Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

Just about every family goes to the beach during the summer. But what’s the largest complaint? “Uh oh….you forgot…..” You usually end up forgetting. Try our tips to pack the ultimate beach bag and you’ll always stay organized while having fun in the sun!

Be certain your bag for the beach is big enough. Most Moms will have the “big” challenge of choosing a good looking beach bad that won’t be big enough for their carrying needs. Don’t forget to keep a head count of your kids and don’t forget that your kids often bring friends so keep track of them too whether you are at the pool or the beach. You’re going to need that extra room in a big beach bag!

Towels, towels and more towels! All of the family members need 2 towels: One for laying on the sand and one to dry off after getting out of the water or showering at the end. That’s a lot of towels. Keep your towels organized by adding clothing labels to each towel so your towels come home with you. Pick color coordinated towels so they are easy to find on the beach lying together.

Sandwich bags aren’t just for sandwiches. Here’s an easy trick to keep suntan or sunblock lotion from spilling all over the inside of your beach bag: keep it inside a sandwich bag with a tight seal! This will save lots of time and frustration. Add a label to the outside of your suntan or sunblock so other families know this is your sunblock and not theirs.

Clear plastic labels are every Mom’s dream for beach trips when it comes to packing the ultimate beach bag. How many times have you come home from the beach…only to discover you are missing a sand pail and shovel? Add clear plastic labels with your child’s name or family name to keep everything organized for this summer.

Keep your lunch chilled and dry by placing it near the bottom of your beach bag. Many of the items you pack in the beach bag won’t be heavy such as your swimming suit and dry towels. The heaviest thing you will probably pack is your lunch – so you’ll want to keep it cool and dry by packing it in the bottom of your beach bag. Create a shady place under your umbrella for your lunch with your chair and your towel hung over the side.

Many Moms love to bring a good book (okay a romance novel!) to the beach while the kids play. Make sure your romance novel comes home with you by adding a cheap sticker inside the book with your information. The beach is a busy place and there are lots of other Moms with books, best to keep yours organized and with you at all times

by Lawrence Reaves

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With the high cost of flying, many families are turning to the old-fashioned road trip for their summer vacation plans. But don’t just get in the car and go! You’ve got to plan and organize to truly have the perfect road trip – it’s well within your reach.

Begin by getting directions from Google Maps, Mapquest or your favorite website. Use your GPS for step-by-step directions as you go. Tip: ask the person you are visiting for directions as sometimes there are unique landmarks you can keep an eye out for as you get close to their home.

To pack the trunk, first clean the trunk. Clear the trunk of all excess clutter before taking a road trip. Remember both kids and adults will likely bring back souvenirs from your summer vacation – and you are probably toting lots of luggage.

Always travel safe for your peace of mind. Pack a first aid kit and a car emergency kit. Make sure you’ve got an extra tire in case you need to change a tire. Add bottled water to your trunk for hydration in case you get stuck somewhere for awhile.

Stay organized to avoid sibling arguments and adult confusion. Clothing labels make vacation laundry much easier, as you may be adding a load in with another family’s. Clothing labels also ensure a hotel, motel or family friend will recognize your left-behind clothing just in case you do!

Create fun travel packs for each child to enjoy on the road. Include books or board books, soft toys or other fun games. Don’t count on your in-car TV to entertain them the entire way through. Label toys to make sure toys come back home with you after your vacation.

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Labels4life.com would like to wish you and your family a very Happy 4^th of July. Follow our tips to have a great 4^th of July picnic with your family and friends.

Picnics are fair-weather friends. Check the weather forecast before you go. A few sprinkles are usually okay with most picnic goers but thunderstorms are a no-no. Don’t be disappointed.

Unlike the popular rumor, mayonnaise does not spoil. But meats, eggs and dairy should not become warm – leading to dangers of food poisoning. Always play it safe when picnicking to avoid a tummy ache or much worse. Pack picnic foods to keep them both dry and cool at all times.

Plastic containers are often an ideal way to transport most of your popular picnic foods like macaroni salad and potato salad. But don’t leave guests guessing….but a label on the top so they know for sure which picnic salad they are dipping a spoon into. This keeps your picnic smooth and organized – and guests will always be satisfied.

Pack your picnic in a cooler that is sturdy not just pretty. Make sure your picnic basket or cooler can manage everything you are putting into it. When in doubt, bring an additional cooler or basket.

Remember hand wipes for easy clean up after picnicking. Many popular picnic spots can have restrooms nearby but they can be crowded – bringing wipes can make cleaning a toddler’s hands much easier than standing on line for twenty minutes while you miss a concert or community event.

