When it comes to designing their outdoor spaces, many homeowners are left feeling overwhelmed by choices. However, the same rules you used to design your home’s interior can be applied to the outdoors as well.

The best way to focus on your exterior spaces is by creating a design plan. Whether you just need a few new plants or a complete outdoor transformation, these five tips will help you create a landscaping plan that is beautiful and reflects your style.

     1.   Make a list of wants and needs
Do you want an organic vegetable garden? Do your kids need a place to play? Do you hate mowing grass? Your wants and needs are an important part of designing your outdoor spaces. By prioritizing your wants and needs first, you can design your yard around the outdoor spaces your family will use most.

     2.   Pay attention to sun and wind
Study the sun and wind patterns around your home before committing to a design. For example, a backyard patio might give you extra space to entertain – unless you would spend the afternoon being baked by the summer sun. Likewise, wind whipping around trees might extinguish a fire pit. Pay attention to the sun and wind and take into account how it will affect your spaces at different times of the day or throughout the year.

    3.   Create a focal point
Just like your home’s interior, outdoor spaces can benefit from a focal point. Whether it’s a row of shrubs, a tree, a fountain, or a sculpture, a focal point draws the eye while creating visual interest.“The point is to draw your eye and move it through the landscape," says Marianne Lipanovich, author of the Big Book of Garden Design.

    4.   Don’t jump into a design
If you move into a new home, you may want to immediately reconfigure the outdoor spaces. However, this might lead to choices that don’t work for your family in the long run. Instead, take the time to live with the spaces and thoughtfully consider your potential designs before committing to a landscaping plan.

    5.   Start small
While the remodeling shows on TV might be able to make over a yard in a weekend, most homeowners don’t have the same kind of manpower. To avoid getting in over your head, start small; working on a single flowerbed at a time can keep you from feeling overwhelmed and rushing to finish the project. This also allows you to develop and change your landscaping plan as needed as you live with the changes.

Leaving your mark on the planet is generally a good thing and something worth striving for, except when it comes to environmental health. Every activity humans perform impacts the environment in some way, but this may not be immediately apparent. Making your home eco-friendly means earning the eternal gratitude of generations to come, as you will be leaving them with a cleaner and greener world to live in. Here are quick ways to make your home more eco-friendly.
 
Energy: Home is the place where you are at ease, where you can relax. Naturally, a dwelling also has to have the everyday comforts before anyone would even think of living in it; meaning it has to have a refrigerator and a dishwasher at the very least. These machines help us feel more comfortable, but they also expend a lot of electricity, causing massive carbon emissions. Here are some alternatives.
 
 

• Refrigerator – Our ancestors used to store food in a cool and dark place, such as a cellar. If there are no cellars to be found in your immediate vicinity, you can at least minimize the power consumption of your refrigerator. Reduce its cooling by a few notches, turn it off when it’s empty and minimize the amount of time you stare at the contents unsure about what to eat next.

 

• Dishwasher – The best way to save money and the environment is to turn the dishwasher off and use cold water with just a drop of detergent to wash your dishes.

 
Chemicals: Every year, tons of household products end up in rivers, where they poison the wildlife and eventually make their way into the water supply for you to drink them. Making the world safer, cleaner and healthier means simply scaling down the amount of chemicals we use in our daily lives.
 

• Shampoo – A great natural alternative to chemical-laden shampoos we use every day is the baking soda shampoo. Simply mix a tablespoon of baking soda with 2 cups of water and you’ll get a wonderful shampoo that removes dandruff, sebum and oil buildup.

 

• Window cleaners – Having sparkly clean windows is wonderful, but the window cleaning liquid tends to evaporate right back into your face as it’s being sprayed. Some natural and eco-friendly alternatives for window cleaning include vinegar and cornstarch.

 
Social media: Are you worried about what kind of world the next generation will live in? You should be. Click here and found out some easy ways to save money, energy and the environment.

Continue your summer fun with the all time popular [Riviera Village Summer Festival http://www.rvsummerfestival.com/], June 24th and 25th. Located in the heart of the Riviera Village of Redondo Beach, at the corner of Catalina and Avenue I. The festival is sponsored by the Riviera Village Association.

See over 250 arts and crafts booth, sample great food from your favorite vendors at the International Food Court and  have the kids play on carnival rides. Watch local acts perform on the Community Stage while enjoying  fresh squeezed lemonade and some Taquitos from Olvera Street or you can just hang in the ocean view Beer Garden, listening to great live bands performing all day.

There will be music for all musical tastes during the two-day festival. The Beach will rock on Saturday & Sunday till closing both days. The festival is a family affair with entertainment for all ages and admission is FREE. The event runs from 10 am to 7 pm Saturday & Sunday.

This year ride your bike to a “No-cost Bike Corral” valet service on Catalina & Ave I run by the Beach Cities Cycling Club, sponsored by the BCHD or park at South High School.

For more information call the Event hotline: 310-531-8939

Los Angeles is a city that is brimming with attractions and things to do for the grown-ups, and for kids as well. Many of these activities are free! Here are 5 that we think any kid would love to see:

1.  California Science Center – Not too many kids would be thrilled at the prospect of going to a museum, but that all changes when the museum in question is the California Science Center. Not only is this the place where the Space Shuttle Endeavor is now parked, it is also home to a large number of exhibits, both permanent and traveling. If you are looking for free stuff to do here, the good news is that those permanent exhibits are always free to visit. Best of all, they are interactive, which means the little ones can feel free to get in on the action.

2. Griffith Observatory – How often have you caught your kids staring off into space as they explore their imagination? They can do that for real at the iconic Griffith Observatory, where star gazing is taken to a whole new level. Admission is always free and the exhibits and displays available are incredible. You actually get a double bonus here, as the location of the observatory is high in the Hollywood hills, with great views of the city below.

3. Hit the beach – You don’t have to travel too far away from downtown L.A. before you land at the ocean and one of the many great beaches that dot the Pacific Coast Highway. You can settle on just one, or perhaps take a drive along the PCH and hit a few of them along the way. Pack some sunscreen and a bite to eat and you can have a fun day at the beach that the kids will love.

4. Getty Center – There is an expectation that the weather will co-operate when you have a fun day in California, but if you get a miserable, rainy day, think about taking the kids to the Getty Museum. This is another one that is free to get into and which encourages the kids to interact with the exhibits. Great for kids of all ages.

5. Watch TV – No, we don’t mean that you should sit in front of the TV all day, but rather go and see a live show being made. You can get these tickets for free in advance or simply spend some time around the TCL Chinese Theater, where tickets for the shows are always being given away. The TCL Chinese Theater is a cool place to hang out for free. You can check out the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame in front and visit with characters like Spiderman and Batman.