How to choose bed sheet sets, types and materials of bed sheets.

Bed sheets. How to choose bed sheets? What is the best textile for bed sheets? What are the best colours and sizes? There are a lot of different bedsheets types materials, big choice of colours and Disney themes like for teens, kids and babies. but the most popular materials are cotton, satin,  silk and linen, the most popular sizes are king or queen and twin , and the most popular themes are spider man for  and pink winx for kids and twister for parents .

Bed sheets sizes. Of course, bed sheet sets you choose according to bed sizes. But more and more people prefer to buy full and king size beds ( i have already advised it in my article about bedroom decorating ), this is more comfortable and people sleep better on larger beds, cause they do not disturb each other during night. Unfortunately king ( queen ) size bedsheets are not cheap at all. They are more expensive and it is more difficult to find the suitable colour for them.

Bed sheet colours. Colour is something you should choose yourself. Mostly people even do not care about bedroom design, and use purple bed sheets in green coloured bedroom. I advice to buy bed sheets of similar colour as your bedroom decor cause it just will not disturb your eyes. On another hand you can some some bedsheets of different colours like green, blue, pink, red, orange, and to choose them depending on your mood. I just do not advice to buy white ones cause they turn in to yellow soon. You can make them white again but chlorine is harmful for health, especially for children. Black bed sheets is also a bad idea, i have already an article about black colour disadvantages. And about the themes. Kids adore Disney themes and themes like winx and spider man, their parents prefer twister, young ladies like flowers and teen boys stripes. Do not purchase bed sheets of too bright colours. Though customers say, they do not see the colour when they sleep, this colour is the last that you see before you fall asleep, so it still affects you.

Materials. Cotton is the most popular material for bed sheets, it is cheap and that is why affordable. Silk, linen and satin is more expensive but can look more luxury and expensive. According to reviews of some customers, they can not sleep on silk bed sheets, cause they slide. I do not slide and you? Anyway, the most important is health. May be it is not good to buy Chinese products cause we do not know how healthy the paint is. Especially check made in label when you buy bedsheets for kids and babies. 

Bed sheets thread count. TPI, or thread count is a number of threads in a square inch. If you want your bed sheets to be soft and have long life choose those that have more than 250 threads. Under 200 is considered to be low quality. More than 400 threads can also be not so nice, so you can just keep the middle- 200- 250.

Lucky us, we can change bed sheets more often that bedroom furniture, so if you have already bought some and are not satisfied, just check for new collections.

Container gardening – how to be ready for winter months.

Container gardening – winter care. I have already told in my previous article about autumn garden care before winter. This is a bit different  to prepare container gardens for winter. Container flower, herb and  vegetable gardens have more advantages and low maintenance than usual gardens including advantage of possibility to move containers. In my other article i have also mentioned how wonderful vegetable garden on your patio can be, and if you have already have one, this article will help you to prepare it for winter months.

Possible dangers in winter. Roots of the plants in containers are no so well protected from the coldest weather in winter. Usually roots are protected by snow and soil everywhere. By when we speak about containers that can decorate your garden paths, paths have no snow enough to warm the roots, and it is just not enough to have some certain size of pots to protect roots from low temperatures in winter. Mulching and wrapping can be a good solution for cold regions of the USA, but ideally plants need to be moved to protected and warmed place.

How can I know if my plants need protection or not?

1.When you buy seeds in a shop, always check if they are suitable for area of your living. Do not bring seeds from warm regions to cold ones and from cold to warm ones. Yes, even seeds that were suitable for north regions can feel themselves worse in south regions.

2. Heated green house is ideal choice for container plants like flowers and herbs. At least you can use advantages of micro climate in your garden.

3. Use the main advantage of containers – move plants to the sunniest area in your garden. Area must be also protected from strong wind and high humidity – this will prevent roots from freezing when it suddenly becomes cold after rainy days.

