Quick Quote by Text for Dent Repair

I received a call early in the morning few days ago. The customer was frantic and asked if I could please help her. She explained that a propane bottle had fallen from an overcrowded shelf in her garage onto the fender of her brand new Mercedes Benz resulting in an ugly situation. Luckily, the paint wasn’t scratched, and within a short amount time, I had completely repaired the dent so there was no sign it had ever happened.

My customer breathed a sigh of relief and told me she was going to rearrange her garage that weekend. She asked me for suggestions to keep this from happening again. Her shelves were all over-crowded, and sagging badly. There were miscellaneous items on both sides of the garage and not a good use of space. So this is what I suggested:

Clear out everything and sweep out all of the dirt and dust. This can help with a clear vision of how you want thinks to be organized.
Good lighting is really nice to have so you see everything and not have that old one-light bulb dungeon garage. So this is a great time up upgrade lighting fixtures to efficient led ones. Most home improvement store have fixtures that will take place of the old ones fairly easily.
Throw out items you don’t use (this part is key). Go through those old paint cans and see what’s in them. If you don’t need them anymore and there’s still paint in them, check with you local recycling center on where you can safely take them.
If you have things you haven’t used in a year, toss it or donate it. My kids are growing up and I find things they no longer play with or are sadly now to big for. These items get donated so someone else can get use out of them. You may be surprised how much less stuff you’ll have to store at this point.

Get some good cabinets to put your stuff back in. My personal preference are the cabinets from Gladiator. They have some that are tall and free standing, as well as cabinets that hang on the walls. Walls are a great place to store things that otherwise will consume valuable floor space. By utilizing these, you’ll really make your life easier. Also, if you have any side yard space, I really like the tall storage units from Craftsman. In here I store the things I don’t need all the time but need to keep like paint items, gardening items, and in another one you can have camping items, and holiday items. These are water tight and no critters can move in and make this their new home.

By doing these very simple things, you’ll be less frustrated when searching for an item, and avoid an unfortunate accident happening to your car.

Over the last 25 years I have watched publisher’s guidelines for authors citing copyrighted works increase dramatically.
When I started out, I tried to find out what other publishers held up as limits on what would be considered “fair use.” There had to be a line where authors would be required to gain and possibly pay for permission from the publisher in order to quote the work.

It was difficult to get any consensus on it, so let’s start out with the foundation:

fair use

noun

noun: fair use; plural noun: fair uses

1.(in US copyright law) the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatm for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching,           and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.

If your use of a quote from a published book, article or other copyrighted material falls outside of the fair use doctrine, then you must fill out a permission request and potentially be charged by the copyright holder for the use of the quote.

Here are the parameters I used for many years, initially because Thomas Nelson Publishers showed it as their guidelines back in the early 90s. As long as you, the author, stayed within these boundaries, you did not have to request permission, as long as you gave an accurate citation as follows:

Title of book, Author, copyright (c) [year][name of copyright owner]; or Title of Article,

Author, Journal Title and Volume/Issue Copyright (c) [year] [name of copyright owner]

One other important item…no matter how short your quote, if the quote encompass the central message of the entire work, then it is no longer fair use and you must gain permission from the publisher.

So, here are the guidelines I used for my first 20 years in publishing:

●500 words from a book

●100 words from an article

●1 line or the title of a song or a poem

Over the last 20-25 years, I’m guessing due to litigation and publishers wanting to limit their liability, those numbers have come down almost 50%. At Redemption Press, in order to protect our authors and insure they don’t set themselves up for copyright infringement allegations, we require our authors either provide their own proof of permission or pay for our permissions expert to obtain the permissions when the quotes cited exceed:

●250 words from a book

●50 words from an article

●Anything more than the title of a song or poem

●More than 25% of the entire manuscript is scripture taken from one particular Bible translation.

