Candyfloss & Dreams

Category: Lifestyle

lifestyle blog posts focusing on home, lifestyle, parenting, pregnancy, family life and home and style. Home decor and working at home, working at home as a self employed freelancer and blogger. Family lifestyle blog posts including family reviews, family products and saving money as a family. Being a more eco friendly family.

  • Prepare Your Garden For The Awesome Summer Parties You’ve Dreamed Of Hosting

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    Hosting a fantastic summer party isn’t just a one-time event, despite what the movies might suggest. Hosting a fun and entertaining garden party requires preparation, and as someone who is interested in hosting the summer event of the season, you’ll need to make sure you spend hours making sure everything is taken care of.

    But where do you begin? Considerations like this are always difficult and require a degree of foresight that you might struggle to keep all-inclusive. If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place by reading this article. Duly applied, the following list of tips can help you throw one of the best summer party bashes that you’ve ever dreamed of.

    No matter whether it’s a family, college or work affair, you can be sure that each of those will benefit from these following considerations to a brilliant degree.

    Prepare The Furniture

    Your guests will need somewhere to sit. Your seating area needs to be safe, sizeable and hygienic. Be sure to provide outdoor cushions that you don’t mind getting dirty in order to raise the overall comfort and aesthetic of the area.

    Prepare The Food

    You won’t be expected to cater for most summer garden parties, but having a few snacks handy doesn’t hurt. Chips, pastries, and cake can go a long way in keeping your guests satiated. Consider suggesting an order of pizza midway through the party to keep everyone fuelled for the festivities well into the night. This will suit intimate affairs more than affairs where you might be hosting people you don’t know, but either way, some degree of food is healthy to provide to your guests.

    Prepare The Alcohol

    If you’re of legal age and you have no personal stipulations that prevent you from drinking alcohol, consider providing a bowl of punch, and maybe a keg or two for personal use. If you’re trying to cut down on costs, ask the guests to bring their own. If they do, it’s customary for you to purchase cups in which mixers can be poured. If anyone might have trouble with the presence of alcohol, keep this in mind, and prepare for them accordingly.

    Tidy The Garden

    If your garden has seen better days and is filled with garbage, you might benefit from hiring dirt cheap rubbish removal. No garden looks good when filled with trash, and so providing a clean, hygienic and most importantly safe venue for your guests to unwind can help you tremendously here. After you’ve done this, you have room to decorate the garden. The best garden parties follow a motif and have common themes and colors. If your party includes fancy dress, then consider theming the garden around that. If not, it’s up to you to figure out how to best appropriate a positively run party.

    Book The Entertainment

    What are your guests going to do when they get to your garden party? Converse in silence? To make your party entertaining, the least you should do is book or provide some form of musical stimulus.

    Help The Morning Clean-Up

    Line your party with bins that guests can place their rubbish in, lest you spend the entire next day cleaning up the mess from the night before to a dizzying degree. Guests, under a sense of social pressure, will be more likely to use the hygienic waste bins provided, and this can save you time, effort and energy.

    No matter what you’re celebrating, a beautiful garden space can be utilized effectively to throw a great intimate summer party. Plan for good weather, and you’re sure to have an absolute ball.

    Summer garden party

  • Investing In Your Child’s Future: Where To Begin

    When you have a young child, it can be very difficult to see beyond getting them through the day ensuring that they are washed, dressed, and well fed as well as trying to avoid disasters. Looking after your child and fitting in their needs around your lifestyle can often take precedence over any future considerations, however, the future health of your child, often relies upon the decisions you make early on in their life. These decisions will go on to determine who your child becomes, and how much you can support them in this journey.

    Consider Investing In The Stock Market

    Over an extended period of time, shares provide a better return than a savings account. You could buy zoom shares, for example. Investing in safe stocks that offer you a secure return, will allow you to provide your children with either the stocks themselves or the financial value of the shares. You can even put the assets in your children’s name, with several brokerage firms offering custodial accounts. A custodial account means that the custodian can manage the assets of the child, but no one apart from the child can take out anything until they have come to the age of maturity. It is worth looking around, and seeing which brokerage firm can offer you the best account deal, for example, no minimum investment or commission.

    Education

    The financial security of your children is often dependent on the quality of education they receive from a young age. Choosing the school that your children go to is a big decision, as this is a place they will spend most of their formative life in. Find a school that mirrors your core values, and that you feel comfortable sending your children to. Looking at league tables, and visiting schools in person will help you decide which school will best cater towards the individual needs of your children and will provide them with the best education possible. Decide whether you want to, or can afford to, send your children to a private or state school.  Many people that prefer to send their children to a private school but struggle with financing this decide to invest in a private secondary school for their children and a state primary school and sixth form education. This reduces the overall cost of education while providing their children with private education for the five years of secondary school. To prepare for the costs of education, that also includes school resources, uniforms, school trips and extracurricular activities; you’ll need to start saving for your child’s future as soon as possible.

