Up Now and What's Next!: July 2013

Checking and Replacing Backpacking Gear

Friday, July 12, 2013

Summer is here and that means that it is time to pull that old camping and backpacking gear out of the garage and get ready for summer adventure. Although, backpacking is a fun recreational activity it can also be dangerous, which is why when preparing to go out you should make sure that all your equipment is functional, and if not, find a place to get new backpacking gear in Baton Rouge. This article will discuss backpacking essentials so that you can effectively prepare for your next excursion.

The Basics Obviously when it comes to fundamentals, the first things that you are going to want to check are your backpack and sleeping bag. If either of these two things are unable to function properly it will utterly ruin any trip you go on. To check the bag, load it up to your desired weight and try jumping up and down a bit, or take it on a practice hike on a local trail. To check your sleeping bag, look to make sure that the zippers are in good working order, and then check it for cleanliness. A clean sleeping bag will be more capable of keeping you warm, so it may be a good idea to take it to the dry cleaners for a good scrubbing.

Beyond the Basics Before you go buy new backpacking gear in Baton Rouge, you should also check a few other essentials. Your camp stove is obviously a vital part of any backpacker’s gear, so check to make sure that it is functional and has plenty of fuel left for the length of trip you are planning. If you have freeze dried food left over from last year, it is probably still good, although it is wise to check the expiration date as some dishes have a shorter shelf life than others. Next, your tent should be set up in the backyard at least once prior to leaving so that you can check it for any problems that you may have forgotten about last year.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

Finding the Perfect Table Design for Your Restaurant Supply

More than any other piece of furniture, the table sets the mood for your restaurant and tells your guests what kind of experience they can expect while in your establishment. Will your restaurant exude urban chic or down-home comfort? Perhaps neither? Consider the following tips for table shopping when stocking up your local restaurant supply in Charlotte, NC.

1. Measure Your Dining Space Before you even start considering designs and layout, you’ve got to know how much space you’ll be working with. Measure your dining area and decide how many tables you want and how much space you want between tables. That will determine the size of your ideal table.

You may want to opt for several different table sizes, including breakfast nooks, booths, bar seating, or large, leaved tables that dominate the center of the dining space. This will largely depend on what kind of a restaurant you’re operating. Generally, however, a little variety goes a long way in breaking up monotonous space.

2. Consider Number and Type of Chairs While measuring your dining space, be sure to account for chairs. While you don’t need to determine a firm number yet, decide roughly how many chairs you want per table. In some cases, you’ll add or take away chairs, but decide now on a standard set.

This may depend on what types of tables you’re getting. If you opt for a high breakfast table, you’ll probably want two high chairs per table. If you’re going for a traditional round table, six padded chairs will do.

Draw up a rough outline of what you want to be sure.

3. Choose a Theme or Style Lastly, you’ll need to consider the fun element—style. Because you’re likely not starting from scratch, consider your restaurant’s theme. The furniture can go a long way in echoing that theme. For example, country restaurants typically have large wooden tables, while city cafes opt for small, light ones.

Whatever your theme, make sure your tables echo it. You can ask for help from your restaurant supplier or browse online images for inspiration. Considering different table shapes may also spark some ideas.

Purchasing Restaurant Tables Once you’ve made these initial considerations, it’s time to go shopping. Different services provide restaurant supply in Charlotte, NC, and each is right for a different client. Consider yours and your restaurant’s needs carefully before doing business with any.

Then, talk to your restaurant supplier about your furniture ideas. Your supplier can help our dreams become a reality and offer helpful suggestions along the way.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

A Good Mattress for a Good Night’s Sleep

If you’ve ever slept on the floor for an extended period, you know what blessing it is to have a good, solid mattress. Without a nice surface on which to sleep, you toss and turn all night. The next day, you experiencing a foggy mental state and a grumpy mood because you did not get the rest that your body and brain need every day. If you’re looking to better your nightly respite, you can visit a Milwaukee mattresses store and find the perfect bedding for your specific needs.

Choosing the Best Mattress Really, the end goal of purchasing a mattress is to provide a comfortable place on which you can sleep. To that end, you’ll have to analyze on your own what kind of mattress you prefer in order to get the most restful night’s sleep possible. But choosing a good mattress involves much more than simply what feels good. You want to avoid mattresses that sag. Even if you like a softer mattress, there’s a difference between a mattress that gently cushions your frame as your sleep and a mattress that sags. You also don’t want to buy vintage mattresses, because they are most likely not up to current fire safety standards. When buying a mattress, you want to check the tag in order to make sure that there are no materials to which you are allergic. If you suffer from more allergies than other people, you may want avoid problems altogether by simply getting a hypoallergenic mattress. One thing that is also worthy of mention is the fact that just about every mattress spring in the United States is made by the same manufacturer. It therefore behooves you to bear in mind that a higher price on a mattress does not necessarily mean a higher quality of sleep.

