New owners always appreciate anything that relieves the pressures of moving and settling in to an unfamiliar neighborhood.

Here are seven fun and easy housewarming-gift ideas for your friends moving into their home.

A Door Wreath

You can choose a wreath that fits the season or that is simply attractive on the front door.

Include a wreath door-hanger and storage box so they can easily hang it or put it away.

A Pair of Candlestick Holders

Candlesticks are a simple, yet practical gift for a new  home.

They’re perfect for a mantel, dresser or table. Choose attractive candlestick holders that match the house’s décor and include a set of candles to burn.

A Homemade Meal

Moving and getting settled in a new house takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.

This leaves little time to cook nutritious meals.

Bring either a takeout or home-cooked meal along with disposable plates and utensils for a much appreciated housewarming gift.

Fresh Flowers

Nothing makes a room look more inviting than fresh-cut flowers or a lush green plant.

Flowers add a punch of color while plants last longer while still requiring little work.

Choose flowers that fit the season or a plant with full, green leaves that is easy to maintain.

Scented Candles

Not only are they practical, but they also help bring comfort and serenity to the chaos of moving.

Choose a theme for the candles, such as a color or a scent that matches the style.

Include candles of different shapes and sizes and a lighter.

Picture Frames

Keep in mind the house’s décor as you choose a picture frame.

Wood, pewter, bamboo or decorative glass looks great in a casually decorated house.

If the house has a more formal décor, choose crystal or silver.

It’s be fun for your friends to have a place to display their new memories.

There are few experiences that offer the excitement of moving into a new home, and you can add to that excitement and wonder by giving one of these housewarming gift ideas.

And if you want to be the one receiving housewarming gifts by moving to a new home, then call your trusted real estate professional today!

Saving money and going green are both hot topics right now.  So, I’m sure you’ve already heard the tips to turn off water while brushing your teeth, turn off TVs and computers and swap out old light bulbs for the new energy-saving versions.

Swap stuff  There are hundreds of online sites where you can get furniture, books, CDs, DVDs and even a place to stay for free by swapping stuff with other people.  And, I’m not just talking about Craigslist.  Two of the most popular and easy to use swap sites are  Paperbackswap.com and SwapaDVD.com.

 Recycle your cell phone  According to the EPA, if the 100 million cell phones no longer being used by Americans were recycled, enough energy would be saved to power more than 18,500 homes for a year.  Give your cell phone back to its manufacturer ordonate your cell phone to charity. A great charity to donate to is Cell Phones for Soldiers Inc.   This is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing cost-free communication services to active duty military members and veterans.

Recycle other electronics  Keep old TVs out of landfills by taking them to a safe e-cycling facility.  Return iPods to Apple for recycling or sell them for parts.  Take e-waste to stores like Best Buy and Staples that have recycling programs.  You’ll save money by not having to pay to dispose of the electronics.

Eat foods that are in season  It’s healthier, less expensive and better for the environment.  Oh, and one more big plus:  the food tastes so much better!

Install a water filter  Bottled water isn’t any healthier than tap water, and all that plastic waste is terrible for the environment. It’s also expensive!  If you use a water filter in your [city] home, you can get great-tasting, clean water while reducing your waste and saving money.

Turn down your water heater  You won’t notice the temperature change, but your water heater won’t work as hard and won’t use as much energy.

Plant a vegetable garden   If you don’t have the space to plant a garden, plant a tree or put some plants outside. Find vegetables and plants that grow well in your area for the best results.  Ask your local garden center for that information.

Use green cleaners  There’s no reason to use harsh chemicals to clean your home. Use biodegradable cleaners that are safe for the environment or make your own green cleaners.  Use old towels and T-shirts instead of disposable wipes and paper towels to cut down on waste and save you money.

Check your insulation  Adding insulation to your home will cost money initially, but you’ll quickly earn it back plus more by saving long term on your heating and cooling bills. Skeptical? Start out by insulating your attic and keeping track of your energy savings.  It averages out to about $116 a year in savings.

Want more tips to save money, organize your home and become greener?  Check out the links in this blog.  It’s free and easy!

January not only means a new year, it means it’s time to start making realities out of all those resolutions you made in December, and to begin looking at everything around you with a positive, and fresh perspective.

1. Add color and life with flowers and plants

Add life in your rooms with flowers and plants. Flowers are arriving at home centers, florists, and even grocery stores everywhere in droves, as the winter greenhouses ship out their big spring batch.

A full low arrangement can add color, spice, and life to any area of your home! Arrange your own flowers and save hundreds; find small containers and cut the stems short, and always buy twice as many as you think you’ll need.

2. Rearrange your mantel

The hearth is often viewed as the center of the home. That being said, the mantel is a great place for displaying a story about the home or homeowner. It’s a place for showcasing our favorite things, or it can be that one area for rotating weekly doses of design.

