Color Help: Many Factors Affect Color Preference
April 30, 2007
Understanding color psychology helps home makers choose colors for home decorating.
Color affects human beings every day of their lives, even during their very earliest childhood. In fact, studies have shown that babies respond more readily to bright, primary colors than to pastel colors.
The favorite color of most preschool children, up to the age of five, is bright red. Young children, between five and ten years old, show a preference for bright yellow. Adult women generally prefer blue-based colors, whereas men tend to prefer yellow-based tints.
Even education levels and the degree of sophistication seem to affect people’s color preferences. In general, highly educated and sophisticated people favor complex colors, while those with less education and lower income favor low intensity, simple colors.
Ethnic Traditions Affect Color Preferences
Our personal history also has a significant influence on our color preferences, and using heritage colors has been proven to make people feel more contented by making them feel more connected to their ancestry.
Colors and Climates
Warm & Toasty Outdoors with Patio Heaters
April 30, 2007
The Heat is On with Patio Heaters
Any outdoor lover will tell you that the right patio heater will allow you to extend your love of the open-air life all year round.
A 15-20 foot circle of heat can easily increase the outside temperature by 10-25 degrees Fahrenheit and that makes all the difference between having to stay inside and eating out.
As with most patio equipment, the choice of the right heater for your needs isn’t always such an immediate process. First thing to know is whether you really need or want one. Some factors to consider are your lifestyle. How often do you eat or entertain outside? What is the weather predominantly like?
Now a few words concerning your budget.
How much are you willing to spend?
Prices for free standing models generally start at around $200-$250 and can go up to and over the $1000 mark. For normal domestic use, most sources indicate a $300-$400 model as being perfect.
A Guide for Servicing Your Chainsaw
April 29, 2007
Chainsaws provide many years of service for very little upkeep. Taking the time to service your chainsaw will help ensure that your equipment will not let you down. For safety reasons, make sure you only service your chainsaw when it is fully cooled, with the spark plug disconnected. If you are working with an electric chainsaw make sure it is unplugged first of all. You should also wear gloves and protection for your eyes.
For safe and effective operation having correct chain tension is necessary. As the chain wears, significant stretching will occur. After five to ten cuts a new chain may need to be readjusted. Separation from the guide bar or binding into the wood can occur if the chain is loose. Premature chain and guide bar wear will be caused by a tight chain. A chain that is well adjusted will move easily and smoothly when pulled by a gloved hand. Binding or sagging by the chain should not occur. The chain tension should be checked and adjusted if needed before every use.
A manual or automatic chain oiling system is used in most chainsaws. Friction and heat builds between the chain and guide bar without oil. The oil also helps the individual links in the chain operate smoothly at high speeds. Check the oiling system prior to every use.
Your Candles Are Killing You and Your Furniture - Substitute It!
April 28, 2007
Even though most of the houses are well lighted with electric powered lights, we can’t escape using candles at home. Whether it is for a romantic candlelit dinner, for festive season such as Deepavali or Christmas or as back up when electricity cuts off, we know that candles are useful for every household. What we don’t know is that candles are a common unrecognized cause of poor indoor air quality.
To be specific, the ingredient used to produce candles such as paraffin contains a host of toxin. This makes candles the major cause of black soot deposition, which damages home interiors, not to mention skin and lungs. Other dangerous ingredients in candles are lead wicks, synthetic scents and colorants.
Solution? Always go back to the nature! Try natural wax such as beeswax, soy, bayberry and palm. There are many goodness in beeswax which is derived from flowers and bees. It is nontoxic, naturally aromatic (Hey! After all, its from the flowers!) and when burned emits beneficial negative ions that actually help purify the air.
How To Ward Off House Thief
April 27, 2007
To most of us, security at home is very important. Ever experienced coming home one night and found your belongings scattered around? Or maybe you heard funny noises while you were sleeping and wondered if it was some thieves in your house? Would you like to worry less and enjoy your home better? Well, besides house alarm or sealing up your house with grills and locks, why not place an interesting home decor, which will help to ward off house thieves?
Chinese culture believes that by placing umbrellas in the lobby or at the front of the house, your house can be prevented from being the thief’s target. Umbrellas placed into a nice urn near the front door not only add a spark to your lobby but also make the area organized while you can reach for an umbrella easily. There are many urns in the market but we highly suggest that you get one that matches your door, wall and size of your lobby. If you can’t decide, get a plain ceramic urn that will match any background. Chinese Feng Shui also mentioned urns next to the front door will help to capture the energy (chi) flowed into the house. Besides urns, you can try using baskets, umbrella stands and vase.
