First Art Show of the Year!

Well, it's that time of the year again. The first art show of the year is here and I'm ready. My application is turned in and I deliver on Wednesday the 25th of February.

It is the annual juried show at the Chaffey Community Art Association. Their gallery is located inside the historic Fillipie Winery in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The shows opening reception is on March 8, from 1-4 p.m.

The association is made up of a great group of artists including Martha Underwood, who is one of my old professors and until his death a few months ago, the great Milford Zornes, whom I took a picture with just a month before his death, and I just love participating with all of them. I've never won any awards there, but then I'm at times competing with my old professors, so I don't feel bad at all. I'm after all, just a guppy in a great big pond of accomplished artists, but I love their shows.

The CCAA was founded over 60 years ago and has had several homes, including the Ontario Museum of Art, also in California.

The pieces I'm entering are, "The Dancer", "The Boat'', and "Eve". This is the first time, that I'm entering drawings. I have always just entered paintings, but I'm not a bad drawer and thought I'd give it a try. With all the work I have with Mickie it's just easier too sit down and draw-especially during those never ending sleepless nights.

The winery sometimes offers wine tasting during the opening reception and the gallery recently acquired a baby grand piano and now during the reception, a pianist delights us with his/her music. It's just awesome!!!!

Meet my New Baby Chicks

I have this sort of hobby. I raise fancy breeds of chickens. Yesterday I received a brand new shipment of baby chicks. They are now three days old. They were doing fine, but last night three died and another tonight, but it looks like the rest are going to make it.

Chickens are the nicest pet to raise, they are beautiful and relaxing to look at and they give eggs so I don't have to buy any. The babies will look much like the fluffy chickens on the second half of the video.

The funny looking birds at the end are guineas and though wild, since they spend the first two months of their life inside the house, under a heating lamp, they don't run away from home and they actually are very attached to people.

The Harmony Mural

I few days ago I found some old photographs I had taken of a mural I did in 1993, during college. It was a project I was chosen to do, after submitting a proposal.


The day the local Newspaper photographed it and interviewed me, there was an African-American woman sitting at the cafeteria when it was hung and she happened to be studding to be a nurse, just like the one on in the mural, which was a nice coincidence. The girl in the red dress I took out of an image that I used in on of my paintings. The Japanese Ballet dancer was inspired by a girl I met in Dance class. The fighter pilot was a good friends daughter, the suit she is wearing belonged to her stepfather and that same year the first female fighter pilot was announced.


The Native American is a friend of mine (she is Navajo), who agreed to pose for some photographs, and I picked this one, because she looked proud and majestic, much different from the submissive depictions of the past. She came to see the mural before I delivered it to the college and she loved her portrait, so that was very rewarding to me.


I envisioned "Women in Harmony", as a group of women, in a great big room (earth), living in harmony. If only life could imitate art, all the problems on earth would be resolved. It was chosen and I got the materials and worked on it in the living room of my apartment.


I worked mostly from photographs, since I had too little kids by then and it was easier to work at home and I painted mostly at night when they were asleep. On the floor were different symbols depicting religions around the world. I placed painting on the wall of the room, showing a time lime, from ancient times, to the days of the dreadful corsets, to slavery, the beginning of the woman's liberation and finally a blind woman graduating from college. The mural measured 12 feet long by 6 feet high. I wish I had the rest of the photographs, since the mural wasn't quite finished when I took these.

The Swan Lady

Earlier in February, I was lured by Ken Conger into going to Minnesota to photograph Trumpeter Swans and Owls. Our first stop was at Monticello, where the Swan Lady, Sheila Lawrence has been feeding Trumpeter Swans for about 22 years. About 1000 Swans congregate in her backyard that borders the Mississippi River. Next to her home, there is a small park where visitors cant watch and listen to the cacophony of trumpeting swans calls as well as their up-and-down bobbing of heads, part of their courting rituals. At times when a bald eagle flies overhead, calls become synchronized and a "hoooook" sound blast of alarm is heard. Both adults and yearlings are seen and the young ones follow their parents around, but these will chased away before this year's nesting season. As was the case with the Eagle Lady's backyard (see previous post) you cannot miss getting great photos of these majestic birds or the the commonly seen Canadian geese, mallards...and the occasional bald eagle. There was an attempt to stop feeding this year by the state's Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Wildlife Service. This ban was rescinded because the swans did not migrate to Texas and other states as expected by the officials and to the reports of dying birds due to lack of food.

