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Why Personalized Gifts Are Priceless In Value

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Every single day, millions of people around the world are either buying gifts for the people in their lives that they care about or they are actually presenting those gifts that they have already purchased to those individuals.  Gift shops will probably never go out of business because of the fact that millions of people seem to depend on these businesses year after year to help guide them in the right direction whenever these moments arise.


However, did you know that there is a way that you can make even the smallest gifts priceless in value that can be cherished for a lifetime?  How is this possible?  By making sure that you find a way to personalize the gift before giving it to that special someone!

Setting Your Gift Apart from All Others

By making sure that you find a way to personalize your gift, you will be effectively setting your gift apart from all of the other similar gifts that this special someone may have received in the past either by you or other people.  This will allow your gift to stand out and maintain a strong presence within their memories, because they will always be able to distinguish yours from all of the others.   How does that exactly work?

The Value Has to Be in the Memory More

Let’s say that you want to buy your special someone a valuable item of jewelry.  Millions of people have this idea year after year, which is one of the main reasons why billions of dollars are spent on jewelry annually on a global scale.  By giving it to them the way that you bought it, they will be able to appreciate the value of the gift itself but not really the person that gave it to them.  How so?

They will be able to cherish the memory of receiving this valuable gift as well as the memory when they may have found out how much the value was worth.  However, there really is not going to be anything that sets those items apart from many of the other items that they have.  You have to be able to create a memory that they can cherish even more than item itself.

Adding a Personal Touch makes it Priceless

If you can find a personal way to put a personal touch to your gifts, this is the way that you can make it priceless and truly valuable for a lifetime.  Do not just buy her a necklace or bracelet.  Find a way to have a special message inscribed or engraved in that jewelry to make it memorable.  Do not just buy her a collectible doll.  Invest in one of the high quality dolls that look like you so that she can have a doll that is not available anywhere else.  You have to be able to go the extra mile to make your gift different in order to engrave the memory in her mind forever and allow her to never forget about the moment that she received it from you.

This article was written by Kate Carson, an author that remembers firsthand the joys of receiving personalized gifts, such as dolls that look like you, as a present. She was been writing content articles that she can personally relate to for many years, but she also enjoys writing about such niches as politics, current events and technology.

Lighting It Up: How To Decorate With Lamps

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Lamps are not only great sources of light. Whether it’s reading, writing or working on a craft project, a lamp or two will make the job easier. However, more than just providing a generous pool of light, they also add a huge impact on your decorating scheme. A simple lamp on an entry table, for instance, can lend a cozy welcome to your guests. When placed on the kitchen or the bedroom, they aid in softening the hard edges of the space, and when slipped in an awkward corner of the living room, it can do a whole lot in giving the space a fresh face. With such capabilities, no wonder, lamps are a must-have item in any decorator’s arsenal.

If you are planning to give your room a makeover, don’t forget to include lamps in your decorating scheme as they will definitely lend an amazing impact to your space. To get you started, here are some tips you can follow when incorporating lamps in your home’s décor.

Determine the function of the room

Before you buy lamps, consider what activities you are going to use the space for. The type of activities that the room will serve will influence your choice of fixtures as well as their placement. Since most rooms serve more than one function, it is necessary that you purchase lamps that will allow you to do those activities properly. For instance, table lamps can become the key sources of light for the bedroom that will permit the occupant to properly traverse through the space and allow sufficient illumination for reading. A work area that doubles as a reading room, on the other hand, calls for tall and narrow floor lamps that can be easily slipped into corners to illumine dark spaces and provide ample amount of light for homework or reading.

Think of your décor

Aside from the function of the room, you also need to look at the existing décor. Doing so will allow you to select the right pieces that will complement the rest of the room. For instance, if your room is contemporary, lamps with slim bases and drum-shaped shades will fit in well to the space since they can lend drama to the room without necessarily overpowering other decorative elements inside. A room with a classic décor, on the other hand, is best accentuated with lamps whose shades are round or square.

Mind the scale

Always pay special attention to the size of your lamps. Be sure that their scale is appropriate for the location where they will be placed. You do not want to accessorize a small coffee table with a huge lamp with tapered shade. Not only will the piece look out of place, it will also affect the flow of traffic in the room since it is likely to be bumped into or knocked over. Similarly, a particularly small lamp should not be used a stand-alone fixture in a large room. As a rule of thumb, the shade of the lamp should be between one-half to three-fourths the size of its base, and it should also be able to properly hide the lamp’s hardware.

Translucent or opaque?

Another important thing that you have to consider when picking a lamp is the amount of light you want the fixture to cast. If you want a lamp that will illumine the room and will provide light for certain tasks, your best bet is to go for a piece with a translucent shade. However, if the lamp will function only as an accessory to the room, go for an opaque shade instead.

