A Colorful, Creative Form of Healing

June 4, 2015 by 1 Comment

music art

You can find an extensive amount of information regarding the positive impact color has on physical healing and emotional well being. There’s also an abundance of information provided by qualified professionals and substantiated by a variety of assessments on the healing power of music. The Sing for Hope organization provides people the opportunity to experience both forms of healing and stress relief in an incredibly unique manner.

Artistic Pianos

Without any adornment, a piano can be described as a piece of art. It’s shape has a beauty worthy of admiration. However, when a group of artists are invited to release their creativity on the exterior surface of a piano, the result is an explosion of color that excites the eyes, lifts the spirit and invites you on a journey designed by the artist’s personal vision. Take a moment to envision a collection of colorful pianos placed in a centralized location just waiting for someone to approach them and release sounds that complement the exterior artistry, stir the soul and make the heart smile.

Healing sounds

Children have a natural sense of wonder, creativity and expectation. Unfortunately, those free-spirit ideas are often stifled by adults who weren’t allowed to express their creative side as a child or who were discouraged from nurturing optimism. An organization such as Sing for Hope provides a centralized location for people of all ages to come and enjoy and experience the positive impact music and art can have on one’s mind, body and emotions. Prior training or special talents aren’t needed to become a part of this experience. They make this experience a reality for many children and adults who otherwise would not have the opportunity to see the work of dedicated, talented artist or have a chance to bring forth musical sounds that come straight from their heart.

In an almost magical, mystical and unexplainable way, the healing power of visual art and the audible sound of music can provide stress relief, pain relief, emotional calmness and positively impact one’s world in many other ways regardless of whether you are the artist, the performer, the observer or the listener. Allowing yourself to be fully consumed in an art project or totally focused on the creation of a unique and personal musical composition can yield positive results that may far exceed your hopes or expectations.

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4 Legitimate Job Opportunities for Stay at Home Moms

June 4, 2015 by 2 Comments
Overview
With the costs of child care continuing to increase every year, there are many moms who are deciding to stay home with their children and work at home rather than spending most of their pay check on their children. The good news for these moms is that there are tons of legitimate work from home opportunities for people that want to make money. This list contains just three of those opportunities but there are many more.
Freelance Writing
One of the most popular stay at home mom jobs is freelance writing. There are many different web sites through which a stay at home mom can work. Generally, there are not too many requirements to work through these web sites, and most of the time it is just a basic grasp of the English language. For those that are willing to put in the work, freelance writing can be very lucrative. Most sites and clients will pay a certain amount per word, and it usually is a couple of cents. This means that a really good writer could make ten or fifteen dollars by completing a 500 word article. The great aspect of freelance writing is the fact that it can be completed from anywhere with an internet connection. Having the ability to be flexible with working hours and location is a great option for stay at home moms.
At Home Daycare
Many times, stay at home moms love being around their children which is their main reason for staying home. Some stay at home moms are leveraging their passion and expertise in to watching other people’s children. This is a great opportunity because it can be very easy to earn a thousand or more dollars every month while doing something that they enjoy. Many parents would rather send their children to a parent they know and trust than a day care center. In addition, the stay at home mom could work flexible hours and only a couple of times a week if she wanted. This allows for scheduling based on the stay at home mom’s schedule and no one else’s. If this is an option you are interested in exploring, make sure your home is conducive to having other children around, and be sure not to overwhelm yourself with several kids all at once. Start out with one kid and then work yourself up to more.
Tutor
Many stay at home moms have degrees that can be put to use even if they do not have a typical employee job. For example, many parents want to have their children tutored in order to raise their grades and test scores. If a stay at home mom has a degree in English or math, this is a great opportunity to earn some extra cash. Many private tutors charge $40 or $50 per hour, and depending on your specialty this may or may not be the range you operate in. The great thing about this field is that you are free to set your own hours and your rate per hour. If you find yourself too busy, simply raise your hourly rate or turn clients down. For just five or ten hours of work per week, it would not be unreasonable for a stay at home to expect to earn several hundred or even a thousand extra dollars per month. Any job opportunity for a stay at home mom should have flexible hours so that they can work when they want. The great thing about these three is that they are all location independent and offer legitimate ways for a stay at home mom to have a flexible schedule and earn extra income for her family.
Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping can be an excellent opportunity for people that are willing to work on a part time, yet flexible schedule. Shoppers, as they’re called, are trained to perform basic quality control for businesses like restaurants, fast food chains, movie theaters, retail stores, and more. They shopper is briefed on the rules and guidelines on what they need to look for, and “grade” the establishment accordingly.
The shoppers themselves are usually paid “per shop” or per completed job. On average, the amount earned is between $5-$30.
Bio
This guest post contribution is courtesy of Sentry Marketing Group. SMG coordinates mystery shopping in Dallas as well as many other cities in the US with programs for restaurants, hotels, retail and even automotive.
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5 Tips for Safe Traveling for Your Teens This Summer Vacation