Jean Keene and Sheila Lawrence have helped wildlife despite opposition by wildlife purists, I have named them the "Bird Ladies". I am sure that there are others that by their love of birds, have generated great joy to those who love and photograph nature. I thank them.

The Eagle Lady

In 2008 I had the honor of being welcomed to the home of Jean Keene, The Eagle Lady of Homer, Alaska. I spent about a week there with my friends Ken Conger, David Tuttle and Jerry Pellett. The daily routine consisted of of being at Jean's backyard from 7 AM to about 11 AM to photograph the feeding of bald eagles by Jean helped by her friends and visiting photographers. There is no other place where you can get "eye-to-eye" with and closely photograph these magnificent birds. Jean passed on in January of this year and the feeding of the eagles will probably cease March 25, 2009. She had been feeding the eagles for December to March for more than 30 years. Her feeding of the eagles was going to cease anyway do to pressures from local government and wildlife officials. She took also took care of injured, and while we were there, she just grabbed one with an infected eye and sent it to the rehabilitation center in Anchorage.. It seems that she knew all the eagles and they were not afraid of her. While there, we had the pleasure of taking Jean on her birthday to dinner at her favorite place, the Lands End Restaurant, where she was a regular customer. To our delight, she consumed her favorite drink and a steak while we listened about her eagle stories.
Jean's backyard was the meeting place of "Who's Who" in the world of wildlife photographers. It is likely that most of the incredible photos of bald eagles you see published were taken on her backyard. jean go me my "15 Minutes of Fame" when I received recognition from the National Geographic Society International Nature Photography competition for 2008 for an image of bald eagles in aerial combat over a fish taken from her backyard. This image is to the right. I considered returning to Homer this year, but it would not be the same with Jean.

10 Global-Warming Policy Recommendations

With near-consensus among scientists that catastrophic consequences of anthropogenic global warming are already on their way, yet little being done to avert it, it’s time for the U.S. to begin treating the climate crisis like the planetary emergency that it is. The new presidential administration has a rare opportunity to seize the moment and reassert American leadership on this crucial issue of security, social justice, and economic well-being. I asked experts working across the energy-policy spectrum on how the professedly green Obama administration can hit the ground running.

1. Direct the Environmental Protection Agency to allow California to require car makers to reduce emissions from cars sold in the state. Current EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson has ignored his staff’s advice in denying California a waiver to implement its Clean Cars program, requiring it to instead defer to less stringent national standards. At Obama’s direction, the new administrator he has nominated, Lisa Jackson, can allow California–plus the 16 additional states eager to adopt its program–to bring the bloated automakers to heel. “He can do this right away,” explains Roland Hwang, vehicle policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “In fact, the courts are expecting Obama to do just that.” Expect a lot of moaning and groaning from the beleaguered automakers; producing cleaner vehicles should be a condition of their loan arrangements.

2. Tell the EPA to declare carbon dioxide a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the authority to do just that. “Obama should make the ‘endangerment finding’ under the Clean Air Act the first step toward establishing a regime to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants and other major sources,” declares Daniel Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress (hose president and CEO, John Podesta, directs the Obama transition team). Adds NRDC’s Hwang, it’s “a slam dunk.”

3. Propose a cap-and-trade plan on global warming. Persuading Congress to quickly move on a program mandating–at bottom–a 20-to-35 percent reduction of greenhouse gases from 1990 levels by 2020 would be a good start, as would reductions of 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. But it is important that targets in 2030 and 2040 be set and met to reach, in 2050, a goal of 80 percent reduction from 1990 levels. Otherwise it’s all theory. “It is critical to be on the right trajectory,” says Hwang. Whatever program we adopt “should require emitters to buy pollution allowances in an auction,” adds Weiss, rather than giving them away (which would amount to massive corporate welfare and institute a lobbying stampede the likes of which has never been seen before).

