When I grew up, Saturday entailed us mowing and weeding.  Not quite my American dream, or that of my brothers as young teens, but we had a lush green lawn and it was every suburbanites dream. To some, a lawn is the crowning glory of their South Florida home. Yet to others it is a tremendous hit on their checkbook.

Everyone loves the appearance of an impeccable lawn.  Don’t you enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass and the feel of it under bare feet.  The cost to maintain it, mowing, edger’s, mowers, aerators, chemicals and fertilizers.  This is the bare minimum to achieve a beautiful lawn or hiring a lawn service.

Lawn service can be a tremendous hit on the checkbook. Studies show that well maintained landscaping can add 15% to the value of a home. …

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Gardens are beautiful and butterflies seemingly bring the garden to “life” with fluttery movement from plant to plant. South Florida is a great area to have a butterfly garden. Butterfly gardens come in all shapes and sizes. It can begin in a single pot or a plot of land. It is possible to add a few plants to a couple of beds or a window box or transform an existing garden.

A garden full of butterflies requires a good mix of butterfly nectar and select plants so that butterflies will not only be attracted to your shrubbery for a drink, but they will also lay eggs. This provides a place for the entire butterfly life cycle to ensue.

The butterfly life cycle includes various stages: eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis and finally, butterflies. All the…

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When staging your Palm Beach County home for sale, your furniture placement will be adjusted to invite buyers into the property and allow them to walk freely in the room and then pass to the next.  It may not be the layout you prefer or use, but it is to facilitate the sale of your house.

 Ideally, a home stager can be your ace in the hole to sell quickly. The home stager will suggest to you what stays and goes, what to put away and what needs to be upgraded.  According to the National Association of Realtors, home stagers start with an “evaluation in which they’ll review your home from curbside to back fence offering a list of instructions and suggested enhancements, changes and upgrades for you to get done.”

The goal of staging is to showcase…

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One of the many reasons to reside in South Florida or live seasonally is the beauty and abundance of waterways.  Nothing is more serene than gazing out your backyard and see the sunshine glistening on the water behind the house knowing it is at your beck and call.

The climate in South Florida is almost always conducive to fishing, leisure boating, swimming or watersport activity.  To keep Palm Beach County waterways safe the Florida Wildlife Commission encourages boating safety courses. 

The U.S. Coast Guard's Boating Safety Division also supports this concept.  The Coast Guard's Boating Safety Division is dedicated to “reducing loss of life, injuries, and property damage that occur on U.S. waterways by improving the knowledge, skills, and…

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Image courtesy of Delray Affair.

The 55th Annual Delray Affair takes place this weekend, April 7 – 9, 2017, along the friendly streets of downtown Delray Beach.  Nicknamed the "Greatest Show under the Sun", the Delray Affair is one of the largest arts & craft festivals in the southern United States. It takes place along the palm tree lined streets of downtown Delray Beach and encompasses 12 tree lined blocks. Artists from all around the United States exhibit at the Delray Affair.

Long before the Delray Affair came to dominate East Atlantic Avenue with its displays of arts and crafts, the Gladiola Festival had an eight-year copious run as a feature attraction and even attracted some of the biggest movie stars of the day. It has morphed into what…

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You’ve been looking forward to a spring vacation from the ice and cold for months and the time has finally come to pack.  Here in Palm Beach County you’ll need a swim suit, sunglasses, sandals, and broad spectrum sunblock. Protecting your skin from the sun’s UVA/UVB rays is important while sunbathing in the “Sunshine State”.

Palm Beach County is home to exclusive areas like Jupiter Island and Palm Beach. The beaches and real estate in this area is second to none.  Palm Beach County also has charming seaside towns of Jupiter, Juno Beach, Delray and Boca Raton, which are also prized for their incredible homes and condos on the beach, Intracoastal Waterway and Loxahatchee River.  The abundance of sparkling blue waterways, beaches, as well as the real…

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Saturday, April 1st, 2017 is the annual Walk to Cure Diabetes fun walk at the Mizner Amphitheater in Boca Raton. Every year more and more kids, adults, families and friends who have loved ones touched by Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes come together to walk 3 kilometers to raise awareness and funds for diabetes research. 

The Walk for Diabetes is super fun! As, you and your friends and family can come together to take a leisurely or fast paced walk around Boca Raton. The sun will be shining and the weather will be mild so the day is pleasant and the cause is amazing. Each year the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) brings together over 900,000 people from across the nation to change the future for those living with Type 1 Diabetes. Millions of…

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The 9th annual Boating and Beach bash for People with Disabilities will be held this Saturday, March 18th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Spanish River Park in Boca Raton.

The event is for people with special needs, their families, and caregivers and aims to embrace the 20% of Florida residents who live with a physical/intellectual disability.

Guests of all ages are treated like VIPs as soon as they arrive. It is completely free including admission, parking, lunch, boat rides, concerts, and related activities.

The location has the beach on one side, the Intracoastal on the other, and grassy picnic areas, pavilions, walkways, and playgrounds in between.

Mobility mats will be rolled out in the sand so people with wheelchairs and prosthetics can…

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Living in Palm Beach County we see beauty daily.  This area is surrounded by beautiful bodies of water, historic landmarks, interesting people and places.  Capture the beauty through photography.  If your photojournalism skills aren’t up to par perhaps taking a class will refresh your skills or teach you new ones.  This upcoming “Lunch & Learn” at the Armory Art Center, 1700 Parker Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL will feature Red Morgan, highly respected photographer, on March 8, 2017 from 12:45 PM - 1:30 PM.

Red Morgan is a respected “freelance photographer with forty years of professional experience. He has worked with America's most prestigious magazines, corporations, and advertising agencies. Red has shot a wide range of subjects and projects and won…

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Palm Beach County has lots of beautiful natural areas and preserves from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean. The Department of Environmental Resources Management (E.R.M.) manages” a range of environmental programs designed to protect, preserve, and enhance Palm Beach County’s natural resources, both on land and water. Fresh drinking water, unpolluted waterways, a large tree canopy, and controlling mosquito populations provide a welcoming outdoor tropical experience to snorkel and dive, visit sandy beaches, fresh or saltwater fish, kayak waterways, hike in the woods all while viewing wildlife in their natural habitat.”

To bring awareness to the community, the E.R.M. will host the annual family fun event known as the Natural Areas Festival.  Palm…

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