by Torley

French style home accessories can brighten your decor. A French look country kitchen can be decorated with cheerful colors and expression. Antiqued cooper, colorful ceramics, aged, sturdy earthenware and decorative metal and iron add French accents to home decorating efforts.

Adding a touch of southern France to your kitchen can be organizational as well as welcoming and stylish. You will want to use accessories for decorating that are as pleasing to the eye as they are useful. Carved wood and old paintings along with vases and dishes to hold vegetables and fruits are a must. A wrought iron pot rack can be softened with floral accents in abundance.

Celebrate functionality in your French style accessories. Have a cutting board handy but make it a rustic well-used one and put it on display. Show off stoneware and canisters as you use them also for decorations. Display unique bottles of cooking wines, spices, vinegars and oils. Don’t hide the large ceramic serving platters, bowls, pitchers and colorful ceramic canisters. Instead, display them on the counter where they are ready for use.

French style uses worn iron and metals, aged wood surfaces with rough finishes. You may want to choose wrought iron light fixtures and iron wall decor. In the kitchen, you could use a pot rack above the sink where large pots can be hung to dry.

Rustic urns and Mediterranean pottery along with woven baskets give a home a French style warmth and glow. Use of art and stone along with color will enhance your theme. The use of different shades of red and yellows will wake up a room. Wrought iron and metal are essential French accessories.

The casual magnetism of French furniture is practical. Use accent tables in wood with iron, marble or carved tops. The iron may be scrolled. A table may be planked with a rustic look seating up to twelve people. Here, accents of metal are appropriate. Shades of red add to the accessories for color and warmth while yellow and dark blue are often married.

Draperies and candles are added to the bedroom furnishing to add a romantic touch. Even a masculine bedroom has candles and drapes. There may be iron decor on the walls to keep the masculine feel. The use of wrought iron and other metal will keep it from getting a feminine look. Use layers of woven tapestries to add depth, and use glass to add a touch of refinement.

Wall art is another way to add the look of France. The use of matting and frames will enhance artwork and keep it up-to-date. A wall tapestry can be framed by wrought iron accent pieces. Texture, theme and color is what a tapestry is all about and it will help in the decorating of a room. You can use bold colors or use a soft tapestry to give it a softer look. Your choice of tapestries can set the mood for the room.

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Feng Shui For Career Advancement

Most of us spend a lot of time in office for work. Regardless of whether it is in your employer’s office or your home office, the office environment can at times be very challenging. Relationship with your colleagues or business partners is a very important factor to unpleasant office politics. Feng Shui For Career Advancement

While you are working hard and smart to be a better employee and making yourself more valued at the workplace you should enlist the help of Feng Shui to enhance your career success. Feng shui is about balancing the chi or energy around your surroundings. By balancing the energy in your environment, your own energy will be in harmony, and you will draw to you, people and opportunities that reflect this balance.

Here are 10 great feng shui tips to help create harmony at the workplace and to make your career advancement smooth sailing:

1. Good Support Behind The Back Of Your Sitting Position

The most important feng shui tips in the office is to make sure that you are seated with a good support behind your back. It is extremely important that your back faces a wall or some solid surface. You must never sit with your back facing a door or windows as this makes you vulnerable to “backstabbing” and “betrayals” in the office. If the back of your sitting position is a window, it is very inauspicious as it represents a lack of support. Close the windows behind you or hang a painting of mountains behind your back to provide you with good support.

2. Clearing The Clutter In Your Office

Clutter like unfinished projects, unused papers, unresolved works, disorganized office stationery and files are extremely bad feng shui to you. Your career will become a mess and you stand no chance of any career advancements. Clutter is like emotional constipation – it bogs you down. By clearing your clutter and arranging your office desk nicely, you create space for new things and your energy and creativity will increase.

3. Choose Your Office Desk In Your Success Position

Place your desk in your success position. Your success position will bring you great success and awesome career advancement in your career. You can know your success position by calculating your KUA number (or Star Number). Our feng shui website teaches you on how to calculate your person KUA number and how to apply feng shui in your work and career to bring great income luck and success. In addition, the ideal placement for your computer and desk is in a position that allows you to see the door of your office. If this is not possible, you can restore good Feng Shui by placing a small mirror on your desk that gives you a clear view of the door.