4. Smartly apportion billions as part of an economic stimulus and recovery package. Of the hundreds of billions of dollars of “shovel-ready” infrastructure fortification in states and cities, more than 90 percent is scheduled for more highways—what adds NRDC’s Hwang calls “a whole bunch of bridges to nowhere.” Obama has already called for new economic stimulus, but spending money on the right thing should be a hallmark of an administration truly devoted to change. “He can tell Congress that he wants a massive portion of the package’s funds to go toward further buildout of rail and mass transit projects,” argues Lovass. “We have to graduate from remedial-class public transportation system.”

5. Make the White House as a case study in green living. If change begins at home, it’s time to green 1600 Pennsylvania. Ever since the Reagan administration reversed the conservation policies of the Carter administration, going so far to take the solar panels off the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania has been a crappy example of a environmentally-conscious home and workplace. Conservation is the low-hanging fruit of reducing one’s carbon footprint; by incentivizing low consumption, California has kept its energy use almost constant while doubling in population over the last 30 years. Obama can kick-start awareness with high-profile actions like putting those panels back up and hiring a White House chef specializing in organic cuisine. “Obama should illustrate that conservation is a personal virtue and very much an American value,” suggests Tad Fettig, director of the PBS series e2: economies of being environmentally conscious.

6. Stimulate smart agriculture. Factory farming is another criminally underrated threat to the planet, releasing methane, which is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, in addition to CO2 and other toxic effluvia. The administration could start by privileging subsidization based on sequestration rather than yield. “If it costs money to emit carbon,” says Jill Richardson, agriculture journalist and founder of the alt-food blog La Via Locavore, “then why not compensate those who can sequester carbon?”

7. Green America’s fleet. With the automakers reeling after decades of favoring energy-hogging vehicles, this one can kill two birds with one stone. Obama has already asked for a million American-built electric hybrids capable of 150 miles per gallon in six years. While we’re waiting, he should make gas hogs pay their way. Implementing a sales tax or fee structure favoring hybrids, whereby low-mileage vehicles are more expensive to buyers regardless of what the automakers are charging, would be a good way to kick the tires. He could also encourage cities and suburbs to electrify their bus and shuttle fleets, and enact congestion pricing in cities in California, Texas, and New York. Incentivizing other polluters to switch to electric or CNG would be a steal, while cleaning up the automakers’ act would be the home run. “Obama could ensure that a bridge loan program for auto companies requires them to not just speed up their efforts to produce fuel-efficient cars,” explains Weiss, “but also cease their challenges of federal or state clean energy or greenhouse gas programs.”

8. Pave the way for clean tech. By nominating Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, a Nobel-winning scientist developing renewables, the Obama transition has signaled that it wants to clean up the country’s energy problem. It can start that much-needed process by tripling federal research and development spending on clean technologies like solar, biofuels, and innovations yet to be discovered, a pittance considering how little budget is currently allocated for the problem. As for old, dirty tech, “the White House should seek to ban new coal plants that don’t capture their carbon,” says Joseph Romm, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and manager of its blog ClimateProgress.org.

9. Make Big Oil pay. Resource wars and consecutive quarters of record-setting earnings have made Exxon and other oil titans rich while bankrupting the nation. Although Obama has come out against a gas tax, it is only a matter of time before that wall crumbles. “The Obama administration should end tax breaks for big oil companies, and recover lost royalties from oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico,” explains Weiss. “Banning offshore oil and gas production for at least 50 miles off the coast wouldn’t hurt either.”

10. Modernize the grid. The transmission of power needs more power, whether that is getting renewable energy like wind to urban areas or rethinking regulation already in place. “Obama should initiate national efforts to rewrite state utility regulations to put efficiency on equal ground with supply,” adds Romm. “We need a major effort to create a smart, green grid.”

