Category: Lifestyle Page 14 of 20

Stories about food, fashion, travel, and other topics relevant to our readers’ interests.

5 Places To See Fireworks This Summer

On May 27, 2019

One of the most pleasant ways to spend a summer evening is by watching fireworks light up the night sky. Whether you’re on your own looking for a way to relax, with your family on vacation, or just spending some one-on-one time with your special someone, there’s a near-universal appeal to fireworks. And as many times as most of us have seen them before, they can still be somewhat awe-inspiring.

With this in mind, take a look at some of the best destinations and opportunities to see fireworks displays around the U.S. this summer. Let us know which ones are on your travel bucket list!

Chicago’s Navy Pier

Chicago is a fantastic place to visit during the summer for a number of different reasons. The warm weather makes the city—which is really one of the prettiest and most enjoyable in the country—more accessible than it is for much of the year. There are restaurants and bars, two professional baseball teams, beautiful public parks, and arts and music festivals throughout the summer. One of the best gems of the city during the summer months is the bi-weekly fireworks displays at Navy Pier. This massive pier juts out into Lake Michigan from the city and often has a festive atmosphere about it, but the fireworks shows it hosts are among the main highlights of the city.

Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach’s reputation as a summer destination is sort of all over the place. At one point, it was once somewhat rundown, viewed as a not-as-nice alternative to the beaches of Charleston and North Carolina. Now, however, it’s somewhat revamped, and functions as a vacation for everyone from East Coast college students and people seeking quiet recreation, to families looking for a beachside strip full of attractions. You can get just about whatever you like out of Myrtle Beach, including, during the summer, some of the country’s most impressive fireworks displays.

Baseball Stadiums

Depending on what team you follow, the summer baseball season can become a bit of a slog. It’s a very long season, and for a lot of teams, a bad start can essentially lead to months of futility. However, this in a way is what’s so wonderful about baseball: That even a losing team can provide its supporters with fun things to do. You can still go to the games, hang out with family and friends, and have some food and drinks. And at most stadiums, on certain scheduled nights, you can stay afterward for fireworks! There’s a lot of variety between these shows, but some baseball stadiums really go all out, such that the fireworks are as fun as the games.

The U.S. Open

Branching off from baseball to another sporting event known for the occasional fireworks display, the annual U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York City is certainly another option worth keeping on your list. There aren’t fireworks on every night of the two-week event, and the games actually aren’t even that long. But there’s something incredibly pleasant about seeing fireworks at all at an event like this: A massive gathering of happy, festive fans at an iconic New York tennis facility that’s as much a park as it is a sporting venue. The U.S. Open is a delightful place to spend summer evenings, and fireworks only make it better.

Washington D.C.

This last selection may be the most obvious one, but that doesn’t make it any less special. Naturally, the Fourth of July is the best night this summer to catch fireworks displays, and there are several cities known for particularly excellent shows. There can be a reasonable debate about which city’s Independence Day fireworks are the most impressive, but really, nothing matches seeing the celebration in the night sky over the capital. It’s something everyone with an interest in this sort of thing should see at least once in life.

Fun and Creative Ways to Use a Nixplay Digital Frame

By Bonnie Shay

On May 22, 2019

In Lifestyle

Oh, summer! How you call out to our inner photographers and get our fingers clicking to capture all our memories. Graduations, weddings, birthday parties, and fun-in-the-sun vacations are all recorded in our cameras and phones, adding hundreds of beautiful, touching memories to our digital galleries. Now, what do we with all these pictures?

Posting our photos on social media is a fun way to share our adventures and heartwarming memories with friends and family, but it isn’t the best way to enjoy them ourselves in our daily life. This is what Nixplay Frames do best. I adore mine and I’m often asked to set them up for clients, who then rave about them. Read on for some fun, creative ways I’ve found to use Nixplay digital frames.

Displaying Special Occasion Playlists

Special events are the perfect reason to create picture playlists with images selected for the occasion. For example, for the anniversary of my boyfriend’s parents, my boyfriend, his sister, his kids and I took photos holding up anniversary wishes for the happy couple. We then temporarily disabled all the other playlists, so when the Nixplay frame turns on for the first time during the special day, the new photos we took will be displayed. So fun!

Holiday Happenings

Encapsulate the spirit of the season with your own holiday photos. Create playlists for specific occasions populated with photos of your holiday celebrations from prior years. Then on a particular holiday, disable all your other playlists and show your personalized holiday playlist. You can do this for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, and other occasions. Each year, just add the best photos from your newest batch of holiday pictures to include for next year.

