For an elegant touch of oriental beauty, consider adding Thai silk pillows as accent pieces. In addition to acquiring these hand-crafted silk pillows imported directly from Thailand, you are also helping indigenous people to earn a livelihood – in danger these days as soul-less machine-made items, that may be cheaper but most definitely lack that care and unique beauty that hand-crafters bring to their art, are flooding the market.

The Lao Song, also known as the Tai Song, Lae Song Dam or the Song, are an ethnic group of Thailand. They have preserved their traditional dress, language, and culture to the present day, in the face of attempts by the dominant Thai culture (in central Thai) to assimilate them. There are approximately 34,000 Lao Song spread out over Central Thailand, and their chief economies are farming crops and handcrafts. Indeed, the villlage of Sa Si Moom — where UpsideLiving pillows come from — has the largest number of cottage industries for textile, knitwear, and clothing handicraft.

These pillows are created by twenty women, home-makers, who have formed their own cottage industry and are preserving the tradition of Lao Song applique.

A variety of Thai silk pillows are offered, from round, tufted pillows to square batik pillows.

Thai silk is noted for its beauty and its sturdiness. Silk is acquired from the silk worm…which no longer exist in the wild, by the way. They are completely dependent upon human beings for their reproduction, and are allowed to exist only to make silk. First, a batch of eggs are laid. These take about ten days to hatch. Afterwards, the hatchlings and larva eat day and night. They prefer White Mulberry but will eat other things.

After they have molted four times, the larvae enclose themselves in a cocoon of raw silk, which is produced in their salivary glands. The cocoon is made of a thread of raw silk from 1,000 to 3,000 feet long. The fibers are very fine and lustrous, 1/2,500th of an inch in diameter. About 2,000 to 3,000 cocoons are required to make a pound of silk. According to those individuals who like to figure out such things, ten unraveled cocoons could theoretically extend vertically to the height of Mount Everest.

At least 70 million pounds of raw silk are produced each year, requiring nearly 10 billion pounds of mulberry leaves of food to do so. And again, according to those number crunchers, the annual world production of silk filamanet represents 70 billion miles, a distance well over 300 round trips to the sun.

Appreciate your silk…for the silkworm gave its life for it. Since allowing the silkworm to leave the cocoon as a moth would destroy the silk, it must be boiled instead, which allows the cocoon to be easily unraveled. The deceased silkworm is then consumed as a delicacy.

When the average individual thinks of sheepskin rugs, he or she thinks of fluffy white rugs with long, soft hair that’s a joy to feel. But sheepskin designer area rugs come in more colors than just white, and more shapes than just the roughly circular, natural shape of a sheepskin. Bowron sheepskin rugs, for example, come in a variety of colors and are offered in rectangular shapes of various sizes, and runners – by using two or more expertly-matched skins, appropriately died in chocolate brown and a variety of colors such as grey, blue and so on, and in perfectly-matched stripes as well as in solid colors.

In addition to sheepskin rugs, UpsideLiving also offers designer area rugs by Rags Designer Rugs, an American designer Mike Ragan. Originally from Orlando, Florida, Ragan has been creating custom designs for discerning clients since the 1990’s.

Ragan’s When the average individual thinks of sheepskin rugs, he or she thinks of fluffy white rugs with long, soft hair that’s a joy to feel. But sheepskin designer area rugs come in more colors than just white, and more shapes than just the roughly circular, natural shape of a sheepskin. Bowron sheepskin rugs, for example, come in a variety of colors and are offered in rectangular shapes of various sizes, and runners – by using two or more expertly-matched skins, appropriately died in chocolate brown and a variety of colors such as grey, blue and so on, and in perfectly-matched stripes as well as in solid colors.

UpsideLiving offers Ragan’s designer area rugs in a variety of designs. For example, the rug below is an example of a design called Tropical Aruba.

Another tropical scene is offered in a design called Watering Hole, featuring a peaceful scene of flamingos enjoying calm water. Tropical fish dart in and out of tendrils of seaweed in the design called simply, Aquatic. Other rugs have simple geometric designs.

Ragan’s designer area rugs make a perfect accent piece in any room.

Designer ~ Mike Ragan

It’s finally summer, and as usual I’m in the mood to change my home decor for the new season. I finished my spring cleaning long ago, and I’ve been thinking of new motifs for a couple of the rooms of my home – just in time for summer.

There are a variety of explanations for the history of spring cleaning. Some sources claim that it has its origins in religious observations. For myself, I think it’s all psychological. After several cold months of winter, the weather warms and new life begins to grow – brown grass turns green, trees give birth to new leaves, baby animals abound. It’s no coincidence that people get a surge of energy when spring arrives, and feel like cleaning their homes of the clutter that mounted up during the more torpid winter months. (Sure, some people enjoy winter and winter sports. Winter makes me torpid. It’s when the sun shines and the air feels like a sauna bath that I break out my bike and go for long, enjoyable rides.)

The kind of home decor you choose depends on the type of home you have and where you live, obviously. The east coast, the midwest, the southwest, the west coast…they are all represented by different types of architecture. Southwest homes have a Spanish feel to them, for example, the midwest has huge homes to take advantage of the wide open spaces, the east coast has tiny homes situated on narrow roads.

Regardless of the architecture of your home, there are a few pieces of home decor that fit in anywhere.

Take for example the handcrafted wooden sculptures offered by Upside Living. The sculptures have a “celebrating the seas” theme. The sculptures are tall and ornate, hand carved from a single trunk of tropical oak, featuring dolphins or koi capering amongst the coral. These are unique, three-dimensional sculptures, suitable for inside or outside display. They will make an incredible conversation piece during parties or when entertaining guests.

Hand-painted glassware also makes ideal accent pieces, and UpsideLiving has such a wide variety of designs that there are few homes that will not suit them. BELLISSIMO!, one of the most prestigious glassware firms in the US. Bottles, bowls, carafes, vases, a variety of specialist drink glasses, even picture frames are available. And the designs? Themes for golfers, fishing enthusiasts, party lovers, and so on…

I won’t dwell on the sheep skin rugs and area rugs, all of sumptuous quality and lovely design, and the hand-crafted Italian ceramics and Spanish pottery….imported from Italy and Spain, rather than mass-produced in China…take a look and begin your new home decor motif for summer.

Whether you are celebrating the Fourth of July, honoring our heroes on Memorial Day, or simply in the mood to feel a gentle patriotic glow, 4th of July glassware makes an ideal decor, especially when it’s hand-painted collectible glassware, signed by the artist.