Transforming Your Home Into A Winter Wonderland'

 

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Creating the perfect home is something we all want to do for ourselves and our family, and after all that 2020 has thrown our way it is nice to be able to make our homes look and feel festive. 

Today we are going to take a look at some of the simple ways you can change your home and transform it into a winter wonderland.

Hang garlands 

One of the easiest ways to add some festive spirit to the home is to hang a leafy Garland. There are many different types of garlands you can buy, but the ones we think work best have leaves, pine cones, and the occasional berry. When you are ready to hang a Garland on your fireplace or your stairs, consider adding some battery powered lights to the mix and really make this feature magical. 

Pixabay

Decorate pumpkins 

Pumpkins are a vegetable that immediately make everyone think about fall, cosy nights, pumpkin spiced lattes and Christmas. During these few months before December it is the perfect time for you to buy some pumpkins for the home and decorate them. You can buy plaster pumpkins, concrete pumpkins and polystyrene pumpkins and paint them yourself to fit the aesthetic you are looking for in your home. 

Hide cables 

One of the ugliest parts of any modern home is thick black cables from our electrical items. If you want to avoid ever having the need of a personal injury attorney make sure to organise and hide your cables away. Even just moving cables behind your cupboard will make a massive difference to your whole room. But if there are still some cables showing that cannot be moved, why not add some festive tinsel or beads? 

Lick of paint 

Chances are you are getting a little bit sick of your house after being stuck inside for six months. And now is the perfect time to make a change and try something new with your home. The easiest as well as the most impactful change you can make to your home this winter is to change the colour of the wall to something warm and welcoming. A festive red, deep plum, or forest green can be great choices here, and will make your whole home feel more cosy and ready for the winter season. 

Bring the outside in 

Plants aren’t only for the summer! There are many beautiful plants you can bring into the home during winter that will help you celebrate the festive season. Poinsettia is definitely the first choice here as the bright red ruby leaves bring life and vibrancy to your home. Grab a few of these beautiful plants and even use one as the centrepiece for your Christmas table. 

Accessorise with cushions 

In fall and winter one of the best things we can do is start layering up in our wardrobe… and we can layer up the furniture too! To really make the home feel cosy and ready for winter, you can buy some blankets and cushions to place on your chairs, sofa, and your beds. There are plenty of festive cushions and blankets in stores right now that you can bring home and use to set the mood at home. 

Ideas To Reinvent Your Living Room'

 Our homes change over the years. The moment you buy a property it could just be you and someone else, you start a family and then any hope of a designer living space goes out of the window. Right? Wrong! It’s possible to have your home decorated to perfection that will still suit your needs as a family. You just need to make wise choices and think outside of the box a little. With that in mind, here are some family friendly living room ideas. It may inspire you to change a few things at home yourself.    

Image source - pixabay - cco license 

Think of pieces of furniture that are quality

We can all wander around those lovely home stores and get lost in the styled decor. It just all looks so pretty. But does it suit a family? The thing about some pieces of furniture and seating is that one wrong move from your children and it can be stained or left broken. It’s unfortunate. So rather than waste any money sometimes it’s worth investing in key pieces. Of course, it may be that you have items you want to keep, just not for right now, and so using storage unit rentals can help you to keep those larger items for the future. You don’t have to compromise on style, often quality products are made with robust materials that stand the test of time. For example, a designer sofa will ooze sophistication and style. While still being a suitable piece of furniture for a living space. 

Consider a robust flooring option

Your flooring is one part of any living space that gets used a lot from a family. From stepping all over it to toys being dragged across it. So it’s essential that you choose a flooring option that isn't just stylish but also robust. Wooden flooring options are a great choice to consider for a family. They work well to keep clean from stains and spillages, they are great with toys, and they are hardwearing. Your money will be well spent. 

Ensure you have plenty of cushions and blankets

A family living space is a well used room. From general TV watching, movie afternoons or just being a room to spend time in. So prepare for those comfy moments and style your living space with plenty of cushions and blankets. If anything they make great materials for building indoor dens. 

Don’t be afraid to use color

As much as those white walls and minimalist touches are beautiful and pretty to look at, they don’t swerve their purpose in a family home. White walls are too easy to spot those grubby handprints that are inevitably going to feature. So in this instance, don’t be afraid to jazz up some of your rooms with a burst of color. Of course, you don’t have to go too crazy, stick with your personality and what suits your family. 

Invest in plenty of storage solutions

Finally, any parent will tell you that your living spaces are often taken over by toys and general clutter. So when you want to avoid such occasions then make sure you have plenty of storage solutions in place ready. This could be a toy box in the corner or something more discreet like storage boxes and shelves. 

Let’s hope this has inspired you to make your living space family friendly. 

