Taking a wander around Ikea I was quite surprised to find out just how many different mirrors you can actually get. Not only can you get the traditional square or rectangle mirrors that look great in the living room or hall way you can also have circular ones that look great in hall ways. There are a great variety of mirrors that are available for the bathroom, for something a bit different why not look at mirror tiles to create a mirrored wall.

The bedroom is a great place for mirrors, not only can you have a full length mirror or mirrored wardrobes. You can also get some amazing shapes of mirrors such as tear drops and flowers.

The frames you can get for mirrors are as fantastic as the mirrors themselves. Everything from extravagant bejewelled mirrors to simplistic under rated silver frames, there are some intricately carved wooden frames that are available.

The humble mirror is more than just a talking point in a room, correctly placed it can bring extra light in to any room making it feel more spacious and airy than it actually is. They do this by reflecting the natural light that comes through windows and bouncing it back creating the illusion of a spacious and light room. Mirrors are best placed in small room that maybe don’t get as much light as they need in order to make them habitable. Plus they have the advantage of letting you see if you have anything in your eye!

But what about the bedroom? Yes you can get large storage chests and wicker baskets for washing if you are lucky enough to have a big enough room if not there are some amazing beds out there with storage solutions. You can get beds with drawers in the bases and those with mattresses that lift up. you can also get some amazing storage systems for wardrobes, but what do you do with all those clothes that you’ve worn once so don’t want to put back in the wardrobe but also aren’t worn enough to wash? That is my main storage problem with the bedroom, I did contemplate a chair but with two cats in the house you can imagine just where they will end up sleeping! But I have come across an amazing solution and it is so simple and cheap I can’t believe it’s not all over the market.

What is this wonder item? Well it is quite straight forward; it is a coat hanger with hoops linked under it. Simple isn’t it! Sounds quite simple and unimaginative but it is a life saver, not only does it keep my clothes away from the cat fluff but they are also kept crease free! Either hook your tops, scarves or leggings through the hoops or hang up trousers and dresses on coat hangers and pop on the hoops or the links in between. Such a simple solution but it is a fantastic way to store clothes.

When it comes to spring cleaning it is best to do it in a systematic fashion, attack one room at time armed with a whole army of cleaning products and new storage boxes. Spring cleaning is no time to be sentimental, you need to be ruthless otherwise you’ll hold on to a load of items you won’t look at for a year that take up space you need for items you actually need.

This year I’ve chosen wicker baskets as my storage system of choice, I find it is best to buy these in advance so you have an idea of where everything can go once you’ve tidied. I’ve picked wicker this year as it will be suitable to be used throughout the house and not just as storage boxes, you can buy wicker furniture to help co-ordinate a room, a wicker chair for example is a great addition to a room and despite expectations is actually quite comfy. Wicker boxes come in all different sizes, you can get small ones to fit in corners and larger chest sized ones for storing clothes or bedding. You can even get wicker laundry baskets to fit in with the theme.

Instead of putting my feet up and congratulating myself on a job well done I’ve turned my attention to the christmas table. As I have family descending on me this year I’m having to do more than turn up clutching presents and a few bottles and I’m determined to make a success of it. The food will have to wait until a bit closer to the actual day, giving me time to build up to facing the shops and the masses within them, but I did think I could do something with the table before then. Now I’m not a fan of those plastic tablecloths you see on most tables for family events, don’t get me wrong they are an asset at keeping the amount of clearing up you have to do to a minimum something I am a big fan of! But they seem to be rather bland and samey, that is why I’ve been working on crocheting a tablecloth. Before you throw your hands up in horror at the thought of cleaning christmas dinner off wool don’t worry I have got a plastic sheet to go over it. The pattern I’m using is classed as pineapple and I have to say I’m quite enjoying doing it, so much so if I get this done in time I might make some placemats out of chunkier wool which can be thrown away if they won’t wash out.

This pattern I find great if you are looking to do big areas quickly, it grows so rapidly that you can easily get a big tablecloth in just a few weeks, perfect if you tend to leave these things to the last minute like I do!

Global Property Guide

This site, which is located at the website address www.globalpropertyguide.com is one of the biggest property portals in Europe and offers not only information about available properties across the world, but also a host of other useful information which anyone looking to buy overseas needs to know about – including information concerning taxation and legal issues for each country.

Find a Property

This online property portal – found at the web address www.findaproperty.com/ is another of the most popular online resources for people looking to buy or rent – either in this country or overseas. Again, in addition to providing information about available properties everywhere from Europe to Africa, the site also contains information about savings that can be made through currency exchange, and the French Leaseback scheme.

World Properties

As the name of the site indicates, this offers information and listings of available properties across the world. Like Find a Property all of the properties listed on the site are represented by agencies subject to regulation according to a Code of Ethics – which helps to protect those buying from the more unscrupulous end of the property market – something which can be a particular concern when you are looking to buy a home overseas.

For some reason this year I’ve decided to do friends and family stockings on top of their usual presents. Call me crazy but once the idea came over me I couldn’t shake it. That was all well and good in October when Christmas was far away on the horizon, now we are in December and the enormity of the task, as well as the cost has come over me. But I think I have it sorted, well maybe. By doing generic male and female stockings and a bit of creative baking I think I might just pull this off.

