Guest Post

Insightful Interiors – What Your Decor Says About You

February 27, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Owning your own home is the great Australian dream. If you’re blessed enough to have a place to call your own, there’s a lot more to do than just pay off the mortgage. You need to maintain it, keep it clean, develop a green thumb to keep that garden look pristine as well as pay all the bills, rates and other expenses like insurance. And then there’s your interior to consider. Your home needs to be a direct reflection and expression of yourself and your unique personality. Let’s check out some interior insights and see what your decor says about you.

Dull Interiors are a No No

There’s nothing worse than a bland and lifeless interior. Well, maybe a few things, but it’s definitely up there. Your home space needs a spark of love, light and creativity to really bring it alive. There are lots of reasons why people suffer from dull interiors – lack of time, energy, motivation, money or taste. That’s why employing an interior decorator in Melbourne may be just the ticket. A local interior decorator can help transform a lifeless, dead space into one that’s just bursting with vibrant personality.

Art Tells a Story

One way to let your individualism shine through inside your home is to invest in some art. You don’t have to rob the Louvre to acquire a few pieces that really speak to your innermost vibe. You may even find that scouring some op shops and second hand stores will suffice. All you need is something that resonates with you. Some people prefer soft pastels and oils while others like bright and bold modern pieces. You could even do some research online to find out what you like best.

Get Green

Did you know that indoor plants are a great way to both decorate your home and make a statement about yourself? There’s a wide range of indoor plants that all tell a story about the homeowner. If you’re careful and considerate choose something that requires a lot of care. If you’re more laid back then choose something that you can just water once a week and forget about for the rest of the time.

Paint Schemes

Your choice of paint palette says a lot about you as a person. If you’re bright, sparkly and colourful then choose some indoor paint colours that will perfectly reflect your personality. If you are more reserved, that’s fine, just pick a paint palette that doesn’t make a huge statement. Either one is fine, and that’s the beauty of modern individualism. And the best news is that if you ever have a change of heart and mind either way you can just paint again!

Minimalism

Do you think that less is more? Are you a bit fed up with clutter and chaos in your house? Then a minimal approach may be right for you. Minimalism essentially means living with less stuff, including home decor. It can be a tough road to travel, but a well-designed minimal interior is to die for. Having a lot of space in your home can mean that a few well-placed items really pop out and scream “this is my stripped-back, bare essence”.

Do it Yourself

If you’re a fan of DIY – renovations, crafting and artwork, then why not decorate your space with all of your own creations? They will look truly unique, and it’s a great bragging point when somebody compliments your decor.

There You Have It

Hopefully by now you’ve got a clear idea of how to make your personality shine out through your home. From getting creative and doing it yourself through to adopting a minimal approach, there’s a lot you can do. Consider hiring an interior decorator, choose your paint scheme carefully, invest in some houseplants and pick up some new or second-hand art. Enjoy your new found expression.

The Ant Almanac – A Guide to Common Household Pests

February 27, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

The planet Earth is filled with life. Creatures great and small inhabit its forests, oceans, springs, glades and oases. From great white sharks through to quokkas, there are so many majestic, magnificent, malicious and mighty creatures that are awesome to behold. And then there’s ants. And flies. And spiders. And all those creepy crawlies that just love to call your house their home. We’re going to take a quick look at the most common household pests and how you can avoid them.

Termites

Termites, or “white ants”, are tiny insects that are found on every continent of the planet except Antarctica. It’s probably too cold for them there. They love to eat dead plants, which actually makes them a vital part of our ecosystem. Unfortunately, dead plants include the timber that makes up the frame of your house. Once you have a termite infestation they can destroy your home within months. You may want to consider a termite inspection to ensure your home is safe and secure.

Spiders

Spiders. Ugh. Sadly, these eight-legged scary things love to live in your home. Especially in dark nooks and crannies like your garage or garden shed. The good news it that the humble huntsman and other non-venomous spiders help to keep the population of other pests, like flies and mosquitoes, at manageable levels. The bad news is that deadly species like redbacks, whitetails and funnel webs can also take up residence too. Do yourself a favour and take care when poking around your garden shed or garage.

