Have you ever been to the Dead Sea? Apparently it's worth the (very long) trip. Like this guy (above), you can easily float in the water, and many believe that the salt has special healing and cosmetic effects.

As Mother's Day approaches, we're treating ourselves to this trio of Ahava beauty products, made with Dead Sea salt. The concentrated minerals help regenerate skin and leave skin feeling soft. This Sunday, we're looking forward to kissing our babies on the forehead and then locking ourselves in the bathroom with a stack of magazines, a steaming bath and these three green bottles.

Our friends over at Design*Sponge are always digging up gems, and this time they've gathered 37 of their favorite fun patterned rugs. The three above are from Bev Hisey--see the full post for all of the gorgeous floor coverings.

A chic lounge chair can make a living room or bedroom. These two cradle you like a hand (but blissfully don't look like those chairs actually shaped like hands) and one is 10 times (!) cheaper than the other.

Splurge: Mute chair, $3,150, Council Design
Upholstered in 100% wool and available in charcoal, white, blue, and red.

Steal: Tirup swivel armchair, $299, IKEA
Choose from cotton (in yellow or white) or leather upholstery (in white, black, or lilac) for $349.

Looking for the perfect crib bedding set for your newborn? John Robshaw Textiles recently launched an online store that has a few safari-inspired designs, hand-crafted just for your little one. Of course, you can also browse the current catalog and stock up on pillows, throws, and bedding for yourself as well.

Parrot, $490 for the set (includes quilt, fitted sheet, and decorative pillow). All items are also sold separately.

Green Lullaby managed to redefine what we consider a 'cardboard storage box'. Multi-Box is a 3 in 1 combination of storage box, a child's seat, and a learning tool made entirely of corrugated cardboard. Although designed for kids, the box seat can carry as much as 220 pounds. Multi-Box can be used to teach your child about shapes, numbers, and letters. It is completely recyclable, made mostly of recycled material and protected by a green and non-toxic fire retardant. We're smitten.

How cute are these? You can make them for your next party (or just for your child's cherished trinkets) by buying the template for $4 from A Little Hut. This series is called "Let's Go," but she also sells a Spring set with a daisy, bunny, egg, and butterfly and a Gift Box series with a heart, flower, bird, and circle. See pictures of all of them here.

Forget those boring genealogy charts. Nowadays, smart do-it-yourselfers are creating modern takes on family trees. Here's a round-up of our favorites...

"I treasure old photographs of my family. Most were kept in a box, and I really wanted to showcase them and was inspired by the inspiration boards that I saw on Design for Mankind, Poppytalk, and other design blogs. I created this display over my bedroom dresser and it was so sweet to see these happy family memories everyday." -- Emilia Jane from San Diego.

"My inspiration was a family tree that my mom had filled out when I was little. I thought art would be better appreciated than something in a book that nobody ever sees." -- Coren from Texas (who sells customizable family trees with up to seven names).

"This family tree is from The Small Object. The instruction sheet says, "Fill it with her biggest fans," so we fill in the blanks with her grandparents and great-grandparents." -- Elly from Boulder, Colorado.

"Inspired by a fellow flickr member, this project was fun and frustrating all at once. I love working with fabric and paper, but wood is a whole other animal. You should have seen me out there routing and drilling. After making the tree with pine, a jigsaw, a router, small dowels, wooden beads, and acrylic paint, I gave it to my parents as a gift." -- Amanda from Lancaster, Texas.

Not up for a big project? British shop Famille Summerbelle will create a hand-cut family tree print with your loved ones' photographs.

If you need a push to visit fleamarkets, Abbey Hendrickson's house will do the trick. The grad student fills her home with found collections (chairs, pencils, rubber duckies...), proving she has an eye for diamonds in the rough. Now the mother of a ten-month-old, Abbey makes thrifting a family affair. "My husband and I lug Emmit around," she says. "All the thrift store folks know him by name."

