The Shaker of Salt

 Image Source

Let’s face it, probably the most important part of your child’s party, aside from the presents of course, will be the party food. Of course, you want to provide healthy nutritious choices but it is also important to make it easy, delicious and fun. So let’s take a look at some of the party food options available when the sun shines.

Firing up the Barbecue

All children love burgers and hot dogs and what’s not to love. Choose well made sausages and burgers which use natural ingredients and have a high quality meat content. Why not make your own bread rolls and get the kids involved too. All children love baking and if they get messy, so what! It’s all about having a good time and there are plenty of sites like bakingsmart.com which are packed full of handy hints, recipes and inspiration to make baking fun for all the family. Give it a try and they will love being able to share their homemade masterpieces with their friends.

Having a Picnic

Whether at home in the back garden, in the local park or even further afield, a picnic is always a winner. Take some large picnic rugs to lay on the grass along with an assortment of colourful plates and cups. If there is a movie or character that your child is particularly fond of then why not get some themed tableware to make it extra special. You can either make large platters of snacks or why not give each child a party box. Inside you can put a sandwich, crisps, some fruit and a sweet treat, whatever you like. You could even add a novelty toy for each child to take home.

When they have finished eating why not get a team game going to stave off any boredom,or perhaps storytime for the younger ones. Whatever you decide, a picnic is guaranteed to keep them happy until it’s time to go home. And if the weather fails you, just decamp inside and have a carpet picnic instead. Yes it might be a bit messy but they will still have a wonderful time.

Party or Finger food

If you are planning a more low key celebration this year for a few close friends and family  some nicely decorated plates of party food and snacks will do the job. Never underestimate the appeal of a frozen banana penguin or a strawberry mouse!

The main thing is just remember to enjoy it, have fun and they are guaranteed to do the same.

No one wants to see mold in their home. Not only is it unsightly, but it can also cause a range of health issues and cause untold damage to the home if left unchecked. It is, then, a good idea to  in the first place. I know that this is easier said than done, but there are lots of things you can do to seriously minimize your chances of being invaded by mold…

Inspect Your Home

First of all, you should take the time to regularly inspect your home for any signs of mold or any potential problems that could cause mold to grow. For example, a basement that is prone to flooding would be a big risk, as would a leaking toilet or sink. If you find any problems, do your best to address them straight away, even if it means calling out a professional, because it will probably save you a lot of money (and time) in the future. It’ll also help to protect your family’s health too.

Dry Out Wet Patches Immediately

Mold is only able to thrive in the home when moisture is present, which is why it’s so important that you clean up any leaks and dry out any damp patches in your home as soon as they become evident, and always within 24-48 hours. If you don’t do this, mold could spread rapidly through your home leaving you with a real mess to clean up.

Use a Smart Thermostat

If you don’t already have a smart home add-on, it might be a good idea to look into getting one. Having a programmable thermostat is a great way to keep mold at bay by very carefully climate-controlling your home to avoid the kind of humidity and moisture than mold loves.

Ventilate Correctly

It’s also important to correctly ventilate your home if you want to discourage mold from growing unchecked. This means that, when you’re cooking, showering or drying the laundry, you should always either turn on the extractor fan or dehumidifier or even just leave a window open. The less moisture that is in your home, the better.

Use Mold Resistant Products

There are lots of very affordable mold resistant products on the market, so it makes sense to use them if you want to keep mold at bay. Things like mold inhibiting paint, mold resistant drywall and mold killing cleaning products will all make a real difference to your property.

Maintain Your Gutters

Ensuring that your gutters are always free from damage and cleared of debris will help to prevent the kinds of leaks that cause mold to spring up and grow swiftly within the home. Water stains on your walls are an early warning sign of gutter leaks, so keep a lookout for them.

Boost Air Flow

When it gets cooler, it’s more difficult for air to circulate through your home and this means that it could get a bit too moist within your house. By doing anything you can to increase air flow, such as opening doors and moving furniture out from the walls, you will be able to stop too much moisture from building up and keep your home mold-free.

May Contain Affiliate links

As the western world becomes more health conscious, cookware isn’t escaping analysis. The benefits of using cast iron are vast, and along with being a material that can stand the test of time, cast iron is also one of the healthiest options to cook with. Here are some of the benefits you need to know about if you’re considering upgrading your cookware.

