Make Money Easy For You

Weddings and Receptions – Money Saving Tips

Each bride wants a gorgeous, Hollywood-style wedding. Few of us can actually pay for it. For those of us in the latter state, here are 5 great tips to making your nuptials a little more affordable.

Off Season – The period from early June to late July and from mid September through October are the busiest seasons for weddings. Consider a winter or early spring wedding. You will find it much easier to haggle pricing when it comes to reception locations, catering and other services if you plan your nuptials when these vendors need the business.

Bridal Attendants – The larger the bridal party, the larger the budget. Think smaller here. If you have six bridesmaids, you have to buy six bridesmaids gifts. The same goes for groomsmen. By limiting the bridal party to three instead of six, or two instead of four etc., you can cut your budget for wedding favors in half. Don’t leave out anyone that should be in your wedding, but it’s a good idea to not put people in your wedding that you haven’t seen in five or ten years.

Wedding Photographers – Give some thought to having a friend who is into photography and has a nice camera take your formal shots at the ceremony. Use caution here. You should really trust this individual. If this is not an option for you, employ a professional to shoot pictures only at the ceremony. This can cut your photography obligation in half! Put disposable cameras on every table at the reception for your guests to take pictures. It’s amazing how often I hear that these photos, taken by friends and family, are the most cherished.

Entertainment – Instead of hiring a live band at $1000+ or a DJ at $500+ to entertain your guests, dust off that CD heap of yours (and your friends) and burn your own customized music selection. This way, you are sure to have every song that’s a must, played at the time you want it. Make several CDs with different song types and label them accordingly (dance, slow, background, father/daughter, etc).

Now here’s the tricky part. Find a friend you trust to pop in the arranged CDs when needed. Prepare a short outline of what kind of music to play and approximately when to play it and give it to your friend. Don’t make this too complicated. If you have a reception hall for 3 hours, separate the music schedule into 30 minute chunks or whatever works best for you. If you have to pay your friend $25-$50 to make sure they keep an eye on the CD schedule, do it! In the end, your guests will enjoy themselves and you will have saved yourself some considerable bucks!

Confections – It’s become commonplace to have a groomsmen cake at receptions today. In fact, one of the latest crazes in weddings is to have a dessert buffet, also recognized as a Viennese Table. Save your cabbage and do without these extra sweets. Let your wedding cake be what it was meant to be. Dessert. Your only dessert! It’s worked well on its own for two hundred years and it will work just fine for your nuptials.

Finally, the idea here is that you don’t have to compromise having the wedding of your dreams because you don’t have a movie star budget. By planning ahead, you can still have that fairytale wedding without the huge budget that normally comes with it!

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How To Choose The Best Landscaper

Whether you decide to create your own plan or borrow a landscaping design, you try to understand the basic of landscaping by reading and researching the subject so to understand the basic principles. Before you begin you should take some time to research and plan your landscape design with all details, make a project plan to be sure you have captured all details. Since you know your needs the best, it is advisable that you plan the landscape design personally. Before going in for landscape design, plan and work out the design in detail.

These are the elements that look good because they are generally based on basic principles of art. Consistency creates unity in the sense that some or all of the different elements of the landscape fit together to create a whole. A big mistake that many do it yourselfers and homeowners make is in placing too many objects, plant varieties, and too many varied elements in their initial design. The use of native plants in the design will greatly reduce the amount of care needed for the plants to thrive.

Landscaping often relies on other elements to create balance and harmony through unity. A common option is using stones and with so many stone colors and sizes available today, it’s easy to mix and match them to create a landscape edging look that’s truly unique.

To start you should begin by laying out the driveway, pathways and all walking areas that you will need. Spot treating problem areas will often be all that is needed. Make sure you have all the supplies you need to make the landscape design happen. Make a check list of the things you need example: dirt, rock, mulch, tools, plants, flowers and stone work. When creating the plan set certain goals and estimate how much time and money it will cost to do the job.

Garden or landscaper designer have the ability, training and knowledge about different kinds of plants, stone, soil and flowers, this will help tremendously and most landscape designer will provide some type of drawings which will help visualizing what the landscape will look like some even go as far as giving you a 3d layout. Most landscape designers will design the landscaping for free. When choosing a landscape designer make sure you contact at least three to compare designs and prices.