Ants

Ants, like termites, play a vital role in the world’s ecosystem. But of course, when they invade your home that’s the last thing you think about. Ants tend to be attracted to stray crumbs and bits of food, especially sugar and sweet things. Did you know they can carry many times their own weight? Although that knowledge is no comfort when you find them crawling all over your stash of doughnuts. If your home is prone to ants, try to keep all sweet food sealed in tight containers so they can’t get in.

Bed Bugs

While we’re on the topic of creepy crawlies, bed bugs are another common household pest. Bed bugs actually live on the blood of humans and other animals. They tend to find their way into your home through infested linen, furniture or luggage. So, think twice before buying or accepting second-hand gifts of these items. Their bites can feel like mozzie bites. If you suspect a bed bug infestation, it’s probably best to recruit a professional to come and examine your home.

Rodents

Mice and rats are another common household pest. They tend to live in between your walls or under the floor and love to feed on leftover food scraps, compost and other bits and pieces you may leave laying about. They can be a real hazard as they can chew through insulation and wiring, creating a serious fire hazard. Do yourself a favour and contact an exterminator if you find an infestation.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches are a really common household pest. They tend to thrive in your kitchen and other areas where food is prepared. They can actually spread salmonella and gastro to humans, as well as trigger allergies. It’s important to keep your house clean and tidy and free of food scraps in order to avoid visits from these awful critters.

In Summary

There are many other common household pests, but these tend to be the most common. From wood-devouring termites, ants and scary spiders to disgusting cockroaches, rodents and bed bugs – many creepy crawlies can come knocking. Try to follow some of the advice in this blog and your home will be a clean and serene haven.

Key Ways To Help Reduce Your Risk Of Bankruptcy In Business – Law Office of Ronald D. Weiss

February 7, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Bankruptcy in business is a topic that isn’t often discussed by businesses, primarily because this is something that should be avoided. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that the threat to bankruptcy in a company isn’t removed. It’s important to be able to understand how bankruptcy is a real threat to a business so more measures can be undertaken to avoid it. Below are some key ways to help reduce your risk of bankruptcy in business.

Knowing how these tips could work to help you reduce your risks of bankruptcy will be able to allow to set up proper plans to secure the financial future of your company. Understanding bankruptcy may not be the easiest thing to do, but it can be an efficient way to ensure there is some degree of preparation on your end for all eventualities.

According to Intuit’s Quickbooks, risk of bankruptcy in business is always present in whatever kind of industry you choose to be in and in whatever form your business takes. There’s no sure way to stay in the market forever, which means you have to be constantly on the move to make sure your assets and resources are placed and utilized correctly in order to avoid chances of bankruptcy. Below are some key ways to help reduce your risk of bankruptcy in business.

Get Alternative Revenue

One of the biggest reasons businesses have to file for bankruptcy is because the revenue generated out of the business isn’t enough to support its operations. Without the appropriate capital, businesses have to resort to debt and, given the lack of capital in the first place, the cycle can continue into a deadly spiral. However, this doesn’t mean having to resort to debt or lacking a bit of capital so low sales expectations mean having to close down immediately. You might be in need for alternative revenue.

When you say “alternative,” you can actually borrow the money from investors or ask them to step up for now and help you finance some aspects of the company’s operations. Their contribution can help ensure you can get the business back on track as you just need that push to help it regain its stability.
You can also start assessing the kind of sales, budget, savings, and deficits your business is earning in order to check which areas are lacking in terms of performance. This is especially important when you look at your expenses as you can see which areas of the business are you spending money on that don’t necessarily matter for now. For instance, are you insured in areas of the business you don’t currently need, or do you have subscription services you’re subscribed to but don’t use? These might be removed for now in order to save money.

Get Managerial Changes

Sometimes, when you’re seeing a problem in your business, it might be a sign that you have to change leadership roles in-house. Humans are creatures of habit, and sometimes ideas fail to spark and appear because your staff have gotten used to a certain protocol that don’t necessarily help in the long run. Gather your teams’ managers together and assess the kind of problem you have and what can be changed in the management’s outlook in order to get more positive changes in the long run.

