UND-Pilsa Blog

The holidays are a great time to gather the family. Alas, your holiday experiences can fade with time. The best way to prevent this is to keep a journal for your holidays.

Holiday Writing Journals

Take a minute to give some consideration to the holidays in 2004. What sticks out in your mind? Now think about what you did for the holidays in 1998. Undoubtedly, you remember few things about 1998. The experiences you’ve forgotten are lost to time. If you had kept a journal, this wouldn’t be the case.

Keeping a journal each holiday season is a good way to build up a history of family gatherings. It also keeps you from losing hilarious and cherished moments to the passage of time. Each holiday season offers a chance to see how the lives of families and friends have changed. It is also a time to reflect on the things you have to be thankful for, such as a sister or brother you haven’t seen in years. Keeping a journal lets you take a snap shot in time of what you were thinking then.

As time passes, your holiday journal will grow in detail. It will become a great keepsake by acting as a time line for the growth of your family. You’ll be able to look back at past years and read about the good and, perhaps, not so good times. You’ll be shocked how to realize how much everything has changed over time.

As time continues to pass, you will inevitably lose loved ones as nature runs its course. I am not trying to be macabre, just realistic. Your journal will give you a detailed account of memories involving that person. Frankly, re-reading the good times can help get you through the tough ones.

Eventually, you’ll have to come to a decision with your journal. Should you pass it on to one of your children to carry on the volume or just keep it as your private diary? Whatever your choice, you’ll be thankful you kept a record of the holiday seasons spent with your family.

Rick Chapo is with http://www.nomadjournals.com - makers of writing journals. Travel journals are great travel accessories and travel gifts for student travel, family vacations and adventure travel. Visit http://www.nomadjournaltrips.com for more travel articles, travelogues and travel stories.

Comments Off

Here are a few great gift ideas for that special mother in your life on Mother’s Day.

10. Weekend Getaway. A weekend retreat to a ski lodge could be great for the mom who needs a weekend to unwind.

9. Digital Camera. For the new mom, this makes a great gift. Children grow up so fast, catching those fleeting moments are important. With scrap booking becoming so popular, digital cameras also make a great gift for the scrapbook lover.

8. Charitable Donation. For the mom who never stops giving, she would be honored to know that a donation was given to her favor charity in her name. This is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

7. Buy a Tree or Star. Have that special mom immortalized for years to come. Have a star named after her or buy a tree in her name. With God’s love that star and tree will be around even if we are not.

6. Night Out. New mothers would surely appreciate a night out of the house with some adult conversation and atmosphere. It’s a simple request, yet such a grand gesture for those moms who just want an evening as an adult. This works well with the morning and afternoon spent with the children. That is what Mother’s Day is about in the first place.

5. Spa Day. Most mothers I know could use a spa day. Whether her children are at home or have long since moved out, a spa day is great choice. Spa Days range from a whole package of all the goodies like mud baths and lunch or just a half hour of massage.

4. Jewelry. A great idea would be give her a pendant with picture of her child/ren in it or a bracelet, ring or necklace with the birthstone/s of children or grandchildren.

3. Gift Baskets. You can find Gift baskets that contain any and everything. There are baskets that are specifically designed for Mother’s Day, but other choices include gourmet and fruit baskets, spa bsakets and candle baskets. Many places also make custom baskets.

2. Flowers and Plants. This is the most common of Mother’s Day gifts. It’s the obvious choice for that bouquet lover or for a very picky person.

1. The Star Treatment. Being a good mother is the hardest job in the world. Offering that special mom the star treatment for a day is a great gift. Start with allowing her to sleep in. As if that weren’t gift enough, breakfast in bed and cleaning the house is just what the mom ordered. Lunch and dinner preparation should be included along with bathing, feeding and dressing the children. Basically don’t allow her to left a finger. Supply a good book or time for her to do what she wants. What mother wouldn’t want a day to recuperate?

www.simplysinfulbaskets.com

Cynthia Marcano for Simply Sinful Baskets

Comments Off

Britain’s spellbinding & commonly terrible past is maybe most shown in it’s historic structures & nowhere is this clearly visible than in those properties associated with the Royal Family & their rituals

For a prolonged period now the British Monarchy has been seen as being significant to the prosperity of the UK. They have fascinated overseas holiday-makers for years & maintain to motivate the interest of overseas holiday-makers of all age groups. Buckingham Place has been branded the Capital’s home of the English monarchy since Queen Victoria became sworn in as queen in eighteen thirty-seven. It is one of a tiny amount of operational royal palaces enduring in in Great Britain these days.