Getting Great Service You want to shop at a Milwaukee mattresses store which offers great service. Many stores allow their customers to take a twenty minute “test sleep” on their products so that you can be more informed about what you’re purchasing. Of course, these same stores also offer guarantees which allow you to return the mattress within thirty days of purchase, should you find that the mattress is ultimately not to your satisfaction. You can even find stores that will deliver your mattress to you within 24 hours of purchase. That way, you don’t have to couple the anxiety of buying a new sleeping surface with the frustration of figuring out how to transport it home in your car. Sleep is important. In fact, it’s more than important – it’s a daily requirement of your body. Visit a mattress outlet today and treat your body to the most restful sleep possible.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

Employment Agencies Help to Find Long-Term Jobs

Even though reports on the outlook on today’s employment market seem to be getting more and more positive, it is still quite difficult to find a permanent and full-time position. Scouring the classified ads may help for a few people, and now that there are multiple search engines online that are available as well, nothing is quite as useful and can offer a tremendous amount of varied options as employment agencies in Columbus. Employment agencies allow you to sit down, face to face, with someone whose sole job is to find employment for others. They are able to assess your skills and interests and find matches to what might work best for you. There are a few things to know when going to an employment agency, however, that some people may not share up front.

Temp Work The base of what employment agencies can find that you may not be able to on your own is what is known as temp work. This means temporary employment as a very large range of employers. This could include work for state or other local agencies, work in the private sector, and sometimes even work in more nontradional work environments. The jobs that someone doing temp work usually does are ones that don’t take too much training to understand. There are also usually not long term. In some cases, a temp worker is filling in for someone who has taken a leave of absence from work and will return at a specific date. Sometimes it is for work during holiday seasons when a company is exceptionally busy and need the extra hands. In either case, the work being offered is typically not intended to last. However, temp work gives possible employers the opportunity to see the work ethic and skills of people that they may want to hire in the future or convert into long term employees. That is why it is best to work even harder as a temp or fill-in worker.

Head Hunting The employment agencies in Columbus that you may be interested in working with are primarily interested in finding you a job. But just like every business, they need to pay their bills and turn a profit as well. This is why it is important to know up front that the employment agency gets a certain percentage from the company you may work for. The good thing about this fact is that it ensures the employment agency will work hard finding the right job for you.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

Natural Products: Soapnuts and More

There’s a huge trend in health and beauty that’s pointing everybody back to basics. If it worked for our ancestors, why wouldn’t it work for us? People are eating what our ancestors ate and are doing what they did in terms of beauty as well. If you want to follow this trend and know a little more about natural detergents, cleaners, and soapnuts, read on.

Natural Detergent You may have seen a lot of people recently sharing anything do-it-yourself in an effort to save money or to use healthier products. People are making their own stain removers, cleaners, and laundry detergent using basic household products. Besides saving money, one benefit of using natural detergent is that it is much easier on sensitive skin because it doesn’t have chemical residues. It is also much better for the environment than your standard soap. These cleaners use extracts and have minimal ingredients. Furthermore, a little bit goes a long way.

Natural Cleaners There are many reasons to use natural cleaners besides saving yourself some money. Vinegar and baking soda are some natural household staples that can clean just about everything. By using natural products, you avoid the toxic ingredients found in bleach and ammonia products, keeping your kids safe. The release of toxic substances can hurt your respiratory system. The toxins can also be absorbed into your blood stream, which is especially bad because many of them cause cancer. To avoid these negative effects, create your own cleaners or buy ones containing vinegar, essential oils, and extracts.

Soapnuts You may use a standard soap in the shower or bath, but if you want to be careful about what is absorbed into your body, consider using soapnuts. These are berries from the Himalayas that contain saponin, which can lift stains and cleanse skin gently. There are no inks or dyes, and they are grown on trees. They don’t lather up like the soap you might be used to, but that does not mean it is not doing its job. If you’re looking to go back to basics, consider using these in place of your normal laundry detergent, and use household cleaners that won’t harm you, your family, or the environment.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

The Basics of Short-Sale Homes

Having your own home can be a huge blessing, though, it is also an extremely large responsibility. Homes are expensive investments that require a great deal of money to purchase and properly maintain. When you purchase a home, you more than likely will need to arrange for a large loan with a local bank or financial institution. Depending on your loan, you will need to make regular payments for a long period of time. Because of this, it is possible that you might run into a problem with being able to make the needed payments on your home. If this happens, you might risk losing your home, though, you may be able to save money by doing a short sale. Short-sale homes are houses that have been sold for less than what is owed to the bank, making it so that the bank is prone to lose money. Here is a quick look at the basics of short sales and how they can help you.

