Six Questions Before Consigning an Auction Piece

Selling your belongings can be a daunting task, especially if it is an item like a priced artwork piece. If you have never gone or partaken in an auction, it can be even more daunting. Though the process itself might be intimidating, it doesn’t need to be. The simplest way to know how to go about an auction and to ease any worries is to ask questions.

Here are six questions that should be asked when you are looking to consign a piece to an auction house.

1.   Why Is This Auction House Best Suited to Sell My Work?

There are various auction houses spread across the U.S. However, there are a few of the top major players in the auctioning industry. The best place to get started for answering your questions, is to ask the auction house why they think they are the best? When auction houses compete with one another, the consignor usually wins. It’s worth the extra time to get multiple quotes before consigning your piece. There are various auction houses in Atlanta alone, most of which are highly regarded.

2.   What Is the Likelihood of My Piece Selling?

No matter what your piece is, there is always a slight risk when you put it up for sale. You can ask an auction house how works that are similar to yours have done in the past. You should also factor in that your relationship with an auction house can result into strong economic results for you. You should keep in mind that it’s not a good idea to have an aggressively high estimate, as they more often than not can hurt the cosigners return.

3.   How Will You, The Auction House, Market My Piece?

Once you’ve cosigned your piece over to the auction house, it’s understandable that you’d like to know how hard the auction house team will work to sell your piece. Timing plays an important role in the importance that your piece receives. The earlier your piece is consigned to an auction, the higher chance it has for visibility. The pieces that are cosigned prior to an auction, will be photographed first. Hence, increasing the likelihood that they will be used as the banner image.

4.   What Is the Complete Itemization of The Total Fees That I Will Be Paying?

Though the fees that auction house charges buyers are usually prearranged, the fees that they charge cosigners differ on a piece by piece basis. The strongest time that you should negotiate your fees is before you consign your piece to the auction house. Negotiations should be before you’ve offered commitment to a single auction house.

Fees can include the shipping, insurance, promotional, photos and storage fees along with the commission of the vendor. It’s recommended that you thoroughly read over your contract to avoid any surprises.

5.   What Specific Auction Will My Piece Go Into?

Though the actual auction only takes a few hours, the planning beforehand takes a while. Auction houses require plenty of lead time to get pieces authenticated, photography pieces, print catalogs, and market their sales. So, usually, the deadline for submissions is somewhere between three months to a month and a half. However, this time can depend on the auction house.

6.   What Is the Timeframe of My Piece Being Auctioned Off?

The earlier than you submit your work, the higher the possibility of the auction houses being more open and less selective. If you’re late for the submission deadline for a certain auction, there’s no need to worry as auctions occur every so often. Though, of course, this depends on each auction house.

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Trust Expert Day Care Centres to Take Great Care of Your Child

Day care centres these days do an amazing job of taking care of your children when you are at work or otherwise unavailable. The centres offer clean and spacious rooms, age-appropriate toys and learning materials, educational opportunities that fully prepare the children for the next stage of their lives, and, best of all, experienced teachers who truly care about the child’s physical and emotional development. They make sure that the children have all their social, academic, and physical needs met so that they can grow and thrive, enabling them to pass to the next stage of their lives comfortably and happily. Day care centres usually have several locations so that all parents are accommodated and the children’s days are spent in a nurturing and caring environment that allows them to be completely fulfilled.

Children’s Care Is Their Number-One Priority

Day care facilities specialise in the care of children of all ages, usually from six weeks of age until the child starts school. Their services help children increase their self-confidence, create a sense of belonging, and help them communicate better with their family, friends, and the world around them. Many centres even teach them how to be environmentally responsible by creating composts and gardens and teaching the importance of recycling so that they can be more responsible when they become adults. Facilities such as Thrive long child care help children grow their own food and once the children participate in the watering and growing of vegetables and plants, they learn to appreciate them more once they’re grown. In short, day care facilities offer children the best development tools available so that they can grow into contributing members of society and be happy and healthy for many years to come.

All Children Deserve the Best

Children deserve to be well-educated and safe and day care facilities concentrate on providing everything that your child needs to grow and thrive so that you don’t have to worry about him or her while you’re away. Most of these facilities have excellent websites that enable you to get answers to most of your questions and they are happy to provide you with a free tour of the facility so that you can see for yourself how good they are. The facilities are brightly coloured and sterile and provide the lessons that they need to prepare them for the next stage of their lives. After all, when you have to work, you shouldn’t have to worry about what will happen to your children while you are gone, which can actually cause you too much stress to get your work done. The right day care facility can get rid of this stress and working with them is simple and even fun on your part.

