DIY Balcony Decoration

I found this information from one of the blogs. Some great ideas for those who like to decorate his or her balcony... Whether it is a big balcony or tiny balcony, but with a good plan and filling up your balcony with tasteful accoutrements so you can fully enjoy your outdoor space.

Helpful tips:

Have a glass door leading into the balcony. If possible, you could consider having two glass doors, in the center of the wall, leading out. This gives an illusion of space, without you having to actually enclose the balcony. Enclosing small balconies do make sense, but often new constructions don't allow you to enclose balconies. Also, having a small balcony can be very pleasant, if you make the most of it.

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Now that you have a glass door that lets you look out into the balcony at all times, it's time to decorate the balcony itself.
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Plants

Do you have a good view from the balcony? If you do, don't do anything that will obstruct the view, since having a nice view is a rarity in large cities. If you don't have much of a view, for example if your balcony overlooks the backside of your neighbour's house, try this. Hang plants over the entire length of the balcony, from the parapet above, in little round pots, equidistant from each other. Hanging plants will still lend the illusion of space, while somewhat concealing the bad view. If the view is truly terrible, if you overlook a garbage dump or a car garage for example, do all you can to completely conceal the view with the help of taller plants.

Balcony gardening is always popular among apartment dwellers. Whether you’re into large or small containers, trellises, or window boxes, patio or balcony gardening is a great way to lend color and excitement to your outdoor space. It’s also a good way to get yourself outside. If you don’t find yourself using your balcony much, add a few plants and some seating and see if you start spending more time outside. The more you like your balcony surroundings, the harder you’ll work to keep improving them. Make your own unique containers for gardening, and work on using a variety of colors in your planting. Whether you like richly colored trees, bright little marigolds, or hardy hostas, a little planting will go a long way toward making your balcony a more attractive and appealing place to be.

Sculptures

Nothing looks as striking as a shining brass sculpture amidst green plants. If you've decided to fill up your balcony with plants to conceal the bad view, place a slightly large brass statue between the plants. If you have glass doors leading to the balcony, let the statue face indoors. On the other hand, if you have a good view, consider placing a few plants in one corner of the balcony, and place a smaller brass statue amidst the plants.

Lighting

One or two well-placed lamps or lanterns are really all that is needed to give your balcony a designer touch. Hang a large paper lantern from the parapit, or place a tall lamp on the floor. You could also consider nailing two coloured lanterns to the walls in your balcony. Mood lighting is essential, and is far preferable to functional lighting in a small balcony.

Seating

If you would like to spend time seated in your tiny rectangular balcony, here's what you can do. Consider opting for a few hanging plants, and divan-type seating, using the three corners of the balcony as backrest. Simply take an old trunk, cover it with bright phulkari embroidered cloth, throw on a couple of matching cushions, and you have a perfect seating arrangement. Hang a lamp just above the seat, so you can turn it on when you sit out in the evenings and read.

Source from Internet.

by 旭日の革

“别让恐同症践踩人权！”

130个团体及个人发表请愿书，促请政府尊重马来西亚公民的隐私，而且主张只有经证明有导致滥权行为，例如不当挪用公款或资源时，公众领袖的性行为方能成为一个课题。他们对前副首相安华再次被指责“鸡奸”深感不安，认为这似乎是要摧毁其政治生涯的另一次尝试。

他们在题为《别让恐同症践踩人权》的请愿书里说：“我们不在乎安华或任何其他政治人物的性倾向。我们所关心的是，个人的性行为与取向是私事。而且，每个人的隐私都必须受到尊重。对于公众领袖，只有经证明有导致滥权行为，例如不当挪用公款或资源时，其性行为方能成为一个课题。”

以下是请愿书全文：

我们对于安华依布拉欣（右图）再次被指责“鸡奸”深感不安，这似乎是要摧毁其政治生涯的另一次尝试。我们并不是在促销或支持安华作为一个领导人或个人，我们是在处理对他所作的最新指控的议题。

我们认为，安华的人权再次遭侵犯。实际上，我们看到1998年事件正在重演，当时鸡奸指控成为号召马来西亚公众否决其潜在领导的工具；其前提是，基于安华被指责的性行为，他不适合成为国家领导人。

应尊重隐私权

我们不在乎安华或任何其他政治人物的性倾向。我们所关心的是，个人的性行为与取向是私事。而且，每个人的隐私都必须受到尊重。对于公众领袖，只有经证明有导致滥权行为，例如不当挪用公款或资源时，其性行为方能成为一个课题。

