This morning on The Sunrise Show Diane enjoyed sharing with the viewers tips and tricks on travel planning and packing.

Whether you are looking to save money on travel or simplify the packing process, you’ll find lots of helpful information by clicking on the links below.

How to Find Low Air Fare

Save Money on Hotel Stays

Car Rentals for Less

Preventing Travel Mishaps

Luggage to Love

Suitcase Packing Made Easy

Packing Checklist

We wish you happy and safe travel!

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As you leave from home for a trip to you ever have that sick feeling that you forgot to pack something? Instead, wouldn’t it be great to have the confidence that you are leaving home with everything you need?

Do you dread packing? Do you repeatedly go back and forth wasting time gathering items you need as they come to mind?

Our tips below should help cut down on your packing time and provide you with a stress-free vacation.

•  Create a packing checklist to use over and over again. Save the list in your computer. Each time it is time to pack, print out the list then cross of the items that don’t pertain to your upcoming and travel and jot down additional items you need. To help you get started, we’ll share our travel packing checklist with you.

•  Gather all the clothes that you would like to take and put half back. Keep the clothes that are in the same color families so you can mix and match. Don’t keep browns and blues for example.

•  Lay clothing as flat as possible and as full length as possible. Having clothing in dry cleaner bags in a suitcase is a great way to prevent clothes from wrinkling.

•  Place the clothing you will need first, on top.

•  Divide clothes and other items between different bags in case a piece of luggage gets lost en route.

•  Stuff shoes with sunglasses, other items you don’t want to break and electronic items such as cords.

•  To prevent shoes from getting other items dirty, place in Ziploc® gallon size bags - especially on the return trip.

•  Put items such as brushes that can snag or scratch things in a cloth or Ziploc® bag.

•  Put toiletries in Ziploc® bags. If your toiletries are going in a carry on for air travel, prevent getting tied up at security by following the TSA (Transportation Security Administrations) rule of 3-1-1*. Each liquid, gel and aerosol must be in a container of no more than THREE ounces. All liquids, gels and aerosols must be placed in ONE quart size ziptop, clear bag - which makes it easy to pull out and place in the bin to be x-rayed at the security checkpoint. Each passenger may carry on only ONE ziptop, clear bag of liquids, gels and aerosols. Consider putting this bag in an easy to reach part of your carry on such as a zippered pocket. Travel size containers can help with the packing of toiletries. Bed, Bath, and Beyond carries a nice selection of travel size items and containers.

*Medications, baby formula and food, and breast milk are exempt from the 3-1-1 carry on rule in reasonable quantities. You can check out the TSA’s website http://www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm for the most up to date information.

•  Weigh your luggage at home. Don’t wait until you get to the airport, for you certainly don’t want to have to pay a fee or frantically try to move items from one suitcase to another to make the weight requirement. Check with your airline if you are concerned about their specific weight limits for luggage - typically for an economy ticket the weight limit for checked luggage is 50 pounds.

•  Before leaving for the airport tie a colored ribbon to your luggage handle or place a large unique sticker on the side(s) of your suitcase. This way as the luggage carousel goes around you’ll be able to easily identify your luggage. 

Wishing you packing success!

To make your trip as smooth as possible take the time before you leave to perform some preventative measures. A little time invested will enable you handle the unexpected curve ball thrown your way. The following travel tips and tricks should have you well on your way to a stress free vacation or business trip.

•  Before leaving home, add important telephone numbers into your cellular phone. Enter the telephone numbers for your hotel, airline, car rental agency and travel agency. This way if you have any delays or problems, coming or going, you can easily place any necessary calls.

•  If you’ve missed your flight or connection, call the airline directly instead of standing in line for a ticket agent.

•  When making a hotel reservation be sure to clearly state the type of beds that you want, i.e., king, queen, etc. Confirm the type of bed that is on your reservation. At check-in request a room that does not face traffic or is near elevator or vending machines. If you are a member of the hotel’s rewards club, check to see if the hotel offers a late checkout.

•  Afraid you might lose your cellular phone? Don’t wear a watch. This will force you to check your cellular phone for the time which will alert you more quickly if you misplaced your phone.

•  It is easy to misplace a purse if you are bringing along a carry on. The carry on may feel like your purse at times and make it easy to forget you should have two items over your shoulder instead of one. If you are afraid you’ll lose your purse, wear a waist pack instead. 

