Fashion & Style Beat the Heat With These Fun Summer Essentials 6:00 AM As the sun towers over our heads, let’s bare some skin, get rid of the layers and put on our retro-chic sunglasses for a fun summer day! We have put together a list of summer must-haves to help you get through the rising temperatures in style. Beat the Heat with These Fun Summer Essentials 1. Floral Sundress Make the most of flower power and pick up a sheer sundress with a pop of yellow or orange, as you take to the streets. Team it up with statement flats, reflector sunglasses and a cross-body bag to complete the look. Let the refreshing floral print soothe the eye. Sundresses will never fail you, be it for a casual evening out, or a lunch date, you can dress these beauties up or down to suit the look for the day! 2. Pastel Shorts Don’t we just love pastels hues? Slip on a pair of pastel shorts with a spaghetti top and sneakers for an ideal beach outing. To add to your feel-good factor, throw on a large chic tote bag with all your essentials and you’re set to go within minutes. Don’t forget to splurge on a good number of sunscreen tubes as you go! 3. Maxi Dresses Maxi dresses never go out of vogue. This summer, find a loose, flowing, striped maxi in an earthy shade instead of the form-fitting ones we usually go for. These breezy dresses can enhance your look and be casual at the same time. Add some bangles, a long neckpiece, a straw hat and a pair of tan sandals for a stylishly done up look. 4. Distressed Denims They’re a garment for every season, really. But the distressed look with frayed hems especially suits the summers! Put on a ruffle top and some wedges for a fancy night out, or a colourful tank and canvases for the day. Throw on a tan pair of ankle boots and a loose summer blazer for work or for a sober, semi-formal event. You can style them every which way to suit the occasion. 5. Skirts and Wraps From minis to maxis, wraps to tubes, skirts are a summer staple each year! Midis are growing really popular too. Pair a button down shirt with a flowy midi and heels for a glamourous look. Or pull on a loose tank, tie it at the waist and pair it a denim mini skirt. A cropped white tee on a high-riser, with a cap and flip-flops can make for a low-key street look. There are so many ways to go about these, so experiment with them and come up with your own unique styles. 6. Crop Top and Bustier Top We love our crop tops, and a popular variety this summer is the fancy bustier top. You can wear these over jeans, skirts, pants or shorts and they’ll make any look effortlessly stylish. Whether you like them strapless or with spaghetti straps, show off your feminine side and flaunt your curves with bustier tops this season! Crop tops of all shapes and sizes are in, with halter necks and drop shoulders to add that subtle charm to them. 7. Cold-shoulder and Tube Tops Do a casual or fancy look with a cold-shoulder top with a pair of skinny jeans. This variety of the off-shoulder is popular with all ages. It is figure-flattering, yet comfortable and it suits almost everyone since most women have beautiful shoulders. Tube tops have made a welcome comeback this year. Style them up with a pair of printed shorts or coloured trousers and show off some skin gracefully! 8. Palazzos These super comfy, flowy pants are perfect for the summer heat. Sport a nonchalant look by wearing a striped palazzo with a plain basic tee or a lace crop top with printed palazzo pants. These wide-legged pants are a popular summer delight for a day out with friends or even for the beach. You can dress them up for a date at night or an early morning walk too! Pleated, printed or plain, palazzo pants are the talk of the season. 9. Overall From ripped denim to cotton to linen, overalls are the most funky and youthful outfits of the lot. They might remind you of your childhood, but adult overalls are super trendy and they really give you a flattering silhouette. Be it short one pieces or full-length dungarees; when styled well, these pieces make you stand out. Wear a white tee with a denim jumpsuit or a striped tank with a white overall-inspired one piece for your summertime pursuits. Welcome the summer with these stunning, fashionable and trendy outfits. With the stunning collection at Shoppers Stop give your wardrobe a glamorous summer makeover and fill it up with easy to slip-on, casual, and stylish outfits. Put on those round shades and embrace the sun! This may contain affiliate links. Hey, did you find this post helpful or entertaining? Please go ahead and share. Share buttons on the left and at the bottom of the article. Big thanks! Subscribe to About Life And Love by Email
