Seven Valentine?s Day Tips for Spouses in ?Less-Than-Perfect? Marriages
November 21, 2007
Valentine’s Day can be a depressing day when you’re in an unhappy or shaky marriage. In every store or advertisement you see romantic cards, heart-shaped boxes of candy, or select jewelry for the special lover’s day.
Restaurants publish their special menus in advance and give food items names such as "lover’s delight chocolate dessert." Radio stations sponsor contests focused around the theme of Valentine’s Day, and newspapers run pictures and stories about spouses with long marriages.Everywhere you turn, you are bombarded with pictures and stories of happy lovers.
What can you do to survive Valentine’s Day when you are worried sick that your marriage is on the rocks? How do you deal with all the love hoopla when your spouse doesn’t know if he or she really loves you or wants to stay married?
The following seven tips will help you to keep your perspective and sanity:
1. Be your own valentine this year and celebrate the wonderful person that you are. Make an appointment to have a massage or pedicure on Valentine’s Day as a present to yourself. Or make plans with a friend to dine at a gourmet restaurant either on Valentine’s Day or the day before. Buy yourself a new CD or book that you’ve been wanting. Leave work early, if possible, and do something fun such as going to a movie in the middle of the work afternoon.
Embroidery Sewing Quality of Machine Embroidery Designs
November 21, 2007
Many new to embroidery have experienced numerous problems because of the inferior quality of free embroidery design files that they downloaded over the internet. One of the biggest mistakes that many new sewists make is using free designs patterns that have problems built in. Even if you are lucky enough to do everything else right and use inferior designs, results will probably not be good. Many of the free embroidery designs files that one can download are the first efforts of someone that has just begun to digitize and thus are not very well made. Many new to this great hobby use these because they are free and easy to download without using a credit card, but this is where the trouble begins. Then when outlines are off or there are gaps in the sewing and poor results are evident, how does one know where the problem lies? Is it the designs or the stabilizers or even worst - Can it be the new embroidery machine? We have a test so one can determine if the design is at fault or if the stabilizer is the problem. We make available free designs, free sewing lessons, free thread color charts and info that you may need to learn so you can get great results with your embroidery designs projects.
Embroidery Designs Digitizing Software
November 20, 2007
Embroidery Magic 2 software program was created with multiple function lettering, editing and digitizing features for embroidery designs and was designed for those who have home embroidery machines and software. We have also have had customers purchase this embroidery software who have well established commercial embroidery businesses but have found that it creates better lettering than any other program they have purchased, regardless of price! However, in regard to the EM 2 price, it should be understood that you will not get the full features of a high end digitizing program with a lot of "bells and whistles". Let’s focus on what is included in this great, very affordable program!
Features of Embroidery Magic 2
This embroidery software generates text stitch files from keyboard font styles. This allows the user to resize and use up to three different styles of underlay and also determine other settings for various uses of the embroidery lettering created.
It also allows the user to manually digitize machine embroidery designs from the tools provided.
The Real View feature will allow you to see an embroidery design in a more realistic way than the digitizing view allows. [Please remember that this is not an exact replication of the actual stitched design.]
The Rose
November 19, 2007
Lifestyle is style over amount. And style is an art - the art of living. You can’t buy style with money. You can’t buy good taste with money. You can only buy more with money. Lifestyle is culture - the appreciation of good music, dance, art, sculpture, literature, plays and the art of living well. It’s a taste for the fine, the unique, the beautiful.
Lifestyle also means rewarding excellence wherever you find it by not taking the small things of life for granted. With Valentine’s Day approaching I wanted to illustrate this with a personal anecdote:
Many years ago my lady friend and I were on a trip to Carmel, California for some shopping and exploring. On the way we stopped at a service station. As soon as we parked our car in front of the pumps, a young man, about eighteen or nineteen, came bouncing out to the car and with a big smile said, “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” I answered. “A full tank of gas, please.” I wasn’t prepared for what followed. In this day and age of self-service and deteriorating customer treatment, this young man checked every tire, washed every window - even the sunroof - singing and whistling the whole time. We couldn’t believe both the quality of service and his upbeat attitude about his work.
The Tree of Life and Allies
November 18, 2007
There are names in many languages and cultures or even within each culture, separate cults with different names for ‘forces of nature’. Allies, guides, elementals, fairies, elves, gnomes, leprechauns and so the list would grow into the thousands. How many different dimensions or M-branes we might interact with at some level of our ‘cosmic soup’ is part of the question? There are different ways to access and varied levels or degrees of access. Not all are reliably replicable by the same techniques. Some element of consciousness exists in these ethereal forces which chooses not to communicate according to factors beyond the control of the soul or human who wishes such contact.
Certain times are more propitious for such contact according to most beliefs that seek to relate with these forces. The differing brain wavelengths of people make separate variations of ritualistic methods necessary. A medium, sensitive, or psychic will have their own biorhythm to control and ‘center’ or ‘fix’ if they want to commune with any of these endless variations of force. At one level or dimension a force might appear a certain way but it too may be impacted by forces from another dimension. The shamanic ‘Tree of Yggdrasil’ has similar ethnic relatives such as the Hebraic ‘Tree of Life’ and though this universal ‘tree’ is more than the simple primary forces that constitute ‘allies’ it is necessary perhaps to know a lot more in order to see the nature of forces in general. We have the words of a ‘practical guide’ that uses few ritualistic or cultish prerogatives to guide us a little in this trek beyond the world we see that seems so important.
