Apartment Blog

“The Quiet Man” Movie Review

I’m not sure how many of you have actually seen this classic film of an Irish tale.  But I truly recommend it. Being that I have a father who is a John Wayne fanatic, I have seen numerous movies starring him. ‘The Quiet Man’ is probably one of only two that I am able to sit all the way through!

This movie is of an unusual love story between a man and a woman with their cultures colliding.  John Wayne plays a gentle man from America, Sean Thornton. He has returned to the Irish village where he was born to retreat from a horrible memory of his last fight as a prize fighter where he accidentally killed his opponent. Burdened with his death, he seeks peace and comfort.  After his welcome home he encounters Mary Kate Danaher, played by Maureen O’Hara, in one of the most breathtaking scenes of the movie.  The red-haired colleen is herding a flock of sheep across a meadow. With the lush Irish landscape, Sean is mesmerized by her presence.  Once he realizes she is unmarried, he is determined to pursue her. This is where Sean is forced to learn the education of Irish culture and tradition. “Uh uh, no patty fingers if you please.”  From their first encounter Mary Kate and Sean reveal a passion and desire to be with one another. But the constant conflict between Sean, Mary Kate and her brother, Will, makes for an engaging story. The momentous retrieval of Mary Kate from the train station, where Sean literally drags Mary Kate 5 miles to a field where her brother is working, is compelling. With the cute and quaint town joining in all the festivities of this dispute, including waging who the winner might be, you’ll be laughing at the whirl wind brawl!

I’d recommend ‘The Quiet Man’ to anyone. It’s a heart-felt romantic movie that is such a joy to watch!

Source:  speakeasy.org

Life is full of stress and headaches, especially from the world-wind excitement of buying Valentine’s Day gifts. So in honor of you, we want to post some tips to help you relax and focus on yourself for a change!!

Something that always helps me to relax is taking a bath. I love just sitting in a hot water with my eyes closed. It’s very relaxing. I feel like my mind can just take a break from all the things I worry about & for a moment, I soak up the steam and calm all my nerves.

Whatever way you take a bath will work. If you prefer some salts or turning off the lights and only using candles. Maybe you like hearing some soft music in the background? Whatever you prefer is what you should do. And no matter what other tasks you ‘could be’ doing or whoever may be knocking at your door, take as much time as you need! This is ‘me’ time!!

After your bath don’t rush to get dressed. While in your bath robe or towel sit and put some lotion on your legs and arms. Apply a good layer and just enjoy the feeling of being rejuvenated. This would also be a perfect time to do a mud mask for your face if you’d like! This is still apart of your ‘me’ time so don’t try and multi-task. You’re worth the extra time you’re putting into yourself. Otherwise, you’ll rush into doing something else and never really give yourself the amount of time it needs to unwind.

So once you’ve applied the lotion or any other type of beauty product, you can get dressed. My recommendation is to dress in comfortable clothes. If you don’t have a pair of silky pajamas, I urge you buy a pair. They feel beautiful on your skin. Other fabrics that would feel wonderful would be cotton, micro-fiber, a chenille blanket, etc.

And finally, the end to a wonderful pampering session is to actually do an activity you want to do. Maybe you want to have a cup of tea, hot chocolate, or coffee, sit and read a book. Or maybe you want to catch up on your favorite soap or do your nails. Whatever activity you enjoy (doesn’t necessarily have to be alone-although that’s usually when you take care of your needs versus someone else’s) do it! After unwinding, taking some time to do something you want to do will really make the ‘me’ time really worth it!!

It’s been a really long time since I’ve taken the time to do this, so I think I’m due for one!! I wish all of you the best pampering session as well! 

How do you and your family celebrate for the holidays? Are there any traditions that you’ve always done or are you starting new ones? I’m still new to this whole ‘holiday on my own’ type thing, so here are some traditions that I’ve found (plus some that my family have always done).

When you think of Christmas, what is one thing you know you’ve got to have? Well, the Christmas tree of course. Traditions start around this significant symbol in many ways, from picking out the Christmas tree, having special memories of ornaments, to sitting around the tree opening gifts. So that’s where my traditions start. Usually, my family and I would go to one lot and pick out a tree. Each year we’d take turns as to who got to pick it out. However, the last two years (the start of my ‘on your own holiday’) I have put up my fake tree. My old traditions with my family have been replaced by new traditions. And as far as time frames, I always put the tree up after Thanksgiving!! I say, let one holiday pass before you start celebrating another! And another tradition that surrounds the Christmas tree for me is ornaments. Every year my boyfriend and I pick out a Grinch ornament for our tree, since ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas´ is our favorite Christmas movie. So we get at least one Grinch ornament every year. (Pretty soon our whole tree will be all Grinch ornaments!)

Other decorative Christmas things that I’ve found (and do) are advent calendars. At my parents place, the advent calendar was a blank Christmas tree and each day we’d open up the calendar door that contained a surprise ornament. The 24th of December was always the star of the tree. Another decorative element that can be a tradition in your home is the dinning room table; whether it’s holiday dishware, a centerpiece or table cloth. I’ve never had holiday dishware but centerpieces we’ve had. It was always a large candle with a berry & holly wreath wrapped around it.

An extraordinary holiday tradition that I want to get into the habit of is giving to the less fortunate. When I was in high school I did the Angel tree with our National Honor Society and since then I’ve only done it once. I’d like to get back into the habit of doing that and maybe even doing some volunteer work too. Christmas is after all about giving not receiving!