4. On another hand there should not be direct sun in the place for garden plants. Night freezing and direct sun in the morning can just damage the plants. You should be aware of cold sunny days. If it is warm, sun can not hurt the plants much. Just cover them in freezing sunny days and protect plants from strong winds.

How to protect plants from frost. It is easier than you may think. Just do the right watering during autumn. Do not water plants and trees too much after harvest. More water in the soil – more chance to get it frozen. Water will turn in to ice. This will hurt roots and damage plants. It is easy to control watering in containers, so if you do everything right you may be proud of managing low maintenance garden.

 The most big problem than can happen to your containers during winter is freezing and melting for several times. If soil is frozen once and melted in spring then plants have a chance to grow again next season, but if this happens for several times, and this is normal in some regions, then it is better if you move your containers to some dry, warm place. Before you decide to have organic container garden think if you can move them every autumn or you have somebody who can help you doing that.

Autumn garden maintenance – be ready for winter months.

Garden winter. Is your garden ready for winter? In my previous article about how to take care about the garden in autumn I have already mentioned that it is important to use fertilizer when the weather is not too cold and hot too hot, so it can be as effective as possible. This will help grass to recover after hot summer days and to be ready for cold winter days and next season.

Vegetable garden. If you use your garden for growing vegetables and fruits garden maintenance will be not so low as if you use it only for flowers. Do not forget to remove old plant matter. Always use compost bins, cause if you just through it on the ground there will be much more diseases on plants than this year. So what is next for vegetable garden care?

Garden soil. A lot of gardeners ask if it is a must to use rototiller in autumn. And I say yes. There are two reasons why you should do it. First of all, if you rototill the soil before winter, it will be easier to do it in spring, but the most important reason is pests, if you do not do it, pests will have very comfortable life under it all year round. Many pests will suffer in winter if part of them will be taken upon the ground by rototilling. If the soil in your garden has low pH, apply lime at the same time. It maybe too late to do it in spring. Topsoil can be protected from the rigors by planting a cover crop or by applying a mulch.

Trees and bushes. The easiest tip to winterize trees and prepare them for winter is to water them well in autumn, exactly in fall.

Garden beds must be cleaned as well as topsoil. Always remove old leaves and stalks. Sure you can do it in spring, bu believe me, if you want low maintenance garden, it is better to do it before first snow.

Snow. If you leave in cold areas like northern parts of the USA, your garden care in winter is zero. There is nothing to do with your garden in winter. Do not remove snow from soil and especially around trees. Snow protects roots of fruits trees from freezing in the coldest months. If your next year harvest is important for you do on allow children to play snow in the garden and do not walk above yourself, let your garden sleep well all the winter.

New and fresh ideas for bedroom decorating.

Bedroom decorating. Are you bored with your bedroom or looking for new colours? How to decorate a bedroom yourself? Here I want to mention that if you are not sure in your design skills, leave this job to professional designers, bedroom is not just a furniture set of a bed, a wardrobe and a dresser. This is your mood, your sleep, place to relax and romantic moments of your life. How to join them all? What are the best colours for bedroom, what is the best and most convenient furniture, what style to choose? Modern or classic? So many questions, it will take several articles to answer them all. I want to start with some new general ideas for bedroom decoration, so you can know what to start with at least, if you decide to do it yourself.

Master bedroom decor. This room belong to you and only to you. Guests probably will not enter it. At least they will do it once when you want to show how wonderful your new bedroom is. So you can design it totally for you and your needs.

1. Very often bedroom is not only a place to sleep, you probably will want to read, knit or just watch Tv in it. If your bedroom is large enough for this, you should find some spare place for a comfortable chair, sofa and Tv, but if we speak about small bedroom decorating it is better to move your hobbies in another room like living room or patio, cause one of the most important points of comfortable bedroom spare place. If your small bedroom will have just a couple of square meters to move, it will not be comfortable in any way. First rule for your new bedroom decoration is minimum furniture!