I’ve decided that all anyone really wants from stockings are the sweets, with standard sized ones you can’t really get that many good presents in there, well unless you go for computer games and sorry everyone I’m not that rich. So with a bit of creative wrapping I think I can fill these up quite easily.

For part of my generic male / female divide I’ve gone back to childhood, boys are getting toy soldiers or paper planes which I think will go down well as my brother who is 22 spent a good afternoon playing with a polystyrene plane a few weeks ago. Girls it has to be my little pony or something pink, no two ways about it.

For the sweets, well there are too many to choose from, you have your traditional oranges and nuts. A bit boring so I’m going for chocolate covered nuts and orange brownies. Candy canes can be a bit tricky but they do look great poking over the top of stockings so I’ll be attempting those. In my mind fudge and peppermint creams just make a Christmas stocking, there is an eternal link in my mind between tearing the wrapping paper off presents and eating as many peppermint creams as you can before you get them taken off you so those are a must for me.

With just a few weeks to go and a big list I best get cracking and of course finding the best recipes out there, such a lot of tasting to do!

We also buy close friends items of kitchen homeware as we know they will love them; a cake stand or teapot always goes down well in any household. And, of course, homeware items for the kitchen are some of the most traditional wedding presents around, and are given out in their thousands; even though most modern couples live together before marriage and so have all the homeware items for the kitchen they will ever need.

But do we ever use more than 5 or 6 items out of the hundreds we have floating around? As with everything in life, we hoard kitchen items away and as such have drawers full of homeware just waiting to be used. Of course, as soon as you throw away that fish slice or that random object that you think is for slicing eggs, but you aren’t quite sure and can never get it to work anyway, you will need them and have to start a hunt for the item. After that, it will sit in the drawer for years on end, until you throw it away again as you can’t remember why you bought it.

Advent calendars are a must have in the run up to Christmas, but with childhood obesity at an all time high do we really want to be giving our kids yet more chocolate? One of the best ways to avoid yet more chocolate this Christmas season is to create your own advent calendar. This is far easier than you think, there are many products on the market with ready made felt advent calendars. These come in a variety of types but my favourite type is the Christmas tree with pockets, these are perfect for slipping little treats in to. For girls I tend to find pairs of cheap earrings or small bits of make up, eye shadows and the like depending upon their age. Boys can be given small cars or toy soldiers, of course every so often pop in a small piece of chocolate such as a ‘fun sized’ mars bar or even something out of miniature heroes or other chocolate boxes.

These can be easily personalised to your child’s tastes and their likes and you know they aren’t adding yet more chocolate to their diet each day. With the DIY advent calendars you can create a bit of excitement each day for your children with something a bit different, mine have told their friends and I’ve lost count of the number of mum’s I’ve had asking where I get these from as their children are disappointed with just chocolate each day!

If you really want to personalised these advent calendars you can make your own felt backgrounds but I’m too lazy for that so am quite happy to have someone else make it and save my creativity for the items to go in the pockets.

If this is your fear, that the room you put your soul in to and bare to the world isn’t really that unique and different, there is a solution. There are some unique items out there that can really help your room stand out and bring out those little quirks in your personality.

There has recently been a revival of all that is retro and the games of our childhoods are also making a come back in some of the most intriguing ways. An essential item of living room furniture is the coffee table, but unless you find the right one it can look a bit out of place and they tend to only get used when guests are there.

But there is something new on the market; no longer will coffee tables be boring when you opt for one that has a game in the top! Yes that’s right unleashing your inner geek has never been easier these amazing tables allow you to spend your evenings playing pinball or tetris.

Now we’ve all heard of sofa beds, they tend to be a staple in studies across the land as well as student houses, but have you heard about the latest in living room furniture, the coffee table bed? This unusual piece of living room furniture is a life saver for those with little space who entertain and have people over. Working on the same principals of a sofa bed, this beauty folds away to standard coffee table size and no one will be believe it is a bed until you pull it out and show them.

So you see with a bit of clever thought and perhaps a bit of time searching online you can create a living room where the furniture shows off your personality and doesn’t look like a showroom from a standard store.

There are a few tips to abide by when purchasing curtain fabric. The first and most important tip is to measure the area in which the fabric is to go.

If you get the measurements wrong, this will result in a poor look and a waste of money.

You should also insist that someone comes in to fit the curtains if you are unsure of how to do this. A well-put together job will add value to your home, where as a shoddy job will only result in the place looking a mess.

Google and any other search engines are great tools to use if you have little idea of where stocks quality curtain fabrics.

Another great place to check out is any one of the readily available online department stores. These stock an array of quality fabrics and often have pictures of how they will look when fitted.

Choose a fabric that is going to compliment the rest of the room and also one that will last. It is useless trying to get something on the cheap as you will only have to replace it at a later date, which in turn will cost you more in the long run. Whereas a quality curtain fabric will last you until you next decide to change the décor of the room!

Read customer reviews and check out any one of the interior design websites available. Both of these will give you an idea of what to look into.