Decor Elements to Incorporate into the Bedroom

Fall fashion week is taking place in New York and spring fashion trends are right around the corner. Just as you would update your wardrobe seasonally, as each season brings new trends, you should update your home decor as well. The bedroom is the place to start. New decor and design elements can leave you feeling energized and refreshed! Try incorporating these design trends, courtesy of Apartment Therapy:

1. A little bit of whimsy
Your bedroom is the first place you wake up in and the last place you see before you close your eyes. If you want to cultivate the kind of attitude in your life where you don't take too many things seriously, isn't best you create a starting and ending space where a little bit of whimsy resides? And the best part is you can define "whimsy" any way that you'd like. You could just have fun colors, favorite art, funny sayings, quirky objects — anything that might mean whimsy to you. 

2. Pattern that excites
In the same vein as the above suggest, though a soothing, softly colored bedroom is a great place to fall asleep in, if you have trouble waking up, you might consider creating a bedroom space that gives your eyes lots of visual stimulation as soon as they blink open. One of the easiest ways to do that is with pattern layering on top of pattern.

3. Bed covers that look good a little crumpled
Though you should always aim to make your bed every morning (it's just nicer to come home to at the end of a long work day), you should aim to fill your bedroom space with forgiving materials —the kind of bedsheets and more that don't have to be made with military precision to look good. This will help save your sanity and cultivate a more cozy, casual feel to the space.

4. A little bit of romance
You don't have to go all pink all the time in your bedroom, but you should look for ways to add a little romance in to your space, whatever that might mean to you. So perhaps that is a touch of pink color on an unexpected decorative element. Or maybe a a fresh bouquet of roses. Perhaps it's just luxuriating in sumptuous materials you treat yourself with.

5. A unique nightstand & 6. A unique headboard
You don't have to have both. Or really even have either. But if your bedroom needs a boost with its decor, chances are you can excite with a unique nightstand or headboard.

7. Oversized plants
Any plant of any size in your bedroom will look lovely and bring a burst of nature into your space. But if you really want a dynamic look, look to oversized plants to really fill in the boring spaces of your bedroom.

8. Wall-mounted bedside lights
Not only is good lighting vital next to your bedside, but using wall-mounted lights just make sense. You can usually adjust them to whatever task — like reading — you need, and they save space on your nightstand. They usually almost always look rad.

Plan a Fun Night In!

For those nights when you just don't feel like going out. even though it's the weekend, plan a fun night at home with your family or friends! If you're tired of spending your evenings in front of the TV, Apartment Therapy has some ideas on how to have plan something exciting with your family or significant other.

1. Play a game. 
Dust off that old game of Clue, or Trivial Pursuit, or Monopoly (ok, maybe not Monopoloy unless it's a really long night) and challenge your housemates to some good old-fashioned intellectual competition. I always forget, until I'm playing them, how much board games can bring out people's personalities and show you new sides of people you already thought you knew. Just try not to let rivalries or hard feelings linger after the game's over. In my house, one of our rules is that the winner always picks up the game, which tends to take the edge off gloating.

2. Put together a puzzle. 
Jigsaw puzzles, I think, are incredibly underrated. Sure, working on a puzzle may not be as immediately gratifying as say, watching a car chase, but it has a certain slow joy that is a nice antidote to the chaos of modern life. When you're piecing together a puzzle, you can explore a bit, try different combinations, take your time. If you work on a puzzle with someone else, you'll wind up having all kinds of conversations that you might not otherwise have had. Puzzles are like alcohol. They relax people.

3. Have a cook-off. 
Cooking is fun: competitive cooking is even more fun. Rummage through your cabinets for random, leftover ingredients, and challenge one of your housemates to a cookoff, iron-chef style. Winner gets bragging rights, everyone gets to eat something.