A good landscape design is expected to include a great number of trees and plants which emphasize the beauty of each other through the year. And even with this in mind, most people will go to market and pick out several varieties of mismatched plants to place in their landscaping.

Use these guidelines to simplify your design and to ensure that your garden or landscape has a professional finished look. Many people turn to designing the landscaping themselves and one of the best ways to do this is to use one of the popular landscape design software programs that are available and these programs are basically easy to use.

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Koi Pond: Digital Masterpieces- Virtual Water Features Part I

One of the most challenging aspects of designing ponds and waterfalls is trying to convey my ideas to my client. Coming up with award-winning pond designs or implementing them using adequate skills and experience is not a problem.

My challenge is getting my client to see what I see. Drawing and painting are not my forte; it is next to impossible for me to draw a rock, not to mention water. The hardest part for me is drawing perspective. Prior to discovering the art of digital design my most common phrase used was, “Just trust me.” Wait till your pond and waterfall is finished, I promise you’ll like it.

Unfortunately, “trust me” are the most common two words spoken by used car salesmen! Thank goodness that most of my clients were referrals from other satisfied customers and already knew what I was capable of creating.

A few years ago, I discovered a computer program called “Photoshop” and realized I could use it to create virtual photos of water features. I learned how to cut an item from one picture and paste it into another. Actually, that was nothing new for me since I did that in third grade. It’s called cut and paste. Only now I’m using a mouse instead of rounded scissors and edible white paste. (I hear the manufactures are adding vitamins to it now.

I started out scanning dozens of photographs into “Photoshop,” which converted them into a digital image capable of being manipulated in hundreds or thousands of ways. The Photoshop program has a large learning curve, especially for someone who is unfamiliar with graphic design techniques, so I started searching for a solution for my pond design department.

DIGITIZING PHOTOS

Microsoft has developed a user-friendly software (small learning curve) for working with photographs.They can be scanned into the program or digital photos from a digital camera can be downloaded into the program. Then each picture can be enhanced through a variety of processes such as brightness, contrast, blur, tint, etc., all with a simple click of the mouse.

Once the photo is finished, I can then cut out objects from the picture, such as rocks, groups of rocks, plants, or portions of the waterfall and pond. Which I did from several thousand photos of waterfalls and ponds I have constructed over the past 26 years.

I gathered these jpg images into an indexed library. Using this process with pictures from hundreds of my projects, I was able to build a substantial library of objects for pasting into the “before” photo of a client’s yard for a pond design.

Now I can take a digital picture of someone’s yard and download it into Microsoft’s “Digital Image Suite ” program. (This is not an endorsement, it just happens to be the product I use. I do not sell Microsoft products and have no investments in the company) Next, by dragging various items from my library, I can construct a waterfall and pond of any shape, size or configuration onto that picture.

So thanks to the arrival of the digital age, I can construct on paper a virtual image or idea that was in my head. As a result, my clients can see exactly what their pond and waterfall will look like when finished. Now a pond design takes only minutes.

Whether you are building a waterfall and pond for yourself or for a customer a pond design or waterfall design can be a marvelous thing. Simply marvelous! Happy koi, Peace & Joy.

For more details on digital design, read Koi Pond: Digital Masterpieces-Virtual Water Features Part II

Read more: Koi Pond: Digital Masterpieces- Virtual Water Features Part I

Pond Design: Digital Masterpieces- Virtual Water Features Part II

TRICKS I’VE LEARNED In creating a pond design digitally, you first need a digital photo of the area (5 Mega pixels min.) Next load it into your digital imaging program. Now you are ready. Many graphic or photo software programs such as PhotoShop and Microsoft’s Digital Image Pro, will let you manipulate an object.

For example, each individual object that is dragged to the work space is surrounded by a “bounding” box with nodes on the sides and corners of the box. By clicking on a corner node and holding down the mouse, you can drag the corner to make the object larger or smaller. By clicking on the side node you can make the object in the box fatter or taller.

With this feature alone you can totally disguise any object, be it a rock or plant, by changing its dimensions. Just by dragging a rock to the work space, copying and pasting it several times, you can change the shape of each copy of the original object. Not only can you make the rock wider, taller, flatter, larger, or smaller, you can also warp the shape, change the color, shade it or tint it.

