The holidays are coming! And winter is here now (well, we’ve got snow now and therefore our outdoor living is over until March). My thoughts are turning toward making my home a little nicer to be in. If you know me, you know that home lighting is a BIG thing with me. When I wired the electric for my living room, I designed the lighting and the lighting fixtures to be in very specific areas of the room. I intend to do it with all my rooms. Lighting is very important to me; it serves a functional purposes in our house and it also serves as a decorative element, too. I am slowly building the rooms not only with ceiling lights, but with effects like sconces or crown molding lights. I really can’t wait until I get to remodel the kitchen- I have such dreams for the lighting there!

How about you? How are you preparing your home for the holiday season? Have you checked out the stunning lighting products and home lighting solutions at InvitingHome.com? They have the BEST crown moulding lighting effects I have ever seen– and believe me, I’ve looked around. Doesn’t that entry way look so.. well, so inviting? No wonder they’re called InvitingHome.com. They have some spectacular ideas for home decorating– really, really classy– everything from making a room appear more “masculine” to making a focal point for your room. See some of the ideas here.

InvitingHome.com offers waaaay more than just lamps and ideas. They have everything- folding screens, knobs and pulls, moulding, mirrors, wall art, chairs, corbels, staircase parts– everything you need to make your home very inviting. They have an “Inspiration Gallery” at the site (see here), and it helps me to stir up my creative juices. Gosh, the rooms are drop-dead gorgeous. Their showroom is in Massachusetts– if I ever get out that way, we’re going. But the nice thing is that InvitingHome.com offers their ideas and products online, so we who live further away can benefit, too.

Anyway, if you’re wondering how and with what to spruce up your home for the coming holidays (or anytime, really), take a peek at their site. It’s gorgeous!

I remember when Febreze first came out. It was amazing! Before, the only real recourse for removing odors from fabrics and furniture was to douse the thing in baking soda and water. And HOPEFULLY the stink would leave. I don’t know about you, but I am a frugal shopper. That means, I buy used furniture! Our “pre-owned” couch, which is beautiful and in perfect condition, stunk like the Dickens of cigarrette smoke. Unbearable. We spent the early part of the summer doing things the old way– I doused the couch with baking soda and we let it sit outside for a few days. Then we vacuumed and vacuumed. All our efforts did very little. I bought an industrial-size bottle of Febreze and used it all up on the thing. The couch now sits in our living room, and doesn’t smell like an ashtray. But every once in a while, that nasty stench rises up on humid days, so we break out the industrial-sized bottle of Febreze and squirt the couch again. But really, I hate lugging the bottle out to the living room, so I tend to just leave it there, but it does look awful. Tell me, doesn’t that big blue bottle look a little out of place on the coffee table?!

Yeah, I think so, too.

But see that little bottle of liquid neat to it? That’s my latest “bright idea.” :-D That’s Febreze, too. It’s the new Febreze Refresher “Decor Collection” and they made it to look inconspicuous, like a vase, for those moments of little stinky “indiscretions.” I LOVE this stuff! It’s not too expensive, either– they come in 3-packs (8 oz. each bottle) for a little less than $10. I keep mine in my living room and in the bedroom (when the humidity rises, the carpet by the window smells like an old dog). A few quick squirts, and the furniture and room smells heavenly. I have lavender and vanilla, and it is glorious! My husband, who is averse to the heavy “air freshener” gadgets, does not mind my Febreze fix. I have sprayed some on my couch (again) and living room chair, and the scent is wonderful. Even with the windows open, the scent remains. It’s a light scent; I like it. It doesn’t burn my throat and nose like Lysol does, either.

So this new Febreze Refresher Decor Collection gets a thumbs up from me! It’s not expensive, it’s way better than the big blue Febreze bottle, and it leaves a nice, light scent on the fabrics and in the air. It’s also very nice to have in the room for a quick squirt before company arrives.

P.S. This is not a paid post!!