Messy and outside, a toddler’s dream. Modern Playhouse has made an outdoor playhouse for all those times when you want to go out and play in the garden rain or shine. It’s called the Dacha playhouse, named for a Russian garden house. Not to be confused with danke, which is German for thanks.

The playhouse can simply provide shade or it can be a garden/green house or a lemonade stand or a club house or, well, whatever your kid can come up with.

Apparently this playhouse is tool-less, so even the clumsiest of handymen and handywomen can assemble it. They say it takes minutes. Hopefully their directions are somewhere in between IKEA’s no word mystery directions and the 10 page tome bicycle assembly directions. “Assembly required” is a parent’s nightmare!

Oh how I yearn for a yard to put this in. As it stands, right now we live in an apartment and we have no place, inside or out, to put a playhouse. Instead, we throw a blanket over the back of the chair and hook it over their little kitchen to make a “cave.” It works for now.

But this little darlin’ would be a hit!

Maybe come summer. Maybe.

photo credit: Modern Playhouse

Not the bon bons you’re thinking of, these garden bon bons are actually good for you. Well, they are if you like gardening. I’m no gardener but these make me wish I was.

You don’t actually eat these garden bon bons -you just stick them in the ground and water. The pod (or truffle or bon bon) is made of clay, seeds and compost so it’s basically ready to be put in the ground. I love this idea for a birthday day if you’ve got an avid gardener who you think would enjoy them. You can read more about these nifty little things in the San Francisco Chronicle.

I have the best of intentions of composting all things organic and even things like corn husks when I remember. But when it comes to the coffee grounds every day and egg shells – well, I don’t do it. Down the disposal they go and I’m quietly ashamed.

Not ashamed enough to do anything about it. Until now. I had a talk with a friend here in San Francisco and she makes composting easy by keeping a small lidded trash can on her counter. She fills it whenever she has scraps and then dumps it in to the main compost bin once or twice a week – sometimes daily. San Francisco makes the actual composting part easy – pick up is on the same schedule as the trash.

My only reservation – having a trash can on my nice, clean (mostly) clutter free counters. I know it’s a small thing standing in the way of being earth friendly, but I don’t want to look at a garbage can every time I walk in to the kitchen.

But, hey – seek and you shall find, right? I found this really simple compost bin at Willow and Stone that I wouldn’t mind seeing every day. This compost bin is simple and elegant, if a trash can can be such a thing.

I think it’s slightly traditional in a contemporary sort of way and would fit in beautifully with my kitchen. It might even inspire me to be more earth conscious, after I get the whole composting thing under my belt. Plus, I would be setting a good example for my daughter, which is always a bonus.