Daily Dose of Darlings for Older Loved Ones

If you have older family members who struggle with technology, you can gift them a Wi-Fi enabled cloud frame loaded with photo playlists of your family for their enjoyment. The Wi-Fi function allows you to update the photos and change out playlists from your home so you can keep the frame’s pictures fresh for your loved ones. Give them a daily dose of their darlings and keep them updated on activities they may have missed if they live far away.

Hope and Healing

Use Nixplay frames to encourage and soothe loved ones who are undergoing treatment for disease or recovering from surgery. To help them on their journey to wellness, create a playlist with healing and motivating images specific to the person’s needs and difficulties. You can even ask others to email photos/wishes to the person’s account and add to the playlist, changing up the images from time to time to keep it fresh.

Child’s Eye View

Let your kids get involved in creating playlists both to play at home or for grandparents. Try to incorporate their special, child’s eye view of the world rather than telling them which images to select. Help them take photos of special items, artwork, or just the world from their perspective and upload those images as well. Pick certain times to play their creative works and ooh and aah over their talents.

Downsize the portrait wall

If your family portrait wall has gotten out of hand, scan all your older portraits and upload them to a Nixplay frame. Hang the frame in a prominent area of your home and use it as a dedicated portrait display to downsize the framed clutter.

Comic Relief

Sometimes we just need a good laugh. Life can get difficult and we need to take a deep breath, step back, and find a little comic relief from time to time. Create playlists with some of your funniest family photos, memes that make you laugh, images and videos of your pets being ridiculous, or anything that makes you giggle. Make sure these playlists are ready to run whenever you need a good chuckle.

Seasonal Inspiration

Do you love taking photos of nature and the seasonal changes it brings to the landscape around your home? You might also get some great scenery shots during vacations. Make playlists of your favorite seasons and vacation scenery to play when the weather is crummy and you need a pick-me-up.

College Connections

Send your kid off to college with a Nixplay frame and share photos of the things they’re missing back home, like images of your family’s pets or your nephews and nieces. Keep it updated frequently so they still feel like they’re part of things. Incorporate a few images with you or other family members holding signs with messages of encouragement, congratulations for accomplishments, and sending your love.

Check out Mariposa Photo Organizing for more inspiration and tons of photo organizing ideas to keep your digital frame feeling fresh and fun. You can find even more fresh ideas at the Association of Professional Photo Organizers (APPO) website and blog. There’s a wealth of creative ideas available there to keep you in close touch with your photographic memories.

Bonnie Shay

Bonnie is owner of Mariposa Photo Organizing. She helps families curate their lifetime of photos and makes them A MESS (Accessible, Manageable, Enjoyable, Shareable and Safe).

http://mariposaphotoorganizing.com/

How to be a worry-free photographer when on vacation

By Marion Driedger

On May 17, 2019

In Lifestyle

I love planning for a trip to a new and exciting place—anticipation is so much fun! But while wanting to take great photographs of all your fun memories is one thing, making sure you can tick off all the safety boxes is a different matter. Pre-planning and practicing with your gear should make you confident enough that your photographs will not be lost before you even get home. Let’s go over some tips and guidelines to help you bring home those wonderful travel memories.

Know your equipment.

If you have a relatively new camera or are just getting the hang of photography, it’s a very good idea to have your camera manual in .pdf form. Just visit the camera manufacturer’s website and download your specific camera manual onto the phone or tablet that you will be bringing on your trip. If you plan on using your phone to take photos, you should check if its memory has enough space for new images.

Look into purchasing an anti-theft camera bag.

Several companies design and make some good options to feel safer with your valuables inside. Try Pacsafe or Travelon: These brands have a wide range of bag styles with excellent safety features, all at reasonable prices. Look for anti-slash hidden mesh, wire reinforced straps, and RFID-blocking pockets.

Remember to pack light.

Bringing a DSLR camera on your trip does not mean you have to lug all your accessories as well. Challenge yourself to go with just one or two lenses, and maybe a battery pack or an external flash. If you plan on taking photos at night, consider a bringing lightweight travel tripod.

Have a cloud back-up system for your files.

Ultimately, you’d want a spacious backup storage system for all your photographs, which you can access on the go. That’s why the cloud works so well for many photographers, especially with a smartphone.

You don’t want your camera messing up when you’re taking photos in places like the Palace of Versailles.

Delete in-camera as much as possible.

I use traveling time to do this and it really pays off when I get home. Find the images that are out of focus, poorly composed, or just not good, and delete them.

