Protect Your Home Or Apartment When You Go On Vacation

By Bill Wallmuller Aka Mr. Merokee

Going on a vacation is wonderful and you deserve it. Coming home to find that your home has been broken into will make all those good times be forgotten in an instant.

One of the times your home is most vulnerable is when it is left empty for an extended period of time such as when the occupants are on vacation or on extended business trips. Darkened windows, unretrieved mail or newspapers and closed windows in hotter weather all tell of your absence to a potential burglar.

The best protection for your house or apartment during your absence is to have a house sitter.

A friend you trust staying at your house can take care of your pets and/or plants in addition to making sure the house is occupied. Of course this scenario is not always an option. Here are some precautions that should be taken by the owner or inhabitants to take before leaving on their trip away from home.

• Have a neighbor check on your apartment or house while you’re away – turning on lights, radios or TVs and opening and closing curtains will give your apartment or house the appearance of someone home.

• If you don’t have a friend or neighbor to house sit or check your apartment while you’re away – perhaps even if you do – you should keep not only lights on but also a TV or radio on at all times unless you have a timer which is recommended. If you’re like many others you have your TV on almost all the time you’re home, not for viewing but just as background noise. It is the absence of the sound and that blueish light in the windows that announces you’re not there. Using readily available timers you could also have lights, radios, and TV’s going on and off at different times adding to the illusion to a potential thief that someone is home.

• Make sure whoever is checking your apartment or house while you’re away knows how to work any alarm system and who to call in case of a problem.

• Unless you have a house sitter, stop your mail by notifying the post office and any newspapers or other items that are delivered to your home on a regular basis. Nothing broadcasts an empty apartment or house better than a stack of newspapers or an overflowing mailbox. Ask a nearby neighbor if they could pick up any packages that happens to be delivered any way while you’re gone.

• If you have a garden or plants on your balcony, make sure someone is watering the plants regularly or put the plants where they can’t be seen. Plants slowly dying due to lack of water may announce your absence to the would be thief.

• If you rent check your lease. Many landlords require that you notify them if your apartment is going to be left empty for any period of time so they can enter in case of emergency even if they can’t reach you. Naturally if you’ve got a house sitter this isn’t necessary.

• If you are away from home in winter make arrangements to have your place shoveled and plowed. If you are away during the warmer months make arrangements for someone to mow your lawn if it looks like it needs some attention.

Of course, many of these recommendations are just common sense. With a little planning ahead and thinking on your part you can make sure there are no nasty surprises when you return from you vacation or business trip.

About the Author: Bill Wallmuller is the founder of Merokee Enterprises. You can find out more about self defense and safety technology by visiting: Personal Defense Technology.

Source: www.isnare.com

Decorate Your New Home Like a Pro

by Vickie Morrow

You’ve moved into your new home, unpacked the boxes, arranged and rearranged the furniture, hung a few things on the walls. Hmmm. You know, or think you know how you want your rooms to feel but can’t get from the builder white walls and your old stuff to that wonderful comfy inviting look you got when you were in the model of the home you purchased?

Before you panic and true anxiety sets in know there are more easy solutions at your fingertips than ever before. There are decorator magazines, home decorating shows, web sites, retailers, great books with very good instructions. Visiting model homes again will help. “Okay, “ you say, “I see them, I buy them, I visit them, I like them, but how do I do it? I don’t know where to begin.”

Start with one room you love in a magazine or model home. We’ll call it your dream room. If you can go to the model home to feel and study the space or the room you will get the best results. Ask if you may take pictures in the models too. This will help when you get home and when you shop. Take a tape measure and a spiral notebook with you to make notes and draw sketches. I like the ones with plastic tabs and pockets inside.

Let’s start decorating by seeing what we like.

Are all the walls the same color and the ceiling too? What color(s) is the room? Write this down. Is there a chair rail or decorative molding at the ceiling, wall covering or faux painting? What is on the floor? Is there tile, wood, carpet, area rugs? What color and texture and pattern? Is the area rug braided or a Persian rug or a contemporary design diagonally placed partly under one of the chairs and sofa?

What style is the furniture? Is it all a matching set? Do all the woods match? Maybe the sofa and club chairs are the same style and wood finish but the chairs have a patterned upholstery and the sofa is a solid or striped fabric. Write this down.

How is the furniture arranged? Does the sofa sit in the middle of the room separating the conversation area from the game table, or is all the furniture pushed up against the walls? Draw a little floor plan so you don’t forget when you get home.

