Awnings add charm and beauty to almost any architectural landscape that they are a part of. In addition to their good looks and complimentary styles, awnings block out damaging sun rays while admitting daylight inside. Awnings also offer some tremendous energy efficient advantages that you may not have realized.

Awnings have been adding character to a variety of different style buildings and homes for nearly two hundred years. Simple in appearance and designed to be functional, the very first fabric awnings were only installed when and where they were needed. Originally, the awnings sole purpose was to shield unwanted sunlight and precipitation, and not to be decorative. You might say that the unique visual appeal they've added to our streetscapes was an unintended consequence. Before the invention of air conditioning, awnings provided natural climate control by allowing cool air to circulate throughout interior rooms while the windows were left open. They were also very beneficial to store owners in a way that allowed people to continue with their window shopping on rainy days.

As time went on, mechanical air conditioning became readily available to hand-sewn women's socks anyone that could afford it. Many thought that the old fabric awnings were outdated and unnecessary, and had them removed. Little by little, our streets and neighborhoods started to lose some of their distinguished character that the traditional fabric awnings provided.

Home and business owners soon realized that awnings provided beneficial shading. When used properly in conjunction with air conditioning, the awnings natural shading allows you the option to purchase smaller, less expensive air conditioning systems. Cooling systems would also last longer because they wouldn't need to work as hard to keep inside temperatures stable and comfortable. So it wasn't long before the awning started to make a strong comeback.

This advanced way of thinking paved the way for new aluminum and fiberglass type awnings to be produced. Canopies and sunshade systems, in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, frames and fabrics became readily available. Patios, balconies and recreational vehicles are more enjoyable during warm and inclement weather.

Some savvy businesses owners add their company's name, logo, phone number and address to the exterior of their awnings and canopies. They use their awnings as billboards and business cards to help spread local commercial identity for their business.

Interior shades and blinds are useful and decorative. Whey closed, they reduce the amount of light coming inside, as seen by the naked eye. They also help prevent your carpet and furniture from fading, and keep outsiders from seeing in. However, don't be fooled into believing that they are a replacement for awnings. Interior window shades and blinds do absolutely nothing to prevent unwanted heat from penetrating your windows. When the suns unobstructed rays hit the outside surface of your windows, the light immediately converts to heat as it passes through the window. From there the heat blasts right through the interior window shade and into your home.

A properly installed awning will not only help reduce summertime heat from passing through your windows, they will aid in eliminating unwanted glare and keep your valuables from fading. Keep in mind that the actual effectiveness of any awning will be determined by the size, type and location of your windows as well as the climate you live in. One thing is for certain; your air conditioning system will not have to work as hard or as often. This means that you can lower your cooling costs by 25% or more and easily dress up your home or business at the same time.

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There are very few places in the UK better for hunting out vintage treasures than the world famous Portobello Road, West London. Fifteen minutes walk north from Notting Hill Gate underground station, or five minutes east from Ladbroke Grove station, under a giant tent beside the M40 flyover, Portobello Green Market flourishes on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday and Saturday at least thirty good dealers can be found selling a fantastic range of vintage clothing and vintage accessories. It's definitely not to be missed. Many of these dealers come to London each weekend from the provinces with new vintage and antique treasures gleaned from charity shops, auctions, house clearances and rag yards to sell on at very reasonable prices.

Serious vintage buyers are there early - 7am - and, in winter, take a torch. You will have plenty of competition, even at seven, because anybody who buys and sells vintage in London will be there. It is also popular with designers - established and student - Cath Kiddson is a regular, but most big-named designers, like Paul Smith - will usually send a representative buyer.

These designers are looking for vintage ideas for conversion. Vintage clothing was constructed quite differently when compared with today's fashion garments made in or India, as cheaply as possible. It is interesting to see how vintage garments were cut and put together and sometimes, for just a few pounds spent in Portobello Road, a forgotten piece of dressmaking skill can be rediscovered. These details incorporated into the design of a new garment can often improve the shape and fall, possibly making the difference between success and failure of a whole line.

Designers also covet vintage prints and weaves, to be copied and converted. Cath Kiddson has made a huge success of incorporating vintage textile motifs into her designs for home-wares. A colourful printed design on a vintage skirt, dress, scarf, apron or even a lampshade that may have been popular in the nineteen-thirties is now out of copyright and free to convert. Textile print motifs that would have been very familiar to our grandmothers can now be seen copied and used, sometimes with slight alterations or additions, on book covers, plastic bags, tin boxes, rucksacks and (Kiddson again) even tents.

As the sun comes up, activity will be frenetic. Stallholders running back and forth between their vehicles and stalls carrying colourful armfuls of vintage clothing or pushing wheeled rails laden with vintage coats and dresses. Some arrive with anonymous black-plastic sacks bulging with vintage secrets, which are simply tipped onto the floor. Buyers rush from place to place rummaging and haggling over vintage handbags, vintage shoes and even scraps of cloth. Arguments are common, but quickly settled; after all, everyone is there for the same reason, to trade and arguments are bad for business.

There are always famous faces around Portobello Road so don't be surprised to see celebrities haggling along with everyone else. In fact, if you don't see at least one famous face, I'd say, you weren't looking. Actors and models not only buy vintage, they also sell it. More than one stallholder on Portobello Green is a "resting actor" and there are a few ex-models too.

I guarantee, that if you deal in vintage textiles, wear vintage clothing or vintage accessories, or are furnishing you home in vintage style, a visit to Portobello Green on a Friday or Saturday morning will always be interesting, often exciting, definitely flower female boat socks fun and sometimes very rewarding.

Sunday on Portobello Road is a little different. There is no need to be there before dawn as less established, casual traders dominate a much smaller selection of stalls with more emphasis on crafts. For the vintage hunter Sunday is much more hit or miss.

But, on any day in Portobello Road and the surrounding area you will find plenty of friendly coffee shops and cafes where, after vintage treasure hunting, you can have breakfast, read the morning paper and people watch.

One particularly amusing sight, if you are eating breakfast in the popular Mick's Café, Blenheim Crescent, is the endless stream of tourists photographing or being photographed outside the Travel Bookshop opposite. They believe this to be the bookshop featured in the very successful movie Notting Hill, filmed in the area. The shop, in the film, is owned by the posh-but-poor William Thacker played by Hugh Grant, who falls in love with a rich and famous actress, Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), who can't decide what she wants, but, naturally, chooses Grant in the end.

The joke is, that none of these scenes were filmed in the Travel Bookshop, Blenheim Crescent. The film company hired a shop around the corner in Portobello Road and converted it to look like a bookshop.

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