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, April 30, 2012

How to Take Care of Your Braided Rug

By Mary Westhoff


Believe it or not, there's an actual science to selecting the right area rug. Arrange Your Furniture First. If you are rearranging or redecorating an entire room, decide on the placement of its furniture before buying area rugs. While it may be tempting to try to make your furniture accommodate your rugs, it's easier and more stylish to tackle things from the other way around. With so much of the kitchen taken up by cabinets and counter space, and the floor covering usually made from a water resistant material it is only natural that many homeowners use kitchen area rugs as a way to brighten up the space and as a form of art work to draw the eye as well as add comfort. Half oval rugs fit well in front of the back door and provide a touch of charm as well as means for wiping your feet so that you do not track dirt through out the rest of the house. There are also round, oval, rectangle and even square or octagon rugs you can choose from making kitchen area rugs a perfect fit for anywhere you want to provide accent. Fits Any decor - Manufacturers of kitchen rugs offer such a wide choice you can find one to fit any decor or theme your home may have. Firstly, you can purchase them from specialize stores that sell rugs to feel the rug before buying. By surfing on line, you will be able to browse through the designs from the comfort of your home. Shop on line for your desired design, after which, head down to the physical store to have a feel of the material. If you plan to keep area rugs in the same section for a period of time, you should invest in rug pads. One way to prolong the need for a professional cleaning is to do your own routine maintenance. Properly caring for your rug will not only keep it clean, it will also maximize its lifespan. The single most important duty that you can perform on your rug is vacuuming. An easy tip that can help in your vacuuming efforts is to flip your rug over every 3-6 months and vacuum the back of it.

Whatever be the purpose of adding a carpet to your room, it sure can bring in new life. It can serve any purpose you want it to, be it the living room, the dining area, kitchen, bedroom or patio. Designer area rugs are truly a class apart and some of the finer ones can give antique and oriental rugs a run for their money. Incorporate designer carpets into your living areas if you are looking for a touch of color or a dash of brilliance in your house. Does your wool area rug need some love If you properly maintain your rug it can last for decades. First and foremost, you should read any cleaning recommendations that your rug provides. If you have children and pets then it would probably be smart to clean it weekly. It only takes a few seconds to do this and is a great way to maintain the beauty - If you live in a single family home and this can be done easily take your wool rug outside regularly and either shake it or beat it with a broom stick. These types of highly effective protean floor covers are incredibly mobile, which makes them a favorite of folks that take pleasure in re-decorating all year round. In selecting a rug, you'll want to take into account several main factors -style, color, pattern, shape and size. Collectively, these components have an impact on the particular influence an area rug could have on a particular area. Flair - Area rugs can be found in an array of designs, which includes conventional, modern day, country as well as novelty. And they don't collect dust and mites that will flare up anyone's allergies - Unlimited Designs - Planning on a little change with home decorating When choosing painted rugs, it's important to incorporate the right colors and design into your current decor. Because they're hand painted, you can often find more unique styles than you would with other types of rug. You'll get a one of kind rug that people will always notice when they walk into your home - Because of the unlimited possibilities regarding the design of your canvas rug, you can create the kind of atmosphere that you need to. This means that they work well in modern homes, with contemporary patterns and bold shapes, though they can also add the perfect accent to more traditionally styled houses.

Chilly hard wood floors are generally transformed through rich, warm colors, whilst a depressing area will discover life within sun-inspired tones. A rug having a designed border along with a basic middle is a good idea whenever a large, key item, for example a table, occupies the middle of a space. Seeking to produce some chaos within an otherwise demure area Then simply opt for a techno influenced style or a little something in which Picasso may well like. Several rugs tend to be no more than 6-square feet yet others cover a space well over 200-square feet. Square rugs are often the first choice that people make, and they can look great in the right environment. Often this shape of rug is far more versatile and can be placed in several different areas of your home. The rug that you choose will not need to match the decor in the room, however, there will need to be key elements to connect it to the overall design that you are looking for. Whether you want to make a bright, bold statement, or keep the color of the rug subtle and striking there are many different options. You are going to be able to find colors and patterns that really fit well into your home, which is probably the biggest goal of having an area rug anyways, to enhance your home decoration schemes. And if you know where to look, there is a great chance you can find a used area rug that at one point was considered to be very expensive. Yard sales, estate sales, and auctions are all great examples of places where you can pick up a great rug. If you look hard enough you will find what you need, and for a fraction of the cost. Once you get your color theme along, your home can appear as if it's never looked before. Area rugs can offer a comparatively cheap answer to decorative issues. These variegated floor covers are flexible and may also be employed to warm the chilly look of bathroom tiles, strengthen the formal character of your family room or brighten up a comfortable eating space. While they occupy what is commonly among the main points of interest of the room, area rugs can easily create the appearance of a complete area.