Buckingham Palace is used essentially as a place of work, but can additionally be converted into an activities venue for the fifty-thousand visitors invited to the Palace every year. There are well over six-hundred lodgings, including nineteen state lodgings, fifty two royal and visitor bedrooms, 78 bathrooms, ninety-two offices, but more remarkably an in-house cinema & swimming pool.

Right through the spring & summer, day-trippers can tour around the beautiful state bathrooms, which help to make the heart of the Palace. These marvellous rooms are highlighted with a number of the finest assets from the Royal compilation, including sculptures by Canova and also paintings by the many well-known painters for example Rembrandt, Rubens & Canaletto. Find out about Buckingham Palace UK, the home of the English Monarchy.

Comments Off

BBC Green is the fantastic and sustainable living site from the BBC Worldwide. The BBC Worldwide is owned by the BBC. The organization makes its money from a range of jobs and corporations that are linked purely to the BBC’s main output. BBC Greens prime desire is to cut through the mystification that these days surrounds environmental and climate issues. Reusable energy is a great way to save money, one way is to use Solar Panels.

The name green is meant to develop our people to consider about taking a responsible way to using the natural resources that are placed in and around you. Quite a bit of great examples would be generating and owning solar power. All that may make a vast contribution to a sustainable environment. Both solar panels use energy that is received from the sun to produce electricity to run showers and lighting. Solar PV additionally known as photovoltaic only requires light during the day in order to make all of this work; all this is fantastic as it conversely means that it is to generate a little power still on a cloudy day. There are legions of benefits to using solar panel system. You yourself might well save up to 155 off your electricity bill also grid connected systems need exceedingly little maintenance. Your PV generators produce absolutely no greenhouse gases and each respective kWp will probably save pretty much 481g of carbon dioxide gas per year. This adds up to just about just under 12 tonnes over a solar panels life time.

The website is fine at explaining things and contains all the issues from across Household and Garden, Food, Travel, Society & Family and Money. What makes BBC Green fantastic is that the green company like to think of themselves as dissimilar from each and every one of the other research green site folk might have used. The BBC Green bid to offer extra relevant results not only from BBC Greens own site, but also from other green issue sites that look and research on combat climate change living. When our people submit a search the public will be taken to a results webpage. This web page will probably have the chief three links for BBC Greens results and for recommended sites results.

Comments Off

How to Light Up Your Home for Joy

Do you love the winter holiday season or does this time of year cause you stress? One way to lower your holiday stress, using fewer decorations, decreases your “just have to much to do” list.

However, you still want to display Christmas candles because these decorations bring smiles to you and your loved ones. As days grow shorter and cooler and the suns sets earlier, people naturally crave the warmth and comfort of light, especially natural sources such as a bonfire or the flame of a Christmas candle.

Christmas Candle Tips

Luminaries

Save your energy and your money. You don’t need to line your entire sidewalk with luminaries. Get a similar effect with four large candles in clear glass containers near your front door. These glowing candles will welcome your guests without all the work of gathering bags, buying votive candles that just burn up fast, and shoveling all that sand.

Window Candles

Many cultural holiday traditions include placing a lighted candle in front windows to be seen from the outside. Pamper yourself. Place a candle in any dark window at night. Rather than peering into a dark void, you’ll focus on the cheerful flame and feel comforted and uplifted.

Gift Yourself

Create a nightly quiet ritual for yourself in a quiet place away from distractions and the hustle of the holidays. Place candles around your bathtub and unwind, or by your favorite reading chair and instead of reading sit in the quiet and reflect upon the brightness of a single candlelight. Listen to quiet music or simply enjoy the peace and stillness. Ponder the joys in your life and express gratitude. This quiet time may be your most treasured gift to yourself.

