Baby its cold outside!

Its a ghastly 24F outside so I've been sipping on a hot toddy that my sister invented. Its simple and yummy- one part sweet vermouth to two or three parts apple juice; depending on how warm you want to be! 

This frightful weather forces us to stay indoors where we  can easily get bored of the same surroundings. Its also hard to get psyched up to do a room, redecorate since that requires going out to get a few things,  so what can we do with minimal shopping to spruce things up? Think of your hallway/entrance/foyer. During the winter we tend to store a lot of things in these areas- coats, shoes, scarves etc. but since it is still serves as a welcome area, we have to combine function with style. Here's how to use three pieces of furniture/decor or less to create a new look, according to the style of your existing decor!

 

Product Info for Fresh Cottage:

  

Product Info for Sleek Function;

  

Product info for Classic Look;

 

Spruce away!

 -BHG Nov 2009

Whats your Closet Personality?

Don't be alarmed, I'm not implying that there is a darker, more sinister version of the personality that you portray to others, just that you unconsciously have a preffered method of getting organized. With the help og BHG you can take your closet personality to the next level by making sure you can not only get organized, but stay that way! So what are you? A folder, a Hanger..or a Shoe Lover (i get the feeling most women fall into this category!) Here's what the November 2009 issue of BHG had to say about letting out your closet personality;

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite tip? The purse hanger. I love large purses, but they are hard to store because they dont easily fit into small spaces.Coat hooks typically dont have enough space between the hooks for larger items,and  I don't want to have to drill 10 holes in the wall either to hang each purse.Enter  organize.com which has a little section dedicated to purse storage-that's my kind of container store!

I also love the scarf hanger with smaller holes, so that silk scarves don't fall through. How smart!

Oval Office Remodel

Every president gets to put their personal touch on the big white house at the top of the hill, some with better taste than others. I must say I was a bit interested to hear what Obama would do and I'm not surprised at his choices. He's the cool,calm and collected president so I expected the decor to be modern yet historic, and evoking of American concepts but multi-cultural still. So here's what happened:

Out with the:

• decorative china plates
• Winston Churchill's bust loaned to Bush by Tony Blair
• Texas landscapes

In with the:

• Native Amercian pottery on loan from the National Museum of the American Indian
• Patent models of historical gagdets pertinent to American history; Samuel Morse's 1849 telegraph register, John Peer's 1874 gear-cutting machine and Henry Williams' 1877 feathering paddlewheel for steamboats
• Bust of MLK

These concepts/items have proven popular over decades:

Oval shape of the office created during William Howard Taft's remodel in 1909

Marble mantle over the fireplace also added during Taft's remodel

Rembrandt Peale painting of George Washington

 

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln by George Henry Story  

 

Tabletop Frederic Remington sculpture, The Bronco Buster