Fashion & Style How To Take Care Of Dyed Hair 6:00 AM If you've just colored your hair and you want to keep it healthy, shiny, and colored for a long time, here are some expert tips. How To Take Care Of Dyed Hair Seal In Your New Color When hair has just been colored, its cuticle is still open and porous. The best way to seal hair color into the cuticle is with heat. Using heat on newly colored hair is usually discouraged, but it is extremely beneficial for closing the cuticle with the color so it doesn't get washed out or fade with sunlight or any other external force. Have your hairstylist completely dry and flat iron your hair before you leave. Heat styling hair after coloring adds shine, keeping it from developing a dull look over time. Don't wash your hair for 48 hours after you leave the salon. The hair cuticle is still porous in the first 48-72 hours after a hair color process. Use Color Shampoo and Conditioner Avoid using cleansing or purifying shampoos after your hair color treatment. Color-treated shampoos are designed specifically for colored hair to keep it from pulling the color out. Shampoo less frequently, and apply the shampoo to the scalp, not the entire strand. Your head is what secretes the oil, not the tips of your hair, so if you're shampooing the base of your scalp you will keep your hair clean without over-washing the color. Avoid hard water which which can discolor hair and cause it to fade faster. Moisture shampoos help keep the hair shiny and the color fresh by returning the moisture to it, fighting dryness and over-cleansing. Use cold water to wash your hair. Hot water strips the hair and scalp of its natural oils and makes it look drier. Protecting Hair During Styling Leave-in conditioners, specifically ones designed for color-treated hair, are lifesavers for color treated hair when styling. If you want to style your hair after coloring, find a leave-in or heat protectant spray to coat your hair with it. There are UV protectant products that will protect your hair from sun exposure. Generally avoiding heat styling whenever possible will keep your hair from drying out. Vitamins and Supplements Hair health is largely dependent on vitamins. Taking Vitamin C, Vitamin B and Biotin will increase your natural hair health. Color Retouch Frequency and Regular Trims Frequently coloring your hair exposes it to the risk of overdrying. Touch up your color every six to eight weeks, or longer if you can. Don't double process your hair with highlights or relaxers or per solution shortly after coloring your hair, and keep in mind that treating your hair with two different chemical treatments greatly increases the chance of it becoming dry, dull, and lifeless. Taking care of your hair with washing, heating, and styling will greatly increase the lifetime of your color and the overall health of your hair. Follow these steps and you will maintain beautiful healthy color treated hair for a long time. About the Author: Jacqueline Cao is founder of Her Glow Up, a beauty site offering insider scoops and makeup tips and advice. Hey, did you find this post helpful or entertaining? Please go ahead and share. Share buttons on the left and at the bottom of the article. Big thanks! Subscribe to About Life And Love by Email
Home How to Avoid Cluster Flies at Home 6:00 PM One of the biggest nuisances for a homeowner are cluster flies that number in the thousands. These pesky creatures enter your home from the small gaps in your roof and live in the voids of your walls and thrive in open spaces like your attic. Unlike most fly species, cluster flies are not attracted to foul smells and rotting food sources. These flies feast on nectar from wildflowers, and they lay the eggs during the spring. These eggs turn into adults very quickly so you must install the proper fly traps to nip the infestation in the bud. Visit vectothor.com for more information about the best cluster fly traps money can buy. How to Avoid Cluster Flies at Home The best way to avoid cluster flies is to take preventative measures, know the signs of an infestation, and exterminate an infestation before it becomes a full-scale fly storm. The best way to stymie any pest infestation is to set up preventative measures around your home. These pests enter your home many ways, but they mostly come in through small holes near your attic. To prevent these creatures from entering your home you must seal up any small opening around your home. Flies aren’t particularly sophisticated in their efforts to come into your house, so using any standard caulking will effectively seal up your home. In addition to plugging up all the small spaces around your house, you should also spray insecticide around the roof of your home to keep these pests at bay. When pests enter your home it’s important to properly identify them so you can take precautions for that specific pest. Every summer is sure to have a fly or two come in your house, and this is not a cause for concern. You will need to worry if you start finding clusters of 5-10 flies gathering around windows, or high places in the ceiling where they can’t be bothered. You can identify these flies because they are considerably larger than common house flies. Oddly enough, when you kill these flies they will give off an aroma similar to honey, because of their diet consisting of sweet wild nectar. Lastly, if you hear an incessant buzzing sound coming from your walls, it’s either a beehive or a cluster of flies. Either way, you should have a professional come to your home to eradicate the problem. When you have determined that you have a cluster fly infestation it’s important to exterminate the entire cluster before they begin to lay eggs. There are several methods to kill these pests. You can try placing out electric traps to zap these small bugs. This is effective because cluster flies have a strong attraction to bright lights, but not the end all solution. When these flies come together in giant clusters you can easily kill a huge portion of the colony by using a vacuum hose to suck up as many as you can. Make sure to expose of the vacuum bag outside, so they don’t escape inside your home. This article was submitted by site supporter and may contain affiliate links. Hey, did you find this post helpful or entertaining? Please go ahead and share. Share buttons on the left and at the bottom of the article. Big thanks! Subscribe to About Life And Love by Email