Feeling like a fresh start for your mantel now that the holidays are winding down? Here are some simple ideas to kick off the new year.

3.Change up your fabrics and covers

Now is a great time to switch out those dark colors and patterns with light linens and cashmere, and slipcover those dining room chairs! Take the opportunity now to change out the dark and cozy, for the light and comfy! You can find great prices on home interiors at stores like Home Goods and Ross Stores.

4. Paint a Room or Two

Paint is an economical way to transform the look of any room in your home and give a room a fresh new look is by painting the walls.  Choose hues that appeal to you!  If you are considering selling your home, stick to neutrals, such as white, ivory, beige or soft classic hues with great appeal, such as light grey-blue, tan or taupe.

A great way to record and save all your paint samples and color names is to keep them organized in your Ultimate Home Journal.  This will help have all the information you need at your finger tips when you need to repaint or remember what color you used in each room.

So You Don’t Have Time To Clean, Right?

The weekend is finally here and you are exhausted from a busy week. You are looking forward to sleeping late and lounging around the house, enjoying your day off.

However, the sink-full of dirty dishes is staring you in the face, the shower is in desperate need of a scrub, and the dust creatures under the couch are starting to growl at you.

Oh well, looks like another Sunday will be spent cleaning the house again!

So many of us are so busy during the week that we leave our housework until our day off when we finally have time to commit several hours to giving the home a good clean.

However, there is a clever trick to remember that will help you keep your home clean throughout the week and reduce the amount of time you have to spend scrubbing and dusting on your precious days off.

The Five Minute Tidy

The Five Minute Tidy is the idea of taking advantage of any small burst of time within your day, even if it is only five minutes, to clean or tidy something in your home.

There are many moments throughout our day to day lives when we are waiting around for a minute or two, whether it is for our dinner to heat up in the microwave, for the computer to boot up, or between commercial breaks during our favorite show.

If you can take advantage of these small moments, you can keep your house tidy through a serious of many short cleaning sessions rather than one big one on the weekend.

You can do a five minute tidy in any room, but here are some ideas for the kitchen and the bathroom, two of the most daunting rooms to clean!

Five Minute Kitchen Tidy Idea

Waiting for the popcorn to pop? You can:

• Wipe down all counters and surfaces.
• Clean the food from the oven elements.
• Sweep the kitchen floor.
• Open up the fridge and throw away anything that has expired.
• Wash and put away a few dishes.

Five Minute Bathroom Tidy Ideas

Waiting for your bath to run? You can:

Wipe the toothpaste stains from the sink.

• Clean the bathroom mirror.
• Organize the bathroom cabinet.
• Scrub the toilet.
• If you are taking a shower, you can even take a bottle of shower cleaner with you and give it a spray as you are getting out!

If you can get in the habit of doing a five minute tidy whenever you find a spare moment, when the weekend rolls around you will discover that you won’t need to spend your entire day off cleaning because everything will already be done!

Need more great ideas and tips on cleaning in a hurry visit www.search.realsimple.com

The good news is that most of the buyers who are looking at houses in the winter are not just killing time.  They’re serious enough about finding their new home to go house hunting at a time that most people would rather stay inside.

There are a few things you can do to make a good impression on home buyers this winter:

1. Make sure all walkways are safe.  Spread out ice melt or sand to provide traction during snowy weather.  Shoveling the snow on the driveway and sidewalks will make your [city] real estate appear more inviting and well maintained.  Be sure to place a mat for visitors to wipe their feet on.
2. Warm up the house.  Buyers will remember the house that was pleasantly warm on a frigid day.  In addition, you will be able to demonstrate to the buyer that your furnace is in good working order.
3. For a welcoming scent, bake cookies the day of the showing.  Some people are sensitive to the fragrances in air freshener’s and perfumes, so skip spraying those when expecting someone to look at your house.
4. Serve snacks in the kitchen.  Give the buyer a reason to linger in your home by leaving a light snack in the kitchen.  If the weather is cold, consider providing chili or soup in a crock pot to keep it warm with festive disposable bowls.  Or, to keep it simple, you can provide coffee or hot chocolate and cookies.  Be sure to talk with your [city] real estate agent before leaving these snacks so he or she knows they’re for the buyers.
5. Make your house appear warm and inviting.  Turn all the lights in the house on; place warm-toned throws and decorator pillows around the living room.  Put on some soothing classical or jazz music; keep the volume low enough that buyers can talk quietly to each other.

You can make your home seem more inviting this winter by using these proven techniques.

Choose a finish that is appropriate for the room and application. I like semi-gloss for trim, eggshell for kitchens and bathrooms, and flat for all other rooms. Glossy finishes are the most durable, but flat finishes help to hide imperfections. Most paint finishes now, even flat, will hold up to a little cleaning. Porch paint is the most durable option for painting wood floors.