Washing your rug at home It is possible, if you are very careful, to wash your rug at home. You need to take the rug outside and put it on a clean area that is paved in some way. Never scrub hard or grind the suds into the fibers, instead, pat the suds into the pile. Lay the area rug flat out of direct sunlight to dry as the sunlight will fade the colors. Go for subtle textures when you want it to provide a quiet backdrop to your decor. When using them for dining tables, make sure to see that the rug fits the table with the chairs pulled out. Large rugs are preferable for bedrooms to give you the soft and luxurious feel, no matter which side of the bed you wake up on. Design Again depending on your room furnishings, you can choose between geometric patterns and traditional designs of the contemporary area rug. Bear in mind that area rugs cannot ruin whatever current style you have in your living room. They can actually adapt to any kind of style that is why they are advisable to have at your home. They actually improve the look of the room by making it appear more elegant and even add order to the house. It is something to feast on for the eyes rather than just the plain and bare floor. If you have plants in the living room, a green area rug is the perfect choice. Light colors are the easiest to blend with and are efficient in fostering light moods. Round and octagonal shapes are perfect if you want a grand look in the living room. Nylon materials are for those who do not want to experience stress when cleaning the rug.

Whenever someone is thinking of decorating or redecorating their home, their mind will turn at some point to area rugs. Too many times, however, they wind up getting rugs that are too small or a rug that does not go with anything else in the room or they just find that it is too difficult to care for. Before jumping into a situation that you may wind up regretting, take the time for a little homework before purchasing any rug for your home. Measure, Measure, Measure - Take a good look at the room in which you want to place any area rugs. Children do not really require tons of space they would be quite content even if they can get just enough room to sit down. To add fun to your kid's room, custom made area rugs can be used as an interior decor. Bright and colorful rugs can transform your kid's room into a livelier and more exciting place to stay and a great area to play in. There are a lot of choices when choosing kid's rugs in terms of sizes, designs, shapes and colors to fit to your kid's room interior design. In addition to being stain resistant, they are also resistant to dust mites. Because they can not become infested with mites, natural wool area rugs can help in reducing allergies among family members. The natural fibers allow the rug to withstand high temperatures without being destroyed. Because they are fade resistant, you can be sure that you will not have to replace the rug due to color loss. You want to use a stain treatment on a daily basis so as for them to last a protracted time. Even though there are totally different shapes for these Rugs, the foremost widespread form is that the rectangle. Rectangular contemporary area Rugs give you with additional leeway on where you'll be able to place them within the rooms of your home. These Rugs conjointly give additional space for eclectic and distinctive styles to possess on the rugs.

Since these rugs are quite an investment and finding originals can be difficult, you want to do everything you can to ensure that your rug is maintained and protected. The first thing you should do is put a carpet pad underneath the rug and this is an important step since it will keep dust particles from embedding under. Moreover, it will keep your rug from being worn out as well as fading and will keep tears from occurring. To clean Oriental rug, you can sew the attachments of your vacuum cleaner, in order to clean each side of the rug. If you want something less busy, shag rugs and braided rugs are the perfect alternatives. They're both very popular in today's market and feature soft materials that are inviting to walk on and absorb sound. With their affordable price tags, you can purchase several of these rugs to place around the home, including bedrooms and family rooms. Shag and braided rugs are available in an extensive color palette as well, which means any room can benefit from their braided and twisted loops. With all these options, finding a rug to your preference should be no problem. With the range of styles, designs, materials and shapes there is plenty to choose from. How much traffic will the rug get Will there be pets - Each rug is made unique in order to serve a certain purpose. Some are designed for the heavier traffic areas, and some are artistic made more for your viewing pleasure. Familiarizing yourself with the many different shapes and sizes that are available will also make it easier to pinpoint the right thing. Once all of those steps are out of the way, of course, you will have to take color, pattern and texture into consideration. Rugs come in many different price ranges, so it's smart to set a budget right from the beginning to avoid frustration. When it comes to area rugs, finding the right one is actually more work than maintaining them afterward.




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Do You Truly Require Green Tea

By Danial Davis


Green tea can be very helpful if you are trying to lose weight. The many health benefits of green tea are starting to be widely recognized, and one benefit is that it can help you to lose weight naturally and safely. By making green tea a part of your daily routine, you will know that you are getting the most out of it, whether you choose to drink cups of tea or take it as a supplement. The following are some of the ways green tea can help you achieve your ideal weight.

Green tea is easy to find as well as cheap by comparison to other diets and supplements. You can stock up on green tea by the pound, purchase a box of tea bags or buy a reasonably priced supplement from a health food store or an online vendor you trust.