    Higher Education

    Once your child goes to university, you will have to factor in all the additional costs that this might entail, particularly if you don’t want your child to rely upon a student loan. It should be noted, however, that student loans are an option for students who need additional support, and should not necessarily be viewed as a financial burden, as these loans are very flexible and do not need to be paid back until the individual is earning enough money to comfortably do so.

    In order to prepare for this, which may seem a long away, it is worth considering bonds as well as saving. Masters programs and study abroad programs will increase the employability of your children, and therefore, the costs associated with this will pay off in the long run.

    Invest in property

    With the property market becoming increasingly difficult for individuals to enter, it is likely that young buyers will have to rent for much of their life before they can save enough to put towards their own home if indeed, they are ever able to buy a property at all. To leave your children with something that will continue to provide an income, it is worth investing in property. This is a form of equity that will continue to grow and provide both yourself and your children with a form of financial security that is a safe investment. There are many ways that you can invest in property, and ensure that you get a foot onto the housing ladder, including buying an affordable home that you can fix-up and go to auctions rather than going through an agency. This can be a particularly lucrative field of investment which can even lead to property developing. If you even stick to one property, however, you’ll still receive a regular income if you rent it out, which you will be able to pass on to your children.

    Photo source- Pixabay

    Provide Your Children With A Cultural Education

    Making sure that your children have a wide and varied education also involves building upon their cultural understanding and awareness of the world. In order for your children to become citizens of the world, and give them every opportunity, it is important to encourage their cultural development, in subjects such as literature and the arts. Do not only provide your child with music lessons but take them to concerts and recitals, in which they can see what a musician in practice looks like.  In a similar vein, go to the theater as much as possible, or even to the cinema, as a fun way to expose your children to visual arts in an accessible way. Travel is an excellent way of exposing your children to different cultures and will provide them with an ability to adapt to different environments, particularly if they spend an extended period abroad. While it is not always easy or possible to spend time abroad in exotic locations, there are ways to do this if traveling or living abroad is a priority for you. One option is to see if your company provides sabbaticals, which you can read more about here, and which would allow you to take six months or a year away from work, with your job position secure upon your return. You will, of course, have to consider your children, and this is easier to do when your children are young and do not have commitments such as exams to worry about. Fortunately, children settle into foreign environments far quicker than adults, particularly if they go to school and make new friends. Learning a new language is a skill that your children will be able to take away with them and use throughout their life, increasing their employability and potential to work abroad.

    investing child future

  • Health Concerns Women Should Know About

    This is a collaborative post.

    As women, there are many specific health concerns and conditions to look out for which need a lot of attention. The more you know about your own body, the better off you are, as you can then make all the right steps towards living as healthy a life as possible. In this post, we are going to look at a number of female health issues. Some of them only apply to women, while others might be problems that men can experience too, but which have particular implications for women which you need to know about. Taking care of your own health is hugely important, so make sure that you are doing everything you can to keep on top of it. With any luck, you will then lead a long and healthy life.

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    Urinary Problems

     

    Something which is particularly common among women is urinary tract problems. There are many of these, and they all vary slightly, but by far the most common  – and one of the most frustrating to experience – is cystitis. This is actually inflammation of the bladder, and anyone who has experienced it will tell you that it can be both incredibly painful and very annoying to have to deal with. If left alone, it can also become a much more serious issue, so it is important to watch out for this. Typically, cystitis first shows as a persistent need to urinate, coupled with a constant feeling of discomfort in the pelvic floor. You might find that once you start urinating, you then need to keep doing so at regular intervals – but if you hold it in, you will experience more pain. This situation is frustrating, but there are solutions to this problem. One of the best natural treatments is cranberry. Drinking cranberry juice (ideally fresh) will probably help you out with the pain a great deal. You can also get your hands on specific cystitis medicine, which can help greatly. However, mostly it is just a matter of waiting for it to pass – a process which can take days. If it persists, or you start to experience greater pain or pain elsewhere such as in your side, you should visit the doctor.

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    Ovarian Cancer

    One of the most terrifying thoughts for many women is the idea of developing ovarian cancer. Clearly, cancer of any kind is always serious, but when it comes to this particular kind it can be particularly worrying. This is because it is usually discovered quite late, meaning that it is harder to treat. You will likely have to undergo a good deal of chemotherapy if it does develop  and from the ovaries the cancer can spread quite fast. There is little you can do to prevent cancer, except keep an eye out for it by having regular visits to the gynaecologist. Choose them well, however – many gynaecological claims center around a failure to discover cancers, so you want to make sure you can trust your doctor as much as possible.

    Breast Cancer

    Although technically men can also develop breast cancer, it is much more likely in women. This is in fact one of the most common types of cancer in the world. It is therefore hugely important that you know the early warning signs, so that you can get it checked out and hopefully treated as early as possible. Checking your breasts for lumps (which can also appear in the armpit region), having bloody discharge from the nipples, an inverted nipple, a sore or painful breast, or a sudden or noticeable change in the size or shape of a breast are all clear signs of potential cancer, and should be checked out at your earliest convenience. You should also make sure that you are going for regular screenings anyway, just to be sure that you are doing everything you can to catch it early if it does arise.