4. Place A Healthy Small Potted Plant On Your Desk

A plant will bring life into your workspace and will also absorb toxins in the air. My recommendation is to place a Money Plant on your office desk to attract career luck and income luck. The money plant can also help you ward off office politics and unpleasant things in your working environment. A plant on your table is also able to boost you creativity. Research has shown that you will be happier when there is greenery on your table. Feng Shui For Career Advancement

5. Avoid Sitting Directly Facing Someone Else

Do try to avoid sitting at a work desk that is directly facing someone else at your opposite. This is bad feng shui as if you are seated in a position where you constantly face another person, there will certainly be accumulation of bad and confrontational Chi enery between the both of you. Consequently, this will definitely lead to conflicts and unpleasant arguments.

6. Do Not Sit Under A Strong Exposed Beam

You will be working under great pressure if there is a structural beam or bright light above where you are working. The bright beam or light will make you irritable and do your work impulsively. One good way to overcome the situation is to renovate the ceiling so that it is flat.

7. Separate Your Workspace In Your Bedroom

Feng shui do not recommend having a workspace in your bedroom as the bedroom is a place of rest. If you must have your workspace in your bedroom, try to partition it off with a screen. You can place a curtain or a screen to separate your work desk with your bed. In feng shui, work and sleep are two conflicting energies: Work is very yang and sleep is very yin, hence both must not mix together. In addition, a relaxing sleep will enhance your work productivity.

8. Display Crystals At Your Work Desk

In feng shui, crystals are great tool to absorb negative energies at work. If you want to avoid office politics and to make sure your career is smooth-sailing, you should display small crystal balls on your desk to ensure that everything goes smoothly at work.

9. Use Only One Door In Your Office

Do use only one door in your office, if there are more, keep them closed. This is because you only want your wealth and money luck to come to you in the only door and will not escape from other doors. Use only one door in your office if you don’t want your money to escape.

10. Carry A Jade Cicada With You

If you want to block off any office politics in the office, buy a jade cicada and carry it in your bags or hide it under your files and documents so that it would not be seen. Jade Cicada is a powerful feng shui tool to help you avoid confrontations and conflicts in the office. It is also able to bring good luck to your working environment. Feng Shui For Career Advancement

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Plumbing Maintenance Tips- By Your Friends at Piazza Plumbing

One of the best tips you can do for the plumbing system in your home is routine maintenance. Now maintenance does not have to be hard and in this first article I will share with you one of the most common tips you can do yourself to keep your plumbing system up and running.

Water Heaters –
These guys are actually taking a bit of abuse even though you may not see it. The constant expansion and contraction of the water heater can be the main factor why water heaters fail. Don’t let this alarm you though. By maintaining your water heater you can almost double the life of the water heater in many cases.

Flush your water at the very least once a year (Twice a year is actually recommended) to get rid of sediment build up. Sediment causes the burner on the heater to work harder than it needs to. To do this FIRST SHUT OFF THE GAS VALVE. Then use a garden hose and hook it up to the hose bib on the bottom of water heater. Run the hose to a floor drain nearby. Shut the valve on the cold water side of the heater. Now turn on the valve where you hooked the hose up. Let the water heater drain. To speed up the draining process open the relief valve on the side of the heater by pulling up on the lever, this will act as a vent and allow the heater to drain faster.

Once the Water Heater seems like it has drained close the relief valve (if you opened it) turn on the cold water valve for 15 seconds while the bottom valve is still open. After 15 seconds close the cold water valve again and let heater drain. This will flush out any remaining sediment on the bottom of the tank. Tank is now flushed Close the bottom valve and the relief valve. Turn on cold water valve and let heater fill up before relighting the pilot. In some case you may experience low pressure at some of the faucets. This is caused by sediment in the lines. Remove the aerator of the clogged faucet and clean it out.

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Even if we are not aware of it, mold spores can reside anywhere that there is moisture, and can be breathed into the lungs compromising lung capacity, the immune system and creating health problems. As a result, it is essential when building out your basement, to find products and processes that either eliminate or substantially reduce mold growth.

One of the best products and processes available today is the use of decorative concrete. Mold can be virtually eliminated by staining the concrete floor or adding thin layers of concrete on the surface of the slab that is the floor of the basement, and then sealing the new floor, in a process called decorative concrete. Once this is complete, using area rugs and other decorative but portable and removable floor coverings will help combat mold.

I usually do not venture into personal or family aspects when providing information such as this article, however, in this piece I feel it is essential. My family and I moved into a great home on an acre of land in the mostly dry high desert. We were in the process of building out the basement into a family room, extra bedroom and small office.