The tea could be drunk cold or hot and may be ordered at practically any venue. You could drink lots of kinds of green tea. You've the selection of drinking a cold glass of ice tea prior to exercising in the afternoon, a cup of hot tea inside the morning and some decaffeinated tea just before going to bed.

Therefore, you'll boost your metabolism which will cause protected fat loss that could be achieved each conveniently and cheaply. There are not a lot of foods that assist you to burn fat but green tea is one of them. The caffeine in green tea isn't the only cause it helps you burn fat. The caffeine in green tea doesn't have as good an impact on your metabolism as the antioxidants it consists of, in accordance with various studies. This signifies you could get exactly the same benefits from decaffeinated green tea.

The reality is, green tea is often a beverage or supplement that helps the body operate within a healthier and additional effective manner. What tends to make this such an excellent food is the fact that anything about it is actually all-natural, powerful, successful, and safe to make use of. If you get in to the habit of consuming it, and also take other sensible measures to decrease your weight, you can come across that it's incredibly effective. Yes, green tea is just a uncomplicated plant, but you will discover even more advantages to this tea than we have discussed - how about that? As a way to reap the greatest in rewards, we encourage you to consume this powerful natural substance every single single day. We've looked at some on the ways that green tea can assist you to to shed those undesirable pounds, so why not start creating this wholesome habit at this time?




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Easy Cooking Guidelines To create Life Much easier

By Bradford Capparelli


Have you always wanted to become a better cook? There are lots of tips and ideas on how to improve your technique in cooking. Learning how to cook better and to enjoy it more can improve the quality of life for you and your family. Read this article for some neat suggestions that cooks of all experience levels can use.

It is important to know that the smaller the item, the longer it takes to cook. Many people think that smaller items do not take long to cook, therefore the item does not cook thoroughly. Usually, larger items do not take as long to cook and because people think they do, these items get burnt.

When cooking sometimes less can be more. What this means is that the next time one is going to add a spice or other flavor enhancer to their dish they should make sure to not put in too much. Having a small amount can make a nice subtle flavor while too much can ruin the taste.

Frozen vegetables should only be used as a last resort in home cooking. Though they are cheap and usually available year-round, they fall far short of fresh vegetables in several important areas. Frozen vegetables have lost some of their healthy vitamins and nutrients. They often have unhealthy food additives. They also tend to taste worse than their fresh counterparts.

Rice is a great carbohydrate and very inexpensive. Pasta and bread are three times as much per pound than rice. Investing in a rice cooker is well worth it. Use rice as you would orzo or other short pastas.

The most difficult and time consuming thing about cooking is doing all of the prep work. You can buy pre-prepped vegetables or prep your ingredients the day before to cut down on the time you are in the kitchen. This is very helpful if you need to get dinner out in a hurry.

When you are cooking with cheese, be sure to bring the cheese to room temperature before you melt it. Also, always melt cheese using a very low level of heat. This will prevent the cheese from getting tough or separating into oil and liquid. Overheating cheese will denature its proteins.

Keep your pantry well stocked with a selection of canned meats. You never know when the power might go out for a day or two and you can't get to the store. Canned hams, salmon, or other canned meats can save the day. Just add a few other ingredients from your pantry and you'll have a great meal!

If you plan on making an elaborate meal for dinner, prepare a few elements of the dish that can be refrigerated or left out the night before you want to cook. This eliminates stress and frenzy in the kitchen so you can focus on giving your family a meal worthy of the finest five-star restaurants.

For fluffier pancakes, allow the batter to sit for about five minutes before you start pouring it into the pan. This will allow the flour to absorb more of the moisture in the mix, making for much lighter pancakes that will rise more when you cook them and give them that great restaurant flavor!

To make the perfect pasta, cook it one minute less than what you read on the box and cook it the rest of the way with the sauce you are serving with it. This ensures that you do not overcook the pasta if you were to toss it in with the sauce after you cooked the pasta until it was done in the pot of water.

After removing corn from the cob, scrap the cob with the back of your knife. Doing this will extract the "milk" from it. Drizzle the "milk" over the corn to add extra flavor.

Everything takes practice and cooking is no different. It is important to incorporate the tips that have been provided above when you are trying to learn how to cook. By doing this, you will be cooking like a chef in no time.




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Refrain from These Driving Practices

By John Joseph


You probably think of yourself as a good driver if you have been driving for some time. But you probably even learned some habits that would be considered dangerous to you and others around you. Sorry to say, the only way you'll change these habits is if something terrible happens to you. We intend to examine some very common driving habits that are actually very dangerous.

One particular habit that is somewhat annoying and very dangerous is driving too close to the vehicle in front of you. It is recommended that you are at a secure distance between you and the vehicle in front of you in case you need to brake suddenly but people ignore that fact. The speed that you might be going at while driving is pretty fast even though it may not seem that way when you are in the car. Not only will you irritate the driver in front of you, they might make a dangerous decision to try to get out of the way. The truth is that you won't reach your destination any faster if you drove at a normal speed.

