What You Should Know about the Effects of Stress

Do you need an excuse to take a day of pampering? How about your health? While going to a spa or even just to a salon such as those at http://g2ospasalon.com/ can be viewed as an extravagance, they can actually have health benefits for certain people. This is because a spa is often centered on placing the body in a state of relaxation, whether it is through massage, steam therapy, acupuncture, or more. In some cases, these practices can help relieve your body of stress.

What Is Stress?

Stress is a natural response of the body to changes in the environment. It is all around us, and is generally a very useful response. When working positively, stress can be motivational, keeping people alert and awake. It may be used to keep up the drive to finally finish that project on time, or to avoid dangerous situations. One person may handle stress differently from the next, and it can be experienced emotionally, physically, or mentally. But too much stress for too long can be detrimental to your health.

Negative Stress

Stress can affect your body in a number of different ways. Physically, stress tends to contribute to headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure, chest pain, weight gain or loss, and insomnia. It can also worsen symptoms of pre-existing conditions, such as asthma and diabetes. Symptoms of stress can also lead to more severe conditions, such as heart disease or stroke. Mentally, besides a lack of sleep, stress can cause trouble with concentration and memory. Emotionally, stress can contribute to symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Relaxation Benefits

So what can a visit to a spa do for stress? The various techniques used to help relax the body can often relieve many of the symptoms of stress, such as pain-causing tension. Massage, for example, can be used to ease tension from muscles, stimulating oxygen and blood flow, and reducing anxiety. Besides making you feel better, many spas may provide services to help you look better too. Body scrubs can be both relaxing and effective at removing dead skin cells to help promote new, healthy skin growth. You can visit a website such as http://g2ospasalon.com/ to learn more about the available services from a spa.

Holiday Event Planning...With Food

Planning a holiday party? Having an office carry-in? Just went to an event and EVERYONE brought meatballs?

Try this online Potluck tool for your next event. If the band parents are bringing in dishes for Senior Night to feed 150 students or you have a small gathering of 20 the Perfect Potluck will help you cut down on duplicates AND get the items you need.

There does need to be an administrator but you signup per event NOT to create an account.

Once you setup your event anyone with the admin password can edit the types of items needed. Then guests can visit the link and 'take' an item and post what they are bringing, they don't need to login.



You can print a schedule and email participants to remind them of the event or what they signed up to bring. It's super easy, and very accessible.

Have fun planning your next social event with Perfect Potluck.

Three Online Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Small businesses are often at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to marketing their products. Larger companies have a large budget to spend in reaching their customers. Yet, small businesses can be very successful with their marketing strategies, and it is especially critical for small businesses to make the most out of Internet marketing.  Following are three common suggestions offered by Internet marketing companies:

• Develop a useful website.
• Take advantage of social media.
• Offer helpful information to your customers.

Develop a Useful Website
In today’s world, it is critical for every small business to have a website. Smart phones make it easy to access the Internet 24/7. If your business does not have an online presence, you will be losing business. Moreover, you need to have a website that is useful to the customers. At minimum, it should contain at least three pages with information relating to services, frequently asked questions, and contact information. The website should be simple enough for the user to navigate easily yet involved enough to make the content useful. If you don’t have the skills to write a website yourself, you can use a website template or hire a company to do it for you.

Take Advantage of Social Media

The reason why you see and hear ads urging you to “follow us on Facebook,” is because people use social media all the time. They will often find your company through sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Google+. Again, when you set up an account with these sites, make sure the content is useful as well as promotional.

Offer Helpful Information
An excellent way to reach out to your customers is to offer them helpful information that is linked to your business such as a blog or YouTube video.  To cite another example, a plumbing company might sponsor a YouTube channel that shows the watchers how to make small repairs. When people find useful information from your company, they are more likely to use your services.

Where to Spend the Money: Apps or Website Development?

You want your customers to be able to look for you online, and you also want them to have a good experience locating you, finding information, and buying products. But when it comes to spending your money on website development or on a mobile app, what’s best? Is there a difference between what is best now and what will be better in the future?

Current Strategy

According to Jakob Nielsen, a principal of the Nielson Norman Group (NN/g), the best solution for the present time is to go with good mobile app development if you can afford it. Nielsen reasons that apps can be adapted to “target the specific limitations and abilities of each individual device much better than a website can while running inside a browser.” Because of a mobile device’s weaker abilities compared to a desktop computer, you need an app to address these weaknesses effectively. Apps also allow you to more easily collect payments from customers compared to the public Internet.

Future Strategy

Things change, however, as computers become more powerful. If, as Nielsen predicts, computers increase in power by 100 times, this doesn’t mean that mobile devices will use this new power the same way a desktop computer will. Mobile device makers will split this newfound power between “speed and other mobile priorities, especially battery lifetime.” In other words, you’ll get fantastically light, thin devices whose batteries seem to last forever; but with downloading time having been cut significantly, as well, a good mobile website will be more desirable than the expense of a mobile app. App development will have to deal with the higher number of platforms available, and this will drive the cost of app development much higher even than it is now. Forking platforms will continue to increase the number of mobile app strategies for which you will need to account. If you have a limited budget, it will be best to steer it toward creating an excellent mobile website experience.