更令人不安的是，政府以“肛交违反自然”的说法，引用《刑事法典》第377（a）条款及第377（b）条款，抑制政治异见人士 。实际上，政府一再使用的这些条规，妖魔化社会各阶层的男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人，甚至是反传统的异性恋者。他们营造了一种不仅允许且怂恿歧视和暴力侵害这些人的环境。

但无论我们喜欢与否，男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人是我们社会的一部分。他们是纳税人、他们是有生产力的工人、他们是学生，他们当中一些人是虔诚的教徒，对他们的清真寺、教堂和寺庙作了积极的贡献。一些人甚至抱着从事政治领导的希望加入政治。然而，他们在这些领域都被歧视，更被政府认为是“变异物”（deviants）。这直接违反了国际文书与公约，如《世界人权宣言》（Universal Declaration of Human Rights）阐明，没有人都不能因任何理由被歧视。

三项呼吁

无论如何，并非所有马来西亚人都认同政府的立场。2003年8月，一群有心公民及不同背景的非政府组织提交一份备忘录给马来西亚人权委员会（SUHAKAM），呼吁停止歧视及暴力侵害男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人。我们希望重申该备忘录的精神，再次呼吁：

一、促请政府尊重全体公民的人权，包括男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人，一如《联邦宪法》及《世界人权宣言》所阐明那样。

二、促请政府废除以刑事论处自愿发生性行为的成人的法律。

三、废除禁止媒体以公平及平衡的手法描绘男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人的政策与条例，而媒体处理性议题时应保持公平及不歧视。

我们认为，这个议题不仅是男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人所关注的议题，而是每个支持正义与民主的人都应关注。任何侵犯个人或群体人权的事，我们都应该关注。此外，我们必须知道，除了《刑事法典》，马来西亚仍有许多法律用以规范性行为，例如各州的回教法律，在很多案子里都对自愿发生各种性行为的成年人施以鞭刑，其中一些案子如肛交，无论异性恋者或同性恋者都可能有此行为。因此，这不仅影响男女同性恋者、双性恋者及变性人的事，而是影响了全体马来西亚人。

以上摘取于《独立新闻在线》记者陈碧环撰述.

by 旭日の革

The Queen of Pop ~ Madonna on a Mission

By Jeanne Wolf
PARADE Magazine

She's about to begin her Sticky and Sweet World Tour, and "4 Minutes," the first single from her new album, "Hard Candy," is topping the charts. Now Madonna can add documentarian to her growing list of accomplishments.

"I Am Because We Are," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, focuses on the suffering of Malawian children whose parents died of AIDS, an issue of critical importance to the superstar.

PARADE Magazine: What made you decide to do the documentary?

Madonna: I was approached by a woman who lived there who said, "Look, you have children; you're a mother; you write children's books; you donate money to children's charities, so we know that you care. There's a state of emergency going on here, over a million children orphaned by AIDS. People pay attention to what you do and what you say, so could you please help?" I just thought, "How can I say no?"

What was it like to film in Africa?

When I experienced what was going on first hand, I just got sucked into the whole thing. Thank God I did. I met some amazing people and, hopefully, I've changed the lives of a lot of children. Just as important, I think it's been an incredible growing and learning experience for me. I think the film is really important, because it's not really just about what's happening in Malawi; it's really about the importance of how connected we all are, and how responsible we are for one another.

Did you know it would give you another child?

No, of course not. But I'll never forget meeting my son, David. If I could, I would have adopted 10 more children. There's just so many that need parents, and one's more beautiful and lovely than the next.

You have some high-profile collaborators on your new album "Hard Candy," from Justin Timberlake to Kanye West. Who was in charge in those recording sessions?

I like to work with people who have strong opinions. Justin, Timbaland and Kanye -- they are all pretty much superstars in their own right and have a very strong sense of what they like and what they want -- but so do I. So it was like many forces meeting all together in a room, and it was good give and take. There was a lot of chemistry.

You seem to have a very strong sense of what it takes to survive in this business.

I guess so. I mean, people say that about me, but I don't really think of myself as a business woman. Maybe I just have good intuition.

As the music world changes, you've been called a master at reinventing yourself. What's the secret to staying current?

I think it's because I'm curious. I pay attention to what's going on around me. I'm always looking for new energy, new talent, new voices. When you do that, I think it's easier to come up with fresh ideas. It's not that my career has been based on surprising people, but it's been about challenging myself -- to constantly do new things that are going to broaden my own mind and in the process, hopefully, connect with other people.