Candlelight Carol-Sing

Recycle last year’s greeting cards by cutting each into a disk or rounding the edges, punch a hole in the center, and slide a taper candle half-way through the hole. Gather your friends and family around the piano or hearth and sing familiar Christmas carols as each person holds their own candlelight. Pause to reflect upon the fact that each individual brings their own special light to the world and recognize the common spiritual light in each of us.

Candle Night-Night

When it’s time to settle the children down to bed on Christmas Eve, calm them with a soothing candlelight ritual. My daughter’s children walk to bed, each carefully carrying a lighted candle through a dark hallway, singing “Silent Night.”

Happy Holidays!

© Jeanette Fisher

Free holiday decorating ideas teleclass, “Interior Design Secrets to Glorious Holiday Decorating” and more holiday decorating tips Joy Holidays Decorating http://JoyHolidays.com

Interior Design Ideas

Comments Off

I’ve always liked to make gadgets and gizmos that have some function, either useful or not so useful. It started with the simple things that many kids make - slingshots, a simple bow and arrow, a toy boat. Occasionally I made more involved items such as a canoe and a dune buggy. Then there was the grass hut - 12 feet across, octogonal in shape, and thatched top to bottom with a thick layer of grass. I built it in a remote location, near a stipmine filled with water. Hauled the cut grass in a 1972 Volkswagon convertible with the top down. Piled the grass high in the back seat. It must have taken a dozen trips back and forth from a nearby hay field.

Simple things appeal to me more than costly homemade items. A small project lets me pursue an interest without interfering with other goals. A project with a small amount of time invested seems more like entertainment. Time spent earnestly involved in the creation of something designed and made with ones own ingenuity can be quite enjoyable.

So now when I don’t feel motivated to do more practical things I often turn to an idea about some device or other that I’ve wanted to try making but never got around to. I can recall many such improvised devices that gave me satisfaction and enjoyment.

Ideas for things to make come from many places. Most often the idea comes from some need. I do a lot of keying of text using a computer keyboard. I tend to keep the room temperature a bit cool, cool enough that my hands become uncomfortable. I ended up rigging a length of electrical heating tape wound in a large coil-shape to surround the keyboard. Tying the heat tape to a large piece of cardboard keeps it in place. It does a nice job of keeping my hands warm. I can leave the room temperature set where I want it. As far as I know, you can’t buy anything like that.

image at:
www.leisureideas.com/makegizmos/graphics/kheater2.gif

As we build and invent, we improve our understanding of mechanical devices and materials. It becomes easier to manipulate and modify the physical things around us. With effort and imagination, we are able to make improvements and add enjoyment to our lives.

Both intuition and logic are used to make a homemade gizmo. The more the two abilities are used together, the more powerful the combination becomes. A strong partnership of reason and creativity helps a person to produce and enjoy life.

It is fun and satisfying to conjure up and build simple devices. Those created items command more appreciation than more casually acquired, purchased items. And it feels good proving that imagination and ingenuity can make life better. Having witnessed first-hand the process of invention, we wonder what other things we can achieve.

Alan Detwiler is the author of the ebook Homemade Devices For Inventive Teens available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000231WF2/leisureideas-20. He has a web site about homemade items at http://www.MakeGizmos.com

Comments Off

After my extremely interesting walking tour of the Downtown East
Side I decided to round out my exploration of the city with
another bicycling trip. In my mind, bicycling is just the
perfect way to discover a city, it gives you greater range than
walking, you don’t need to wait around for buses, and you get
exercise at the same time -bonus!

I realized that I had not even seen Gastown yet, which gave me a
perfect excuse for another round of exploring. I went to Spokes
Bicycle Rentals again, talked to Phil who had been so helpful to
me on Saturday in my exploration of Stanley Park and off I went
for another few hours, to see just a bit more of Vancouver
before I had to leave. I decided to ride back to the Downtown
East Side since I wasn’t able to take any photos during the
walking tour. I rode along the waterfront trail past Canada
Place and the Harbour Centre to the east side of town.

I closely retraced my steps from this morning’s walking tour on
the bicycle and took some pictures of some of the buildings
along the way. One place that definitely stood out was the Sun
Tower, a building created between 1911 and 1912 that used to be
the headquarters of the Vancouver Sun. I rode through Chinatown
again, which still had such an unusually orderly and organized
feel to it.

