5 Ways to Glam Up Your Party On a Budget

It is very easy to glam up your soiree on a budget. Here are a few tips on throwing a fancy party on a budget:

Light it up. For evening affairs, it is amazing what the right lighting can do. Candles provide a great glow that makes everything look more elegant and more beautiful – including people! (Your guests will thank you for that). Arrange them in clusters or individually, take advantage of mirrors that may amplify the effect, and create extra drama by arranging them at different heights. Alternatively (or together with the candles), if you have dimmers on your lights, turn them down till you get just the right level.

Find your green thumb. Well, you don’t really need a green thumb for this, but adding flowers can add some elegance to any event. There is no need to go overboard on this - you can arrange a bunch of long stem roses in a prominent place where the light picks it up, or in front of a mirror. You can also have single stems in bud vases spread out on tables in the room. For dinner, a great idea is to cut the stems short and arrange them very tightly in short vase – square or rectangular work well, but a round one works just as well. The idea is to have them arranged tightly.

Keep it Simple. With your candles, flowers, crisp linen, and stylish stemware, you can create an elegant look very inexpensively. Your guests will notice the ambience, not the price tag. When shopping for décor elements, choose one theme and run with it. Discount stores, thrift stores and party supply stores are a good resource for finding inexpensive decorations, but you will be surprised at how much you already have in your garage or other storage. Look for what useable things you have first, and remember that you can be innovative in your ‘adaptive reuse’ of what you have. Beware of mixing kitschy and cheesy with elegant! Go for fewer items that will make the most impact.

Presentation, presentation. This is one of my favorite tips. No one has to know the food and drink is cheap – glam it up and make it pop! I serve water out of my filter, but in an elegant pitcher with some ice and slices of lemon, or cucumber, or sprigs of rosemary…you get the drift. People eat with their eyes first, so use beautiful platters and garnish the food to make it interesting. When it comes to platter and plates, I am partial to stark white plates with unique architectural details. Decanters always look great on any table and add something extra to inexpensive wine – except for the taste…

Use a time machine. Talking about wine – a not-exactly-inexpensive way to improve the taste of wine is The Perfect Sommelier ($40, theperfectsommelier.com), which transforms a wine’s molecules to help it age and mature in about 30 minutes. This will help save you some money down the line. A great investment, if you ask me.

Steve Jobs - Connecting The Dots

When I read a little while ago that Steve Jobs had died, I couldn't help feeling a certain deep sadness. I read this on Facebook, of course, on my MacBook Pro, before my CNN update showed up on my iPhone. Just so you know, I've been holding out on the iPad and turn green with envy when I see people with iPads. But I digress.... I was crushed, and astonished at my reaction. I immediately had to double check my news feeds to make sure it wasn't one of those false rumors that spread like wildfire on social networks. Alas, it was true. My sadness deepened. Bewildered by my reaction, I promptly called my BFF to share the news.

I'll probably never know what precipitated my bizarre emotional response as I did not know the man from Adam and had no connection with him. Oh, but I did. I had come back from the gym where I was listening to music on my iPhone, loaded with almost 6000 songs through iTunes, was working on my MacBook Pro, and called on my iPhone....

Steve Jobs was a visionary who was able to take the world on journey of his own before the world knew they wanted to go on that journey. He led the creation of products before there was a market for them and created the market for others to come rushing in. He had an uncanny knack for knowing what the consumer wanted before the consumer even knew they could want that. He literally made the world 'think different'. 10 Ways Steve Jobs Changed The World

The Apple II set the stage for a revolution in personal computers. The iPod and iTunes turned a long-established business model on its head and changed the entertainment industry in ways that the industry is still trying to come to terms with. That is arguably one of Jobs' most far-reaching revolutions. The iPhone transformed the cellular phone industry, creating a new use for cellular phones and bringing major corporations to their knees. Steve Jobs' more recent midas touch resuscitated a dead tablet market with the iPad and left the consumer-electronics giants in an ongoing arms race for tablets. Although many people were disappointed with the launch of the iPhone 4S, it was probably smart to keep the iPhone 5 for mainstream 4G technology (sometimes, Apple has to wait for the world to catch up). It is speculated that Jobs had a 10-15 year rollout plan for future Apple products.

But Steve Jobs was also a showman with a certain personal charisma, and a trademark style of presenting. The iPhone 4S might probably have been better received if he introduced it and the stocks might not have plummeted the way they did. But that is mere conjecture on my part. His Stanford commencement address in 2005 "How To Live Before You Die" is even more poignant now, especially with his candid thoughts on death and living life. "You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something...". My father had a very interesting way of putting it: "Everyone has to believe in something...I believe I'll have another beer!" That was on his favorite t-shirt...