Post by MaverickLabel.com, now offering security holographic labels.

Photo by pinlux

The dangerous relationships between birds and windows is one that comes in varying degrees. Sometimes it’s just a quick peck of bird meeting glass. Others it’s a small series of crashes and a flutter of wings. The worst, however, are the jarring impacts that resonate throughout an entire house, leaving you and your family members startled and often crippling or killing the bird. Sadly, these impacts are far more common than you might think. In an article for Audubon magazine, David Malakoff cited that in North America, window strikes kill between 100 million and 1 billion birds annually. According to an NPR story, Professor Daniel Klem of Mulhenberg College things that Malakoff’s estimate is too conservative, and that the real number easily exceeds 1 billion birds in the United States alone.

Why do window strikes happen?

It’s hard to know for certain exactly why window strikes happen, but observation has granted some measure of insight. The first, and seemingly most common, rationale is that birds simply cannot see glass. The transparency of the glass makes the window look open, and this is often complicated further by a window on the opposite side of the house. This causes what is commonly referred to as the “tunnel effect,” meaning that the bird believes that the two windows lack glass and thus represent a clear tunnel to fly through.

The other primary reason for bird strikes seems to be reflections. Windows in houses and buildings can easily reflect the environments around them. So, while the house or building certainly appears to be a house or building, the windows look more like wooded areas which are perfectly safe for flying.

Ways to prevent window strikes

There are a range of possibilities for preventing window strikes. The most effective method is to remove a window, or to completely cover it with something opaque and non-reflective like wood or cardboard. Granted, this removing a window is a bit drastic and not practical for the vast majority of home owners. Thankfully, with a little understanding as to why birds strike windows, home owners can reduce bird strikes with more people-friendly methods.

Covering Windows

While boarding up windows is an extreme solution, it does prove a point. Putting something between the window’s glass and the outside world can both alert a bird to a physical object and prevent reflection. The line for most home owners seems to be when such a covering moves from the area of protecting birds and into the realm of obstructing views. Home owners have several options like summer storm screens, to heavier plastic “shade cloth” and even the commercial CollidEscape film, all of which help to remove transparency and restrict reflection to various extents.

Silhouettes and Obstacles

Another tactic is to prevent the bird from coming  near the window. Some homeowners put blockades, such as a tree or bird feeder, in front of a window, particularly windows that are struck with some frequency. If you notice that your bird feeder is causing birds to strike your window, then moving the feeder further from your house would be a prudent move. Another popular method, which works to varying degrees, is to intimidate birds away by way of statues and silhouettes. A statue of an owl, or a cut out made to resemble a flying hawk can cause an errant bird on a collision course with a window to change course.

The Happy Medium

For many home owners, window strikes are infrequent happenings and thus can easily be remedied by merely moving a bird feeder or placing a hawk silhouette in a tree. For others, more permanent measures must be taken. However, for majority of home owners in areas with heavy avian traffic, there is a happy medium. Make part of the window more obvious with the application of custom stickers. Placing stickers on a window makes the glass less transparent and can break up reflections, minimizing two of the most common reasons why birds strike windows in the first place. Special sticker creating techniques can even make these stickers nearly-invisible to humans while birds staying perfectly visible to birds. Such stickers benefit birds while doing very little to detract from the value humans derive from said windows.

Stickers used to prevent bird strikes can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Homeowners can make use of seasonal varieties like flowers for spring, snowflakes for winter, and even holiday images. These stickers can even be made in the images of predatory birds, thus mimicking the silhouette effects and adding to the sticker’s effectiveness.

The real key to preventing bird strikes is to change the status quo. This can be done through changing the locations of physical things – like bird feeders and trees – thus forcing birds to alter their flight paths. Or, it can be done though intimidation, via silhouettes of predators. Or, a home owner can change the bird’s perception of the actual window. Stickers, whether they are human-visible or not, make windows more obvious to birds, while screens and covering cloths negate the qualities (reflections and transparency) that make windows harmful to birds in the first place. The question for home owners is to determine which window strike prevention method works best for you.

Mark Trumper is the CEO of MaverickLabel.com, an industry leader in label and printing products catering towards the needs of small business owners. Maverick Label, the Internet’s source for cheap stickers and window decals, is found online at: http://www.mavericklabel.com

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When Phil became a plumber, his family was so proud. But his Mom was worried about him running a business. “You’re so shy. How are you going to find and keep customers?” she asked him.