These changes can simply be about how management runs things overall, but if you think the kind of push needed is by switching around managerial roles, this might greatly help in the future stability of your company in the long run.

Get A Consultant

When a problem is being tackled, normally things are kept in-house. After all, a company has got to be able to solve its own affairs, right? When it comes to finances, however, sometimes a little shift in perspective counts. If you think you’re having a bit of trouble managing your company’s finances, perhaps hiring a financial consultant can help make the kind of positive change you want in the company.

Try to get someone who has training in “revitalizing” companies within your industry. This allows you to get a fresh take on the issues you’re having as an outsider can get a better look at your company from an outside angle. Solutions your consultant may present don’t even necessarily require you to replace your staff.

Conclusion

Bankruptcy in business is something you have to avoid, but it’s a reality of business that has to be accepted. At one point or another, a business’s overall financial status will be too low to make a recovery, and bankruptcy can be an option. Understanding this reality can be the best way for anyone to work on a turnaround to be able to turn the tide and avoid bankruptcy altogether. This means knowing what goes on in business bankruptcy is perhaps the smartest approach in terms of finding ways to avoid it.

However, do remember that the ideas stated above shouldn’t be taken as legal or financial advice. It’s better to consult a legal and financial professional as they have the training necessary to answer your concerns on the subject matter.

Guest Post Author:

Monika Hall is a businesswoman and has been a law writer for the past 12 years. She is currently writing a new law piece and hopes to impart her knowledge to others in her writing. Monika is forever a creative spirit. She always expresses herself with creative pieces such as poetry whenever she has the time.

How to Instill the Love of Reading in Your Child

January 22, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

When does your child read? A) Every single day – he just loves learning and letting his imagination run free, B) Read? He uses his books to reach the TV dial or C) When I make him, come hell or Lambchops Play-along!

If your answer is ‘A,’ congratulations: Your child will grow pup with initiative, creativity, and knowledge needed in today’s competitive world. If your answer is ‘B,’ welcome to the club; many other mothers get the urge to throw the TV and computer games out the window. And if your answer is ‘C’ – well, it is a step in the right direction. Sort of.

Here are six ways on how to instill the love of reading in your child:

1. Get together with other mothers. Some kids, even if they grow to like books, might eventually abandon them because their friends want to play, or they cannot keep up with the neighborhood discussions on Barbie. Organize some reading group, or at least encourage other parents to fix their own children’s reading habits. Then you can throw back an argument your child has used for most of his life: “other kids are doing it.”

2. Don’t make reading a chore or a punishment. It is easy to tell a hyperactive or underachieving child to “Keep quiet for half an hour and just read a book.” Or “Your grades are low because you do not read enough…from now on I want you to keep books and not to play!” But this will give negative reading connotations that no amount of Brothers Grimm can erase. Separate the situation from the solution. If you do want your child to sit still, tell him to go his room, where books will be waiting for his quiet enjoyment. Or if his grades are low, limit his play, then at another time; gently explain to him how reading can help him in his studies. Books then become the friend, not the enemy, and friendship is the first step to love.

3. Do not criticize his reading. So what if he reads slowly, or if he reads the same books over and over again? The important thing is that he is reading, and if he needs correction, be sure to sandwich it with lots of his effort. “Son, I’m proud that you’re reading a lot, and writing stories of your own too! But don’t write on the books, okay?! Here, I bought you a nice notebook. If you want to write after reading, you can put it here so everyone can read your beautiful stories.”

4. Cultivate a general interest in learning. You have taught your child to love reading; now you have to teach him to take the initiative. Organize nature trips, collect bugs or flowers, or just place him in any situation that will expose him to new things. Now that his senses are stimulated, he will naturally turn to what suggestions number 1-9 have drilled into him day after day. “Hey, didn’t I read a book on that some time ago? I think I’ll look it up again when I get home.”

5. Make books available. Rarely does a child plan to read a book. It is spontaneous, like everything else he does, a hungriness that springs on a sleepy Saturday afternoon or after a wonderful discovery in the garden. So do not keep the encyclopedia set behind a locked glass case, or the fairy tale books on a shelf too high for him to reach. And most importantly, do not cripple him with the fear that he might “ruin the book.” Books are to be read, and if the pages get a little crumpled, then they are beautiful books indeed. Haven’t you read The Velveteen Rabbit?

