The Cultivated Home

One of our favorite weekend activities is searching through Saturday morning yard sales to find those amazing hidden treasures.  Whether it is an amazing dining table, a piece of art, or a chair, there is something about rummaging through all the junk and finding something special from the past that brings us back to our grandparents’ attic.

Searching for a few sales to attend this weekend?  We found these two great sites that you must check out!  New England Auction Company and EstateSales.net are great for both the seller and the buyer.  They help you find a sale and give you tips for appraisal, internet bidding, and finding a live auction to attend yourself.

Check them out today and start your bargain hunting!

We all love finding a deal—whether it is at a retail store, a flea market, or a sample sale.  Scoring a great find can send a rush that we just can’t deny.  One of our favorite weekend activities is to find a deal or two at a local yard sale, but one of the hardest parts is actually finding the yard sale and even finding the right house!  Fortunately for us, the geniuses over at Apple have provided us with a solution by creating the “Yard Sale Mapper” application.  This app maps out listings of yard sales, garage sales, and tag sales from Craigslist.org and lets you search the map and explore and plan your treasure hunt.  The best part is this app is free, making the goods you find even sweeter!

Don’t have an iPhone?  Check out the site, YardSaleTreasureMap.com, print out your own paper directions and start hunting!

We love when technology meets design, and this is one beautiful example.  Swede Shop is an iPhone application that makes those crazy shopping experiences in IKEA so much smoother.  This brilliant little app allows you to ditch those tiny little pencils that always get lost and make your writing finally readable.  Not only can you write the names, sku’s, and aisle numbers into your phone into an organized form, but you can also attach photos so that when you are running around the warehouse you can remember your priority pieces rather then just staring at those brown boxes.  And no more confusion in the warehouse – this app will help you organize your path and create an “aisle” map, so you don’t have to crisscross and backtrack through the enormous amount of space.  Keep it real with Swede Shop, available here for 99 cents.

We have stumbled upon one of the best secrets in green living – Green Depot! Green Depot is one of the leading suppliers of environmentally friendly products, whether it is building supplies, home products and services, or even home design. They carry products ranging from cleaning supplies, to lighting solutions, to baby nurseries, and even building supplies. Best of all, you don’t have to look far to find it! Not only does Green Depot have an amazing website, they also have many stores across the east coast, in many major cities.

I’m sure we can all think back to a time when everyone had the three-piece, boom box CD player with the two side speakers and the center CD and radio. They were large and not the most attractive addition to a room.  They may have worked for a Junior High bedroom, but we have found a great, chic solution for its replacement!

Geneva Lab is a company based out of Switzerland that designs and creates high quality sound systems for the contemporary user.  They are not only minimalistic with their design, but also with their features.  It is an easy to use system that looks amazing, giving you the latest technology– all for your hearing pleasure!  With a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, there is something for everyone, even for those looking for an entire home theater system.

Check out the GenevaSound M.  This little beast packs an iPod dock and CD slot.  It also plays MP3s and has an FM radio tuner– all in a chic, 7” x 14” x 10” box.  The best part is you don’t see any controls or buttons from the front.

Also, the GenevaSound Home Theater is simply amazing.  Available in both white and black, it looks like any other TV console straight from your favorite modern furniture store.  Not only does it support your iPod, CD, and radio, it is also fitted for your TV while supplying room for your cable box and DVD player.  For anyone serious about home entertainment, this is definitely something to check out!