2. Ideal furniture set. If your bedroom is small, put one large king size bed and one wardrobe, this will be enough for comfortable bedroom. Paint it in to light colours like beige and add some light blue spots like curtains. If your master bedroom is large enough to put dresser, mirror and a chair, be sure your bed does not appear in the mirror reflection.

3. Let’s continue with colours. For better sleep prefer light colours. As I have mentioned before, light colours can make your small bed look larger, if your bedroom is big enough, you can buy furniture with expensive dark wood colours, and add some beige to walls and carpets. Now you can find bedrooms furniture sets of all colours. Green, orange, yellow, red, just any! But experience shows that after using orange or green bedroom for 2 years or about, people want to change it immediately! Furniture sets for bedrooms can cost a lot, and it is not so cheap to change it from time to time. Colourful bedrooms are ideal for kids or teens, cause you know that when your child grows he will want to change it’s bedroom for sure. One more thing about colours. If you still want to make your bedroom colourful it is not a must to buy orange or red furniture set. You can just put some colourful spots like red sofa and bright blue curtains, orange artificial flowers in a vase. In short, try to add small colourful spots than big spills. Leave colourless grey outside of your bedroom and home in general.

4. Lighting for bedroom should be as much natural as possible. Light changes the look of the room a lot. If your bedroom is in the sunny side of the house, you can use cool colour like light blue and light green for curtains and accessories , but if your bedroom is all the day in the shadow it is better to use colours like yellow, red and orange to make it warmer.

5. What type of bed and other furniture units to choose? There are custom designed bedroom collections, outline quilted bedspreads, sophisticated designs and luxury classic bedrooms. Though some designers say that a lot of pillows is a must of every bedroom i do not think so. Especially if it is a small bedroom.

6. Windows. Bedroom does not give rich decoration opportunity. Practical side of it – less accessories you have less dust. Bedroom always must be clean and fresh. More opened shelves and accessories – more dust you have to clean every day, worse sleep you have. It is especially dangerous for those who have allergy. Windows and window curtains is a good opportunity to show your bedrooms design. Well chosen curtains can make the simplest bedroom like a luxury one!

As I have mentioned, you should not buy too many accessories for bedroom, but it is a good idea to hang some pictures of family photos oh the walls. Just be sure frame design suits your new bedroom in general.

Artificial Christmas tree decorations, the easy way to make your trees look perfect.

The Christmas trees. Less than one month left till Christmas so it is the best time to start articles for this wonderful holiday. I want to start with artificial Christmas tree decorations. Actually my advices are suitable for trees from tree farms and prelit Christmas trees. I want to give some advices how to make your Christmas tree look perfect even if it is your first time decoration or you just do not know to to decorate Christmas tree. If you do not have any ideas with what to start with, and how to make it look beautiful and modern, you should always remember that minimum ornaments and decorations is the best.

Christmas tree ornaments. If you decorate the tree for the first time in your life let it be green classic colour. Any colours of ornaments will suit it and it will give you some feeling of childhood and old times that we lack so much. Buy glass balls of 2 colours. Gold and dark red. This is classic, and maybe you think it will look too easy, but believe me, they are the perfect colours for green tree. If you can be sure that using multi colours will not turn your tree in to something messy and untidy with feeling of decorating tree in 2 minutes, then read my other articles but if you just want everything to look really beautiful on this wonderful day, make your choice for these two colours. Do not buy toppers and other useless accessories. All you need is tree stands and skirts. About the sizes. Ornaments sizes must be suitable for your tree size. Taller the tree, large the ornaments must be. Do not use too big ornaments for small trees. If your house is small, there is not a must to buy something huge. Small Christmas tree can also give feeling of miracle. About the lights. Ideally, prefer to buy pre lit Christmas trees. But really it is not so difficult to decorate the tree with lights. Prefer led lighting. Start decorating the tree with lights from the top, checking if the distance between circles is the same on all the levels. You can use colourful bulbs, but if it is a big tree, prefer classic colourless ones. Do not spray snow on the tree, use it to cover stand only. As for the other colours like black tree- the best colours for it are silver and blue. White Christmas trees can be decorated in any 2 colours you like or that suit for your room decor. Or it can have just blue or golden ornaments on it.

