​Are you someone who is really crazy about decorative lights, and love to give a nice and cozy glow to your house with twinkling little lights on all the important occasions? If the answer is yes, then you must have some concrete ideas on how to manage your light decorations effectively and stay safe at the same time.

There is no denying the fact that light decorations are an integral part of holiday decor, whether it’s the Halloween festival, Thanksgiving, Christmas or the New Years Eve, decorative lights contribute a lot in enhancing the look and feel of your house. Without including these lights on the list of your decorative items, you can’t really manage to give that festive feel and coziness to both interiors and exteriors of your house.
 
At a time of the year when bone-chilling cold restricts people from enjoying the beauty of their patios and porches in the night, twinkling decorative lights hung allover the house during the Christmas or any other festival can make a huge difference by providing you with the warmth of festive feeling.
 
So, if you also want to make best out of this Christmas by adorning your house with twinkling lights, pay attention to the tips which are provided below.
 
#1, Beginners should make sure to stay simple and sober
 
If you are someone who has never been involved in setting up Christmas light decorations earlier, then you must keep yourself away from making it big at the first go. The best you can do is just light up a few trees in your garden by draping them up with safe to use LED Christmas lights from Brite Ideas.
 
#2. Analyze the safety factors before you go ahead with lighting decorations
 
As it’s true that nothing is more important than your safety, so you must make it sure that you use right decorative lights on the right places. Hence, it is better that you use those lights which come with UL label or Underwriters Laboratories label.
 
When it comes to selecting lights for indoors and outdoors Christmas decorations, you should be very particular about picking up the right types of lights for interiors and exteriors, as lights are designed specifically for both of them. Yes, that is right, you should not be mixing them together and put them according to your convenience, instead you should be well aware of the right uses of each type of light.
 
#3. For making a bold decorative statement select unique lights for front yard, backyard, and interiors
 
Lights come in a variety of different types and sizes, and, therefore, you must have an aesthetic sense to select relevant lights for every nook and cranny of your house. You have to have a sense of what kinds of lights should be used on doors, windows, roof, trees and bushes & shrubs etc.
 
#4. Test the lights properly before hanging and draping them on something
 
Either you have purchased new lights or want to use the same ones that you have used previously on various occasions, you must check them properly for fused bulbs or burned-out lights. If they are not functioning, you must replace them with new ones.
 
#5. Use electrical tape for hanging and draping
 
Instead of using old style screws, clips, and nails etc., to placing the lights, you should now switch over to electrical tapes which are useful to you in more than one ways. The best part of using them is they keep your house neat and clean.
 
#.6 Ask someone to hold the ladder and then hang the lights with ease
 
Don’t ever go on the mission alone, instead of that take someone’s assistance in it. Ask your siblings or the spouse to hold the ladder for you, so that you can concentrate on your work and can finish it up with high-accuracy.
 
About the Author:
 
David is a passionate blogger and love to write on home decoration and Interior design related ideas.

One of the unfortunate problems that come with being an adult is that we have to pay bills. Don’t you miss the days where you were young, wild, and free? Where your only issue was having to learn how to ride your bike? Now, we have monthly bills and if we do not pay them then we lose something because of it. We all fall on hard times, and sometimes it can be really rough. I want to talk about how to reduce your bills without having to try too hard or give too much up.

If you are a gardener and you grow lots of produce you know how expensive it can be to use a ton of water daily or every other day to water your plot, especially if you have a large gardening area. If it is allowed in your area, because it is not allowed in some, grab a rain barrel. If you are able to collect rainwater and use that to water your plants, you could save roughly $300 per year! If you divide that by 12, that equals out to a savings of about $25/month. That’s a full tank of gas for some of us!
 
If you do not already have a programmable thermostat, you should look into getting one. These allow you to set the thermostat to a specific temperature while you are out of the home and set it back to what you are comfortable with right before you come home. Some thermostats are “smart” and have a corresponding app that allows you to set your temperature from your phone! It can even learn your schedule and do everything for you. Technology sure has come a long way!
 
