One and Co

One and Co

Archives for April 2018

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Why Art And Creativity Is So Important

Art is an expression of someone’s creativity. It can manifest itself in different forms, such as music, paintings, photography, theater and much more. The art that creativity produces leaves people in awe. Art is there to be appreciated, and it tugs at people’s emotions. Moreover, art has changed through time, as innovation brings with it new methods of producing artworks. Modern art can include elaborate light installations such as Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors, or could even be a blue canvas that covers an entire gallery wall. There is a re-occurring theme that comes with art, and that is the inspiration and happiness it brings. This is also why art is incredibly important. It helps people understand different cultures as different cultures and people see art differently.

Inspiration

A great piece of art is inspirational. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sculpture or a particular song that inspires someone; the point is that it does. It could be that you attended a music festival and have decided to pick up a certain instrument or join a band. While this may be an extreme example, there is still a truth to it. Hearing a lyric from a song or staring at a certain painting long enough can push someone towards something. This inspiration can then be manifested in that persons’ life as a hobby or even during work hours.

Emotions

Art is a mode of expression. One of the most important factors that come with art is the level of emotion that people feel when staring at a work of art. While different people enjoy different forms of art, the common theme is the feeling it invokes. Take the example of the Philippines Art Fair. The show offers different exhibits with different types of contemporary art, alone. There are many different artists involved in putting together such a show, and each one wants the public to feel something when they look at their artwork. Art tugs at people’s emotions, and importantly so.

Understanding different cultures

Time and time again, art has been used as a way to understand human culture. This predates back to cave drawings that have been analyzed to today’s time. Different cultures and societies produce different forms of art. This can be seen via the paintings, music, and even theater. Consider engaging in some of these activities to get a better understanding of a time and place. This can be done both locally and while traveling. If you find yourself in America, going to see a Broadway play in New York City or purchase Boston theater tickets. Frequent museums, both locally and while traveling, to see examples of the different forms of art throughout time.

Art and creativity are synonymous. Artwork is creative, and creativity inspires artwork. The importance of art and creativity is widespread across the world. Art is a form of inspiration for many. The world would lose some of its sparkle without people producing art as a result of their inner creativity. It is through this creativity that innovations come about. As a result of art being a form of expression, there is a lot of emotional value that comes with it. Simply put, art makes people happy. Given that it is even a way to understand human culture, the importance of art should never be undervalued.

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How To Remain Healthy While Raising Kids

Trying to stay on top of your health while raising active kids can be tough. Although zooming around the house and picking up after kids on a daily basis is a workout in itself, you will also need to find other ways to keep yourself whole and healthy. Doing so will require you to make a conscious effort to remember to do things such as eat the right things and pause from time to time. In case you’re a busy mom on the go who never seems to be able to find a minute to herself, this article is going to highlight three ways you can remain healthy while on the job.

Eat Foods That Give You Energy Boosts

When you begin your day, it’s likely that you’re doing so full speed so getting enough energy in your system is key to avoid extreme fatigue throughout the day. Some quick foods that are good for energy include wild Alaskan salmon, flaxseeds, apples, green tea, and chicken feet, as well as brown rice, sweet potatoes, and banana. You could consider packing a few of these on-the-go foods into your work bag so that you can snack on them throughout the day. It is important that you don’t forget to eat no matter how busy you are as it’s a bad habit that could have negative effects on your health.

Rest Before Picking Them Up From School

After a busy day at work, you usually have to mentally and physically prepare for a busy evening at home with the kids. This usually consists of picking them up from the school-run, getting them settled in at home, doing homework and preparing dinner. If possible, however, you should consider taking some time to recharge after work instead of rushing to pick the kids up. If they attend a private nursery like Oakleigh House School in Swansea, wrap around care is offered until 6 PM daily. This would give you at least an hour to unwind and relax after work before picking them up so that you can recharge and get ready for the evening activities. You can consider doing this just a few days a week, especially on days where you’re feeling worn out.

Find a Support System

As well as being physically tired, raising kids can also take a toll on your mental health. It is, therefore, vital that you find ways to mentally unwind as well as vent when you need to. Keeping it bottled up inside can be counterproductive so it’s best to find a support group that you can find comfort in. This could be a group of mothers, your friends, or family who can relate to your situation. You may also find that in a support group you get useful tip sand information regarding how you can better manage your workload on a daily basis. Some ideas for finding or building a support system include joining an existing support group, asking about ad-hoc support groups, as well as offering support to other busy and working moms.