Getting a Short Sale Selling your home for less than what you owe to the bank can be extremely difficult and it can only be done under specific circumstances. In order to convince the bank that they should allow a short sale, you are more than likely going to need the help of an experienced lawyer. The most common circumstance for a short sale is that you are in a harsh financial situation and your house is now worth less than its original value.

The Benefits The main benefit of a short sale for the seller is that it can help to save a person’s credit score, while also helping to cut their losses. A short sale can also help the seller to quickly resolve their debt issues that are intertwined with their property. While the lender will more than likely lose money on a short sale, it can also be beneficial. Short-sale homes can help a bank to cut their losses that might come from a foreclosure, which can be long and expensive for the lender. A short sale can also help to cut losses that will come from prolonging the debt.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

What to Think about in a Remodel

When you decide to hire a NJ home improvement contractor and remodel your home, there are a lot of important things you need to think about. These things will help you make the right decisions so that you end up with a remodel that you will be happy with for years to come. When you spend money on something like this, you want to make sure that you get good results.

The Future of the Home You should have a general plan for the future of the home. How long do you plan on living there? Will you be selling it or do you plan to live there for the rest of your life? If you are going to sell the home, you need to keep that in mind and give the home an appeal to buyers. If you plan to stay there for the rest of your life, you can make the house more personal with what you want, even if others would not like it. As you think about the future of the home, think about who will be living there and what their needs will be. For example, if you plan on having more children, you may want some extra rooms for them when they come. If you are going to grow old in this home, you will likely want your bedroom on the bottom floor so that you do not have to climb stairs as you get older. Generally think ahead and plan for any people or pets that will be living there.

What You Want Here comes the fun part. While is it important to consider all your needs for the home, you should also think about the things you have always wanted in a home. This is your home; make it yours by giving it all the little things that will make you happy. Keep your budget in mind as you decide what you want. Your NJ home improvement contractor can even help you find places to purchase things for a good cost as you go about adding the things you want to your home.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

Three Tips to Help You Find Your Dream Home

When searching for a home to buy, such as the luxurious homes listed with Partnerstrust Pacific Palisade Real Estate, the first place to start is by understanding what you want in a home. Some people might know exactly what they are looking for, but most probably do not have a clear idea of the home they want to buy. To help you understand more clearly the type of home you are looking for, try following the steps outlined below:

Recognize your lifestyle
Collect ideas for a new home
Prioritize your list

Recognize Your Lifestyle Everyone has a unique lifestyle. The way a home is designed can support or interfere with your particular lifestyle. With your partner, analyze your lifestyle and think about the things that are important to you. Following are a few questions that can help you begin to think about want you want in a home:

Do you want a large yard where you can entertain guests?
Do you like outdoor recreational activities?
Do you want an office included on the main floor where you can conduct business?
Do you like to have the whole family together in the same room where they can eat and be entertained?
Do you prefer a more formal eating environment?

Collect Ideas As you begin to think about your lifestyle, you will also begin to think about a particular design that will facilitate that lifestyle. At the same time, there are many different architectural styles and possibilities. Start collecting ideas that you might like. Start by talking to your friends and colleagues. Ask them what they like about their homes and what they would change if they could. Be sure to follow up with the question, “Why?” Also, go to home shows or walk through open houses of homes that are listed for sale. You can also browse through magazines or the Internet for ideas. As you do these things, be sure to take notes and pictures.

Prioritize Your List After you have collected several ideas, you can begin to prioritize your list. Be realistic in distinguishing the difference between those things that you cannot live without and those things that you really want but do not have to have. Once you have your list ready, find a company such as Partnerstrust Pacific Palisade Real Estate, and put an agent to work finding your dream home.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

What a Cider Press Does and What Goes in It

When you have access to a lot of apples, you may wonder what to do with all of them. Applesauce is yummy but you could make apple pies and freeze them if you have enough freezer space or you could make apple juice or apple cider. There is some debate on what the difference is. The type of apple juice you buy at the store is pasteurized and will not ferment. Apple cider, on the other hand, is not pasteurized and will ferment and eventually turn into hard cider with a little help. To make apple cider, you will need a cider press. These are actually beautiful machines that chop up the fruit and then press the juice out of the chopped up fruit.

