How to photograph a home for sale...

If you are trying to sell your house now, God bless you! You need all the help you can get in this market. Here are some good tips from CasaSugar that you might find helpful!


Rule number one of capturing the best pictures of your home is to get rid of all the clutter and clean up. Make beds perfectly, shine up glass and stainless, close the toilet bowl lid, fluff pillows, etc. A flawless looking pad could be the difference in getting a potential buyer or not.

Homes don't always look their best head on. Try to find your house's best angle by experimenting using different points of view. Avoid taking shots that focus on the garage door. Similarly, crop out less appealing features inside and out.

Your house is for sale, not your car. Remove any vehicles from the picture and try to avoid showing any parked cars on the street as well.

Partially set the dining room table or kitchen bar to make it picture perfect. You don't need to bother with all the utensils and cups, but the goal here is to make potential buyers find the room inviting and livable.

Capturing your pad in natural light is always best, but you should avoid taking the pictures when it's too bright or too dark. An hour after sunset or an hour before sunrise often provide good, soft light. Turn on the interior lights as well. If possible, skip the flash, which can make an image look sterile.

Click here to view photos and get more great info!

Renee Loux

She has become my new favorite greenie. Check out her blog here! She has great tips and ideas for healthy living/eating. She also has an amazing cook book called The Balanced Plate.





View some of her plastic tips below that you may not have thought about!

1. DON’T MIX HOT FOODS AND PLASTIC.
Putting hot stuff in plastic containers is never a good idea. The chemicals and additives in plastic, which are not especially stable, are released when plastic is heated and can leach into food and drink. Fatty foods and plastic are the worst combination of all because the chemicals in plastic are more soluble in fat, so they leach greater amounts of those chemicals into fatty foods.
2. USE LESS PLASTIC CLING WRAP.
Plastic wrap is a mainstay in kitchen everywhere, though its clingy convenience comes at quite a cost. Most plastic wraps are made with the worst kind of plastics (PVC and its cousins), which are laden with softening chemicals like phthalates and plasticizers that are believed to readily migrate into foods. Please, for your sake, never put plastic wrap in the microwave – try covering food with a glass or ceramic lid or plate, unbleached wax, parchment paper or a paper towel instead.
Reusable glass containers with lids and unbleached parchment paper are great, greener alternatives for storing food.
3. TOSS OUT OLD, SCRATCHED PLASTIC CONTAINERS.
Plastic containers that are scratched and cracked leach more unwanted chemicals into food and drinks than new containers do, Any plastic that is worse for the wear should not be used for foods. As plastic containers wear out, replace them with glass containers with lids for long-lasting, safer food storage. Unfortunately, many plastic containers can’t be recycled, but they can be repurposed for organizing stuff in drawers, closets, and offices or used as gardening tools.
4. GO FOR GLASS CONTAINERS.
For food storage, glass containers are the safest, greenest, most long-lasting way to go. They come in all shapes and sizes, and with tight-fitting lids for all of the convenience and non of the concern. A n eco-bonus is that glass containers can last for decades, and even if they suffer an untimely demise, they can be recycled with the glass bottles.
5. RETHINK PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES
Plastic water bottles are the bane of eco-green living, and they’re pretty impossible to avoid. The reality is that we require fluids to live and we need something to carry it them in. Plastic bottles have been the standard up until recently, but glass and stainless steel water bottles are great, green options that will let you avoid ingesting the chemicals that migrate from plastic and contributing to the 30 million plastic water bottles disposed of every day in the U.S.


To learn more about Safer Plastics and so much more, check out Easy Green Living: the ultimate guide to simple, eco-friendly choices for you and your home by Renée Loux

Congrats, you're.......not pregnant :/

Ever been asked how far along you were when you weren't pregnant at all? I mean, what is wrong with people? Ok, this spurred from it happening to me...twice. Should this tell me something? Hmmmm. Well apparently it happens a lot. Here are some tips from Lil Sugar to keep you from making the same mistake to some other poor husky girl :)

http://www.lilsugar.com/Real-Mom-Tips-Telling-Woman-Pregnant-8730691

J-woww what are you wearing?

Ok so I'm no diva in the gym (because it's the gym) but the cast of Jersey Shore continues to shock people even when working out. Is that a tube top she is wearing? Im no physicist but I know gravity and I'm thinking the girls aren't getting much support there...OUCH.

read more here from fitsugar!

Swan Shmwan.....

