Village Gardens

Summer is the perfect time for outdoor entertaining.  Whether you’re just having a few friends over or hosting an outdoor party for your entire family, getting out of the house and enjoying an evening outside can be a great change of pace.  Of course, you do have to do a little planning before hosting an evening outdoors, and that includes decorating.

Since you’re going to be outdoors, why not take advantage of the décor already there?  Setting up your table near your beautiful flower beds or garden can be a great way to bring in the greens and other bright colors.  For your table, cut a few fresh blooms from these flowers and place them in a vase.  Alternatively, you can order a nice arrangement that compliments the colors of your garden and flowers.

You can also bring the summer flower décor indoors.  If your guests will need to go through your home to get to your event, place a few vases of summer flowers around your home.  If they’re coming in through a gate, you can put a small table near the entrance with summer flowers on it.  If you need to put a sign up directing guests to the back yard, you could attach a few flowers to it or put several pots of flowers around it.

By letting your summer flowers spread out from the table, you’ll be creating an overall motif that will really impress your guests and show off both your gardening and your decorating skills.

Ready for some springtime fun in Kansas City?  There are many great attractions in the city for you and your family to enjoy.  Here are just a few of the best attractions for you to enjoy this spring.

The Crown Center in the heart of Kansas City is a great place to start your springtime adventure.  They have a great number of different dining options, plus the center features three live theatres and a huge movie complex.  Next door to the Crown Center is Union Station, a historic landmark that houses Science City.  This attraction is a hands-on science center that kids will enjoy.

If you’d rather go outdoors, the Overland Park Arboretum features 300 acres of trees, flowers, and nature.  More than 80 percent of the park is natural ecosystem, while the remaining part of the garden features botanical gardens, a visitor’s center, and a conservatory.  You can wander through the Erickson Water Garden, the Monet Garden, and a learning arboretum.  The arboretum also features many different hiking and walking trails.

A visit to the Kansas City zoo can also be a great springtime activity for families.  The zoo has more than 200 acres and over 1,000 animals, including elephants, kangaroos, camels, and more.  Several new additions, including an indoor rainforest, new viewing decks, and a lion viewing area are now open, and a polar bear exhibit is planned for 2010.

If you need to cool down on a hot spring day, Oceans of Fun is a great destination.  This water theme park features a 72 foot super slide, a water funhouse with cannons and rope bridges, and a 2,000 square foot spray ground for the kids.  For a more relaxing time, you can float down the Caribbean Cooler or visit the Castaway Cove and its swim-up cabana.

It’s no secret that people get depressed during the bland winter months.  There’s actually a name for it—Seasonal Affective Disorder.  This is a diagnosed type of depression that affects many people, and the cause is unknown, although some speculation has to do with various hormones and the change in the amount of sunlight.  Even if you don’t have this issue, a lot of people get the winter blues.  However, there’s one great way of adding a bit of cheer to the dull winter months and giving you a bit of a pick me up: get a nice arrangement of colorful spring flowers!

With spring right around the corner, there’s no better time than to bring some gorgeous flowers into your home.  Sunflowers, lilies, daisies, irises, carnations, mums, chrysanthemums…the list goes on and on.  All of these brightly colored flowers will have you in a better mood in just a few minutes.  You can place them in the center of your table to bring a touch of spring to your dining room or put them on an end table in your living room so you can enjoy them while you relax. 

You might not think that flowers would make that much difference in your mood, but studies have actually shown that they do.  A study done by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, showed that flowers actually can trigger positive emotions.  It wasn’t just a short-term effect, either; participants in the study found themselves feeling less anxious and depressed days after receiving flowers.  This effect was felt by people of all ages, and those who received flowers were more likely to want to have contact with others.  Next time you start to feel the need to withdraw from the cold, wintry world, order yourself an arrangement of spring flowers.  They will brighten up your home and your mood in no time.