How's the fight going to keep the media from invading the privacy of your children?

It's a constant battle. I try to avoid places where I think my kids are going to get inundated by paparazzi. In England, there's a law against photographing children. So it's a little bit easier there. Airports we can't avoid. Sometimes it's just unavoidable. I don't like to live in a gilded cage. I don't want to live my life behind closed doors. I want to be out in the world and I want to be free, and yet, still careful and watchful.

Source from MSN.com

by 旭日の革

July Recipe: Barbecue Pork Ribs

Here are the ingredients, listed in the four steps for cooking barbecue pork ribs. These
quantities will work for 4 slabs of ribs.

Step 1 – The Dry Rub

4 slabs of baby back pork ribs
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup paprika
⅓ cup garlic salt
2 tablespoons onion salt
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne or ground red pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 ½ teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin

Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well
- OR-
1 bottle of Big Bob Gibson’s Seasoning & Dry Rub or your favorite bottled rub

Step 2 – The juices

½ cup apple juice per slab
½ cup grape juice per slab

Step 3 – Dry Rub again

¾ cup of the Step 1 dry rub, or your favorite bottled rub
⅓ cup brown sugar

Step 4 – The Sauce

1 ½ cup of Bib Bob Gibson’s Championship Red Sauce or your favorite bottled sauce
½ cup honey

First, take off the thin membrane that covers the underside, bone side, of the ribs. Use a sharp knife to start to separate a small piece of the membrane from the bones. Then use a paper towel in your hand to grip the membrane and pull it off the whole slab of ribs in one shot. This is an important step because that membrane would block the seasonings from being absorbed into that underside half of the pork rib slab.

Step 1:
Sprinkle on a good amount of the dry rub that you choose, homemade or bottled. Pat the rib slab gently to make sure that the seasonings stick. Bake the ribs, meat side up, in a 250 degree oven for 2 ¼ hours.

Step 2:
Remove the ribs from the oven and place each slab with the meat side down on a double-sized sheet of aluminum foil and fold the sides of the foil up to make a little “boat.” Pour 1 cup of the step 2 juice mixture over each slab and fold over the foil to tightly cover the ribs so that no liquid or steam will escape when cooking. Put the ribs back in the 250 degree oven for 1 hour.

Step 3:
Take the ribs out of the foil and discard the foil and juice mixture. Cover each slab with a medium coating of the dry rub and bake uncovered meat side up in the 250 degree over for another 30 minutes.

Step 4:
Again take the ribs out of the oven and turn it up to 350 degrees. Paint on the step 4 sauce on both sides of each slab. Place them meat side up in the 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until the sauce starts to congeal and caramelize on the slabs.

Serve and enjoy!


Source from Internet.


by 旭日の革

Decorating Homes Ideas

Home decoration can be a big and expensive budget and it is always good to pre-plan and foresee the problems that may arise beforehand to prevent wastage of money, time and effort or a result that does not match to your original intentions or conflict with your daily needs. Choose the project that fits your budget. You may also want to beak up your total project plan in smaller and more manageable projects and then prioritize them to fit your budget. Mostly, people prefer to solve living problems first and targeting the areas that are most used or lived-in in the house. Décor themes and styles can be chosen from the interior décor magazines to make your home look bright, cheerful and casual or formal, elegant and sophisticates. You may also prefer rustic, country and shabby-chic styles.

Color schemes should be chosen according to your theme, climatic conditions, size of the room and light that comes in the room. Monochromatic walls can be made to look beautiful with accents in two or three accent colors. Prints of fabrics such as stripes, plaids, floral or checks can be used as single or mix-and-match according to your preference. For large rooms, choose multi-hued upholstery, bed linens and coverings, wallpaper and window curtains with a large-scale print. Contrasts of mid-scale and small-scale prints look too. Play with either color or print or texture. Variants of all can lead to chaotic feel. Solid colors or neutrals go well with patterns. Position your furniture into more than one group seating areas, if the room is big, use screens and area rugs to divide the areas and use warm colors all around to make it feel cozy.

