Tammies Reviews, Giveaways and More

How to Cope when Life Kicks You in the Teeth

Life is rarely a bed of roses. Bad things happen and life kicks you in the teeth. You might feel like giving up and spending a few weeks buried under the duvet, but if you have a job to do and kids to take care of, you cannot afford to wallow in your misery. Here are some tips to help you cope when it all goes horribly wrong.

Distraction Therapy

Bad news exerts a heavy toll, emotionally and physically. Shock knocks us for six and the effects can last several days. If you have received some bad news, you won’t sleep well for a while. It will take several days for your brain to process the news. In fact, it’s common for the same thoughts to churn around inside your head, over and over again.

Try to distract your brain by listening to music or watching something mindless on TV. Even going for a walk might help. Keeping busy is the best therapy, but in the early days, it’s okay if you just want to sleep. Sleep is good, so if you can sleep, take advantage.

Phone a Friend

Talking is great therapy. Talk through your problems with a trusted friend. They don’t need to offer advice. A sympathetic ear is all you need. Let everything out in a safe environment. Holding it all in is the worst thing you can do. If you don’t have anyone you trust as a confidant, make an appointment with a counselor.

Write a Blog

Blogging is like writing a diary except the whole world can read your innermost thoughts. You can blog anonymously, but if you think other people could benefit from your experiences, write under your own name. It’s easy to set up a blog. Use a free service such as WordPress or Blogger. Writing is a cathartic experience, and once you gain an audience, interacting with your readers becomes an important part of the healing process.

Reach Out on Forums

There are thousands of online forums out there, each one dedicated to a specific group of readers. Some larger forums, such as mumsnet.com, have sub-forums. Look for a suitable forum and introduce yourself. If you are genuine, people will reach out and offer advice and comfort. The online world is very inclusive and most strangers are happy to assist in any way they can.

Look to the Future

It is important to remember that things will get better. You might not believe that right now, but life goes on and the pain will fade. Try to be positive about the future and if you need some spiritual guidance from a psychic, call a 24 hour psychics line to speak to a medium or psychic. They might put your mind at rest and reassure you good things are just around the corner. If it all gets too much, take some time out and leave your problems behind for a few days. Book a vacation or stay with friends for a few days. Use the time to process everything and work out the best way forward.

Sometimes Leasing a Home Is Smarter Than Buying It Outright

If you are currently in the market for a new home, you may not be intending to buy it outright. There are plenty of reasons why leasing may be the better long – or short – term solution. If this is the case, you should be looking on the web at websites such as Invitation Homes and others of the same ilk. This is an excellent way to stay up to speed on what the leasing market has to offer you in the area you are interested in. When it comes to scoring a leasing deal, this is the quickest and most efficient way to do so.

You May Not Be Planning to Stay in an Area for Too Long

If you are a member of the armed forces on active duty, you may well be compelled to find housing in a certain area of the country. If you have the option of living off base, you may prefer to do so. However, you will also be fully aware of the fact that moving to this present duty station doesn’t mean that you will spend the rest of your life here. The average length of a service member’s stay in a certain area may be as little as a year. This means that there isn’t much point in tying yourself down to a long term mortgage for a home that you will soon enough no longer be living full time in.

You May Not Want the Responsibility of Handling Home Repairs

Another reason to consider leasing, rather than buying, a home is that you may not want to take on the responsibility of handling all of the routine repairs. If you don’t have much mobility, you will be dependent on others to handle tasks such as mowing the lawn or cleaning out your gutters. If you aren’t good in electrical matters, you may not want to be responsible for fixing fuses. Even if you delegate these matters to others who are capable of handling them, you may still end up spending far more money than you are comfortable with. In such a case, it may be better to lease a home rather than buy it.

You Can Find Excellent Home Leasing Deals on the World Wide Web

There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep your options open. If you are ready to live in a home but not reading to take on the responsibility of ownership, you can venture on leasing a property as a way of warming up to it. This will give you an excellent taste of home living without committing you to anything. You can use the power of the world wide web to locate a whole world of leasing deals.