4. Draw each other. 
No, this doesn't have to be some kind of sexy Titanic thing (unless you really want it to be). Some of the most fun I've had with friends at house parties involves just paper and pencils: turns out, drawing people you know is really, really fun. You can have one person pose and all draw that person, or just have everyone in the room draw someone else. And you don't have to all be Da Vincis: having participants with a range of styles and skill levels makes the end results especially entertaining.

5. Make something.
Crafts are like Sudoku for your hands. And you don't have to make a lifelong commitment to knitting to procure an evening's entertainment. Trying searching online for instructions for origami, or even towel art. Or heck, just decoupage something.

6. Bake something really difficult that you've never baked before. 
Make dumplings. Or macaroons. Or a pie-crust from scratch. Now's the time to try one of those notoriously hard recipes that you've heard takes forever. After all, you've got plenty of time. And, as a bonus, it makes the house warmer!

7. Build a pillow fort. 
You may think that you are too old to build a pillow fort, but you are wrong. Building pillow forts is a joy that knows no season, and when you're an adult you don't have to worry about your mom coming into the room and having a fit when she sees the couch standing on its side. Once your pillow fort is complete, you can sleep inside of it. Or eat macarons. Or play a board game. Or make towel art. The sky's the limit.

Valentine's Day in Corona

Valentine's Day weekend is officially upon us! Whether you forgot to make reservations or are playing things by ear to avoid the crowds, there are still plenty of options available to you. While there are many restaurants near Montecito at Dos Lagos apartment homes, here are the top 6 picks for a fun Valentine's Day in Corona, courtesy of Life in Corona:

American Legion Valentine’s Day Dance
Where: American Legion Post 742 (1557 Yorba Street, Corona)
When: 5:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Price: $10 a person, $15 a couple

Join the American Legion for a special Valentine’s Day Dance featuring live music from the Blue Haze Band, dinner, and drinks.

Happy Hour will be from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. followed by dinner from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Dinner costs $6 a plate and no outside food or drink will be permitted.

For tickets contact:
Edward Romero at (951) 531-5202 or Susan Romero at (951) 565-7407.

Tickets will also be available at the door.

Proceeds from this event will benefit the Boys & Girls State Programs.

Valentine’s Day Singles & Couples Party
Where: Citrus City Grille (2765 Lakeshore Drive, Corona)
When: 9:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.
Price: $10 cover

Join DJ Paul VegasBoy for an evening of music, dancing, and more.

For dinner and VIP Table-Bottle Service Reservations call (951) 277-2888

Suggested dress, classy and sexy.

Moonshine & Valentines
Where: Nellie Weaver Hall, Norco
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Price: $60

Suit up in your favorite speakeasy attire, and step into the backwoods of Norco for a night of Moonshine & Valentines!

The Lake Norconian Club has a night of dinner, dancing, and entertainment planned that your sweetheart won’t soon forget.  Benefiting the Lake Norconian Club, this event will feature period jazz music from Empire Swing Orchestra, performances and lessons from the Savvy Swing Dancers, and entertainment inspired by the Lake Norconian Club Resort.

The event will also feature a down-home dinner buffet and no-host cocktails (including specialty drinks featuring Ole Smoky Moonshine, and drinks from the grand opening celebration of the hotel in 1929.)

To purchase tickets call 951-733-1328, or buy them online here: http://www.lakenorconianclub.org/?page_id=564.

Dining
Citrus City Grille
Citrus City Grille is continuing it’s annual tradition of offering a special menu for Valentine’s Day.

The menu offers a selection of six starters, eight main courses, and four deserts to choose from.

Citrus City Grille is located at 2765 Lakeshore Drive in Corona at the Dos Lagos shopping center.

Blackburn’s Farm to Table
Blackburn’s Farm to Table is offering a special Valentine’s Day dinner for two for $89.

The special Valentine’s Day dinner includes four courses beginning with a selection of appetizers for two, such as skillet macaroni and cheese, or New Zealand petite lamb chops.

Couples will have three entrees to choose from and will also have the choice of soup or salad.

The meal will conclude with a tiramisu and chocolate ganache for two.

