Within the past month, Hometalkers across the country (and even all the way in the Caribbean!) have been having a wild good time throwing House Parties and going on Thrift Outings. Here’s a quick glimpse at all the summer fun everyone has been having…

At the Picket Fence held “Girl’s Night Out ~ DIY Style” in Kentucky. Along with beverages and sweets, the guests got a DIY lesson on how to use a miter box and saw.

Also in Kentucky, Thistlewood Farms hosted a “craft-making, apron-wearing, pineapple-eating celebration” where the ladies made adorable wooden signs.

The Space Between held a tropical DIY pool party in Curacao. Instead of just relaxing by the pool, these ladies got to work and fixed up an old outdoor table.

Here in NYC, our friend Carrie Hammer held a soy candle making party in her fabulous West Village Apartment.

Kelly from Eclectically Vintage went thrifting with some friends in Brimfield, where they picked up some great antiques and vintage finds.

In South Carolina, Refresh Restyle and Shabby French Country Cottage Basement’s thrift outing was so successful, that their large SUVs were jam packed at the end of the day!

Debbiedoo’s took her crew to the local Goodwill in South Carolina and had a blast goofing around on their search for treasures to take home.

Tina and her friends beat the heat in Oklahoma by exploring DeAnna’s Architectural Salvage.

So how do you get in on the summer fun? If you’d like to host your own Hometalk House Party or Thrift Outing, email us at team@hometalk.com! Be sure to include the number of people, the date, and your address so we can send you Hometalk t-shirts or aprons to wear at your event!

We had the most AMAZING time partying with Carrie in her super-chic NYC apartment last week! She graciously invited a bunch of her friends for brunch and DIY candle-making, and we all had a blast crafting our candles and just hanging out.

Before we give you the deets on the party, you have GOT to see Carrie’s apartment. Carrie is the founder of Carrie Hammer Custom Apparel, a made-to-measure professional women’s clothing company, and as you would expect from an enormously successful fashion designer, her West Village apartment is absolutely fabulous.

“Come on in and have a look around!”

Continue reading “Carrie’s Candleworks — A Big Apple Hometalk Party” »

If you logged on to Hometalk this week, you might have come across a post regarding homeowner, Rob Olsen, who managed to kill his 2-acre lawn. If he was looking to get his wife off his back for not mowing the lawn, he sure found a good way to do it.

As CNN reports, Rob simply wanted to get rid of a few weeds that sprung up in his grass during the summer months. He picked up several bottles of non-selective herbicide from a local hardware store, which kills both weeds and grass. What he should have purchased is a selective herbicide, which kills a variety of weeds without harming the existing grass.

So this week, I have decided to offer up a post on summer lawn maintenance…

Continue reading “Tips from the Team – Summer Lawn Maintenance” »

The HomeTalk community consists of such absolutely wonderful people – but you probably already knew that :-). When it comes to gardening, we encourage each other in our outdoor efforts, help determine rare flowers that grow in our yards, inspire one another on a daily basis, and find the best professionals to work with.

Thanks to HomeTalk, homeowner Martha K was able to discover the fabulous, Atlanta based landscaping company (and fellow HomeTalker), Southern Trillium LLC. Martha and her husband, both huge bird lovers, wanted to transform their backyard into a paradise for wildlife, and they knew Southern Trillium was just the one for the job! Having seen photos of Southern Trillium’s work on HomeTalk, as well as seeing weekly trust-worthy tips and comments, Martha and her husband were confident they would be in good hands.

And so the work began….

Continue reading “A Hometalk Success Story” »

Plant ID has become a regular part of Hometalking. I myself don’t have a garden, and plead ignorance when it comes to anything that grows. I must admit though, that I am envious of the knowledge that others have and will be quite overjoyed if I am ever able to do a little “plant ID-ing” myself!

Here are five plants that people have posted on Hometalk, asking for identification. Let’s see if you recognize any.

I posted this picture on facebook this morning. Here’s what I said:

Plant riddle: My leaves are shaped like an oak leaf, but I am a vine. What am I?

Most people guessed poison oak, but they were wrong!

This in fact is a honeysuckle! Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know that, though. This had a professional landscape designer stumped!

I certainly didn’t feel bad at all for not knowing the name of this one. It was posted by Erica Glasener, horticulturist, writer, lecturer and gardener. Can you blame me for not knowing if she didn’t?! The plant was sent to her by some relatives in Pensacola, so naturally, The Garden Rebel and Douglas Hunt, both Florida gardening experts, were able to identify it.

This is a plant called Devil’s Backbone. It is a distant relative of the Poinsettia. You can get some tips on how to best care for it here. Just FYI: The sap will burn your eyes so be very careful not to get it on your hands!

The next shrub I want to show you was posted by Marvin in NC. This guy has got it going on in his garden! You’d think he was running his own nursery from the pictures he posts. Anyway, he needed help identifying this tree/shrub. He’s had it for seven years and says it keeps coming back year after year and sometimes grows berries. Do you recognize it?

There actually isn’t a conclusive answer to this one! Many people guessed Pyracantha and Douglas said a Flowering Quince. You can read all the guesses here, but it looks like Marvin will have to wait for the berries and post another picture to figure this one out!

The last picture I want to share was actually posted by Bonnie Yesteday. I shared it on facebook and 31 people came over to help her out.

For some reason, many people on facebook thought it was strawberries. Here it is, take a look:

This is actually Indian Hawthorne, and a very unhappy one at that! Someone suggested digging up the soil and replacing it with organic soil to help perk it up.

Well, that’s it for this round of plant ID. How did you do?

You can test your plant knowledge some more right here.

Happy gardening!