Phil didn’t want to admit it, but he was worried too. He enjoyed plumbing school but he didn’t like meeting new people. He’d always been shy. Phil wondered how he was going to find and keep customers.

“Honey, why don’t you try these?” his wife said one night. She pointed to the computer. “Business Card Magnets. You put your business card on a magnet. You can hand them out to customers. They can keep them on the fridge and they’ll call you with any plumbing problem.”

Phil thought it was a terrific idea. And he wasn’t surprised that his wife had thought of it. She had a career in marketing, so she was always coming up with great ideas like this for other people. It was helpful shed come up with an idea like this for his business. Ordering the Business Card Magnets was easy, Phil added the business card PDF to the website and the magnets came quickly.

Just as his family and friends thought, Phil was a great plumber. His business got started with some referrals from family and friends, and Phil handed out the Business Card Magnets. “You put it on your fridge, and I’ll always be easy to reach for any plumbing problems,” Phil would say with a smile. And they would call Phil, because he did a terrific job. Best of all, they referred him to their friends and family, so soon Phil’s business was doing quite well.

You too can use Business Card Magnets! Try some of our favorite success tips!:

Be sure to order plenty Business Card Magnets Especially if you are in a service industry where people will want to keep your contact information handy, you’ll soon be handing out many business cards. Make sure you’ve got lots to hand out, and keep some in your car, office, home and every place you might come across a potential customer.

Put each method of contact on your Business Card Magnet. In today’s world, customers can contact you via e-mail, telephone, cell phone, fax and even instant message! Remember to put every method of contact, or even your preferred method of contact for everyday contact – and then an emergency method – on your Business Card Magnet.

Use easy to read fonts and clear logos/artwork. One of the best things about ordering them, is you’ve already got a strong idea of what they’ll look like – they’ll look just like your business card! But if you are designing something new, remember you’ve only got the size of a business card to work with. Stick to easy to read fonts like Times New Roman and Ariel. And keep artwork and logos clear and visible even at such a small size.

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Image via Wikipedia

No one knows exactly when the very first bumper stickers appeared. Henry Ford invented his Model T Ford in 1908 for about $900. Most likely there were folks starting to think about the idea of bumper stickers – as they started looking at bumpers from their driver’s seat viewpoint!

Bumper stickers became very popular in the 1970′s when both politics and social causes were greatly on the rise. Many people were passionate about expressing themselves. It was perfectly natural that they would want to share these expressions with others as they drove. As a result – many bumper stickers are for political causes or share personal beliefs about the human experience from a certain viewpoint. A popular bumper sticker found on many VW bugs and vans was “Make Love, Not War.”

Some other popular bumper stickers over the years include:

• The Earth is Full – go Home
• So Many Pedestrians – So Little Time
• Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult
• Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway
• Honk if Anything Falls Off
• Caution – Driver Legally Blonde

Many people love bumper stickers. There are even people so passionate about bumper stickers that they decorate their entire vehicle with bumper stickers! Whether you have one or four dozen bumper stickers – this is an ideal way to express a viewpoint, make other driver’s laugh during their commute or simply say something about your personal beliefs. There are bumper stickers available for every driver and any taste or personality.

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Picking a family member up at the train station, my cell phone rang. As I reached for it in my pocket I glanced at my oil change sticker: June 2009. Uh oh. Time for an oil change! This tiny sticker helps keeping our cars running smoothly year-round and is often easier than trying to remember the date for your next oil change. Photo by karen_d

1. Oil change stickers are small and they take up so little space. They also are clear so you can always see through them.
2. Your oil change sticker is typically in the top left corner, on the driver’s side for your convenience. In this location you just can’t keep from missing it!
3. An oil change is recommended every 3,000 miles for most cars. Keep your car running smoothly with regular oil changes.
4. Many oil change stickers have the contact info for your garage right on them. So you always have your auto mechanic’s information handy.
5. Your car is one of your biggest investments. It pays to do everything you can to keep it in peak performance.

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Ginny’s Salsa Business

When you’re always complimented on something, it starts to give you the idea that you could start your own business. That’s the way it was for Ginny and her salsa. Ginny would get lots of requests to make her special homemade salsa for parties or casual get-to-gethers. There would always be an empty bowl – and hungry people asking for more salsa!

So Ginny decided to start her own salsa business this summer. She’s starting by selling her salsa locally but she has big plans for the future. Getting all of her supplies was a challenge because when you start a business on a teacher’s salary, you are certainly doing it on a budget! That’s why Ginny chose our Custom Roll Labels. You get a lot & you save a lot!