A few months ago I was reviewing a potential manuscript. The author was considering bringing over all three books to Redemption Press from Tate Publishing. Tate is one of those “impostors” I talk about in my webinar and other posts about publishers who call themselves traditional publishers when they, in fact, are not. I was completely shocked to discover that all three books quoted poems by famous authors in their entirety. When I asked the author and his project manager if the risk for copyright infringement had been addressed by Tate, they were ashamed to admit their publisher never requested permission to use the poems and the authors were not required to do so by the publisher. That is not fair to the author or to the copyright holder. Shame on them!

I have covered the basics here, but there is a lot more that can be expounded on regarding the fair use copyright laws, so here’s a great place to start if you’d like to go more in depth.

Over the last 25 years I have watched publisher’s guidelines for authors citing copyrighted works increase dramatically.
When I started out, I tried to find out what other publishers held up as limits on what would be considered “fair use.” There had to be a line where authors would be required to gain and possibly pay for permission from the publisher in order to quote the work.

It was difficult to get any consensus on it, so let’s start out with the foundation:

fair use

noun

noun: fair use; plural noun: fair uses

1.(in US copyright law) the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatm for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching,           and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.

If your use of a quote from a published book, article or other copyrighted material falls outside of the fair use doctrine, then you must fill out a permission request and potentially be charged by the copyright holder for the use of the quote.

Here are the parameters I used for many years, initially because Thomas Nelson Publishers showed it as their guidelines back in the early 90s. As long as you, the author, stayed within these boundaries, you did not have to request permission, as long as you gave an accurate citation as follows:

Title of book, Author, copyright (c) [year][name of copyright owner]; or Title of Article,

Author, Journal Title and Volume/Issue Copyright (c) [year] [name of copyright owner]

One other important item…no matter how short your quote, if the quote encompass the central message of the entire work, then it is no longer fair use and you must gain permission from the publisher.

So, here are the guidelines I used for my first 20 years in publishing:

●500 words from a book

●100 words from an article

●1 line or the title of a song or a poem

Over the last 20-25 years, I’m guessing due to litigation and publishers wanting to limit their liability, those numbers have come down almost 50%. At Redemption Press, in order to protect our authors and insure they don’t set themselves up for copyright infringement allegations, we require our authors either provide their own proof of permission or pay for our permissions expert to obtain the permissions when the quotes cited exceed:

●250 words from a book

●50 words from an article

●Anything more than the title of a song or poem

●More than 25% of the entire manuscript is scripture taken from one particular Bible translation.

A few months ago I was reviewing a potential manuscript. The author was considering bringing over all three books to Redemption Press from Tate Publishing. Tate is one of those “impostors” I talk about in my webinar and other posts about publishers who call themselves traditional publishers when they, in fact, are not. I was completely shocked to discover that all three books quoted poems by famous authors in their entirety. When I asked the author and his project manager if the risk for copyright infringement had been addressed by Tate, they were ashamed to admit their publisher never requested permission to use the poems and the authors were not required to do so by the publisher. That is not fair to the author or to the copyright holder. Shame on them!

I have covered the basics here, but there is a lot more that can be expounded on regarding the fair use copyright laws, so here’s a great place to start if you’d like to go more in depth.

Print your own graduation party invitations

Invitations are a given if you’re throwing a party — at least if you want anyone to show up! But you don’t have to pay a lot for them. You can save a bundle by downloading free printable graduation party invitations that are available online and printing them on your home printer. The only costs are card stock and ink, and envelopes if you’ll be mailing them. And if you’re handy with a graphics program, you can even insert your party details into the artwork and send the invitation via e-mail. That would bring your cost down to nothing. That method also has the bonus of being both easy and environmentally friendly.

Make your own party decorations and favors

Graduation party decorations can be expensive. And if you’ll be making the rounds of your fellow graduates’ parties, you may see the exact same decorations time and time again. But there’s a way that you can save money and set your party apart — just by using free graduation clip art to create a custom graduation party theme. The clip art can be printed on card stock, cut out and used as wall and door decorations, in plants, hanging from light fixtures or in many other creative ways. If you want to get fancy, you can even print some of the designs on vellum paper, cut them into strips and wrap them around inexpensive glass votives. As the candles glow, the images will come to life.  And if you want all your decorations to sparkle, use small dabs of glitter glue on them. You’d be surprised how this simple technique will bring plain artwork to life.

