1. A Makeover That Gives Me Hope: I just love how this office on Apartment Therapy went from frumpy to super chic. With just a few moves it was completely transformed from ’80s ucko to something that looks kinda like a kate spade photoshoot set styled by Mrs. Lilien. Plus, we sell that super-chic Ghost Chair.

image via Apartment Therapy

2. Interviews with Architects: Love this! Thank you so much to the awesome ArchDaily for the tipoff about this, it’s really fun the way it’s been put together. My favorite cliche question? “Less or More?” I was shocked that the more won out over less in a landslide victory!:

Between February and August of this year, Luca Farinelli met with some 20 architects, critics, and historians and presented them with an identical sequence of questions, recording each meeting on video. Conversations with Emilio Ambasz, Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, Bjarke Ingels, and Thom Mayne can be found in Log 23.

3. Be Aware of the Upcoming Venice Beach Modern Home Tour: If you live in Venice Beach, or if like me, you’re a Californication fan who is annoyed that they never seem to shoot there this season, head to this tour coming up on February 18 of 9 fabulous homes. We hope to share more about this tour in the future.

4. Speaking of quintessential L.A.: I hate to say “I’m swooning” due to overuse, but literally, this Sofia Coppola-directed ad for Marni at H&M gave me goosebumps. I’m not sure if it was the commercial (I love her eye), Bryan Ferry taking me back to the thought of some 8th grade crush, or being able to score some Marni somewhere outside of Jeffrey, at a reasonable price. Thank you for the tipoff, Refinery 29.

5. Oh just click on this. You won’t be sorry.

image via decor8‘s (partial) blogroll

Hey All! I’m still trying to get organized, all over the place. In this case, on the web. I’ve been HORRIBLE about keeping up with my favorite blogs lately. How do you do it without becoming overwhelmed? I used some sort of reader for awhile but then I had so many hundreds of posts I had yet to read that I abandoned it; I can’t even remember which on it was!

Often I’ll just head to a favorite blog and catch up on a month’s worth of posts when I have some free time. This is not a great system though, because then I’ll forget the names of some of the blogs I love. The reader always helped me remember.

Please help me out and let me know how you keep organized and up to date with your blog reading in the comments section, and if possible, leave a link. Thanks!

1. New Rue! I especially loved the great photographs of the minis, which made me miss my dollhouse terribly. Fabulous spaces and photography are waiting for you in the January/February Rue.

image by  John Stoffer via Rue

2. Blu Dot picked not once, but twice in The Thursday NYTimes “Shopping With” section. Author Arthur Phillips rounded up writing desks for them this weekend and picked out The Cant Desk:

and The Stash Desk:

I was also strangely fascinated by the house tours of the former homes of Mexican drug dealers who had been caught. The last image of a drug dealer house south of the border I had in my head was the incredible spread from Romancing the Stone.

3. Loving Style List’s Home Improvement Projects That Cost Under $10. Yeah, we already knew all of these, but it’s really nice to have 14 of them gathered in one well-written place.

4. Finally, I love seeing the way celebs live. Since Cribs never seems to be on anymore, I’m extra thankful to Casa Sugar for keeping track of movie star moving (why do they move like every year? I never really realized that until Larry David mocked the phenomenon by moving every year on Curb Your Enthusiasm). Here’s Rose McGowan’s new pad in Hollywood:

(SIDE NOTE: I could swear this house was on that Bravo show with those annoying guys who sell million dollar real estate. Some total tool with a Lambo or a Ferrari or Doc’s DeLorean or something was thinking about buying the house and then bottomed out on this driveway which killed the deal, no? Maybe not.)

5. Also in celeb real estate news, you can check out Steven Tyler’s new digs over at WSJ.com. I am biting my tongue and not working in some lame line that incorporates Aerosmith lyrics. Steven is still tied with Lil’ Jon as my most striking celebrity sighting ever.

1. Magic Bus in Mexico City: It’s not just the fact that it’s been yarnbombed, but also the patterns and colors that make it part Partridge Family/part Harajuku. I spied this on Pinterest via Casapinka.

2. Five Hotels Across the Room with Stunning Interiors: A feature from The Wall Street Journal that will make you want to go to there.

photo by Beatrice Amagat for The Wall Street Journal

3. Happy 5th Birthday Making It Lovely! I had no idea I had posted about you within about a week of your launch, but I do remember Nicole’s work catching my eye via all of those fabulous images she posted on Flickr! It’s been wonderful to watch her home, business and family grow over the past five years. Congratulations!

4. Middle of the country fights “flyover” derision; small cities grow and flourish: GOOD mag has a great article about how small cities that a lot of planes may happen to fly over are improving, growing and spreading the word about what they have to offer.

PET PEEVE ALERT: As someone who spent her formative years in Cincinnati Ohio, I don’t like the term “flyover state.” In fact, the kind of people who say it are the ones I hope don’t land anywhere near me anyway. You can keep your insane  rents and stinky cabs, your hideous traffic and your earthquakes thank you very much. Those of us under the flightpath know what great places these smaller cities can be.

5. Oh Pinterest, you are a danger. On a more positive note, I’ve been trying my hand at pinning, repinning and liking too much this week; I even let it distract me from watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills the other night. We’re just starting to dip our toes into Pinterest over here, so Pinners, let us know how to follow you in the comments section.  Here’s our Pinterest action.

What caught your eye on the web this week? Let us know in the comments section!

1) In Praise of Airsteam Design: Loving this inspiring video from Dwell magazine, featuring Christopher Deam and timeless design at its best in the form of the Airstream trailer:

O.K., I couldn’t figure out how to embed it, so link over by clicking on this line!

2) A Sleek-Meets-Crumbly Reno in Denmark: I’m loving this New York Times slideshow of a once-crumbling townhouse in Rotterdam, especially the way the Dutch architect Rolf Bruggink has kept the best of the crumbles inside the otherwise-slick renovation:

Image by Andreas Meichsner for The New York Times

3. The Best of 2011 Political Cartoons: I’m a big Mike Luckovich fan, so I thoroughly enjoyed his list of favorite political cartoons from 2011. As a bonus, he explained why he liked each cartoon. This one is my favorite, as it addresses my biggest pet peeve: People with no phone etiquette:

Image by Mike Luckovich, via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

4. New Year’s Resolutions at Home: Yahoo listed ten resolutions to try and conquer at home. Saying you’re going to do all ten is probably setting yourself up for failure, so shoot for two and hope you do at least one (dare to dream, my friends, dare to dream.). The best ones to attack right now, IMHO, because they will save you major bucks over the next year are:

-The home energy audit (seal up those drafty leaks while it’s this cold out and energy prices are high).

-Ditching the storage space! What do you have in there? Would Barry from Storage Wars be psyched to find it or would even that magpie Jarrod think it was junk? Have you missed one single thing that’s in there? Add up how much you’ve spent on the space so far and it will make you ill.

Photo courtesy of A&E.com

What were you checking out on the web this week? Please shoot us a link in the comments section.