Home and Garden Diva

You are here: Home / Blog

Reasons We Love To Dress Up Our Dogs

by



Something that was once reserved for cold wintery days and perhaps Christmas-time is now a huge trend seen around the world every day – dressing up your pets.


catcher

Whether it’s a reindeer, a fairy or Katy Perry, there is bound to be a variety of obscene outfits out there for your pooch.

Dogs already come with their own fur coats, so why do we feel the need to dress them up in all sorts of get-ups?

Weather

Winter coats for dogs are completely necessary when the temperatures outside drops extremely low. Although dogs have a layer of fat that adds insulation that is usually sufficient, sometimes they may need that extra bit of help. Each dog’s coat will vary depending on their breed, and it will shed or develop throughout the year.

Dogs that live in sub-zero temperatures, like sledge dogs and huskies, can deal with cold weather because their paws and coats have evolved to deal with it. However, the standard domestic dog cannot withstand very low temperatures, which is why there are coats and jumpers designed to help them.

There’s such a variety out there, including waterproof, knitted, down-filled jackets and actual raincoats.

However, it seems that the functional has now been replaced with the fashionable and the downright comedic at times.

Fashion

Since Paris Hilton was seen carrying her Chihuahua in her tote handbag, small dogs have been one of the must-have fashion accessories. And when the dressing up trend exploded, small dogs were the first ones to get put on the canine catwalk.

Dressing your pooch up in tiaras and jewels, as a cupcake or a cheerleader and having them by your side is the latest in haute couture and the cutest accessory that you’ll love forever.

Comedy

Initially, the odd Santa Claus outfit at Christmas was as funny as it got in terms of doggy dress-up. However, as the trend became more popular, the outfits got funnier and wackier.

You can now dress your dog up as a hamburger, an oompa loompa or a leprechaun to take along to your next fancy dress party with you – and let’s face it, they’ll probably outshine you and be the hit of the party.

Most dog costumes are made ensuring that the dog’s comfort is paramount. However, if you do sense that your dog is uncomfortable in any way, then do take it off them as you do not want an unhappy hound!

Becky loves dressing up her Chihuahua in cute costumes – she also spoils her with luxury dog beds from www.thestylishdogcompany.com

photo by:

The Home Inspection Industry Is Thriving in Today’s Real Estate Market

by

Do you think that starting a business related to real estate should be avoided? You’re not alone. Many who suffered the effects of the real estate crash would never dream of becoming involved in a related business. However, starting a business that’s connected real estate can be extremely lucrative. One such business is the home-inspection industry.

The downturn in the housing market didn’t mean decreasing business for home inspectors. Real estate agents and other businesses involved in real estate took a hit when housing values dropped, but home inspectors kept going strong. The reason is largely due to the increasing number of foreclosed houses on the market. Many of these houses are old and in poor condition. Others have been abandoned and on the market so long that their condition is unknown. Investors and typical home buyers looking for a good deal are snapping up these bargains and creating lots of welcome work for housing inspectors.

Most houses must have an inspection before they can be bought or sold. Mortgage companies won’t lend money on a house with serious structural problems. People who want to buy these houses need an inspection so they’ll know whether it will have to be a cash purchase or if they will have to skip buying the house altogether. Sellers often seek a home inspection so they can learn whether they need to do any repairs before a bank will finance their home for a buyer. The more foreclosures an area has, the more business its home inspectors are going to get.

This is why Bill Redfern moved his A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections company headquarters from Nova Scotia to South Florida shortly after the real estate crash. He knew that all of those foreclosures would mean big business for him. Florida has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States right now, and it shows no sign of changing any time soon. Busy home inspectors can complete 300 to 500 inspections a year.

However, the demand for home inspections is far greater than that right now. That’s why Bill Redfern turned A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections into a franchise. This way, the company can reach more active markets and meet the growing home-inspection needs of those areas.

