So This Is Christmas

Merry Christmas is such an infectious feeling I like to feel that way all year around.

So if you are visiting just before Christmas, just after Christmas or even here on Christmas day I am sure you will find something of interest for you and in the spirit of Christmas.

It may be said that Christmas is no longer a celebration but this must be spoken by people that have never had trouble closing their eyes on Christmas Eve in an expectation of what maybe left for them on the carpet under the tree.

I continue to look forward to the surprise on my Grandchild's faces to this day at Christmas events.

Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas

Monday, December 8, 2008

Reap Savings on Your Home Energy Bill

By Ethan O. Tanner

Heating bills are rising up in every part of the country and the trend will continue because of World energy demands. The average US household expense on energy bills is estimated at 6% to 8% of the income. Owners of efficient new houses spend considerably less than the people living in old houses. Financial burden due to increased energy expenses can be reduced by weatherizing and conserving.

One of the Easiest and Cost Effective Ways to reduce your Home Heating bill is through an Infrared Radiant Heater. This type of heater is economical , energy efficient, and it provides clean air. Infrared heat waves distribute the heat evenly, regardless of the location of the heater. This type of heater will often save up to 50% over other heating sources.

Your home may be energy inadequate in plumbing, insulation or heating. In numerous aged homes, the greatest trouble isn't the cold air coming from windowpanes just the air filtration from the cellar attributable to floor joists and the structures supporting the floor. In an average American dwelling, 50%-70% of the energy expended goes to heat and cooling.

If your house is constructed before 1980, it might have poor insulation. Although most owners center on attic insulation, they shouldn't brush aside the basement ceiling. Fiber glass is not a good insulation material as air flows right through it. Employ spray foam or cellulose as an insulation materials for desirable insulation.

Caulk and weather-strip all doors and windows that leak air. Look for all plumbing, ducting and electrical wiring the gets through by outside walls and seal those to prevent hot air leaking out. Maintain the flue damper tightly closed when the fire place is not in use. If you are planning to modify windowsin your home, shop for insulating windows and install them as tightly fitting as possible. You'll be able to use heavy clear plastic sheet to the inside of your window and seal them in good order to prevent any leakage.

Some other areas where householders could concentrate to cut down their energy bill is conservation. If you've an aged thermostat, replace it with a newer digital control thermostat. An electronics control thermostat is more accurate than an dial type thermostat. More beneficial, yet, comprises a programmable thermostat that you are able to program for the different hours day-and-night.

As you invest in new appliances,look for the Energy Star label. Energy Star marked appliances are qualified to be energy cost-effective. Almost all appliances at present display a bright yellow and black Energy Guide label. These labels will assure you the median energy consumption cost of the appliance. When buying any appliance, don't forget to consider this cost as added factor to assess prior to making your final judgment. You will be able to find further energy tips at www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips.

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English Laundry Clothing - Edgy Looks Meet British Sophistication

By Hannah Charleston

English Laundry is a well-known clothing label that is a subsidiary of Global Rebels Inc. Designed by Christopher Wicks, the line of clothing features British themed clothing with styles inspired by traditional, and popular British clothing throughout the past decades. In keeping up with the British theme, the clothing will often feature British symbols such as the Union Jack flag, the English lion crest, and the royal crown.

Men's Tops include long sleeve woven shirts, short sleeve woven shirts, short sleeve tees, jackets and blazers, vests, long sleeve tees, sweaters, and hoodies. Current designs for the long sleeve woven shirts include Freddie Dreamer, Saint Cross in blue plaid, and White Lion Hall in black. The short sleeve tee designs currently include Smart Tee in off white pigment, Lions Crown in light blue pigment, No One Can Take Us in light grey pigment, and Beware of the Dog in off-white pigment. The extra stylish line of jackets and blazers include Henry Normal Blazer, Pop Cult Blazer, and Lincolnshire Military jacket. The line of vests has designs for both dress and casual wear. These include the Metro Vest, Failsworth Vest in tan, and the Yarmouth Vest in black.