The windows. Are there blinds, shutters, a valence or draperies? Are the rods large or small, wood or metal with huge finials? Make a note of it. If there are panels at each side of the window, do they go all the way to the floor? What color are they? Do they match the walls or are they the same fabric as the toss pillows on the sofa? Is it the drapery hold back that catches your eye? You will have to consider the exposure and privacy out your own windows when you make your final window treatment selection.

The pizzazz is the accessories. This is often what many people love most about the model homes or magazine pictures that inspire them. The details, the little things we all love to collect and buy when we shop. This is what pulls the room together and gives it your personality. In the room you love, what kind of lamps are there? Is there a place to store the things you will need to put away? Are there several things grouped on the coffee table? What sizes are they? Is there something pretty tall, a large round platter set on a stand and a box all grouped together? If there are photographs on the end tables, how big are they and how does the frame style work with everything else in the room?

What is on the walls? Is there one large picture over the sofa or is there an arrangement of black and white photos in different size frames? What color is the matting and how much space from the photo to the frame? Details, details, details. Draw a sketch of the picture arrangement and the sizes in your notebook.

Congratulations. You have just completed the first step to decorating your own home. You know what you want, how it goes together and what it will look like. You don’t have to break the bank now to create your room. You probably already have the furniture pieces and accessories. You may already have the lamps and area rug as well. You may just have to recreate and rearrange.

Get started. Go to the paint store and select the paint chips you think best match your dream room. Grab several samples, color can be deceiving and they can look different depending on the light. Take them back to the model home and see which ones match the best. Buy the paint and paint the room.

Your window treatment. If you copy your dream room exactly make sure you have the right privacy and exposure considerations covered. This is where a lot of people go astray. They think they like shutters and buy them. Then they don’t like them and also wonder how their dream room went wrong. Your dream room may have been more airy with a shade and drapery panels on large wood poles. The wrong blinds, shutters or draperies and hardware can be a costly mistake that you probably won’t change.

Arrange your furniture for conversation, TV watching, family fun, reading, eating or homework keeping in mind your dream room. Was all the furniture lined up on one side of the room? Your sofa may be the wrong color and your chairs may need to be redone. That doesn’t mean you have to buy all new; consider slipcovers. You can buy them or make them. Be sure your accessories are things you want around you and are of a grand enough scale for your space. Voila! You’re on your way to decorating confidence and living in the home that makes you and your family happy.


About The Author
Vickie Morrow is an exterior and interior designer and artist living and working in Scottsdale, Arizona. You can experience more of her decorating ideas, tips and techniques at her web site: www.inoutdecor.com Subscribe to Vickie's free Decorating Tips newsletter at http://www.inoutdecor.com/Downloads/joinmailinglist.htm Vickie Morrow may be contacted at http://www.inoutdecor.com/ . Click here to view more of their articles.


Article reprinted with permission from http://www.ideamarketers.com/

5 Calming Bedroom Design Ideas

by Jennifer Thoden
You probably already know that your bedroom should be your safe haven... your oasis... your special place.
It makes sense... I mean, after all, it is the place you end your day with and begin your day with.

Shouldn't your bedroom make you smile and feel comforted?

Well, if you choose to not be in your bedroom until it's dark outside, here are some bedroom design ideas that will create a calming, relaxing space.

1. Paint your bedroom in your favorite color. Waking up to a color you love is the perfect way to start your day. Don't get so wrapped up in what a bedroom should be or shouldn't be. If you love orange, then paint your bedroom orange.

Or paint your bedroom in the complement of your favorite color and then add accents in your favorite color. The complement is the color on the opposite side of the color wheel. Red's complement is Green. Blue's complement is Orange. Yellow's complement is Purple.

So, if you love purple, maybe paint your walls lavendar and add yellow pillows and a vase of yellow tulips.

Just use colors you truly enjoy for a personal bedroom design.

2. Use one fabric, but use it everywhere. Many people find it difficlut to coordinate different fabric patterns successfully. In fact, many bedroom design ideas become too busy with mixes of plaids and florals.

So, choose a fabric that matches your paint color and use it in your drapes... in your bedding... and even in an upholstered chair.

If you're really worried that this is too much of one fabric, then choose a solid fabric to go along with your main fabric.

