Dwell
-
Making Your Kitchen A Gluten-Free Haven
Is it really possible to have a kitchen that can function for both gluten and gluten-free food preparation, baking and cooking? Yes, it’s possible; but it will take a lot of effort and determination to keep your kitchen safe from gluten contamination. Have you ever tried to put a cup of flour into a mixing bowl, only to find it suddenly poofing magically through the air? Soon it will cover your counter, and everything else in sight; everything. This flour dust in the air is easy to breath without even realizing what you have done, and to make matters worse it can float into the tiniest cracks and contaminate things…
-
Uncovering Your Home Decor Style
One of the most common situations I encounter when I first meet with a client is intimidation over deciding on an interior decorating style. Quite frequently I hear the following words uttered within moments of my arrival, “I’m so overwhelmed by all the styles out there; I love everything. So how will I ever decide?” This will be the most challenging hurdle to overcome when taking on the prospect of renovating or decorating your home. I have a few tips to help work thru the “I love everything but can’t decide on anything” phase and move forward to the “AHA” moment. Hunt for inspiration. Start with…
-
Halloween Decorating
It’s getting to be that spooktacar time of the year. I’m a mom, wife and party planner who loves to decorate for the holidays. There are so many cool and crafty ways you can decorate for Halloween with out breaking the bank. I have slowly built up my Halloween decor over the years. One thing I do is allow myself to buy one Halloween item every year that I really love. Here are some tips I’ve discovered to help make your Halloween decor really stand out. It’s not about quantity but about how you choose to display your items. Choose a Focal Point: The first thing I do is…
-
Pumpkins, Gourds, and Squash, Oh My!
October is synonymous with pumpkins, gourds and squash. Throughout the month, they are used for décor, the main ingredient of seasonal dishes and as children’s whimsical canvas for spooky designs. However, did you know pumpkins and gourds, as well as squash, come in more shades of color than orange or yellow? With over 300 varieties of pumpkins, gourds, and squash grown annually, it is amazing to discern the color palette of nature: oranges, greens, yellows, blues, whites, striped, splotched, and spotted. Textures also vary greatly. Due to the close familial orientation of the three, it can often be difficult to tell them apart. All are members of the Cucurbita…
-
Tips to De-clutter and De-stress
Are you familiar with this situation? You would like to have a clutter free home but you just have so much stuff. It would take ages to sort through everything and you just don’t have the time. So you leave it until you have time ‘one day’, and in the meantime the amount of things you have just keeps on growing, and the job becomes larger and larger. If you want to get on top of clutter you have to be ruthless and firm, pack your sentimentality away, visualize the beautiful room you want, then go ahead and get it! Here I share with you some top tips for…
-
Feng Shui For Your Home
Image: Flickr Have you ever walked into a home before and immediately liked it? Perhaps it was light, bright and airy? It was welcoming and comfortable, and you felt great while you were there. You could say this house has good feng shui. If you haven’t heard of this term before, in Chinese it means ‘wind and water’. Feng shui (pronounced foong shway) is the ancient Chinese practice of arranging the layout of your home to promote happiness, harmony and wellbeing. And the great thing about feng shui is that it doesn’t require a drastic rearrangement of your home, often just moving a few pieces of furniture around, placing…