The women's line of English Laundry clothing is called English Rose and features the clothing lines of Long Sleeve Woven Shirts, Jackets and Sweaters, and vests. The Long Sleeve Woven Shirts line contains many different patterns to suit different occasions. There is the dressy Luton in black, the cute Lady Barn in either pink or grey, the country-side themed Virginia in Red plaid, the Kearsley in Black, and the Title II in either pink or grey. There are four designs in the jackets & sweaters department which include the sleeveless Heywod Sweater, the Lord Strange belted and embroidered jacket, the Withington Trench Coat Dress, and the Northended Trench Coat Dress. There are also 5 vests featured in the English Rose line of clothing including the Black Rose Vest and the Burnage Vest.

English Laundry features bottoms for men only as English laundry caters mostly to men, with the women's English Rose section being a side project. Bottoms include jeans, slacks, and shorts. There are two different designs of jeans to choose from: the crest jeans which, as the name implies, feature an English crest on the pant leg, and the Red Selvege jeans which are navy blue with light blue pockets. There are two types of cargo shorts available as well: the Tameside Cargo Short, and the Peterloo Cargo Short. The Tameside Cargo Short features a traditional style in different colours such as black, brown, and cream. The Peterloo Cargo shorts feature stripes and come only in grey or olive. Slacks include the traditional North Slacker in black Herringbone, and the wide legged, pin striped Hathersage Slack.

Besides clothing, English Laundry proudly offers accessories such as wallets, ties, scarves, and belts which display British images such as the Union Jack, royal crown, and lion crest. You are sure to find what you're looking for in this dignified line of clothing. English Laundry has brought British sophistication and luxury to the world of fashion.

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Mitre Saws: The Craftsman's Friend

By Noel Wortinger

For many years, craftsmen and others who took on woodworking projects used the mitre box, generally a wooden box with slots pre-cut at certain angles. This allowed the user to insert the mitre saw to cut 45-degree angles, 90-degree angles or one of several other corner angles necessary. The manual process using the mitre box helped prepare picture frames, wall and corner mouldings, trim and much more. This tried-and-true method is still used by those who employ mitre saws on a daily basis.

Others, however, have chosen to employ new technology and power, even with such basic concepts as mitre angles and corners. Power saws provide a very clean, quick cut that is sometimes preferable to the cut made by a hand saw. As craftsmen, carpenters and others adopted power tools over the past few decades, the mitre saw and other table saws with angle settings, have become very popular.

A saw on a mitre saw stand is one way to employ power and newer technology for those special angle cuts. A radial saw also allows the user to adjust the cut angle, using a guide that is adjustable by single degrees. Most of these newer saws have standard "stops" at 15 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees and 90 degrees. With a select piece of lumber against the guiding "fence" the cut will match the angle selected almost perfectly.

But there is more to the mitre saw concept than this. In recent years, adjustable saws and special blades have made it possible to cut quickly and smoothly when installing table tops, counter tops and assorted furniture items. Some have taken quite quickly to the compound mitre saw for counter and table work, because they can get a nice bevelled edge (making sharp corners nearly a thing of the past). New saws provide more gradual angles that, with a little sanding, can be very, very smooth.

Radial arm saws make it possible to achieve a perfect, custom cut with minimal passes of the blade at various angles. For example, the Dewalt radial arm saw was very popular in the United States for years. However, the company stopped production on this particular equipment more than two decades ago. Yet, some craftsmen still employ this standard machinery in their workshops.

For those requiring something that will produce special projects, the panel saw can be an ideal addition to the workshop. This particular saw is most often used for cutting large panels or sheets of wood into varying sizes for cabinet-making. The mitre saw is generally employed after this to shape the front of the cabinet or a drawer face, for example. The better hardwoods used for the cabinet doors, drawer faces and other decorative outer pieces must usually be cut with a good mitre saw so that good bevelled edges complete the decorative front.

A number of different types of saws can be employed in the well-equipped workshop, ranging from the basic mitre saw/box version, to the more complex table saws and radial arm saws. It's a matter of choice and work comfort.

