A garden’s distress signal

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Gardens, Homeowner, insects, landscaping, nature

 

When insects can’t live, a garden is sending out a distress call.`

    However formally laid out, a garden is still the spot where we must confront our limitations in controlling the forces of nature. We fight our daily battles with slugs and caterpillars but discover that when insects can’t live, our garden is sending out a distress signal. Simply by being sensitive to the needs of the natural world, we will be successful gardeners.

  Remember, a few insects are a sign of a good garden — they feed the birds and butterflies.

 

• Place a sundial in your yard. Go back to a place where time was considered part of nature.

     

• Plant landscaping that uses no water.

 

• Install outdoor lighting that makes you want to be outside.

 

• Remember that brief moments in the garden will chase away the blues.

 

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart

Beat the heat

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fashion, Florida, heat, humidity, lipstick, makeup, skin

Makeup starts melting on Florida faces around the end of June.

The heat and humidity of the Sunshine State continue to wreak havoc with our faces until Halloween. But life doesn’t stop, despite sweltering 95-degree temperatures. So we search for makeup that doesn’t drip, smear, ooze into creases, change color, clog pores, exude oil or cause pimples.

Basically, we need a blast of cold, arctic air.

Until then, we have to make do with some guidelines for maintaining a cool, polished appearance during these sizzling days of summer.

An expert on makeup that keeps its cool through the most trying circumstances is Dalia Caro, owner of New Woman Studio, an online skin care salon. Caro has worked with models in the humidity of outdoor photo shoots and news anchors whose makeup must withstand the blaze of television lights.

“Start with smooth skin that’s been resurfaced with some kind of glycolic acid product,” says Caro.

Hot weather brings oil and sweat to the surface of the skin, Caro explains. The slippery surface makes it hard for cosmetics to stay on your face.

“Oil causes your makeup to turn an orange color,” she says. “Perspiration causes the colors to fade.”

If the face is free of brown spots or blemishes, Caro suggests a sunless self-tanner for a bronzed appearance that lasts several days. For skin that’s less than perfect, a matte foundation works best since it provides even color and conceals imperfections.

In addition, she suggests:

– Eye shadow lasts longer if you use a primer or concealer on the eyelid first. Cream shadows and cream-to-powder shadows have more staying power than powder shadows and are less likely to crease.

– Eyeliner. Look for a waterproof or water-resistant liner. Avoid greasy pencil liners which smudge in high humidity.

– Mascara. Waterproof mascara will resist water and tears. However, it can make lashes dry and brittle and is difficult to remove. Use it only when you expect your eyes to get wet: playing tennis, swimming or attending weddings and funerals.

– Lipstick. The new, long-lasting lipsticks will stay on through sweat, rain and chlorinated water. Cream and matte-finish lipsticks last longer than gloss and moisturizing lipsticks.

Maintaining a home

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domesticity, floorboard, Houses, maintenance, Preservation, Shelter

  There is no such thing as maintenance – free. You’ve got to love your house into shape!

 But what is a bit of sanding or sealing every few years? Ask any preservationist about replacing a rotted floorboard or railing, and they will speak of  “a labor of love” that will revive you even as you restore it. 

Maintaining a home fills a void in our lives that neither career nor domesticity quite touches… Most families experience extraordinary satisfaction after completing a common endeavor, such as repainting a room. It’s easy to see how houses can perform functions in our lives that have nothing to do with shelter or investment.

 

• Some parts of a house are just like spark plugs in a car. They wear out and you replace them. Use these events to improve your life.

• Spend just an hour a week fixing stuff around your domicile. The results will accumulate, they’ll be noticed, and appreciated.

• How we respond to the ruptures in our roofs says more about the state of our being than the state of our personal finances.

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart

A bubbling fountain

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fountain, Home, Water

• 

  Courtyard in Cabo San Lucas

• Few sounds are as soothing as a bubbling fountain.
•  In the garden or the home, it creates a unique environment, a precious refuge from daily stress.

Home:Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart

Timely fashion

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dress code, fashion, wardrobe, watches

When it comes to developing your personal style, remember: It’s all in the wrist.

With a wide variety of styles and prices to choose from, watches are a good way to inject some personality into your professional wardrobe.

Ira Krieger, president of Miami-based Krieger Watches, says his diver and pilot watches are two of his most popular styles. Krieger’s Oceana Watch – which tells the tides of the ocean – retails for around $2,000 but he doubts that most men use that function.

“Men love technical pieces, whether they use the functions or not,” Krieger says.