Dogs How To Train Your Dog To Shake Hands...Err Paws 1:07 AM How to Train Your Dog to Shake Hands I had two dogs and both were well-trained. As part of their training, they were taught to sit and shake hands. Because our adopted German Shepherd was a former police dog, training him to follow the sit and stay command was easy. His trainer was the only human he would listen to. The learning curve for us wasn’t too long, but it was doable. His name was Fritz and the techniques we were taught to train him mirrored what he learned while in training. The very first step was establishing trust with the whole family.Without that trust, training could be quite impossible. Dogs are generally repetition and food-based creatures, so consistency is essential.See more about the perfect dog nail clippers The challenge Unlike Fritz, Knight, my Gordon Setter, was a little more difficult to train because we adopted him when he was a puppy.Like most puppies, he wasn't disciplined yet. We signed him up for an obedience course. After some time, he learned to listen to verbal commands. He seemed to think he was a lap dog. When he was fully grown, he developed the habit of greeting me at the door by putting his front paws on my shoulders and standing on his hind legs. All seventy pounds of him!How to Train Your Dog to Shake Hands in 3 Easy Steps1. Take the timeI took the time to teach him to sit, stay and put out his paw for a handshake instead. 2. Use verbal cues and treatsWhat we did differently with Knight was to use food treats at first and combine the command with verbal cues.We say “Knight, sit…stay, shake hands” followed by treats. 3. Be patientEventually, Knight associated us coming into the house with sitting, staying, and shaking hands without the need for a food treat. This training will be more or less difficult based on several factors including age, health, and breed. Some breeds are simply more difficult to train than others. I have found that the easiest breed to train, between the two, was my German Shepherd. Knight was a bit of a show-off and he wanted to show us how independent he was. Fritz was more about protecting the family especially the children. Listening to verbal commands was a lot easier for him.Do you train your dog to shake hands? What other tricks does your dog know? Submitted by a guest blogger.
Life Lessons Finding Silver Linings: 6 Key Lessons From Getting Sick 2:15 AM Sometimes, it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. -Proverbs 20:30 Have you ever gotten so sick that it forced you to hit the pause button on life? While getting sick is no fun, offer valuable life lessons we might have missed. A wake-up call. This is precisely what happened to me recently. Here are 6 key takeaways from my experience that resonate with you. 1. The Power of the PauseI was running myself ragged. Chasing clients, burning the candle at both ends – I neglected the most important thing: my well-being. Getting sick was my body's way of saying, "Slow down!" It was a much-needed reminder to take a break, breathe, and trust that things would work out. 2. Health is Indeed WealthBeing sick forced me to put everything on hold, and while it was initially frustrating, it also offered valuable perspective. The money I earned paled compared to the cost of regaining my health. This experience solidified the importance of prioritizing our well-being – good health is the foundation for everything else in life. 3. The Value of ConnectionI consider myself a happy introvert, cherishing my alone time. However, being sick was a powerful reminder that we all need connection. The support and care I received during this challenging time were invaluable. It highlighted the importance of fostering strong relationships and appreciating the people who have our backs.Giphy 4. The Importance of HumilitySickness strips us of our sense of control and forces us to be humble. I was forced to ask for help, a humbling reminder that we can't do everything alone. It's okay to lean on others and seek support when needed. 5. Cultivating EmpathyBefore getting sick, I'd always offer well wishes to those who were unwell. However, experiencing illness firsthand amplified my empathy for others in similar situations. It fostered a deeper understanding of their challenges and the importance of genuine support.6. Gratitude for the Simple ThingsSickness can make us appreciate the simple things we often take for granted. During my recovery, I felt a surge of gratitude for things like waking up without discomfort, having a supportive family, and enjoying a job I love. These everyday blessings are genuinely worth cherishing. Key Lessons From Getting SickGetting sick is certainly not ideal, but it can sometimes be a catalyst for positive change. These life lessons learned from illness have helped me appreciate life more deeply, prioritize my well-being, and cultivate stronger connections.Your TurnWhat about you? Have you ever had an experience that forced you to slow down and re-evaluate your priorities? Share your insights in the comments below.