3. Add candles and mood lighting. Lighting can enhance a bedroom design far more than you may realize. Yes, you need lamps for task lighting, but to really create a bedroom that is glowing, soft and relaxing you need some mood lighting.

This can be created with candles, floor cans that project light upward from the floor, wall sconces and even picture lights.

4. Add soft textures Keep in mind that the goal of your bedroom design idea is to calm and soothe. So, choose fabrics that are soft and cozy. Select silks, cottons and suedes. Even terry cloth can add an unexpected luxury.

Use lots of pillows for comfort, and visual interest.

5. Don't forget privacy In the evenings, you shouldn't have to worry about privacy. Make sure your bedroom design ideas include window treatments that cover your windows at night. This will also close the room in and add to the coziness of the room.

Planning the perfect bedroom design idea doesn't have to be difficult.

Keep it personal, choose the colors and fabrics you like... select artwork that makes you smile and enjoy the decorating process.

Happy Decorating! ----------------------- Visit http://www.homedecoratingideas4u.com for more free bedroom decorating ideas.

Jennifer Thoden may be contacted at http://www.simplesewingprojects.com/ jennifer@simplesewingprojects.com. Click here to view more of their articles.
Jennifer Thoden shares her creativity and love of design with the sewing and beading community through her step by step articles and information products. You can find her free article sites at http://www.simplesewingprojects.com and http://www.beadpatternsonline.com

Parenting Tips On Getting Your Child To Take Medicine They Hate

As a parent you hate it when your kids are sick. We want them to get better as quick as possible, and of course usually the quickest way is with antibiotics or medicine of some kind.

Where the problem comes in is when your child does not like their medicine and does not want to take it. While you of course will give your child what the doctor prescribes but don't be afraid to ask about the taste and if you have a child that struggles to take a certain kind of medicine see if their is an alternative.

Yes we can force feed them their medicine but it is unpleasant for everyone and if your child gets upset enough they will just throw it back up anyway. Plus unless you are extremely proficient at this you may waste doses.

Anything you can do for your child to make it easier for them to take their medicine will get them healthier quicker and save you and them from some miserable moments.

I have found with liquids that don't taste good that if I have a drink ready with something sweet it seems to help, I have even been known to use a spoon full of sugar to help the medicine go down easier.

While no parent likes to do it you can plug your child's nose so they have to open their mouth and try it that way. If your quick it does work most of the time, but that doesn't solve the problem if they hate their chewables or can't swallow pills easy.

I finally resorted to bribery with the nasty tasting chewable medicine. We got a package of sweet tarts and she would have a sweet tart, follow it with the chewable, and then another sweet tart. This of course only works if you child likes this type of candy. But you can try others if you have to.

When it comes to pills that need to be swallowed that is sometimes tough for children to learn how to do. I have found that placing the pill in a spoonful of applesauce makes it easier for my daughter to get the pill down without choking.

I hope these tips help. Make sure you are firm when it comes to medicine, let them know that somehow someway the medicine must get into their tummy to make them feel better. But that doesn't mean you can't be sympathetic and follow the dosage with a whole lot of attention and love.

Read more great articles on child development and parenting.



Robin Reckard may be contacted at http://www.jorbins.com/ robin@jorbins.com. Click here to view more of their articles.
Co-founder of Jorbins.com Lifestyle Magazine.

Robin keeps busy producing, writing, and editing for the magazine as well as raising and enjoying her six year old daughter.

Copyright 2006, Jorbins Inc. - Reprints of this article can be made as long as the article is in it's entirety, unchanged, and the resource box with links and urls remain unchanged.

An Overview of Online Games

by Michael Colucci

Online games are becoming more popular with each passing year. As more people connect to the internet and install Shockwave or Java on their computers, a huge market will open up for free online games. The prices on computers are dropping, and this means that more people with have access to independent games. Many seasoned gamers are annoyed by the politics which often exist in large video game companies.



Many gamers are also looking for games which allow them to interact with other players. Even with the success of online fighting games, many developers have not bothered to create them. MMORPGs are becoming more popular than ever before. Players want to interact with each other and create their own identities in the digital world. This is the direction in which I believe free online games are headed today. As the internet becomes more widely used, people want interaction more than graphics.



Because the video game market of today is so saturated, the cost of these games have dramatically decreased. It doesn't cost much money to develope a quality game if you know where to look. This will open the door for many independent game companies to design games which are an alternative to the mainstream console games which currently dominate the market. Shockwave and Java are tools that have allowed many people to cost effectively produce free online games.



