It’s New Year’s Eve, the night when most people don their best duds and head out to join the party. And, apparently, your chairs are feeling left out.

The idea of putting socks on something that never does a thing but sit around seems kind of silly. But I love silly. The idea behind these chair socks is to give your chair a little bit more personality, but they also seem like a good way to keep from scratching the floor when you have a little too much champagne and accidentally tip one over.

Happy New Year!

Via BuzzFeed.

This print by Jenny Mendes reminds me of a children’s book illustration. I love the knowing look in the horse’s eye and the landscape that looks vaguely like a Victorian wallpaper.

The After Christmas sales are going strong, but they aren’t as amazing as I’d thought they’d be. At least not in the home-decor sector. So here’s my run-down of what’s worth checking out and what you shouldn’t waste a click on.

EQ3: 20% off upholstery, floor samples

This sale doesn’t sound flashy, but it’s by far the best I saw last weekend. They have good prices to begin with, so the 20%-off is a nice bonus. And the prices on their floor samples are fantastic. I saw a beautiful modern sofa for just $500. Of course, it didn’t match my home, but someone’s going to get a steal.

CB2: Up to 50% select items

There isn’t too much to this sale - a few pieces of upholstered furniture have been marked down 20-30%. Most of the actual 50% -off items are accent pillows or small accessories. There were a few nice household staples, like this chrome storage basket, but this sale is probably worth skipping.

West Elm: Save up to 70%

The homepage of the West Elm site says up to 70% off, but when you click through to the sale, it says up to 65% off. Ok, no big deal. It’s just 5%. They have a fairly large selection of sale furniture that includes a lot of bed frames and some sofas and chairs. Most pieces were discounted just a hundred dollars or so, but there was a significant selection of furniture in the 40%-off range. In the rug section, there were several neutral rugs at 50% off.

The best deal I found was this “Blossoms” framed print, marked down from $120 to just $40.

Urban Outfitters:

This isn’t really an after-season sale, but there are some deals. They have several curtain panels that are now almost 50% off. As well as this bentwood table for just $79.

Crate and Barrel: Up to 50% off

This is a sale that is better in-store. I went by a few days ago, and they’ve got some good deals on floor samples. As far as the online sale goes, this is a good time to pick up some discounted Wusthof knives.

Z Gallerie: Up to 70% off

Skip it. I didn’t see one item anywhere near 70% off. I did see a dog butt pencil sharpener and an over-priced sectional.

I went ahead and made the truffle recipe I found in Food and Wine Magazine and I could not be more pleased with the results. They made perfect gifts for friends and neighbors and were well worth the chocolaty mess they made all over my kitchen. If you decide to try this, take my advice and don’t wear your white sweater.

Even though there were only a few ingredients involved, I couldn’t imagine how my truffles could possibly look as pretty and professional as the ones in their photo. But once the ganache was rolled into balls and covered in cocoa powder or chopped walnuts, they looked perfect.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

The holidays are my favorite time of year for experimenting with new recipes. There is no better test audience than family. First of all, it’s a captive audience. And, second of all, you can always count on your little brother to tell it to you straight if you screwed up the pork loin. Here are a few of the new dishes to which I’m subjecting my family this year:

Veal cakes on Silky Eggplant.

Truffled Potato Gratin.

Bacon-Wrapped Tenderloin with Herb Stuffing.

And an old favorite, Martha Stewart’s Triple-Chocolate Trifle (I omit the peppermint part. It’s good, but sort of overwhelming).

Happy cooking. Happy eating. And Happy Holidays.

The holidays are just about the only time my parents get out the fine china. Which reminded me that I don’t have any. And while I don’t really need any (keeping my casual china intact is job enough) that didn’t stop me from shopping around for some online. What I found is this Golden Garden china by Villeroy and Boch. It claimed to be on sale, but it turned out only one of the many pieces had been marked down (priced from $15 - over $200).

I especially love this dusty pink brunch plate. It’s so sweet and vintage-y.

A two dimensional coat rack sounds really useless. Unless you add a camouflaged hook. Then you’ve got a really cool optical illusion. Find this and a lot more cool decals at Art Wall Project’s Etsy shop.

I remember making gingerbread houses with my parents as a kid. Of course, my dad was an engineer so putting together a large cookie structure was but a small challenge. As an adult, the idea of a gingerbread house is completely overwhelming. I can never get the darned thing to pass safety codes and all the little gingerbread men inside are in constant danger of being crushed. But these adorable coffee cup gingerbread houses actually look like manageable project. Not Martha created each one by hand and has been kind enough to post a step-by-step and patterns over on her blog.

I know soft-serve isn’t real ice cream, but I love it anyways. Half the reason I eat a Jason’s Deli for the occasional lunch is the free soft-serve. It would be a little too cold for a day like today (Texas is having a rare cold-snap), but even looking at this giant ice cream lamp makes me think I might have to stop by the nearest freezer isle on the way home from work.

And it’s even cuter when it’s next to a cat.

I like to make my holiday gifts in the kitchen. And everybody loves chocolate, I’m planning to make truffles this year. I was surprised to find the recipe only has three ingredients (heavy cream, chocolate and cocoa powder). The truffles can be made up to a week ahead of time so now’s the perfect time to start. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.