home&garden
LANDSCAPING TIPS
Kate owns Bloom’n Gardens Landscape, a design/build/maintenance firm. She is a degreed Botanist, Certified Ar-borist, Certified Pesticide Applicator, and carries a Level 1Acertification in Erosion Control. www.bloomngardens.com• 404-314-1474 • Kate@bloomngardens.com
In these difficult economic times, many of you are thinkingof cutting back on holiday ex-penses. One way to do this andstill have a lot of fun is to lookoutside and use natural materi-als to make you home look fes-tive. Why not, it is the way our Grandmothers used to deco-rate. Many of your landscapeplants can offer bright accentsto your holiday arrangements. A good place to start is to take alook outside and evaluate your landscape. Do you have a hemlock tree or juniper shrub thatneeds a good trimming? These plants can be the beginning of mantle adornments, garland or wreaths. You may already be inlove with Burford holly and nandinas for their bright red berries.These plants look great alone or tucked into deep green fir gar-land. Also consider pyrancanntha - it has vivid orange berriesthat would be a good contrast to the familiar red. Other note-worthy plants include river birch, boxwood, and ivy. River birchcanes can add height to a center piece or front door container,boxwoods make great garland and wreaths, and ivy makes anexcellent green in arragements. Don’t forget about our wonder-ful Magnolia, the large leaves are a glossy, dark green that con-trast well with the velvety, brown undersides. Magnolia leavesmake stunning wreaths and bases for large decorations. Gather pinecones and sweet gum balls to make your own wreaths or attach a little mistle toe to a cluster of three pinecones and hangit in the door way.Using natural materials is also a great way to get the kidsinvolved in decorating. When I was a kid, I once gathereda bunch of small pinecones and acorns and glued them to apiece of cardboard that was cut in the shap of a Christmas tree.It came out so good, my mother hung that for years. Another simple decoration you could put the kids in charge of is creatingfestive shapes with twigs tied together with twine. More ridgidsticks can become stars or trees, finding some flexible sticks, likewillow, can allow you to create hearts.When decorating with natural materials a few precautionsneed to be considered. Dry greenery can be a fire hazard.Make sure you do not place greenery near a heat source, keepwatered, remove and/or replace parts that become too dry. Additionally, some plants and berries can be poisonous, theseneed to be kept out of reach from small children and curiouspets.
Rainwater
Recovery
Save One of Nature’s PricelessResources and Keep Your
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Home & Garden
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Embracing The Meaning of Christmas
By Joyce Maxwell, owner of ReJoyce N Order, Profes- sional Organizer and speaker. Awarded “Business Asso-ciate of the Year for 2007” by Douglas County Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association. 770-941-0201, www.rejoycenorder.com
How do you celebrate Christmas? Do you actually enjoy theseason or do y
ou find yourself so bogged down with the shopping,parties and the tasks of Christmas that the true meaning somehowgets left behind? This is my favorite time of year, yet not so longago, I found myself so caught up in the hustle and bustle that Ibegan “dreading” Christmas. All the joy was gone and I was frus-trated, so together with my husband, we decided to make somechanges in the way we celebrate. Now I am just like a child againand can hardly wait for the season to arrive. This month I am go-ing to share with you some of those changes in hopes that you toowill recapture the “child like” excitement of the season.
1)
We drastically cut back on the gifts we give. Yes, we still buya few things (like gifts for our grandson) but we no longer feel likewe have to give gifts to everyone we know. Stop and ask yourself if you are giving gifts out of guilt or habit. If you find yourself giv-ing “just because they always give to you” stop and ask yourself:Why? It may be that they are doing the same thing, go to themand discuss it, you may both be happier just meeting for lunch or going to the movies. Why do we think Christmas is the only timeto show our love? And, then in the three or four weeks betweenThanksgiving and Christmas we think we have to show everybody,everywhere who means anything to us that they do.
2)
Don’t do all your baking for the entire year, during this 3-4week time period either. Wait until January or February when allthe “Christmas goodies” are gone and bake a special treat for your friends or neighbors. It will mean so much more, becausethey aren’t expecting it.
3)
This is not the time to remodel your entire house. (Have Iever been guilty of this one?) I remember the year I had painterspainting the interior of my home three weeks before Christmas; Ithink I got my tree up that year two days before it was time to take itdown. Now, if the project cannot be completed before the secondweek of November it has to wait until after the holidays are over.So what if you have company coming over…dim the lights…andno one will notice, (people expect candles at Christmas.)
4)
Have the house decorated by Thanksgiving. I admit I hadto get my husband on board with this one, but if all the decorat-ing is completed by Thanksgiving you may actually get to sit anddrink a cup of tea or coffee and put your feet up for a few minutes(wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace?)
5)
Take time to share your blessing with others. Give some ex-tra money to your favorite charity in memory of someone special.Serve in a soup kitchen, baby sit for a single mom (or maybe amom who is not single but could use an extra set of hands) visita shut-in, thank a soldier or pick up the tab for the car behindyou in the drive thru. The main thing is: Redirect your focus backto the real meaning of Christmas by finding a need and filling it.You will be amazed at how quickly the joy of the season returnst
o your heart.
ORGANIZING TIPS
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DECORATING TIPS
What Do I Do With My Windows?
Karen Hartley is a local interior designer anddecorator. As owner of Interiors by Decorating Den, she has been in business for 23 years. She can bereached at 770-459-9096.
I hear this question often. And, because windowsvary so much in style, construction and function, they al-ways end up playing an extremely important role in every decoratingplan. Here are some things you need to think about before planningyour window treatment design:
1. Function.
How is the window being used? Are there doorsincluded? Do you need to control the sunlight or outdoor light? Isprivacy a priority? Do you have a beautiful view that needs captur-ing?
2. Focal points.
Are your windows a natural dramatic architec-tural feature of your room? If so, you have a built-in focal point,and should plan your treatments accordingly. If not, then consider working with a professional decorator to make your window treat-ments true show stoppers!
3. Challenges?
Are your windows too small? Too large? Dothey extend up high into the room? Are they well placed in the room?Do they work in with your furniture arrangement and the “flow” of the room? A carefully designed window treatment can actually be aclever cover-up to any window challenge.
4. Color?
What is your overall color scheme for the room? Howdo you want to tie the colors in the room to the windows? Is it aplace to “pop” with color or would it be better to be a subtle back-drop? Do you want to repeat something already in the room or addsome contrast?The last, and a very important factor, is how much do you want toinvest? How long and how often do you plan to enjoy this space?Will it help with the resale of your home if you put it on the marketin the next few years? While window treatments often stay with thehome on a sale, they can also be a huge influencer in a buyer’s de-cision to choose your home over another house. Homes that “showwell” always sell easier.
Karen K Hartley,
DDCD, IDS Associate
Have you ever dreamed of having an
experienced interior design profes-sional
come into your home, wave a magic wand, and redo your living room
before the day is over
?
Now is your chance!
Extended another month by popular demand, Karen and her team are offering
one day room makeovers
.If you have a room that has never quite come together but you aren’tready to start fromscratch, this is a opportunity to work with your existing pieces to completely change thelook of the space.Contact us for more information and to schedule your initial consultationfor your room makeover.See Karen’s work in
Decorating…the Professional Touch!
By Carol D. Bugg
Karen K Hartley, DDCD •770-459-9096 •www.decdens.com\khartley
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