As the graphics, gameplay, and storylines of these games continue to improve, more people will play them. While the PC game market declined at the end of the 1990s, it is expected that independent online games will fill this void. Multiplayer online games should be free or very cheap to play. Because the cost to produce them is so low, there is no reason why players should have pay $60 to buy one game. The low cost trend for online games can be seen at the Shockwave website, where they charge as littles as $9.95 for a game.



Many online games can be downloaded directly onto your computer. There is no need to go out to the store or order them through the mail. The games are available to play as soon as you download them. In addition to interactivity, people want things quickly. We live in a society in which virtually everything moves fast. When people want to play games, they want them as soon as possible. This is a demand that free online games can meet.




Michael Colucci is a technical writer for http://www.dustgames.com - A site that offers free online games




Article Source: Article Interchange

Top Ten Items To Keep Your Home Organized

by Steve Wilcott

Even the most frugal person I know will occasionally splurge on an item that will help her keep more organized.

Here are some of my favorite organizational tools for the home.

1) Lazy Susan
Thanks to the soul who invented this little item! They're cheap, and help keep spices, bottles, and condiments neatly arranged and at your fingertips. Use them in the pantry, in cabinets, on the kitchen table - they're absolutely life savers when it comes to staying organized.

2) Plastic Basket for Lids
Plastic containers - a double edged sword! One the one hand they keep me organized and save tons of time in the kitchen, especially. But searching through ten thousand lids that don't fit can drive a person nutty. I use a plastic basket for all my lids so they're in one spot when I go looking.

3) A Triple Swing-out Towel Holder
Put these under your kitchen and bathroom sinks to save space and keep your sink area uncluttered. Use it to hold towels, cleaning rags, trash bags, etc.

4) Place a few strong adhesive hooks in the laundry room - these can be used for hanging coats, clothes, etc. Hooks are great to hang up mops, brooms and other cleaning supplies, too.

5) Plastic Baggies with Zipper Locks
How did our ancestors survive without them? Baggies are perfect to store small toys, puzzle pieces, and any little items that go together in one spot. The two-gallon sized ones are my favorite.

6) A Labeler
These don't have to be expensive to work. And having containers and shelf spaces labeled is a great way to help children keep their items organized, as well as yourself. Do yourself a favor – use a labeler for a week, and you'll wonder hoe you ever lived without one.

7) A Compartment Tray for Your Junk Drawer
Occasionally, I actually open my junk drawer to search for something! Having miscellaneous items in little compartments of the tray will save you time and frustration when you go searching.

8) A TV Remote Holder
How much time have you wasted looking for this little item? Make or purchase a holder for your remote, or put velcro on the back and stick it someplace near the couch.

9) Laundry Sorting Bin
Less than ten bucks, these bins help keep your dirty laundry organized, so that when you're ready to wash the whites, they're all in the same spot. No more digging through a giant hamper to find the right clothes! This makes laundry time so much simpler!

10) Two-tiered Spice Racks
These cabinet organizers save time and hassle in the kitchen. How many times have you searched for the oregano - behind the cinnamon, no - the nutmeg...Wait -where was the nutmeg? You get the idea.

These items are by no means all the great organizing tools out there, but they're my choices for time saving and hassle free living!

About the author:
This article courtesy of http://www.patio-furniture-guide.net
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Proactive Parenting -- How to Set Goals for Your Family and Children

by Shelly Walker

So often, we parents get caught in a cycle of reactive parenting. A situation comes up and we react, and that seems to be the only way we parent. We go along, moment to moment and day to day and simply react to the circumstances around us. Taking a moment to step out of this cycle to look at the long-term big picture is a great way to get some perspective and begin to head your family in the right direction.
We’re so busy. Frantic. Hectic. We wait for the weekends (or the vacation) to have fun with our families. We’re on the go, from morning ‘til night and by the time evening does come we’re often so exhausted that we only have enough energy to sit in front of the TV and zone out.

No wonder we are being reactive parents, flying by the seat of our pants! We’re all doing the best we can every day for our families. But there’s another way to parent our children: a positive, loving, long-term view of them and their lives that lends itself to possibility and joy.

By taking just a few minutes today to realign yourself with your goal for your family, you can make a positive change that will rapidly diffuse to every person in your household. If you are married, do this exercise with your spouse. Get on the same page and begin today to work for the same goals. If you are co-parenting with a non-resident parent, get together and spend just a small amount of time that will make a huge difference in the lives of your children. If you are a single parent it is even more important that you take the time to be proactive now, so you’re not chasing your tail later!