When choosing a color scheme look at the  patterns of fabric in the room such as, a rug, piece of artwork or pillows.  Choose colors you like from the pattern. For a neutral wall paint color, look to the pattern’s whites and beiges.

Start with the larger rooms in the house like the living room, dining room and entry way. Choose the colors for those areas first, then pull one color from the scheme to use in the other connecting rooms.

For example, take a blue tone from your favorite curtains and use that color for the walls and accents in an adjacent room like the den or an office.

For a bolder approach, try using two different colors in the same room. For example, paint a built-in bookcase or niche a shade of green in a room with blue walls, which will highlight the items on the bookcase or inside the recessed area.

To give the room a fresh clean look repaint the molding and trim. Start in one corner of the room and work your way around.  In rooms where there are more than one level of molding or trim start with the upper most molding first then proceed to the lower molding.

For example, all high crown molding around the room and then the chair rail and base done together around the room because these may be reached from one position.  Apply a second coat as necessary to achieve complete and uniform coverage.

Whether you are updating your home to sell or just want a new look to enjoy yourself painting can be a great way to make your home feel fresh and vibrant.

A great way to record and save all your paint samples and color names is to keep them organized in your Ultimate Home Journal.  This will help have all the information you need at your finger tips when you need to repaint or remember what color you used in each room.

Hope these tips are helpful and happy painting!

• Use less energy.  Turn off the lights before you leave.  If you’re going on a two-hour trip and you spend one minute turning off all the lights, you’re earning the equivalent of $50 an hour, or $0.83 a minute.

• Install CFL or LED light bulbs.  They both have a longer life and use less energy than regular bulbs.  CFLs use about 25% of the electricity of a normal light bulb, while LEDs use about 2%.

• Install a programmable thermostat.  These regulate the temperature in your [city] home according to a set schedule.  These thermostats can cut your energy bill by 10 to 20%.

• Buy reliable appliances, not cheap appliances.  Okay, so a reliable, energy efficient washer and dryer may cost more than you want to spend now.  However, if it saves energy on a continual basis and you don’t have to by another one for fifteen years, you’re saving a significant amount of money in the long run.

• Maintain your current appliances.  If it’s not time to replace your appliances, take a good look at them.  Check to make sure dust isn’t clogging them.  Use your vacuum to clear away any dust that is there.  Check the vents of refrigerators, dryers, and heating and cooling units.  The less dust you have, the more efficient, and longer, they’ll run.

• DIY instead of Hire-It-Done.  Many times, the things that break can be easily repaired.  Get a handyman’s book or look on the internet for information.  See if it’s possible for you to fix it before you call a repair person.

Most of these tips are long-term strategies.  If you need additional mental backing and support to follow them, get out a calculator and add up the savings.  You’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised, and may even go looking through your home for other ways to save!

Here are some quick and easy tips for making your family road trip a fun and safe one.

First, prepare a checklist of items you will need. This will include first aid kit, food, snacks, drinks, and lots of toys, coloring books, paper and crayons, a portable DVD player so your kids can watch their favorite movies; and a cooler. A good idea is to ask the kids what games they would like to take, within limits of course.

Ensure that the snacks are healthy in nature. Too many sugar snacks can have the kids bouncing off the car seats. Remember, this is a relaxing family vacation and you want to avoid the kids getting bored or repeatedly asking you when you are going to arrive.

Check online to print out games for the road that you and the kids can play along the way. There are an assortment of puzzles and riddles as well.

In addition, if you have very young children you will need to take the diaper bag and wipes for the occasional spills, blankets and pillows if applicable and a favourite item or stuffed animal for the young ones is a good idea as well.

Second, decide on the destination and then contact AAA for a trip ticket. Ask for the scenic route, one that is much more calming and pleasing to the eye, especially the driver!

Third, as you check out the planned route you may want to check online to find gas stations along the way that offer the cheapest gas. Also if there are any points of interest along the route mark them on the map and plan to stop at these sites.

Fourth, while on the road ensure that you make pit stops regularly. This will allow the kids to run around and let off some steam, while allowing the adults to stretch and reenergize. Bring along a football or soccer ball so that the entire family can have some fun while exercising at the same time.

Finally, it is very important that safety concerns are met. This includes having the car checked at your local mechanic or gas station. Ensure that the oil and filter are changed; the tires are well inflated (don’t forget the spare tire, too); the windshield wipers are replaced (if needed); and the car is in great condition before you head out.

In addition, you may want to place the following items in your trunk: a lawn chair, extra blanket, emergency road kit, umbrellas, water, flashlight and batteries, a battery-powered radio, and windshield wiper cleaner. In the glove compartment include a first aid kit and cell phone charger. Keep all medications in a Ziploc bag in the glove compartment as well.

