What A Woman Wants

Here is the secret: we want to feel loved and cared for. We want to love and care. We want to achieve and accomplish. We want to make our loved ones smile and we want to smile. We want to share and we want to be spoilt. Not so hard to please, are we?

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You are looking for a gift for a special woman in your life (daughter, mother, wife, friend etc) but are clueless? Well, here is the good news: you can easily make a woman happy without having to pay an amount that you cannot afford to pay. Even putting a few things together with some love and extra attention would easily please most women. Just make sure to pay extra attention to details. Us women love details!

Here are a few photos of some crafty gift ideas for your inspiration. You can pick and choose items to customise for your special person according the person's interests or your budget. 

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Wishing you a day when you can make someone smile!

Guest Post: HYDROPONIC GARDENING

Hydroponics: Bigger Yields – More Nutrition From Your Outdoor Garden!

About the Author: Chris Wimmer is an urban hydroponic hobbyist who uses hydroponics to maximize his 400 square foot yard and extend the short Chicago growing season. Chris blogs about his hydroponic experiences at CaptainHydroponics.com.

*Update: Capatinhydroponics.com now operates under a new exciting name and web address. Here is the new link: http://healthsmartliving.com/hydroponics/.

Incorporating the elements of a hydroponic system into outdoor gardening is the best way to ensure you get the biggest yields and healthiest most nutrient-dense fruits, veggies, and herbs come harvest time!

With indoor hydroponics, proper lighting can be a challenge from a budget perspective, but with the powerful and “free” sun shining down on your crops, bigger yields are always possible using a soil-less, automated growing system.

Hydroponics Defined:

Hydroponics maximize nutrient and oxygen uptake in plants by eliminating soil from the mix. Plants are rooted in an inert, bacteria free media such as peat moss, tree bark fibers, rockwool, spagnum, perlite, clay or stone.

There are hundreds of variations to the media used, but all provide a non-restrictive base for the plant's root system; where a feeding solution containing water, oxygen, and fertilizer can be introduced to the plants every few minutes via an automated watering system.

Slow and steady wins the race...

The plant's root system is “spoon-fed” what it needs, then the excess drains out of the bottom of the planter, and back to a nearby reservoir where it's held until a pump's activated via a timer a few minutes later, and the plants receive another feeding.

Soil-free keeps the root system clean and healthy, eliminates the plants wasting time searching for nutrients in the soil.  This maximizes the plant's ability to produce healthy greens, veggies, fruits, or flowers.

Soil suffocates...

Soil, by comparison can retain too much water, allowing bacteria to form (which bugs and parasites just love) and smothering the root system of the plant blocking oxygen uptake.

Calcium and salt levels build in the soil, slowly restricting its ability to uptake nutrients during the vegetation and blooming phases. The plant's root system is also forced to grow downward in search of more nutrient and oxygen-rich soil.

This means the plant has to use the energy it receives from the sun (photosynthesis) to grow a larger root system, rather than fortifying its stalk and producing seed-bearing fruits, veggies, flowers, etc.

Benefits of Hydroponics:

1. Plants get all the nutrients they need – no wasted water or fertilizer (25% of that used in soil grows)
2. Little if any pesticides are needed – many crop eating bugs live in soil
3. Bigger yields – up to 10 times larger than soil
4. Less babysitting your garden – an automated system can thrive virtually on its own
5. No weeding – weeds need soil to grow

Crop Suggestions:

You can grow anything hydroponically but it's important to do your research beforehand. There are many guides, videos, and blogs out there which it can be difficult to decide where to start.

If you're just getting started, stick to compact plants that don't require too much space, until you learn the ropes of setting up your feeding system, maintaining a proper PH, and all the other particulars. Corn, squash, zucchini, and melons are all best avoided as they are large or create large vine systems.

Instead try these plants...

·      Herbs of all kinds – rosemary, tyme, tarragon, sage, parsley, mint, dill, oregano (go nuts!)

·      Veggies – lettuce, cabbage, watercress, radishes, peppers,

·      Fruits – tomatoes, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, strawberries

Based on your crops of choice you can then pick the best system.  For herbs and lettuce like veggies, I’d suggest starting with a simple lettuce raft. For larger fruits and vegetables, I’d suggest starting with a basic bucket system which you can find on instructables.com.

A No-Sew Makeover in Half an Hour: DIY Chair Cover

Here is my no-sew project from the other day: a new DIY swirl chair cover. It took me less than half an hour to come up with this beauty!

The chair works perfectly fine but the cover on it was a bit boring and not in its best shape in my opinion. So, I decided to try my hand at re-upholstering it and I must admit, this has been one of my most favourite upcycling projects to date. I am just in love with the outcome!

