Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in the Your Home section.
To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
Anna Lascols, Organizing Geneva
Her mission as a professional organizer is to improve people’s lives by coaching them how to set up and maintain efficient systems to keep their time and space in order. Anna helps her clients to visualize their ideal lifestyle and works side-by-side with tem to reach their goals. These can range from redesigning their closet à la Marie Kondo to getting their paperwork under control, improving their time management skills or preparing for the arrival of a baby. Anna is a KonMari Consultant and a member of the Swiss Association of Professional Organizers (Swiss-APO). She works in and around Geneva and provides her services is English, French, German and Spanish. She offers personal organizing sessions, virtual coaching and organizes workshops on various organizing and zero waste topics.
Liz Forest - EMF Management
Liz Forest is the founder and owner of EMF Management, a Swiss-registered renovation project management company servicing the international community in the greater Lake Geneva / Vaud region. EMF handles the heavy lifting so clients do not have to learn a new trade, take time off work, or sacrifice family holidays or their sanity just to make their house a home.
Virginie Dor - Space of Mine
As founder of Space of Mine, a professional business specializing in residential organizing, Virginie Dor is committed to helping individuals and families better their lives, take control of their surroundings and time by creating organizing solutions that are individually tailored to each client. As a proud member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers), she is an expert in clutter control, work flow, space planning and time management.
Tara Lissner - Swiss Gardening School
An enthusiastic, self-taught gardener, Tara Lissner is passionate about gardening and eager to share her zeal and knowledge with other gardening fans. In 2012, she joined forces with Hester Macdonald, a British-trained landscape designer, to launch the Swiss Gardening School.
Aislinn Delmotte - Settling Here
Aislinn Delmotte runs Settling Here, a company which aims to provide practical help and advice to individuals, couples and families relocating to the Pays de Gex, a region where some of the customs are similar to those in neighbouring Switzerland, but where many aspects of living are entirely different.
Sophia Kelly - Sophia Kelly Home Design
Responding to the growing demand for home design services in the international community, Sophia Kelly provides a range of tailor-made services, which are perfect for clients who have just moved into a new home or who simply need help reorganizing one that they have lived in for many years!
By Tara Lissner, Swiss Gardening School
This morning while sitting at my desk I admired the dexterity of a blue tit flitting from branch to branch on my roses enjoying a delicious breakfast of tiny green caterpillars. These little caterpillars feast on the tips of the soft new growth on my roses and manage to fold the leaves on top of themselves creating a cocoon. Whenever I notice these folded leaves I open them and often find that the caterpillar has long since moved on to another spot leaving behind damaged leaves. The blue tit however is most precise and only looks for caterpillars – he was very successful this morning and I enjoyed the show.
The end of April brings showers and sunshine and significant growth in the garden, with May comes warmer temperatures (we hope) and no excuses – it is time to work. Here are a few things that have been keeping me busy recently.
By Tara Lissner, Swiss Gardening School
Well it is that time of year again, Christmas carols playing all around, the scent of mulled wine in the air, sparkling light-filled trees and all the chaos that comes with the anticipation of the holidays. It is also a time to look back and contemplate the year that was in the garden and look forward to the adventures in store for 2015.
What were your greatest successes, courgettes or roses, mine were the blueberries. Or the biggest disappointments, basil or geraniums, for me this year it has to have been the tomatoes. Taking notes and photographs as reminders of the successes and the failures in the garden is the best way to change and improve things for next year. A gardener’s best friend is the trusty notebook – a hard cover little notebook that slips into your pocket makes a great gift.
I have been thinking about getting my paintbrushes, acrylics and art box out for months, and preparing a new piece of art for my bare wall.
Whilst I was walking round IKEA, I saw a huge photographic framed art piece reduced to half price and then I got thinking. What if I were to paint over this and create my own original piece of art? At the asking price, I couldn’t leave it behind. The cost of a prepared canvas of this scale, would have been four times the price.
So with a bit of imagination and much excitement, I set off by priming over the art piece with white gesso. It took about 4 coats but then it was ready for whatever medium or material I wanted to add to it.
It’s that time of the year when flowers are blooming, the sun is beaming into your home and you look around and clearly see that you have much freshening up to do.
Here are a few tips to kick-start your spring-cleaning before the busy season of summer begins:
DE-CLUTTERING
Take time to review all your home items purchased over the years. Decide whether you actually need these items, when was the last time you used them and would you actually miss them. You are then ready to put the clutter into 3 categories or boxes:
- Items that must be thrown away
- Items that can be given away or sold
- Items to be stored or put away
Photo courtesy of vitasamb2001, www.freedigitalphotos.net
By Gillian Brotherwood, co-founder of Settling Here
Historically, all people had to take medical insurance in the country in which they were employed. However in 2002, a bilateral agreement between the European Union and Switzerland, gave Frontaliers the right to choose which national healthcare system they wished to take and pay into. France, under pressure from Frontaliers, accepted to allow Frontaliers to choose between the French healthcare system, the CMU, or take out a private health insurance. The decision was given initially for a 7 year timeframe. This was extended by a year in 2009 and then again until June 2014.
The majority of Frontaliers (95%) choose the private healthcare option, this is for a variety of reasons, including cost, choice, and availability of services. Private Frontalier healthcare insurance contracts offer a variety of options for people, allowing individuals to choose cover depending on their budget and health care requirements.
