Sprucing Up a Small Kitchen

The kitchen is probably the most important room of any house. Not only is it the place where food is prepared; it’s where the whole family convenes and bonds together over a good meal. Small kitchens can be quite a challenge, both in terms of daily usage and design options. But just like any part of the house, you can make the most out of your small kitchen space with a little careful planning. Don’t get too excited and start doing a complete overhaul of your kitchen. Before making any major changes, you must first assess what your kitchen has, figure out which items can be moved, and which appliances are worth updating.

For the walls and ceiling, choose bright colors as these will give the illusion of more space through the tone and scale. Keep the color and scale in mind when choosing tiles for the floor. Patterns in laminate flooring and narrow-strip wood creates an illusion of length and depth, and just like the walls, lighter colors automatically enlarges a room.

Pick light finishes for your cabinets and opt for open shelves and glass cabinet doors to add depth to the room. If you don’t really want to experiment with wallpaper on your walls, spice things up a little by using wallpaper to line the shelves - provided that they match the overall color scheme. Also look out for cabinets that have special features, such as spice racks and appliance storage racks, so you can maximize your storage space.

Kitchen countertops are usually the first thing you notice in a kitchen and you can use them to make a bold statement. Look at the color scheme you chose for your walls and ceiling and use complementing colors for your countertops. The advantage of having a small kitchen is that high-end countertop materials like granite are more affordable because you’ll need less to work with. If you don’t want to go for the high-end variety, ceramic tiles are an excellent choice - they’re inexpensive, easy to install, and easy to clean and maintain.

As for the appliances, many manufacturers create small-scale versions of their most popular products, from refrigerators to microwaves. Bulky appliances will eat up counter space and will make the kitchen look smaller and cluttered. Make sure you choose “Energy Star” rated appliances, which are 10% more energy efficient than the average appliance and will save you money on your electricity bills.

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The Innovative EntrePinoy (Part 2): Innovations That Changed Lives

It is the innovative drive of the entrepreneur that continuously improves daily living. If we compare the way we live with the way that our grandparents and great grandparents did, wouldn’t we say we’re better off in the sense that we enjoy more and better products and product choices, equipment, appliances and gadgets that make us feel more comfortable and let us perform our work better, faster, and with less mistakes?

Here are examples of innovations which have changed our lives:

From the traditional clay stoves using wood fuel, we now have:

· Kerosene stoves

· Gas stoves

· Electric stoves

· Stoves that can alternately use gas and electric power

· Multi-purpose cooking ranges that can roast, grill, and bake

· Turbo broilers

· Convection ovens

· Microwave ovens

· Specialty cooking devices like shabu-shabu cookers with side grillers

· LPG-fueled grills

· Crock pots or slow-cookers

· Rice cookers

From mats, wooden beds or papag, we now have:

· Mattress beds

· Brass beds

· Canopied beds

· Double-deck beds

· Pull-out beds

· Sofa beds

· Folding beds

· Water beds

· Hospital beds (that can be cranked up and down)

· Beds equipped with air compressors guaranteed to prevent bed sores (for bed ridden persons)

· Orthopedic beds

From the industrial revolution to what is now known as the IT age, entrepreneurial innovation have been making profound changes in the quality of lives and life styles.

Innovations in Information and computer technology or ICT has wrought the most recent and most pervasive changes not only in industry, commerce, and the management of the workplace but every conceivable dimension of human life such as education, communication, recreation, music and the arts. Paperless offices, strictly no cash transactions, robotronics, voice recognition in computing – these may still be in the experimental stage but loom large in the foreseeable future.

If Steve Jobs and his partner didn’t put together the first Apple personal computer in his garage and if Bill Gates didn’t spearhead development of computer application software and other tools, can you imagine how differently we would have been leading our everyday life? You couldn’t have been reading this blog piece on entrepreneurial innovation, in the first place, could you?

Next: Filipino entrepreneurs who cashed in on their innovative drive.

In search of the good life….

The proverbial search for the good life is what drives  countless Filipinos to greener pastures and foreign lands.  Some  succeed in their  odyssey, some return home  where their hearts belong.

But whatever the reason, the Philippines is our Motherland  and images as well as memories of it will forever be etched in our minds - majestic mountains, the bluest seas, unruly jeepneys, summers at the beach,  happy, smiling people and more!

For all its imperfections, there is frankly nothing else  in the world  I’d rather be at this moment.  Perhaps, it is out of a deep-seated sense of loyalty for the country which has not only nurtured me since birth, and now my children as well. Perhaps, because I feel at home in all the familiar and complicated crannies of my homeland. Perhaps,  because I’ve resigned myself to my fate and don’t see the need to get any richer, apart from the old, cramped car I now own.

There is just something about this place that pulls me with its beauty, whether am sipping coffee in an al fresco cafe or watching people take a whiff of the bay breeze amidst the golden sunset. Life is easy here, call it laid-back if you may. But most of all it is knowledge of the fact that this Motherland will always cradle me and welcome me, even it has upset me a number of times, and vice-versa.

To give hope to the Motherland, we should give it hope.

Here are the reasons:

The Philippines is an ever-changing place. What the country was 15 years ago cannot be compared to what  it is now because  the landscape has drastically changed. The Philippines has become a globalized village  where  it is possible  NOT to fly out of the country to get what you want. This is attested to by the rise of cosmopolitan hang-outs, fusion cuisines and other aspects of our life and culture which have clearly become international in standards.

The Philippines is a land of opportunities, if you know where to look for it. It is heartwarming to note that the country is now a growing hub for investments and continues to encourage entrepreneurs to dream beyond what they never thought was possible. These ‘dreamers’ have become the new hope of the Motherland.

With this maiden post, we welcome you all to a taste of the good life in Good News Balikbayan. Your insights, comments and contributions are most welcome!