This article was written by Ericka for www.heritagecleaning.co.uk. Ericka is a home improvement enthusiast which inspires her to write helpful posts about home repair, organization, maintenance, décor and gardening.

Proper Light Placement To Better Illumine The Exterior Of Your Home

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While lighting the exterior of your house is not difficult at all, it is also easy to make mistakes when it comes to where the lighting fixtures should be affixed. Try strolling around your house after dark and you will notice that there are some areas that are cloaked in the shadows, paths that are hard to thread on in the darkness, or seating areas that are rendered useless at night. You may also find spots that are too bright that guests and passers-by have to cover their eyes from the glare of your lighting fixtures.

Fortunately, it is easy to correct these problems. With a little know-how on proper placement and what type of lights to use for certain spots, you can make the exterior of your home safer and more usable after the sun goes down and at the same time lend drama to the space. Below are some tips on how you should incorporate lights into your home’s exterior, where they should be placed, and what types of fixtures you should use.

Front door

Lighting is particularly important on the access and egress point of your house for good reasons. It shows people where to enter and where the doorbell and keyhole are positioned; prevents tripping on the steps; and allows the people inside to know who is at the front door.

The most ideal light fixtures to use on the front door are lanterns with two low-voltage compact fluorescent bulbs placed on both sides of the door (preferably mounted along the front door’s upper third portion). These fixtures provide the right amount of light without glare and at the same time enhance the appeal of the front door.

When picking wall or post lanterns, go for pieces with frosted or colored lenses instead of those with clear glass as they are easier on the eyes.

Garage and Driveway

Just like how you would light up your front door, you should also provide proper illumination on your garage and driveway entrance so that guests and vehicles will be able to find your home at night. For the driveway, it is not necessary to light up the entire strip. A few low-voltage spreadlights staggered along the edge of the pavement will suffice. Your garage, on the other hand, will benefit from the addition of some wall-mounted compact fluorescent floodlights near the door and on the sides. Also, do not forget to illuminate your house number. Guests arriving at night as well as emergency responders will definitely appreciate such addition since they will be able to know which house is yours.

Steps and walkways

To lead guests to the front door and guard them against slipping, layered lights coming from low-voltage fixtures are the most suitable choices for illuminating steps and walkways. Popular fixture selections for these locations include bollard lights, mushroom lights and path shaded tier lights. All these fixtures cast light downward so they are easy on the eyes. They also come in a wide variety of styles and different price points, allowing you to pick pieces that complement the look of your home and your budget.

For the most pleasing effect when positioning the lights and prevent the runway look, do not place all the lights on a straight line. Instead, stagger them on both sides of the steps and walkways.

Seating areas (patios, decks, porch)

To ensure you will be able to entertain guests even after dark, do not forget to light up your outdoor living areas. There is no hard or fast rules when it comes to lighting up outdoor living spaces, allowing you to take free helm on your light choices. However, do not forget to install task lighting in or near areas where they are needed and where safety might be a concern, such as benches, stair risers, deck railing and the wall near the grilling or dining area.

To avoid attracting pests to your patio, deck or porch, it will be preferable to go for compact fluorescent bulbs that are specially designed to ward off pests. You may also control the amount of light in the area if you use dimmers that will let you adjust light levels.

Landscape features

Add a touch of drama to your home’s exterior by highlighting the beautiful features in your landscape with a combination of low-voltage lighting and accent lighting. To do this, pick a focal point that you wish to emphasize, such as a specimen tree or a structure, along with secondary areas. To illuminate your primary focal point, use flood lights affixed to in-ground poles or spotlights attached on a nearby wall, fence or other elevated structure. For secondary areas like flower beds, ground covers and statuary, emphasize them with low-voltage fixtures that are recessed into the ground. Or, go for a backlit effect or hidden glow by pinning the light sources between the objects you want to highlight and the wall of your house.

Just a word of caution: be mindful where you direct the beams of your lights. At the most, they should not be pointed toward your neighbors windows.

The guest post above, which was written for www.steelbuildingsuk.co.uk, was contributed by Ericka. Ericka is a home improvement and gardening enthusiast. Her passion for these subjects inspires her to write useful posts about house repairing, decorating, cleaning and organizing.

Here’s Why Great Furniture Doesn’t Need To Break The Bank…

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Furniture is something that almost everyone will wind up buying at some point in their life. Even if you lead a spartan existence chances are you will still have a need for a few basic pieces of furniture such as a bed, a table, some chairs and the like.

While furniture can be expensive, you don’t have to break your wallet to buy it. There are a lot of things a savvy consumer can do to make sure they get high quality furniture without paying ridiculous amounts of money.