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    Birth Control

    If you decide that you want to use birth control, knowing which one to go for can be one of the trickiest decisions you’ll have to make. There are so many options out there now, and it is up to you to work out which you think would be most suitable for you. Many women are now moving away from the pill somewhat. The pill is incredibly effective, but it is also full of plenty of hormones, and it can cause you some health problems in later life. You might find that it interrupts or exacerbates your menstrual cycle, especially with the mini-pill, or that it causes acne or even depression. Make sure you are happy with your birth control option – it is your body.

  • 5 Things Your Child’s Bedroom Should Have

    This is a collaborative post.

    Are you wondering how you should design and decorate your child’s bedroom? It’s not always easy to come up with ideas for what their room should look like. You want it to be suitable for their age, but you also want to do something creative and interesting that they’ll love. If you’re struggling for ideas, here are the 5 things that you should always remember to include.

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    1. Personalised Features

     

    Having a few personalised features in the bedroom is always a good thing in a child’s space. You could have their name spelled out on the wall, for example. This is definitely a good thing, and you should do what you can to be creative with it. There are so many things you can do, so don’t stick to boring or conventional options.

     

    1. A Stimulating Theme

     

    There should be one overarching theme in the bedroom. This is what many of the best child’s bedrooms have. It could be a space theme or a racing car theme or a princess theme. You know your child and what they are most interested in, so it’s up to you to find a theme that can pull the room together and make it captivating. You can have a lot of fun with this, so try to be creative and come up with interesting ideas.

     

    1. Storage Options

     

    As a parent, you already know how important storage options are in the home. They’re even more important when you have a small child. They accumulate so much stuff that you have to find a space for. It’s not easy storing all those toys away securely and neatly. Look for creative storage options and make sure that everything that your son or daughter owns has its own place.

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    1. The Best Bed Linen

     

    Bed linen is always going to be important, but you want to get the best for your child. For a start, you need to think about the comfort. There are all kinds of comfortable and high-quality options at Richard Haworth. You also need to think about the appearance and design on the bed linen. Does it fit in with the overall design for the room? Is it fun and appealing to a child? Is the colour one that your child likes?

     

    1. A Desk

     

    As your child grows up, they will have an ever greater need to use a desk in their bedroom. It will give them a space where they can do their homework. But it can also be used for fun things as well. For example, they might take an interest in art, and their desk can be a very important part of that. Find a desk and a comfortable chair that will last for a long time and give them that vital space.

    If you embrace each of the five things above, you will be able to create a bedroom for your child that’s both suitable and stimulating. They’ll enjoy spending time in there and get a lot out of it.

  • #TheModernMarriage – What does Marriage Really Mean Today?

    #TheModernMarriage – What does Marriage Really Mean Today?

    This is a collaborative post.

    When I was around 7, my parents divorced. It was pretty uncommon when I was still that young but it happened. Most of my friends parents were still together, most of my family were still together. I was shocked and it kind of stopped my belief that marriage is forever. In fact now, I’m here at 28 years old with a child, never married and not with her father but in a happy, committed and loving long term relationship. I have a lot of friends who have been single parents, second time marriages or are going through divorces. #TheModernMarriage really does look into all the different styles of families we have in today’s society.

    I’ve never really seen marriage as a romantic notion. Perhaps that’s because of my parents divorce. I do like the idea of marriage and I want to be a married women…one day…but not because I hold traditional values but honestly because I feel I just want that partnership. I also see marriage as a way of gaining tax relief and an easier way of getting a mortgage. I see marriage as a contract between two people to agree that they will create a life together, live in compromise and reduce a bit of the general stress on life with each other.

    I know Adam and I will be a great partnership, because we already are. Traditions these days are so different to how they used to be. We’ve been living together for four years, raising a family together and sharing in the household finances. Isn’t that really what a marriage is all about? When we do decide to get married it won’t be a big affair, I’ll be looking to do something quick, easy and simple. I’ll be looking to create a lovely day full of happy memories for us but I won’t be going all out. We are both opposed to religious ceremonies and spending a lot of money because to us, it just isn’t practical. I also think that as we’ve lived and been together for quite a while, there won’t be any suprises after we’re married. We’ve already got to know each other’s bad habits, we’ve had the arguments and we’ve made hard decisions together. We are already a partnership and marriage won’t change that but I do think it will make us feel like a stronger family unit.

    The Modern Marriage Infographic

     

    Here comes the stats…

    Slater & Gordon recently carried out a survey to find out what the modern face of marriage really is and the results are in…

    • 69% of people believe the biggest benefit to marriage is the commitment to a relationship…

    • …whilst 42% see increased financial security as the main benefit.

    • 53% of those surveyed believe they would (or did) choose a civil ceremony as opposed to a religious one.

    • Out of all those surveyed, 54% of people have experienced a close family member getting divorced.

    • 23% of people have been divorced themselves.

    • 69% of people believe there is less pressure to get married compared to 10 years ago.