Another good idea is to take a list of telephone numbers including the hotel or motel where you are staying as well as those of family and friends you may need to contact.

If you enjoy scrapbooking, this road trip may be a perfect opportunity to add new treasures to the book. As you make stops at some scenic sites, ask the kids to find an item they would like to include in the scrapbook. Or if the kids point out something along the way that they find fascinating, take a picture of it to include in the scrapbook as well.

Engage the kids in the decision making, age appropriate, and allow them to decide what they would like to bring. Have them pack their clothes (check the suitcases afterwards) so they feel part of the overall experience. Planning ahead of time for a family road trip will save you time, stress, and money.  Plus, the kids will enjoy this adventure, too!

For more great tips on family roads trips visit www.familyvacationcritic.com

Not surprisingly, losing weight does not have to require extended trips to the gym or engagement in some fad diet.

Here are three steps to a healthier day that can help you slim down on weight without slimming down on your free time.

Exercise Daily

Daily exercise can make a difference in your body shape and in the way your body processes calories. When you exercise, you work your heart, mind and body. You are building your muscle mass, which in turn will increase the effectiveness of your metabolism.

Additionally, you encourage your heart to pump blood throughout your body more effectively, which means that you will have healthier blood and a reduced risk of heart disease. You reduce fatty deposits, which in turn helps reduce your risk of many health problems, such as diabetes. You also increase the number of endorphins that flow through your body, which means that you will note an increase in your positive attitude.

It does not require a large amount of time exercising to receive all of the above benefit. You simply need to workout regularly for a minimum of half an hour. Working out means taking a two-mile walk at a fast pace, throwing a Frisbee or riding a bicycle. Whatever the workout is, keep in mind that it should elevate your heart above it standing heart rate and it should make you breathe slightly heavier than normal. It is also good if you can break a sweat or feel your muscles challenged.

Eat All Things in Moderation

When you are trying to lose weight or sustain lost weight, it is vital that you allow yourself to eat all foods, but eat the unhealthy ones in moderation. The primary reason for many diets to fail is that people reduce the foods that they allow themselves to eat so drastically that they feel anxious after awhile eating the same things time and time again. When you allow yourself to give into simple cravings, you are rewarding your body and making it less tempted to crave larger portions of the bad foods.

You should also eat small portions of every food, regardless of its nutritional content. Eating smaller portions will help your stomach adjust to consuming less food. You can also drink water to help you feel full. American’s especially have a habit of eating more than one portion of food per meal – so be aware of your food portions!

Call a Buddy

Studies prove that having a Buddy help you work out increases your chances of maintaining a diet, exercise routine, or long-term weight loss. Buddies are fabulous motivators. They will keep you attuned to your habits and help you feel accountable throughout the day. If you must, enlist the help of a partner to be an appointed weight loss guardian. He or she will be tasked with ensuring that you stick to your weight loss goals by encouraging you to report your progress several times a week.

Happy 2013!

Peppermint candy canes, slices of home-baked apple pie, cookies shaped like Santa Claus, rich cups of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, and boxes of chocolates and candies stacked under the tree… it’s hard not to be tempted to indulge at Christmas!

However, if you are dedicated to staying healthy over the holidays and not greeting the New Year having packed on a few extra pounds, here are some tips to avoid gaining weight during the festive season:

Stay Active

One way to counteract the calories of all of those holiday treats is to burn them off through exercise! Head to the gym for a workout, or simply go play outside in the snow with the family. Cross country skiing is a great workout, and trudging up a snowy hill to slide down on a toboggan will get your heart pumping!

Fill Up on Healthy Food

Before you go to the Christmas party where you know there will be a buffet of fatty finger food, eat a healthy meal with lots of vegetables, protein and fiber. When you are feeling full those greasy treats will be a lot less tempting and you will eat less of them.

Cook Leaner

Why not see if there is a low-fat version of your traditional holiday recipes? Search for “healthy Christmas recipes” online and you will find several websites with great ideas for trimming the fat content out of your festive meal while still making it taste great!

Watch Your Liquid Calories

Holiday drinks such as Rum and Eggnog, Hot Chocolate, and Beer have a surprising amount of calories! When you are at a party, try alternating by having a drink and then a glass of water so that you only drink half as much.

Indulge Selectively

There are some special nostalgic treats that you should not deny yourself during the holidays, but remember to indulge selectively. This means that if you know that you want to have a slice of Auntie Susan’s famous Christmas Pie at the end of the meal, avoid also filling up on miniature sandwiches or potato chips beforehand.

If you allow yourself one or two very special indulgent foods, you will still enjoy your favorites and yet avoid gaining unnecessary weight from eating those shortbread cookies that you don’t even like.

Remember these tips and you will be able to stay lean and healthy throughout the holiday season, while still enjoying yourself!