Varieties of Apples to Use To make apple cider, you should start with the right apples. Some people recommend sticking with a combination of sweet apples like Yellow Delicious, Gala, Rome, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Fuji, and Red Delicious. Others say use one-third sweet, one-third bittersweet, and one-third sharp for the best tasting cider. Never use all the same variety of apple. If you’re on a farm, once you get your apples, pick out any bad ones and give them to the pigs; they will love them. Pour or place the apples in the hopper at the top of the press. Then, turn the big wheel or handle to chop up the apples and get them ready for pressing.

Making Juice and Cider Once you have enough apple pieces, you can fill up the tub with them and place the press-disc into the tub on top of the apples and attach the screw to the press-disc. The handle for the screw is at the top of the cider press. Turn the handle attached to the screw until you can’t turn it any more. Watch the yummy fresh apple juice come out of the bottom of the tray under the tub and into your catch bucket. If you have enough help, you can get an assembly line going and keep the tubs full and the juice constantly flowing. Straining the juice would be a good idea and then fill whatever containers you have set aside to store the cider in.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

What You Should Know about Chimney Maintenance

Friday, July 5, 2013

Your chimney may seem like the most low maintenance piece of your home. You light a fire and you're done, right? Actually, there's more behind chimney maintenance than you'd think. By not maintaining your chimney properly, you put yourself at risk for fires and harmful smoke getting into your home. This post will help you understand everything you need to know about maintaining your chimney properly.

Where to Start Creosote is the natural product that builds up in your chimney after you do any burning in your fireplace. If you don't get this creosote cleaned out of your chimney, it can cause fires. While there's nothing you can do to prevent this build up of creosote, you'll be able to clean that creosote out of your chimney. It's recommended that you get an annual chimney cleaning done to ensure that the creosote buildup in your chimney isn't more than what it should be.

Types of Inspections There are three types of inspections that you should know about:

Level One Inspection: This inspection is the most basic type and involves a visual check of your chimney and fireplace. The inspector won't go up on your roof and won't use any specialized equipment.
Level Two Inspection: This inspection includes a level one inspection, as well as an inspection of your roof, attic, and crawl spaces to check for any disrepair surrounding your chimney. It will end with a chimney sweep if you need it and an assessment of any repairs you need.
Level Three Inspection: This is the most intensive type of maintenance you can get for your chimney. It basically is a rebuilding of your chimney after a chimney fire.

Finding a Company Finding a reliable company to perform your chimney maintenance is just as crucial as keeping your chimney maintained. Take the time to really do your research and find a company that will provide the best level of service. Ask for recommendations from people who have recently hired a company to clean or repair their chimney. When you take the time, you'll find that your chimney will be kept in top shape.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now and What's Next for its readers.”

Happy 4th!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

To all my friends,

Have fun and be proud!

Photo Source: scorpionsecurityproducts.com

SM Southmall: Celebrate Fourth of July

Source: https://www.facebook.com/smsouthmall

Save Money on Air Conditioning and Electricity

Everyone could use a little extra money in their pocket. Too many people are searching for a way to make more money. The reality of life is that most solutions are sitting directly in front of your face. You can save money by taking small simple steps towards a less expensive lifestyle. Before you know it, you will have saved enough money to take that nice vacation you’ve been waiting to win the lottery for! Saving money can be very simple. First you will need to make a note of your monthly income and expenses. Once you know what you are making and what you are spending, it is easy to find ways to cut down costs. Take a few minutes out of each day to work on simple steps that will save you money. Saving on air conditioning in Marietta can be as simple as finding the right company.

Small and Simple Steps to Save Saving money at home is often very simple. See all those appliances you have plugged into outlets? Go ahead and unplug them all unless they are in use. Leaving appliances plugged in while they are not in use is a big waste of energy. You will see a difference in your bill if you become diligent about unplugging things that are not in use. Another way to save on your energy bill is to make sure your appliances are up to date and running properly. Sometimes an old appliance can cost much more energy to use than it is worth.

Small Steps to Big Savings When making lifestyle changes, it is important to start slow. Make one small change every week until the small changes add up to plenty of cash in your bank account. Take a big step by unplugging all of your electronics when they’re not in use. Then take the next step towards saving on electricity by having your appliances checked for energy efficiency. Air conditioning in Marietta can be much cheaper with some professional help! You may be a free consultation away from discovering how you can save money every month.

“This is a guest post provided to Up Now And What's Next for its readers.”