Being a franchise is a win-win situation for A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections. The parent company takes a small percentage of the sales of each franchise and the franchise owners get to make a substantial income working for themselves in a business that shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the company now has 30 franchises in the United States, 130 in Canada, and several more in Europe, South America and New Zealand. There are plans for expansion into more countries soon, and there is still room in the Florida market for more franchises to grab their share of business.

The real estate downturn couldn’t have been better news for the home-inspection industry. While there was always a need for this service when the market was up, that need has exploded since the market has been down. The home-inspection business is one of the few where market conditions are no barrier to success.

How To Avoid Letting Your Wedding Drive You Apart

by

The whole point of a wedding is union. The entire reason that you have spent all this money, done all this work, and put all this time in in the build up to your big day, is so that you can be bonded together permanently and never have to be apart.

That’s the idea anyway, but as we all know it doesn’t always turn out that way. What’s really surprising and unfortunate though, is when you don’t even make it that far and when you end up breaking up before you’ve even gotten the chance to stand before the congregation. The problem is, that while weddings are all about joining two people together – they sure do give you a lot of reasons to consider parting.

Here we will look at how you can ensure that doesn’t happen, and how you can avoid arguments with your partner.

Be Reasonable

The first thing to ensure if you’re going to avoid arguments is that you’re being fair and reasonable. When you’ve waited your whole life to get married, you of course want it to go your way – but remember that the most important aspect of that is that you get married to someone who still loves you. Ask yourself whether you’re giving them as many decisions as you’re taking for yourself, and whether you’d be happy if the roles were reverse. If you’re winning every dispute, then make sure that you give them something to compensate.

Promote Calmness

If you want to have a stress and argument free wedding, then you should plan it that way as much as possible right from the start. In other words, try to keep the costs down, make sure that there are lots of moments where everyone can just enjoy themselves rather than being rushed from one thing to the next. The more manageable your day is, the more chance there will be of it all going well.

Delegate

Here’s a quick way to make the planning less stressful – just don’t do all of it yourself. By hiring wedding planners, florists and other professionals, you can take a bit of the pressure off of yourself and you can introduce an objective third party to help make decisions and settle disputes. This makes a big difference, so don’t try to skip it in order to save money.

Divide Jobs

For the remaining small tasks, splitting up the things you have to do and having areas that you can work autonomously in can also help to avoid arguments. Give your partner invitations to send then for instance, and then just make sure that you aren’t always chipping in.

Find Things You Can Both Get Really Excited About

You might find a lot of things that you disagree on when you’re planning your big day, but of course there will always be those things that you’re both super excited about too. Try to focus on those things, and try to find more like them. That might mean riding in a wedding limousine, or it might be booking your amazing honeymoon. This is a wedding after all – there’s an awful lot to be excited about.

Attached Images:

This guest post is authored by Vanessa faith. She is a passionate blogger and her favourite topics are fashion and weddings. She is a fun loving person who likes to attend social gatherings and meet new people.

Tips For Keeping Your Home Tick-Free

by

Ticks are very common pests. They can be found just about anywhere, especially if you live in a woodsy area. If you have pets and they are carrying ticks, then there is a higher likelihood that your home will also have some ticks hiding in the cracks and crevices of the building.

Ticks are pests, but if you consider them harmless, think again. They cause harm not only to your pets but to humans as well. Ticks carry deadly pathogenic organisms that can cause severe diseases in humans. They are carriers of Borrelia burgdorferi, a type of bacteria that causes Lyme Disease. Ticks are also known to cause Relapsing Fever as well as Colorado Tick Fever. They also cause allergic reactions that, in people with very weak immune system, could be very disastrous.

It is for these reasons that you need to keep your home tick-free. Below are some tips for keeping your home free from ticks.

Check Your Pets for Ticks

Your first-line of defense against a tick infestation is to see to it that your pets are tick-free. Dogs love to play outdoors and cats spend as much time as they can outside the house. Because they love exploring, it will be so easy for them to pick up ticks that crawl on the ground. These ticks can easily crawl off their hosts and invade your home.

