Like many suburban homes built in the 1990s, my kitchen rolls right into my living room. In the middle of this long rectangle there is a jetted-out area with three angled windows. You know. that space that leaves you no other option but to go buy a small four-top table. After months of searching for [...]

Last night I fixed something I’ve been meaning to take care of for about a year – maybe more. I replaced the faucet in my tub. The lever you pull up was no longer holding back the water and water pressure was dwindling. The thing is, I had this chore built up in my mind [...]

  Spring is in the air! At least today it is. I would’ve said that last week, but we got pummeled with snow. Not just any kind of snow – thundersnow! Now, being in the South, you can imagine the chaos that caused – you couldn’t get a loaf of bread for days. But actually, [...]

Introduction Welcome to The Invisible Thumb- my gardening blog for the non gardener.  Why invisible?  Because my thumb actually does exist you just can’t see it right now.  I hope that after my personal journey into gardening it will turn into a nice shade of mint or lime or perhaps even broccoli green!  I want [...]

I probably write about plumbing horrors too much.  But I have such a vast wellspring of experiences upon which to draw that I can’t resist.  My co-blogger, Matt, wrote about his experience replacing the faucet in his tub.  While his is a great story of successful DIY, mine is a cautionary tale.   I tried to [...]

Motivated by a sun-splashed afternoon, I decided to check out the compost pile. Before the snow started to fly, I had my three 16-cubic-foot wire cages brimming with garden waste. I’m curious to see if our hard Iowa winter has compressed the piles. Touring the garden this time of year requires Olympic-style prowess. The garden [...]

  Now that I have committed to actually growing a garden, I strolled out into my backyard (of which I fondly refer to as my human dog run) and starred blankly at my white vinyl fencing running straight to the garage, walkway running down the middle and two strips of grass on either side.  Not [...]

Saturday, April 4, is International Pillow Fight Day, with combatants in more than 75 cities worldwide participating. (The photo shows Vancouver's 2006 pillow fight). The official Pillowfightday.com Web site isn’t clear on the origins of this global pillow-pugilism party except to say that “organizing a massive pillow fight is perhaps the simplest of free events [...]