Then I explored Gastown, one of Vancouver’s most historic areas.
Its founding father was a loquacious saloon owner: John “Gassy
Jack” Deighton, who, in 1867, built a saloon near the corner of
Carrall and Water Streets to profit from the local lumber mill
workers and gold prospectors on their way to the Yukon. By the
1870s, Gastown was a multicultural community, complete with
saloons, hotels and grocery stores, brought into town because
Vancouver had been chosen as the Canadian Pacific Railroad
terminus.

By 1886 it had 1,000 buildings and 3,000 residents. Then, in
1886, a blaze broke out and burned the town to the ground.
Although destroying the town, this fire started the biggest
building boom in West Coast history. After an economic decline
in the early part of the 20th century, Gastown became a virtual
backwater from the 1930s to 1950s until a group of local
merchants and property owners put it back on the map in the
1960s by renovating the historic buildings and turning them into
one of the city’s top tourist attractions.

One of the biggest draws Gastown is the steam-powered clock, the
world’s first, created by Raymond Saunders who has a small shop
nearby. Live steam, pumped from a plant that heats more than 100
downtown buildings, operates the mechanism of the clocks and
blows the whistles. At each quarter hour the clock sounds the
Westminster Chimes while the large whistle announces the hours.
Gastown’s Steam Clock is one of the favourite photography spots
for tourists. Gastown also houses another major Vancouver
attraction: an innovative educational and cultural experience
called Storeyum: it’s 100,000 square foot indoor venue showcases
the colourful history of Canada’s West Coast in live
reenactments.

Of course I didn’t have time to explore Gastown and all its
stores and restaurants in detail since my plane would be leaving
in a few hours and I still wanted to head back to Stanley Park
one more time to catch another glimpse of this most gorgeous
urban greenspace. So back I cycled past construction of the new
convention centre and back on the waterfront into Stanley Park.
Since this was my second time in the park I caught a few things
I missed the first time around: I saw the Girl in a Wetsuit
sculpture, created in 1972, which is a life-size bronze statue
of a woman in a wetsuit, with flippers on her feet and her mask
pushed up on her forehead, and sits on a large intertidal
boulder just offshore of Stanley Park.

I didn’t go all around the park but cut across it after a nice
little icecream break at the Lumberman’s Arch concession stand
and I rode through the beautiful Rose Garden and Shakespeare
Garden which form the backbone of the perennial flower beds and
ornamental trees and shrubs. Stanley Park is really a sight to
behold, and it offers so many recreational and relaxation
opportunities. The park also holds a children’s farmyard and
miniature train.

My final stop in the park was the Lost Lagoon, a large pond,
featuring a fountain at its centre, set against a gorgeous
backdrop of forests, flowering shrubs, with the mountains
towering in the background. The amount of visual beauty of this
area is virtually overwhelming and I was starting to feel a
little sad that I had to end my visit since I had to make it
back to UBC on the other side of town to retrieve my luggage and
head off to the airport.

I had originally planned to go biking until 5:30 pm, considering
that my flight wouldn’t leave until almost 9 pm, but then I
realized it’s Monday and rush hour would be setting in soon. So
I took my bike back early, said my goodbyes to Phil, who’s been
so helpful all along, and he gave me a few more words of local
advice as to which bus routes to take and off I went to catch a
bus to Burrard Street. The intersection of Burrard and Georgia
was totally nuts, since the city was repaving and police were
directing traffic manually. I was glad I had taken my bike back
early, at least I would make it back to the university in time
for my departure to the airport. Finally the #44 bus came and I
could relax. Actually I was surprised that it only took me 25
minutes to get back to the University which left me extra time
to complete some travel reports over the Internet.

All in all, Victoria and Vancouver have been an awesome
experience. I had absolutely perfect weather: 25 degrees with
beaming sunshine and absolutely no humidity. I had a fabulous
reunion in Victoria with my co-worker Clare, two and a half very
interesting days at the Canada-US Servas Conference where I got
to know some of the most generous and dedicated individuals I
have ever had a chance to meet, and in the time in between I had
an opportunity to explore Vancouver, a vibrant and exciting city
full of contrasts, set in one of the most physically stunning
locations anywhere on the planet.