With Custom Roll Labels Ginny could order 1,000 + labels for her salsa business. She started with just one type of salsa – her classic homemade salsa. Ginny’s label lists the ingredients and has a UPC code so it can be scanned at a cash register. This makes it very convenient for her to sell at local stores that carry her delicious homemade salsa.

Ginny doesn’t want to quit teaching – she just wants to sell enough salsa so she and her husband can go to Hawaii for their 40^th wedding anniversary. With her special salsa recipe and a little help from great labels, we are sure Ginny will meet her goal. Aloha!

The Lesson of Jimmy’s Toy

“It’s mine!”

“No, It’s mine!”

“No dummy, it’s mine!”

Every mom knows exactly what this fight sounds like: the fight over a favorite toy. Admittedly, sometimes it can be hard to tell exactly whose toy is whose – as some toys are more shared than others. Other toys seem to switch owners in the blink of an eye.

To avoid the hustle, bustle, the tears and the toy tugging – take a look at Colorform static cling stickers. The best thing about these wonderful stickers? They easily peel off these toys, so as the toy owner changes – the sticker can change right along with it.

I have to say our home has gotten much quieter since I’ve gotten these Colorform stickers. They truly keep the peace and have stopped many toy fights right in their tracks.

Now if only we could send a few packages to the United Nations – we might help encourage world peace in a big way!

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Some people think of postcards as being an old-fashioned, outdated advertising medium. Old-fashioned – definitely. Outdated – hardly.

Here are some reasons why your business should use postcards for advertising or marketing:

1)    They’re cheap to print. Depending on the quantities you order, the cost of postcards is measured in pennies.

2)    They’re cheap to mail. The going rate to mail postcards is around thirty cents. If you do a lot of business reply mail, you can pay even less.

3)    You can connect them to electronic media. This is not your grandfather’s postcard. In the old days, there was no such thing as electronic media. Thus, there was no way to leverage the postcard by adding a QR code or a personalized url. Now you can connect anyone to your website using those electronic links.

4)    They’re not spam. Nobody completely ignores post cards. Unlike email spam, they have to be dealt with at least momentarily.

5)    You can put a great attention-getting design on them. A space of 4 x 6 is plenty of room to feature a design which will get someone’s attention. Whether it’s an award-winning logo or a product image or just a happy customer enjoying your company’s service, the blank side of the post card gives you a second opportunity to hook your customer.

6)    Nobody has to open them and look for your message. When someone sees your postcard in their mail, they don’t have to expend much effort to see what it is you are offering. If you can gain someone’s attention with a standout image or textual message, you may get more attention than some other advertiser’s bulky envelope which has to be opened.

7)    Other people can see your message as well. Your postcard may pass through the hands of several people before it gets to you. If you have a great service, people who you didn’t intend to reach will become aware of what you do. But don’t worry. Your postcard will still get delivered.

At Conquest Graphics, we think the strategic usage of post cards is a great investment for your business. Contact us today and we’ll put together a plan that will work for you.

Photo by gorickjones

In case you’ve been too busy playing Wii Fit in an effort to look great in your tankini this summer – or have otherwise been engaged – let us share with you the hottest trend in vacations: staying home. Staycations are vacations where you actually stay home and do fun things. No, they don’t have to be endless days of vegging out in front of the tube – you can actually do some pretty cool stuff. We’ve got some unique tips to help you plan a great staycation that will have your family truly feel like they’ve had a summer break.

#1 Clean house before your staycation. This may sound like work – and yes, it is work. But remember that when we go on vacation, we stay in clean hotel, motel and bed and breakfasts. Taking your staycation in a house littered with toys and dust is going to make you feel more stressed out than ever.

#2 Sit down with your family to plan some fun activities. It helps if you have some fun ideas, but be sure to ask for your family’s input on exactly what they consider fun. If you plan a day at a local museum and your children don’t want to go – this isn’t a pleasurable activity. But if your children would rather go to the local aquarium and admission is a comparable price – then this gives you a great activity to do for your staycation.

#3 Visit your local tourism website. Most counties and every state has an official tourism website and office to provide information. While most do deal with out-of-state inquiries – your staycation can greatly improve when you get information on all of the local attractions. Sometimes we are so busy that we just don’t know about some of our local jewels to truly enjoy them.

MaverickLabel.Com, a company founded to meet the growing need for a label source utilizing the latest technologies blended with old fashioned quality and customer service. They specialize in custom label printing and have cheap stickers and custom roll labels for summer needs.