May 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment

 

This is a post by author David Hall.  All opinions expressed are his own, and not my own.

Summer vacations are right around the corner and just a couple of weeks more to go and then your children would get off from the schools. It’s that time of the year we parents dread! The never-ending sibling fights, sleeping late and getting up well after the noon, binge eating and that constant complaint of getting bored – gear up, parents because you’re about to get your hands pretty full!

My advice: either enroll them into some classes- baking, crafts, swimming, summer camp, or get ready to face the music! Or better still; let them go and explore the world! If you’re thinking I’m being a little too adventurous and not foreseeing the risks involved, be assured that I’m a parent myself and have two teens up my sleeve, too.

I would rather encourage all other parents to let their children explore a new place this summer holiday. They could go anywhere -the place doesn’t matter. The important thing is to let them take care of themselves and survive in totally strange place! This will teach them things that you can’t in a lifetime!

Tip1: Do the math and geography

So, let’s assume that you’ve allowed your teens to go out on their field trip, educational tour or whatever and everything’s decided. Now, sit with your teens and do the math: calculate the costs, estimate the expenses and decide on a bare minimum daily allowance. Then do the geography. Google all the places they’d want to visit, a comfy hotel, nearby hospital, shopping malls, train circuit and adjoining suburbs. Your teens and you will get a good idea what they’re going to do there and it will improve their geography (it’s much better than knowing that K-2 is the 2nd highest mountain in the world!)

Tip2: Ensure their safety

Now that’s tricky and the most crucial part! You can’t just let them go without making it absolutely sure that you can keep in constant touch and monitor them! I am that kind of a person who’d ask Siri to book me cinema tickets. I enjoy tech and I rely heavily on it, too. Therefore, I’ve bought myself this parental monitoring app, FamilyTime, 6 weeks ago. I am getting used to its feature and seeing how it works. I’ve installed it on my children’s iPhones and I must admit it’s pretty fascinating. Here’s a screenshot of the dashboard:
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Home décor – Tastes and Space

January 13, 2015 by 1 Comment
pic5

picture via castleshomedecor.com

The home is the most important place for a human being. Most people spend the most amount of their time in their homes. In addition, we have an emotional attachment to our homes. For married couples, a home provides a safe environment for their children. The home should be kept as beautiful as possible.

Home décor has existed since human beings started living in one place. Even as they lived in caves, they painted their walls or made writings on them in an effort to make them more beautiful.

The choice of home décor is dependent on a number of factors.

  1. The number of options available. A home owner in the West coast could have access to a different range of products than one in the East coast.
  2. The expenditure of the homeowner. Wealthy people can buy more expensive items than families with a medium income.
  3. The taste of the person. People have different tastes. Women and men also have different home décor needs.

The essence of home décor is that decorating the house is supposed to make it more beautiful. The process should not add to the clutter of the house. Consequently, there should be a deliberate attempt to use as minimal furnishings as possible.
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Last-Minute travel? It is possible!

December 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

If you think that you cannot get amazing deals on the last-minute, then you are probably wrong.

Check out these little tips and gift yourself an amazing last-minute deal.

  1. Know when you can avail this last-minute deal

When we say ‘last-minute,’ we do not literally mean the last minute before the flight takes off. With ‘last-minute’ the focus is on a number of days before the flight takes off. You can assume that the deals can come your way about 14-15 days before time. So, keep looking for the right opportunity and grab it at the earliest.

  1. Look out for packages

Traveling to another country or a different state, look for packaged deals. This is because if you cannot save on the airfare, you will surely save on your stay in that place. Looking for packages, you should keep your eyes on tour operators too. They can throw in a lovely deal. All you need to do is, keep looking and get it.