Moving Your Parents Into Your Home? 5 Home Adjustments You can make

Ensure the Moving Day Goes Smoothly 

Moving is a high anxiety chore regardless of who you are. Exciting? Absolutely. Stress-inducing? Incredibly so. When you make the necessary steps to moving your parents into your home, you should take the necessary precautions to make the most seamless transition. Depending on the circumstances, it can cause an emotional strain or toll on a parent who must now rely on their child to take care of them. Try to be emotionally available to them on moving day by hiring top rated movers to take care of the heavy lifting, while you occupy your mind with the rest of the move in process.  

Moving parents into your home as they age to take care of them is a kind thing to do. When your parents are in good health, fit, and agile, they are likely to continue living in your home as the rest of your family does, without any need yet to adjust your home. 

Picture by Bruce Mars from Unsplash - CC0 Licence

However, if they have an illness, aches, and pains, difficulty walking, or taking care of basic self-care tasks, they may require more of your time, and they could benefit from a few changes being made to your home. 

Making changes to your home can make your parent's life and your life much easier. Here are a few tips of what you can do to make your home safer for your parents and easier to use.

Install A Walk In Tub

A Walk-In Bathtub Installation is one of the best adaptations you can make to your home to make it safer for your parents to bathe. 

The walk-in tub replaces ordinary baths and shower cubicles and enables people to enter the tub safely, without the risk of falling. Moreover, they can use the comfortable seat provided to safely bath in. Plus, a walk-in tub eliminates the need for your loved one to stand up while washing so that they may conserve their energy and enjoy their bath in peace.

Wider Doorways

It's unnecessary to widen every doorway, but widening the ones they're likely to use regularly will certainly help, such as the bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen doorways. Wider doorways prevent accidents from occurring, and they are especially helpful if your parent uses a walking frame or wheelchair. 

Better Lighting

As we age, our vision deteriorates over time, making it more difficult for us to see. Dark hallways and rooms add to the problem and may make it challenging for your parents to navigate around your home. 

To support your family members, think about adding better overhead lighting to the areas they'll use the most. Plus, maybe think about installing motion sensor lighting. This will prevent your parents from needing to locate the switches, which is especially helpful at night time. 

Power-assisted Bed 

Depending on the fitness of your parents, you may want to consider investing in power-assisted beds. In doing so, it'll be much easier and safer for them to get out of bed in the morning. Or during the night when they need a drink or to go to the bathroom. 

Declutter

As with enlarging doorways, it also helps to declutter your home before your parents arrive. Removing junk out of their bedroom, plant pots that clog the front porch, and rugs that can become tripping hazards is essential to ensure your parents can safely move around. 

The adjustments above are just a few ways you can make your home more comfortable for your parents to live in and prevent the risks of any accidents occurring. By making improvements before they arrive, you will also have peace of mind when they move in.

6 Business Ideas Women Can Start from Home

 

The number of female-owned businesses in the United States has seen huge growth, increasing a dramatic 31 times in the past 46 years. But despite these numbers, female entrepreneurs actively fail to claim a large portion of the total employment and revenue share. 

To help combat this crucial issue, our experts at Bankrate created a guide to help female entrepreneurs overcome challenges such as lack of funding, resources and revenue.

Starting a lucrative business no longer requires you to be constantly on the run. Why? Because with modern means of communication, employee management tools, collaboration tools and other commodities of the internet era, you can manage a business from your own home. Sure, your business doesn’t have to be strictly online but using these virtual tools does help out. This is especially important for female entrepreneurs who no longer have to feel the pressure of unfavorable work-life balance. The flexibility that comes with these business ideas is simply unparalleled. Here are six such ideas to choose from.

1.   Selling items on eBay

Every item has its buyer online. Even old boxes, cords and similar “useless” items in your basement may have some value. 

Why not try and figure out whether you can sell them on platforms like eBay? Those with a bit of extra vigor could even look for specialized platforms for every type of item. For instance, some platforms specialize in old video games. There are also some that buy old CDs and DVDs from people online. It’s an easy way to make money and declutter your home at the same time. Once you’re done with this, you can start visiting flea markets and garage sales in search of these unexpectedly valuable items.

2.               Blogging

Possessing knowledge or an opinion on a certain topic may not sound like the most profitable of commodities, yet, there are so many bloggers out there who would argue otherwise. First of all, you need to keep in mind the fact that there are many ways to make money by running a blog. You can become an affiliate marketer, offer memberships and subscriptions or just sell items on your blog. The list goes on and on but the key thing is that you need to start by connecting with your audience and offering them some quality content. Like in any other line of work, people are far more interested in what you can offer them than why you need them.

3.               Vlogging

Running a blog and running a vlog are not one and the same thing. You see, with a vlog, you’re putting your personality, charisma and overall verbal ability to a test. You also need a decent front camera on your phone, the best web camera that you can afford and a provider offering internet fiber services. Keep in mind that these technical issues tend to be incredibly relevant since your audience wants a clear image and no interruptions.