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You Can Make Money Online With Clickbank Affiliate Products

By Richard Steaney

If you have a home business opportunity, you first need to find an area where you can promote a product or service. As you try and find this area of specialization, you will realize that you can generate personalized products for people who are zealous about a specific concept.

With that said, you will definitely want to go through your plan and commit your time to start building an Internet home business that will be consistently profitable. Some of the basic techniques you need to know in setting up the system will include on how to:

-find the right niche market

- build and create a customized service that is geared to that niche

- create a website that will allow you to collect leads

- cake your profits to the bank

This works no matter your level of expertise, and it will maintain a consistency that most people only dream about. It starts with the basics, giving you the four basic principles of all successful businesses.

When it comes to feeding the hungry, it's always a lot easier to meet a need that already exists than to search around and try and find one. So, you have to ask yourself what makes a good product. Quality will play a big part; however, you need to deliver a product that is helpful with a good track record that already exists.

In today's high-speed state of affairs, it is best to start with affiliate marketing. This is because it has a good track record and most people know about it. You can become an affiliate in a short period of time.

If you buy a product that has resale rights you have the right to sell it as your own product, to a customer for personal use. With master resale right, you can sell the product as well as resale right related to it.

Affiliate marketing is a far easier business to get into - You go into an agreement with a merchant, who will give you banner ads and links to place on your website. For every visitor to your site who goes on to the merchant's site and makes a purchase, you'll receive a commission.

Of the two types of products, affiliate marketing is the easiest. Because there are usually a lot of affiliates promoting a specific product, brand identity is high. When you resell a product, you were pretty much working alone making brand identity is lower.

When using the Clickbank affiliate program you will want to pick a product or service that already has a good track record. In this way, you will be cutting down on the amount of time it takes for people to recognize the product and for sales to start rolling in. If you have a product that is geared to a certain niche market where people are passionate and looking for information, you can choose either product type - affiliate or resale.

You can combine both affiliate marketing with a product resale, too. Be dedicated in your business and use the system that can help you to go from affiliate marketing sign-up to affiliate marketing superstar. With reselling of products, you will also be able to show a quick profit using the techniques and tips included in this system.

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Design Your Interior

By Claudio Carbeni

Do you love wild and crazy wall colors while your spouse is more of a neutral and beige kind of person? Have you been butting heads about re-decorating and you just can't seem to come to an agreement about what you want to do in your house? With do-it-yourself decorating and design you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself. Perhaps interior design school is just what the doctor ordered for you.

Risk Free Paint

You can check out local stores, houses, or restaurants for real-life ideas to do your best interior design. With a computer program you can upload a picture of the room you want to work on and test out different paint colors and moldings as well as oriental design methods. Your living room can go from beige to chartreuse to puce to yellow in a matter of minutes without dragging out the painter's tape, brushes, drop cloths, and waiting in line at the paint counter for them to mix the wrong color paint

Moldings Without Endings

Putting crown molding up is a project that most homeowners feel pretty confident about in the planning stages but when it comes down to it there is a very complex formula for measuring the angle where the corners meet and it's likely that unless you're a professional or have someone to help you who has done lots of crown molding cutting that you will have spent a lot of time, effort, and money on a bunch of scrap wood by the time you're done. Not to mention the fact that you might get the molding up and hate it.

Remodeling

Being a veteran of the remodeling highs and lows is not a prerequisite for actually jumping in and giving do-it-yourself projects a try! Pick up that hammer and if you miss the nail and break the window then you know to be a little more careful the next time around. Try something new - you might be surprised to find that grouting tile is the most fun you have ever had in your life. Perhaps you will have found yourself a new career choice?

Using a 3-d model to picture the ways that your home "could" look can be really useful. If you see a picture in a magazine of a room that you like take that idea and interpret it your own way by using the colors that are shown in the magazine photo in the room with your accessories such as curtains. Try some throw pillows, they are very inexpensive and can work wonders in changing the look of any room. Except the bathroom. Most people don't have throw pillows in their bathrooms. But then again you might be able to start a fashion trend. I have seen a toilet with a phone attached to the wall next to it at someone's house

Move your furniture around. Get everything away from the wall and try a new arrangement. Listen when someone suggests putting the armchair where you would think it looks hideous. Usually this ends up being the placement you love!

