Welcoming 2013!

Photo Credit: http://www.desicomments.com/tag/ani/

I would personally like to thank all the readers and visitors of "Home Sweet Home" for the year 2012.  It was a great pleasure for me to share my passion and experiences in home decorating, gardening and home organization.

Stay tune for more home care tips, organization ideas, home decor trends and great finds for the year 2013.

To all of you, from Home Sweet Home.....Wishing you all the beautiful things this 2013!

Happy New Year To All of You!

My Next DIY Project - Underliner Plate

Photo source

I'm really into pebbles!  In fact, my pocket garden is covered with it and so are my plant boxes.  I don't know but it really brings me closer to nature and I find it a very versatile tool in home decorations.  Pebbles are my favorite subject for all my DIY's at home.  That's why the moment I saw this improvised under liner for hot plates, I felt ecstatic!  With it's simplicity and uniqueness, I will definitely make one for my kitchen.  I have another idea, too.  I will also make use of it as a center piece and will put some nice potted plant on it.

I think I'm going to ask my son to start collecting pebbles for me.  A sack will do for the meantime. :)  I will make a list of my favorite DIY's that I will be doing back home on my next vacation.  It will surely keep me occupied!

Moving To A New Home?

Owning a home is everybody's dream.  Nothing can beat the comfort and happiness that your own home could bring.  I had that feeling years ago when I moved on to my first house.  I could recall our excitement while we were packing our things.  We had the entire place renovated and we're just so excited to put up some decors and to arrange our furniture.

It was also the same excitement that my family felt when we decided to build our second home, bigger and better!  So from our first house, we moved on to our second home.  I could recall how difficult it was as we had already acquired a lot of furniture pieces and appliances in the house.  Not only that, I just have started collecting ceramics and figurines at that time and I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to bring everything in my new home safe and sound.  These are actually the first stuff that I packed as I want to make sure that we could avoid breakage during the transit.  However, we fall short of schedule at that time. Since we had already selected a tenant who would move in to our old house and the date of their transfer was already fixed, we were left with no choice but to move out on the date that was agreed only to realize that our new house was not completely done yet.  In times like this, the best option is to look for movers who can provide storage services like Storage Services in New York. 

The advantage of hiring moving companies which provides free storage for their clients is the assurance that your moving out and transfer to a new home will never be a hassle, as they would practically take care of everything from moving out, storage and transferring to your new homes. This is such a relief especially for those who are working and have a little time to attend to such a strenuous task. 

Moving to a new home should always be a worthwhile experience, an accomplishment like no other. 

Living Room Design For A Small Space

I've seen this living room design from one of the home depot stores that I've visited when I was vacationing in the Philippines.  I love it's black and white color combination.  The wall decors look stunning!  The two white lamp shades on both sides of the sofa makes the over all look even more sophisticated.  I guess, this set up is good for condos with a limited living room space.  It's chic and modern!

Items on the photo can be bought per piece.  You can add up or minus depending on your requirements. If I would use this design, perhaps I would just lessen on the wall decors a bit. I think the 2 rectangular wall frames on two sides plus the big wall clock in the middle will suffice.

Ideas For Outdoor Lighting

Do you love to hold small parties at home?  Are you the type of person who is fond of setting moods even on the simplest celebration that you have?  Are you the creative type who always take the lead in finding ways and means to make your parties stand out?

If your answer is yes to all those questions, chances are you are very particular about your outdoor lighting.  There are so many ways to make your garden glow.  Some people make use of solar lanterns, floating candles, exotic lights, chandelier, white lights and showstoppers. Whatever you choose, it is important that you are aware of  what your intentions are in setting up your outdoor lighting. Let's say for instance, you want to set up a romantic dinner with your partner or small group of friends, then probably, you would opt to choose float tea candles in a water filled bird bath. On the other hand, if you want something that's environmentally friendly, then you might go for solar lanterns.  Environmentally friendly lighting is so named because of the materials used and these can be complemented by some eco friendly home decor accessories. Eco friendly varaluz lighting could be a perfect choice!  You can choose from a wide variety of designs that could perfectly fit your outdoor space.

 Designers Fountain Lamp, Post lamp and Wall Lamp

Choice of good lighting can bring so many advantages in your outdoors.  It can be used to light up the drive ways and walk ways to avoid accidents, it can show off the beauty of your home during night time, accent other focal points in your house like garden, water features and patios and a good lighting can also set up a mood and create a drama while relaxing outdoors and spending sometime with your family and friends.