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Stick to less than three colors, prints or textures in a small room and keep your decorating muted for serenity. Mirrors reflect more light, and glass-to tables almost disappear from view making the space feel larger and airy. Tall vertical furniture, floor length curtains hung from ceiling height and vertical stripes add to the height of the ceiling. Use symmetrical décor elements such as a pair of lamps and vases for the formal look in a room. Smooth, glossy and plush are the key words to elegance, be it highly polished wooden furniture or luxurious carpeting. Casual decorating can use horizontal lines with low furniture line and use of different textures. Displaying your collectibles on wall mounted shelves and grouping pi

ctures of different sizes on walls for an informal look, does well too. For collections, display heaviest piece at the bottom, groupings at the eye level and preferably in odd numbers.

Source from Internet

by 旭日の革

Home Color Scheme

When it comes to home decoration, one thing that is of prime importance is no doubt the home color scheme including the interior color scheme and exterior paint scheme. You might have the best of home furnishings but if they are not in proper harmony it will spoil the whole look. Color plays a vital role in making your small house look bigger and cozy. While choosing your color scheme, due consideration should be given to the space available, furnishings and your personal taste.

There are different elements of color, so it's crucial to acquire knowledge about them and then choose your decorative color. Neutral shades like beige, fawn and light gray are the best for creating balance and harmony. If you want to give a cool refreshing appearance, then you can choose one of the soft pastel shades. The contemporary pastel colors are enhancing the beauty of many bedrooms these days. The concept of harmony can be met in two distinct ways. You can either look out for neutral shades or else go in for contrasting bold colors. There is a wide range of beautiful rainbow colors hitting the market.

Color selection is also dependant on the place, which needs to be renovated. Shades of your bedroom cannot be applied to your office. There is a different color palette for office, shops, shopping malls, hotels and your own sweet home. For residential purpose there are different shades as distinct from the commercial ones.

Color also reflects moods. Red is a color indicative of excitement, anger and passion. While blue especially sky blue denotes patience and calm. Yellow is something that is often associated with sun, thus represents warmth. Green is more cozy and refreshing. Keeping all these factors in mind, choose the right color scheme.

Source from Internet

by 旭日の革

Decorating First Homes

Decorating first home is often very
challenging to the new couple or single homeowner. Most of the people can only afford sterile-looking apartment units or tiny homes at the beginning stages of their lives that have few or none architectural advantages to flaunt. However, decorating your first apartment is also about giving a personal touch to your home, buying furniture and furnishing that is stylish, functional, efficient, fits into small rooms, versatile and yet inexpensive. Here are some tips that you can use to make your home a retreat for yourself while accommodating all the necessary comforts of life:

• Choose the theme of home décor and stick to a similar look in all the rooms and areas for harmonious and rhythmic flow and balance throughout the home.
  
• Get inspired by home decoration mags, events, shows and serials to choose the home style that you love.
  
• Most people opt for rustic, contemporary, casual, traditional, sleek, modernistic, minimalist, regional or period décor styles.
  
• nce you have decided on a theme, try to choose your assets, furniture pieces, furnishings, accents and accessories in keeping with the theme, though a piece or two of mismatched items is perfectly okay.
  
• For small apartments, loft living and tiny homes, it is best to stick to maximum of three colors, patterns or styles to keep the serenity of the home environment rather than going for a riot of colors that makes your home look like a chaos. Differ in only one of these things to maintain the better synchronization.
  
• Scale of furniture should be chosen according to the room size, doorframe size and elevator size for greater movability. Put less and versatile furniture in a small room such as chest of drawers that can serve as countertop too or an ottoman with hidden storage area for greater efficiency in less space.
  
• You can also make a combo of one or two leather furniture items with wooden table and sleek modernistic chairs that can be stacked on top of the other in the corner to make more space when needed.
  
• You may choose loveseats instead of sofas for small rooms or sofas with no arms to make the room look more spacious.
  
• Cheap inexpensive home décor pieces available at vintage and antique shops, flea markets, auctions, thrift shops, secondhand and recycle shops and garage sales can be used creatively to make your home look like a studio for a fraction of the cost. These places are good resources for unwanted and rare items that are still in good condition or need only minor changes or repairs.
  
• Long-lasting, stylish and versatile furniture piece is something you can invent your bucks or buy a good quality old furniture piece and paint, polish, repair, reupholster or wax it to make it shine like new.
  
• Keep swatches of fabrics and colors you would like along with pictures of the pieces you would really like for home with you while shopping for home décor furniture and furnishings so everything new available in the store doesn't tempt you.
  
• Allot some shelves of the bookcase or the entertainment center or the wall to display your collectibles, for a pretty home makes you feel proud of it and is much more inviting when you come back to it from work. You may also like to install a small fireplace for colder climates to add warmth to home décor.

Source from Internet

by 旭日の革