Avoid Chemicals

Using a cast iron pan will ensure you avoid digesting the chemicals that are present when using Teflon pans. When preheating a Teflon pan, it will release chemicals called perfluorinated compounds which can get into your food, especially if the pan is scratched. These chemicals have been linked to many different health problems, and it’s important that pregnant women or women who are breastfeeding avoid them at all costs. A cast iron pan is naturally nonstick when seasoned properly so you don’t need to worry when it comes to switching from Teflon.

Flickr

Easy Cleaning

In comparison to a steel pan, cast iron is a breeze to clean. If you’re already doing a lot of home cooking, you don’t need the dishes to be a hassle too. To maintain your cast iron pan and keep it from rusting, all you need to do is place it in the sink while it’s still hot and scrape off any leftovers with a rough brush or spatula. When you’ve done that, leave it to cool on the stove. After your meal, wipe it down with paper towel and add a little oil to the pan to ensure the seasoning stays intact.

Dose Up on Iron

Did you know that cooking with an iron pan can actually help you if you have an iron deficiency? Studies have shown that the iron quantity in foods that have been cooked in cast iron has increased. This is great news for pregnant mothers who may need to increase their iron count. The longer food is cooked in cast iron, the more iron ends up in the food. For example, a passata sauce that’s cooked for an hour is likely to be full of iron, where a scrambled egg may only benefit slightly.

Flickr

It’s Cheap

There seems to be some sort of misconception that cast iron cookware costs a lot. On the contrary, cast iron pans are one of the cheapest kinds you can purchase. You’re far more likely to pay more for steel or stone frying pans. In addition, cast iron tends to last much longer than any other cooking material, so it’s likely you’ll only have to purchase a pan once if you’re willing to maintain it. You could save yourself a lot of money by investing in cast iron.

Hard Wearing

It’s near to impossible to destroy a cast iron pan. I know what you’re thinking – ‘my family will give it a good go’. However, you may be pleasantly surprised. You can drop it, misuse it and leave it rotting in the kitchen for days and you’ll still be able to restore it to its former glory.

May contain affiliate links

If you love DIY projects, you may want to tackle all corners of your home yourself. While this is admirable, and there is no doubt that you could probably manage most tasks, there are times when it is better to call in the professionals. The last thing you want to do is end up causing more damage, which will result in an even more expensive service in the long run. So, how do you decide whether to call in the professionals or do a bit of DIY?

Image Source

Is the project something that could cause major damage to your home?

The first thing you need to consider is how disastrous it would be if the project went wrong. Would it cause major damage to your home? Would you need to spend huge sums of money rectifying the problem? There are many projects that are fun, decorative, and harmless, such as these tips for creating a serene bedroom space. However, there are some projects that really do require an experienced and specialist touch. Consider what is the worst that could happen if things went wrong, and ask yourself whether this is something you could deal with.

Does your project involve plumbing, wiring, or electricity?

These are three types of projects that require an expert touch. Let’s deal with plumbing first. You may think sticking a coat hanger down the toilet is a great way to deal with a blockage. In actual fact, you could make the situation much worse, as you are merely pushing the blockage further down the piping. There are so many ‘home DIY plumbing’ articles on the Internet, but a lot of them are filled with poor advice. Do you really want your toilet to be overflowing for days o

n end? This is why it is best to call in the professionals like Maplewood Plumbing services instead. When it comes to electricity and wiring, you are putting the safety of you and your family at risk if you go about such a task without the required experience. Not only this, but your insurance could end up being void too. Imagine if a fire was to start because of dodgy wiring. Not only would this be disastrous, but also you would have no insurance to cover the damage either.

Are you in the right frame of mind?

The final thing you need to consider is whether you are in the right frame of mind, i.e. are you feeling up to the task? You definitely should not push yourself if you are feeling unwell or if you are pregnant. You know what you are most comfortable with, but do not push yourself if you aren’t feeling 100 per cent. The last thing you want to do is cause harm to yourself or your unborn little one for the sake of rearranging the living room.

All in all, if you ask yourself the three questions above, you should be able to determine whether it is better to do-it-yourself or call in the pros.

