5 easy ways to care for your bedroom

We all spend a lot of time in our bedrooms, be it sleeping or checking Facebook on our phones in the dark. That’s why it’s important to know exactly how to care for and maintain your nest. Here are five pro tips to keep your bedroom clean and fresh.

1. Wash your sheets the right way

Bed linens need to be pulled off and washed every one or two week. With cotton sheets, it’s important to use warm water when cleaning, as hot water could shrink some of the fibers. If you have any special embroidery or other delicate flourishes, such as some of our sheets, make sure to read the care instructions.

Some embroidery requires gentle hand washing. In those cases, don’t scrub with a brush or rub parts of the sheets together. Instead soak the material to loosen stains and unwanted smudges.

Chlorine bleach may be too gruff for most bed linens. Instead try an oxygenated bleach for white sheets. Gentleness is the main idea to keep sheets in tip-top shape as long as possible.

2. Seal it up

Make sure to use a vinyl mattress cover to protect against spills or leaks. If given the chance, mattresses will sponge up any mess, including ones from human bodies. These are extremely difficult to clean and it’s much easier to prevent the problem in the first place. The vinyl cover will act as a barrier to keep the mattress unsoiled.

3. Vacuum the bed

You have probably heard from time to time that skin cells and dust mites build up inside the mattress and will double the weight over a decade. That’s actually an urban legend, but even though the dramatic scale is wrong, there is still a real problem with shed skin and dust mites. To help combat the menace, every time you strip or rotate the mattress, pull all materials off the bed and use your vacuum cleaner’s upholstery to clean the top and sides of the mattress.

4. Use a duvet

Comforters are difficult to clean, and their bulk requires a commercial-grade washing machine to avoid compressing the item and leaving pockets unwashed. The comforter will still need to be cleaned now and then, but wrapping it in a duvet cover will keep it much cleaner during the stretches of time between cleanings. Duvets should be cleaned in a similar manner to bed sheets.

5. No plants and animals

Constant contact with human bodies already presents a large amount of exposure to bed linens. There’s no need to add on additional problems with animal contact. Cats and dogs leave dander behind, so if you want a clean bed then you need to banish your pets from the bedroom. Even having plants in the bedroom can create some airborne debris, so keep them out of the room too.

7 Tips to put the “Spring” into your home!

Spring is just around the corner (we hope) and that urge to do some Spring redecorating is starting to tug at you.

Here are 8 simple ways to put the “Spring” back into your home, even before the green grass starts to pop through!

Declutter!
Yes, that traditional Spring cleanup is underway and it’s time to put away that Winter clutter!Take the weekend to clean-out drawers, papers, donate clothes and household items you are no longer using. You will feel like the roof has been lifted and that decluttered living space will help you start the Spring off with an extra hop in your step.
Spring Cleaning.
We know you don’t want to hear it, but Winter can leave you feeling, ugh well, a tad dirty!Windows, floors, under couches, dust and dirt buildup after Winter with snowy boots and lunch crumbs being dragged across the house daily (well that is if you have kids or a really messy spouse!)It’s time to lift the cushions, pull out those couches and clean those windows. If you don’ t have time, hire a cleaning company or your kids.
Dismantle the mantle.
Take down any decorations or themed items that even remind you that Winter once existed. Yes, that picture of a snowy barn, Take it down! Christmas cactuses, dark pillows or any winter themed gadgets you have laying around to accessorize, put them into a storage container and forget about them until October.
Re-accessorize.
Yes you have a bit of a reason to go shopping, Homegoods, One Kings Lane, a Local recycled shop, whatever you like to shop for, find a few spring items to accessorize with and redecorate those spaces that used to remind you of Winter.
Pop of Color.
Add a pop of color to your home with just a few pillows, a bright colored peice of furniture or a new throw. Great colors to pop with are lavenders, greens and yellows along with robin’s egg type blues.
Paint.
If your really energetic and want to step outside of the box, grab a paint can and paint a room that will leave you feeling of Spring clean. It could just be a front door, a small room or even just an accent wall.
Bring in the Living Spring.
Buy a few great Spring plants for in the home. Some tulips, herbs or anything green. If things can’t grow outside yet, no reason they can’t grow indoors.

5 Survival tips to cooking with the kids this Thanksgiving

Get your kids involved while you prepare your holiday meals this season.
It’s a great opportunity to bond with your children, teach them how to cook, entertain and help them feel like a bigger part of a family celebration.
Here’s a few things to get them more involved:

Looking the part.
Entertaining is messy business! All that cooking, cleaning, and caring for guests can leave your clothes dirty. Allow your child to wear an apron to not only protect their clothing, but also they will feel like a bigger part of your event. Jacaranda living offers aprons just for kids to wear. See more on our site here.

Show them measuring basics.
What’s the difference between a cup and tablespoons. Once you teach them how to measure and even read a recipe, they can pre-measure out all your ingredients for you.

Let them use their hands.
Kids love to play with their hands. As adults, we forget the joy in that sometimes. Show you kids how to mix up a sauce, cookie dough or knead some bread dough. Here’s some more tips from Food Network’s Giada DeLaurentis on how to make cooking fun with kids here.

