Finding The Time

I always finding time to knit or crochet, or sometimes do some small patchwork project. I always bringing my project along, so when I have to wait for something, I can take out my project and do it. There is always people that curious and ask me what I am doing. After I explain to them, normally they comment that they don’t have the time to do it. Most of the times I just smile and let it go, as I don’t really want to waste my breath to argue with them. It’s not the time that they lack, it is the interest. People have different interest or hobby. When you have the interest, you can always find the time.

Speaking of hobby, for you who like to play games, there is a new game called heroes of newerth. Heroes of Newerth is a new DOTA-clone game which is currently in beta.

Charm Pack

Charm packs and other precut fabrics are a great addition to a quilter's stash. Charm packs include a varying number of squares from 30 to 42. The price reflects the number of squares in the pack. Each square is 5 inches square and no square is repeated in a pack. A charm quilt is one that is made without using one fabric more than once. This type of purchased pack can help you if you want to make a charm quilt. The squares may be subcut into small squares, rectangles, triangles or other shapes you might be using in your design

Motorcycle

When I was only a small girl, my parents didn’t have a car yet. We went everywhere using a motorcycle. Even after my brother was born, we were still using a motorcycle. Actually, it’s very dangerous to ride motorcycle with 2 children, to make it even worst, we were all not using any helmet. We finally managed to buy used car when my brother was 2 years old.

Speaking of motorcycle, if you are looking for harley davidson accessories, try to look at CruiserCustomizing.com. Over 30,000 different motorcycle parts and accessories to fully customize your ride. They also sell branded motorcycle accessories like Cruisers, Harleys, Sport Bikes, & Goldwings up to 60% off.

Summer Time

What do you like to do during summer? I like to read book and doing nothing except when I get up to fix some orange juice. Sometimes I also like to do some mindless knitting or crocheting using cotton yarn. I don’t like to overheat my brain with knitting to crocheting something complicated. Of course my children have another idea. They prefer to run around or ride their bike. Too bad that my house is far away from the beach, otherwise I don’t mind to get one of those beach bike (complete with beach cruiser accessories) and accompany my children to ride a bike.

So, what do you like to do during summer?

Temptation

When I wrote this post I was tempted to buy fabric for patchwork from ebay. I plan to make a pink patchwork blanket for my daughter. I should work but somehow I browsed in ebay. Not a very productive employee. LOL! That is the advantage of working from home. Nobody monitor and check on you.

Speaking of monitoring, ActivTrak is an Employee monitoring tutorial system for your corporate network. By tracking application and web usage on your company's workstations, it allows you to answer the question - "Who's doing what and for how long." With this program you will find out who is browsing in ebay and who is doing the work.

Eat Out For Less

We all like to eat out, but we all know that eating out can break the bank. Recently, I found out in the facebook there is something called Offeretti. It is a Search Engine for Special Deals, offers, coupons, promotions, discounts and bargains from local retail businesses. Using the best in search technology and social networking, Offeretti enables customers to explore, discover and share offers with friends and family. If you want to eat out for less, join me in Offeretti now!

I Drove

Normally, my father-in-law that drops my girl to her kindergarden, but last Friday something was wrong with his car, so he could not drive her to the kindy. So I braved myself to drive her. This was my first time driving her to her kindy, since I started to drive last month. Actually her kindy is not far away, only 15 minutes from home, I don’t know what kept me from driving her to school. Probably, it is because my Father-in-law pet his grand-daughter too much and he likes to drive and pick her from school. LOL!

Speaking about driving a car, do you know that you can lease a car. Yup, I just found out about it yesterday from www.BuyYourCar.co.uk. It is very different to any other car portal in the UK. It focuses on all aspects of car purchase and research. The uniqueness in BuyYourCar.co.uk is that it allows consumers to search and enquire on new cars, used cars, car leasing, contract hire and van leasing and even compare offers across all of these purchase routes.

Website Hosting

Time passed so fast. In just a blink of the eyes, I have been blogging for almost a year. I have been thinking to buy my own domain name. I hear that if you have your own domain, you can boost up your rank. I am thinking of buying my own domain if that is true, so I can get more opportunities to earn more money.