By Scott Thill, Plenty magazine

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Fresh vs. Frozen Vegetables

Are we giving up nutrition for convenience? The answer may surprise you. Americans typically eat only one-third of the recommended daily intake (three servings instead of nine) of fruits and vegetables, so if you’re in a bind, a vegetable in any form is better than no vegetable at all.

In winter, fresh produce is limited–or expensive–in much of the country, which forces many of us to turn to canned or frozen options. While canned vegetables tend to lose a lot of nutrients during the preservation process (notable exceptions include tomatoes and pumpkin), frozen vegetables may be even more healthful than some of the fresh produce sold in supermarkets, says Gene Lester, Ph.D., a plant physiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, Texas. Why? Fruits and vegetables chosen for freezing tend to be processed at their peak ripeness, a time when–as a general rule–they are most nutrient-packed.

While the first step of freezing vegetables–blanching them in hot water or steam to kill bacteria and arrest the action of food-degrading enzymes–causes some water-soluble nutrients like vitamin C and the B vitamins to break down or leach out, the subsequent flash-freeze locks the vegetables in a relatively nutrient-rich state.

On the other hand, fruits and vegetables destined to be shipped to the fresh-produce aisles around the country typically are picked before they are ripe, which gives them less time to develop a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals. Outward signs of ripening may still occur, but these vegetables will never have the same nutritive value as if they had been allowed to fully ripen on the vine. In addition, during the long haul from farm to fork, fresh fruits and vegetables are exposed to lots of heat and light, which degrade some nutrients, especially delicate vitamins like C and the B vitamin thiamin.

Bottom line: When vegetables are in-season, buy them fresh and ripe. “Off-season,” frozen vegetables will give you a high concentration of nutrients. Choose packages marked with a USDA “U.S. Fancy” shield, which designates produce of the best size, shape and color; vegetables of this standard also tend to be more nutrient-rich than the lower grades “U.S. No. 1″ or “U.S. No. 2.” Eat them soon after purchase: over many months, nutrients in frozen vegetables do inevitably degrade. Finally, steam rather than boil your produce to minimize the loss of water-soluble vitamins.

By Rachael Moeller Gorman, Eating Well

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Turn a Shirt into a Kid’s Pants

I always keep my once-nice, now-unwearable sweaters to craft littler things from–but I never thought about it for shirts. I love the idea of repurposing a favorite old shirt into something for your kid to wear–the well-worn fabric is soft and imbued with memories, it’s a sweet thing.

There’s a lovely book by Amanda Blake Soule, The Creative Family (Trumpeter, 2008) that has fabulous instructions for turning unwanted adult shirts into children’s pants.The following instructions are for a pair of toddler’s pants. A large men’s shirt can make a pair of pants for a child up to about the age of 3 or shorts for a child under 10.

What You’ll Need

• One adult’s shirt, from your closet or the thrift store. (Flannel, knit, or cotton all work well for this project. Keep in mind that knit jersey will stretch quite a bit as you sew.)

• A pair of elastic-waisted pants or shorts that are the apropriate size for your child. (These will be used only for tracing the size.)

• Waistband elastic, 3/4-inch width. (Length should be your child’s waist measurement plus 1 inch.)

• Needle, scissors, thread.

What to Do

1. Lay the shirt out flat. On top of it, place the pants to be traced, folded in half, with the outside leg of the pant along the side seam of the shirt. Place the hem of the pants along the hem of the shirt (this will save you from hemming the pants). Pin in place.

2. Cut around the pants, allowing 1/2 inch extra for seam allowance. At the top (the waist), leave an extra 2 1/2 inches for the waistband.

3. Repeat this process on the other side of the shirt. At this point you can trace the piece you just cut, rather than using the pants as a guide. This will ensure that the pieces are exactly the same size.

4. Open out the two pieces, and place them with the right sides together. Pin in place. Sew from the top (waist) to the crotch on both sides.

