When not sure as to what to gift a friend or a family member on the holidays, a present for her home is your safest choice. There is nothing more thoughtful than a gift that can make your friend’s home a little more comfortable and stylish. Plus, there’s a sea of choices to choose from; you’ll surely find something that she will love to have in her home. Here are some of our favourite pieces to give you an idea.

1. Decorative Scented Candles

Every home needs a lovely scent to make the space even more relaxing. Instead of buying a plane scented candle, pick one in decorative glasses to add aesthetic value to a friend’s home. Give her a giant tub of her favourite scent or a bunch of smaller once to place in every room of her house.

2. Voice-Activated Coffee Maker

For the coffee addict of your life, a coffee maker is the best gift to have them. But skip the standard coffee maker, and get your friend a voice activated one. This is a great present for those people who don’t have synchronized motor skills when they first wake-up.

3. A Luxurious Bed Sheet

What do you get for a friend or a parent who has everything? A better night’s sleep. Get the special people in your life a luxurious set of bed and pillow covers that help them sleep cooler and more comfortable after a long, tiring day.

4. Vintage Soap and Lotion Caddy

Spruce up your friend’s bathroom by adding some rustic charm to it with a vintage set of soap and lotion caddy. With these uniform bottles, your friend can finally get rid of unsightly container labels. She may also use the caddy on her vanity and fill up the bottles with body lotion or any other liquidy beauty product she likes.

5. Colourful Tapas Plates

Your sister or BFF may have received several sets of dinnerware on her wedding, but these colourful appetizer plates add interest and personality to any dining table. Small plates in every colourful of the rainbow can definitely make any dish more appetizing and the dining table a bit more cheerful.

6. Salt and Pepper Shakers

The dining table doesn’t always have to be a formal spot in the house. Add a dash of cuteness to the table with decorative salt and pepper shakers. Your friend will surely love your gift, especially if she has children to feed. Plus, the cuteness of your gift will entice people to stay longer at the table.

Holiday gifts come in all shapes, sizes and prices. It doesn’t always have to be big or expensive. As long as it is thoughtfully chosen and whole-heartedly given, your friend and loved ones will love it.

If you’re looking for ways to save money when dining out, take advantage of BYOB restaurants in Singapore. Popular and luxe dining places like the Jade Palace Seafood Restaurant and Gattopardo lets you bring your own wine or beer without corkage fee (on certain days). However, even though it is your own choice of wine and beer, there are still some unspoken rules to follow. Here are the ones you should know.

1. Call Ahead of Time

Call the establishment ahead of time to confirm if they allow customers to bring their own wine. Also, ask if you will be charged with corkage fee, since some restaurants only offer BYOB on certain days of the week. Some restaurants charge a corkage fee according to the size of the bottle. Those that don’t have any service charge at all usually (and understandably) also comes with no service—so make sure to have your own bottle opener.

2. Bring Something Appropriate

Try to view the menu of the restaurant online and bring something that’s not just appropriate to their cuisine, but also complements the mood and the ambiance of the place. Bring a special bottle that will enhance the experience without only thinking about being cheap to save money on beverage. Also, show some respect by not bringing something that’s currently on the menu, even if it’s a different vintage.

3. Be Generous

You may not be charged with corkage fee, but be courteous and generous by giving a tip. For most restaurants with corkage fee, the fee goes to the establishment, not to the server or sommelier who opened your wine, prepared your glass and poured the drink to your glasses throughout your dine. To show some gratitude, leave a little in the bottle or some tip for the servers to enjoy. This also allows you to start a good relationship with the staff if you’re planning to frequent the restaurant.

Above all, remember that you can bring not just a bottle of vintage wine; you can also bring a bottle of specialty beer, champagne, sparkling wine or other liquors. Just be sure to confirm with the establishment beforehand and keep in mind these etiquettes before deciding on what beverage to bring. If in case you wish to request for a drink using your bottle of drink, expect to be charged for the mixers.

Most of us are not naturally a morning person. In fact, we’ve already experienced hitting the snooze button more than three times just to take another minute of shuteye – and unfortunately, health experts recommend that we stop doing that. Instead of staying in bed longer, they suggest waking up earlier to enjoy the following benefits of becoming a morning person.