Pixabay

There comes a time for many of us where we start to lose a little bit of faith and confidence in our homes. When we first move in, the place feels new and fresh – but over time, it just starts to feel a bit drab. In fact, there are plenty of people who aren’t even all that happy with the place they’ve just moved into; they just picked the place because they needed somewhere and because the price was okay!

So how can we give our homes a bit of a modern boost without paying for expensive renovations? There are three main areas you’ll want to consider here: the furniture, the floor, and the lighting. There are ways that you can make inexpensive changes to all three that will give your home a much more modern and luxurious feel. Here are some tips for you to consider!

Wikipedia

Update your furniture

Replacing your furniture is quite a tall order. While it’s worth looking into second-hand furniture shops to see if there are any really good bargains for quality furniture, it’s best to see what you can do with your current furniture. The problem that a lot of people have with their seating furniture, for example, is that the upholstery isn’t looking too sharp these days. In which case, reupholstering your furniture is certainly something you should be looking into. If you have wooden furniture, consider repainting them, or using sandpaper to get rid of the blemishes and then reglazing them. Consider replacing some of the more inexpensive furniture items, such as curtains and bedsheets.

Replace your flooring

This may sound like quite an elaborate step, but it’s actually a lot more simple and realistic than you might think. Carpets wear out and get pretty dirty quite quickly, and the dust they soak up can really make a place feel older than it really is. Of course, ripping up the carpet and just leaving the floor as it is at that point isn’t really going to help your home feel particularly luxurious. Replacing the carpet with something that’s cleaner and softer is certainly a good step forward, but something like engineered timber flooring will really help bring a fresh and modern feel to your home. It’s also a good deal more hygienic that carpeting, so there’s also that to consider!

Max Pixel

Natural lighting

No, you don’t need to knock a hole in your wall for window installation in order to get natural lighting to sharpen up your interior. There are loads of smart “hacks” you can take advantage of that will allow more sunlight to get into your home. Using lighter colors for your furniture and decoration will help reflect that light. Placing mirrors across from the window that’s letting sunlight in will allow the light to bounce off the mirror and fill up other parts of the room. You should also maximize the light you’re getting from particular windows by pulling curtains and blinds back as much as possible, and by removing anything on the outside that’s blocking the light.

Just about everyone reaches a point where they want to do something a bit different with their home. After all, you can spend years, even decades, in one place without wanting to change it up every now and again. However, there’s one thing that tends to stand in people’s way more than anything else: money. As far as a lot of people are concerned, if you’re going to be changing up your home, it’s going to end up being expensive. There are certainly occasions where this is true, after all, if you want to build and extension onto your home then you’re probably not going to be able to do it without paying for it. However, there are plenty of things that you can do to make your home a more enjoyable and comfortable place to be without having to break the bank. Here are just a few examples that you might want to try.

Rental furniture

Picture From Pexels

After a while, even the nicest furniture starts to reach the end of its life. Sofas become lumpy and uncomfortable, tables start to wobble, and it can feel like your chairs aren’t going to take your weight anymore. A lot of people worry about this because of the fact that buying furniture is often a pretty pricey proposition. However, there is an alternative that a lot of people don’t know about. Furniture rental is a great way to save money while still filling your home with comfortable, good looking furniture. Not only that but you often get the chance to buy the furniture through rent-to-own programs as well, in the event that you find something that you really fall in love with.

Lighting

You might not think that changing the lighting in a room would make all that much difference, but the way a room is lit can mean the difference between somewhere that feels spacious and luxurious, to somewhere that feels cramped, stuffy, and claustrophobic. A lot of people don’t notice these things because it’s much more of a thing that you feel rather than something that you see. However, if you feel like one of the rooms in your house is too small or is uncomfortable to be in, try changing the way that it’s lit. Bring in more natural light if you can or change the kinds of bulbs that you’re using. These things might be very small changes, but they can make a big difference.

Rearrange the rooms

Picture From Pexels

Sometimes it’s not the room that’s the problem, just the way that it’s laid out. A lot of the time people arrange their rooms in certain, relatively predictable ways. The dining table will sit in the center of the dining room, and sofas in the living room will all end up pointing directly at the TV. These kinds of things are a great starting point, but not every room benefits from being laid out this way. Experiment with different layouts until you find something interesting. Changing the arrangement of a room might let in more light, or create more space, or just make it look more interesting. And the best part is that if something doesn’t work, you can just put everything back the way it was.