What I used was a staple gun, a hammer (to hammer the staples down when/if they were not in properly), a screw driver and my choice of fabrics.  (Depending on how your existing chair is assembled, what you will need to use may differ. Eg. Allen key instead of a screwdriver).

The process was quite straight forward. I simply took the screws off the backing on the seat and the back support, separated them using some muscle power, stapled the new fabrics on them making sure that the fabrics were well stretched(I chose not to remove the original cover on it), attached the back pieces back on, put the pieces together again and voila!

The whole procedure took us approximately half an hour. It is a perfect and very affordable way of adding some colour to your home or jazzing up your room.  

There is nothing like having something that has your (or your loved ones') touches all over it at home. It just is so unique and special. 

Enjoy the beauty of some personal touches in your life today!

Care Tips for when Heat Hits

As most of you have been experiencing or are aware, the heatwave has been affecting quite a few people in the Southern Hemisphere in general and in Australia in particular recently. It is not very easy to keep cool in this heat. I hope everyone is trying to look after themselves as well as others these days. Caring for others in this heat could be as easy as  knocking on the door of especially some elderly neighbours just to check up on them and also see if you could help them with anything to stay safe. 

However, we also need to keep in mind that us human beings are not the only living that feel the heat.  

Dark red dominates this image, indicating temperatures that were significantly higher than average between December 27 and January 3, especially in Queensland and New South Wales. (Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82790)  

According to this article here, the heatwave also had some deadly impact on the wildlife. For instance, 100,000 bats have died from the heat in Queensland.

Here are some suggestions that come to mind that I would like to share with you with the hope of making a small difference in the life of a living creature. My suggestions are mostly on keeping your pets and also small sized wildlife safe.

* Keep your pet hydrated. Make sure your pet has an access to some fresh water at all times. In our case, we have chickens and we leave them a few extra sources of water in their pen where they can freely access to in case one gets dirty or evaporates quickly and we don't realise it soon enough.

*Add some ice to their water source at times, if possible/applicable, as the water will warm up quickly in this heat.

*Depending on the type of your pet, you can wet them at times to cool them down.

*Try to offer some cool ground for them. It could be that you have a cool place you can keep them in, or you can put some wet sheets underneath them etc. We wet our chickens' pen as well as the ground under trees at times as they are the places they often stay at.

*Offer some green leafy vegetables if possible as they contain water and are often easily consumed by many types of animals.

*Leave some water outside for lost/homeless animals.

*Leave a shallow bucket with some sticks and/or rocks in it in your garden so that smaller animals such as ants can drink some water too without drowning as Wildlife Victoria has recommended.

Stay safe!

Busiest December Ever!

I have been extremely busy lately. In fact, this month may be the busiest December of my life. Visitors, a graduation, an orientation, a renovation, a wedding all in the same one crazy month! Before I quickly go back to my home renovation, I wish you all a very happy New Year filled with the most joyful days of your life and thank you each and every one of you for supporting and following me here on my blog, as well as on my facebook page.

Enjoy my home decor inspiration photos below.

A Photography Challenge

Less than a couple of weeks ago, I put my hand up for a link party, my first ever linky party to be exact. The lovely lady, Ipek, from Hep Yesil blog invited us all to a photography challenge. The idea was to photograph what made us happy or what inspired us over a period of time. Here is my contribution.

Day 1 (Mon, the 30th Sept): 

My son, who has recently turned 5, wanted to have a 'boys' time alone with his father. He is surely growing up fast! Soon after my husband came home from work they went out together. It was the first time Mr. Junior had ever been to a cinema. They watched the 'Planes' at the cinemas, played some games, bought him some plane toys and dined out. My son had popcorn which he didn't enjoy much and hubby ended up eating it all. Meanwhile, Miss Junior, who is 2,5 years old, wasn't impressed that she was left behind and was upset for a while. It was a windy day but I took her outside regardless. We ran around, went for an egg hunt and she also went on her brother's scooter. She only learned to ride the scooter the day before. She was quite happy by the time we came back home after that.

Day 2 (Tuesday, the 1st of Oct): 

Miraculously, we found our lost chicken after her disappearance almost two weeks ago! We had registered her as a lost pet with the council, talked to some of our neighbours, and gone around looking for her in the first days. Later on, we printed out some flyers and with the kids, we walked around in our neighbourhood and dropped them off in mailboxes as well as at a nearby fast-food store while a lovely friend of mine, a beautiful lady from the same community helped us out by putting up some posters at local shopping centres and the vet. We got a call from a lady who happened to be one of our neighbours saying that she found the chicken in her garden and kept her for a week. When they found her, she was cornered by their pet dog and both the dog and the chicken had no idea what to do with the other. They were both afraid of each other (luckily!). They let her out in the garden during the day and kept her in the laundry at nights. When they lost hope in finding the owners, they gave it to a priest friend of theirs who had other chickens. Once they saw our flyer in their mailbox, they called us using the number we had left. She then arranged it with their friend who returned our little 'girl' safely. She is now a bit quieter than usual but seems to be healthy and happy to be back at home.