Being a proactive parent means that you think about what you want for your children in the long run and take every parenting moment that comes to help them towards that goal. I’ll show you what I mean.

One of the things that I want for my children is for them to be financially independent. I want them to know how to use their money to create passive income. I want them to know that they can live their passions in life and make money, too. I want them to know how to save, invest, tithe and spend their money wisely. So, keeping that goal in mind, how can I parent them in a way that will work towards this goal? Here’s what I do:

At the age of five, my children begin getting an allowance. They put 10% away for saving, 10% away for investing later on, 10% is given away to charity and they have the other 70% to spend on anything they want. (My husband and I got this idea from Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Kid, Smart Kid website his Rich Dad, Poor Dad books. These are great resources for learning how to handle your money.)
I give my children complete freedom over their spending money. That way they naturally learn how to save for the things they want. They gain the natural consequences of having and spending money. If they blow all of their money on candy today, they won’t have enough to buy the toy they’ve been wanting tomorrow.
My children know that if they want to earn extra money, they can do extra chores around the house. This empowers them and gives them the freedom to choose their income level.
At the age of eight, we begin to work on investing. We find something that they’re passionate about (for John, its baseball cards) and we begin to learn about investing in things that will appreciate (assets) and bring in more money. Since he’s been putting aside 10% of his income for the last three years, he has a good chunk of money start investing with. And, since he has his savings he doesn’t need to worry if all of his investments don’t turn out to be winners.
One of the most important things we do to help our children be financially secure is to talk about money matters with them. We are very careful about the vocabulary we use: always using empowering “choice” words, not “lack” words. If John wants something that we can’t or don’t choose to afford, it’s always “we’re choosing to use our money in a different way right now” never “that’s too expensive” or “we can’t afford that.” We do point out the difference between products and prices, but we don’t make judgment calls. These discussions happen naturally and are a constant part of our parenting. We are positive that we want our children to grow up with prosperity consciousness, not poverty consciousness. How we talk today about money is how they will think about money tomorrow.
That is one small goal that Michael and I have for our children. We keep that goal in mind every single day, in every parenting moment. Sometimes its hard work: maybe I think that the toy John wants is a total waste of money and it’s its hard to resist talking him out of it. But how will he ever learn how to make smart choices if he’s never allowed to choose for himself? Freedom is empowering, though it may be a little scary.

Now it’s time to sit down and do the following exercise. You may be able to do it in a few minutes or you might want to think about it for a few days and then sit down with your partner and put your answers to paper. As Steven Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, begin with the end in mind! Begin today to parent with the end in mind: happy, successful children who grow into fully empowered adults.

Step 1: Sit down, relax, get a cup of tea or a glass of water, and just be for a few minutes. If you pray, ask for guidance and a Knowing of the best goals for your family. If you like, you can simply close your eyes for a few minutes and get centered and still. The best parenting comes from that place of Stillness and Knowing that is deep within.

Step 2: Write down these six phrases, leaving room between them to write:

1. Financial Security
2. Physical Health
3. Emotional/Spiritual Health
4. Creative Freedom
5. Relationships
6. Other Goals
Step 3: Begin to brainstorm and write down any goal or desires for your children that come to mind. Most goals will fit into one of the first five categories. Imagine your children as adults. What skills do you want them to have? Are they happy, successful, empowered individuals? What do their relationships look like? Just keep writing and imagining until you have filled one sheet of paper.

Step 4: On another sheet of paper, re-write your 6 topics and put down your most important five goals for each area of development. It’s okay if you and your spouse have different priorities. Pick one that is very important to you both and each pick two more to add to the list.

Step 5: Choose one area of development to begin working on right away and add the others in as you can. Keep your goals in mind as you parent you children and remember that modeling the behaviors that you wish to see is the most effective way to teach your children. Emerson said, “Your actions speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying.”

Keep your goals handy and update them as necessary. Remember to celebrate your children’s successes with them and let them celebrate yours.

Straight talk from the mom who’s been where you are and knows how to help your family: Shelly Walker is the mother of two beautiful children and the author of Awakened Power and the upcoming book Parenting Keys. Shelly is passionate about children and believes that every child deserves healthy, happy parents. For more information, go to http://www.parentingkeys.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shelly_Walker