Homeownership rate hits 51-year low

Homeownership fell to a 51-year low in the second quarter, due to a combination of factors including aftereffects of the Great Recession.

from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2aGSOou

Hanging Instruments to Crash, Rattle & Bang! (Guest Post)

Making music is a wonderful sensory experience for toddlers and babies. Set up this musical wall shared by Helen of Wimbledon Baby Massage, or string it along a line in your house and bang away! Be graceful of the noise, its very much a trial to see what happens when ‘this pot’ gets hit. Crash!

Like most young children, my two absolutely love banging the tops of pots and pans with wooden and plastic spoons.

It is a regular activity for us (much to the delight of our neighbors I’m sure) but one day I wanted to do something slightly different with it.

As much as raiding the cupboards and emptying the pans out all over the living room is so much fun, sometimes it’s good to get creative with different perspectives.

We got our usual saucepans out from the cupboard, making sure we had lots of different shapes and sizes, and this time I got my children to also choose different musical instruments too.

As the day was a sunny morning, we took them all outside rather than sitting inside, and using wool, I created a washing line on my garden fence.

I then hung the different objects on the washing line, handed each child a large serving spoon and we all went crazy banging the pots, pans and instruments in our garden.

Find more sensory activities here.

Get creative with the different kinds of kitchen utensils. Wooden utensils sound differently then metal ones. Try to provide a variety for your child to explore the different sounds.

Perfect way to spend a sunny day!

What is your favorite non-traditional instrument?

Hanging Instruments to Crash, Rattle & Bang! (Guest Post) on handsonaswegrow.com

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Mortgage rates for Tuesday, August 2

If you're purchasing or refinancing, it's a great time to lock in a rate.

from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2aFGEfC

EXPOSED: Peek Inside 9 of the Hottest Drivers in Golf

It's What's on the Inside That Counts

By: Tony Covey

While you can't actually see performance, or even center of gravity locations, frankly, it's just kinda cool to peel back the hood (or the crown) and take a look inside a driver. Today we're giving you a chance to do just that in the most literal sense possible.

Featured below are 9 of the top selling drivers of 2016. The crowns are off, the insides exposed. It's your chance to look around and see what's really going on under the lid.

What to look for

Here are a few things to consider as you look through the photos - and remember, you can click on any image to view the larger version:

Internal Structures - Structures are present to support face technologies like Callaway's R*MOTO and TaylorMade's Inverted Cone. A significant amount of structure is necessary to enable movable weight systems. Structure is required to support adjustable hosel designs, and sometimes elaborate ribbed structures are used for acoustic tuning purposes (most commonly in composite models).

Face Welds - many of you are aware, like the crown, a driver's face is a separate piece that must be welded, brazed, or otherwise attached to the body. Some manufacturers and models, as you'll see, have cleaner welds than others.

Hot Melt (the blob of goo you see in some of the heads) - Holt melt was fairly common in the days of bonded hosels where it was used to catch any bits of epoxy or other debris that might come loose and would otherwise have rattled around in the head. Hot melt is still used for that purpose, but it's also used to help heads make weight if they come up a little light. Finally hot melt is used to tune the acoustics in otherwise unpleasant sounding heads.

While hot melt can serve many purposes, its downside is that it's hard to control exactly where it ends up, and that can lead to inconsistent mass properties (CG location) from sample to sample.

Please Note:

• The metal shavings shown stuck to the hot melt in the Callaway Great Big Bertha and PING G heads show below are byproducts of crown removal. When you cut metal, shavings get left behind. While these heads do contain hot melt, they don't actually contain metal shavings.
• Not all of the titanium crowns were cut in exactly the same place, material lost to cutting may vary, and of course heads are different sizes and shapes. For all of those reasons, crown weights should be treated as approximations.

Let's take a truly inside look at some of the most popular driver designs on the market right now.

Callaway Alpha 816 DBD

 

Total Head Weight: 204.5g
Crown Weight: 18.9g
Crown Material: Composite

Callaway Great Big Bertha

 

Total Head Weight: 202.1g
Crown Weight: 15.8g
Crown Material: Composite

Callaway XR

 

Total Head Weight: 196.9g
Crown Weight: 28.4g
Crown Material: Titanium

Cobra KING F6

 

Total Head Weight: 204.8g
Crown Weight: 29.0g
Crown Material: Titanium

Cobra KING F6+

Head Weight: 206.1g
Crown Weight: 13.2g
Crown Material: Composite

Cobra KING Ltd.

 

Head Weight: 207g
Crown Weight: 11.3g
Crown Material: Composite

TaylorMade M1

 

Head Weight: 203.9g
Crown Weight: 12.5g
Crown Material: Composite

TaylorMade M2

 

Head Weight: 199.7g
Crown Weight: 13.1g
Crown Material: Composite

PING G

 

Head Weight: 200.3g
Crown Weight: 24.2g
Crown Material: Titanium

What Do You See?

