Your Home and Garden Décor: Creating Bountiful SpacesWritten by DJ Ledford
Temperatures are on rise and so is anticipation to get your home ready for maximum enjoyment. It’s time to get motivated for season.
It’s always advisable to take a good hard look around every room before you begin. Make a mental list of those areas you most want to work on, then push them aside. We all know what we SHOULD do: Air out house, clean carpets, get dog groomed, dust top to bottom. Kind of bums you out, huh?
So, let’s start with fun things first.
It’s time to wash blankets and comforters in order to store them until next year. Now you can look forward to re-dressing beds with your favorite patchwork quilts.
Organize closets by placing lighter weight fashions to front and setting aside heavy outerwear. Fresh cedar sachet’s for chests will ward off moths where you keep winter clothing items. If you just can’t bear same coat or wardrobe one more year, donate them to those in need.
In your living area, instead of wool throws, how about a new chenille coverlet arranged on back of your couch to ward off a chill? Even color pillows that enhance lightest shades in your furniture will give your room a fresh look.
Lighter shades of color heighten your mood as well. Replace last season’s candles and silk flower arrangements with those featuring shades of pink, purple and blues.
Opt for crystal and cut glass vases rather than baskets for your arrangements. Polish them with a soft cloth to exhibit their brightest gleam. Add a sense of style by partially filling them with colorful glass beads or marbles to hide unsightly flower stalks.
Put away dark stoneware plates and soup crocks and replenish cabinets with bright floral or white dishes. New dishtowels featuring flowers and vegetables from your anticipated garden would be a delight on countertops.
Be certain your plastic outside dishware is in good shape as well. Are iced tea glasses free of scratches? Plastic utensils and paper napkins stocked and ready? Get your pitchers out in anticipation of fresh-squeezed lemon and limeade.
Re-arrange furniture by changing focal point away from fireplace in order enjoy backyard or soon to bloom garden area.
Now, draw back those heavy draperies and make full use of sheers to invite a fresh breeze into your refurbished surroundings.
Take a tour of your living space. It’s okay to smile. Then, find your seed catalogs, sit down in your favorite chair and turn your attention to outside.
I’m always hungry, aren’t you? So, in preparation to fill that need, uncover and hose off barbeque. Be sure to scrape grill free of rust and residue. Refill propane tank or buy fresh briquettes so you’ll be ready for any impulsive celebrations at first sign of inviting weather. While you’re at it, replace old mat at front door to welcome your guests.
Retrieve lawn furniture from storage and make sure webbing is intact and that all cushions are shapely. How does deck look? Is it in need of a pressure wash to remove stains, mildew and mold? Tighten loose boards and raised nail or screw heads and be certain railing is secure.
| | Five Easy Pieces - Mix and Match Wardrobes for KidsWritten by Meredith Simmons
Let’s face it, life is hectic enough without having to worry about whether your little guy or gal is going to have a matching outfit to wear every day. To relief of parents everywhere, there are several fashion forward baby and children clothing lines that offer enough mix and match pieces to stretch days between laundry to a palatable number. (Baby’s top gets soiled? No problem, just pull another one that goes with those pants out of drawer). With as little as five pieces -- two tops, two bottoms, and a jacket or cardigan -- you can have as many as six different outfits.One of our favorite mix and match brands is Australian line Oink!Baby and their new Jaffa fashion collection. Oink!Baby Essentials offer an assortment of body styles in a variety of coordinating prints and solids for infants 3-24 months. Most items are priced between $15 and $20, (jackets are $25, beanies $7), so for less than $100 you can get enough pieces for a mini-wardrobe. The Jaffa fashion collection expands from infant to toddler sizes, and each season’s collection revolves around coordinating color schemes and themes. While a bit pricier than Essentials, Jaffa items also offer more unique details and fabrications. For Euro-minded shoppers, Dutch line Cakewalk has long been a mix and match favorite of upscale children’s boutique shoppers. Featuring unique prints and fabrications with a proclivity towards whimsicality, Cakewalk Collections are really made to mix, not match – florals with stripes, plaids with prints, anything goes.
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