Eduardo’s
Eduardo’s Mexican Restaurant is offering two Valentine’s Day specials, The Sweetheart’s Menu and the Perfect Match Menu.

Both specials include two entrees, a dessert, and champagne.  Entrees vary by menu and include options like carnitas, pollo en mole, and barbacoa.  Both menu’s feature three desert options including homemade flan, chocolate cake, or strawberry cheesecake.  To top it off, ladies will receive a rose when dining at Eduardo’s on Valentine’s Day.

Eduardo’s is located at 513 W 6th St, in Corona.

Repairing Apartment Damages

"IMG_3432" by Jesus Rodriguez is licensed under CC BY 2.0

If you’re moving into a new apartment soon or have had a few minor accidents in your current apartment, there are many common types of damage that you can repair yourself without having to bring your landlord into the picture. From stains to scratches, accidents happen to the best of us. Learn how you can fix these problems with a little help from Apartment Guide.

Small Holes

After taking down the photos from your gallery wall, you probably noticed the many small holes left by nails that were used to hang the frames. Patching small holes left by nails, tacks and screws is simple and will leave the walls looking great again.

You’ll need some spackling paste, a putty knife and some sandpaper. Squeeze a small glob of the spackle into each hole, then use the putty knife to spread and blend it over the hole and wall. Once the spackle is dry, use the sandpaper to lightly sand the area, especially around the edges, to leave a smooth, flat wall.

Scuff Marks

Though scuff marks likely aren’t going to cost you any of your security deposit, they make the apartment appear dirtier than it is.

Since I seem to make an inordinate amount of scuffs on the walls of my apartments, I typically don’t try to tackle them all– just really noticeable and large ones. A magic eraser works wonders to get rid of them, so pick up a couple and your walls will be white again in no time.

Large Holes

Now it’s time to tackle that large hole you hid under your favorite painting. Mending large holes in drywall isn’t as easy as some of the other fixes, but it will most likely cost you less than if you were to let your landlord handle it and deduct it from your deposit.

Pick up a mesh repair patch at the hardware store to use with your spackle. Then, cut the patch so that it fits over the hole and the surrounding wall. Cover the patch with spackle, and after it dries, sand down the edges so they blend into the wall completely.

Broken Blinds

Another common damage issue I’m guilty of is bending or even breaking some of my window blinds. Before moving out, dust your windows and blinds, and make sure none are bent or cracked. If bent, do your best to straighten them out as much as possible.

If you can’t straighten them, or if one of the blinds is broken, look for blinds of the same size and color at your hardware store. Replace the broken slat with the new one, and your landlord won’t ever know the difference!

Carpet Stains

If you’re a red-wine drinker living in a carpeted apartment, you probably know a thing or two about removing carpet stains. Tackling stains before they get a chance to set will help your carpet look better overall, but before moving out, peruse the carpet for any stains you might have missed.

Try using baking soda or carpet cleaner first. If that’s not strong enough to remove the stains, consider renting a carpet cleaner from your hardware or grocery store. They’re easy to use, and your carpets will be unrecognizably clean when you’re done.

Scratches on Hardwood

Renters love apartments with hardwood floors because they’re much easier to clean than carpet, but they do have one common problem with them: Hardwood is easy to scratch. There are a couple of quick fixes for the shallower scrapes, though.

Many people swear by the walnut method, which involves rubbing a raw walnut along the scrape until the scratch blends into the rest of the floor. This method works well, just not on deep scratches and darker woods.

For deeper scratches, look for a wood-colored marker or pencil at the hardware store. These products are specifically made for filling in and disguising the scrapes.

General Dirtiness

Deep cleaning your apartment is generally recommended to ensure you get your full deposit back, and to give your landlord less of a headache when he or she is trying to ready the unit for the next renter.

Give everything a good wiping, sweeping and dusting, but spend extra time in the kitchen and bathroom. The refrigerator, microwave, oven and stove should all be thoroughly cleaned, along with the toilet, shower, tub and sink.