Yes, your oragami swan is impressive...but check THIS out!

The Design Inspiration.com featured this amazing artist, Won Park – The Master of Origami Paper Folding

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.

Won Park is the master of Origami. He is also called the “money folder”, a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill. Bending, twisting, and folding, Won Park creates life-like shapes inspired by objects living and not– both in stunning detail.



Won Park Folds The Fins On His Dollar Koi - Click here for more amazing videos

Teeny Tiny Train

Some guy in NJ decided that he wanted to create the worlds smallest working train. I can't imagine the patience this took. I also can't imagine that this guy has a girlfriend :) Check it out

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE...

Chunk Love

Ok...I love Goonies as much as the next gal, but tatooing a fictional character such as the Baby Ruth loving Chunk on my arm is OUT of the question. What drives people to cover themselves with such jaw dropping tattoos? Here is a top 20 worst of all time list...CLICK HERE... you won't believe it!

I wonder how often this guys has to listen to people scream "Hey you guys".

Good Advice

I had family visit this past week and it was a blast! They traveled all over Italy for almost two weeks. They had a wonderful time but a truly unfortunate event happened in Rome. They checked out of their hotel, hopped in the van and parked it in front of the Colosseum just meters away from a police station. After 8 hours of site seeing they returned to a very EMPTY VAN. Wait, that's not true, the thieves did leave the umbrellas(what gentleman). All of their luggage, clothes, computers, iphones and ipods GONE. Can you imagine what that feels like? They went to report it at the police station but of course they did not speak any English. As devastated as they must have been they all kept in mind that the important thing was that everyone was safe and unharmed. "Lesson Learned" is what they kept saying. So I thought I would pass this on. No matter where you are in the world do not leave your luggage or anything else you can't live without in the car. Try to leave it at the hotel or even take it with you. Travel light and watch your valuables at all times! Hopefully the bad guys will get what's coming to them. I believe in Karma...do you? The sunny side of this story is that the engagement ring that my brother in law used to propose to his fabulous fiance in Verona was safe and on his person. BLUSH.

To Be Happy- Don't Be!

Confused yet? I am! I just read an article that gave the top 10 ten ways to stay happy. Number one is Don't be happy. Very Interesting....Check this one out!

Click HERE to link to this article

Are you and your spouse look alikes?

I have always noticed that many couples look like they could be brother and sister. Now I see why...A new study shows that woman are more likely to fall for someone with similar facial features because they inherently trust them more. Not to say that we don't enjoy the view of a masculine man's man, we just don't believe a word they say...CLICK HERE to read more!

Do you look like your spouse?

At what age should you stop breastfeeding?

You must be 18 to view this video! This is a very interesting video that features a woman that still breastfeeds her youngest daughter at age 8. How do you feel about that?

21 Horrible Fashion Ideas

Here is an article about 21 horrible fashion statements that actually took off. I am a child of the 80’s myself and 90% of these are from that era. And to think, all this time I thought the 80’s rocked. So hold on to your mullets and high tops, you probably owned something on this list. CLICK HERE to go to the article!

Nappin' It!

I LOVE SLEEP! But I never seem to get any. Yesterday I took a nap for the first time since I was pregnant, and it was GLORIOUS!

Doctors Orders: Dr. Sara C. Mednick, author of “Take a Nap! Change Your Life” and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego says "I believe that success in the game of life means that you’re playing at your top level. This is true whether your court is in the office, factory, classroom, or with family and friends. As the leading researcher in the science of napping, my studies show that without a midday rest, performance falls apart across the day. Napping maintains and even boosts your skills, from creative problem solving, and alertness and physical stamina, to mood and memory."

So...Nap it up sometime this weekend-no excuses!

Doo Doo Doo Lookin' Out My Back Door

Running around to get dinner cooked, the kids in bed and all the chores done can become a chaotic nightly ritual. Don't forget to take time to enjoy what's going on outside. Even reserving a minute to look out your back door can relieve stress, help you relax and in some cases take your breath away. I am fortunate enough to see this most mornings and evenings. A beautiful bell tower, a modern castle, rolling hills and a look into a sparkling valley! What's out your back door?

Life in Europa!

What I have learned since moving to Europe...
1. SLOW DOWN (but not on the road)
2. Appreciate how much of a miracle babies really are.
3. Bigger is not always better
4. Shoes are a status symbol.
5. DO NOT under estimate the power of cafe.