So with only a handful of rocks on the work space, you could create a veritable rock quarry! By dragging the nodes in a section of pond water, you can make the water fit any size pond by stretching or narrowing it. Need a couple more weirs in your waterfalls? A few more plants in the pond? A cat, a tree, a rock, bench, gazebo, bridge, stream? Just click and drag & paste, it’s that simple.

Right after seeing the virtual photograph of his back yard, a homeowner exclaimed, “Let’s do it.” Not, how much will it cost, just “Let’s do it.” Another client joked, “Wow, this is so beautiful, I think instead of you building the waterfall, I’ll just have this enlarged and pasted on our living room window!”

Not only do I charge $350 per pond design photo, I recently increased my construction prices by 30 percent. And since implementing digital pond designs in my bids, my closing ratio on signed contracts has soared from 60% to 80%.

Eight out of ten proposals/contracts come back signed with a deposit check enclosed. Not to mention an additional $350.00 value added, for a digital pond design. Let’s face it: people like to see what they are getting before they hand over their hard earned money.

MAKING THE SALE If you are a contractor or pond builder, constructing ponds and waterfalls for a living, you must ask yourself, “Do I want to increase my income by 15 to 20 percent? If the answer is yes, then you need to start providing your clients with a digital pond design. When I meet with my client for the first time to survey their yard, I ask several important questions:

1. Where do you spend most of your time when you are inside the house? Ninety percent of the time the answer is, the living room.

2. Where do you spend most of your time when you are outside? That answer is usually the patio.

By establishing these facts up front, you can explain that the waterfall and pond location needs to be nearby the place where they spend the majority of their time. For example, outside the living room window or slider and near the patio. If their waterfall and pond are located in the back corner of their property, the only time they will enjoy it is if they make an effort to go out to where it is. Once these issues are settled you now know where to take the picture. It is best to do a pond design in the place where it will end up being built.

Read more: Pond Design: Digital Masterpieces- Virtual Water Features Part II

Old vs. Young: What Age Horse Is Best For You To Buy?

With age comes experience, patience, and understanding. Three qualities any horse owner wants in a horse.

Have you given any thought to what age horse is right for you? The age of a horse is a part of horse ownership that is sometimes misunderstood. Many people feel that older horses are washed up and ready for the pasture. That could not be further from the truth in many cases.

There are pros and cons to young horses as well as horses in their late teens and early twenties. The age of the horse you are looking for is not as important as to how well the horse fits you and your program.

When asked, “what is too old when looking at a horse?” I always answer that question with a question. What kind of shape and how sound is the horse? The age of a horse is not nearly as important as how sound and healthy the horse is, as well as how well the horse fits its rider.

I recently had a conversation with a man whose son bought a horse for his family. He thought it would be a good idea to have a young horse for his kids to grow up with. In this situation he had no idea of what it takes to handle a young, inexperienced horse. The horse did not work for the family and the kids lost interest in riding because of the difficulty they were having. This is a common myth and mistake.

Two of our cutting horses were nineteen years old when we bought them. Both horses were purchased to teach youth riders to cut and work cattle. We were looking for horses that could teach us the tricks of the trade of cutting. They have been great for us, and one is still competing and doing quite well. The key to the success with these older horses has been that we have taken good care of them and exercised them regularly. Regular exercise and a consistent program is critical to helping older horses remain active.

While we do have young horses on the ranch, what I have found through the years is that a sound, older horse with experience is much more reliable day in and day out. Young horses provide energy, and stamina for their rider. However, with that energy comes quickness. I have ridden many young (4 to 7 years old), very well trained and well mannered horses that wouldn’t think of hurting a rider on purpose. Their quickness and athleticism, however, made them difficult to ride, especially for a novice rider.

Horses with age have had (in many cases) the opportunity to see more through the years. In my experience that has meant the horse is more stable and suitable for riding out on the trail. Usually, it takes a little more to spook and concern an older, more experienced horse. If you are a novice rider, think about looking into an older, more experienced horse for your first purchase.

