Decorating your window boxes is a great way to change your home exterior with the seasons. In the winter, here’s how to turn dreary bins into colorful containers:

Materials

window box(es)

twigs or cuttings from trees and shrubs

garlands (artificial or live) (more…)

Q: Can Christmas lights harm plants?
A: Christmas lights don’t pose a serious threat to plants; however, depending on the types of lights and how you use them, they can cause some minor damage. For example, large bulbs can create enough heat to actually burn leaf surfaces. If you like to light evergreen shrubs, use only light strands that come with tiny bulbs.

Also, when decorating small deciduous trees and shrubs that have brittle branches during the winter months, the weight of the light strands may break the branches, especially when you try to remove the lights after the holidays. (more…)

Whether you call it Western, rustic, cowboy, cabin, or mountain style, this is a look that is as timeless as the American West.

An abundance of natural materials is key to decorating in a Western style. Rock, wood, metal, and leather are the main ingredients, with wool, birchbark, beadwork, and antlers playing an important secondary role.

Western style furniture is often large scale, made of wood, and without any fussy detail. Log furniture, Mission style furnishings, and twig pieces can be mixed with pine and oak.

Here are more elements that will contribute to Western decorating :

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Color schemes in a Western room center around honey colored wood, gray rock, and black metals. Accent colors are often brick red, terra cotta, forest green, or navy, though cream, gray, and other tones might be used to coordinate with a Western styled fabric, rug, or wall hanging.

Western motifs can include any of the following: cowboys, cattle, deer, bear, moose, fishing, mountains, pine trees, leaves, oaks, pine cones, acorns, horses, lakes, rivers, fishing, riding, hunting, wildflowers, grasses, and so on.

Fabrics in a Western room are tough, textured, and tactile. Think leather, suede, wool tweeds, denim, saddle blankets, matte woven rugs, and fur. Most are matte finished, though some moderately shiny leathers may be featured. Soft chenilles and patterned tapestry fabrics are also popular for upholstered pieces and for furniture throws.

Older is often better in a Western style interior. Vintage cracked leather ottomans, weathered farm implements, old Indian blankets are all items that will be at home here.

Bedrooms can have a cozy masculine feel when done in Western style. Use a mix of Native American motifs, denim, chambray, and rough woolen blankets, or choose from any of the other Western motifs for a truly personal space.

Creativity can let loose when it comes to Western accessories.

Look for horseshoe sconces, vintage fishing creels, twig framed mirrors, dried flowers, and large baskets. Cut old jeans, quilts, or leather pieces into squares to make one-of-a-kind pillows. Colorful cotton bandanas can be used as table napkins, as pillow covers, curtain tiebacks, and valances.

Floors are generally hardwood. Wide plank flooring and recycled floor boards will add another layer of authenticity to a Western room. Area rugs can be low pile or flat woven styles, or might be real or fake fur animal skins.

The fireplace and mantle are essential to a Western themed room. Dress it with functional iron fireplace tools, a decorative metalwork screen, and simple mantle accessories such as hurricane candle shades, a display of pinecones, or a rugged cast bronze sculpture of a cowboy on a horse.

Lighting should be functional and substantial. Antler chandeliers (available in both real and cast resin versions) are popular. Lampshades made of stretched rawhide or golden mica bring a soft glow into a Western room. Many lamps and fixtures are made of wood or metal and feature designs and motifs that are Western in mood.

Window treatments should be simple and not overpowering. Whenever possible, leave windows uncluttered to showcase a wonderful mountain view. Otherwise look for wooden shutters or blinds, flat roman shades, or simple curtain panels.

Since this style is so visually textured, go for large accessories rather than collections of tiny objects. Incorporate stylized pottery, antlers, snowshoes, antique skis, big baskets of pine cones, and similar items. Be aware of the use of contrast when arranging accessories. It can be very effective to mix textures, sizes, and colors when arranging these items.

Iron and metal pieces fit well into a Western room. You’ll find iron hardware (cabinet knobs, pulls, hinges) as well as metal sink faucets, iron lamp bases, chandeliers, and firescreens.

Vintage accessories add an “it’s always been here” look. See if you can find an old radio, rusted metal pails, saddlebags, spurs, toboggans, books, skis, snowshoes, or other worn items.

Decorative details in a Western styled decor include log and twig accents, nailhead designs, leather fringing, yarn whipstitching, Indian motif beading and the like.