One of my family members became so ill that in a four month period she went from working and being busy and active 24/7 to barely being able to get from the bed to the bathroom. She was wheezing and her skin was looking pale and gray. The rest of us were getting headaches and having throat problems, but our symptoms were not nearly as extreme. The doctors put her on antibiotics and declared that she had pneumonia. Even with medicine, the symptoms continued.

By sheer accident one afternoon, a friend suggested that the symptoms might be from mold. We had no experience with this, so we started researching and we had the house inspected. There was a tremendous amount of mold growth – under wood and parquet floors and into the walls. We were told to move immediately. Within a week of moving my family member was up and around, breathing better and working again.

Unfortunately, she had to stay on anti-fungal and anti-bacterial medicines and it will take some time for her lung capacity to get better. It may not get to 100% again.

I share this story because of how quickly and seriously a mold problem – particularly in the basement, which was directly under this individual’s bedroom – created a health problem, even though there was no mold to be seen. When the wood floors were pulled up, they were black and green on the under side in room after room.

The inspector who found the mold said that the best way to use a basement was to make sure the slab was clean and then use various colors or textures and seal the floor – in other words, decorative concrete.

My current home does not have a basement, however, I already know exactly what I will do if I purchase a house with one. I will use decorative concrete as an insurance policy to keep my family safe from mold.

Oh man, Hive, ever since I talked about Packing the Invitations, I’ve had belly bands on my mind. I’ve gone through weird belly band phases, where I thought they were just okay, and then loved them, then just okay, and then loved them again.

Well, right now, I currently love them. Love. Them. It amazes me how creative people can get with the bands, and how fantastic they can all look, even if they are different.

I’ve decided that showing you just two photos in my last won’t do. I hereby dedicate this entire post to belly bands. That’s right! In honor of the hug for our invitations, here are all kinds of belly band eye candy.

The colors are off in the photo – much brighter/more vivid in real life. Monogram colors are lime green (letters) and turquoise (starfish), and the monogram frame color is more of a clover green. All paper is from cardsandpockets.com, and my sister designed them.

When i read you last post about them I was so inspired i went in and designed my invites right then and there. I put a belly band on it and now I am seeing a few more options here that i like…Thanks for the ideas!I’ve never thought of them for my invitations… but those last ones are so cute! Kinda like a garter for your invites…Love the belly bands! We are still trying to decide what design to use for ours. Thanks for all of the inspiration.

I pink puffy heart belly bands. Although I am now afraid my own were insufficient after seeing all of this awesome inspiration!Meeeeee! And, I totally LOL’d at your “random uncategorized awesome belly bands” description. So many pretty details!I love the one with the seal! I was tempted to show it to my FI, but I don’t think he’d get it…. I’ll have to explain the whole “inner wrapping” by the time we make our invites.How wonderful are those! Juries still out on our affordable wedding invitations, I hope they look that fabulous if we do decide to go that way!

some light (50%) sparring working between Curtis Ward (Longo) and Mario Ciccone (Tiger Schulman) of IFS (International Fight Sports – NY). Focus point being footwork and movement this session. This was concuted in my living room – The danger room and was to help get me ready for my Feb 6th fight against Peter Franchi.
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Florida Relocation Services — Can They Really be Free? 

Many corporations provide extensive relocation services to their executives when they ask them to transfer from one location to another.  Corporations pay fees to Relocation Management Companies for many of these services, but the good news is: there are expert and comprehensive Florida Relocation Services available to you for FREE. 

Personalized, Florida Relocation Services may include: 

The Services of a Relocation Consultant – Responsive & Knowledgeable, your single point of contact for all of your Florida relocation needs. Home Marketing Assistance – to sell your home in the departure city, for the best possible price in the shortest period of time. Destination Services – Florida Relocation Assistance including overview tours, home finding (for purchase,) Florida relocation information including mortgage and title services. Household Goods Move Management – the selection of the best van line company for your specific situation and an advocate for you throughout the process.

 Relocation Consultant 

The role of a Relocation Consultant is to be your single point of contact throughout the process, always available to help and guide you.  She provides you with the information and tools to help make the relocation process go as smoothly as possible.

 Home Marketing Assistance

The focus of a Home Marketing Assistance program is to help you to sell your home for the best possible price in the shortest period of time. We would absolutely advise you not to “go it alone.”  Only 7% of homes are sold For Sale By Owner (FSBO). In addition, homes sold with the help of a real estate agent sell for 32% more.   

