Melissa's Idea Garden

Daniel is many things...He is smart. He is well-informed. He is a great Dad. He is a loving son and husband. He can make a computer do just about anything. But he has only a little bit of expertise in the mechanical and home repair departments. So things break around here and they tend to get left undone, unless it's something I can fix. Well, last week, I rented two handymen and now little things that had piled up are working very well!

Continue reading "Home Improvement" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 12:44 PM | Permalink

The last television we bought (prior to the plasma televsion we purchased last spring) was heavy as all get out, but easy to use. You purchased it, brought it home, set it down, plugged it in and watched it. We eventually purchased an entertainment center stand and we slid it into its proper spot, but it could sit up on the table, on the floor, wherever we chose to place it.

With the new thin televisions, you can't just set them on a table or on the floor because they will fall down! You have to order a plasma tv mount. Now they can be mounted on the wall or you can purchase a stand that sits on an entertainement center and then you mount the television to the stand, but the flat screen televisions must have support or else they will topple, crash and you will cry....a bunch! So don't forget to order your mounting accessories when you upgrade to the new plasma television, so that our TV won't be left sitting in a box!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:55 PM | Permalink

Buying a television used to be simple. You went to the store, you picked out the model and you brought it home. But technology has changed that. Now you can get a LCD TV, a Plasma TV, a projection TV. So many choices...so many possibilities. Regardless of what one chooses, regardless of the complexities, television provides us with a much better picture to look at these days.

Have you noticed that televisions have gotten bigger too? Not only is the picture clearer, but it is common for people to own a television with 40 to 60 inch screens. I foresee a future when our television will be as large as a wall and we can either watch a show or a movie on it or we can switch it to look like the great outdoors: a seascape, a mountain scene, another galaxy. Won't that be cool!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When we got married, my inlaws asked what they could get us as a wedding gift. We told them we would really like miniblinds. They put some up all over the house and we were so pleased to have them when we arrived home from our honeymoon. Now, 14 years later, we are on our third set of miniblinds. They get caked with dust, they crack and chip, the strings break, but still they help to darken the rooms when darkening is desired without heavy drapes. But I am thinking about ditching the miniblinds and switching to roller shades.

They are much easier to clean and they look a bit more decorative. I wonder if the springs are any better than they used to be. My memories of roller shades are that sometimes they retract like you wish, sometimes they don't and that sometimes they roll up crooked. What kind of window coverings do you use?

Posted by Melissa Markham at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

People have been fascinated with moving pictures since 1877 when a series of photos showing a horse galloping were created. It is hard to pin down the first movie. The first short was in 1890 and titled "Strongman Sandow". The first short with a story line was "The Great Train Robbery" in 1903. And the first full length feature movie was "The Story of the Kelly Gang." The first full feature color movie was "The World, the Flesh and the Devil" which made it's debut in 1914.

People flocked to the movies. It was great entertainment. It opened up worlds previously ownly discovered in books or by first hand experience. Westerns (as you can tell by the titles above) were the most popular. Because when movies began being created, the call of the West was upon everyone, but not everyone could go.

Moving pictures entered our homes via televisions. While there were televisions prior to WWII, the amount of televisions sold skyrocketed after World War II. Licensed television stations started popping up across the country in the late 1940s. People gathered around the television for news and for entertainment. Over the years television brought us all close together. When we landed on the moon and Armstrong took that first step, televisions around the world were tuned in and people watched together.

Continue reading "Movie Fascination" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Even though those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere are deeply in the grip of winter, that doesn't mean we can't think about the joys of spring and summer that are coming ahead. I love spring. I love to watch the buds open up and that special green of trees when their leaves first start to grow before it deepens into the dark green of summer. I enjoy sitting on our new patio furniture and watching the birds fly hither and yon as they build their nests and mate. We often do school work out on the deck at the picnic table when the weather begins to warm. The sunshine makes us all feel good, though it makes it hard to concentrate on school work sometimes! Then there are the nature walks as we watch the world come back to life around us and thoughts that turn toward the summer months and time spent in the pool. Sounds like a Country Time Lemonade commercial!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:33 PM | Permalink

My hubby recently heard from two of his co-workers about how they are getting the best night sleep they haved ever received from a memory foam mattress. Now he is interested in checking it out. I ran across the BedinaBox website that offers 120 day trial for you (if you are not satisfied after sleeping on the mattress, you may return it during the 120 day time period and all you have to do is pay shipping. And because it is foam, they can bend it all up and ship it to you in a box! Doesn't that just seem bizarre! But the people that Daniel works with swear that they will never go back to other types of mattresses and that they are sleeping better than ever before.

The prices are higher than the coil/spring mattresses most of us have, but when you think about how much time you spend in your bed (probably an average of 8 hours a day), shouldn't it be one of the more expensive items in your home?