Remaining healthy is essential if you want to give your kids the best in every aspect of their life It is, therefore, key that you look after yourself every day and take steps towards ensuring your general wellbeing is intact. You can do this by learning to stop and recharge a few moments in every day.

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How To Make The Most Of Your Move With These Top Tips

Moving is always an exciting adventure because with each move comes the chance for new beginnings. If you move to a nicer home or a nicer neighborhood, then that’s even better. Moving with children, however, can make things a bit more difficult. Children thrive on routine, after all, and moving is one of the most disruptive events that can occur. They will be leaving their friends, their home, and their safe place. That is why when you move with your family, you need to use these top tips to help you make the most of it:

De-Clutter Before You Move

Your material possessions can easily become an extra house guest if you aren’t careful. Closet space can fill up, every drawer filled to the brim, and things bursting from every nook and cranny. It is for this reason that when you are packing up to move, you should let go of everything that you don’t use or care about anymore. It might turn into a few fights with your kids, who don’t want to let go of the toys they don’t play with anymore, but the move and your new house will thank you once you are done.

Work On Making Your New House a Home Together

When you are moved in, work on making your new place a home together. Letting your kids sulk off in the corner won’t help them. Instead, unpack and decorate together as a family. Work with your kids so that they can have a say in their new home, rather than feel like everything is beyond their control.

Enroll Them in A Great School

Moving to England is a great choice for families, but to ensure your kids make friends and gain a stellar education you will need to know your options in terms of schooling. Cumnor House School offers a great curriculum, after-school programmes, and more importantly, small classrooms. This means that your child can thrive as an individual and make friends in their new home.

Spend Time Together as a Family

A house will never be a home until you and your family start to make memories there together. Get everyone on board for a DIY project, teach your kids how to bake a cake, make a fort out of the cardboard boxes you used for moving, and so on. By really emphasizing family time right after a move, you can help your children feel safe and at home. You might even improve your relationship with them.

Explore Together

Your new home isn’t just the four walls of your property, either. Get out there with your family and find new local haunts. Where you would like to go out to dinner together, where you like to get a morning coffee, where the nearest park is, and so on. The more you and your family know your new community, the better you will enjoy your new lives.

Moving your family means lots of changes, but if you follow these tips, those changes will be for the better.

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Preparing Friends And Family For Your Move Abroad

With so much to do in preparing for a move abroad, it’s easy to underestimate the impact that your move will have on your friends and family. Many of them may react in a way that you consider to be totally out of proportion. They may feel abandoned and frightened, and react with unexpected anger and sadness, feeling betrayed and hurt. For a long time, they may refuse to believe that the move is really going to happen, and may even belittle or mock your clearly stated intentions. All of this can be very hard to deal with on both sides.

Remember that they love you

It’s important at this stage to remember that they are only acting this way because they love you. They will miss you and they are also worried about how you will cope in your new life, where they won’t be there to help you. It’s natural that their response may make you also feel angry, not to mention guilty and defensive. You may feel selfish about not staying to care for elderly relatives.

Keep communicating

Try not to let this escalate into conflict or a refusal to engage. The worst thing that you could do is to leave on a sour note, allowing an emotional distance to open up between you as well as a geographical one. If things get really rough, you may need to attend counselling with intractable family members.

Moving with children 

Moving abroad with children can be especially difficult. Grandparents and ex-partners may feel that the children are being taken away from them. Explain as sympathetically as you can that this isn’t the case and make arrangements for them to stay in contact. Your children may have their own anxieties about the move, so talk to them about it, show them films and pictures, and answer all of their questions. Help them to look forward to the move while making plans for them to stay in touch with relatives and their friends.

Educational concerns 

One question that is bound to come up is how your children’s education will be affected. This will be a particular issue if you are moving to a non-Western country. They may be concerned about the kind of qualifications they’ll receive or the cultural environment they’ll be navigating. A good solution to put everyone’s mind at ease is to enroll your child in an international school. Stamford, a school for Americans in Hong Kong, offers an internationally recognized curriculum and is designed for expat children, helping them to adapt and fit in.

Timing is everything

It’s important to tell your family about your move first, even if that’s the step you’re most dreading. Closest friends should come next. Answer all of their questions honestly and positively, and give them time to get used to the idea. Make a clear plan for staying in touch, and set a date to see each other again. With older relatives, take time to explain Skype or FaceTime, and set it up for them.

Eventually, everyone will adjust to this major upset in their lives, but it may take careful handling. The bonds of friendship and family will endure, however, and your new life abroad will ultimately be enriching for everyone.