Day 3 (Wednesday, the 2nd of Oct):

We had yet another windy and rainy day. It was quite cold too and we chose to stay at home today. I had the motivation to make so many things but only had the time to complete a few craft projects. I definitely enjoyed working on the reversible tote bag but I think I am addicted to making pencil cases these days.

Day 4 (Thursday, the 3rd of Oct):

We had a great time meeting up with some friends over a cup of coffee.

Day 5 (Friday, the 4th of Oct):

A good friend of mine that I met during my postgraduate studies years ago, who also coincidentally became a colleague a few years later, was over for breakfast but we had such great time that we ended up spending most of the day together. I find our conversations to be inspirational, fun and real with her every time we are together. After such a beautiful day, I also had a great night. A handmade item of mine was sold soon after a showcase that I participated in commenced.

Day 6 (Saturday, the 5th of Oct): 

After getting my son's haircut and also going to one of his friends' birthday party, I indulged myself in finishing a brand new project, a cushion cover, and also a bib that I had started a few days ago. I must admit, as much as it can get a bit painful to work with french knots, a part of me is in love with them.

Day 7 (Sunday, the 6th of Oct):

I am definitely not the best person to handle sleeplessness well. I had a late night on Friday and today, I have started feeling sick. It is very likely that my immune system weakened and I will be suffering from a mild case of cold for a while. Well, it is not too bad for the moment. So, I still did most of the things that I was hoping to do today; weekly shopping with the family and working on ideas for a minor renovation at home. We also had our first 'family movie afternoon' today. It was quite fun except the fact that our little daughter slept halfway through and our preschooler son was not really impressed with our choice of movie. It was a totally different feeling for us to be able to sit down and watch a movie with our kids and we definitely made the most of this great experience.

A Word Puzzle for Beginner Readers

My son is a kindergarten student and is at the early stages of reading. He knows his alphabet, he is familiar with the sounds the letters make (phonetics) and is able to read some short words. I have recently made this puzzle for him using some of the words that he can read and we had a great time working on it together. I was more of a guidance available to him and he took the lead happily as soon as he understood the requirements of the activity. He did this just before he went to his kindergarten the other day and before he left home, he asked me if I could prepare him another one for him to work on after kinder that day. Well, this is my proof that this activity is a winner!

The list of the words in the puzzle is written on the bottom of the page. The list can be folded under or cut if you prefer your child to work on it without seeing the words/clues. However, I chose to include them and asked my son to use the list when he isn't sure what the missing letters may be. To me, it is a study skill and it worked well for my son.

Click here to access the printable puzzle as a PDF file.

Enjoy every minute of the quality time you have with your loved ones!

Cotton: Nature's Wonder Fiber

Recently, a mother of a young boy with eczema was in desperate need for some tips and recommendations from other parents with similar experiences on a social media group that I am a part of. In her post, she told us that she had already made an appointment with her son's paediatrician but she felt awful just sitting at home and waiting for the appointment day to come that was in a few days while watching her baby in discomfort and pain. This post is not exactly about eczema but that post of hers has inspired me to write about one aspect of our choices as individuals, parents, consumers and makers; fabrics.

Photo Credit

Whenever we need to choose some clothing for our kids, we pay extra attention to use natural fibers, such as cotton. Our now-almost-5-year-old son suffers from a mild case of eczema and we were reminded by his doctor at the time to use %100 cotton wherever and whenever possible even for his bedsheets at the time as synthetic fabrics and wool can irritate but it has always been our preference even before then.

I almost always use only 100% cotton fabrics for main fabrics for my kids and at my shop as I believe in cotton because it is natural and I am a believer of 'goodness comes from nature'. Cotton is a natural fiber that comes from the seedpod of the cotton plant and is used to make many fabric types. It is  used for virtually every type of clothing; you name it, it has it. However, as it is stated here, most of its
apparel usage is for men and boys’ clothing.

some cotton products by MADE BY Y

Cotton fiber has been cultivated for more than 8,000 years. Cotton accounts for 40% of the world's fiber production and generates a $40 billion a year textile market according to this source. It is mentioned by the same source that approximately 80% of the cotton farms are small, and many are family owned.

It is stated here that no other fiber comes close to duplicating all of the desirable characteristics combined in cotton. Cotton can be woven or knit into cloth.

