Conquering the Area Rug Dilemma

In the market for an area rug? What’s your need: To define a space? Create a vignette? Have something cozy under your feet? Protect your floors? Keep kids and animals from skidding through rooms and hallways? Muffle echoes? Anchor furniture? Or suggest the aesthetic of the room? It’s probably a mix of many of these criteria. These needs, as well as your day-to-day lifestyle, is where to start when you consider your purchase I got input from two design experts for my latest story for the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Home and Garden section to help consumers figure out how to make area rug decisions.

An area rug offers a good jumping-off point to choose other furnishings and helps define spaces in an open-concept plan, like this one at Thomas Lavin showrooms.

(Courtesy of Rosemary Hallgarten)

Take Me Out to the Dog Park

I’ve been writing for Diabetic Living Magazine for years. They’re a sister publication to Eating Well and I thought I’d check out writing about pets for them. Sure enough I got an assignment I pitched on tips for making the dog park experience successful. I reached out to a couple of great experts: Alexandra Gant, a canine behaviorist in Atlanta I used to know in San Diego, and Dr. Gary Weitzman, DVM, president and CEO of the San Diego Humane Society. I learned a lot and got to pass it all along to readers. It’s in the September 2020 issue of the magazine. Here it is in full.

Pet-Friendly Decor

I have a house filled with dogs and cats. So it made perfect sense for me to write a story for Coastal San Diego Homes and Estates on pet-friendly decor. If you want to elevate the "I'm a pet owner" look, there are plenty of ways to create a beautiful, pet-friendly home. I got the experts to explain.

Family-Focused Backyard

If I were still a kid, I'd be thrilled to have a mom who designed a backyard perfect for her and me! This unconventional backyard is just cool beans and I had to write about it for the San Diego Union-Tribune's Home and Garden section.

Rethinking your outdoor space? Cast tradition to the wind

Here's my latest story for the San Diego Union-Tribune's Home & Garden section. Take your vacation funds and invest them in the backyard stay-cation of your dreams. Designer Laurie Stevens has great tips for creating a space that will become your true second living room.

Sugar Reduction is the New Normal

One of the great intellectual pleasures of my work life is collaborating with organizations on tricky content that can be understood by executives who don't necessarily have detailed technical knowledge of a subject. This content piece on sugar reduction I wrote for Industry Dive on behalf of their client Cargill was one of those projects. You might be surprised at how much goes into keeping a product's flavor and texture appealing to consumers when you remove sugar from the equation.