The next behavior is closely connected with driving too close and that is extreme speed in the wrong place and conditions. All right, we have gone over the first couple of points regarding sports car rentals, of course you recognize they play an important role. But is that all there is? Not by a long shot - you really can broaden your knowledge greatly, and we can help you. However, you will discover them to be of great utility in your search for information. Once your understanding is more complete, then you will feel more confident about the subject. So we will give you a few more important points to think about. In this respect, most people would admit to driving really fast at times when they have to but if you do this in poor weather or built up areas, you really are exposing yourself and others to real danger. Any time you pay attention to reports of bad accidents in conditions such as fog or driving rain, you will often hear witnesses talk of drivers going far too fast and this results in multi vehicle pile ups. If you do decelerate you can actually take pleasure in driving at a relaxed speed and more importantly you reduce your chances of being hurt or injuring others.

If you're a person who has become an impatient driver and you are always pointing your anger at other road users, then this is something you need to learn to control. It's not only the fact that you could become involved in avoidable confrontations but this also becomes a distraction for your own driving. Actually, distractions of all sorts are habits you should steer clear of and this includes eating while driving, speaking on your mobile phone or trying to read whilst on the move. It seems clear that these activities will take your concentration away from keeping your eyes on the road and yet you see so many drivers doing these things.

If you want to be safe on the road, you need to try and change some of your bad driving habits.




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What About Thinking Outside The K-Cup?

By Janet Peace


Is Keurig a wasteful company, I think not!

One of the major goals of Keurig is to share a better "earth" by keeping the environmental issues at hand.

In one of their statements

Here is the Quote

(sic) As a company, we are committed to responsible business practices that are achievable, sustainable and inspiring. We would like to share what we at Keurig, Incorporated are achieving in cooperation with GMCR to brew a better world...for both gourmet coffee lovers and lovers of best practices in corporate responsibility.

End of the Quote

The news lately is about Keurig and the environment with the distribution of K-cups and though I am not a Keurig spokesperson, I am a citizen and believe that the guidelines are in step with the EPA. Also, the company allocates profits of 5% to environmental projects both on a local level and on a global scale. Also it should be noted that Biodiesel is used in all their delivery trucks and they just added solar panels for energy to their top installation and distribution center.

The tackle with Keurig (and they admit it as well) is to provide a ecologically aware portion pack (K-Cup) that would render an extraordinary cup of coffee, but as of today, they are actively seeking this question.

K-Cup Portion packs to stay fresh, need oxygen, and any light or moisture can ruin the k-cup and ruin that freshness we all expect from a K-Cup coffee. If these issues were taken away, the freshness would become a problem and the K-cup is the road to success for Keurig with companies such as Folgers, Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts selling K-cups now. To depreciate the value of the K-cup and level of freshness would be coffee suicide. The goal is to keep the k-cups fresh and make the coffee its best.

Moving toward a fix, in September 2010, they have created a portion pack now, paper-made and renewable. The only issue is the 10% polyethylene (PE) layer. This would prevent the consideration of a non-biodegradable product which they are shooting for.

I am 55 years old today and been around since 1957. In a way, I understand the concerns for the environment, we suppose to help out. I don't think we are in grave danger though. Follow the money is what allot of this amounts too, and red , no , Bright Red Tape. This is not Keurigs position but it sure is mine.

A potential result for all parties?

Isn't it possible to create something useful out of Plastic K-Cups for the environment? You bet it is. This idea will not only help the k-cup challenge, but appease everyone. Keurig will be making even more profits, they will make the EPA happy campers and the world will sing Kumbayah in my opinion. In fact, even the middle of the road people will love this idea.

Here's how:

Plan is really simple. Coffee grounds make great nutrients for worms. Also a worm's waste is the best composting for organic enriched soil. So if bins can be made (which they can) and tons of K-cups (from the paper k-cups created in 2010) can be shredded, we now have an opportunity to take a bad and make it a good just from using chopped up and grounded used coffee and k-cups. It would not be rocket science to make this happen.

I urge any coffee organization use the idea of used coffee grounds as a form of food to feed worms, which in turn bring about the drippings that make the organic soil. Now for Keurig, maybe they can start a side business by creating "Keurig Soil" using the k-cup remains. Is it possible to give a bit back for any k-cup returned - like returns on glass bottles for pop. It would take allot of coordination and labor, but in the long run , it probably would keep all parties happy, as the k-cup is returned, instant rebates take place at certain stores, the cups are returned to Keurig, where they can create Organic Soil (vermi-composting) and properly dispose of the 10% plastic found in their k-cups.

A Win-Win is lurking and so shall it be, if someone takes the action. Could be a win-win.




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