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Archives for February 2013

10 Fun (and Cheap) Gifts For Your Boss

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Default iPhone charger vs. humongous brazilian chargerIs there a special occasion coming up and you need to give your boss a gift? Before you go crazy or spend a lot of money, consider buying your boss something a little more thoughtful. Something that is meaningful, but doesn’t come off as a bribe. Here are ten fun and rather inexpensive gifts for the head of your office:

Personalized Flask

While the thought of drinking at the office is rather unacceptable, your boss is human too! And on the weekends, I’m sure he or she likes to let loose. Therefore, you can’t go wrong with a personalized flask.

Stress Ball

Being in charge comes with a certain level of added pressure. And no one enjoys being stressed out. Keep your boss calm by giving him or her a stress ball. Attach a crafty “woosah” note for an additional laugh!

Mini Speakers

Music soothes the soul, right? Well, a little speaker set will allow your boss to enjoy his or her favorite tunes all day long. Throw in an iTunes gift card and you’re sure to get two thumbs up from your supervisor.

Chocolate

Nothing brightens a day (or mood) like chocolate. Mix and match milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate for the perfect pick-me-up. Packed with plenty of antioxidants, this sweet surprise is sure to put a smile on your boss’s face!

Portable iPhone Charger

For the boss who’s always on the go, this nifty little gadget will be a real lifesaver! A portable iPhone charger can hold him or her over until they can reach a real outlet (up to three hours to be exact!). Talk about a real power trip.

DIY Gift Basket

Nothing says appreciation like a gift basket! With one white and one red wine, your boss will be well on his or her way to a great evening. Include some maple or hickory smoked cheese, crackers or dessert cookies for a delicious snack.

Home Baked Goods

Another way to say ‘thank you’ without going over-the-top is to bake your boss’s favorite home goods. Gourmet chocolate chip cookies or double fudge brownies are definitely the way to go. Attach a thank you note for a special touch.

Beverage Warmer

Is your boss a caffeine junkie? A beverage warmer is the perfect gift for those who rarely have an opportunity to finish their afternoon cup of Joe. Now, your boss can have a warm beverage any time of the day.

Luggage Tags

For the boss that is constantly on the road, luggage tags are a thoughtful gift. Engrave their initials for a more personal touch. This way his or her luggage will always be identifiable, saving both time and money.

Business Card Holder

A business card holder is a fantastic thing to have. You can customize it with a monogram or your boss’s initials. This gift will make a professional statement for both you and your boss.

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Amy Richards is a freelance writer and gift giver extraordinaire. As the managing director of her department, her most recent gift giving experience was corporate gift baskets for all of her subordinates. She loves seeing the smiles on their faces.





Choosing Window Blinds For Your Home – How To Do It

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Window blinds may seem like just another home accessory, but these do more than add visual interest to a space. The addition of blinds can add dimension, dramatically altering the character and in turn the overall appearance of any room. This is why choosing the right blinds for the home is very important. If you are considering choosing blinds as the window treatment for your home, you must choose wisely, and to do so, you need to consider a few things.

Main Considerations

When choosing blinds for the home, there are four main things you have to take into consideration: the function of the room where the blinds will be placed, the size of the room, the furnishings inside the room, as well as the overall theme of the house.

Function of the Room

When shopping window blinds for your home, do not assume that one kind will work in every space. Every room is different and each has a different function. How the space will be used will dictate what blind type you should be getting.

Take the kitchen, for instance. This is one area with a lot of activity, as this is the place where you cook and prepare meals. Because working in the kitchen makes spills and splashes inevitable, it is a must for you to choose something easy to clean, especially for windows by the sink. Moreover, the blinds you choose for the kitchen must be able to withstand the constantly changing temperature as well as humidity. The most ideal choices for the kitchen are aluminum blinds or faux wood blinds. The latter looks like wood but is actually made from both wood and vinyl, and the vinyl is that which makes it moisture resistant and low maintenance.

