Stand Out: Bachelorette Party Time

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So you’re in charge of the bachelorette party, uh? When it was my turn, coming up with a fun idea for my friend’s party was like trying to walk through a maze with a blindfold on. I was terrified! I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, especially the bride.

With all of the new and unique ideas with bachelorette parties, it can be a bit overwhelming: which would better fit your friend for this awesome upcoming event? By talking to her, and planning it out, you can come up with an awesome bachelorette themed party, and will be able to crank out a bunch of fun ideas. One great way to guarantee an amazing and hilarious time: creating your own t-shirt.

By customizing your own t-shirt, you’re able to stand out among the crowd, and get the bride to be the full center of attention (which of course, is the whole idea!). There is a whole list of funny catch phrases or saying to include on the shirt, that will get the whole wedding party laughing, and off to a great start.

First, you’re going to want to get the size of all the bridesmaids. If the bridesmaids are scattered all over the world, I found it best to create a spreadsheet (like Google Docs) and have them fill in their sizes. This way, you have it on file, and they can pick whichever size they’d like.

Second, have everyone decide on what style of shirt would be more comfortable for their body type. We all don’t look the same, and we all feel best in different styles of clothing. If the bride is okay with a mix-match of t-shirts, tanks, or long-sleeves, then go for it!

Third, pick the color. Ask the bride which color would be best. Usually the colors of the wedding would be the best choice, if she just asks you to choose. Have the font and the actual background color of the shirt stand out from each other.

Fourth, create your saying. This is the fun part! You want something eye-catching and funny, and something that will get your bride tons of attention! Here are a couple of ideas for you:

· Last ride for the bride

· Causing hell before the “bells”

· He put a ring on it

· Getting hitched, buy me a drink!

· Team Bride

· Last fling before the ring

There are incredible amounts of funny and catchy sayings for your bachelorette party themed, and creating your own shirt is the best way to break the ice, and get the party started. An easy way to remember names if all the girls don’t necessarily know each other is to have each person’s name on the back of their shirt.

So go out, and have a blast! Don’t stress too much about the party, and know that mistakes will happen. Just go with the flow, and you’ll have the best time. Your shirts will have you standing out from the crowd, and will get the bride, and all of the girls, having an amazing time!

Julie Hartwell loves anything to do with the arts and design. When she’s not embarking on her own creative adventures, you can find her on her personal account.

Guest Post: Getting Proactive About Your Family's Health

Good health habits established early can last a lifetime. The roots of many preventable illnesses – obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol, and diabetes – lie in lifestyle habits that are set down in childhood. In order to help your family stay healthy, strong, and active for their entire lives, you need to get proactive.

Emphasize Preventative Care

Preventative care – visiting a doctor for checkups before you show signs of illness – is the number one way to prevent both childhood and adulthood health problems. Routine vaccinations ensure that your children are protected from dangerous illnesses such as measles, whooping cough, the flu, and tetanus. Regular teeth cleanings prevent cavities, gingivitis, and the need for more extensive dental work.

· Talk with your kids about why they need to visit the doctor regularly. Explain the purpose of the exams and vaccines. Work with your doctor to make office visits as low-stress and comfortable as possible. The less kids fear the doctor, the easier it will be to get them to go today, tomorrow, and twenty years from now.

· Programs such as MDVIP’s comprehensive primary care providers focus on preventing illnesses before they start. Look into this type of supplemental health program to access personalized, one-on-one care for both yourself and your family.

Foster a Love of Fitness

Exercise and athletic activity is another important element of maintaining your family’s good health. Maintaining healthy levels of exercise is about more than just managing weight – it improves lung and heart function, creates better muscle endurance, produces mood-elevating endorphins, and helps regulate appetite and blood sugar levels.

· Get outside and just play with your kids. Kickball, tag, catch, and the playground are all easy and simple activities that give the whole family a fun workout.

· Sign up for sports programs that place an emphasis on having fun, rather than winning. Kids can become frustrated and disillusioned by even their favorite sport when the adults around them put too much emphasis on winning. The goal is to teach kids to love playing, and keep them playing for a lifetime.