Things To Be Aware Of With Older Horses

A Vet Check is critical with the purchase of an older horse. Have the Vet check for Navicular, and Arthritis. Cardiovascular is also important to check in the older horse. Ask the Vet to examine the horse’s teeth and mouth to assure healthy teeth and gums. A problem in the mouth could lead to lack of nutrition. The teeth of many older horses need to be floated upon purchase.

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Does Dynamometer Testing Damage The Car?

There is no actual proof that dynamometer testing might damage the car in any certain way.

While performing tests, dynos don’t interfere with the engines performance and more importantly, don’t do any damage to it. Some of the things that may cause damage to engines are over-revving, excessive heating, shock loading or incorrect fuel or ignition settings. If however your engine malfunctions after performing a dynamometer test, it’s almost certain that the testing, if properly done, wasn’t the cause of the damage.

It is more likely to damage your engine when you drive your car on the road than when you test it by the means of a dynamometer under controlled artificial conditions. You should always make sure that the dyno operator is a trained professional and that the dynamometer has an appropriate cooling system. A 60 centimeter diameter fan is appropriate for a power run. It will prevent the vehicle from overheating.

However, you should keep in mind that dynamometer testing and setting up race cars and bikes require more controlled testing conditions. A bike or car that heats up after a few hours testing suffers from heat soak into the transmission, bodywork, engine block, oil, and so on. This interferes with the amount of power produced, and influences the accuracy and the objectivity of the performance test. To make sure everything will go smoothly while performing your tests on engines, you actually need a wind tunnel in which you should manipulate your dynamometer. When you are driving on the road at full power there is a lot of fresh air that surrounds and cools the entire vehicle, and you should do your best to recreate some of these natural conditions when you perform your tests.

If your dynamometer or the place you go to in order to get your car or bike dyno tested does not have suitable working conditions or lacks an appropriate cooling system, it is not advised to perform any tests. The problem concerning the damage done by dynamometers on the tires is more debatable. Tire manufacturers recommend dynamometer owners to replace tires after every test performed. They claim that the tires design is not intended for purposes like dynamometer testing and say that the heat or tire deformation could damage the interior structure. Due to these facts, they strongly recommend replacing the tires after testing.

However, this should be done more as a precaution, and if the tires are rather new, well designed dynamometers should not damage them. Just to make sure that everything is in order, remember to always check the tires condition after every test you perform.

Read more: Does Dynamometer Testing Damage The Car?

Choosing and Caring for Outdoor Wood Furniture

Why should you use wood furniture outdoors? To some people this is not even a question! The right question would be, “Why wouldn’t you use wood furniture outdoors?” There is a wide variety of materials that are made to be used outdoors, including plastic, metal, wicker and other synthetic materials. With all of the other options for outdoor furniture, the reasons of why one should use wood should be carefully examined before you buy furniture for your outdoor oasis.

Wood is meant to be outdoors. Trees grow in the great outdoors, so it makes sense that furniture made from trees should be kept outdoors. It is no wonder that wood furniture, when treated and cared for properly, can last outdoors for years. The type of wood you pick of will determine just how well the wood weathers over time.

Although wood does weather over time, you can protect your outdoor wood furniture by carefully taking care of it every season. Paint and stain are good ways of protecting your wood furniture from the sun because they add an additional layer of defense to the wood. Water-repellant stains are also important to add to your outdoor furniture to protect it from water damage, which causes the wood to rot and crack. When using either paint or stain, you want to have a durable blend so that it dries fast and completely, and does not rub off on people sitting down on the furniture.

Another way to protect your wood and make it last for years to come is to buy special kinds of wood. Treated wood is one such option, as it is resistant to rotting from the elements. But one of the issues with treated wood is that it often comes green, and can more easily warp than regular wood.

Teak furniture is a popular choice for outdoor furniture. Teak wood is an extremely dense hardwood is often praised for its durability. It also has natural oils that protect it from the elements, even when left untreated. Often grown in Indonesia, Teak is very resistant to attacks by termites and other insects because the high oil content makes it water repellent.

Chinese Oak is a dense hardwood with a very fine grain. It is a naturally light wood and sometimes has a pinkish tint. The tannic acid in Chinese Oak makes it ideal for use in outdoor furniture because it is naturally resistant to attacks by fungi and insects.

