally toss out some of the magazine clippings she’s been sitting on for ages.

4. Hanging things up:

With the baby underfoot or attached to me at all times, I don’t get much done around the house anymore. Projects like tiling the mudroom or tackling the bare upstairs room have been put on the back burner for the time being. Just about the only thing I can do is affix things to the walls. Hanging things up makes me feel like I’m actually doing something to add a little zest to my living spaces, and I heartily recommend it to those with a desire for change but not a lot of free time.

On one hand, I’m loving the way space is utilized in this small home office from Apartment Therapy. On the other hand, the pastels and light-colored woods are so calming that I have to wonder whether I’d fall asleep while blogging. The bright and cheery orange accents (esp. the adorable retro wall clock) might keep me awake for a while, but I think I’m the kind of person who needs the intense stimulation my glaringly cherry red home office provides.

Do you agree? Disagree? Hate pastel peach with a burning irrational passion?

I’m reading and posting snippets from my favorite home blogs on Friday evening, which means that with any luck I am currently working on the homemade Christmas ornaments I mentioned briefly last week. If I’m really lucky, I finished them all on Saturday (after wrapping all my Christmas gifts) and am currently sitting around my house in my jim-jams drinking hot chocolate. Yeah, right. Anyway, read on to see a few posts from the blogs I’ve been digging on lately.

• Get framed with This Young House
• There’s a Yvestown Blog book?
• Things That Inspire posts even more things that inspire
• To meet Benjamin Dhong (heh) visit the Peak of Chic
• Get your holiday DIY on at No Accounting for Taste
• Has your Moderncat been naughty or nice?
• Go window shopping with My Little Apartment

I <3 Mid Mod Pam of Retro Renovation, and not just because I learn something new (like the definition of ‘hootie ring‘) every time I visit her blog. If you’re into the retro decor, the vintage decor, or the mod decor, I definitely recommend you check her out. Anyway… it turns out that she’s selling the greatest retro kitchen faucet ever, i.e., the Dishmaster, through her site.

I’m lucky in that I already have a husband who does most of the dishes because he knows how much I absolutely cannot stand doing dishes and we have no space for a dishwasher. He even wears a repro apron I sewed using a vintage pattern from the 1940s. Hot stuff, right? And yet I know that he’d think our sink was so much cooler if we were living the Dishmaster lifestyle.

What is Dishmaster Living? Slow down. Cook up a storm. Make a happy mess in your kitchen – then have some more fun cleaning up. Yes – the Dishmaster’s circa-1948 faucet makes washing the dishes fun via the “Push Button Dishwashing” action of the special aerator brush wand – which dispenses soapy sudsy water and rinses clean, too. Feel good about use of precious resources as well: The Dishmaster conserves water, energy and detergent. And, it’s Made in America, by a small company right in Indiana.

Seriously… how cool is this faucet?

One of my new favorite blogs is LittleDiggs, which was pointed out to me by my good friend Sterlingspider. This particular blog is devoted to small spaces, i.e., houses and apartments that are about 500 sq. ft. or smaller, and the accessories that help people live comfortably in dwellings of this size.

One diminutive house featured on the site was designed by Japanese architect Makoto Koizum in 1952 and measures in at a mere 538 sq. ft.

The reason for its tiny size is that after World War II, the housing corporation of Japan would only provide loans to build homes that were no larger than 50 square meters.

If you had the means to build a bigger home, you were perceived as being wealthy and not in need of a loan.

The Masuzawa house was dubbed “the minimum house,” but Makoto Koizumi, who reintroduced the house to the current Japanese market, said this is a misnomer.

“It should be called the maximum house,” he said. “Despite its small space, Masuzawa-san’s creativity made the house seem open and spacious.”

I think I’d feel comfortable in this house if I was single or didn’t have five cats and a baby on the way. Then again, I’m surrounded by a great deal of unused space in my current house, and who’s to say that I actually need all that room?

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