Artwork should feature Western styled motifs and might be oil paintings, drawings, vintage photos, sepia toned illustrations, antique Western postcards or book illustrations.

A Western dining room is stocked with sturdy stoneware, pottery accents, twig placemats, and accessories that might use Indian, mountain, cowboy, or fishing motifs

Safe Bedside Table Great For Peace Of Mind
While an alarm system will let you know if someone has broken into your home it won’t do much to stop a determined intruder once they’re inside. So instead of sleeping with a gun under the pillow try this Safe Bedside Table instead. When not in use it looks like a normal bedside table with modern design stylings but in the middle of the night if you think there might be an intruder the table turns into a club and shield giving you somewhat of a fighting chance.

Designed by James McAdam the Safe Bedside Table was created in response to a report that 50% of people in London were worried about security and kept some sort of self-defense close by while they slept. And while the table isn’t available for sale anyone with a lathe, bandsaw and basic carpentry skills could probably just build their own.

Summary: Asphalt sealing will be successful only if you prepare the driveway first. Cleaning and patching asphalt cracks are the first steps. High quality asphalt sealers are the finishing touch.

DEAR TIM: My asphalt driveway has seen better days. The original deep-black asphalt surface is now gray and the drive has several cracks in it. The surface is not in bad shape. What is the best sealer for the money? What do I have to do to achieve professional results? When is the best time to apply asphalt sealer? Bobbie S., Lolo, MT

DEAR BOBBIE: It sounds to me as if you have captured the perfect moment to save your asphalt drive surface. Of course if you were from the East coast, I would have said hot top drive, and had you been from the Midwest, I would have mentioned blacktop. It is fascinating how the same paving material is called different names by different people. No matter what you call it, the process to preserve and maintain it is the same.

There are two basic asphalt sealer products. One is a simple asphalt emulsion where regular asphalt is suspended in water. Water based asphalt sealers are earth-friendly as they do not cause ozone pollution. Perhaps the most popular asphalt sealer is a coal tar based product. Coal tar is a by-product distillate when coal is made into coke for the steel industry.

Coal tar asphalt sealers sport many advantages over their asphalt competitors. For one, they have built-in ultraviolet stabilizers and as such they stay blacker much longer than an asphalt-based sealer. Coal tar sealers are chemically different than asphalt and this difference allows them to resist damage from spilled gasoline, oil, brake and transmission fluids. These fluids can rapidly eat away at asphalt drives as well as asphalt sealers.

To obtain professional results when applying asphalt sealers, you need to do many things. Patience is the first thing you need to pull out of your toolbox. The preparation work can often stretch over several days and possibly a week. The driveway surface must be cleaned. You must remove all fine dirt, silt, mud, oil and any foreign material. You can pressure wash the surface, so long as you do not use so much force as to erode the asphalt surface. Pressure washers are excellent tools to deep clean cracks in asphalt drives.

Once the cracks are clean and dry, you can begin to fill them. Follow the instructions on the label of the crack filling products. Deep and wide cracks will probably need two applications as the material often shrinks as it dries. Many crack fillers insist that their products thoroughly dry before you apply a coat of sealer. It may take several days for the crack filler to become sufficiently hard so that it can be coated with sealer.

If you purchase a high quality sealer, you will not have to struggle to mix it. Most modern high-quality sealers are formulated as no-stir or easy-stir. It is important to make sure the product is mixed well and homogeneous if you want consistent color results. Your neighbors will know if you slack off when mixing any asphalt sealer. Failure to mix well results in a blotchy appearance with different shades of black. Low cost and quality sealers must be stirred very well as the resins separate from the water.

You should buy one of the highest priced products since you are a person who lets their driveway sealer wear until the blacktop turns gray. Some people prefer to have a jet-black driveway each season. These people should use the low-cost sealers that wear quickly. It is a huge mistake to install top quality sealers each year. Doing so creates layers of sealer that can actually peel over time.

The best time of year to apply asphalt sealer is when the weather is warm to hot. All too often people procrastinate, and wait until fall to seal their asphalt driveways. Virtually every sealer tells you to avoid applying it if the outside temperature will drop below 50 F during the application and drying phase. It simply makes better sense to avoid brushing up against this low temperature. I recommend that you get busy right now while the summer sun is high in the sky.