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    Valerie Rains, Shine staff

    Valerie Rains, Shine staff

  • Speak for yourself: Would you hang a portrait of your pet?

    In the age of pet clothes and $330-mechanical litter box monitors, dog spas and canine face lifts, one has to wonder if the "man's best friend" of olden times would even recognize his modern counterpart. Would he feel slighted (or relieved) that he never received such pampering? Has the relationship

  • How long do you keep an unwatched Netflix DVD before you just give up and send it back, already?

    As much as I love and adore Netflix, I have to admit, about 50% of the time, by the time a movie arrives in my mailbox I've forgotten why I wanted to see it in the first place and sometimes have to kind of force myself to watch it. Sometimes a particular movie can become a virtual entertainment alba

  • Stuffed animals or art? You decide

    I'm not sure what's causing it, but even as discount-store toys get more plastic and disappointing (or-eek!-more dangerous), there is an increasing blurring of the line between stuffed, toy-like art objects and really beautiful handmade dolls. I honestly don't know sometimes where one ends and the o

  • How to cope when something you love (on TV) is gone

    When the writers' strike was still on, much was made of the question of how people would spend their time once the cache of already-filmed tv episodes had run out. Well, now that more and more shows are coming up empty, stationery designer Betty Turbo has an idea for how to make the most of your now

  • Hangover helper: sleep masks

    Getting a solid eight (or nine) hours of sleep after a night of drinking is key to fending off a raging hangover. On the off-chance that any of you tied one on last night, I've rounded up a handful of world-blocking-out eye-shades to raise your chances of getting good REM. (Yes, it's too late to hel