It’s been a very short trip, and all I can say - I’ll be
back…..

Comments Off

Family traditions connect us to past and future generations. They provide
meaning and connection, as well as a sense of ritual and comfort. And they
can create - and help to preserve - some of life’s most moving moments.

Easter traditions can help to usher in a season of love, rejuvenation, and
abundance. Here are seven ideas for sharing the sweetness of this special season:

- Start a kindness wreath for your doorway. For the week of Easter, give
each family member 10 or more ribbons in bright spring colors. Each time a family
member reaches out to someone in kindness during the week, they simply tie another
ribbon onto the wreath.

- Ask your children to make a special drawing or a collage that depicts what
Easter means for them. After you display them during the Easter season, scan
them or take a photo and record the artwork in a special journal or album
for a treasured Easter keepsake.

- Create a Garden Journal. Cover a composition book with spring patterned
papers or photos/clippings of your favorite flowers. Document the process
of creating your family garden this year. Make sure to include photos of
your family members digging in the dirt. Record their favorite flowers
and their favorite part of working in the garden…and, of course,
lots of journaling and flower pressings.

- Fill an Easter basket with cheerful messages, handmade cards, or simple
gifts. Then leave the basket anonymously on a friend’s doorstep.

- If you have young children, video- or audio-tape them singing a fun
seasonal song. Tapes of “Here comes peter cottontail” and “Little Bunny
Foo Foo” can make treasured mementos. Share the tapes with distant family
and friends.

- When it’s time for your Easter brunch or Easter dinner, give each guest
a 6×6 sheet of cardstock and ask them to handwrite a couple of special
messages for the holiday…perhaps ways they are feeling renewed or grateful
in their lives. Snap a photo of each guest and create a quick and simple
6×6 mini-album as a keepsake featuring one page for each guest (with their
photo and contribution.)

- Make some handmade Easter greeting cards to send to family and friends.
Or renew friendships by hostessing a card-making party where each guest
makes 5 to 10 friendship cards. Make a point to send out five cards this spring to
people with whom you would like to rejuvenate a relationship.

This holiday, may you embrace and celebrate the beauty that comes into our
lives through our family and friends. (And enjoy lots of chocolate!)

Susie Cortright is the founder of momscape.com - http://www.momscape.com and
Momscape’s Scrapbooking Playground - http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking -
devoted to helping visitors record and preserve their cherished memories.

Susie
also trains and supports new scrapbooking instructors with a new and rapidly-
growing direct sales scrapbooking company. Find out how to join her
team here: http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking/consultant

Comments Off

It’s birthday time for Dad, Uncle Mike, brother, boyfriend, teacher or any other significant male in your life. You must buy this special fellow a present, but what to give - what to give?

It’s fun to buy birthday gifts for boys and men. You must first think about whom it is you are buying for and what his likes and dislikes are. For example, if Dad loves to fish but isn’t big on reading, a fishing pole would be ideal but a book just would not do. Younger men go for gadgets - electronics seem to be the most popular choice. Most young boys love sports, so a football, baseball, soccer ball or tennis racket would be a great gift. For the eccentric guy in your life, how about a hot air balloon ride, or a day at the zoo feeding the tigers. He’d love to drive a Ferrari, so rent one for the weekend and take him away for a get away. Tickets to a sporting event for a sport’s buff are just the ticket or tickets to a Broadway play for a theater buff would fit the bill for sure.

Of course, if you don’t have much time, the old standards will do. Men can’t turn their noses up to a digital camera, mobile phone, MP3 player, electronic organizer, etc. Go to any men’s department at the mall or shop online. You’ll find a hundred gift ideas to choose from. If you’re looking for a gift for a male friend or mentor, cufflinks, notebooks, wallets, business card holders, coffee mugs, clocks and calendars are always a tasteful gift.

The most important point to reiterate is when buying a gift for the man in your life, be sure to find out his likes and dislikes, and if he’s someone really special - seal your gift with a kiss.

Gifts For Men provides detailed information about gifts for men, birthday gift for him, anniversary gift for him, gift basket for him and more. Gifts For Men is the sister site of Wholesale Embroidered Hats.

Comments Off