Blog Posts

Apartment Etiquette Tips

Living in an apartment community like Liv Northgate is a treat for our residents here in Gilbert, AZ. We value a comfortable lifestyle for everyone, so today on the blog we’re bringing awareness to an important topic, apartment etiquette. We hope these reminders will be helpful for members of our community. Communicate efficiently and politely. Being courteous to others — in an apartment community setting or in any other — starts with speaking and treating others respectfully. If you have to work around others’ preferences, habits, or needs, be open and willing to engage in a helpful conversation with the person about it. Whether you’re using the clubhouse with someone else or you’re throwing a party at your apartment, communicate with those nearby who may be affected. Be polite about how you can make adjustments so that you’re both comfortable. Clean up after yourself. Keeping your apartment and any community areas clean really takes a load off of everyone’s shoulders and contributes to everyone’s safety and comfort. Cleaning up messes can minimize the risk of injury around your building or the community, and it keeps the quality of each home and area of the community where it needs to be. So let yourself and others make the most of the clean, state-of-the-art environment here, whether you’re having fun at our poolside barbecue grills or you’re using our personally equipped fitness center, and help keep our community clean. Every effort counts! Be friendly. It may seem too simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth remembering! Being a consistently friendly person, even in passing, contributes to good relations between you and anyone, however well you know them or often you interact with them. Go out of your way to be nice and welcoming to others. Basically, treat others how you’d like to be treated — and sometimes even better, if not much bothers you. Be open to learn from your mistakes and remember that everyone is different so your efforts to understand them will be appreciated. What other essential apartment living etiquette tips do you have for us? Share with us in the comments! Thanks for reading.

DIY: Repurpose with Items from Your Closet

Welcome back to the Liv Northgate Blog. Last week we shared some ways to reduce stress via yoga, this week we’re following that up with some fun DIY projects using items from your closet, specifically jeans and tee- or button-down shirts. Chances are you may have of jeans that are worn, too small, or too big. In line with the old adage from the era of the Great Depression, we have ideas for you to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Use up those extra jeans and other clothing items with these craft ideas. Repurpose Jeans — A Levi quilt can be both a work of art and a functional item — not to mention warm! They are great for picnics or for wrapping up in front of the TV. And they are a great way to use old jeans and preserve memories at the same time (use the square with that splotch of paint, it will remind you of painting with a loved one). For the back, use more denim, flannel, or even a nice cotton sheet. You can also make a handbag, a backpack, or an apron out of jeans. For directions, simply do an internet search using the term “recycle jeans,” which will bring up nearly 3,000,000 results. You will have no shortage of projects to choose from. Memory Quilts — Do you have a collection of old T-shirts you no longer wear, yet you can’t imagine giving up? Use them to make a memory quilt . You will enjoy the extra room in your closet, and you can enjoy the memories every time you use the quilt. The same idea can be used to make quilts or pillows from flannel shirts. From Shirt to Apron — Button-down shirts (especially in larger sizes) are perfect to use to make aprons. They make fun gifts for family members or friends, or they make a heartfelt remembrance of family members who have passed on. Easy directions for making aprons from button-down shirts can be found at this apron tutorial: from skirt to apron . Another idea is to organize a closet swap. Schedule a space at Liv Northgate for an evening and invite residents to go through their closets and bring what are wanting to give away. The night of the swap, everyone can take what they like, and then the remainder can be given to a local shelter or non-profit in the Gilbert, AZ area. It’s a win-win-win — more closet space for you, new-to-me clothes for others, and helping out a non-profit. Feel free to share your ideas with our apartment community of what and how to repurpose clothing items you don’t want in the comments section! Thanks for reading today’s post.

Yoga! It Does a Body Good

The Liv Northgate Blog hopes you’re having a great summer! Have a great month by relieving any stress you may be feeling. Now is a perfect time to address your stressors: We’ve done some research and rounded up some yoga poses to give a try. Check out our yoga classes soon! Yoga Journal has a huge selection of yoga poses you can try for all types of problems: stress, anxiety, asthma, back pain, and even insomnia are some options you can look into. Before you try some of these yoga poses, be sure to consult a doctor and make sure you don’t put yourself in a position where you could be harmed. Once you’re prepared for some stress relief, check out these posts and photos, which you can learn more about by clicking on the name. Fitness Magazine has a great video for five yoga poses to relax you before bed . These poses are great ways to wind your body and mind down from a long or stressful day. Sometimes we don’t realize how tense our bodies are until we stretch them, so set aside just eight minutes to incorporate this simple set of moves into your nighttime routine to prepare yourself for a restful sleep. For even more variety and a more intense workout, try Huffington Post’s 10 best yoga poses for stress relief . You’ll start with a Child’s Pose, move up toward an Eagle Pose, go down to a Puppy Pose, and finish with a Dolphin Pose. All of these poses will help stretch your body, making you feel more limber, relaxed, and ready to take on the world! If you’re too nervous to figure out how to do any of these moves on your own, ask a friend to be your yoga buddy so you can learn from and encourage each other for a restful workout. Of course, we offer yoga classes in our apartment community, but do you have a favorite yoga studio in Gilbert, AZ? Let us know in the comments. We hope these yoga poses help relieve any stress you may be feeling this month or anytime this year. Thanks for reading!