The truth is that no matter what you do, there is going to be some cost to buying furniture. It costs money to get the materials to make it and it costs money to pay the people who make it. However, while there is a cost to furniture, there are also ways to make sure you don’t pay more than you have to.

Search Online

As with most things, you can find great deals on furniture online. In fact a lot of people who do handmade furniture rely on internet traffic to make their business profitable. While you can find some great deals on furniture online there are two big problems with this.

The first is that you have no way to test the furniture. While you can see how it looks and generally read what other customers have said about the furniture, you can’t test it out. The second problem with buying furniture online is getting it to your house.

While there are many different ways to ship furniture, it can be pretty pricey to get delivered to you. So if you buy furniture online, keep an eye on what it is going to cost you to get it shipped to your house. Ideally you are looking for companies that make the shipping part of the sales price.

Look in Classifieds

The classified section of your paper is a great place to find good deals on furniture. While most of what is offered is used, some of it is actually still fairly new. Also because furniture can be expensive, a lot of people work really hard to take care of their stuff.

When you look in the classifieds for furniture you might also want to keep an eye out for estate sales or similar things since furniture is often a large part of these events.

Wait for the Going Out of Business Sale

If you have ever paid much attention to furniture store commercials, it seems like they are always going out of business. While there are actually some furniture stores that do go out of business, a lot of the times these ads are made simply to get you in their store for a big sale.

These sales are a great time to find excellent bargains on furniture. While most of the time these sales are actually clearance sales to make room for the new models of everything, the furniture is still worth having even if it is not the newest stuff out there.

In the end, it really is pretty easy to find good deals on high quality furniture. The main thing to keep in mind is that you need to be a little patient and willing to do some looking. Don’t give up if you don’t find anything at first, keep looking and keep waiting for a deal to show up.

There are lots of good deals on furniture out there and if you can be patient and put some effort into finding it, you don’t have to break your bank to get furniture.

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  •  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/15073

This article has been submitted by Jim Murray, a freelance writer based in Australia who’s written for FactoryFast as well as many other websites and businesses.

5 Home Repairs You Must Make Before Next Winter Strikes

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 Winter has nearly disappeared and it won’t be back for a long time. That means you can concentrate on getting ready for summer. You want your home to be beautiful, but first you have to do something. When the cold weather was here it’s possible it could have damaged your home. Especially if you had lots of snow and heavy storms. It’s better to fix the faults soon so you can forget about them and your home will be safe next winter.

It’s entirely up to you if you want to do it, but just remember if there is damage there it could get a lot worse next winter. If anymore damage is caused it could multiply the price of the repairs. Before you do anything you will obviously need to know what could have gone wrong because you might not be able to see anything from where you’re standing. Here are a few of the big ones you need to have checked so you can put your mind at ease.

Seal your driveway

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Go outside and have a look at the ground. You should be looking for any cracks that appear in the driveway. The good news is that cracks don’t mean it’s falling apart, but the bad news is that it needs to be resealed. Think about all that water that would have got into the cracks during winter. Because it was so cold the water would have turned to ice and it makes the cracks worse. If you don’t get them fixed now the cracks will get even bigger next winter and the drive could fall apart.

Fix your roof

tuiles givrées / frosty tiles

The roof must be checked because anything could have happened to it and you would never know. If it’s not rained heavily since winter you would not know if a large section of your roof had been destroyed. If tiles have cracked or fallen out it’s now going to be easy for the rain to get inside and do even more damage. It’s a good idea to get someone out straight away so they can give the roof a once over.

Clean up inside

If anything did happen to your roof you can’t just stick some new tiles on and forget about it. You need to go and look at the damage inside your attic because anything could have happened. Maybe there is a huge puddle of water that needs to be dried up straight away. You don’t want mold growing inside your home and that can happen when there is enough moisture. Take up a huge cloth and make sure all the water is soaked up.

Deal with the fence

all roads lead to home

When the wind is strong enough it’s hard for your fence not to have suffered any damage if it’s old. That isn’t to say the wind would have ripped it out of the ground, but it could have broken it in some places. You must go and check, especially if you have any pets that run around the garden because it’s easier for them to escape. You also want to secure the fence in case it falls down in the future and lands on someone.

Unclog the gutters

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You won’t want to do this on your own because the smell will give you nightmares, but all the crap needs to be taken out of the guttering because if it’s not kept clean you will eventually pay the price. It will be full of leaves and everything else that somehow ends up there and it doesn’t let water get away. You might have survived this winter without having it cleaned out, but make sure you don’t get into next winter without them being empty. They could fall down when blocked water freezes up and it becomes very heavy.

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Lance Abraham is an interior designer by profession and is an integral part of the top brass of Baybrook remodeller Inc which is a leading company providing replacement windows in CT.  He has vast knowledge in this field and shares his thoughts with people on his blog.

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