1. Enhances Performance at Work

A study showed that people who get out of bed without hitting the snooze button tend to approach their work with a more hands-on attitude. While night folks are believed to be more creative, early risers are said to have improved problem-solving skills. Those same skills is what allows morning people to anticipate problems, and minimize them before they turn into bigger issues – a desirable trait a candidate for promotion at work should have.

2. Makes You Seem More Reliable

Ever found yourself missing deadlines at work? Or becoming a little moodier than usual? If so, then you might want to consider waking up earlier than usual. According to a study conducted by health experts in Singapore, night-time people tend to be less dependable, less emotionally stable, and are more likely to fall into addiction. So instead of planning a late-night date night with your girls, suggest meeting together for a morning run or grabbing breakfast before heading to work.

3. Improves Alertness

Apart from making you more dependable, waking up early allows your brain to function better, allowing you to craft perfect presentations for the following day. Morning people also gets more sleep compared with their late-night counterparts, resulting to improved awareness, healthier immune system, and a more positive outlook in their daily activities and life in general.

4. Decreases Stress Levels

If you find yourself constantly running around, and stressing about a billion things that needs to be done, consider taking a step back and re-evaluate your habits. Studies show that people who wake up earlier than 7:00 AM had a lower chance of being depressed, overweight, and stressed. Even if you think that an extra 30 minutes of sleep will help you feel rested for a midday presentation, it might actually be doing the opposite. So get out of your bed earlier and review your notes instead so you’ll be prepared to face the day ahead.

5. Loses More Weight

Waking up and working out early in the morning will help you burn more calories, speed up your metabolism, and reach for healthier food options. For a bigger calorie burn, consider taking a walk outside as you enjoy your post-workout green juice. A study also showed that people who enjoy being outside in the early hours of the day had lower BMIs than those who go outdoors later in the day.

Other than making you more attentive, waking up early truly has lots of benefits to offer. So go and hit the sack early to enjoy these amazing benefits the following day.

Is it possible to have the time of your life while being productive as well? Of course it is possible. The catch is that you just have to decide that you can do it.

DIY projects

Apparently, not only social applications are trending lately but more productive and useful ideas popped up as well. DIY stands for Do-It-Yourself. DIY projects have sprung up like mushrooms all over the internet. Anyone can just search on how to do stuff and they would be able to do it by themselves; that is if they know how to follow instructions.

What is amazing about DIY projects is that you can also recycle some of the stuff you are no longer using at home or the stuffs that you are about to throw away. It is not only environment-friendly but it can also be a money-saver as well.

Gardening

You can make use of the old plastic bottles as garden pots. After which, you may sow anything that you want just like fruit-bearing ones or plants that blossom with flowers. Either way you will still reap multiple benefits from it.

One thing more, you will be quite surprised about the recent study that confirmed that gardening can also help improve the mood of a person. Having a hand in nourishing a plant and witnessing it blossom and eventually bear fruit will not only boost your mood but give you a tangible result as well.

Cooking

It might be a bit daunting at first but just like the other two; all you have to do here is to enjoy the process. The only difference is this one leads to a rather tasty treat which might be more preferable. Although, a delicious meal might be the most obvious end-product from cooking when you come to think of it, there is still also more to enjoying a sumptuous meal.

Since we live in the 21st century, we have found ourselves plunged in a fast-paced lifestyle. We couldn’t stop ourselves from going with the flow hence we crave for meals which are both satisfying and easy to prepare or we might opt to have fast-food meals instead which are not always healthy.

Hence, by learning how to cook or how to whip food on our own, we can prepare healthy and delicious meal at the same time.

This way, we have not only prevented ourselves from eating unhealthy meals but we also have taught ourselves a new skill on how to be independent at the same time.

Learning a new language

This one might not sound fun at all. Actually, it might sound like you have to put a lot of effort to study a lot of gibberish but once you get a hang of it you will likely enjoy yourself socializing with various kinds of people who speak the same language like you do.

Make use of your time more productively by trying some of the stuffs mentioned here.