There are plenty of sites that offer excellent deals, such as those from Invitation Homes and other agencies. The key is to know exactly what you are looking for, when you want it, and how much money you are willing to pay for it. Once you have a satisfactory answer to these preliminary criteria, you can move on the more specialized questions and concerns that you may have. The time to get on the web and start looking for an excellent leasing deal is now.

It’s Party Time – Five Tips for the First Time Party Host

Parties are great fun when you’re a guest, but when it’s time to host your own party, the whole endeavor can become incredibly stressful. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be that way. With good planning, you can throw a great party without driving yourself crazy in the process.

A Great Party Starts with Great Invitations

You could go the old-fashioned way and pick up invitations at the store, but you could end up with boring, generic designs that won’t make much of an impact. Also, if you’re throwing a party on a holiday or a big game day, your invite needs to stand out from the other invitations your guests will receive.

Use an online design tool and make your own party invitations to entice guests and convince them that your party is the only place to be. You can choose from thousands of images and styles to craft an exciting invitation no one will want to turn down.

Where to Host – Home or Away?

Throwing a party at home is a low-cost option that helps to cut down on party planning, but sometimes hiring a venue is a better idea for larger events.

When you book a venue, you’ll have more space to play with; you won’t have to worry about your furniture getting ruined, and you won’t be faced with a monumental cleanup the following day.

Mix up Your Guest List

A perk to throwing a party is that people get the chance to meeting like-minded individuals they wouldn’t have met otherwise. Therefore, be sure to invite guests from your entire social circle, and try to get a good balance of personalities – ending up with a room full of wallflowers will make a party hard work.

Think about adding a plus one to your invitations, as your guests won’t feel uncomfortable in a room full of strangers, and you’ll get an even more eclectic mix at your party. Plus, even you might make a new friend.

Get Your Party Swinging

As host, it’s your job to provide music that’ll encourage guests to let their hair down. If you’ve got the budget for a DJ, you can take the easy route and hand over the music to a pro, but if that’s not an option, you can still put together a rockin’ playlist.

Take a look at the age groups attending your party. If everyone is a similar age, mix in the hit songs from their high school or college era. If the age range is more varied, stick with a playlist of current hits from the most popular genres; intermingled with some well-known classics.

Don’t Forget the Food

To throw a great party, you’ll need to go beyond chip and dip, but you don’t need to plan an elaborate menu. Keep guests happy with a tasty buffet of savories and sweets, and it’s a good idea to include some options for vegetarian, vegan and gluten intolerant guests.

By taking the time to plan your guest list, the music, food, and venue, you can make sure that everyone has a great time and looks forward to your next fun-filled bash.

Struggling With Ideas To Finish A Meal? 3 Great Desert Ideas For The Family

 

Sometimes, we all hit a mental brick wall. Our daily life can become monotonous and boring, and it gets reflected by how we behave in the kitchen. The kitchen is the beating heart of any home, and when creativity starts to lack and dry up in that department, you know something is very wrong. Cooking should be an expression of the soul, something that is beyond just food, something that has been fostered within us since the dawn of humankind.

Creating food should also be about mirror-imaging one’s personality, exuberance, talent, and knowledge. There are so many options for the main course, but the area of the meal which gets overlooked, and perhaps suffers the most from neglect is the desert. Stale, pale, tried and tested recipes get boring after a while, so why not try something new? Something that can give you a challenge?

Image by – jeffreyw

Apple crumble

A favorite dessert or treat in the United Kingdom, the best of the best comes from North Wales in Gwynedd. The concentrated flavor of the quite hearty apples is because the apple of choice is the rather strong acidic Bramley apple. It’s preferable for crumble because the puree is very thick yet creamy in texture. The peel of the apple can be finely blitzed in a blender or completely left out, the flesh of the fruit will be plenty strong anyway. The base is a puree of the Bramley, mixed with either brown sugar or regular sugar, sometimes mixed with a little spice such as nutmeg or cinnamon. The top crunchy layer is made from whole wheat and white breadcrumbs and rolled oats mixed with butter.