To avoid this, you need to give your pets a thorough inspection for ticks. In addition to checking for ticks, you also need to give them regular grooming. Just be careful though when you are picking ticks from their bodies. Make sure that you wear protective gloves and use tweezers, too, to pick them up.

Clean Surroundings

Another way to prevent tick infestation is to maintain a clean home and garden. As mentioned earlier, ticks are can be found even on the ground, waiting for unsuspecting victims that they can hitch a ride on. They are hiding in tall grasses and bushes, and they are hiding in shady places, since they love humidity.

You can minimize tick population by making sure that your home and garden are always clean. See to it that there are no cracks in the foundations that ticks can crawl through, and see to it, too, that the grass is always cut short and the shrubberies are well-maintained so they will not have many hiding places. If you live in a woodsy area, make sure that there is a fence keeping wild animals out of your property. Remember, wild animals are also carriers of ticks as well as other parasitic and pathogenic organisms. You do not want them near your property, so you have to build a fence around your home.

Already Infested with Tick?

If your home is already infested with tick, the best thing that you can do to get rid of them is to call your local pest control company. Ask them if their products are green and organic, so the treatment will not pose any health risks to you and your pet. After the treatment, see to it that you always maintain a clean home and garden and that your pets are always tick-free.

Jennifer Dallman is a guest blogger for pest control blogs where she shares tips and advice to prevent pest infestation. If you have tick problems at home, she recommends you to visit Preventive Pest Control for consultation.

Top Tools That Will Help You Choose Your Real Estate

by

Choosing real estate is one of the most important decisions you will ever make – probably just behind deciding on who you’re going to marry. Not only is this an incredibly expensive purchase and one that you hope will be a good investment, but it’s also a decision that will impact on your day-to-day life moreso than perhaps every other. The distance you travel to work, the options available for your entertainment in the evening, the comfort you feel when you relax in the evening… all will be dictated by your real estate.

Which is why you shouldn’t rely on just your instincts alone to choose your property. Of course you need a good estate agent and a good surveyor, but likewise you can also fall back on tools and gadgets that can help you too. Read on to see which devices will help the most and how you can take advantage of them.

Computer

The first job of a computer when choosing real estate is to help you browse the various homes available and to find an estate agent. Thanks to the marvels of the digital age, it’s no possible to replace ‘leg work’ with ‘finger work’ – you can have done the vast majority of your hunting before you have even left the house.

Phone

Your phone of course is also a crucial device, and the one you will use in order to call up and make bookings so that you can view various properties – as well as to hire all the other services you will use. If you have a smartphone (who doesn’t these days?) then you can even set reminders in your calendar to ensure that you never miss a viewing. What makes a phone most useful of all though, is almost undoubtedly the camera. This will allow you to take snapshots of the place you’re looking around to look back on later. This is a great strategy, because it will allow you to remember much more clearly what each place looked like and also to show it to friends and others who might be able to give you advice.

Tablet

If you want a bit more space to work with, then a tablet can be a useful device for running full-screen apps to let you plan layouts, take photos and schedule appointments. Plus they make you look and feel like a pro…

Notepad

It may not be particularly high tech, but the notepad should never be underestimated. Not only will it enable you to take notes on the places you are looking around, but you can also use it to write down questions that you want to ask your real estate agents. This way you can make sure that you don’t go to view the property with a million questions, only to come away realising that you haven’t actually asked any of them.

Meanwhile notepads can also be used in order to sketch things out, to take measurements, to write down phone numbers and more. A smartphone might be very handy then, but sometimes it’s the old fashioned gadgets that are the best…

Attached Images:

Kevin Preston, the author of this post, is a part time blogger and a real estate agent. He has many years of experience in the field and People consider him one of the best brains in the field of real estate. He likes swimming and playing football in his spare time.

Meta

Tags

basement bed bedroom clean cleaning clutter dog exercise family fitness flowers friends Furniture garden Health help home house husband ideas Kitchen laptop Lighting money Music neighborhood neighbors party plants room Shopping sick skin spring summer tips tired Toronto Travel tv Vacation walking warm winter work

Pages