Tips In Effectively Removing Stains

I used to do my laundry with the aid of a fully automatic washing machine and it saves me a lot of time which I could devote to more worthwhile activities such as reading, blogging and net surfing.  But I often encounter problems in removing stains.  Sometimes, I have to hand wash few pieces of clothes as I'm worried that the satins couldn't be removed by just having these washed in the machine.  There are different types of stains that's really hard to get rid of like food based stains, oil, ink, make up, etc.

I found some ways to remove stains from the article of Steve Boorstein, author of The Clothing Doctor's 99 Secerets to Cleaning and Clothing Care and I'll be sharing these with you here:

1.) For food stains like chocolate, ice cream, red wine, soda, beer, milk, coffee and ketchup, you can hit these stains by dabbing a little liquid diswashing detergent mixed with water on the stain but don't rub.  Follow by dubbing the stain with a water soaked white cloth.

2.) Makeup and ring around the collar, pretreat with a liquid detergent or stain remover and warm water, then wash.

3.) Food grease or oil and ink, these can be treated using the stain removers that cab be bought from the local grocery shop, but it's best to have it done on a dry cleaning shop.

4.) For bike grease, pretreat with your favorite stain remover, then use the pre-wash cycle and wash with warm or hot water.  Air dry anything with grease stains; dryer heat can set the stain.

Simple Center Piece Design

I am looking for a simple table center piece design that could be used for all occasions and I found this very simple, neat and elegant center piece design. If you have plain goblets in the kitchen and a decent wooden tray, then you are on your way to having a simple center piece for your dining tables this Christmas.  But I think that this design can have some variations like adding some colors by putting up some candies at the wooden tray together with the paper flowers which can be done out of plain tissue papers or crepe papers that can be bought at our local book stores and stationery shops. You can also choose to tie up some Christmas ribbons around the goblet for an added accent.  But if you want to go for a plain and simple one, I think that this is it!

  

Source: bhg.com via Krizza on Pinterest

Engravable Gifts

I was in search for unique personalized gifts for corporate friends and bosses and I found some engravable personalized gifts that are cute and unique, and guess what, affordable too!  They have these maple memo and pen holder in one, pen boxes and lazer mugs.  They also have personalized BBQ gift set and bamboo coaster set.  All nice!

I personally like the memo/pen holders and the lazer mugs.  I think that these will be perfect gifts for our corporate friends.  Going through their site, I've also found best trophies designs.  Price starts at $4.49. You can definitely find a gift or an item that would best suit your budget.  I'm glad that I have found a better option for gift giving.  I always like anything that has a personal touch compared to those mass produced items at our local department stores.

Solid Wood Furniture

I came across a shop at Bangkok which specializes on selling solid wood furniture.  I couldn't help but sigh after seeing the elegant designs of those solid wood furniture on display. The living room set was tastefully designed and I'm loving it's elegant finish.  It will surely be a stand out on any large living rooms.

Below is a photo of one of the living room set manufactured by Kongka.  I didn't ask for the price as I'm already expecting it to be very pricey considering the craftsmanship and the quality of the materials used for the furniture.

I wonder if Kongka furniture is available in the Philippines, but I've seen similar designs before at the malls.  Given the resources, I would love to have the same design as it really looks super elegant.  But this kind of furniture comes in large sizes so this can only fit in large sized living rooms and that would be my problem as my house is just of a standard size.

Outdoor Living

I've mentioned before in one of my posts here in this blog that I so love hosting BBQ parties at home.  I love to throw some dinner parties outdoors and have fun with family and friends.  I love the idea of putting some garden decorations and lighting up the entire garden with decorated candles while listening to the sound of the water flowing from our garden's mini water falls.  It really fascinates me!

But to be able to throw an explicit outdoor party or simply organize a simple outdoor dinner with your friends and family, you should have a mini island BBQ kitchen or a simple BBQ set that you can afford.  How about a simple outdoor furniture?  The setting you create outdoors is essential to completing your outdoor living area.  You could choose from a wide range of outdoor furniture at the local shops or you can also choose to order online for more varieties and designs.  But holding outdoor parties during an extremely cold season might also be a problem.  Good thing that there are already some heating devices that's available for both indoors and outdoors.  There are even natural gas heaters that can proved to be more economical and effective. The innovation in home technology combined with some aesthetics made the world of heating a truly easy task.  Powerful range of outdoor heaters available in the market now can give us more and better options for our outdoor heating requirements.

With all these innovations, there's no reason why we can't celebrate outdoors even in an extremely cold weather condition. So, redesign your outdoor space by getting those new outdoor furniture or revive an old one, use your creative skills in designing the area, bring out those potted plants and create a mini garden and put up a decent BBQ set and you're on your way to an impressive outdoor living.