Encourage Good Nutrition

Your kids may love high-sugar snacks, but even Cookie Monster knows that “Cookies are a sometimes food.” Science has shown that sugar is actually an addictive substance – and the less sugar you consume, the less you actually crave it. Check out the new nutrition guidelines and plan your family’s meals to include more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed, sugary foods. The fewer processed foods your family consumes, the less they’ll want it – and the more they’ll enjoy the healthier options you provide.

· Get your kids excited about nutrition by involving them in the preparation of their meals. Older kids can slice cheese, while the littles can stir bowls or wash veggies in the sink to their heart’s content.

· Add a drop of food coloring to scrambled eggs or mashed potatoes to make meals more exciting. Let your kids choose what color they want their eggs (though beware of trying to turn eggs purple in particular – the results aren’t very palatable).

· As you prepare the meal, explain what you’re doing and why. Even a simplified science lesson – “the hot water gets soaked into the pasta to make it squishy” – can be fascinating to young minds and get them more excited about mealtimes.

Preventing disease and fostering good health in your family requires that you be proactive. Get yourself and your family in to the doctor for preventative care on a regular basis. Make sure you’re all eating right and exercising - and do it in such a way that gets everyone excited. Cooking, eating, and playing together as a family can ensure that you’re all more healthy now and in the long run.

 

About the Author

Abby Evans is a mother and freelance journalist currently reviewing health options for her family. You can connect with her on Google+

(Image source: freedigitalphotos.net)

Vitamins Your Body Needs After Childbirth

Prenatal vitamins were created to help your baby’s growth and development while in the womb, but it is important to continue nurturing your body and your baby’s body after childbirth. Vitamins and supplements can help your baby continue to grow healthy and strong, and they can help you heal and maintain good emotional and physical health after childbirth. Talk to your doctor to find out which vitamins and supplements will be best for you.

Vitamin D helps increase your milk supply and works with calcium to help build and repair strong bones. Vitamin D receptors have also been discovered in muscle tissue, and can help strengthen muscles as you increase your workouts to lose that baby weight. Stronger muscles typically burn fat more quickly, so it is important to incorporate a balanced strength and cardiovascular workout to help work off that weight in a healthy way. Vitamin C helps repair cartilage, skin, blood vessels, and tissue, which is especially important after labor. It can build scar tissue and help rebuild wounds, which are especially important for women who have had C-sections. In addition to Vitamin C, iron helps rebuilt red blood cells, which are important during labor and for the 4-6 weeks that most women bleed after childbirth. Keep your blood healthy and your energy levels high, so you can focus on your new little one.

B Vitamins help reduce depression. Many women experience some type of postpartum depression after giving birth. Having a baby is a tremendous life change, not to mention the physical exertion your body goes through during labor and delivery. Surround yourself with people who love and support you, and take time to ensure that your emotional health is thriving. B Vitamins help with the physical aspects of warding off depression, as well as getting consistent exercise. It doesn’t have to be intense or high-impact. Just take that little one out for some fresh air in the stroller and go for a 30-minute walk.

If you are trying to lose the baby weight after a pregnancy, be warned that crash dieting can send your energy levels to the depths at a time when you need your energy the most. Be sure to eat healthy, balanced meals and take vitamins and supplements to lose weight in a healthy way and preserve your energy and well-being to take care of yourself and your child.

Paige One looks forward to writing about a variety of ideas, from fitness to fashion. Don’t forget to take vitamins during and after pregnancy and stay healthy!

Top 5 States For Foreclosures

Since the housing crisis erupted in 2007, Florida has been among the top five states in the country for foreclosure activity. While the housing market has improved in Florida in recent months, it still holds an unenviable position in the top states for foreclosures.

The top states, in order, for the first half of 2012 include Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, California and Florida. Two factors collided in these states that continue to slow the housing recovery. They are overbuilding and questionable lending practices. Even though years have lapsed since the initial housing crash, the fallout ramifications in the construction industry are still strong in these states. Employment is still down, demand for homes continues to be soft, and lenders have tightened the requirements for mortgage qualification.