4.               Photography

For all those who see themselves as the visual, artistic type, selling photography is definitely a great idea. First, you need to pick your tool of choice. 

There are some platforms that specialize in selling photographs that you take on your smartphone, which is why you really shouldn’t worry about the fact that you don’t have a professional camera. In other words, there are really no excuses. Still, you do want to learn a thing or two about commercial photography. You can invest in a professional editing tool or, better yet, enroll in a course. My husband has also started selling photography online and we found a great resource to do that

5.               Creative writing

If you’re a verbal type of artist, you could always try and capitalize on your short stories and novels. The truth is that it’s never been easier to make money from writing. This is because there are so many amazing self-publishing tools out there like the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing program. This means that you can just write a story and upload it for others to buy. Here, you get a royalty fee from every story sold, which is how you get your profit. Still, there’s more than just writing to this profession. You also need to learn how to do proper keyword research, learn how to make book covers and a couple of other handy tricks.

6.               Dog walking and pet sitting services

Just because you’re starting a home-based business, it doesn’t mean that you have to work behind a computer or spend all your time indoors. Animal lovers can start their own dog walking and pet sitting business. Thanks to a myriad of specialized platforms out there, finding work shouldn’t be too hard. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that your performance affects your ratings and your ratings determine your income and frequency of employment.

As you can see from the list, there’s something for virtually everyone out there. Depending on your talents, personality and interests, you can easily pick the line of work that suits you the most. This way, you get the best of both worlds. You get flexible work hours and you get to make money doing something you love. The world is your oyster!

 

Just Thankful

 This being Thanksgiving in Canada always make me sit back and think about all I have, I am majorly blessed.  

We have so many amenities that I we do not even realize we have and use until they are taken away.. for example last weekend we lost our TV and internet, I know, I know not a life line but we need to be thankful for those things because it is a connection to the world and for some the connection to their family. 

We have food and shelter from the cold temperatures and weather that is about to hit ( tornadoes, snow, heavy rain etc). I work downtown so I see homeless people all the time sleeping on the steps of various buildings and I wish I could take them all home and give them a hot meal and a warm bed. 

I drive a nice car while others have to wait for public transit, I just get in my car and drive. 

Freedom... Even with Covid 19 we are still able to do things and live free.  Mask are not the end of the world... I do not like them either but to protect others I will. 

We have great jobs, beautiful families.  We have fun entertainment and warm beds, electricity, water, running toilets, hot baths. 

What are you thankful for?

Five Must-Dos to Prep Your Home for Winter'

 

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Taking a little time out in fall to prepare your home for winter can save you time, frustration, and money. Here are five essential tasks you should complete early in the fall and some tips on how to do them.

Check the route from the street to your door

Early fall is the time to deal with any potential tripping or slipping hazards on the route from the street to your door. It’s also the time to double-check your lighting. If you don’t have exterior lighting then you should probably make it a priority to get some. If you do, you need to make sure it’s still functioning as it should and if not make sure that it’s fixed.

Put garden tools away properly

Give your garden tools the care they deserve. At the very least make sure they’re clean before you put them away. Ideally, sharpen your edged tools (or have a pro do it for you) and give all metal parts a touch of oil.  

If you have space, consider storing your bladed tools in a bucket of sand, as this helps to keep their edge. If you don’t then think about how best to protect your tools from damp. For example, you could wrap their metal parts in old (clean) rags. Taking the time to put away your tools mindfully will make your life much easier when it’s time to start proper gardening again.

Deal with any exterior repairs and maintenance

Nobody wants to do exterior repairs or maintenance in late fall or winter. Early fall is, therefore, your last chance to tackle them before spring. In particular, give your gutters and drains a thorough clean, even if they seem in good working order. Prevention is always better than cure, especially in sub-zero temperatures!

Declutter your home

Even if you gave your home a thorough declutter in spring, you’ll probably have accumulated “stuff” since then. You’ll also probably have more “stuff” coming your way over the holiday season. Early fall is therefore a great time to give your home a thorough declutter, and if you want to do a big decluttering then you can always hire a Junk removal service to handle the heavy lifting for you.

If you’re not comfortable getting rid of your belongings, then consider putting them in self storage units. That way you have the reassurance of knowing that you can still access them. If, however, you haven’t needed (or wanted) to access them by the time spring rolls around, then you can confidently move them on to be a blessing to someone else.

Check your energy efficiency

When it comes to energy efficiency, the key point to remember is that little changes can add up to big savings. This is especially true if you spend a lot of time at home, for example, if you work from home.

Remember that most heat is lost through doors and windows so try to keep both closed as much as possible. Use draft excluders to block gaps under internal doors (and external ones if necessary). Try to use lined curtains instead of unlined ones (or blinds).

If you have radiators, put silver foil behind them to reflect heat back into the room (instead of the wall). Also, make sure that the space in front of them is clear so that the warm air can circulate freely.