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5 meditation techniques that can help change your life

Life can get busy at times and when it does stress can mount up. Finding ways to cope with stress isn’t always easy and sometimes the methods that you have tried that have worked before simply are not as effective as they once were. When this happens you need to look to new ways to let go of the worrying thoughts that dominate your mindset. Meditation can be a great way to help clear your mind of troubling thoughts and feelings. But did you know that there is more than one way to mediate effectively? Below we have listed top 5 mediation techniques that will help you see life in a whole new way.

1.   Movement meditation

This isn’t the first form of meditation that people think of as it is considered to be quite unconventional. Rather than focussing on sound, an object or a thought this form of mediation focuses on general swaying movements. This can be very therapeutic. Instead of swaying you can try moving your upper body in a slow swaying motion.

2.   Focused mediation

If you have trouble emptying your mind of all thoughts then focused meditation is for you. Focused mediation involves concentrating on a mantra, object or a sound. In order for this form of meditation to be effective it’s best to focus on one of these things. You can choose whatever comes easiest to you. For example, you might find it easier focusing on sound so be sure to put on some music and switch off to the best of your ability.

3.   Spiritual meditation

If you are a religious person and regularly pray then this form of meditation comes highly recommended. To perform this type of meditation first become calm and quiet then begin tom focus on one solitary question. Not only is this form of meditation very relaxing, it can also be very spiritually rewarding as well.

4.   Mantra meditation

In yoga, the mantra ‘Om’ is used regularly because it creates a deep vibrating sound that the mind can easily focus on and help relax the brain and body. It’s for this reason why it is also used in the wider meditative world.

5.   Mindfulness meditation

Last but not least is mindfulness meditation. It’s popular and well-known for very good reason. It’s essentially about being aware of the sounds and activities happening around you. It’s called flow meditation as you just let your mind flow from one to thought or thing to the next. This form of meditation can work very well for people who live in a noisy busy city who are unable to block out sound.

Thanks to www.topfivetipsblog.com for supplying this guest post.   

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Assisted Living Facilities Are Well Equipped to Meet Special Health and Cultural Needs

If you have some senior member in the family who appears to be fit and fine, but he or she needs some assistance in performing some of the routine activities in daily life, then it is quite natural that you are facing a dilemma.  You are caught between choosing nursing homes and assisted living facilities and really do not know which would be the right choice. Although the type of care that you are looking for would influence the choice, there are some other things to consider. 

image:pixabay.com

Since the member for whom you want to find a new home is capable of independent living and needs some assistance for performing daily personal tasks, the assisted living facility would suit him or her fine.  He or she can live in a one bedroom apartment or studio and would receive any medical assistance as and when required. The best thing about assisted living facilities is that besides giving the opportunity of community living and leading a dignified life, it ensures complete safety and privacy of the inmates. Moreover, it can make special arrangements to accommodate special needs that would be clear as you read this article.

Accommodating diverse cultural needs

The assisted living facilities welcome people from different cultures. Most of these services help people from various cultures that also influence the dietary and other habits of people who speak many different languages. While you will come across communities dominated by Asians on the West Coast, do not be surprised to find communities that cater to the specific needs of the Chinese population in the US.  Similarly, you will come across Jewish and Persian communities at many places. Some communities offer multiple dietary options to accommodate people from different cultures, and there is provision for giving place to LGBT communities and golf communities too.

Caring for the memory impaired population

Although assisted living means living with many others just as you would do in any community, there is room for individualized care that can go to the extent of making some special arrangements for those who are infirm and less able. Taking into consideration that more than 5.4 million people in the US have dementia and Alzheimer's disease who need special care and treatment, some assisted care facilities have created newly expanded memory care in Columbus, WI besides the existing facility for assistance to those who suffer from memory-related problems. This facility is in addition to the skilled nursing care offered with support from health agencies.

Special care for couples

If one of your parents needs some extra care and assistance, explain your need to the service coordinator who can make special arrangements for double occupancy to allow them to stay together. Although the arrangement is costly, it will give you some breathing time to look carefully into their individual and shared needs so that you can work out some alternative health care plan that is more affordable.

Assisted living facilities are the most affordable way of taking proper care of senior citizens who want to enjoy a home away from home.

Author bio: Christopher Douglas is a home care specialist and is the brain behind the project related to the newly expanded memory care in Columbus, WI that will become operational very soon. Having served the healthcare sector for more than two decades, he provides valuable insight into assisted living today. He takes particular interest in environmental issues.

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