What’s Best for Now?

Nielsen admits that the problem, though he has been right with previous predictions, is in the timing. At what point will online site development be a better pay-off than mobile apps? It took years longer than he expected for other strategy shifts, even though the support structure was already there. For now, an app is the best experience for your mobile customers, and if you have the money, you should put it into developing an app. Watch carefully for computing power to greatly increase in the future, where mobile device creators will begin making battery life and other conveniences more of a priority even as downloading speeds increase. You can then shift your strategy again to be at crest of the new wave, pouring your budget into website development at the right time.

The Benefits of Using Home Inventory Software

Have you ever had to scramble to find information about something in your house or concerning your house? Creating an inventory of your house and its contents would make it possible for you to find the information you need quickly. Putting all of the information into a home inventory software program will take some time, but once you have all of the information entered, it will be simple to update in the future. There is no better way to have everything about your house and its contents in one place, giving you peace of mind knowing everything is accounted for, documented, and photographed.

Information to Input

Taking pictures to upload into the system is what will help the insurance company replace all of those things in the case of theft or damage. You can have the pictures all together or separated into their individual locations. In each room, you can itemize each piece of furniture or accessory with purchase receipts, size, content, and value. For rooms that have electronics, the owner’s manuals can be downloaded into the program along with the above-mentioned items. Model numbers and replacement part numbers can be added as well. Including warranties and their expiration dates with the items they apply to will help you access the information easily without having to go through files and files of paper.

Documents and Assets

Your insurance policies can be loaded onto this program for easy access. When you need a report for the insurance company, they can be printed quickly, and with all of the information in one document. Documents and receipts can easily be scanned and uploaded into the program so that you have everything in one place. When something in your home needs to be replaced, you simply go into the program and delete it and enter the information of the item you are replacing it with. This home inventory software program will help you keep a current list of your assets and their value. When you need to produce documentation of your assets, you won’t have to think about it and try to remember the information about each item; you can simply print it out and take the information with you or email it to whomever you need to.

Reasons to Buy Handcrafted Fine Jewelry

Besides simply wanting to accessorize, there are many other good reasons to buy handcrafted fine jewelry. Consider that your piece will always be unique. You’ll also have a relationship with the designer or creator. Finally, you’ll support small business, and you’ll look great while you’re at it.

Unique Accessories

It’s true that you can probably find inexpensive jewelry online or at department stores. But it is also true that there will be hundreds of others with the exact same piece that you bought, whether earrings or necklaces. There is something to be said about having something that nobody else has. In fact, it can be treasured and passed on from generation to generation. When somebody compliments your lovely necklace, brooch, or clutch, you can say that it is one of a kind. They may be disappointed that they can’t purchase the item anywhere, but they will envy that unique accessory that you have come to own. If having something valuable and unique is important to you, this is just one benefit of owning handmade jewelry.

Personalized Interactions

Another benefit to purchasing handmade jewelry is that you will more than likely meet the designer. Whether they are selling from a tent at a local fair or online, your interactions are often very personal, making exchanges with the actual designer. They may be able to modify a certain piece of jewelry for you. You don’t have to worry about having your name on an email list or your information getting sold, because these are just normal people trying to share their talents with you. Many of them also have generous return policies as well, since their main goal is customer satisfaction. You could even get deals and discounts for hosting parties or spreading the word.

Support Small Business

The final reason to consider handmade jewelry is that you are supporting small businesses. For big department stores, your purchase may not make a huge difference. But for somebody who is supporting a family or trying to make extra money for bills, your purchase could make a huge difference. Stimulating the economy is a worthy action. All of these are just a few reasons to consider buying handcrafted fine jewelry.

Easy Modifications: Picture Collage Maker Online

It used to be that you would actually have to have talent to take a decent photograph. Getting collages made was an expensive or time-consuming ordeal. Editing photos for flaws took expertise. There are lots of tools available to you now, though, that make all of these things easier. Read on for more information on how to edit your pictures, including using a picture collage maker online.

Use Filters

There are so many applications and websites now that can add a certain effect to your picture. This makes a huge difference. It adds certain tones to a photo that alter the colors in a certain way. Do an Internet search for the most popular photo applications, or just download one to your smart phone to see what filters are available. Popular filters include black and white or sepia tones. Black and white obviously adds more contrast and can make a mood more dramatic. Sepia can smooth out lines and make skin appear flawless. Other filters add effects that make your picture look like an old, discolored Polaroid. Play around with different filters to see how it affects your photographs.



Add Text and Edit

Another thing you can do easily is modify your photo with text. It is common to add an inspirational quote on top of a beautiful background picture that you took. Free applications make this easier and allow you to choose different fonts and colors. Another thing you can do on your computer is use the basic photo editor or viewer that comes with your computer’s operating system. This often enables you to remove red eye and crop pictures easily.

Collage It

Once you have cropped and edited your picture using free applications, you can make the presentation more exciting by using a picture collage maker online or on your phone. You can choose to have various amounts of photos in the collage, commonly anywhere from one to nine (or more). These are fun because you can use different photos from one occasion to make one collage instead of posting separate pictures to your social networking websites. All of these are just a few ideas to change the presentation and quality of your pictures.