Many hosting providers claim to be the best in one way or another, but not all hosts can be the best! If you have a hard time choosing a good hosting provider, you should head your way to this website hosting review site. Since I am trying to find a best webhosting now, I find this site is extremely useful. It has independent customer rating of top 10 web hosting companies. Their host rating system is based on the customer satisfaction, affordability, reliability, uptime and techical support. Web Hosting Rating is the biggest searchable web hosting directory featuring complete information on all web hosting providers, their web hosting plans, promotional and discount coupons, and unedited reviews by real customers.

Don’t forget to look at their blog section. You can find a lot of interesting articles such as tips to choose a domain.

What is Crochet?

When people saw me crocheting, they often asking what was I doing. I told them that this is called crocheting. Their usual comment is always: Ahhh! My grandmother used to do that to make doily.

Recently I read an article about crochet:

"Crochet is that skimpy little high-fashion dress prancing down the runway at a designer show. It's a warm hat and scarf in bright colors worn on a gray winter day or a soft, cuddly teddy bear clutched in a crying child's arms.

Crochet is a glittery shawl thrown over a shoulder to accent a little black cocktail dress or a sleek little evening purse encrusted with beads. Crochet is a fluffy blanket that welcomes a new baby to the world or a pair of socks with a zingy heel treatment for a teenager to wear with clogs. It's a Christmas stocking, a gift from one generation to another.

Crochet is magically creating something from nothing. It's the love one pair of hands gives to another."

I think I am going to use that to explain about crochet the next time people ask me.

Disneyland

Have you been to Disneyland before? I have been to Disneyland in Anaheim and also to Disney World in Orlando. I love it! However some people don't like to go to Disneyland due to the price and the long queue.

For popular rides, the queue can be as long as 2 to 3 hours. Can you imagine waiting that long only to enjoy less than 5 minutes ride? But it wasn’t as bad as my description above would suggest. This is largely because Disney has truly mastered the art of waiting in line. First, they don’t let you see where the lines go. They just wind and wind through constantly varying surroundings and waves of distractions that are often more entertaining for the kids than the destination itself in many cases. Second, somehow the lines are always moving forward also.

Anyway, if you plan to go for holiday and not sure where to stay, you can look up at www.HotelsCombined.com.
They will donate to a charity every time someone helps them spread the word! This way, they can then benefit from word of mouth (or mouse in this case) whilst at the same time being able to donate what they normally would have had to spend on advertising.

There are 3 options to Spread The Word For Charity:
1. They will give $20 for a blog mention
2. They will give $10 for a tweet
3. They will give $5 for becoming a fan of our Facebook page.

Swedish Embroidery

The origins of this unique Scandinavian embroidery style are clouded by the rarity of surviving artifacts and documentation by the ancient Vikings who fashioned the earliest forms of the needlework we know today as Swedish embroidery.

Also called "Swedish weave" or "huck embroidery" (dubbed so from huckaback fabric), Swedish embroidery uses thread or yarn woven through the raised threads, referred to as floats, in the weave of fabric. Repeatable geometric patterns are used the most often in these designs.

The vertical and horizontal threads of crochet stitches lend themselves to be used as the floats on the finished fabric. For example, in our Swedish Embroidery Baby Blanket pattern included in this issue, designer Diane Poellot's combination of two basic stitches created the floats necessary to execute Swedish embroidery on the surface of the crocheted afghan.

Most Swedish embroidery designs are worked in rows, starting at the bottom of the piece and working up. The first row is usually started at the center and worked out toward the edges. This makes it easy to keep the overall design symmetrical. With the first row as a guide, the remaining rows can be worked from edge to edge.

The stitching is worked in a right-to-left direction. The basic stitch movements used are straight (passing the yarn under floats that will keep it in a straight or diagonal direction), offset (going under floats that create a stairway or zigzag directions), open loops (going under floats to create loops with an open bottom) and closed loops (going under floats that close the bottom of a loop).

For a neat finish, always keep the twist of the yarn intact. It tends to unwind as you work, so remember to periodically release the tapestry needle and allow the original twist to return.

