Plan a Birthday Party for Your Child with Sparkling Elements & Good Company

Planning a birthday party for your child can be time consuming and not to mention a lot of work. If your little girl or boy wants to have a birthday bash it will be fun for you to come up with the perfect location and theme for the party. So it’s time to start thinking outside the box and come up with a birthday party that they will adore.

If budget is an issue, host the party at your home. With a few extra décor pieces, such as  indoor wall fountains to add modern elegance to your interior and plants that create an instant tropical abyss, both the children and adults will be entertained during the birthday party. Plus, if you plan to take the time to invite both the parents and children you’ll be all set. Now all you need is to figure out which rooms to have the children and adults in.

If you decide to host the party in your home, set up an entertainment area in your living room area for the children. You can include blow up balloons, little party favors, and snacks set up on the table. They can also have fun playing Xbox and other games while you enjoy time catching up with all of the parents in a different room. Have a separate space for all of the adults to socialize at when everyone is over, such as in the dining room. This will allow you to have your own separate fun while the kids do their own thing in the room next to yours.

Later in the evening you can bring your birthday prince or princess into the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday to and then serve cake, where the parents and kids can come together once more. It will give everyone a chance to catch up on what they have been up to the last couple of hours and they will also enjoy eating delicious cake and maybe even ice cream.

Even though it may be a lot of work cleaning up your house and getting ready for company, it will be far more frugal to prepare your own space for a joyous occasion rather than renting another space. Besides, implementing beautiful elements like indoor wall fountains will certainly stand out in your interior too. In addition, adding a focal point in your home will look stunning and will also look nice for parties and many other social events to come.

Sierra is a freelance writer and owner of  Paige One. She remembers her parents throwing a party when she was younger and the pretty elements in her home always stood out.

Cleaning Weekend

We had a revamp at home last night and I thought we sold most of the unwanted stuff piling in the closet. No wonder the house is crowded because we still have plenty of unused and unwanted items to sell in the flea market this winter. Just by locking at the amount of old clothes, bags, shoes, toys, books, cds and dvds and other what-have-yous, I can tell we'll make a lot of money out of them.

I really thought we downsized already. The last time we sold stuff in the flea market, 90% of the goods were sold and the remaining ones were donated to charity. And I really wonder why we still have so much? Are these stuff purchased recently and forgotten or some items given to us? I really can't tell because I don't recognize most of them except for the clothes, bags, shoes, toys and bags. There are some cds and dvds I have never bought and neither the knick-knacks in the shelves. I do recall buying stuff on our travels but so much? I don't think so. I am wiser now when it comes to buying stuff. It always have to be a want vs. a need decision.

So, our weekend is pretty tiring and hectic. I have some boxes to fill with things to sell. I have to clean them and list them in the inventory as I seriously need the house clutter free. Besides, the extra money out of the proceeds will be added to our savings bonds.

Spring Cleaning Goal

I thought my spring cleaning was done already. I was wrong. I still found some stuff that needs to be either thrown or given away. The old clothes are still brimming in the closet. My old bags need new homes and owners and my husband's big trophy on bowling sits at the corner of our living room closet, gathering dust.

I am seriously getting tired of the cycle of getting or buying stuff and keeping them only to be put in oblivion or stand as dust collector. My house is not big and yet we have so much stuff. I'm not sure if I can keep up cleaning the house because it's getting very tiring.

We need to follow a strict rule of refraining from buying unnecessary stuff. I feel like throwing out everything and starting a fresh beginning where we will only have the valuables and the necessary.

Appliances Galore at Home

My husband loves hoarding on electronic gadgets and home appliances such as computers, home entertainment set and video players. What does that mean to me? Well, we are accumulating so much energy consumption. The appliances are taking so much space in the house. The cables and wires are getting tangled. I had to purchase several wire looms to organize them. Also, I am getting very confused on which one to use. Believe me or not but we have 4 DVD players at home. One of them is connected to the TV which also serves as the main control for the surround system. The other 3 are probably decoys! I don't recall using them at all.

I told my husband to dispose the other appliances because we don't need another set of DVDs, most certainly not 4 in a household. We also have several laptops and 1 desktop which we use for downloading stuff. It's the downloading center of the house as we call that pc. Again, it's a redundant thing. I thought I have already done end-of-the-year cleaning last year only to realize we have forgotten to get rid of the unused appliances at home. These appliances are almost brand new because we never used them. Such a waste of money!

Old Keepers

I just finished cleaning the kitchen cupboard and found my long term food storage which has been missing in action until today.

I like my food keeper so much because it is big enough to put in some of our big meal's left overs. It is not that big to put in the fridge as well. The lid is rubberized on the rims for tighter grip on the container. I forgot where I bought it but I love it so much.

That old food keeper is still well-maintained. Well, partly because I lost it for some time so it was not used for a while. Now that I found it, I will have plenty of left-overs to keep in that trust food storage. So there will be no wastage at home.

Organizing the Linens

We don't have a very huge flat which can accommodate a spare area for a linen closet. The closest I can get to ever having a linen closet of my own is to use the spare cabinet we have to store our knick and knacks.

I have done my end-of-the-year cleaning already so I made room for my linens to store there. Here's a simple tip I can share to organize your linens if you are tight for space like I do.

1. Have your comforters vacuum sealed. It will stay flat until the next winter. I have so many comforters at home so you can imagine how bulky they can become when all piled up.

2. Stack your pillow cases in a small drawer you have. At least you have a use for that drawer in the cabinet.

3. Put loose and unused blankets in a vacuum pack as well. It will give more spare to other linens you have like curtains.

4. Keep few towels only. We have 6 towels at home, 2 for each of us and that is about it. We don't buy extra because we won't be using all of them at the same time. Keeping few towels will spare you the misery of washing and storing them when not in use.

Those are my tips. They are practical and will depend on one's situation. If you live in a condominium or high-rise building with very little area to spare then you can use these tricks to store those linens.

Things Gone MIA

Either I am blind, cross-eyed or simply not searching hard enough, but I cannot locate where my tweezer is! I normally leave my beauty paraphernalia in the bath room but this tiny (but a favorite of mine!) has decided to go MIA.

I have told my husband many times to buy a small cabinet which is similar to the common medicine cabinets but has drawers. He keeps delaying the purchase of one so even he has a problem locating his razor and aftershaves! If we had one, then at least we can keep our things in a common area. I will scout for a cheap and small cabinet to buy and install by year end. I cannot keep wasting my time looking for things I normally leave in plain view.

Organizing my Stash

I have so many scrapbook stash which are all placed in plastic containers. I do not have any studio for my arts and craft so I keep all the stash on a cupboard. However, each time I try to look for something, I cannot locate it because I have not organized my embellishments and other craft supplies properly due to lack of space.

I have been asking my hubby to allocate a corner of the flat for my arts and craft session but it is not possible to drill holes at home to put the divider so I have to settle with doing my craft on my study area.

I am off to Ikea to buy wooden drawers to keep my smaller embellishments so they are not everywhere. I just want my area tidy-up and in order. I can't crank my creative juice looking at my table which is a mess right now.