Bring more batteries and camera cards than you think you will need.

If you over-shoot, lose a battery, or get a corrupted memory card, having a spare or two in your luggage will save the day! Finding specific batteries or memory cards for your camera could be difficult in a foreign country, and it’s a waste of your valuable sightseeing time. This is a good contingency plan.

Have a system for downloading photos from your camera, and practice it before you leave.

These tips should help:

a. Use a computer, iPad, or external hard drive with an SD card slot adapter to download your images from your camera.

b. Download your photos regularly (every night if possible) to start fresh every day.

c. When you download files from your camera, be sure you are not re-downloading those you’ve already transferred to your device. Still, you should keep a complete copy of your images on your memory cards. This way, you’ll end up with multiple copies of your images for safety, and you can streamline when you return home.

d. Is it best to bring one or two large volume camera cards vs. several smaller capacity ones? While having just a couple of large capacity SD cards means there are fewer components you might lose, having several memory cards with smaller capacities means you may lose fewer images if a card is misplaced. Whichever you decide on, be sure to re-format your SD cards before you leave for your trip (make sure there are no images on them that haven’t been saved) to clear off any metadata that may be corrupted.

Respect your destination’s culture and rules for photography.

Be a gracious guest in the community or country you are in. For example, selfie sticks are not a good idea in museums, and in some countries, taking photos of the locals without their permission is heavily frowned upon.

These tips should help you take stunning travel photos.

Go up high and get down low.

Don’t be afraid to test different angles and focal lengths. Play with cropping and composition, and have fun experimenting. You will have “fresh eyes” in a new place and it is always such a thrill—so take advantage of it!

Watch for the light.

The soft diffused light of early morning or late afternoon is the best & prettiest light, so consider going back to a location at these times if you think it’s worth it. It may be a logistical headache, but the images you can get might be worth it! You can also try squinting at a scene to check if there is too much contrast between the shadows and highlights. Don’t forget to take off your sunglasses before shooting, as it will distort your judgment of the light.

Check the backup copies of all the photographs you took.

When you return home, allot a few hours to check your cloud copy, your camera cards, and/or computer/external hard drive/tablet copies. Double-check that you have all the photos, and make sure nothing was corrupted. Gather any photographs taken by others you were on the trip with.

Cull out more photos that aren’t the best, rename your images, and file them into your photo-management system.

Save your original files until your local back-up system has been manually updated with the re-named and culled files, and the cloud service you use has also been updated. Once all your storage systems have been updated with the new vacation files, you can clear the copies on the camera cards, external hard drive or tablet. Now you’re ready for the next trip!

Enjoy and share your photos!

Create a vacation album on your Nixplay account with all the best photographs from your trip. Upload this new album to your Nixplay frame and relive your fun travel adventures!

There are so many things to think about when planning a great vacation, and sometimes we forget that the most tangible things we have left after it’s over are the images and memories we created. These travel photography tips will ensure you will be able to enjoy and reminisce for years to come.

5 Amazing Mothers We Can All Look Up to

By Nixplay Team

On May 10, 2019

In Lifestyle

We can all probably agree that mothers are some of the strongest, most admirable people on the planet. Bringing a human into the world and raising him or her is no easy feat, and as such, they deserve all the love and admiration we can give them.

Throughout history, we have encountered countless amazing mothers who made it work, even if the odds were stacked against them. Here are a few larger-than-life Super Moms.

Sojourner Truth

*photo via* *Wikimedia, licensed under* *public domain*

African-American women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree) escaped from slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. Shortly after this, Truth learned that her five-year-old son was illegally sold into slavery. She fought for her son’s freedom and won her case, marking one of the first incidents in which a black woman successfully challenged a white man in a United States court. She went on to devote her life to creating reforms in society, being one of the most vocal supporters of the abolitionist cause, prison reform, and universal suffrage.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Years before she became the second woman to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to juggle motherhood and the demands of being one of the nine female law students at Harvard. When her husband and fellow law student Martin D. Ginsburg contracted cancer in 1956, Ruth also attended his classes and took notes for him while continuing her own studies, all on top of taking care of her toddler daughter. Her sacrifices paid off: she graduated at the top of her class and went on to become one of the strongest voices of gender equality in the face of the law. Her two children, Jane and James, also found success in their chosen fields: Jane became a lawyer like mom and dad, while James became a record label executive.