You can also supplement the clip art decorations by using free graduation scrapbook paper. You don’t have to be a scrapbooker to find lots of uses for these free resources. Just choose the designs you like and print them on regular bond stock. That will give you a lot of colorful graduation-themed paper to use in creative ways. Here are just some of the ways you can it:

• Create simple-to-make origami animals or other shapes to use as party favors. You can find many tutorials to make these free on the Internet.
• Cut the paper into one-inch strips that can be used as napkin rings. If you want to make the napkins look extra festive, use a special fold. Like the origami instructions, you can find folding tutorials free online. Or, if the party is more casual, wrap the napkins around plastic dinnerware and then seal them with the napkin rings so your guests can grab their knives, forks and spoons in compact packages. You can also glue smaller versions of the graduation clip art you used for the decorations to the front of the rings to coordinate with your party theme.
• Using one-inch paper strips similar to those used for the napkin rings, create circular beverage bottle, cup and glass labels that each person can personalize. This will allow people to set their drinks down without someone else walking off with them. So your guests will understand how to use the rings, create samples by having an empty beer bottle, plastic cup and wine glass (or any other type of beverage container that may be at the party) on a table next to the paper strips. Write humorous fake names on the strips and wrap one around each type of container in the same way you would create a napkin ring, sealing it with a small piece of tape. Leave a few pens and tape dispensers on the table so people can make their own. You might want to also ask a friend to monitor the table at the beginning of the party to show people how the labels work.
• Use the graduation scrapbook papers to wrap small party favors. You can even save on ribbon by wrapping with one paper design and using a small strip of another coordinating design to encircle the package. The results will be refined and elegant, and you won’t have to buy any ribbon.

Have others help with the food and drinks

There’s no question that food can make or break a party. And if your friends are drinkers, you also have to have lots of potent potables on-hand if you want to keep the party going. These are areas that can break the bank if you’re not careful, so it’s a good idea to share the load and make the party a potluck. But it doesn’t have to be handled like a church social or your grandmother’s sewing circle; potlucks can actually be cool. Just ask the guests to bring their favorite food or drink, and if they can make the food themselves, so much the better. By having each person bring the food or drink that excites them, you can avoid the standard dip-and-chip fare served at most graduation parties. You can also end up with some pretty great combinations.

To make the potluck work, be sure to write on the invitation that you need the guests to let you know which food or drink items they’ll be bringing. As the RSVPs come in, keep a list of all the items. This will help en sure there won’t be 14 spinach dips and just one bottle of wine.

Encourage people who are on the fence about what to bring to be creative and have some fun with their choices. And for those who just don’t understand what creative means (there are usually some of those at every party), tell them you’ll get back to them as the party gets closer to let them know what items are still needed. This will give you a safety net if you need specific foods or drinks to fill out the menu.

As you can see, there are many ways to throw a graduation party on a budget. By using free or very low cost party supplies and enlisting the help of your friends, you can graduate in style while still leaving some money in your budget to start the new life that awaits you.

In other words, you may want baby shower ideas specifically for a boy-themed baby shower or a baby shower for a girl. Whether you plan to throw a gender-neutral shower or one in pink or blue, we have found a great site for more baby shower ideas for you. Baby Threadmarks is a helpful resource for baby gifts, supplies, and shower ideas…check it out!

Do you need a baby shower gift that is affordable as well as thoughtful? Here are a few recession-busting free or nearly free gift ideas:

1. A coupon book with coupons good for an hour of babysitting each

2. A digital scrapbook or digital scrapbooking papers, embellishments, and quick pages on CD of free elements you have gathered online

3. A pre-made Pandora.com “station” or Playlist.com playlist of classical music that mom or dad can play from their PC late at night to comfort baby

4. A book of parenting tips compiled from the friends and relatives of the parents-to-be

5. A hand-written and illustrated poem in a pretty frame for baby’s bedroom

So plan ahead to throw a successful budget-friendly baby shower that the new parent and your guests are sure to enjoy and appreciate.