How a Foreclosure Attorney Helps
If you’ve been hard hit by the housing crisis and find the prospect of losing your home is real, consider an Orlando foreclosure attorney who can help you. Your foreclosure doesn't have to be inevitable. An attorney can explain the process and lay out options that may save your home; short of that, an attorney at your side can lessen the negative impact on your credit rating and future financial obligations. Since the housing market in Florida is showing some strength, having an attorney at your side may be instrumental in keeping your property.

It may be that the best option you have for saving your home is through a loan modification. Negotiating directly with your lender can be fraught with delays, misplaced paperwork and misunderstandings. An Orlando foreclosure attorney is in a better position to monitor the process between you and the bank, eliminating any surprises down the road. The lawyer may also be able to negotiate a short sale for you, staying on top of the transaction between the participating Realtor and your lender.

The foreclosure attorney in Orlando could also advise you to walk away from your home, if it makes no financial sense to stay there. Being thousands of dollars underwater may take a long recovery. Continuing to make payments that are a significant drain on your resources is not always a smart financial move. Having an attorney at your side provides protection against the lender from engaging in activities that could hurt you in the future.

Best ways to organize recyclables for craft supplies

Recycling is not just great because it can save work and money on the products that we buy. It can also be a free source of things that you can use to make craft projects out of. Figuring out a way to organize all of those recyclables can, however, be a difficult task for the person whp has little experience in this area. There are an almost unlimited number of ways. Here are just a few of them.

1) Organizing things according to their material type
One way of keeping your recyclables together is according to the physical materials out of which they are made. Keep tin and other metal cans in one place, cardboard boxes in another, newspapers and other papers in another, and so on. Such a method of arranging items has its advantages. Different crafts projects often require different materials. You could not, for instance, use metallic objects for something that calls for cardboard or paper or other substance that you can paint on; paint will not stick easily to a metal surface. You might also feel that you need or just prefer to work with a particular type of material.

2) Organizing things according to their shape or color
The shapes and colors of objects are two other ways of categorizing and organizing them. Sometimes a particular shape is the best or only possibility for ylour project. If you are making a kaleidoscope or a small telescope, for instance, then your only choice will naturally be something cylindrical, such as a paper towel roll. Shape and color are not as important as material, however, as you can cut things to the desired shape or paint them in the desired color.

3) Organizing things according to what you would like to do with them
You may find that you personally prefer to use certain types of things for certain projects. You might for instance prefer plastic containers to tin cans even though they both are cylindrical.

4) Organizing things according to their size
Size is another big category for organizing purposes. Some projects call for small items like beads, while others call for larger ones like cans or cardboard pieces. Try and form a definite size range for the purposes of grouping. An example would be things less than an inch across; things from one to five inches across; and things six inches or bigger across. As with shape and color, there are things that you can cut and so reduce to the size which you desire.

5) Organizing things according to more than one category
Things can be organized by two or more groups. As an example you could put round things made of plastic in one place, round things made of metal in another and cubical things made of metal in another. When grouping things in this manner it is best to have a system that enables you to find things easily. That is, after all, the very purpose of having an organizational system. In the above example, it would be a good idea to have round things made of metal next to both round things made of plastic and cubical things made of metal.

6) Subcategorizing
An even better way of organizing is having things within the same group classified even further according to their peculiar characteristics. This means that within the space that you have set aside for plastic things, you will have separate places for metallic, plastic and wooden things or for objects of different sizes or shapes.

7) Things that can help you stay organized
There are many ways in which you can systematize the way you keep your recyclables together. You can buy yourself plastic bins, cardboard boxes, trash cans, cabinets or shelves, putting labels onto each of them so that you can tell at a glance what goes where. Keep those containers so that you can easily get to them—e.g. do not stack bins on top of each other.
In the end it does not really matter which method of organizing you choose. What is really important is that you use a system that makes sense to you so you can things when you want to use them.
Author Bio
Becky Harris writes for U-Pack portable storage containers, of the ABF Family of Companies helping families stay organized and run smoothly!