Some other small things you can do is use cold water when using your washing machine, give up cable and subscribe to Hulu or Netflix instead, cook more meals at home and only go out to eat every once in a while, etc. There are many ways to lower your bills! If you are feeling brave, you can even lessen the amount of data on your phone plan or downgrade to a flip phone (if you can find one). Switching from a smart phone to a basic phone usually saves you $20 or more per month.

​What tips do you have for lowering the costs of bills.

It's great that you want to learn to sign! I encourage it! We need more signers and access to ASL.

BUT...I'd like to make a suggestion. Stop making ASL Music Videos!

First of all, to clear things up, I love music! Period! But, if I wanted to know the lyrics, I can easily Google them. I also have an App called MusixMatch that will display lyrics of the song currently on my Playlist. Secondly, I'm sorry to say, but a few of you out there are.....not good. You're doing the song "word for word" instead of true ASL idioms and expressions; you're also are not expressing enough emotions, facial expressions & body language - "dead face".

What I encourage you to do instead is interpret those Viral Videos that go around. 99% of the time these videos have no subtitles so the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community gets left out.

It's pretty easy to do with a program like Movavi, or similar video making program or App.

Two things will come of this - 1. You improve your interpreting skills as this would be closer to real-life interpreting situations; 2. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing community will feel incluZsive and enjoy these viral videos.

To start y'all off, how about these videos?

Wheel of Fortune Contestant Stumps Pat Sajak with her Strange Letter Guesses

​96 & 101 year old sisters arguing

​Little Girl with Downs Syndrome Responds to Learning She Made the Cheer Team

Missouri Media Professor Blocks Journalists

​
So there you have it, start interpreting News stories, Viral Videos, Instructional Videos and the like.

What do you think?

Tracy,
​One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon

​Heating and cooling your home can be an expensive monthly bill. After the mortgage and groceries, the electric and/or gas bill is usually the third highest bill people need to pay. Of course we can’t just cut the heating and cooling cost out, but we can do things to lower the cost.

1. Have your Home Checked – Calling for a Professional Home Performance Check will give you areas to improve on. These professionals will be able to tell you where your home is using, losing, and wasting energy. They’ll check your insulation, air sealing, ductwork, water heaters, the furnace/boiler and Air Conditioning systems. Fixing these problems, such as drafty windows or poor ventilation can reduce your energy costs over time.

2. Have your Heating and Air System Maintained – Getting your furnace or boiler checked, cleaned and upgraded will greatly improve the system’s function and in turn lower your bills. A dirty, malfunctioning system makes it work harder to produce output and this increases your bill.

3. Switch to Energy Efficient Products – There are plenty of products that can help with energy efficiency, Light bulbs, Geothermal heating, and Tankless Water heaters. Switching your light bulbs to LED or CFL bulbs can save tremendously in energy bills. LED bulbs only need 14.5 Watts to produce the equivalent of a 100 Watt bulb. Switching your Heater or Boiler to a Geothermal system can save up to 70% on heating and cooling costs. Switching out your old water tank heater for a tankless system can save up to 40% in water heating costs.

4. Get a Programmable Thermostat, or a “Smart” Thermostat – A programmable Thermostat will reduce costs as you can program it to lower the heat while you’re at work and come on just before you arrive home. A good tip is to lower the heat after everyone’s in bed, as they’re all under blankets, and have the heat raised before the alarm clock goes off. A Smart thermostat can be controlled by your smartphone, tablet or computer. It “learns” your schedule and maintains the heat and air temperature for you.

5. Forgo a Little – Giving up a little bit here and there will go a long way in saving heating and cooling costs. Turn the thermostat a degree or two lower in winter, and a little higher in summer. It’s no good for your wallet if you’re walking around in shorts and T-shirt in the middle of winter because the heater’s on at 80 degrees. Turn your water heater temperature down to 120 degrees from the standard 140 degree setting. Use a slow cooker, or BBQ outside more in the summer and avoid using a hot stove. Take shorter showers, use the cold water setting on your washer, and air-dry your dishes in the dishwasher instead of heat dry. Little things like these will slowly reduce your energy costs over time.

​After a while your energy costs will go down and there’s more money in your bank which makes for happier homeowners.