How to Write Poetry Part IV

Hello Liv Northgate! We’re back with our final installment of How to Write Poetry. Today our poetry form is the quintain (sometimes called quintet) poetry form. There are a variety of poem styles that are quintains including tanka, limerick, gogyohka, and pentastitch (the latter you may never have heard of, right?); or a quintain can be free verse or blank verse — as long as you are doing five lines per stanza. There is our free verse example poem consisting of five stanzas of five lines each: Seat L-41 London, the curtain rises, except there is no curtain, just an empty set, awaiting — Victoria Palace Theatre, sitting in seat L 41 — began with a bet about rap. “Rap is crap! Not even music at all.” Undaunted, Tatiana is contemplating To prove me wrong, vowing she will find, the perfect trap. I knew I would never be satisfied. No! To Tupac, Nikki Minaj, Cardi B, Big Sean, and even Eminem, But then, it happened, I was in the room where it happened, aye — One song and I was helpless. Hooked. I couldn’t say no. Not then. So clever, so witty, so much history, I was blown away by — Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton Not believing what I’d missed, obsessed,a non-stop pound — Morning, noon, and night, headphones on, singing along, Should have taken a break, my world was turned upside down, Chernow’s book, filled me in on what I’d missed, about Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton Looking for tickets non stop, a slow burn, so expensive across the nation, damn. But a lottery, I knew there was a lottery, and London, London was calling me. Looking into the lottery, I thought it would be enough, it wasn’t enough, damn. Wait for it! Tickets, tickets at Victoria Palace, London affordable and available, whee! Hamilton, I’m going to Hamilton! Eight months and an ocean away, but it will work, I’ve got my eyes on this. In London! Walking, talking, sightseeing, George’s castle is really grand, a legend I can’t wait to tell the story of tonight — Victoria Palace Theatre — Seat L-41 pure bliss, I was in the room where it happened, magic filled the stage where it happened, And history has its eyes on Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton. Of course your poem doesn’t need to be five stanzas — five lines will do. In fact, you could create a tanka or a limerick both are also quintain poems. Whichever you choose to do, please share your results in the comments. Thanks for going on this poetry writing journey this month. We appreciate the members of our Gilbert, Arizona apartment community!

How to Write Poetry Part III

Welcome back to the Liv Northgate Blog where we are now halfway through our how to write poetry month. This time around we are going to keep it simple with an easy format for our poem. Today’s poem is a seven-line fill-in-the-blank format with “What if” and “I might” forming three two-line stanzas (with a blank line between each stanza), with the seventh line asking a question. All you have to do is fill in the blanks. Your topic can be thoughtful, serious, silly, adventurous, or whimsical — you decide. No rhyming is required unless you want to add it. This is the outline for the poem with an example following. What if . . . I might Poem Outline Line 1: What if ______________________________________________________ Line 2: I might ______________________________________________________ Line 3: What if ______________________________________________________ Line 4: I might ______________________________________________________ Line 5: What if ______________________________________________________ Line 6: I might ______________________________________________________ Line 7: Ask a question. What if . . . I might . . . Poem Examples Desert Jasmine What if walked away from Gilbert into the Arizona desert unprepared? I might get extremely thirsty and dehydrated. What if I began to hallucinate? I might think I am walking toward an evergreen oasis. What if my hallucination was actually really, really there? I might quench my thirst with a mimosa while sitting next to the scent of jasmine on the breeze. Why doesn’t everyone walk into the desert unprepared? Mind Expanded What if travel across deserts, rivers, mountains, valleys, and oceans? I might find myself on the other side of the road — and the world. What if I found other words, other ways, and other objects different from what I know at home? I might be puzzled, amused, intrigued, or enchanted by looking at things in a new way. What if I realized that underneath the differences, the function is often the same. I might give up my unneeded prejudices and welcome the expansion of my personal horizons. Why don’t we more readily accept our shared humanity? We hope you enjoy creating a new poem this week using this format. We would love to see the poems you’ve written this month; feel free to share in the comments.

How to Write Poetry Part II

We hope you were able to take time out last week and write a poem using the senses! We’re back this week to share another poem form with members of our apartment community here at Liv Northgate. This time around, we’re going to do a rictameter poem which is composed of 9 lines, with counted syllables. Here is a syllable counter to help you get it just right! Just for fun, we chose to use the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace as the inspiration for our example poem, but you can choose any topic you like for this poem, be it the Arizona landscape or your favorite dessert. The key here is in the number of syllables per line. Line 1 — 2 syllables (same word/words as line 9) Line 2 — 4 syllables Line 3 — 6 syllables Line 4 — 8 syllables Line 5 — 10 syllables Line 6 — 8 syllables Line 7 — 6 syllables Line 8 — 4 syllables Line 9 — 2 syllable (same word/words as line 1) Here is our example poem: Soldiers Steadily march To Buckingham Palace Organized for the Changing of the Guard Marching band — a counterpoint to horses’ trot Foot Guards’ iconic bearskin hats Are images remembered Of the Queen’s Guard Soldiers We love the shape the poem takes, based on the number of syllables per line, and how the title and ending bring the message full circle. Visit this website if you are interested in learning more about the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Give a rictameter a try. We are excited to see what you come up with. Please feel free to share your poems in the comments. We will be back next week with another poetry form to try out. Thanks for taking the time to read our post.