Get Rid Of Air Pollution In Your Home With House Plants
April 26, 2007
Do you know that formaldehyde, a colorless, pungent-smelling gas can cause severe health effects to us? Sources of formaldehyde are:-
Wow! Looking at the list, there must be plenty of formaldehyde in our homes! The scary part is formaldehyde can cause watery eyes, burning sensations in the eyes and throat, nausea, and difficulty in breathing when exposed at elevated levels. It has also been shown to cause cancer in animals and may cause cancer in humans. Health effects include eye, nose, and throat irritation; wheezing and coughing; fatigue; skin rash; severe allergic reactions. High concentrations may trigger attacks in people with asthma.
Since research shows that people spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, be sure to keep our homes well ventilated all the time. Besides that, try placing the following plants in your home:-
Flowering Cherries
April 25, 2007
Flowering cherries
While the briefness of their glory has to be acknowledged, cherries really are the hardy spring-flowering trees for temperate climate gardens. I can think of no others, apart from their close Prunus relatives and some of the magnolias that even come close to rivalling flowering cherries for sheer weight of bloom and vibrance of colour.
The genus Prunus, to which the cherries, plums, almonds, apricots and peaches belong, includes around 430 species spread over much of the northern temperate regions and has a toehold in South America. Although including a few evergreen species, such as the well-known cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), the genus is mainly deciduous and generally hardy to the frosts likely to occur in most New Zealand gardens.
The genus Prunus is widely recognised as being divided into 5 or 6 subgenera, though some botanists prefer to recognise these as distinct genera. The subgenus cerasus is the one to which the cherries belong. This group includes a wide variety of species, many of which are not highly ornamental. The species which are of most interest to gardeners are the Chinese and Japanese cherries, not only because they tend to be the most attractive, but also because they tend to be reasonably compact, often have attractive autumn foliage as well as spring flowers and because centuries of development in oriental gardens have produced countless beautiful cultivars.
Breaking Away from White Wall Paint
April 25, 2007
Paint is one of the most affordable and easiest ways to change a room. But choosing the right paint colors for your home can seem like an overwhelming task.
Paint, accessories, fabric, furniture, and flooring should all blend, so take a good look at the room you will be working on, preferably before you choose a paint color, and decide what will stay in the room, and what you may want to move out of the room.
The first thing you should do when choosing interior colors for your home, is look around at colors that make you feel good, happy, and relaxed. These colors are probably already in your home. A few examples are the colors you love to look at in your flower garden, the colors in your jewelry, or pottery, or they can be found in the colors of the clothes in your closet.
The second thing you should do is go to your local paint store and pick up a color wheel, and or sample cards, pick the sample cards that really catch your eye, and don’t be afraid to get as many as you want. Take these cards home and look at them at different times of the day and night, to see how the color will look when the sun shines in on them, or at night when you have lamps turned on, or candles burning. Study this for several days. Be patient when deciding which color feels best to you.
How to Buy a Home with Good Feng Shui
April 24, 2007
Buying a home is usually a stressful experience. So much rides on a new home because this is where you relax, have fun, sleep, eat; in short, it’s the place central to your life. Not only that, but homes usually cost a whole lot of money and represent our single largest investment. Most homebuyers can usually find the objective requirements of house hunting, such as location, size, and price. But, there are also intangible factors when searching for a new home, but most people don’t know what to look for.
Helping you find the flaws This is where feng shui comes in. Using feng shui, you’ll be able to spot the problems ?or the potential — in a house that exist outside of the objective requirements of number of bedrooms, amount of storage, etc. These are features that you might not notice, and a realtor will seldom, if ever, point out to you. But, with this checklist, you can at least feel more confident about your decision to go with a particular property.
Trading in Corporate Office for Home Office
April 23, 2007
Six years ago, I had not yet turned on a computer. Today I run several successful Internet Businesses and by me being a single parent of 4 children my friends calls me a marketing expert.
My road to success was one of perseverance. Twelve hours a day, Seven days a week, learning code, mastering submission techniques, building web sites and databases. To think only six years age, I was stuck up in a office eight hours a day and not at home. Here’s my story…
It’s 1998…..In my office Mentally and Physically burnt out all I can think about was trading this environment in for my Home. (of all things)
Well to make a long story short every program I have ever been involved in has been a learning experience.
My successes have inspired me while my failures have challenged me. In five years, I have vecome experts in running an Internet business.
I attribute my success to my willingness to learn and my commitment to help the people that put their confidence in me.
What did I learn?
*I learned to build a community, not a business.