The fun and relaxing simplicity of Swedish embroidery has made it a popular needlecraft for centuries. It has experienced renewed interest in recent times by being integrated with other needle arts such as crochet. It's an interesting technique that adds eye-catching detail to virtually any type of needlecraft.

Driving Without AC

When the heat is on, there are not many things more miserable than sitting in a hot car waiting for the traffic to start moving. I used to have those small battery operated fan for this kind of "occasion". Although nothing compare the real AC, but at least I feel cooler a bit. Another idea is to put A 10lb block of ice on the floorboards under a vent will help cool things down. The ice block can rest in a plastic pan or baking tin.

Anyway, if you are looking for Air conditioning compressor, auto air conditioning, A/C compressor, or auto A/C compressor click on the link. They have a great selection of new and remanufactured products available and ready to ship.

Tactical Pants at CHIEF

If you looking for durable pants for your husband, brother or boy friend, then you should look at this 5.11 tactical pants at CHIEF (CHIEF has outfitted the Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement and Surveying industries since 1977).

I bought one pair of these for my husband before and he just loves it. He always wears it whenever he goes fishing because he can put a lot of fishing gadgets and gizmos inside the pocket. I also saw quite a few men wear it on the plane, because you can shove in your ticket, passport and even a bottle of water in the pocket.

Knitted Blanket

Love this color combination. Orange and yellow are my favorite colors. I made several crocheted blanket before, but I haven't tried my hand to knit a blanket. To think that I have to knit something big and square really intimidate me, but it's in my "to do list". Although I am not sure when I will tackle it.

A Great Pair of Jeans

The number one must have in any fashion conscience person's wardrobe is undoubtedly a great pair of jeans. Either you are a man or a woman, jeans is something that you need to have in your wardrobe. My husband has many pair of jeans, some are branded, but mostly are not. On the other hand, I only have one pair of jeans. I “found” this jeans after trying hundreds of them. You see, I don’t have a “perfect” body to wear jeans, but I love the convenient to wear jeans. Jeans can be dressed up for a night on the town and they can be worn with a cute tee and trendy flats for a day of shopping.

The right pair can make you look like a million bucks so spending a bit more than you would like is going to be well worth it in the end. When choosing your signature denim, they are a few things to keep in mind. Most importantly, fit is everything.

If you still haven’t got your perfect jeans, and ready to shop for one, let me tell you something: Armani Exchange has new premium denim line starting at $98! Yes! You heard it right. That’s’ a steal for the quality and style you’ll get from these Armani Exchange Premium Denim jeans!

These are my favorites:

J11 - Indigo Destruction Skinny Leg
$125.00

J24 - Wing Printed Boot Cut
$125.00

J57 - Potassium Straight Leg
$98.00


Also, the Armani Exchange is giving away a pair of these awesome jeans everyday during the month of July. All you have to do is text the keyword “DENIM2″ to ARMANI (276264), or text AX. That’s it!

Right now, if you buy purchase a full price pair of denim from the Armani Exchange, via the web or at the store, between July 7 and July 19th 2009, will receive a gift card of $20 off your next purchase of $100 or more when you buy between July 30 2009 and August 15 2009!

Good deal, eh?

Variegated Vs Solid

Normally I don’t like to knit using variegated yarn. I like solid color. However, I love the one in this photo although it is knitted using variegated yarn. Actually, if you have hand-dyed yarn, I suggest you to use it to knit something like in this photo. This cardigan is simple yet elegant with lace details in the bottom suitable to showcase your treasure hand-dyed yarn (if you have any).

Lap Band Option

WEIGHT-LOSS surgery is successful because it permanently changes hormone levels in a persons’ body. They artificially boost the "I am full" hormone and reduce the "I am hungry" hormone. Contrary to what people think, weight-loss surgery is not about wanting to look good. On the contrary, people that choose to do this surgery mostly want to be healthy. If you are overweight and are thinking of choosing this surgical method, it is advisable to first consult with an experienced lap band doctor.

Dr. Richard Collier is a Lap-Band surgical specialist, who provides the premier, comprehensive Lap-Band® weight loss surgery program in The Woodlands, Conroe, Houston, Kingwood, Huntsville, and Spring, Texas areas. His acclaimed weight loss program combines his well respected 31 year level of surgical experience with a highly-praised aftercare team program approach for patients following their surgery.