6. Set him free. After you have instilled the love of reading in him, let him explore its realm for himself. You have given him the most beautiful gift possible, but he will never be able to know this until he discovers this on his adventuring own. If he likes Sherlock Holmes, well and good. If he prefers Ghosts and Goblins, then step back and let them be. After all, your child is A) reading every single day – he just loves to learn and allowing his imagination run free!

Author Bio: Sohail is a content marketer and a blogger, currently he is associated with Smiletutor.sg an online tuition agency in Singapore. His hobbies include writing, reading books, traveling and gardening.

Unconventional Wisdom – 7 Alternative Sources of Renewable Energy

January 18, 2018 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Given the global energy resource crisis, it’s certainly important that we now consider unconventional sources of power. We know that continuing to burn fossil fuels is detrimental to the environment, and has only a finite potential.

So, what are some renewable (think-outside-the-box) alternatives when it comes to generating energy?

Solar panels

Perhaps no longer one of the most unconventional of energy sources, solar panels are, nevertheless, one of the most viable. Solar panels harness clean and renewable energy from the sun. They have become easier than ever to source and maintain due to the Australian government’s feed-in-tariff scheme. Solar energy providers, including AGL offer a range of solutions for any budget or individual requirement.

Biomass

Biomass refers to energy which is generated by the breakdown of organic matter (for example wood waste, ethanol and municipal waste). In 2017, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has lobbied to put biomass back on the political agenda as ‘ … as an option to bolster the baseload energy supply.’ Some detractors argue that biomass is not financially competitive and that, in particular, wood waste presents as a threat to native forests. However, unlike solar energy, biomass is readily available and able to be used at any time.

Geothermal energy

This form of renewable energy is innovative. Geothermal technology uses the Earth’s heat for both heating and cooling energy applications. Far below the surface of the crust of our planet, temperatures rise rapidly, whilst tectonic, volcanic and steam systems exist as relatively untapped sources of unbridled power. The practical application of this sustainable underground resource relates primarily to the use of various pumps and systems that take the heat from within the ground and transfer it into usable forms of energy.

Hydropower

Hydropower technology works with the energy of flowing water (kinetic energy) to convert it to electricity. The most common type of hydroelectric power plant uses a dam on a river to store water in a reservoir. However, even a small canal may be used to turn water through a turbine. A hydroelectric power plant can store power for generators or an energy grid. A small (aka micro-hydroelectric power system) can power a home, farm or even a small ranch. Hydropower relies on the availability of a running water source – so, in some ways this may be limited.

Wind power

Energy derived from the power of the wind provides a clean and renewable form of electricity, and other applications. It is said that as long as the sun shines the wind will blow. The force that is intrinsic in the movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area on low pressure is harnessed by turbines and windmills and converted to usable energy. Some of the biggest wind turbines in the world produce enough electricity in a year (around 12 megawatt hours) to supply 600 standard homes.

Marine energy

As much as 95 percent of the Earth’s ocean remains unexplored and considering the power of the tides, waves and currents, marine energy remains another vast source of virtually unused potential. Marine energy uses the movement of water to generate electricity. Wave power plants harness the energy of up and down motion waves and convert this into a reservoir of power. Tidal energy generates electricity using the regular local flows of the tidal cycle whilst ocean thermal energy uses temperature variation in the ocean’s depths.

Artificial photosynthesis

One of the most futuristic of renewable energy technologies, artificial photosynthesis has been cited as the energy source of tomorrow. Photosynthesis is behind the building blocks of every living thing, and is a veritable power packed bundle of organic energy. It is the process that uses sunlight to produce hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Splitting the water in oceans (and other bodies of water) into these three chemical structures is seen as one of the ways forward in producing artificial photosynthesis – a renewable energy source that may just power the electric cars of the emerging future.

Unconventional wisdom

It’s necessary to think-outside-the-box when it comes to finding renewable sources of energy to fuel our planet’s future. Protecting our environment (and our people) depends on it.