•  Print out a local map, review it ahead of time and bring it with you. It will save stress.

•  Call the airline ahead of time to make sure you are earning frequent flyer points.

•  Download pictures from your digital camera before trip. This way if your camera gets lost during your trip, you won’t lose any other precious memories.

•  If taking a picture of your hotel room is a vacation tradition, snap a picture of your room before you unpack a thing. This way everything will still be neat, tidy and in place in your room.

•  Have a medical condition or allergy to food and traveling out of the US? Prior to leaving have someone who is fluent in that language write down your allergy and problems/questions that may pertain to it. Such as, “Are there nuts in this item?” or perhaps you may need to state, “I need immediate medical attention for …” Be sure to have the English translation written next to it

Wishing you a safe and problem-free vacation!

One of the most comfortable and fun shoes you will ever wear are Onesoles®. Invented by a pharmacist who stood on her feet 12 hours a day, this incredibly comfortable and fun shoe is almost too good to be true. When I first tried on Onesoles®, the immediate thought that came rushing to my mind was, “Oh, my gosh! I don’t ever want to take these shoes off!”

Not only is this shoe fabulous because of its comfort, the top (or strap) of the shoe is actually interchangeable. With a wide variety of strap styles, colors and designs to choose from, you can easily make it look like you have hundreds of different pairs of shoes. And while all your friends are assuming you have mountains of shoes, secretly you’ll know that your closet is really occupied by just “one sole.” Imagine being able to honestly reply, “Just one.” when your husband asks, “Honey, how many new pairs of shoes did you buy?”

Like the straps, the shoe itself comes in different styles, heel heights, and colors. So you start by picking the heel style, height, and shoe color that’s right for you, and you finish by selecting the extra interchangeable tops (straps) that you like. And, if you travel, is this ever the shoe for you! Being able to pack one pair of shoes with multiple interchangeable straps is sure to help you win the battle to keep your suitcase from exceeding the airlines’ 50 lb weight limit.

Knowing the value, style, and comfort of these shoes, we’ve added Onesoles® to our local store and are now in the process of adding them to our online store. You can also visit the Onesole® website to check out the different shoe styles and over 600 tops (straps) as well as locate a store carrying Onesoles® in your area.

Wishing you happy feet!

Today on WFMZ-TV Channel 69’s Sunrise Show Diane provide tips on how to have a fun summer with fond memories and how to prevent academic setback for your child over the summer months.

Diane also showed some of her favorite products for summer. SwitchFlops® are flip-flops and heels that allow you to change the strap, making it look like you have an array of shoes. Onesoles® are comfortable shoes with style. Not only do they come in variety of heels and colors, but the tops snap off allowing you to change the tops making it look like you have tons of shoes, 600 to be exact. SwitchFlops and Onesoles are available at All Bright Ideas.

If you are shopping for luggage this summer, you may want to consider purchasing a piece with four wheels on the bottom. Diane demonstrated Samsonite’s® Silhouette luggage. The four wheels on this luggage provides phenomenal steering capability.

If you haven’t signed up for our free online newsletter or blog, be sure to today. Both will help you to get organized with tips to maximize and simplify your time and space.

Currently there are almost 40 studies that show the decline in tests scores of children from the beginning to the end of summer vacation. The set back can vary from one month to up to one grade level of learning. And the more a child struggles during the school year, the greater the setback. Certain case studies show that math, reading, and spelling are the subjects most significantly affected by summer vacation.

Summer Bridge workbooks are designed to both keep your child’s mind stimulated and prevent academic setback over the summer. The workbooks are available for the different grade levels Pre-K thru 8th grade.

The layout of the book provides for the completion of one workbook page per day, 5 days a week for 10 weeks during the summer vacation months. The workbook covers various subjects, and provides an answer key in the back for parents as well as certificates of accomplishment that serve as incentive for your child. The workbooks are $13.95. Each book also includes a special code for more activities online at SummerBridgeActivities.com

This summer keep your children reading and their minds stimulated. If you are in search of the Summer Bridge series call your local bookstore before making the trip as not all bookstores carry it. The series can be found at Barnes and Noble.

Have a fun and safe summer!