Embelishment for Little Girl Outfit

Mothers and grandmothers love to crochet for their young children and grandchildren, and especially seem to enjoy using their stitching skills to dress up the little girls in their families.

I am a mother too and sometimes I also like to make something for my girls. However, since they are growing too fast, I feel that I wasted my time and effort to make something that they can only wear for only a short time.

I want to make something simple and quick, and pretty. And when I saw this picture, I immediately thought that it was a good idea. I can use my leftover yarns to create something quick, easy and pretty for my girls.

Here's an idea: As a special treat, take your favorite little girl on her very own shopping trip and let her pick out an inexpensive outfit for you to embellish with our cute crocheted accents. She'll love it and feel extra-special at being part of the decision-making for the project.

Here is the link for the patterns!

Buttons

The right button can make or break a sweater or jacket, but choosing the right one can sometimes be more difficult than you might think. Here are some hints for finding the perfect button that will enhance your garment rather than detract from it (or worse, cause an unexpected "wardrobe malfunction").

Try to purchase your buttons before making the button bands. That way, you can pick the button without fear that the buttonhole will be too large or too small. Once the buttons are chosen, you can make the buttonhole to fit the button.

Take along your gauge swatch when button shopping. If you have time, try stitching a small buttonhole band onto the swatch, using a couple of different-size buttonholes. At the store, you'll be able to try the buttons on your buttonholes to see how they look on your garment and which ones work best.

Decide whether your garment needs buttons that stand out as part of the overall design, or whether they should be unobtrusive. You may want to match the yarn color, or you may find that a great-looking contrasting color gives the best appearance.

Scale is important. Tiny buttons belong on garments made with fine yarns, and large buttons look better on garments made with heavy yarns.

Shank buttons generally work better on thick fabrics; they are easier to apply and provide good stability.

To sew on buttons, use sewing or embroidery thread in a matching color. A button can be stabilized to prevent wobbling, drooping or pulling through the crocheted fabric by adding a small "stay" button on the wrong side of the fabric. The designer button on the right side of the fabric and the stay button on the wrong side are sewn on at the same time in one operation.

Choose a stay button that is flat and at least as large as the designer button. Use a button with two holes for a designer button with two holes or a shank. Use a 4-hole stay button with a 4-hole designer button.

Mix button styles on one garment. You can create some fun, unique looks, and it's a great way to use some of those lovely one-of-a kind buttons in your grandmother's button box!

If you are using buttons that are non-washable or require special cleaning, fasten them onto the garment with button pins. These special safety pins have a curve to accommodate the button and allow easy removal of the button for cleaning.

Make your own buttons. You can purchase a button-covering kit and cover them with matching fabric, or use Fimo or Sculpy modeling clay to make eye-catching, machine-washable buttons. You can also crochet simple buttons to complement your garment.

It's easy to get even spacing for an odd number of buttonholes. Place pins at point where top and bottom holes will be. Fold piece in half so that pins are together. Place a third pin at center and unfold. Fold again so that center pin and top pin are together. Place a fourth pin at this fold, unfold. Fold again so that center pin and bottom pin are together. Place a fifth pin at this fold, unfold. If necessary, continue to split the difference between the pins until the desired number of holes is marked.

Here is a final tip: Sloppy, loose buttonholes look amateurish and don't stay fastened very well. Remember that most yarns stretch slightly with use over time, so your new buttonholes should fit snuggly over your buttons.

Try applying these tips and techniques when using buttons on your garments to ensure successful results. Buttons really can make or break the finished look!

If you have been in an accident...

Your insurance policy requires that you notify your insurance company to make a claim report. Once a claim report has been made, you may leave your vehicle at the auto body damage repair facility of your choice and notify the insurance company claim representative as to where your damaged vehicle may be inspected. Keep in mind that you are the vehicle owner.

CollisionRepairExperts.com is an assembly of experts in the field of restoring collision damaged vehicles to pre-accident condition. The auto body shops that you will find associated with this website are scrutinized and measured, like auto body anaheim, and they must conform to levels of performance that less than 1% of collision repairers can meet.