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Celebrate Valentine’s Day at Home This Year

There’s nothing as romantic as a canopy bed. Add sheers or curtains from the ceiling to make one for Valentine’s Day.

By Kathryn Weber

Instead of trying to beat the crowds on Feb. 14, why not celebrate Valentine’s Day at home this year? With a few quick decorating changes, you can turn your home into a sensuous, romantic den of love that will be low on frustration and high on passion.

RE-THINK ROOMS

Nothing could be more romantic than a candlelit dinner in front of the fireplace. Bring a dining table or folding table into the living room. Pull out a red tablecloth and your prettiest china, a champagne bucket with some chilled bubbly and you’ve got a scene to melt your Valentine’s heart. Or, clear the living room and throw out a blanket for an impromptu picnic by the fireplace.

Pick up prepared meals, place on your best china and throw in some chilled wine and a decadent dessert and you’ve got an evening of romance that will make you look like a romantic genius.

TAKE IT TO THE KITCHEN

A sensuous way to surprise your Valentine is to go out to dinner and come home to a dessert of chocolate fondue. Dunk marshmallows, fresh strawberries, apple slices and cubes of pound cake into the silky liquid by candlelight.

Of course, you could make a whole meal of fondue using traditional foods like tenderloin steak, cubed French bread, or blanched vegetables followed by a chocolate dessert. For an extra romantic touch, feed each other with the meal!

ROMANCE THE … BATHROOM

Treat your sweetie to the ultimate Valentine surprise of an in-home couples massage. If you have the space, set up your bedroom or bathroom with candles and put on some soft music. A massage next to the fireplace would also be a great idea. Pay and tip the therapists in advance so they can tiptoe out after your massages.

Have a meal and some champagne ready before the massage and maybe a pair of thick monogrammed robes (restorationhardware.com) your can both slip into to sip bubbly and dine before the massage. Arrive.

PASSION PLUS

A night of passion is a wonderful way to wind up a day of hearts and love. To add sparkle, make some quick changes in your bedroom. It starts with lighting. Add candle sconces on either side of the bed to cast a romantic glow in the room. Thrill your sweetie with red satin sheets (Overstock.com). For about $35, you can create a tactile thrill. If red is too much, try chocolate-colored sheets instead. Add a faux fur throw at the foot of the bed for extra luxury.

Instead of sprinkling rose petals on the bed — which are tedious to pick up — opt for a single rose atop a heartfelt note or Valentine. Display a photo of the two of you beside a glowing votive candle.

To envelope your Valentine in a romantic scent, try Tyler Candle’s Glamour Wash laundry fragrance in High Maintenance, Diva or Kathina (Amazon.com). Your sheets will be infused with a gorgeous smell instead of the whiff of laundry detergent.

(For more information, contact Kathryn Weber through her Web site, http://www.redlotusletter.com.)

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Filed Under: Articles, Holidays Tagged With: bedroom, decorating ideas, design, home, ideas, romance, valentine, valentine's day

Make Some New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home

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Make this the year you finally spruce up the back yard so you can host a barbecue.

Sticking to your New Year’s resolutions can drain away the good feelings you built up over the holidays. Whether your goal is to stop smoking, cut back on potato chips, or quit avoiding the dentist, getting the job done is no fun. This year, why not turn things around and make resolutions for your home instead of your bad habits?

Sleep priorities

Many people don’t get enough sleep, and those who do manage to get to bed on time often don’t sleep well. There are many ways you can improve your home and your bedroom to make sleeping easier.

With all the security features around our homes, glowing microwaves and alarm clocks, it’s easy to be kept awake by too much light. A dark, cool room promotes good sleep, and even the tiniest diode can seem glaringly bright in the middle of the night.

Cover up all those tiny lights on the TV, satellite box, or whatever else is glowing in your bedroom, or even outside the room. Small lights can still seem bright at night even though they’re 20 or more feet away. Think your glass block bathroom is private? It is, to everything but light. Put up a room darkening blind or shade if you can see your bath from the bedroom.