Following strict broker and agent selection criteria your Relocation Consultant chooses two agents from different companies to meet with you. Each of them will submit a Broker Market Analysis (BMA). The agents share the BMA reports with you and the Relocation Service Company. Together you review and compare and a strategy is developed to obtain a suitable offer in a timely fashion.  Advice is offered on agent selection, but ultimately the choice is yours.  You will interact with highly experienced, knowledgeable, and honest real estate agents. The agents will provide unbiased and realistic data to you and to the Relocation Company.

Destination Services  

Florida’s land area is 54,252 square miles.  It’s 447 miles in length and 361 miles in width.  It has 1,197 miles of coastline and 663 miles of beaches. It has 11,000 miles of rivers, streams and waterways.  It has 67 counties and more golf courses (1,250) than any other state.  If you are considering Florida, relocating can be an awesome task!  If you are going to relocate to Florida, where are the best places to live in Florida?

Your Relocation Consultant will work with you to determine your priorities, preferences and sensitivities, all the things that factor into a location decision.  You may have spent time in Florida and have a good feel for where you want to locate.  You may have narrowed it down to 2 or 3 towns. You may still be in a quandary and thinking about a Tampa relocation OR a Melbourne relocation – on two different coasts!  Whatever your situation, the Relocation Company will help you to focus, and ultimately, select a community and home that is perfect for you.

Following strict agent and broker selection criteria your Relocation Consultant will hand pick an agent (or several agents if you are considering several areas) to work with you to find the perfect community and the perfect home.  Take advantage of the Relocation Company’s expertise and the expertise of their selected agents and brokers. They are the best in the business!  81% of home buyers purchase their home through a real estate agent, even though 87% first investigate on line!

 Household Goods Move Management

Your household goods are not just things, they have a combination of sentimental and monetary value.  Your Relocation Consultant will select a van line company that offers optimum service at the best price in your specific territory to meet with you and give you an estimate which they will then share with the Relocation Company for review. Your Relocation Consultant is available throughout the process and after your goods have been delivered, to act as an advocate for you. 

You owe it to yourself to investigate what a Relocation Service Company can do for you if you are planning to relocate to Florida or buy a second home in Florida.

Read this excellent resource on www.movers-edge.com Any change of location whether it is just moving down the road, a few blocks away, a new neighborhood or a completely different country is a stressful activity.
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If you’ve ever moved, you know how stressful—and expensive—it can be. If part of your job is helping other people in your company to relocate, then you’re intimately familiar with relocation costs and the myriad of other challenges that go along with relocating.

Using an outside firm like Capital Relocation Services can help your company keep relocation costs in check and help you measure the true ROI (return-on-investment) of relocation costs for employees or new hires—and their families.
 

Cost Estimating and Budgeting Tools

CapRelo uses a number of cost estimating tools and budgeting tools, plus online expense reporting, as part of the company’s proprietary, low-stress relocation process. The six-phase Low Stress Relocation Process™ emphasizes supporting clients and their relocating employees in order to retain them for years after the move. It’s all about keeping relocation low-stress and ROI —for employees, their line managers, and the company!

Relocation costs are not one-size-fits-all. Capital Relocation Services uses a process that determines each relocation cost estimate based on company policies, and also takes into account factors that may vary with each employee or new hire. Relocation costs are generated from historical data and supplier input to create benchmarks for budgeting, but never neglect the individual’s unique needs.

Whether you’re bringing in one shining star or relocating a whole department to a new office in a different region, low-stress relocation is easier with the right budgeting tools and a relocation calculator.

Let’s take a look at how to do it.
 

Tracking and Reducing Relocation Costs

Using an upfront relocation calculator ensures you’re looking at the total costs associated with the relocation, including sale and purchase of real estate, temporary living, household goods and travel expense. This means your accounting department, as well as HR, won’t face surprises due to policy exceptions or rising costs associated with travel, real estate closings, and the like.

But what about out-of-policy costs? You can track these with the online budget tool, too. Input the actual expenses online and compare them with the relocation cost estimate from the relocation calculator. Are you on budget? If not, what can you do to get back on track?

If you go under budget in one category, you have the flexibility to allocate that money to another benefit category. Best of all, you can do this all online through Capital Relocation Services’ relocation calculator and budgeting tool, so multiple people in your department—or across your company—can access the data. Expense reports can be downloaded directly into the Budgeting Tool for real-time updates, making it easier for everyone to stay on the same page.
 