What other holiday traditions do you and your families do? Are there any you’d like to incorporate in the future? We’d love to hear your ideas!

You want to add a festive touch to your apartment, but what colors do you choose? It’ll depend on several factors as to what fits your apartment home the best. Here’s a list of some ideas for how to choose your holiday décor color scheme:

You can focus on the color schemes that your home already has. If your apartment has warm colors, go with gold or reds. If your apartment has cool colors, go with icy white and silver. And another idea is to take the colors that you already have in your home and use complementary holiday colors (i.e. red-green, purple-gold, etc.).

A piece of fabric is also a great way to bring in the holiday season/colors. If you’ve found a stunning table cloth, make it the focal point of your room, using colors that coordinate with that table cloth to bring out its beauty. Have those colors also follow throughout your home (like accent pillows and candles).

And an idea that I think is really cool is using holiday gift wrap as your inspiration. Use color schemes and motifs that you see in gift wrap and use it around the house. Like a candy cane red, green and white striped gift wrap being mimicked in your centerpiece of the dinning room table or the wreath on the door. Another nifty idea is to wrap picture frames that are all your walls like presents! You can create a masterpiece using left over gift wrap and ribbons. The possibilities are endless (and fun to create)!

Below are also some sample color schemes. These combinations are great for creating your personal holiday décor.

• red and green
• red and white
• all white
• any color and gold
• any color and white
• any color and silver
• white, blue, and silver
• ivory and brushed gold
• sage green, ivory, and pewter
• bright purple, blue, and green
• icy blue, lilac, and silver
• autumn tones of beige, brown, golden yellows, and rust
• forest green, burgundy, gold
• primary colors such as red, yellow and blue

Also remember that cooler colors tend to encourage people to eat less and won’t be mingling as much. So you may want to avoid using cooler colors in the dining room or eating area, and to opt for warmer colors like burgundy, purple, or red with gold accents in those spaces. In sitting areas, cooler colors are still okay, but again, adding a punch of color will help warm up the effect so it’ll have a unified look through your apartment.

You love your apartment community so why not help keep it safe? There are some things that all of us can do to help make where we live just a little safer! For example, you could start a neighborhood watch program, or if your apartment community already has one, become more involved.

Any motivated individual or a collective group can organize a neighborhood watch program, doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, single or married. All you need to do is send a flier around the neighborhood stating your wish to organize a neighborhood watch program or visit your neighbors to communicate your efforts. Set up a meeting at your apartment or the clubhouse so that you and your neighbors can discuss any issues that are occurring. As a group, you should create a list of topics that you find concerning and that need to be addressed. The committee can organize a schedule for who will be patrolling areas and when. Other items you may need are mentioned below:

A time and place to meet regularly, a map of the community with spaces for names, addresses and phone numbers, brochures or other material on topic of interest (i.e. crime rate, neighborhood facts, etc.) as well as Neighborhood Watch Signs that need to be posted around the community (You can purchased these at the National Neighborhood Watch Institute website)

Once you’ve got the basic set up taken care of, you may want to have a police officer come in and sit with the committee to give some ideas of how to spot a potential crime or unusual behavior, how to handle a crime, and how to report one.

Hopefully with all the steps mentioned above and of course visiting the USAOnWatch.org site, you’ll be able to accomplish your goals in making your apartment community a safer one for you and other residents alike.

No matter where you are, you have neighbors. At work, it’s the person in the next office, at school it’s the student sitting near you and at home it’s the person renting the apartment next to yours. The awkward first encounters between you and your neighbors are always hard to get over, but eventually will help you in the future. Who else will check your mail when you’re on vacation or jot notes down when you skip class?

Everyone has heard the horror stories about neighbors. So to avoid any of those potential problems, here are a few tips for getting to know your neighbors:

Tip 1: Introduce yourself
The first day you move in will obviously be a busy one, but maybe the second or third day you should go an introduce yourself. Nothing elaborate is needed, just a simple ‘Hello, how are you? I just moved in next door’ type thing will work. Breaking the initial barrier will help prevent any awkwardness in the future when you see him/her.

Tip 2: Wave
Doing such a simple gesture will go a long way in maintaining a relationship with your neighbor. Think about it, wouldn’t a nice wave in the morning to say ‘how are you?’ be a pleasant way for you to start your day?

Tip 3: Pick up your pet’s messes
If you happen to live in a pet friendly apartment, please pick up their messes. This not only will help your neighbors out-so they don’t have to watch exactly where they are stepping-but will also improve the look of your apartment community!

Tip 4: Set up play dates
During the initial introduction, you made one of the first few days you moved in, you should have been able to find out if your neighbor has any children. If they are roughly the same age as your children, make a play date for the kids to get together. Or if they don’t have any children, maybe you both could visit a local dog park with your animals? Doing this will help you get to know your neighbor better as well as allow your children (or pets) interact with others.

Tip 5: Visit the area and all its amenities
You didn’t search for an apartment that has access to a tennis court, pool or fitness center not to use it, did you? Utilize the amenities your apartment neighborhood offers. If you go to the fitness center often, you’re bound to run into some regulars or visit the pool during the summer and chit chat with other sun bathers. You will start to create relationships with others and this will give you an overall comfortable feel in your new apartment home!