Cedar, especially Western Red Cedar is a very popular choice for outdoor furniture because of its beautiful color and finish. Often grown in Canada, Western Red Cedar is also naturally resistant to decay and insect damage when exposed to rain, sun, heat, or cold all year. When properly treated, Red Cedar furniture may last for decades in the harshest of environments.

A final way to protect your outdoor wood furniture and maintain it for the long haul is to simply put a roof over it. Whether it is an awning on your deck, a covered roof for your sunroom or your garage during the winter, a roof can go a long way to help you keep the sun, rain and wind off of your wood furniture and protect it for years to come.

About the Author

Thomas Easterday is the Director of Marketing for The Cedar Station. The Cedar Station carries a complete line of Outdoor Furniture for your enjoyment. For more information about The Cedar Station please visit http://www.thecedarstation.com .

Read more: Choosing and Caring for Outdoor Wood Furniture

Creating A Mirage Of Color With Garden Lighting.

Outdoor lighting is rapidly becoming big business for American landscaping contractors. All the same, outside lighting is not necessarily a specialty field that commands specialist skills to organise. Solar outside lighting is the safest and easiest sort of exterior lighting to set up, and requires no wiring or mains electricity.

Outdoor lighting can be stunning in its beauty and offers a safe, secure and welcoming ambiance. Done right the appeal that it creates is undisputed. Landscape lighting is developing into the most dramatic outside lighting improvement to exteriors around the globe and is a definite “Yes” for householders seeking a spectacular way to enhance their lives at home.

As an accessory outside lighting is as functional as it is beautiful, improving the safety and security of the property, as the householder and family can move about their property in safely at night. Exterior lighting is a basic improvement that will make a big difference in the safety and not forgetting the security of your home as well its visual effect at nightime and is safer to control than conventional mains lighting. External lighting is normally advisable, but especially around water features, which present a particular danger after dusk and is ideal for highlighting footpaths. Quite popular today are low-voltage landscape lighting systems. These systems ordinarily come complete with a step-down transformer. Use low-wattage PAR metal halide lamps for accent lighting and landscape lighting in your garden.

One drawback with solar landscape lighting is that you may not feel it is very efficient beause they emit very little light and get dimmer as the battery runs out. Nevertheless most solar lighting can be as bright as traditional low-voltage. Solar landscape lighting stores energy captured during the day and then when it becomes dark enough, the outside lighting switches on automatically. This lighting option has been gaining in popularity the past few years. Out-of-door lighting is the ideal product for solar powered, wireless style lights.However ,they must be placed in an area, which gets a large amounts of sunlight during sunny periods. One possible complaint is that they tend to only give off a faint light that lights a relatively small area. Solar powered systems are not dependent upon wiring nor do they require any transformers. Solar outside lighting can be bought in a variety of styles from a range of makers offering solar garden decor that befit your style. An added benefit of solar outside lighting is that it is a breeze to instal, and the installer wouldn’t have to dig under their driveway to run wires. Solar landscape lighting presents many options for you to integrate into your gardening project including pathway, driveway lights, accent lights, lanterns, fountains, and spotlights. Even so, the photovoltaics panel used to charge the battery must be in an area where it will receive large amounts of direct sunlight.

Naturally, the majority of lighting, usually, is rendered by the sun, modulated by clouds and toned down by vegetation. Light, or its absence can dramatically vary the visual aspect of your gardening labors. You can always supplement permanent lighting with tabletop lanterns and solar landscape lighting tucked among plantings to cast a glow around your garden. There are numerous techniques for outdoor lighting from which you can pick out. When designing your forthcoming garden landscaping project, it is crucial to determine the number of lights required. As with most electrical products, landscape lighting can be manipulated by intelligent switches, such as timers.By utilising sensors and controllers you can avoid power wastage by your landscape lighting. Preparation of footings for lighting fixtures, setting up of fixture standards, or setting up of empty conduit for future landscape lighting are jobs that must be well thought out ahead of setting up your exterior lighting. Try playing around with your timing and using various systems to alter the ambiance over the evening for instance set for evening, not too subdued, and with a burnt orange ambiance.

Read more: Creating A Mirage Of Color With Garden Lighting.