Christmas tree decorations. What about the other decorations like toys, angels, pets, santa, snowman, family symbols and so on? This is just another story about Christmas trees. If you are a big family with children, there is no need to think how to decorate your Christmas tree. All you need to buy a tree on some sale and children will do the rest. Do shopping for ornaments with children all together. Trust them, just close your eyes or go out – your Christmas tree will be perfect!

Some cheap outdoor decor ideas, walls, doors, patio and garden decorations.

Affordable outdoor ideas. Outdoor decorations is a must in every house with patio or garden. We always want our house to look nice from outside too. If we like to drink tea outside, we want to be surrounded by nice design and accessories. There are a lot of modern solutions for decorating garden and patio. In this article i want to give some ideas on budget decorating, how to do it in a cheap way. Cheap outdoor decorations is the best choice not only for those who want to save some money, it is also useful for those who decorate walls and doors outside, patio and garden for the first time in there life. You should not spend a lot of money if you are not sure in the result. Then later you can easily change the existing design to something new.

1. One of the easiest ways to decorate your patio cheap is to buy mismatched pieces. If you by set of furniture, chairs and table, especially with some modern design it can be really expensive. Or you will have to drive around all the shops near by until you find something affordable.

2. Old furniture. Do not through aways old chairs, table and sofas. There are a lot of ideas online or on TV how to make your old furniture look new. Use this furniture for your patio. Use spray to paint legs of chairs and table in desired colours. You can find articles on painting in category how to paint. You can also paint other units of furniture and flower pots. Candles and other accessories – everything old can take a new look just with some paints.

3. Actually outdoor is a good area to place different inexpensive decorative stuff bought on sales. As it is cheap enough you can afford yourself changing it from time to time.   

 4. Use benches with pillows rather that expensive and modern seats, wooden toolboxes, you can use any old units, some people even make tables from old doors!

5. Do not use this  fluorescent light just because it is cheap, prefer some low watt colourful small night bulbs for lighted outdoor decorations.

6. Use some certain theme for decorations. This will help all this old stuff and mismatched pieces look smart. Will all it be in wood, iron or metal, will you paint everything or cover with some nice piece or textile material and add some colourful pillows to lawn, or may be you want to turn everything in green, and create a patio vegetable garden?

If you have some old furniture or accessories and you do not know what to do with them, leave me a comment and i will certainly find you ideas how to use it. In my next article I will tell you how to decorate outdoor for Christmas holiday.

Illuminated bathroom mirrors for walls, cabinets and vanity, light ideas for bathrooms.

Bathroom mirrors. I have already gave general articles on mirrors and wall mirrors so you can understand what types of mirrors exist and which one to choose. But when we speak about bathrooms it is a bit different. And there are reasons for it.

1. First of all bathroom is a place of the highest humidity in the house. That is why it is important to know what types of mirrors are suitable for bathrooms and powder rooms.

2. Secondly bathroom mirror is very often used as a make up mirror, so it must be illuminated enough.

3. Lighting bathroom mirrors is important not only for make up and shaving. Most of as have small bathrooms and mirrors, especially large wall mirrors allow to make the space look bigger and wider. As you know light colours make area look wider, so lighted mirrors allow bathrooms to seem larger than they are.

