How to Make a Proper Bed

Here's how to make a comfy but hotel room-neat bed.

1. First, slip a fitted sheet onto your mattress.

2. Then, place your flat sheet over your fitted sheet and smooth over to remove the wrinkes.

3. Fold a "hospital corner" at the lower corners of the mattress. A "hospital corner" is when you fold your fitted sheet's ends into 45-degree corners.

4. Leave the upper part (the one near the pillows) of your flat sheet untucked. This is for you to be able to slip into your bed easily.

5. Place your comforter over your bed. Fold down the upper end, leaving it untucked.

6. Place your pillows against the bed's headboard. Remember NOT to tuck them under the comforter.

Flower Power

As we will be celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday, May 10, I'm sure a lot of women will be receiving beautiful bouquets of flowers from their loved ones. As beautiful as they are, they will soon dry out, but not as quickly as we think if we follow these simple steps. Read on to find out how to make your blooms' life longer.

TIP #1
Put flowers in a cool location. Keep them out of direct sunlight, and away from heat, electrical appliances and drafts.

TIP #2
Cut stems at a 45-degree angle to ensure maximum water absorption. For woody stems, use clippers; for other flowers, use sharp scissors or knives. Also, cut stems under water if possible.

TIP #3
Add sugar and aspirin for survival. Sugar nourishes the flowers while aspirin helps them absorb water. The simple formula? For every quart of water, add two aspirins and a teaspoon of sugar. You can also add a few drops of bleach to reduce bacteria.

TIP #4
Remove leaves that fall under the waterline of your vase. This is because leaves rot when submerged, encouraging algae and bacteria to breed, thus shortening the life of your blooms.

TIP#5
Check your water level everyday to make sure that each of the stem ends still reach the water. Re-cut stems every five days.

Hope these help! Advance Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there!

My IKEA Style

As I was surfing the net for some great home finds, I stumbled upon this cool quiz on how to find your IKEA style. I soooo love IKEA! I haven't been to their stores here in Manila (I only browse their sites), but I have checked out the one in Singapore. My opinion? IKEA is really all about affordable style! Great great great!

Anyway, for the quiz I chose brown-green-fuchsia as my palette, a red Lykta table lamp and bold prints, among others. It turns out that my style is Modern Classic and the stylemeter tells me further that it is 60% Modern and 40% Scandinavian. Quite accurate, I think. The site recommends that I make business personal again and to remember to use details, textures and textiles to let my personality shine through.

To check your own personal IKEA style, simply click here!

Mr. Muscle Saved My Day!

I super hate seeing molds and mildews in the bathroom. I am O-C that way. I used to spend hours scrubbing and cleaning the loo whenever I have time. My old routine was to spray Zonrox Bleach on the toilet and tiles, leave it on for an hour or two, and scrub and remove the dirt after. The whole routine was soooo time-consuming and tiring. It would have been okay if I achieved the results I wanted, but I was never satisfied with the outcome.

I was continually on the lookout for a good product that can make my "cleaning life" easier. When I first saw Mr. Muscle's ad on tv, I was not convinced. Just like all other cleaning products, the commercial was selling Mr. Muscle by saying that it removes molds, mildews, etc. without having to do the dirty work. You simply need to spray it on the area and wipe the dirt off! "Yeah, right!", I thought. I did not find it appealing; I did not believe it.

It wasn’t until I read about it on Real Living Space, which is the official blog of Real Living Magazine, that I decided to give it a try. As I searched the grocery yesterday, I saw a variety of Mr. Muscle cleansers. I picked Mr. Muscle Multi-purpose Bathroom Cleaner because as the name said, it is multi-purpose. ( There was one for tiles only and another solely for toilets. ) The labels says that it is an all-in-one cleaner that removes toilet bowl stains, grime, soap scum, lime scale deposits (hard water marks), rust stains and effectively kills 99.9% of germs. As soon as I came home, I gave the product a try. I sprayed the foam on the tiles and toilet and left it as I cooked spaghetti and prepared tuna sandwich for my sister's birthday. After about an hour, my brother asked me if he can use the loo, and so I got ready to do the scrubbing. (I did not have very high expectations). I was amazed when I entered the bathroom and saw the results! Indeed, the molds and dirt were gone even without scrubbing! The whole bathroom is not immaculately clean yet (I didn’t spray the foam on all areas), but I’m soooo happy to say that I’m sticking with Mr. Muscle! As in the commercial, “Mr. Muscle saved my day!”