So, I understand how Steve Jobs changed my life and the world. Whether you use an Apple product or not, everyone's life has been affect in some way by Steve Jobs' vision and revolution. People like him come along quite rarely. But while his loss is mourned, we all are better for his life and, as a result, think different.

10 Ways to Make a Small Room Appear Larger

I'm sure we've all had the experience when we walk into a space - maybe someone's home or bedroom - and it feels like we're in a cave and the walls are closing in on us.  In other places, it feels like you can't move without bumping into something or tipping something over. Maybe it's your space we're talking about; maybe you're beginning to feel like you've outgrown your space - or rather, the space shrunk on you.....

There are a few tricks to help you out here, so breathe easy. If you're moving into a small space and you're not quite sure what to do, this is for you too:

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Start from the beginning. The best way to de-clutter is....well....to de-clutter! Start with a blank canvas, take everything out so you have a better idea of what you're working with. Personally, it also helps me think and create better. It's difficult to think clearly in a cluttered space. Besides, once you have everything cleared out, you might be more objective about what you really want back in that space.

Lighten up. You've probably heard that lighter colors make a space look bigger. It's true. And doesn't have to be a stark white either. I once used a color called French Heirloom by Behr, which looked almost white, with the faintest hint of purplish color. Other 'cool' colors in the cream, blue or green family also work well. Just make sure the color is pastel and a light enough shade. And please paint the ceiling a light color as well!

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Coordinate. If you can, have at least one major piece of furniture close in color to that of your walls. It has the effect of almost blending in. You will also want to keep to a simple color palette with clean, crisp lines and little ornamentation. My preference is to go for a monochrome look - different shades of the same color with a dash of an accent color.

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Keep things in perspective. Albeit an incredible machine, the eye can always be tricked. You can make the walls of a room appear farther away by painting accents such as moldings or wainscoting in a shade lighter than your walls. Also, the longest line in any room is diagonal (go ahead, try it!), so you can set some of your furniture at angle to trick the eye into noticing the long lines instead of the short ones. If you have low ceilings you should also consider using lower-profile furniture, so there appears to be more room vertically as well. The closer your furniture is to the ceiling, the lower is appears - aka, small room.

Seeing double? Mirrors, are a great way to create the illusion of a bigger space, so use mirrors on the walls. Mirrors will not only reflect the light, they will reflect the space as well. Hang a mirror perpendicular to a window to reflect the most light. Bigger mirrors will work better than smaller mirrors.. You can also use other mirrored elements to create the illusion of space.

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See the bottom line. One of the most important factors for the appearance of a larger room is how much floor is visible. The more floor is seen, the bigger the space appears to be. Use furniture with slender legs, furniture that is raised and furniture that is see-through. Glass dining tables, coffee tables or end tables are very useful for this reason. Keep larger furniture items against the wall and keep an area open for traffic flow. There's no need to walk around objects in a large room, is there?

Let there be light. Lighting is invaluable in mood setting and is just as important in creating spaces. Getting in as much natural light as possible does wonders for a small space. Replace heavy drapes with lighter ones and keep them drawn. If privacy is an issue, use sheer blinds during the day. Recessed lights are great because they seem to disappear into the ceiling and take up so little space. Track lighting is also a good alternative. If that is not possible, get a variety of lamps that need little standing real estate.

KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. When it comes to fabric, less is more. Keep the colors plain, and the fabrics light. Of course, do feel free to jazz things up with splashes of color to pull everything together.

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Mutitask. To avoid cluttering up your space with lots of furniture, find furniture that can pull double- or triple-duty: An ottoman that can be used as seating, storage or as an end table, for example. A set of nested tables will also take up less valuable real estate.

Share the joy. Now that you've redone your space and it feels bigger and cleaner, go on and invite your friends over!  Let them see your genius and pay you all the wonderful compliments and you'll feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But that's not the best part: once they leave, you'll truly appreciate how much space you REALLY have now!

Have you done any redesign project you're pretty happy about? I'd like to hear about it! Send me pictures too, if you like. Feel free to send me your questions as well.

Happy redecorating!

The Lifestyle Maven™

How to make a fire and water centerpiece

Here's an idea to set the mood for a romantic or intimate dinner. It's so simple anyone can do it at home. Try it and let me know how it turns out!

Do you have any cool ideas you'd like me to share? Send them to me and leave your comments as well.

Enjoy creating!

Enthusiastically,
The Lifestyle Maven™