What do you notice? What design features stand out most to you?

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Grove Collaborative: Great Source for Natural Home Products

I’ve been making my own cleaning products for years. When I first started, there weren’t any recipes or tutorials available online and there was a lot of trial and error… mostly error.

Natural Home Products that Work

Did you know, for instance, that vinegar and liquid castille soap together make a nasty slimy mess? Or that vinegar is better for making pickles than for cleaning many surfaces?

I didn’t, but I definitely found out the hard way!

Now, there are dozens of pre-made “green” cleaners available. Some are really good, but all of them are much more expensive than making your own.

Over the years, I’ve saved hundreds of dollars (and avoided putting dozens of plastic bottles in landfills) by making my own cleaners and you can too!

I found a company that shares my passion for natural cleaning products (pre-made and homemade) and you can get most of my natural cleaning supplies for free this week:

Get the Supplies for Free!

I’m so excited to partner with Grove Collaborative (formerly ePantry) this week to give you all of the ingredients you need to get started with natural cleaning for FREE! Click here to find out how!

One of the questions I get most often when I post DIY cleaning recipes is:

Where did you get that awesome spray bottle?

and I didn’t really have a reliable source for them. I’d ordered some online before but they hadn’t always been great quality and I refused to recommend a bottle that would stop working a few weeks after purchase.

When Grove Collaborative offered to create a limited edition Wellness Mama + Grove glass spray bottle (made in the USA) for homemade cleaners and print my cleaning recipe right on the back and send it to you for free, I jumped at the chance!

What is Grove Collaborative?

Great question. They used to be called ePantry and I had heard of them but never tried them until recently. Now, I order many of our household staples from them, including:

• Toilet paper
• My favorite razor ever
• Glass spray bottles
• Washing soda
• Bon Ami
• Wool dryer balls
• Laundry soap

The best part… this week, you can get several of my favorite things for free:

Never tried Grove Collaborative? You get all of this:

That is a value of over $30 at completely no cost when you try $20 of their products. In fact, when I ordered, I got $70 worth of products I already love and use for under $25 with the discounts and free products including:

• Glass spray bottle
• e-Cloth microfiber
• Orange essential oil
• Liquid Castille soap
• Apple cider vinegar
• Dish Soap
• Kitchen sponges
• Toothbrush
• Baking soda
• Bon Ami

Click here to lock in your free products and savings!

Already a Grove Member?

If you are already a Grove Collaborative customer, they’ll add a Wellness Mama + Grove glass spray bottle to your next order at no cost ($12 value). Just click here.

How it Works

1. Go to Grove Collaborative by clicking here.
2. Take a simple 4-question quiz to help them find your favorite products.
3. They will create a custom cart of products for you to try and add the spray bottle, microfiber cloth and essential oil for free. It will also apply free shipping.
4. Change or delete any products you don’t want (just keep at least $20 in there to get the free stuff!)
5. Check out, save tons of money and free stuff shows up at your house!
6. If you join their VIP program, you always get free shipping + 5 free gifts each year!

The things I ordered were substantially less expensive than the same things at our local store and I now get natural toilet paper and recycled razors (two things I ALWAYS forget at the store) delivered automatically.

Reasons I Like Grove Collaborative:

• Flexible delivery schedules — automatically receive monthly shipments or edit delivery dates to get products exactly when you need them
• Custom baskets — They make suggestions, but you can always make changes or add/remove products
• No surprises — you’ll get two reminder e-mails (one week and one day before a scheduled shipment) so you can make any necessary changes
• Great customer service — They have an entire Community Happiness team!
• Free Stuff Through Sunday– Until Sunday, you can get some of my favorite things for free! (Unfortunately, they can’t ship to Alaska, Hawaii or Canada).

With all the money you’ll save, grab some good coffee or herbal tea and spend 30 seconds making this simple homemade cleaner.

Important Disclaimer: I worked with Grove to create this spray bottle and free offer for you, but it is not a sponsored post. If you choose to grab these free products, I do receive a commission, which helps me keep the blog up and running. You receive discounted and free products and my thanks for supporting my website! See my full disclaimer here.

Ever tried Grove? What are you waiting for? Click here to grab the free stuff now!

Continue Reading...Grove Collaborative: Great Source for Natural Home Products

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Wells Fargo rates and news for Tuesday, August 2

Wells Fargo's rates are remaining competitive on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2aOYY60

Refinance rates for Tuesday, August 2

If you're thinking about refinancing, it's a great time to lock in a rate.

from Bankrate.com » Mortgages http://ift.tt/2auGzfy