House goals

Instead of setting weight targets for yourself in 2013, pick four top projects you’d like to get done around the house. This will give you three months on average to complete each one. Some helpful goals include getting rid of mismatched glasses, tableware, bowls and salt-and-pepper shakers. Short on storage? Make it your mission to add more organizers in the pantry, closets and kitchen cabinets. Installing organizers that attach to the ceiling of your garage will help you get all that stuff you rarely use off the floor and out of sight.

Overstuffed

Clutter seems to be our constant companion. This could be the year you finally deal it a death blow. Of course, some of that “clutter” is darn good stuff you hate to throw away. Besides that, someone would gladly pay for that antique corn husker out rusting in the garden. Create a corner to collect your unused items and start listing them for sale on Ebay, Craigslist, or Etsy.

The place to be

How many times have you said to friends, “Hey, we’d love to have you over…” but then don’t because the back yard landscaping is a mess, the carpet is worn, or the family room you started to paint 6 months ago is still unfinished? Make a commitment to follow through on such key items around the house that prevent you from socializing — and make your house the place to be in the New Year.

Filed Under: Holidays Tagged With: clutter, home, house, new year, resolutions, sleep

Dress Up Your Home with Patriotic Decor You Can Make

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By Kathryn Weber

Dress up your home with patriotic bunting and pull downs for a festive Fourth!

The American flag is beautiful in a look-at-me kind of way. The red and white stripes set against a block of blue with white stars makes for a symbol that’s hard not to notice. That’s why it’s so much fun to dress up your house for Memorial Day, Flag Day and the Fourth of July. It’s festive, and not to mention, patriotic, to dress your house in red, white, and blue. And, if the party’s at your house this year, putting out patriotic decorations will put everyone in a festive mood.

Start up front

When you make an entrance inviting, it’s hard not to be more enthusiastic about what awaits your Fourth of July picnic or party. Put some bunting or pleated fans around the door and don’t forget to put your flag out, too. You can usually purchase bunting from hardware stores and home centers. Look for it in the gardening and outdoor sections. Add some stick flags to planters or beds on either side of the door. Use an odd number, such as three, or whatever you have on hand, though odd numbers usually look best.

Make a Pull Down

Pull downs are long, narrow representations of flags. I like to add pull downs on either side of the door because of their unique appearance. Pull downs can be used to flank doorways or hung from trees to wave in the wind or from a porch. These can be ordered over the Internet or you can do like I did and make your own.

Start with a square of blue fabric and add a single white star or purchase blue fabric with white stars on it. Cut it into a rectangle measuring 16 by 19 inches long and hem the sides with one inch hems. Cut two long lengths of red and white fabric about 73 inches long by nine inches wide. Join the red and white fabric together. Hem and then finish by sewing a four inch pocket hem at the bottom. Add a three inch pocket hem at the top of the blue fabric to insert a pole for hanging. Then join the red, white, and blue fabrics together, making certain that the pieces will all fit and be the correct finished widths. See video below on how to make these for yourself.

Decorate the house

Add flags in all plant pots around the house, hang flags from doors and windows, put flags in vases on the mantle, or make a flag display on an island in the kitchen. Decorate the island with inexpensive small flag bunting to serve your Fourth of July feast. For the table, create table runners of varying patterns, such as a red and white stripe. Top this with a blue with white star fabric placemat or napkin. Echo the flag by mixing stars, stripes, and solids. Your local fabric store is a great source for patriotic themed yardage for all these projects.

Or, go no-sew and make your own patriotic tablecloth by purchasing a solid, dark blue bed sheet. Buy a large rubber star stamp and stamp the star along the outer edge of the bed sheet in white fabric paint. Then, you can either leave it that way or fill in with a small star rubber stamp creating any pattern you like. You could also do this with a white sheet and rubber-stamped blue stars. The possibilities are endless.

This Fourth of July make your living space a patriotic space with some fun and festive patriotic decorating around the house.