J.K. Rowling

*photo via* *Wikimedia, licensed under* *Creative Commons*

Before she found success as the author of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling was a struggling single mom doing all she can to make ends meet. “I was a Single Parent, and a Single Parent On Benefits to boot,” she wrote. “Assumptions made about your morals, your motives for bringing your child into the world or your fitness to raise that child cut to the core of who you are.” When the Harry Potter books became big, she became a Patron of the National Council for One Parent Families (now Gingerbread), an organization that empowers single parents to support themselves and their families.

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

Broadway fans might be familiar with Eliza Schuyler Hamilton: She’s the wife of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, whose life is immortalized in his namesake bestselling musical. But Eliza’s life is just as worthy of being set into a play: she was her husband’s top supporter, did an exemplary job at maintaining the Hamilton household, and raised eight children. Two years after her husband’s death, Eliza co-founded the Orphan Asylum Society, which continues to exist today as the family and youth development organization Graham Windham. Not only is she a

Ann Jarvis

In 1858, while she was pregnant with her sixth child, Ann Jarvis sought to improve health and sanitary conditions in West Virginia by setting up Mother’s Day Work Clubs. These clubs provided assistance and education to families in an effort to reduce disease and infant mortality, raising money for medicine and hiring women to work in families where the mother suffered from health problems. When the American Civil War broke out, she acted as a mother to West Virginia by offering her clubs’ services neutrally to both Union and Confederate troops. After the war, she planned a “Mothers Friendship Day” to promote reconciliation and peace. On the first anniversary of her death, her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, organized the first official observance of Mother’s Day.

Wasn’t that inspiring? This Mother’s Day, treat your mom like royalty by surprising her with a Nixplay Frame! Get up to 25% off on selected frames, only until May 13!

Meet a Super Mom: Emily Nolan

By Nixplay Team

On May 9, 2019

In Lifestyle

This May, Nixplay celebrates the most amazing women in our lives: our Super Moms. What’s even more fantastic than juggling work, marriage, and being a mother, right? We know it isn’t easy and, for a lot of new moms, transitioning from independence can be daunting. It’s a frantic life, but the rewards are absolutely worth it.

We got to chat with blogger, yogi, body positivity advocate, and real-life Super Mom Emily Nolan, who shares several realizations that may help new moms ease into the latest adventure of their lives. Read on!

Please tell us about yourself.

Emily Nolan: I’m a mama (and wife), first and foremost. I’m also a radically honest blogger and a model. I love to write, and I’m currently writing a book on how and why we need to learn to radically accept ourselves. I love sharing this journey of confidence with other women by organizing events like Topless Yoga and Be Pretty Brave wellness retreats.

Fun fact? I had a super embarrassing moment that recently happened when I just started to go out of the house after having a baby. I totally overshared with the front desk attendant at my gym and told her just how much milk I have (in my breasts!). I know, so bad. I was craving a conversation and killed all my chances.

We’re fans of your blog. We’ve seen you transform from a naive young woman into a fearless champion of self-acceptance. Can you share with our Nixplay family what you’ve learned from these stages of your life?

Emily Nolan: One takeaway from my entire life experience is to be brave enough to radically accept yourself for who you are and what you look like. I know that I’ll never be stick-thin. My mother and grandmother are both strong, beautiful women. Instead of fighting my body type with diets or excessive exercise, I focus on nourishing myself the best that I can, sleeping enough, and managing stress levels with hobbies and downtime.

You’ve entered a new phase with Ollie in the picture. What was the biggest change by far?

Emily Nolan: The biggest challenge I faced as a new mom is learning to fit a codependent baby into my life. I am a very independent person, so I can’t pick up and go like I used to. That being said, I love my life, it’s just very different and requires more thought before action.

Can you tell us about your best “Super Mom” moment?

Emily Nolan: My best “Super Mom” moment was labor and delivery. There is nothing more super than giving birth. I appreciate you recognizing me as a “super mom.” I don’t always feel that way because I don’t have a ton to compare to (I think that’s a good thing!). I do work my butt off to try and get all my work done so I can be present with Oliver while he’s awake. We love to be outside and take walks around our neighborhood.

What are your final tips for new moms and soon-to-be moms?

Emily Nolan: Being a new mother is not intuitive, no matter how many times people will tell you it is. Reach out for help. Look for experts like baby sleep coaches (I used @takingcarababies), certified lactation consultants, baby feeding specialists among others. There are experts in everything who will guide you and make the process much easier for you. There’s also no such thing as too much information, so just take what you need and leave all the stuff that doesn’t fit into your lifestyle or serve you.

Learn more about Emily by visiting emilynolan.com. Don’t forget to read her new blog: 7 Things Every New Mom Needs to Know.