Where did you get all your incredible chairs?
Most are from thrift stores and craigslist, but I stole the black Marcel Breuer chair from my parents. My best friend gave me the Eames rocker as a baby shower gift; she had gotten a two-for-one deal.

Any tips for shopping on craigslist?
I look up my area and in a 100-mile radius. I do daily searches for "midcentury furniture," and my best find from craigslist was when I searched for "George Mulhauser" [pictured above]. I had seen it in Amy Butler's home.

Do you know her?
Oh, my gosh, no. I wish! It was in her book or a magazine.

Where did you find these dining chairs?
A church basement tag sale. They were $1 each.

Were you flipping out?
I didn't realize that they were anything special. I just liked the orange and blue color combination, so I lugged them home. Then we were moving them a few months ago, and I turned them over and realized they were Haywood Wakefield. I had had no idea.

What do you guys make for dinner?
We have a rotation: homemade pizza, vegetarian, soup. My husband is the cook.

That's so funny! So many of the house tour people say their husbands do the cooking.
My husband loves cooking, so more power to him.

Do you actually sit in all the chairs you have?
Definitely. We don't ever want to have a piece of furniture that Emmitt can't crawl on or that if he spits up on it, we freak out.

I love how you grouped frames in the corner of your living room. I've never seen anything like that.
One of our favorite artists, Barry McGee, does that, so we ripped him off. It's funny, a lot of people think it's one art piece by the same person, but it's really my way of displaying our friends' artwork and our guilty etsy purchases.

What a great silver lamp.
My parents found it at an estate-sale auction, which are big around here.

Are your parents collectors, too?
Yes, they always took us to fleamarkets. We didn't have much money but my parents cared about how our home looked. I got my aesthetic influence from them.

Is their house similar to yours?
Their house is eclectic but a bit more traditional. My mom rotates their collections, such as her collection of Santa Clauses.

Do you rotate your collections, too?
Yes, my rubber ducks are in a closet right now.

Some moms say that the Eames rocker doesn't have enough neck support. How's yours?
My only complaint about breastfeeding there is that the fiberglass gets cold! We threw a blanket on it.

Where did you find the lovely portrait for Emmit's nursery?
When I worked in my college art department, I discovered it abandoned there.

What a happy accident! What about the pencils?
I've had that collection since second grade. I'm such a pack rat! I moved them in a ziplock bag from house to house. Finally, I decided to glue them to a board and hang them on the wall.

Does Emmit play with these toy animals or are they just for decor?
When we're changing his diaper, he'll hold onto a giraffe or cow and stay still.
Animals from Target.

Where did you find this blanket?
I made it when I was pregnant. I was a crafting machine! The mobile was another pregnant craft. I cut pieces from felt and embroidered them. They're based on vintage rattles. When he was really little, he couldn't care less, but now he likes to spin them around.

Tell us about this bird sculpture in your bedroom.
I had squirreled the birds away with our Christmas ornaments, but when we were taking a walk this summer, I grabbed a branch and decided to put them on it.

Is there an end goal for your decor?
No, we move and change it all the time. We like to keep things interesting. Most of all, our home must feel comfortable. We're low-key and want people to feel good here.

For more about Abbey, check out her blog or flickr site. See all past Cookie home tours here.

We've long been fans of wall decals. They're playful, cheap and a million times easier than wallpaper (just peel and stick!). So we were thrilled to discover the adorable designs of mother-and-daughter team Elly Nelly. Our favorites are the cheery Walk This Way and the newly released Safari. And say your little guys are begging for a puppy? Here's a compromise...

Okay, we realize this makes us sound like giant nerds, but we tend to get excited about advancements in the dry erase world. (Like this fridge we found earlier.) And we love these colored Chatboards from SUITE New York. Available in pretty much any color you could imagine, the boards are also magnetic. As all the to-do and reminder lists grow by the day, it's nice to have something this pretty to keep things organized.