Mirrors for bathrooms can be different by shape and type. It can be a large wall mirror, some small framed oval mirror, the cabinet it is fitted in to, vanity mirror or illuminated bathroom mirror. Which type to choose? First of all, it is always better to buy bathroom furniture, mirror and other units all together. It is a problem of small areas when units with different design, age and colours can just look messy and untidy. If you decide to change your bathroom design you have to change everything, including tiles! Secondly, when you buy some furniture units for bathroom and accessories that include mirror, think what is more convenient for you. Somebody likes cabinet mirrors, somebody vanity mirrors and somebody just do not care what mirror he has cause he even do not brush his teeth.  How to know what type of mirror I like? Probably you remember what mirror you have had in your parents home, or maybe in a rented apartment. Did you really like it? Or you always wished something else? Remember houses of your friends. Shop around and check different models, including lights on it. Unfortunately when we speak about convenience we can not trust professional designers. They work only when we need some modern solutions.

There are 3 types of bathroom mirrors.

1. Mirrors that are fitted into doors or cabinets.  they are called fixed mirrors and usually are not so comfortable in use cause every time you want to look into it, you have to close the door or to open cabinet. Or to hold it’s door in the direction you need. Of course depending on new models they can be comfortable, so just shop around if you need something like that.

2. Wall mirrors. Wall mirrors can be large ‘ from floor to ceiling ‘ and small oval ones. Hanging wall mirrors both convenient for use and easy to install. You can always change the place of it or to change mirror yourself if you do not like it any more.

3. Vanity mirrors. Small vanity mirrors are very useful for make up in the bathroom.

As as have already mentioned, choosing a mirror for bathroom is mostly a question of convenience and comfort. And remember, that when you buy a mirror it is a must to learn how to clean it. Bathroom mirrors become dirty quicker than in the other rooms. If you do not want to have scratches on it later, use only cleaning materials and solutions that are suitable for glass and mirrors.

Types of wall mirrors for home decorating.

Wall mirror. If you are thinking of buying a new wall mirror or can not decide to to decorate the best walls with mirrors, just check what types of wall mounted mirrors there are and how useful they are for different areas in the house. Wall mirrors can be used for bathrooms, halls, makeup, living rooms and just anywhere you want them. What size of wall mirror to choose? Oval, round, wood, beveled, antique, framed and should it be lighted? What are the prices, shapes and dimensions that are available in markets? So many questions! Let me answer them all one by one.

 Advantage of wall mirror. Why and were I can use wall mirrors? First of all wall mirror is the best for halls and rooms of small sizes. Large mirrors allow to make rooms look wider. I just do not advice to use them in bedrooms and in families with small children.

Decorating house with wall mirrors. If you want wall mirrors to be one of the main accessories, prefer etched wall mirrors. This means that some images or artworks are imprinted into the glass. You can even add some etched designs to a plain mirror yourself with some of etching techniques like laser, hand or acid ones.

Framed mirrors. The most popular type of wall mirror is frame. Not everybody wants wall mounted mirrors, in this case framed mirror is another opportunity to decorate the walls in the house with the help of mirrors. There is really a big choice of frames that can suit to any home design, you can order any design and any mirror shape you want. Bought by order they cost higher that ready mirrors but it is a good investment in your house decor. On another hand frame price depends on mirror sizes that is why wall mirrors, especially from floor to ceiling are not cheap at all. What type of frame to choose? Bold and sturdy wooden furniture units require heavy and wide frame. When you use modern and light furniture with light colours some narrow frame is ok.

Beveled wall mirrors. What is beveled mirror? That means that mirror has angled edges that give sleek image. Usually beveled mirros are used without frames. Frameless beveled mirrors create reflections of light at eats edges depending on colours of the room.

Cleaning and care. Keep your wall mirror dry and use clean warm water or vinegar to clean it.Do not use abrasive cleaners to remove old spots and when using sprays apply them on cloth and do not spray it on the mirror direct.

Types of mirrors for home decoration.

Types of mirrors. There are different types of mirrors for home decoration, in this article i want to mention all the types in short and later i will continue telling about mirrors suitable for bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, halls, walls, doors and rooms for kids.

 First of all there are silvered, silvered tinted, silvered safety, non – silvered ( metal and plastic ) mirrors. Usually, when we do shopping we care mostly about mirror’s shape than materials it was made of. Are you looking for oval or round mirror? Or may be mirror from floor – to – ceiling? In my next article i will tell about them too, here still i want to explain what is the different between these mirror types and which mirror is better for home decoration.