Relocation Costs Are Not a Science

Every relocation is different. Employees have unique needs. The time an employee needs to get back in the swing of things and return to full productivity after relocation may vary. Effective, accurate cost estimating and budgeting tools take this into account, so that every employee can enjoy a low-stress relocation and return to work faster.

With many of the challenges of relocation taken care of, relocating employees know they’re part of a company that truly cares about their well-being. This leads to longer employee retention, which directly impacts your company ROI, and also creates a happier, more productive workplace.

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When ever you have a garage door you should make sure it is maintained. Garage doors have moving parts and anytime you have moving parts the parts can break. If you have a standard pull garage door it still has moving parts as the garage door has to roll up into the top of the garage so you can get the car in. You may even have garage doors that you have to pull open like a barn door or a house door. Even these need some maintenance as they do have hinges and generally some type of lock. So if your garage door requires maintenance you can use a san diego garage door repair service.

One thing to remember about an automatic or electric garage door is it weighs a lot. As you open and close your garage doors you are using the various springs and tension bars to get it up and down albeit electrically. All metal has a fatigue point and the parts that make your garage door work also have a fatigue point. When you think of safety in your yard and home, you should also think about the safety of your garage doors. When a spring or tension bar reaches the fatigue point it will give you no warning what so ever. When it breaks or cracks or fails, you will see and hear a large number of pounds come crashing down in a heartbeat. When this happens that safety reverse built into the door does not work and the garage door hits the garage cement floor with a very loud crash and bang. It is enough to scare someone.

Any san diego garage door repair service would be glad to schedule an inspection of your garage doors. They will check a number of areas and parts such as that safety reverse. They will also check that the door is operating smoothly and has no misaligned tracks. If they find misaligned tracks they will straighten them. They will also clean the tracks and lubricate the roller bearings. They of course will check the springs and the tension bar plus all of the hinges which are what makes the garage door roll up.

A san diego garage door repair service can also check the remote control mechanism plus your garage door openers. Since very few people even think of cleaning the cobwebs from around the door’s sensor lights they certainly don’t think of doing any other maintenance on their garage doors.

Then there is the time that you go to open your garage door and it won’t open for you and of course your car is stuck inside of the door. You may or may not have a way to manually open the door. And if you do have a manual override you may not have a clue where it might be located or how to use it. So you can always get a hold of a san diego garage door repair company who will come out in an emergency.

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People rent all kinds of garages for all kinds of reasons. Self-storage garage rental facilities are a big business today, even being constructed in the smallest towns. Some facilities let you drive right in, making these places perfect for storing vehicles or boats. Other people need to put household items in storage while they are between houses or in another city. Urban apartment dwellers sometimes find themselves with a home but no place to put their car and end up taking a space in a rental garage.

Your Signature, Please

The first point to remember is that any garage rental arrangement should include a written contract, to protect both parties. Even renting a garage at a private house, from a friend or neighbor, should come with a rental agreement.

Next, make sure the landlord agrees to how you want to use the garage. For example, if you rent a garage at a self-storage facility, are you allowed to do repair work there? Can you use it to store your fixer-upper? If you’re working with staining materials like oil or paint, make sure you know the garage’s cleanliness rules. Ask if you can get electricity in your rental garage and how much it costs.

If you are renting a garage to store household goods, you might be considering a climate-controlled warehouse. Fabrics can grow moldy in too much humid heat. Wooden furniture will contract and expand if the temperature fluctuates too much or gets too dry. Find out the temperature and humidity limits the warehouse manager stays between. If 24-hour access to your stuff is important, the time to ask is before you sign a garage rental deal.

City people who rent space in a garage to store their car have some further considerations. Read the garage rental agreement very carefully, especially with respect to your responsibilities.

Most garages of this type do not allow tenants to store non-working cars, do extensive car repairs, or give away their parking pass to friends or guests. Most rental parking garages accept absolutely no liability for vehicular damages or theft that occur on the property. When space is really tight, some garages have lifts they use to stack cars in less space. If your garage does this, find out about the possibility of delays in retrieving your vehicle.

No matter what kind of garage rental you need, make yourself aware of certain issues. For example, what will the landlord do if your property is damaged in storage? Can you get access to your property when you need it?

The Loft-It Lift System is the only way to reclaim valuable floor space in your garage. Lift motor cycles, golf carts, generators, snow mobiles and more.
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