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How To Launch An Interior Design Business

If you have a natural aptitude for home decor, you may well have thought about becoming an interior designer. The great thing about a career in interior design is that anyone can start at any age, and you don’t necessarily need qualifications to build a portfolio. The downside is that interior design is a saturated market, which makes it difficult for newcomers to stand out.

Luckily, working in interior design can be highly lucrative, so it’s worth the time and effort it takes to set up your own business. With this in mind, here are five tips for launching an interior design business and making it a success.

Create a Website

As a designer, your website is like your showroom; therefore, no one is going to take you seriously unless it is professional, eye-catching and easy to navigate. It’s understandable you might not want to splash out on a web designer to create your site when you are just starting out, but this investment is worthwhile if it attracts high-paying clients.

If you can’t afford a top quality website right away, spend some time researching how to build one yourself. If you choose to go down the DIY route, you can use an affordable platform like Squarespace or WordPress to achieve a slick, professional look.

Build Your Portfolio

Your portfolio is the first thing clients will look at for examples of your work. Every new designer has to start somewhere, but you will probably need to complete a few free projects, at least at the beginning, so you have something for your portfolio. Make sure you work with a client who gives you some creative control so you can show your unique style – this will make your portfolio stand out from other interior designers.

Hire a Photographer

You need images to show off your interior design work, but grainy photos on your iPhone camera simply won’t cut it. If you’re trying to attract high-paying clients, you need to show that you are a professional, and the best way to do this is through your portfolio. Your work needs to look the absolute best it can, whether that means adjusting the lighting, editing images or taking shots from stylish angles, so it’s best to hire an interior photographer who knows the industry.

Seek Business Advice

If you’re not sure how to brand your interior design company or you’re new to the world of business, it’s a good idea to find a business consulting service to help you launch. Starting out as a designer is tough, and you can avoid making many mistakes along the way by hiring an expert to guide you.

Promote!

Now that you’ve put time and effort into your website and portfolio, it’s time to promote your business. This means being active on social media, sending marketing content to your subscribers and working on your SEO ranking to feature high up in search engine results. Again, if you’re not sure how to promote your business online, it’s best to do some research before you start or hire an Internet marketing agency to take care of this for you.

 

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Best Scientifically-Proven Ways To Lose Weight

You will find that, from a scientific perspective, there are some methods of losing weight that are more effective than others. If you want to shed your extra pounds as effectively as possible, it is important that you know what some of your options are. There are a lot of different little ways to lose weight on a daily basis, and they can help you to reach your fitness goals.

Count Your Calories

Numerous studies have shown that people who keep track of the calories they consume each day have an easier time losing weight than those who do not. Since your caloric intake ultimately determines your weight, it is very important that you do this. By keeping a close eye on the calories you are consuming every day, you can start to get into shape much faster. There are lots of mobile apps you can get for your phone that will help you to track your meals and snacks.

Use Protein

Eating foods that are very rich in protein can help you avoid overeating. Foods like fish, eggs, and lean meats can help you stay full for longer so that you don’t end up going back to the fridge quite so soon. Overeating is primarily what leads to weight gain, so you will need to keep this tip in mind if you are trying to lose weight.

HCG Diet

The Hcg Diet has been proven to be very helpful when it comes to helping women (and men) lose weight. This weight loss method has become incredibly popular lately, and for good reason. There are numerous drops that you can buy to help with reducing your weight quickly. There are a lot of different ways to lose weight, but this is by far one of the most effective and scientific overall.

Give Up Sugar

Those who cut refined sugar out of their diets will find that losing weight is much easier. The pounds will start to melt away once you have cut this out of your diet completely. Sugar is one of the main reasons that there is such a serious obesity problem across the country, so it is important that you at least consider giving it up.

Aerobic Exercise

While it is true that your diet plays an important part in your ability to lose weight, you will also need to get an adequate amount of exercise on a regular basis. Aerobic exercise has been proven to help with shedding extra pounds. Whether it is jogging, swimming, cycling or something else, there are plenty of different ways to get this type of exercise on a daily basis. The more you exercise each day, the easier it will be for you to lose weight.

It’s always a good idea to take a scientific approach to losing weight because it is just more effective. A lot of people do things to lose weight that are ineffective, so it really pays to do your research before trying anything.