Women also appear to have a growing affinity for mechanical watches and complicated functions. In March, Seiko introduced what it is touting as the world’s first analog solar-powered GPS watch, as well as a new partnership with one of the most recognizable faces in U.S. women’s soccer, goalie Hope Solo.

The “Astron” resets itself to the accurate time in any time zone with the push of a button. More than 100 patents were used in the creation of this watch, which starts at $2,300.

Brushed-metal finishes and brown leather bands top the popularity list for watches in the workplace. But simplicity in design, along with the use of rose gold – which gives a “softer look” than yellow gold – are equally important trends for 2012.

With many companies adhering to casual dress codes, accessories become even more important. If you want to express your identity, watches are a timely way to do it.

Photograph: Breitling Chronograph Unitime

Proximity requires politeness

Tags

Community, environment, neighbors

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

For thousands of years, entire Eskimo families have clustered inside a single igloo. Pueblo Indians used sun-dried bricks to construct multi-storied “apartment buildings.”  People, it seems, live well when they live in close proximity to one another.

  Proximity, however, requires politeness…a fair amount of courtesy and consideration. Our lives are the fullest when we feel the power of life in our neighbors – even through the sound of footsteps on the floor above.

• At night, for consideration of all ground floor apartment dwellers, use your parking lights as you park your car.

• A watchful eye surveying the neighborhood is the most effective security system.

 

• Isolate your stereo speakers. The vibes might not be in sync with your neighbor’s rhythm.

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart by Renee Garrisonand Tom Szumlic

T-shirts: Casual to corporate

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dress code, fashion, T-shirt, wardrobe

Ahhhh, summer – time to search clothing stores for a new selection of white T-shirts.

V-neck or round, long-sleeve or short, a season of washing and wearing often leaves this wardrobe staple looking dingy with unsightly yellow stains under the arms.

I frequently pair a crisp white T-shirt with a black blazer because it feels comfortable yet looks polished. But I didn’t originate the idea: The T-shirt dates back to 1880, when the U.S. Navy issued sailors an elbow and hip-length undershirt. The simple shirt, laid out on a flat surface, formed a perfect “T.”

“Today it’s an important alternative to your basic blouse,” says Andrea Sider, a real estate consultant at Keller Williams Heritage Realty. “Not only can it give a suit a more casual feel, a T-shirt can be dressed up with a scarf or an elegant necklace.”

Petite women, who once avoided the one-size-fits-all size T-shirt of the past, are indulging in new styles which are not only fitted, but also are shorter.

“I found T-shirts used to be mostly oversized, which looks sloppy if you’re only 5-foot-3,” admits Joanne Sullivan, executive director at Florida Hospital Tampa Foundation. “Now I own a preponderance of fitted white T-shirts with subtle differences such as a ballet neck or three-quarter sleeves. And I’m delighted that the addition of Spandex allows them to hold their shape even after washing.”

It‘s been said that you can’t be too rich or too thin. An added piece of advice: In today’s corporate culture, you can’t own too many white T-shirts.

The basement is the original laboratory

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basement, Homes, real-estate

• The basement is the original laboratory. 
•  It affords freedom for children  (young and old) to experiment.
• This is where projects are born and dreams come true.

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart  by Renee Garrison and Tom Szumlic

Homes are like children

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Community, Dreams, Family, Home

Homes are like giving birth to children, so common and yet so unique.

Our love and our dreams will determine the outcome of our children. The same factors will impact our home, as well.

Consider your home as a model for your children’s future home.  From generation to generation, we pass the richness  of living.

 How will your children live?  In what kind of home and community, what kind of world?

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart by Renee Garrison and Tom Szumlic

The individual and the community

Tags

Architecture, Community, Design, Door, neighbors

The individual and the community are inseparable.

 

Have you ever observed schools of fish or birds in flight? When one changes its direction, others quickly follow. In a similar vein, your actions will affect your neighbors’.

Paint your front door and your neighbor will paint his front door. Attach some designer numbers to your house, clean up the yard, plant some new landscaping and watch what happens.

Realize the powerful influence we have on each other. We are not isolated in our homes, but quite connected in our neighborhoods.

• Take an interest in your region — understand its customs and integrate them, physically, into your lifestyle. For example, how does the local climate affect the way you live? 
• Attend a public zoning hearing. This is the process of law being projected into physical form. Stay informed and participate.
• Support and use public transportation. Take a public transit line to a part of town you have never visited.  Renew interest and excitement in your surroundings constantly.  Don’t let the routine blind you to the local landscape. 

 

• Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart by Renee Garrison and Tom Szumlic