Preparing for dinner.
To many children, a nicely set table for dinner looks like something out of a fairy tale. Think of Cinderella’s Ball or the grand table from Beauty and the Beast. Show them how to properly set a table or fold napkins. They will feel like they made a huge contribution to making the dinner look beautiful. Plus that frees up time fore you to do some last minute preparations for guests. Here’s some inspiration on table settings from HGTV.

Clean up.
It’s never fun to do dishes or put everything away. By having some extra hands, no matter how little, this can be a big help. Kids love to be involved and feel helpful. Give them a task, like clearing the table, putting dishes in the dishwasher or bringing out containers for leftovers. Reward them for their hard work with dessert! Use this helpful checklist from Earlybird Mom here to help with clean up.

5 New Things to Try in 2014

It’s a New Year and that means, inspire yourself to try something NEW!

We tried some non-traditonal trends in exercise, food and home management (and yes we even tried them) for you and wanted to write a blog post and inspire you to try some of our recommendations and if none of them are for you, try something new and tell us about it.

Exercise Trend – Bikram Yoga

It’s a growing practice in Yoga, called Bikram Yoga. Founded in the 1970’s by Bikram Choudhury from Hatha Yoga, the practice was designed to heal your body using 26 poses and did we mention a very hot (usually 108 degrees) room.

The Daily Mail just featured the practice noting many celebrities and athletes who swear by the practice including Lady Gaga (and we all know what her body looks like). We can’t guarantee yours will look the same, but you will certainly have fun trying if this heated workout is for you.

This grueling class takes 90 minutes, involves 26 poses and requires you to sweat your you know what off. It’s claim: move fresh, oxygenated blood to one hundred percent of your body. The claimed result proper weight, muscle tone, vibrant good health, and a sense of well-being.

What we found – increases energy, mental clarity, tones and detoxes the body along with helping with joint and back issues. We recommend talking to your doctor before trying. Find out more about Bikram Yoga here: http://www.bikramyoga.com/.

Drink Trend – Kombucha Tea

Kombucha Tea is an ancient and controversial tea that people swear has many healing properties but experts say there is no real proof to its benefits and not to bother drinking it. Made by brewing tea and using a specific bacteria to ferment the tea, the result produces probiotics that help fight bad bacteria that cause havoc on your body. It has a bubbly property similar to soda but tastes almost like apple cider and water. We like it but many people think it’s just plain “gross”.

What we found – helps with digestive issues, reduces sugar, alcohol, food and coffee cravings. We don’t recommend you make it, just buy the commercial blend we like this one. http://www.synergydrinks.com/.

Home Trend – Decluttering and Reorganizing Spaces

People love to collect and people hate getting rid of things. Because stores like Target and Home Goods encourage buying on the cheap we tend to buy more than we really need for our homes. After doing this for a few years, you will find, things begin to collect and clutter…all of a sudden there is nowhere to put anything, you can’t find anything and you have just too much stuff.

Well, 2014 is time for a cleanse in your home! There are so many resources on the Internet about how to declutter and reorganize your home it’s hard to know where to start, but we have found what we think is one of the best sites out there to help you get a handle on how you can nicely design and organize your spaces. A Bowl Full of Lemons has step by step guides on how to tackle the different areas of your home.

What we found – we loved reorganizing and designing the pantry, also found other great sites to follow and pictures to see through this website. http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net.

Cooking Trend – Steaming VS. Roasting

Steaming vegetables and fish is both low fat and one of the best ways to keep vitamins and nutrients in your food. But it is also boring, messy and can even be tasteless. If you want to keep variety in your healthy diet try roasting! Roasted vegetables, fish and meat is another excellent cooking method to keep your foods nutrient rich.

Roasting makes your food more tasty. Try spreading any vegetables out on a pan with salt, olive oil and roast away! Our favorite roasted vegetables include brussel sprouts, red peppers and carrots (yes, stop boiling the carrots please!) You can even add spices, cook using healthy coconut oil (for a sweeter taste). You will really notice the difference in taste as roasted vegetables almost become richer in taste.

What we found – winter vegetables are delicious, but try summer vegetables too such as tomatoes and summer squash. These are vegetables your kids will eat! Here is a great article on how to roast your veggies. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/09/19/how-to-roast-vegetables/.

Diet Trend – Go Gluten Free

So many health experts are recommending this now, that gluten-free menus and foods have become common place. Elisabeth Hasselback brought Celiac disease and the gluten-free diet to the American forefront with her book the G-Free diet and of course talking about it daily on the View. But many health experts agree, that going gluten-free is the way to go whether you have Celiac disease or not.

What we found – the gluten-free diet is a bit hard to follow, we recommend using non-processed foods so no processed gluten-free grocery items, sorry! If you don’t have Celiac and still want to eat bread the Ezekial Bread (whole sprouts) is low-carb and full of protein and tastes delicious (especially cinnamon with almond butter). One of the best recipe websites is the Gluten Free Goddess.

Please tell us about some new trend you have tried and what you would recommend to inspire our audience to try something new!

Good Luck and Happy New Year!