Silvered mirror. There are different types of silvered mirrors: clear mirror, ultra clear mirror, antiqued mirror, concave mirror, convex mirror and first surface mirror. All silvered mirrors have metal layer on it back and also protected by backing paint that is applied above metal.

Silvered tinted mirror. Tinted mirrors have the save way of manufacturing, but in this case coating is applied to tinted glass. This type of mirrors is used mostly for decoration that for using it as a reflection mirror like makeup mirrors and bathrooms mirrors.

Silvered safety mirror. There are 3 types of safety mirrors: Tempered, laminated and safety backed mirrors. Though this type of mirror production  does not protect them from braking, it allows to reduce injuries.

Non – silvered mirror. There are some types of non silvered mirrors also: transparent, pyrolytic, metal and plastic mirrors. Pyrolytic mirrors are ideal for bathrooms ( were glass is used instead of tiles ) and other areas with high humidity. Two way mirrors ( transparent ones ) allow to be a reflective mirror from one side and transparent glass from another. This type of glass is used in hospitals and other buildings where needed. When using transparent mirror lighting in the house is very important. Only when all the lighting ratios are settled right the effect of mirror on one side and glass on the other will be reached. What is metal mirror? It is just a high polished metal that is used in the places that require safety. At homes there is no need in metal mirrors, but maybe you can buy it for yard decoration. Plastic mirrors are almost the same like metal ones, just in this case plastic is covered by a thin reflective metal cover. It is used for toys, crafts and children’s furniture.  

As you can see, all types of mirrors can be used at home, maybe you can find here some ideas how to decorate house and garden in your own style.

Vegetable garden on your patio and even on a small balcony!

Patio garden. We all love when our balcony or patio has some green plants on it. It makes the balcony look fresh and natural. You can buy some easy to grow garden flowers in pots or containers or you can grow your own organic vegetables! Yes, you can not make salads everyday just by picking vegs from your patio but first of all it just looks nice and different from roses and and secondly you can enjoy fresh organic vegetables for your breakfast.

Growing plans on small areas. There is no need in large garden or yard to do gardening. Actually it is easy to leave some free space for vegetables on your balcony or patio. All you need is to plan your future garden well. I have already grown parsley, fresh onion and dill in the past, and i can say that it is one of the best herbs to start with. Every your salad will smell wonderful with dill and parsley from your own small garden.

Advantages of patio garden. As comparing to growing vegetables in the ground growing in the pots and containers gives opportunity to move vegs from one part of the patio to another. Too much or too little sun? Just make some movements!  You can add more holes for good draining. It is easy to control vegetables from pests cause you can take away ill plant and pest will not spread all over the plants by ground. It is easier to water plants and easier to give nutrient – rich soil. Actually if you are gardening for the first time and do not know if you really need it and can do it, it is a good idea to start with a small garden in pots.

 How to make a patio garden?

Buy seeds of the most popular and easy to grow vegetables. They are tomatoes ( cherry type possible ), cucumbers, pepper and beans.

When buying seeds check sizes of already grown vegetables. You need containers that will be big enough for grown plants. Tomatoes need the largest containers but you can grow cherry tomato as an alternative to big ones. Small pots will be enough for growing peppers. Try to keep peppers away from other plants, the reason is that they are attacked by pests more that the other vegetables.

 Tomatoes, bean and cucumbers need trellises, poles and cages. You can buy containers ready for these types of vegetables. You can put containers with these vegetables to one side of patio so it will look like a natural green fence.

Do not forget about fertilizer and regular watering. It is not like growing flowers and fruit trees. Vegetable taste depend how good you water it.  

Be careful with growing hot pepper, do not put it on the floor if you have small children who can find it and eat it. It is better to make some shelves or put it on some furniture units for safety.