How to Transform Your Outdoor Space for Entertaining

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Make the most of the great outdoors and turn your outdoor space into a retreat. Create the ultimate space for relaxing, entertaining and occupying the kids with these great ideas.

Make a fire pit

What’s not to love about roasting marshmallows by the fire? Enjoy this ultimate family-bonding activity by spending nights by the fire. You’ll be able to enjoy the fire and keep warm – even during the wintertime.

Spruce up your space with a fire pit centrepiece. Buy one ready-made or make your own in a few hours with pavers and concrete. Build a bench around the fire pit piled with cushions for that campfire feel or surround the fire with outdoor deck chairs.

Create a play area

Keep the kids entertained for hours on end with a dedicated play area. A swing set, slide and trampoline are popular ideas to turn your garden into a kid’s paradise. On the creative side, you could set up an outdoor crafts area. Or bring the beach to you in Summer by creating a sandpit alongside a kids paddle pool. Continue the beach feel with a hammock strung between two palm trees.

Plant a vegetable garden

Growing your own edible garden is incredibly rewarding. It’s also a great hobby for the kids and a great way to teach them about sustainability.

Rhubarb, rosemary and tomatoes are amongst the easiest plants to grow. They are great options to start with if you’re not already a gardening guru.

Consider a net to keep the birds from eating your hard-earned produce.

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Install a pool or a spa pool

Take the plunge and add a swimming pool to your house. Not only will it add value to your home, but the number of summer memories will be priceless.

If space is a problem or you’d prefer a place to relax, consider a spa pool. This is a cheaper option compared to the pool, and you could use it year-round, even when it’s sub-zero outside.

Provide comfortable seating

Create a comfortable outdoor area you actually want to spend time in. There are endless options for comfortable seating, including sofas, loungers and dining sets.

If you love to entertain but are pushed for space, consider a colourful set of stacking chairs. This lets you add a pop of colour to your backyard but still have the freedom to store them away easily when needed.

Set up an outdoor kitchen

The outdoor kitchen is an up-and-coming trend perfect for entertainers and socialites.

Clear a patio area for a BBQ and ample bench space for preparation. Set up an outdoor fridge for a mini-bar and even consider a wood-fired pizza oven. Don’t miss out on enjoying the outdoors when you’re cooking. Instead, be in the centre of the action in your outdoor kitchen.

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 Fix large doors

Great indoor-outdoor flow is a must-have for many homeowners. Treat your garden area as an extension of your living area.

The easiest way to create this indoor-outdoor flow is through large doors. Choose from the many options including folding, bi-folding, French, retractable and sliding doors. To completely open up your home to the great outdoors, consider fitting sliding doors on two perpendicular walls.

Put up outdoor lighting

String lights will transform your outdoor space into an enchanted garden. Drive out the darkness with this elegant touch. Hang them near your outdoor dining area for late-night dinner parties or near your lounging area where you can curl up with a blanket and a good book.

Refreshing and updating your outdoor space can be tailored to suit all budgets. It can be as simple and effortless as adding string lights to the patio area or as extravagant as building a poolside slice of paradise. It’s up to you to choose what works best for your home.

Author bio:

Alex Cordier is a freelance writer from Auckland, New Zealand. When she’s not busy writing articles for various blogs, you can find her traveling or reading on the beach. To learn more about her, visit her personal blog.

Transform An Old Clock Into A Time Teaching Helper

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It’s so hard to teach a little one with all the distractions they have today. Thats why I always think it is great to have a colorful seeing is teaching type of idea. Here we took an old clock and attached it lower on a wall. Then we cut the stem and leave out of green poster board and attached it to the wall with double sided tape. We then measured the how wide our petals would need to be and cut those and attached them in the same manner, We wrote the 30 second increments and the ‘hour’ and ‘minutes’ before putting them up. Makes a great learning aid for a child and creates an inspiration space at the same time.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Penguins

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Dip the top pointed tip and back of a strawberry with melted chocolate. Before chocolate sets add candy eyes and insert yellow M&M’s sideways into strawberry making sure the top part of the nose gets pushed into the melted chocolate. It will make sure the nose stays on. Leave the stem on which becomes the feet and also helps this guy stand up. If you want to remove the stem did the top (feet end) of the strawberry into melted chocolate and push down on wax paper. This will create a flat area for the strawberry to sit without falling over.