As we continue to ponder whether or not we want to try out the memory foam mattress, I would love to hear from any of my readers that have one and know what you think of it! Thanks!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 7:34 AM | Permalink

Here at the Markham household we take our movies very seriously. We live about 30 minutes from town and with two children and the travel time, it has always been cheaper to rent or even buy movies and watch them at home. Several years ago, my husband began his home theater quest. We have five, count them, five speakers. Two on the walls behind us that will make you jump because it sounds like people are walking up behind you or bullets are whizzing by. Then there is a center speaker and two large speakers to each side of the TV.

Then we have our sofas arranged in "L" style (not enough rooom for theater seating). We have a receiver that runs our satellite, karaoke machine, HD DVD player, and XBOX 360. The TV is a large flat screen plasma HD TV. So we grab a movie, put it in, turn out the lights and we have our home theater, only better. There are no crying babies, no one's cell phones ringing, no people talking out loud, no heads between us and the screen and we didn't have to spend $6.00 just to get to the theater! It doesn't get any better than that. Well, there is one thing missing...but hubby's birthday is in May, so maybe I could get him one of those
home theater popcorn machines...now that would complete the ensemble!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have lived in our home for 14 years. It is a doublewide and was not the best constructed doublewide in the world. We have raised four children in this home and had their friends come to visit. After time and wear, things need replacing and I have a list. I want to replace our crummy windows, first off. They are double paned, but they are hard to get to go up and down, they don't keep the cold in in the summer or out in the winter, and several of them are broken (they have these plastic things on springs that are supposed to help hold the windows in place when you raise them..they are broken on several windows). They are hard to clean because of the way they are constructed and most importantly, I worry about whether the kids could get out of their bedroom windows if they should have to in case of fire. I have told them to throw things through the windows and break the glass if necessary, but one always wonders...

After that, I would like to put down carpet in my den and dining room and living room. The areas are open to one another. We actually put in a wood floor in the dining and living room areas, but chairs sliding across it and hot wheels races have taken their toll on this parquet flooring. The carpet in the den hasn't been replaced since we move in and we can now see the stuff underneath the carpet threads where it has become threadbare.

Continue reading "Remodeling - One Room At A Time" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few years ago we did some remodeling. First we redid my daughter's room. We changed the carpet, had wallpaper put up over the wallboard and had a lovely border put up. I had so much fun watching these changes take place, I wanted a new look for the kids' bathroom too. So I got some paint and a few ocean related items and redid my bathroom decor in just a few hours.

The bottom 2/3 of the wall is an ocean blue and the top 1/3 of the wall and the ceiling are sky blue. I made waves along the top of the ocean. There are fish pasties in the ocean and cloud pasties in the sky. I picked up a fish toothbrush holder and soap dispenser. A fish shower curtain and bathroom mat and viola...a lovely new bathroom. It is in some ways my favorite room!

One of these days I want to redo the master bathroom. I want to make it look like a flower garden.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 6:57 PM | Permalink

Three years ago, we remodeled my daughter's room. I was envisioning pinks and purples (her favorite colors). I found beautiful fairy wallpaper and border that I loved and in the right colors too...but she wasn't having any of it....Nope, she chose beige wallpaper that went with the beautiful border full of baby big cats (tigers, lions, leopards...). That's my daughter, the girly Big Cat lover. We affectionately call her the Jungle Princess.

So, then it was off to the carpet store. We ended up with the perfect matching carpet (unfortunately not the best for a child's room). It is beige with little speckles in it. The sales lady assured me that the little speckles would help hide dirt...but they don't hide the stain from when Maggie (our golden retriever) came to live with us and peed on the floor and then I used the wrong kind of cleaner to clean it up with. They don't hide the pink stain from the kid's makeup kit that Katrina was given...so now I am thinking an area rug might be the answer. One day we will want to move. I can shampoo the carpet, but then it will get dirty again. An area rug over the main area would help protect the main carpet. Perhaps something in a nice animal print!

Continue reading "Area Rugs - An Inexpensive and Attractive Fix" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We added a beautiful deck to our home early last spring. It was a real blessing for us because our home isn't very large and there are times when we seem to be tripping over one another (and legos). The deck has become a place of refuge. We have completed school work on it, read books on it, skated on it, performed plays on it, had picnics on it, had a yard sale on it, created art on it, and had pirate battles on it.

As we look ahead at other things we might want to do with our outdoor space, we have considered a hearth so we could enjoy an outdoor fire in the year around. We have also considered a really nice grill. Something that I have run across this year in my visits to stores and online websites is that outdoor kitchens are becoming more and more popular. Think about it, everything there under your fingertips. A cooking surface, a sink, cabinents to store dishes and spices in. No more need for scurrying back and forth between the grill and the house. And you can have different dishes and glasses for outdoors...you know, ones that aren't breakable.

Continue reading "Outdoor Kitchens - Choose Wisely" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 1:42 PM | Permalink