Category: Holiday Decorating

Holidays are a great time for family and friends to come closer together.  People’s views on the world change and are typically friendlier all around.  However, burglars and criminals don’t always have ‘the Holiday spirit’.  They know that this time of the year can be a great time to break and enter into a unsecured home to steal high end items.  With millions of people going on vacations, finding a vacant home during the Holidays can be a breeze.  Follow these three ways to secure your home during the Holiday season to make sure it can be enjoyed by all.

1 – Get a Security System regardless of Costs

Home security has become affordable for users across the world.  No longer must users get their home taken apart to run wires throughout.  Alarm Reviews states that you can get one of the best security systems available for under $2 a day.  When comparing this to other utility bills, it is a minor payment and can alert you when a burglar enters the home.

Users who do choose to get a monitored home security system will enjoy the peace of mind and control over their home.  While visiting relatives on Holiday, users can view what is going on in their home from a smart device.  They can also set up emergency contacts so if there is a break in the neighbors or nearby friends can be notified as well.  Most security systems have a contract agreement for three years which is standard and by signing up with this, users can get a free alarm system installed.

2 – Make it look like someone is at Home

Burglars are far more likely less to enter if someone appears to be at home.  MSN gave 8 tips to make it look like you are at home even when you may not be.

These include:

• Keep mail off the doorstep
• Keep newspapers picked up (pay a neighbor or friend to come by the home)
• Setup automated lights
• If it snowed, have someone shovel it or a path
• Make sure the trash can isn’t left out in the street
• Enable smart shades that go up and down depending on the time of the day

You don’t need to turn the home into a Home Alone project but have common sense about it.  If mail is stacked up for weeks at a time it doesn’t take a genius to know it may be easy to get inside.

3 – Setup Outdoor Surveillance Cameras

Having outdoor security cameras is a huge deterrent to criminal activity.  Businesses use them and smart homeowners alike should too.  By putting yourself in the mindset of a robber, are you more likely to break into the home with cameras on the outside or the home with none?  The Security Camera Pros show that the overwhelming feeling on setup can be overcome with simple security cameras.  They don’t need to be complex as a retail store and some are wireless now.

Make sure to place the surveillance cameras in a place that both the bad guys can see and that gives you a good overall view of the street and driveway.  Typically one on each corner that a user’s wants to be able to view is smart.  These will cost more out of pocket than our #1 tip of a security system but once bought there is no monthly charge for upkeep.  Camera footage can be saved to DVR or stored on the cloud for a small service fee.

No matter where one goes this Holiday, always make sure you are leaving the home secured.  The worst thing would be to get back from a trip only to find out your belongings have been stolen and your peace of mind is gone.  Better than having someone damper with

Have you thought of how you will decorate your home for Halloween this year? I’ll bet the kids are so excited about what they will wear as costumes for the trick and treat activity around the neighborhood. So why not make their Halloween experience more fun and memorable? Check out these 10 Halloween décor ideas that are guaranteed to illicit screams and laughter from your visitors.

1. Easy-To-Do Halloween Lantern

Buy a black lantern, Halloween colored ribbons, and a clip on spider. Cut ribbons in different shapes, colors, and lengths then tie them to the top of the lantern. Clip the spider on the lantern to create a Halloween effect.

2. Toilet Paper Halloween Characters

            You will need toilet paper rolls, glue stick, and black felt for this project. Create faces by cutting various shapes out of black felt such as eyes, animal faces, monster faces, or jack-o-lantern faces. Squeeze a little amount of glue on one side of the cut-out faces and stick to the toilet paper roll.

3. Mummified Halloween Pumpkin

To create this décor, you will need artificial pumpkin, cheesecloth, fabric stiffener, scissors,   1-inch googly eyes, glue gun and hotmelt adhesive, black acrylic paint, crafts knife, glow-in-the-dark gel paint, and paintbrush – this maybe the right time to use coupons to save on expenses in buying the stuff needed.

Cut into 4×12-inch strips cheesecloth and apply fabric stiffener. Wrap the pumpkin with the stiffened strips leaving the bottom and top uncovered. Allow to dry. Glue eyes to pumpkin. Cover portions of the eyes with stiffened cheesecloth diagonally. With a knife, carve a small mouth through the cheesecloth and paint the inside black. Apply glow-in-the-dark paint on the cheesecloth and let dry.

4. DIY Pumpkin Cans

Make your own pumpkin baskets out of tin cans creatively by following the procedure.

5. Halloween Spirit Jugs

This simple project requires clean plastic gallon milk jugs, craft knife, black permanent marker, and string of 50 clear low-wattage holiday lights.

 With a black permanent marker, draw ghost mouths and eyes on the milk jugs. Cut a small hole in the back of each jug using the craft knife. Arrange the jugs in the porch or in the walkway and string the lights between them. Stuff some bulbs into the jugs to make them light up.