There are so many different ways to remodel your home - from doing it virtually online first to actually going to the store to purchase the materials to getting elbow deep in drywall dust and joint compound, home remodeling can be quite a lot of fun!

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Ever Thought About a Cruise With A Baby - Read This Now

By Brooklyn Sterritt

Our daughter is 9 months old, and we just came back from a fabulous week-long cruise on the Crown Princess ship. We will be going again and when we do we will do some things different, but for the most part we did a lot of things very well. Our pre-planning for the trip really helped to make the trip very successful.

People with young babies may wonder like we did what would it be like on a cruise vacation with a young baby - so I thought that parents like us would be interested in reading what our typical day on a cruise ship was like.

Princess Cruise Line was wonderful to us. They provided us with a very sturdy, clean and safe playpen for our daughter to sleep in. We positioned the playpen out of the way in the small hallway in our cabin near to the cabin's washroom. Our daughter sleeps very well - her normally waking time is 7 am. When she woke up during the vacation we would give her a quick change of clothes and then the three of us (baby, dad and me) would snuggle in our bed for a while waking up and playing.

After changing her out of her wet diaper and into some dry clothes my husband would put our daughter into her stroller and he would go for a 30 minute walk on the promenade deck of the cruise ship. While they were gone I would have a shower and organize our cabin and pack the diaper bag for the day. When they returned my husband would have his shower and get ready for the morning.

Our family would then head off for breakfast. We did not go to the dining room for breakfast - instead we thought it was easier to eat at the buffet area. The Princess ship had high chairs throughout the dining areas - so it was always easy to get one. My husband would get a high chair and get our daughter set up in it while I went to the buffet to get some food for the three of us to start on. The buffet line was never very busy so it just took a minute or so to get the food.

Our daughter loves the water - so most days after breakfast we would head back to our cabin - change into our swim suits and head off for the kiddie swimming pool. On the ship that we were on babies that wear swim diapers are allowed in the kid's pool (so make sure you pack some on your trip).

After swim time back to the cabin for a morning nap for our daughter. One of us would stay in the room while the other took off on their own to explore the ship. We took turns doing this.

When our daughter woke up for her nap we would put her into the stroller and the three of us would walk around the ship together. Back to the buffet for lunch together - more exploring - maybe some more swimming - and eventually it was afternoon nap time.

The highlight of the day was having dinner in the formal dining room. We opted for personal choice dining which meant we could go to the dining room at a time that worked best for us. We would all get dressed up for dinner, and around 5:30 or so we would go to one of the many bars on the ship for a pre-dinner drink. After our drink we would head off for dinner around 6 o'clock. Every dinner was spectacular and the service from the dining room staff was excellent. All the staff loved talking to our daughter.

Right before dinner my husband and daughter would go to the buffet and gather up a few pieces of fruit to take with us to the dining room for our daughter to eat during dinner.

Once in the dining room my husband and I would order our dinner (the food on Princess is soooo good) and our little girl would eat some of her fruit. We also gave her some small pieces of bread and some other snacks like Yum Yums (that we brought with us).

At some point during dinner our daughter would be ready for her dinner. Before we left to go on the cruise (about a month before) I had pre-ordered baby food from Princess. At dinner when she was ready to eat I fed her a jar of baby food and some cereal mixed with water. When we were all finished eating our little family would sit and relax and enjoy being together as our daughter had her bottle.

After we had our dinner and our daughter finished her bottle we went back to our room. Our daughter has a bath every evening - it is part of her getting ready for bed ritual. Most cabins on cruise ships don't have bathtubs they only have showers and ours was no different. So what we did was plug the drain in the shower and run some water into the shower and it was plenty deep enough for our daughter's bath.

After bath time we put her in her sleepers and we put her back into her stroller and off we would go to a show, to see a comedian, listen to some music, or just walk the ship.

Our daughter would enjoy watching all that was going on around her. After 30 minutes or so she would fall asleep in her stroller. We adjusted the stroller seat so that she was reclining as she slept.

