My parents recently purchased a condo in South Florida, and during their search for furniture and accessories learned that fashion super model Cindy Crawford has become quite the furniture and home goods mogul in the United States. They tell me that they happened upon her line, Cindy Crawford Style, in a midgrade store and were rather impressed with the quality and pricing.
In fact they ended up buying her bedding, window coverings and all their rugs from her line. When I looked at the pictures they sent once their new place was completely decorated, I was pleased to see that Cindy had come through for them. Everything looked traditional, but with a nice fresh twist. It is wonderful to see continued success from one of my favourite models of all time. My only question is when are we going to be able to browse through her beautiful furnishings and accessories. We could absolutely use more stylish accents at affordable prices. Fortunately in the world of fashion, Esprit clothing in Europe offer a range of stylish clothes at affordable prices. I wonder if Cindy Crawford has ever considered entering the fashion realm? If the style and price matched that of her housing range, i'm sure she would continue to be a big success.
Build Your Own Fabulous Desk
My daughter, Shelley and I went away for a girls weekend and when we returned home my husband had a nice surprise waiting. For years she has shared the kitchen table with her brother to work on her homework and personal projects. The four year age difference has created some interesting scenarios, and the level of their voices during squabbles has often intruded into my work space upstairs.
We have spent endless hours trying to find a desk that would fit into her small bedroom, but to no avail. I guess her father has had an idea up his sleeve for a while, but he actually put it into play while we were gone. And the result was better than any of us could have imagined.
He cut a piece of thick wood to the dimensions of the window in Sheilas room, sanded it and varnished it to match her other furniture. He then placed one end of it under the lip of the window frame and over the window ledge. Next he purchased a great looking bar stool to place underneath it, framed some of her favourite family photos to put on top of it along with a darling lamp and all the supplies she could ever want.
Needless to say, the project was a complete success baring one thing. Now our son wants a desk built for him in his room. And because his dad did such a nice job, I can see why he is envious.
Here are my top hints to follow when you design an outdoor area with little or no moola. The first is that outdoor paint covers an abundance of flaws. No matter what the object, chairs, tables, mirror frames, a brush of colour can bring them new life and inject character. You can even paint plastic garden furniture yourself. Cyan or brick red are not just colours that only professional painters and decorators can use, you can incorporate them into your colour scheme too with great results. The outdoor area is a place to feel inspired and being at one with nature doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have to go with greens and browns everywhere. Because when decorating out of doors you can let loose and reject your inhibitions when it comes to glorious colour. What you might shy away from in your bedroom, or living room could bring a smile to your face in the garden. This goes for colour combinations too, look for fun inspiration in the shades of the flowers that you have growing in the space already.
The other item that works wonders is fabric. The vision of a checkerboard tablecloth blowing casually in the wind is one that appears in childhood memories, even after they have become sun faded. Material will also help to conceal damaged furniture, or introduce a theme. Whereas mix and match might not go over in your kitchen, it is simply adorable draped over picnic benches and on chair cushions. Who knows, once you have been brave in the garden it might just carryover into your home.
One thing that you can do to make you feel confident that you are prepared for an unannounced visitor is to have one or two reliable, easy dip recipes under your belt. Be sure to make your selection of the dip based upon the time involved in preparing it, and the likelihood of having the ingredients on hand.
One of the greatest standby dip recipes I have encountered, and put to use on many an occasion is a simple bean dip. The ingredients are 1 can of black beans, 1 onion, 1 large tomato, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and a bag of dip-able chips. Then when that doorbell rings, and your surprise guest steps across the threshold run for the kitchen.
All you will need to do is drain the beans, dump them all into a big bowl, and mush about half of them with a fork. Then chop up the onion and tomato, in reasonably sized pieces, add salt, pepper and chilli flakes to taste and mix everything together. Just carry it on out for the unanticipated caller. You will look very Betty Crocker, and feel relieved that you were prepared.
Through some instrumental objects, along with their proper placement, you can infuse your family area with positive energy. I have learned through the art of Feng Shui that plants are one of the articles that will attract happiness and luck to your space. Of all the recommended things, this is my favourite.
Key things to know in order to make this effective include the following. The plants need to be live, and well taken care of. This is the main reason that this is my preferred article, because the whole family can participate in keeping the plant nurtured and in tiptop shape. Thus, in some ways we are directly responsible for the positives that are brought into our home. But, remember, according to Feng Shui, to prohibit negative energy from being drawn to this spot, you should remove the plant should it appear to be dying, or dead.
The Reality of a Home Cinema
For a guy, one of the ultimate things that can be created in a house is a home cinema. Those two words alone can make a mans eyes dilate and glaze over, because it is a thing guys love. Even though most men are never quite able to set up a true room dedicated to this theme, any variation of one is always appreciated.
So, no matter if it is a tiny corner area of a room, or an entire open floor plan level of a house, if it can be done, the majority of men feel it should be done. For those individuals able to follow the high-end recommendations for forming this space, I congratulate you. It must be fantastic to have the acoustical levels of a room professionally analyzed, or a licensed contractor to put it all together from top to bottom.
As for the rest of us regular folk, the reality is that we are not getting wall mounts for our mega televisions, nor are we getting high tech surround sound installed. For us, we should do as much research as possible right here on the big old wonderful internet to determine positioning of seats, good furniture selections and bargains on worthy televisions. Then sit back with our pals and bask in the glow of having one place to call our own special space, as dinky, or as mighty, as it may be.