Scrapbooking Tips And Tricks For Photos And Images
November 17, 2007
When you’re incorporating pictures of any kind into your scrap book, why not set them off with an unusual finish? This could be an original idea for a border or frame — or an arrangement of several items on the page to add a little drama. Here are a couple of tips that might do well for a children’s album — perhaps a keepsake baby scrapbook, or just a page for a boy or girl.
Adding Dimension To Your Photos
One good way to add dimension to images is to use double stick foam squares. These are pieces of double stick foam tape that literally allow items to pop out at your reader adding realism to items. This trick is especially useful in children’s art and educational scrapbooks.
Simply cut the foam tape into whatever shape and size you want. Then, attach to shape onto your scrapbook page. These 3D foam squares are available from most craft suppliers.
Pop Up Windows To Enhance Baby Scrapbooks
Everyone who has ever read with children knows how much they love pop-up books. And very young children adore those books in which they ‘lift the flap’ to find what’s hidden in the picture underneath. So why not build some pop up windows into your baby boy or girl scrapbook?!
Digital Camera Disc Formats
November 16, 2007
As it is a fact that digital cameras are comprised of miniature computers that have storage discs for retrieving the images as digital information, so a certain amount of knowledge is necessary regarding the digital camera disc formats. A proper understanding of the disc formats of the digital camera memory can help the photographer or user make efficient use of the device in a correct and useful fashion. This discussion is aimed at revealing these little details!
At present in among the common users of digital cameras there are two main types of storage medium available nowadays. Some cameras use 1.44-MB floppy disks, which are available almost everywhere in the present market trends, and some digital cameras use assorted forms of flash memory having a range of capacities covering from several megabytes to a gigabyte. The difference lies between these two types of disc formats in their capacity. Floppy disks have a fixed memory capacity that cannot be altered, and the flash memory devices have capacities that keep increasing everyday. This is a kind of boon because of the fact that picture-sizes are also increasing constantly with the invention of higher resolution cameras that become available in the markets with daily technical advancements.
Caught in the Arms of ED
November 16, 2007
YOU MIGHT THINK I AM STRONG
I THINK YOU GOT IT WRONG
I LIVE LIFE DAY TO DAY
HOPING IT WILL GO MY WAY
I HAVE MY FRIENDS AND MY FOOD PLAN
MY THERAPIST AND MY THOUGHTS
MY EXERCISE AND MY EXCITEMENT
THEN SOMETHING HAPPENS AND I GET CAUGHT
CAUGHT IN THE ARMS OF ED
TURNING MY EYES AWAY
FROM MY FOCUS TO WIN THE FIGHT
THAT I THOUGHT WAS GOING TO STAY.
HE TELLS ME THAT I AM SELFISH
THAT I SHOULD DOUBT MY EVERY MOVE
ONE MINUTE I AM HAPPY
DO I HAVE A RIGHT TO FEEL THIS GOOD?
DOUBTING MY STRENGTH AND CONFIDENCE
AS ED ALWAYS KNEW I WOULD
I AM LOSING INCHES AROUND MY WAIST
AND MY PANTS ARE FALLING OFF
I SEE THE FACE OF ED IN MY HEAD
AS HE BEGINS TO LAUGH AND SCOFF
YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING STRONG
YOU THINK YOU GOT ME BEAT
LET ME SEE YOU LOSE EVEN MORE
YOU WILL SEE THAT YOU WERE WRONG.
THE LITTLE VOICE IS ALWAYS THERE
Ten Ways To Make The Holidays Easier Next Year
November 15, 2007
What does your holiday season usually look like — a lot of rushing around at the last minute? The holidays really don’t have to require so much effort — if you plan ahead and spread the work out throughout the year. Here are ten tips for making your next holiday season a snap:
PACK YOUR DECORATIONS THE RIGHT WAY
I know you will be in a rush to get the house back in order after the holidays are over — but don’t just throw everything in a box. Take time to wrap your lights so they won’t get tangled, to pack fragile items carefully, and to store like items together (ornaments, snowmen, candles, whatever). And be sure to label all of your boxes!
UPDATE YOUR HOLIDAY ADDRESS LIST
If you have access to a computer, make it a priority to computerize your address list — preferably in a program which will allow you to print labels. Whether you keep your list on the computer or by hand, double check your addresses against the envelopes from the cards you received this year. If you see any mistakes or people you forgot, add them in while it’s still fresh in your mind.
Embroidery Designs Sewing
November 14, 2007
Denim is a twill weave and runs diagonally and any diagonal weave is difficult to control, whether you are attempting construction sewing or machine embroidery. Twills are designed to give the wearer ultimate wearing comfort by the natural “give” it has. That’s why we all love our chinos & jeans! However, this comfort quality presents a real problem for machine embroidery enthusiasts.
It is essential to keep fabric “blocked” while cutting, assembling, and stitching either regular seaming or machine embroidery. From cutting out pattern pieces to hooping denim for embroidery, you will experience a challenge of keeping the fabric “blocked” squarely. If you’re a quilter, you know exactly what blocking is. If you’re not a quilter it simply means keeping the grain of the weave, in both cross & straight directions, straight or square.
Denim is difficult to block because of the diagonal weave and, generally, denim is a heavier weight than most other fabrics are. I recently stitched an ankle length, heavy, denim duster coat using a very large design down the front edge of the coat opening, near the hemline. This meant I had to keep the design running straight in 2 directions at once. The outcome could have been quite unsightly if I hadn’t taken extra precautions to make sure the design was placed squarely and that the stabilizing was adequate to prevent the puckers and warping that result from the pull of a machine embroidery design while it is stitching.