Pixabay

Have you ever thought about buying a home that you could use whenever you wanted to go on holiday? A holiday home, the perfect place whenever you needed a getaway and to escape the mundane and boring aspects of your life. It could be the perfect place to take the kids and perhaps enjoy time lying around the pool. Or, maybe just a place to catch up on your reading in the sun. Sound good? I bet it does, so perhaps it’s time start thinking about how you can buy your own little slice of paradise.

Aim For A Tourist Hotspot

When you start looking for a home on the market, you need to make sure you search in the tourist hotspots. This will allow you to pay for the home when you’re not using it and it will ensure that you get a desirable location. The only downside is that you might be put off by the crowds in areas like this. But you should still be able find beautiful secluded homes that are often part of gated communities. As such, you might find you can buy in a tourist hot spot and still get the peace and quiet you desire.

Find The Right Place

Once you’ve pinpointed a location, you should speak to an expert investment advisor. In the case of buying a holiday home, you need to speak to a real estate office. They will recommend some of the best properties on the market that should fit snugly into your price range. Of course, that does bring us to an important question.

How Much Should You Pay?

It’s definitely an interesting question to consider. If you’re buying a holiday home, you can spend upwards of 300K and the reason why is simple. You’ll be able to make the money back rather quickly. The easiest way to do this is to rent out the home when you’re not using it. Over just a couple of years, even charging a moderate price for rentals, you should be able to make back all the money you put into the property. And once you finish paying it off, the property can actually turn a profit which is cool. However, to do this, you need to make sure you get your hands on a luxury property. That’s why it is worth spending a little more on the purchase.

Getting The Cash

Of course, this brings us to the final problem, and that’s getting the cash together to pay for your holiday home. It’s not quite the same as buying a new home because typically you’ll be selling your old one first. You might have enough in your accounts to pick up the holiday home with a deposit. But if you don’t you could think about taking out a second mortgage on your home and using that as capital. As explained, this isn’t a major risk because you should be able to pay the money back you put into the property in no time at all.

Have I convinced you to purchase your own little piece of paradise?

Image Source

A garage can often become a neglected space in our homes used for hoarding stuff and rarely entered other than to retrieve Christmas decorations or holiday suitcases. Many of us would like to make better use of this space but never have the motivation to. Sure, getting your garage back in shape won’t be easy, but the longer you put it off the worse the job will get. Take action now by taking these four steps.

Clear out the clutter

First, you need to get rid of the clutter. There will be some important items you’ll want to hang onto, but it’s likely there are other items such as bags of clothes, inherited possessions and libraries of video tapes that are just collecting dust. Decide whether to scrap, sell or donate these items. Putting them temporarily in Self Storage could be a solution – you can then deal with them later. Others may find hiring a skip to be a good solution, whilst others may need help from a declutterist. Finishing off by hovering up any dust and cobwebs and possibly cleaning any surfaces that need it.

Make repairs

If your garage has been full of stuff for a long time, you most likely haven’t noticed the wear and tear that’s been going on. There may be cracks that need to be caulked up and the floor may be damaged. Companies such as A-1 Garage Doors meanwhile will be able to replace or repair the door. Check that there is no major structural damage to the garage such as subsidence or storm damage.

Pest-proof the place

Garages can be breeding grounds to pests. This may include mice or wasps. You may be to eliminate the pest problem yourself or may prefer to hire a professional pest control company such as Environ Pest Control and guarantee removal. Double-check the interior for cracks that could be the source of these pests.

Repurpose

Now that your garage is clean, repaired and pest-free, you can begin plans to repurpose it.

There are endless possibilities here. You could simply keep it for its original purpose and house your car here. Alternatively, you could turn it into a mancave or workshop and put up a workbench. You could wire in some electrics if you need to use machinery or simply want to have TV or radio without trailing an extension cord through. Be aware that if you’re using machinery that produces fumes or dust, an extractor fan could be handy to install.

You could even take things one step further and convert the garage into a livable space. It could become an extra lounge for you or your children. It could become a home office for you to do your work. It could even become another bedroom for a new family arrival, for guests or even for a lodger. Converting is likely to cost much less than an extension and it will add value to your property that could be beneficial if you have future plans to sell.