Size of the Room

Blinds come in different slat widths and types (either vertical or horizontal). Before you settle on a particular slat width or type, think about how big or small the room is. Wider slats are best for bigger spaces while narrower slats are more ideal for small spaces. If you choose wide slat blinds for a small space, expect the space to look even smaller. As for the slat type, it will depend on how you want to enhance the existing space. Vertical slats force the eyes to look from top to bottom, causing an illusion of length; on the contrary, horizontal slats compel the eyes to look from left to right, causing an illusion of width.

Furnishings Inside the Room

The kind of furniture to be found in each space also matters when choosing blinds. Naturally, wooden blinds are ideal for spaces dominated by wooden furniture. If a space has a lot of wrought iron furniture, aluminum or vinyl blinds are good choices.

Theme of the House

Of course, the blinds you pick must complement the overall theme of your house. Do not opt for anything that will clash with the look of the space. Having PVC vertical blinds in a Victorian style house will be unsightly and do nothing for the space’s aesthetic value. So before you shop, remember the theme and use this as a basis as you look through your options.

This article was penned by Ericka for Style Rite Blinds, a reputable company and preferred source of blinds in West Lothian.

The Scary Truth About Your Pet’s Food

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peaceWe all love our pets and treat them like family. And when it comes to buying them food, we want to buy the best. So we purchase bags of food from the local grocery store that has pictures of whole grains, prime cuts of meat and human grade vegetables nicely displayed on them. We pleasantly assume there is some nice chef in a pet food kitchen preparing wholesome meals for our beloved pets.

Wrong. While we would like to believe our pet’s food is made of whole chicken meat, choice cuts of beef and fresh grains, the truth is pet food is actually made from the absolute worst parts of chicken and beef. Some of which is high in hormones and even diseased and cancerous meat. And those whole grains, they’ve had the starch removed for cornstarch powder and the oil extracted for corn oil. The only true whole grains used in pet food has been deemed unfit for human consumption due to mold, contaminants, or poor quality.

Pet Food Industry is Unregulated

Sadly, the pet food industry is not regulated. As one of the world’s most synthetic edible products, pet food contains virtually NO whole ingredients. What’s worse is that the pet food industry makes approximately 11 billion dollars a year on products that should be in the garbage or better yet a landfill. Pet food manufacturers have become master manipulators when it comes to producing tasty food for our pets. Scientists have learned how to take a mixture of inedible ingredients, fortify it with artificial vitamins and minerals, and preserve it so it can sit on the grocery shelf for more than year (yuck). While the human eye may be deceived by the color and texture of our pet’s food, remember it’s made of leftover carcass and cheap fillers.

Look at the Ingredients

Carefully look at the top five ingredients on your pet food. These will be the most abundant ingredients according to weight in the food. For dogs and cats, a good portion of their diet needs to be from meat protein. Therefore, you want the first ingredient in your pet food to be a meat source (e.g. chicken, beef or lamb). You never want to purchase pet food with an unidentified “meat” or anything listed as a “by-product”. Also, it’s ok to see “chicken meal” before “chicken” because it contains less water content, more meat.

Holistic Options For Your Pet

There are holistic options out there for your pet. For starters, you could prepare your pet’s food yourself. Remember, dogs require protein, whole grains and vegetables in their diet. Cats on the other hand are pure carnivores; the majority of their diet should include protein with half the amount of whole grains and vegetables. However, before you cook anything be sure to consult with a veterinarian or veterinary nutritionist about your recipes. Foods you should absolutely avoid are chocolate, raisins, grapes, macadamia nuts, and raw meat. You can also purchase pet foods from specialty pet stores. Make sure they are labeled “all natural” or “organic,” and read the ingredients carefully. It may cost you more money, but it is much healthier for your pet.

If you love your pet and value their heath as much as I do, I hope you will take this information to heart. Please do a little research of your own so you too can become aware of the truth about the pet food industry. My only wish is that pet owners will take the time to read the ingredients of the food they feed their pets, rather than fall victim to the misleading commercials or labels on pet food today.