We would continue doing things until my husband and I were ready to call it a day. We would back to our cabin, tuck our daughter into her playpen for the night, and then tuck ourselves into bed as well.

Cruising with a young baby is wonderful (at least in our experience) - it does take some advanced planning. It is a wonderful way to have a stress-free vacation, enjoy our daughter and enjoy being a family.

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Butterfly Houses & Feeders

By Lee Dobbins

You can create your own butterfly houses and feeders to attract butterflies to your garden or yard. There are specific types of food that you can make available to butterflies as well as putting houses in ideal spots that are attractive to butterflies. Planting specific plants and flowers can also attract butterflies.

Over ripe fruit is a quick, easy and inexpensive type of butterfly food. Over-ripe rotten fruit are favorites of butterflies and if you have any type of fruit tree and allow the fruit to fall to the ground then you have created a good feeding spot for butterflies. Instead of throwing food out you can simply use it to feed butterflies. They love rotten, sweet and moldy fruit.

You can use many objects around the house to make a feeder. Glass or ceramic pie plates, terra cotta or plastic plant saucers or any dish with a slopping rim are ideal fruit butterfly feeders. You will need to hang the plate from a branch and you can fashion your own hanger from twine or string or use a plant hanger. You should sprinkle some water or fruit juice on the fruit so it doesn't get too dry.

You can also make your own butterfly nectar feeder using a small glass jar, cotton and homemade butterfly nectar, twine and any decorations. The butterfly nectar is 4 parts water to 1 part water, boil and then allow to cool. Punch holes in the jar lid with a nail and hammer. Fill the jar with nectar, screw the lid on tight and stuff the holes with the absorbent cotton. Invert the jar and hang in a good spot. Make sure you used good cotton so the material is wet but doesn't drip.

Butterfly houses are designed to keep birds out and protect the butterflies from the wind and weather. Butterfly houses resemble birdhouses except for they have long, thin slots that let the butterfly in. The inside of the house is typically covered in tree bark. When the weather gets cool at night the butterfly will look for shelter and use your house.

You can attract a lot of butterflies to your butterfly house by having a butterfly feeder close by. Makes sure to place the house in a good viewing spot so you can enjoy any butterflies that decide to reside in your garden or yard.

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What you need to know about Parking at Manchester Airport

By Craig Walker

If you travel regularly on a flight from Manchester International Airport you will get used to the various options for parking your car and where to get the best deals. If you don't fly from Manchester regularly then you could fall into the pitfalls that many people do and pay more than you need to for your parking

By pre-booking your car parking before you arrive at Manchester Airport you will usually get the best rates and have peace of mind knowing that even if the car park is full you will still get in.

Choosing the most suitable car park could depend on which one is nearest to you depending in what direction you approach Manchester Airport from and also which one has availability. Prices tend not to vary a lot between the car parks usually just by a pound or so per day.

For a bit extra you could book the meet and greet service, which will enable you to get to your car quicker. You will not have to wait on anyone else coming or until the transfer bus fills up and of course you are guaranteed a seat. Usually you will be taken straight to your car straight from the airport.

You can treat your car whilst you are away as most of the car parks can arrange to have your car washed or even a full valet. If some instances you can have your car fully serviced whilst you are away. Simply ask about the services before you arrive as you may have to book in advance.

You can also book car parking at the airport, which is nearer the airport itself. The car parking prices at airport car parks tend to be the highest but are a bit more convenient. It is advisable to book in advance the last thing you want to be doing is driving around looking for a space instead of checking in for your flight.

You will be asked to leave your car keys so if you don't want to leave your house or office keys put them on a separate key ring before you arrive. Some car parks will move your car to the front of the car park and have it ready for you when the shuttle bus arrives.

Planning ahead will enable you to get the best prices and plan the best route to the car park of your choice. Don't forget to allow sufficient time to get to the car park and to allow enough time for the shuttle bus to take you to Manchester airport in time for your flight. If you are going to get your car a valet get it booked in advance as well.

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If You Are Unable To Be There But Want To Show You Love Them Then Send -