6. Blood-Splattered Bathroom

Turn your bathroom into a murder scene by splattering fake blood on the curtains, towels, and mirrors. Save on material cost with the help of wayfair 20 off code 2014. Just follow the step-by-step instructions to get the right scream-inducing effect.

7. Halloween Monster Door

 You will need masking tape, 2 paper plates, streamers, and tombstones, black paper cut into circles, gourds, pumpkins, flower pots, and scissors.

Create the monster face on the front door using the paper plates, black circle cut-outs, and streamers by taping them with a masking tape. Add the gourds, pumpkins and tombstones on the flower pots and place them on both sides of the door.

8. Halloween Danger Signs

 Jump into the Halloween spirit by placing danger signs in the lawn. Create signs using corrugated cardboard, colored papers, spray glue, and garden stakes.

Cut out words out of colored papers; attach them on corrugated cardboard with spray glue; and stick them up on garden stakes. Place the stakes haphazardly in your lawn or garden to get the best effect.

 

9. Wall of Bats
   

    Draw bats on black construction papers; cut with scissors; bend the wings a bit; and glue them on the wall

 

     10.Scary Window Silhouettes

 Create scary silhouettes of witches, cats, ghosts, monsters, and any other Halloween characters by cutting shapes from black cardboard and placing them on your windows with a little bit of scotch tape.

Author bio ( If any )

Emma Watson is a writer for Coupon4share.com. She is a professional blogger, college English teacher. She is passionate about home decor, fashion, beauty, ebay discount code 15 off, Wayfair 20 off code 2014 and more other coupon codes. You can find Emma on Google+

Holidays are approaching and everywhere we look this time of year we see Christmas tree decoration ideas, home decorations for winter, Christmas gifts, Christmas recipes and so on. It’s so beautiful to see how everything around us is liven up by hundreds of colorful lights and people rushing to buy gifts and decorations to greet the holidays with a festive home. The Christmas tree is the centerpiece of any home during winter season and everybody loves to decorate it as beautiful as possible each year.

We’re sure some of you are looking this year for trendy innovative ways to dress their Christmas tree and we want share with you some very original Christmas balls with unconventional creative design we received from Italian company .exnovo. These wonderful series named “Christmas Tree”, which belongs to the their exclusive “Bijouets” collection, are made using the same innovative Professional 3D Printing technology they used to design these gorgeous vases we told you in a previous article. Like every single piece of the .exnovo’s portofolio, these eye-catching white like snow tree ornaments are the result of a great combination of creativity, the most innovative and forefront technology and the handcraft ability, so they will definitely bring an innovative and  fanciful touch to your Christmass tree. Like small treasures with 3D interesting patterns, they will surely light up your Christmas. They are realized in sintered polyamide and are available in two sizes – 62 e 78 mm in diameter. They could be a beautiful gift for someone this Christmas, what do you say?

 Photos © .exnovo

Winter season has already arrived on December 1st and we already feel this in the weather which gets colder each day. People usually think how to make their home more comfortable and warmer and the home decor may change drastically in order to ensure that coziness. If we think that after a few weeks Christmas is celebrated, than every aspect of the house will surely have a festive theme that will spread the holiday cheer. This magical time of the year is always expected by many of us with a childish impatience thinking long in advance what gifts to surprise our loved ones and what Christmas decorations to use in order to beautify both our home interior and exterior.

Some of us use the same decorations like the previous year because they are still new and gorgeous, others find that their Christmas decorations are already old and unattractive and it’s time for a change this year, and others simply love to come up each season with new and fresh ideas to be added to their existing decor. You don’t have to be limited by your budget, just look around on the Internet or in the stores and you’ll find tones of amazing ideas for every pocket, which will put you in the holidays spirit and create that charming Christmas wonderland. Explore your imagination and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how simple creative ideas that aren’t expensive, will create unexpected holiday accents. During Christmas, front yard decor of your home should be given as much importance as for the interior one, because it completes the fun and festive overall look of your home, giving your neighbors a peek of your Christmas theme decorations and sharing the joy with each passer-by.

Each year designers and stores come up with innovative solutions and  new designs for decorating your yard in an original style, so from this point of view you can create almost any setting you want. No matter what the color and shape (Santa, reindeers, angels, shepherds, candy canes, elves) you like most, twinkling lights are a” must have” item for Christmas decoration. Use them to decorate trees, shrubs, swings or anything that you want to stand out more. Oversized globe glass string lights, flameless candles that look like wintry tree bark can give you a special winter warm glow over outdoor gatherings.