Crafts Corner

Photo Credit : www.realsimple.com

I found this great crafts organizing idea and I think that if you really had an extra space in the house to transform into a crafts corner, why not?  This will hold all your craft materials in one place and can be    arranged neatly the way you wanted it.  I'm sure as a Mom, you might be having the same dilemma with me and that is putting all things together in one place.  My two kids used to keep a lot of stuff for their school projects and we just keep those extra stock in one small cabinet, but since it was not designed for that purpose, the tendency is, when they are looking for a particular thing inside the cabinet, let's say a glue gun or colored papers, they would simply pull out everything. The result?  One big mess! 

Of course, here I am, a mother to a rescue and will start rearranging things again and again.  So, I think that creating a crafts corner at home will help us organize things more easily as everything of the same category will all be tucked into one neat space.  Items used in the photo can be ordered online or you can make use of your available resources at home.  I think, if you do have an empty closet in a room, you can convert it into a crafts cabinet by adding some shelves and hangers.  Cool, right?

Blind Corner Cabinet Storage Solution

I find this great idea for blind corner cabinets storage! When at home, I used to clear up my kitchen cup boards with all the unnecessary stuff, so looking for things I need would be relatively easy.  However, when it comes to those kitchen cabinets underneath the sink, sometimes, you even have to use a flash light just to be able to find those stuff hiding at the corners of the cabinet.  I don't know that there is a best variety of lazy susans which can address this problem.   Take a look at this 32 inch classic half moon lazy susan.  Easy to install and comes with a clear coat finish that could match any cabinet.  Cool!

Make Your Christmas Shine

Christmas is a lovely time of year for getting together with family and friends, and great lighting has always been part of it. The glow of a log fire or the fairy lights on the tree spring to mind, and of course we all love those. However, that's not quite what I was thinking of.  Geoffrey Harris of London has always been a step ahead when it comes to luxurious and glamorous lighting, and what better time than Christmas to highlight some of the fabulous ranges, showing how they can add to your festive decor, or even make thoughtful gifts for those special friends?

How about the Cuboluce for a little box of festive delight? Available in Christmas Red or snowy White as well as glossy Black, these fabulous boxes are a real talking point. Open the lid, the light comes on, close it and the light goes off. Just like opening a present, these gorgeous table lamps are the perfect gift. They also look great stacked together as a feature, how about a pyramid of Cuboluce as an alternative to the traditional tree and lights?

The dinner table is one of the most important aspects of Christmas Day. The right lighting and your guests will remember the great meal they enjoyed for years to come, not quite knowing why. Such a lot can be achieved with excellent lighting, and the right ambience is one of the most significant ways it can work. Place your table under a truly magnificent pendant light for example, such as the the Can-Can by Flos with its gorgeous swirly interior diffuser which creates a stunning effect over your dining area. How about the subtle effect of wall lights, placed strategically around the room? Northern Lighting makes one of the most eye catching wall lights you could choose, the Butterfly. From http://www.geoffreyharris.co.uk/ this beautiful white light creates a subtle glow, add some table lamps such as the Cuboluce or the Mini Glo-Ball T, which incidentally could also be placed on the floor, if you're careful in choosing where, and you can create a candlelight effect without the smoke and eye watering smell. Your guests will be able to relax in the luxurious and glamorous glow. After all, when good food and wine is abundant, nobody wants to be under the spotlight.

Glass Panel

When we were at Bangkok last month, I happened to see this restaurant at the hotel where we stayed and this reminds me of my upcoming project in the house.  I actually wanted to replace the concrete wall opposite our dining table with a tinted glass panel (similar to the photo above).  This would be a a sliding glass panel where we can have a view of a pocket garden leading to our garage.

I was just thinking that it would be a good idea to create a nice view while we are having our meals at the dining area and also to provide a better ventilation for the house.  Another purpose of which is to allow natural light to enter the house.  If open, the glass panel would also allow some air to come in, therefore this would be a huge savings to our electric bills. 

I would go for something's that beautiful and yet economical!

Printing Needs

I was able to grab some cute "free printables" from my pinterest board..  Apart from the cute designs, I find that these "printables" will be very useful for me at home.  I also love the fact that these can be personalized.  Some of these are gift tags, jar labels, birthday banners, cup cake toppers and "to do list".  I think that someday it could also be a great help when I want to establish my own business.  I also hope to find some logo designs, but I don't think it's possible as most of the logos being used for business are customized.  Perhaps, letterhead designs are also customized, so in case that I would put up a business and I would be needing all these stuff,  perhaps I could just scout for an affordable package online.  I wish that I would be able to order letterhead design from printingamerica.com.   If you want to start with something, then you have to start it right especially if it's something that would give you great profits in the future.