Fourth of July Decorating Resources

Oriental Trading Company has reasonably-priced decorating and party supplies for almost every occasion. Buy decorating and party supplies for the Fourth by visiting tinyurl.com/zjhwr

There are many sources for flags, bunting, and pull downs on the Internet. Go to united-states-flag.com or aboutflags.com.

To make your own bunting, go to DIY Network for their bunting project at tinyurl.com/gm5oe or Better Homes and Gardens at tinyurl.com/pxf36.

For fun crafts, recipes, and decorating ideas, check out Martha Stewart’s Fourth of July web page at tinyurl.com/gkw85 or FamilyFun.com’s fun crafts and decorations for kids page at tinyurl.com/evgol.

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Filed Under: Holidays Tagged With: bunting, decorating ideas, flags, fourth, fourth of july, ideas, july, make, memorial day, patriotic, pull downs, tips

Get Your House Ready for the New Year

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Display bowls of oranges, considered to be a symbol of gold and prosperity, around your home for the New Year. Rolling oranges into the front door is a tradition in China to welcome prosperity. It’s also a fun thing to do for New Year’s with the kids.

Bringing in the New Year

One of the things I like best about the holidays is the symbolism. From the star on the top of the Christmas tree to the menorah of Hanukkah, it’s the symbols that remind us that there are things in this world larger than ourselves. One of those symbols is our home. Our home is the place where we gather with our families, share our burdens, our successes, and it’s the stage where our lives play out. I guess that’s why home has always been so important to me, and why I think of our spaces as living spaces.

Because of this, the New Year is an important symbolic time in our family. I make a special effort to bring the house back to its original state, taking down decorations before ringing in the New Year. In fact, I have quite a list of preparations that I go through each New Year because these activities remind me that we’re at the dawn of another opportunity to begin anew, and I like to bring my house into the New Year with a fresh start, too.

Here is my personal list of New Year’s household preparations that I hope you enjoy.

Out with the old

1. De-clutter as much as possible.

Clean out old magazines, food, clothing, and anything that hasn’t been used or is broken.

2. Clean the floors.

Get the old energy out by vacuuming and mopping the floors on New Year’s Eve.

3. Do the laundry. You don’t want to go into the New Year with dirty clothes hanging around. Be sure to fold and put the clean clothes away.

4. Clean the bathroom.

It only takes a few minutes and you won’t have a nasty mess to greet the next year of your life.

5. Empty all trashcans.

Get everyone to pitch in so last year’s trash isn’t hanging around.

6. Clean out the refrigerator.

You don’t want old food or a moldy science project lurking in the fridge.

7. Clear out visual clutter.

Clear off the counters in the bathrooms and kitchen. Clear off your desk and dust it. Pitch the sticky notes and papers and things taped everywhere. Don’t forget the refrigerator. Make it a blank slate.

8. Clean up the yard.

Make sure the yard is picked up and the front doorstep is swept and clear.

9. Change the sheets and towels.

Put clean sheets on all the beds on New Year’s Eve and clean towels in the bathroom and kitchen.

10. Take down the Christmas decorations.

This is the tough one. Most of us dread the New Year because we have to take all the decorations down. Make it a point to take them down two days before New Year’s Day. Then, you can go into the New Year without that mistletoe hanging over your head.

For everyone who thinks you can’t do it, just think how great you’ll feel when you wake up New Year’s Day and you don’t have all those decorations to put away. You could actually watch the Rose Parade. Trust me, you’ll never know how great New Year’s Day can be if you don’t have to haul the tree to the curb.

In with the New

To mark the new beginning, I make sure that the refrigerator and the pantry is stocked and that I have plenty of sweets and citrus around the house. The Chinese believe that oranges symbolize gold and good news and often roll them into the house at the lunar New Year. I buy a big bag of oranges and do this with my own kids. I also buy flowers or a new plant to greet the New Year to symbolize a healthy, lush start. Think about what you can do to symbolize a new prosperous beginning at your home.

Filed Under: Holidays

Celebrate Valentine’s Day at Home This Year

Make Some New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home

Dress Up Your Home with Patriotic Decor You Can Make

Get Your House Ready for the New Year

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