Simple Ways To Fight The Summer Heat At Home

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The summer heat seems unbeatable. It’s like you’re always sweating, no matter what you do. Taking three showers a day doesn’t help, and neither does sleeping without covers at night. Not all of us are lucky enough to fight the summer heat from a tropical location, so we have to resort to at-home cooling methods. Spending the summer at home doesn’t have to melt you like a popsicle, though. With these simple methods, you’ll chill in your apartment in both senses of the word.

1. Switch the lights

Traditional light bulbs tend to warm up the place and increase your electric bill. By switching to LED or fluorescent lights, you’ll be saving energy as well as cooling the place down. LED lights don’t emit the warm yellow light that traditional lights do.

The price of a LED light bulb might be more expensive, but it lasts a lot longer and saves you money on the electric bill, so it’s definitely worth it.

2. Maintain your AC unit

Air conditioning might be a saviour in the summer, but it won’t be able to do its job properly if you don’t maintain it regularly. At the beginning of each season, you should call in a professional who will check the unit for you.

It might cost you some money, but it will be worth it. You’ll know your AC is running the way it’s supposed to and will be able to enjoy the summer in peace. It’s much cheaper than paying to fix or replace the whole unit, anyway.

3. Use ceiling fans

According to some experts, ceiling fans don’t really lower temperature that much. Still, the do kick start and maintain air circulation. This can make living at home in the summer a lot simpler. One of the biggest problems is that air seems to stay still most of the time. You can’t open the windows up to air the place out, because the air outside is just as stale. You’ll even end up introducing more heat into the room.

That’s why you should turn on your ceiling fans counterclockwise. Do this especially when there are more people in the room. When you leave the room, you can turn them off because they won’t have much effect. Still, when there are people actively living and breathing in a closed environment, ceiling fans make things much more comfortable.

4. Shade it up

The sun is the main culprit when it comes to heat in the apartment, obviously. Even though natural light is a plus in any home, it’s a huge minus in the hot summer days. The temperature inside is even higher when the rays of the sun are constantly hitting your home. The best way to solve this is to introduce some shade into the room. Without the sun basically paying half the rent, it’s going to be much cooler.

You should invest in a quality shade solution so that you’ll beat the heat for years to come, not just this year. As one of the nations who fight the worst summer heats, Australians would definitely back this claim up. Dealing with extreme heat levels all these years has made them experts in finding the right solution, too. It’s no wonder then, that local experts like Shade Solutions in QLD so popular and loved. By opting for a trusted company with a good reputation in your area, you’re ensuring that your shades do the job they were made for and significantly lower the temperatures in your home.

5. Limit appliance usage

No matter how much you love them, your appliances tend to warm up your home significantly during the summer. Because of the higher temperatures outside, they too tend to get hotter when they’re running all the time. You probably notice this by the heat of your phone when you use it for a prolonged period of time.

To lower the temperatures inside, you should limit your appliance usage. When you’re not using your laptop, if you know you’re not going to watch TV for a long time, and if you don’t need half the kitchen appliances you used in the morning- turn them off. This means completely off. When they’re not plugged in, they’ll cool off and unclog the hot atmosphere. A bonus is that you’ll be prolonging their lifespan and taking better care of them.

Conclusion

No longer will you have to be envious of those who are lucky enough to fight the heat of the summer in a remote location with the sea or ocean by their side. Staying at home won’t be unbearable and you’ll love spending your summers in the comfiest environment. These simple tips will come a long way in the increasing heat. They won’t let you down regardless of how high the temperature gets.

Liam Smith is a young and aspiring Australian blogger with a passion for everything related to home, design and lifestyle. He has a B.Sc. in Interior design and is an avid reader.

https://twitter.com/LiamSmith2034

https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamsmith2034

 

Clear Mushroom For Your garden using Vases And Bowls

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What a clever way to use old invaluable glassware. Thrift stores are full of it. They often dump it by the trash can full. Before using glassware I plead with you to make sure the glass has no value. But if it does not there are endless ways to make these. Use epoxy to attach the bowl to the vase. If they are too heavy you may need to bury the base a little bit into the soil to help them stand up. If they break they are easy and cheap to replace. The designs are endless. I imagine someone handy could figure out a way to light these up. Maybe pain with a clear glow in the dark paint? Can you imaging a garden with a bunch of these throughout at night time all lit up.