%100 cotton fabrics are breathable. They do not trap the air and allow the skin to breathe. They are smooth and cool which is important for the prevention of overheating. Cotton is very absorbent therefore, it will absorb moist and sweat easily (it evaporates; releases the moist on the surface of the fabric) In fact, as it is claimed here, it absorbs up to 27 times its own weight in water. It is non-irritating. Regardless of the heat or the humidity, cotton fabrics feel good against the skin. Cotton is comfortable. Unlike some synthetic fabrics, cotton fabrics do not rub against the skin, which is bad for eczema as well.

Additionally, cotton is easy to clean. It can be laundered or dry-cleaned (just be wary of the colours and other chemicals that may be added to certain cotton fabrics though). As a general rule, cotton can be boiled, therefore sterilised. As a fabric, cotton is normally durable and strong.

Last but not least, here are some great tips by sewing.org on how to look for a good quality cotton fabric for you:
- look for closely woven fabric with long, 1/2"fibers and even yarns.
- Scrape the fabric with your finger nail, if the threads separate, the fabric won’t wear well.
- To check the fiber length, pull a thread from the fabric and untwist it; if the fibers are at least 1/2"long, the fabric will wear well.
- Rub two fabric scraps together to see if the fabric pills.
- To check for colorfastness, rub the colored fabric with a piece of white fabric; no dye should come off on the white fabric.

Enjoy something natural today!

Guest Post: HEALTH BENEFITS OF GARLIC

When discussing the aromatic personality of garlic, the question remains, would you be willing to smell a little like this potent herb if you knew that it has gobs of health benefits?  Many would answer yes when they consider what this miracle food does.

Photo: Home of Homemade Treasures

For centuries, garlic has been prized around the globe for its distinct culinary taste and the wonderful flavor it adds to many sophisticated dishes.  Additionally, because of its sustainability, garlic has been shipped and traded across long distances.

Now scientists from several countries, including France, Italy and the U.S., are confirming the plethora of health benefits gained from garlic, specifically because this herb helps to facilitate detoxification and acts as a powerful antioxidant, stimulating immune responses and reducing inflammation.

Studies are finding that the components in garlic, called Allyl Sulfides and Bioflavonoids, may be key to lowering incidences of heart disease and cancer in those who consume large amounts of it.

Many of our modern-day cancers are thought to be caused by damage to DNA, often induced by environmental toxins. A study conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that eating a teaspoon of fresh garlic a day increases the levels of a key enzyme for removing toxins in the blood cells.

Clinical experiments have shown that regular consumption of garlic decreases calcium deposits and the size of arterial plaque in coronary arteries, prevented unhealthy blood clotting and improved the circulation of the subjects who were studied.   

What's the Magic Behind Garlic

Garlic produces a chemical called Allicin, which is what seems to make garlic work. Allicin also makes garlic smell. There is a lot of variation among garlic products sold for medicinal purposes. The amount of Allicin, the active ingredient and the source of garlic’s distinctive odor, depends on the method of preparation.  

Garlic also has germanium in it. Germanium is an anti-cancer agent, and garlic has more of it than any other herb. In lab tests, mice who were fed garlic showed no cancer development, whereas mice that weren't fed garlic showed at least some. In fact, garlic has been shown to retard tumor growth in human subjects in some parts of the world.

Taking Garlic for Health Reasons

Current research has shown that garlic not only has major impact on cancer prevention, but it also reduces the risk of other major maladies. Not surprisingly the presence of all these antioxidants in garlic have a very positive effect on the immune system in general and can therefore protect the body against all types of bacterial and viral attacks. Allicin has been shown to not only lower blood pressure, insulin and triglyceride levels in laboratory animals fed a sugar rich diet, but also to prevent weight gain.   

Garlic is an invaluable medicine for coughs, difficulty of breathing, asthma, hoarseness and other disorders of the lungs because this herb promotes expectoration.  The positive effect of garlic on your circulatory system is extremely well documented and it has been proven to decrease platelet aggregation,plus it stimulates the production of nitric oxide in the lining of blood vessel walls, a substance that helps them to relax. As a result, garlic helps to prevent arteriosclerosis and thereby reduces the risk of heart attack and strokes.  Finally, because garlic is famous for reducing inflammation, the herb is an excellent natural remedy for those suffering from arthritis.

Garlic is one of the most valuable and versatile foods on the planet. Known as one of the oldest medicinal plants, garlic is a widely recognized health enhancing supplement, and if you can stand the odor, is considered one of the best foods around to promote your well-being.

David Novak is a international syndicated newspaper columnist, appearing in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV around the world. His byline has appeared in GQ, National Geographic, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, USA Today, among others, and he has appeared on The Today Show, the CBS Morning Show and Paul Harvey Radio. David is a specialist at consumer technology, health and fitness, and he also owns a PR firm and a consulting company where he and his staff focus on these industries.  He is a regular contributing editor for Healthline.com.  For more information, visit here.