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Golden State Financial Group on How to Do a Home Loan Modification

Going through a home loan modification is a lengthy and complex process that has to be done properly. It is, in effect, a request to a bank to change the terms and conditions of your loan so that you don’t default anymore and end up losing your home. It is also a one chance only situation. If the bank declines your request, you are likely to go into foreclosure. The Golden State Financial Group has helped many people be successful in their request for such a modification.

Why a Home Loan Modification Should Be Left to the Professionals

Requesting a home loan modification often seems like a very straightforward process. It means writing a short and to the point hardship letter to your lender, in which you indicate that you have fallen behind (with dates and amounts), what has caused this, how you have tried to keep up with your financial obligations, and how you now suggest to continue. The letter should fit onto a single page. If the lender is happy to seriously consider your request, they will then ask for things such as bank statements and other supporting information. This all seems quite simplistic, but just because something is short does not mean that it is easy. And you have to be realistic: do it wrong and you will lose your home.

It is very common for loan companies to only glance at hardship letters sent to them by individuals. However, if the letter comes from a financial institution like the Golden State Financial Group, they will usually consider it in earnest. This is because they already have relationships and ties with that organization and know that they deal with specific cases and that they do so properly. As such, you instantly have a greater chance of having your request accepted, simply because it will at least be read properly.

Since the financial crisis, it has become clear that lenders have acted in irresponsible ways and they must therefore provide some sort of assistance to their customers. At the same time, however, you also have responsibilities. This means that you also have to show them that you understand things have gone wrong and that you are willing – and able – to make a change. Unfortunately, lendering modification requests are often declined because the lender does not see how it is in their best interest to accept it.

An organization like the Golden State Financial Group can help showcase to a bank that a loan modification may not be what they had initially hoped for, but it would be something much more financially viable than going through a foreclosure process. This is expensive for both them and for their clients, a situation in which everybody loses. A properly developed home loan modification, however, can provide a win-win situation. Demonstrating this requires knowledge and the right language and jargon, something that majority of everyday individuals who are not financial experts, simply do not have.

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The Best TyrePlus Tyres To Use In The UK Revealed!

When it comes to choosing tyres, it’s well worth carefully selecting the right tyres to suit the conditions which you expect to be driving in. If you’re looking to choose the right type of tyres to safely and efficiently drive around the UK, simply continue reading to discover the best TyrePlus Tyres to equip in the UK.

Which TyrePlus Tyres to use when driving in the UK:

1. Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen-2

If you’re looking for tyres which will grip onto slippery or snow covered roads in winter and which are durable to withstand hot summer roads, you may be interested in equipping your vechile with Goodyear’s ever popular Vector 4 Seasons Gen-2 tyres. Which are designed to be used all year round, in a variety of different conditions.

If you need further convincing this particular model was recently voted as the best
all season tyre by Auto Express. Better yet, they are also compatible with a wide variety of different vechiles. So no matter what type of car you drive, it’s well worth considering purchasing a set of Vector 4 Seasons Gen-2.

2. All terrain tyres

While if you plan of limiting your drives to well developed cities you might get away with fitting summer tyres on your vehicle, if you plan on driving on country roads, your best bet will be to opt for a set of quality all terrain tyres.

Which have been designed to work just as well on inner city roads as well as dirt roads. The latter of which can typically found in rural areas around the UK. How are all terrain tyres different to regular tyres. All terrain tyres offer better grip than standard tyres and also offer a far smoother ride, especially on bumpy roads.

As a bonus, if you’re interested in exploring off road tracks, you’ll also be able to do so safely, using all terrain tyres, instead of four wheel drive tyres. Lastly, all terrain tyres also have a longer life than stock standard tyres. So if you’re looking to fit tyres, which will last longer than a year, it’s well worth considering investing in high-quality all terrain tyres.

3. 4 wheel drive specific tyres

As 4 wheel drive vehicles are just as popular in suburban Britain as in rural areas, if you currently own a 4 wheel drive or are seriously considering purchasing a 4 wheel drive, it’s important to fit 4 wheel drive specific tyres. Which will last far longer than stock standard tyres. If you’re interested, TyrePlus offers a wide variety of 4 wheel drive tyres to suit your personal preferences and your desired budget!

So if you’re looking to fit a car with the perfect tyres for UK conditions and your safety, it’s well worth using the handy tyre guide above, in order to select the best possible tyres for your vechile. As well as for the conditions which you expect to drive in, on a regular basis. As the UK offers harsher roads, especially in rural communities than in other countries, so it’s well worth purchasing tyres which have been designed to be used on UK roads over foreign roads, which offer different conditions.