Triple Belgian chocolate cake

Dark, rich, decadent and irresistible; the triple layer Belgian chocolate cake has now become a staple in the culinary world. The icing folds in double the amount of butter a generic double layer chocolate cake possesses, and each layer is thicker and more endowed with rich milk chocolate. As you can imagine, the cake is very, very dark. It’s incredibly rich in flavor, and more than likely you won’t need to go for seconds.

Image by – Meraj Chhaya

This specific traditional European connoisseur inspiration was found via a cake-makers directory, yes, you read that correctly. And the sooner you know the truth about Vons Bakery, the better for you cravings, your taste buds and your family. This triple dark chocolate cake is a dream come true for chocoholics, as the cakes main ingredient is dark Belgian chocolate buttercream, topped with a ganache or soft milk chocolate.    

Photo credit – Alpha

When life gives you lemons

Born out of Anglo-Italian forging, this is a flat, plain disc confection that is light and airy in texture but with a sharp, syrupy tang. The cake is supposed to be moist and favors in English teatime style of bite-sized eating. It’s a great marriage of lemon and polenta, as the crumbly nature releases all the sweetness and acidic sharpness in a consistent manner.

The aftertaste is quite buttery for a lemon flavored cake, but the overall aim is to capture the essence of a delicious lemon curd, with quite a pungent punch of freshness to impact the roof of your mouth.

Tammie~

Protect Your Pet With These Healthy Living Hacks

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When you have a pet, your life can often feel complete. Whether you have a family dog or a cat that keeps you company, they can really add a lot of warmth, personality, and vibrancy to your home. But, as well as being a great companion and a part of the family, your pet can also require a lot from you. From feeding and cleaning to playing and petting, our furry little friends do need a lot from us to be happy. Even if you think you’re giving your pet everything it needs, these hacks should help you to ensure they’re living a healthy life.

Give Them Plenty Of Exercise

First on the agenda, exercise. Making sure that your dog or cat gets enough exercise is crucial to their health and long-term happiness. Even if your dog has a lazy personality, you need to make sure that they’re getting the minimum amount of time out walking that their breed requires. It will ensure they stay in shape. Cats are a little trickier, but if your cat is going out and about every day and not getting overweight, you can rest assured that they’re getting enough exercise.

Watch Their Diet

To also help their health, you’ll want to focus on their diet. If you buy them pet food from the store, do you know what’s in it? Do you know what the right portion size for their breed it? It’s just as important not to overfeed your pet as it is to make sure that they’re not malnourished. To keep the pounds off, make sure you’re giving them a healthy balanced diet, which can sometimes be a combination of homemade meals and pet food.

Keep Their Teeth Clean

It’s easy to forget about your pet’s teeth, but just like humans, they need taking care of too. So, you’re going to want to do what you can to keep them as clean and healthy as possible. Some treats can be used to keep plaque at bay, but if you really want to be able to keep them fresh and healthy, head to you vet for tailored advice. You might find that regular teeth cleaning could be all it takes to keep them healthy.

Look After Their Skin

Along with teeth, it’s vital that you look after both your dog or cat’s skin and their coat. You may wash them regularly and ensure that their coat is groomed, but do you know what to look out for should they get ill? Things like mange in dogs aren’t always easy to spot, especially if they don’t lose a lot of hair. But, you can treat it at home with the help of natural products like honey or yogurt. The best thing to do is check your pets regularly to ensure their skin and coat stays healthy.

Shower Them With Love

And lastly, we all know how important mental health is to keep us happy. So, you’re going to want to make sure you shower your pet with love to ensure that they’re feeling both happy and healthy. But, as a firm part of the family and your loyal companion, it’s likely that you’ve already got this hack down.

Tammie~