Make a welcoming statement for your holiday guests with a printed doormat made of thickly woven of naturally durable coir, pre-lit stars adorned with small lights and woven from natural twigs and a beautiful garland from real pinecones and twigs, faux berries and festive red jingle bells, which decorate the banister or mantel. A huge favourite among outdoor Christmas decorations is the nativity scene, which visually  symbolizes the meaning of the Christmas holiday and which you can personalize it as you want, if you keep the main characters, angels and animals. You may create fake “snow fall” effect with the help of some snowfall light boxes for an extra touch of creativity. An innovative outdoor decoration idea could be giant inflatable yard decorations, which comes in many sizes and shapes and will definitely add a unique touch to your outdoor decor.

They are easy to use and also the kids’ favourites ones. And where would Christmas be without a Christmas tree and Santa Claus. To grab attention you can place a big Santa outside or a Rudolph to enhance your garden appearance. Be sure they are made of strong materials to withstand the fickle weather. Another symbol for Christmas holiday is the tree, and of course a huge lighted Christmas tree out in the front yard, decorated with unique hangings, doesn’t compare to anything, but if your budget doesn’t allow you to do that, a lit twig tree made of handwoven rattan and wrapped with string lights, or a boxwood peace topiary (like in the image below) could be a stylish and not so expensive choice. Don’t forget to choose a big gorgeous wreath for hanging on the main door to add a classic touch to your holiday look and lend a great festive feel to your home.

 Photos © Pottery Barn

Do you happen to remember the Christmas tree’s ornaments from the time you’re just kids? Why were they so special? As a cherished part of the holiday rituals, tree ornaments are always present in Christmas decorations. It’s said that if one looks at someone’s Christmas tree can tell you what they values the most. And it’s true. It happens to us all the time when we sit around a Christmass tree, every ornament we hang on its branches means something to us and reminds us of fantastic moments shared with family and best friends.

Each year, once you decorated your beautiful Christmas tree, they relive the magic as you turn on the lights. Nowadays, there are extensive collections of ornaments  of all shapes and colors with festive designs to complement any Christmas tree possible. For those who enjoy handmade Christmas ornaments, here we find some lovely and funny ones designed by Ryan Boechler and Christine Huynh from recently formed Canadian company Studio Bup. They value playfulness, simplicity and approachability, and show this in every project they made. Featuring a minimalist design, their Christmas ornaments are in three different, attractive shapes like a gift box, a tree, and a candy cane, all using festive Christmas color palette: green with white and red with white. Made of acrylic and baltic birch, it’s a limited edition and they will be available at Vancouver Special.

 Photos © Studio Bup

 

Always celebrated on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar, Halloween provides the perfect excuse to round up friends and neighbors for a fun party. If you have company this year, take a look and get into the Halloween spirit with these creative Halloween party ideas which helps you to set up the perfect mood for a dramatic Halloween party that will bring out the kid in all of us. Is your house ready for entertaining?

Receive your guests with a scary yet attractive entryway: the entryway is first point of contact with your home’s interior, that’s why if you haven’t bothered so far to do something that stands out, this year put in a little bit of extra effort and produce something totally unique for your entryway creating that enchantingly spooky atmosphere.

A graveyard with styrofoam tombstones, a fantastic handmade witch with row of floating hats and a group of smiling pumpkins, pumpkin lanterns with swirls and flying bats or a decor with burlap banner spelling out “Halloween”, black lacquer frame with a skeleton in it and adorned with some wreaths with rosettes black polka dot ribbons, and  pillows with orange throw, the guests will certainly enjoy your fun decorations and make them think there are yummy treats inside this home.

Photo © Full Circle Interior Solutions

Photo © jandrea370

Photo © FOCAL POINT STYLING

Photo © donnasue65

A color theme makes decorating much easier: if you want to create a big visual impact, everything should be coordinated and for that you need to pick a color scheme and stick to it. Whether you want that your interior decorations speak with high volume drama or on the countrary, if you are for something more fun and less scary, a color scheme creates a rich and cohesive look. Black, ghostly white or shades of ivory, and silver gives Halloween decor a classic and elegant twist, while the black and orange color scheme has a definite Halloween vibe.

These typical color schemes has been enhanced lately with bold shades of purple, blue and even bright green accents. The dinner table with carefully chosen centerpieces is sure to lead to a thrilling night. Getting in the Halloween spirit means never being scared by a redecorating a little your interior. Some remarkable Jack-o-lanterns and hanging ragged-looking spiderwebs here, black cats, creative skeletons, witches, demons or ghosts there, candles evertwhere and corners with almost no light make a creepy decor successful, ready for your Halloween party.

Photo © FOCAL POINT STYLING

Photo © Seaside Interiors

Photo © Pottery Barn

Photo © Roberta Philbrick

 Photo © Decorating Ideas Made Easy

Photo © Perpetual Kid

Photo © Korinne Seel

Photo © Steve Murello

Photo © Courtney Out Loud

Photo © mylitter.com