  1. Mid-week travel savings

It is a less-known fact that traveling mid-week, you can save hundreds of dollars. So, look out for the Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The same rule applies for advance booking too.
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Are Female Drivers as Bad as Some Claim?

June 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment

This is a debate older than sliced bread and every bit as sexist as the assumption that women should be slicing it. Even women flying fighter planes around the country to different air bases during World War Two didn’t put this to rest. Every other week tabloid newspapers use a celebrity crashing their car as an excuse to produce the results from an obscure study, the conditions of which are rarely revealed, on whether men make better drivers than women or vice-versa. The short answer to this headline is no.

It is a stone-age assumption that the practicalities required to move a motorised vehicle are beyond the apparently emotionally driven and irrational female brain. As with most things, it comes down to the behaviour of the individual behind the wheel. We are pre-programmed for very little that is gender specific when it comes to every day tasks. Trying to make sense of the endless number of studies on the subject is difficult. Most stories surrounding this topic talk exclusively about the act of driving rather than the knowledge of the road laws themselves, which is interesting.

Pic via turbittoherron.com

Pic via turbittoherron.com

Men vs Women, Mars vs Venus, Emotion vs Logic and Other Stereotypes

The following sentences might fry your brain a little. Do stereotypes fulfil themselves because humans learn to behave as society tells them to? Or are different genders genetically predisposed to certain behaviours? Regardless of which line of thought you go down it is highly likely you won’t get a definitive answer because, as with most things in life, men and women have equal capabilities.

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Hamburg, the European Tea Capital

November 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

Hamburg is unofficially known as the capital city of tea in Europe as the Port of Hamburg has been the leading European trade centre for tea for many years. The major exporters of tea are India, China, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

tea

Hamburg, officially known as Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second largest city in Germany, and the sixth largest city in the European Union. The port of Hamburg is situated on the river Elbe, being the second largest port in Europe, after the Port of Rotterdam.

Short History of Hamburg

Hamburg’s official name, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (in German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg), reflects Hamburg’s history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and that Hamburg is a city-state and one of the sixteen States of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, Hamburg was a fully sovereign state of its own.

The port of Hamburg started as a small harbor which was first mentioned in the 9th century. At that time Hamburg was only a town with 200 inhabitants who practiced long-distance trade. Archbishop Adaldag granted the citizens of Hamburg the right to hold markets in 937.

An important milestone in the Port’s history was in 1321 when the growing city of Hamburg joined the Hanse League. The League was the most important economic federation run according to merchant principles in the Early and High Middle Ages. Hamburg was an exception in this league of cities because its trading activities were not focused to the east or Scandinavia but, due to its geographical position, rather to the west and the North Sea region. By entering the Hense League the city procured itself privileges in England and Flanders and established trading posts in London, Brugges, Amsterdam, in the north of Scandinavia and in the German hinterland.

Trade with America began in 1783 when the “Elise Katharina” was the first Hamburg ship to cross the Atlantic in order to arrive to Charleston and Philadelphia. By 1788 Hamburg Port was already home to 150 ships. In 1799, just 11 years later, this number had increased to 280, making Hamburg one of the fastest developing port cities in Europe.
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Go Green: 5 Simple Tips to Make Your Home Eco-Friendly

February 20, 2013 by 2 Comments

There is a movement to go green. People are all making an effort to become more eco-friendly. Many say they are going green, but how can you and your family actually reduce your impact on the environment? Here are a 5 easy tips to make your home more eco-friendly and save some money.green footprints

Tip #1: Clean Green

Take a look at the cleaners you use for tabletops, counters, bath fixtures and floors. If they’re filled with chemicals, it’s time to toss them. Most cleaning needs can be taken care of with natural ingredients like water, baking soda, white vinegar and lemon. Lemon juice and vinegar, being acidic, can help with stubborn scrubbing needs. Baking soda is a gentle cleanser that can be used in numerous ways. It can be used to deodorize refrigerators and garbage pails, scrub and wipe down counters and to remove odors from carpets. It’s also an effective addition to your laundry detergent and bleach, increasing their effectiveness and reducing how much you need to use.

 

Tip #2: Change Your Light Bulbs

Another simple energy saving tip involves changing your light bulbs. Conventional incandescent bulbs lose more energy to heat than compact fluorescent bulbs. CFLs, which don’t work on a filament, can save [Read more…]

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