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Jessica McNeal is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed animal lover. When she’s not spending time writing, she is out running with her wheaten terrier. She recently purchased rabies tags from Ketchum Mfg. Pet safety is her number one concern.

3 Tips For Finding Honest, Reputable Contractors

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Are you dealing with a leaky faucet in your bathroom or kitchen? Do you need some shingles replaced in that old roof that was still on the house when you bought it? Maybe you need a new front door installed, or even a new fence put up in your backyard? Or maybe your furnace has stopped working? Or maybe your air conditioner is making a funny noise?

Like it or not, there are a myriad of things that can go wrong. And you know what they say… if it can go wrong, it will! Well, even if you have better luck than that, odds are very good that, at some point down the road, you are going to find yourself in a situation where something is going to break down. Maybe it will be minor, or maybe it will be major, but there is one thing that you can be sure of: unless you are interested in fixing it yourself, you are going to need to hire a contractor to get it done for you.

If you think that hiring a contractor is kind of a scary thought, I don’t really blame you. All of us have heard horror stories about unscrupulous ‘professionals’ who did a poor job and charged more money than they had estimated, only to leave the homeowner confused, frustrated, and in a tough situation. Is that how all contractors are? Of course not! The key is to figure out how to weed out the bad ones so that you can hire the good ones!

Here are 5 tips that will help you to do just that.

1. Ask Friends and Family

One of the best ways to find a contractor is to ask people close to you who they have hired before. Getting someone referred to you by a friend or family member that you trust can be one of the best ways to get in touch with an honest, reputable contractor. As a precaution, you should still check into what kind of a job they did, just to make sure that the results are similar to what you have in mind.

2. Check the Newspaper

The business section of the newspaper is a great way to find contractors in your area. A lot of professionals use the newspaper as an advertising medium, especially in smaller communities.

When using the newspaper to find contractors, always get more than one bid. It is never a bad idea to have at least three different professionals bidding on the same project. This will allow you to gauge the professionalism of each one against the others, which will most likely reveal who the most experienced. When it comes to contracting out repair work for your home, it is important to go with someone who knows what they are doing… not just the guy with the lowest price!

Here is a brief checklist that can help you to further investigate any possible contractors that you might be considering for your project. If you can answer yes to these questions, then there is a good chance that you are on the right track to the right kind of professional!

  • Does this contractor seem qualified?
  • Are you getting a competitive price?
  • Does this contractor have references available?
  • Have you gotten good reviews from any references?
  • Does this contractor seem to have a detailed, general knowledge of the industry?
  • Is this contractor legally registered and licensed to do the work needed?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you are probably headed in the right direction with your choices.

3. Look on Angieslist.com

Angieslist.com is an online review service where you can find and leave reviews about local professionals. The best thing about Angieslist.com is the fact that it is completely consumer driven. This means that companies and businesses are not allowed to advertise or leave themselves reviews. Plus, this feature is policed and monitored by the website, because they need to follow up and verify with every review before they will allow it to be posted to the website.

Whether you are looking for a professional to install cedar fencing in your yard, a carpenter to add onto your house, or an electrician to fix that broken porch light… you will be able to find honest, fair reviews of local professionals on Angieslist.com.  We also used the great resources and advice found at www.a1-fence.com where there are lots of design ideas.

Finding a contractor is not always easy, but with a little bit of fact finding and investigation, you can make the process a ton easier on yourself by eliminating so-called ‘professionals’ who might make your problem worse!

Melissa Cameron is a wife, a mother of two, and also a successful freelance writer. She lives in Austin, Texas, and enjoys yoga, fitness, eco-friendly living, and staying in shape! She actually got inspired to write this article while utilizing websites to research the price difference between professional Milwaukee fence companies and those from her hometown of Austin.  Because she’s thinking of doing home project, Melissa decided that she wanted to impart some helpful tips to her readers for finding reputable, honest contractors.

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