5. Open up the pants so that the crotch seam you just sewed is now in the center, and the two “legs” are on each side. Pin the pant legs together, matching up crotch seams and bottom hems.

6. Beginning at one hem, sew up the length of the pants to the crotch, and then down the other leg to the hem.

7. To make the waistband, fold down the top edge of the pants 1/4 inch and press. Fold down another 1 inch and press again. Sew this down, close to the fold, all the way around the waistband of the pants, leaving a 2-inch opening at the back center to insert the elastic.

8. Using a large safety pin, insert the elastic through the opening and thread through, being careful not to twist. Sew the two ends of the elastic together where they meet.

9. Stretch the waistband to close the elastic opening. Turn pants right side out.

Your reconstructed pants are ready to go!

By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Care2

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Lim Ding Wen Nine-year-old boy writes iPhone code

A nine-year-old Malaysian boy in Singapore has written a painting application for the Apple iPhone.

Lim Ding Wen created the finger painting program, known as Doodle Kids, for his two younger sisters aged three and five.

The program allows iPhone owners to draw images on the handset's touch screen using just their fingers.

The program has been downloaded more than 4,000 times from Apple's iTunes store in less than two weeks.

While most children of his age are painting or drawing with crayons, Lim Ding Wen has been programming.

Lim, who is now fluent in six programming languages, first started using a computer when he was two-years-old, discovered programming aged seven, and has since completed more than 20 programming projects.

His latest application, Doodle Kids, allows users to draw pictures using their fingers and then clear the screen by shaking the iPhone.

"I wrote the program for my younger sisters, who like to draw," said Lim. "But I am happy that people like it."

Lim wrote the original application on his computer but has now adapted it for use on an iPhone.

He told The Electric New Paper in Singapore that he wrote the application in just a few days in Pascal.

Go on my son

Writing on his website, Lim's father - Lim Thye Chean - a chief technology officer at a local hi-tech firm, who also writes iPhone applications, was modest about his son's achievements.

"Ding Wen is an above average boy with an interest in computers, especially Apple IIGS and Macs, likes to do programming, and that's it.

"Doodle Kids is an extremely simple program that can be done by anybody. Everybody can program - if Ding Wen can, so can you," he wrote.

Lim Ding Wen is now working on a sci-fi game for the iPhone called Invader Wars and plans to join his school's robotics club.

Source: bbc

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How to Friend Mom, Dad, and the Boss on Facebook.

Oh no! Your mom just joined Facebook and what's even worse, she wants to be your friend. More and more people are finding themselves in this situation today and unsure of what to do. Friending mom and dad, the boss, or other work colleagues opens up the details of your private life for the whole world to see - and you might not be entirely comfortable with that. What's to be done?

The Big Question: Should You Bare it All Online?

It's still up for debate how much personal information you should share with others on your Facebook profile. Some people would argue that the time for us to hide behind our masks is over. If we're professional, good employees at work and good sons and daughters at home, it shouldn't matter so much if a friend tags us in a photo which shows us tipping back beers at the weekend party. The fact is, everyone has a personal life and it shouldn't matter who sees it.

Others would say that those are precisely the sorts of photos that make it dangerous to use online social networks like Facebook for both personal and business networking. "Don't friend the boss," they would argue. It's just too risky.

Sharing Some Things, Not Others

The issue isn't really that black and white, though. You may feel it's OK for your colleagues to see some of your Facebook photos (like those from the conference you attended), but not others (like those from the party). You also may be a little uncomfortable with the boss reading your wall posts, especially if your friends have an odd sense of humor at times.

If you're not ready to expose everything about you to anyone who asks to be your online friend, it's time you learned how to use Facebook's friend lists.

A little over a year ago, Facebook launched a new feature called "Friend Lists." With lists, you can create groups of friends on Facebook, separating work from family and close friends. It's simple to use, but it's definitely an underutilized feature. In fact, most of the people who spend their days "Facebooking," never seem to take the time to worry about who's seeing what...until it's too late.

But now, as more older generations are going online and joining social networks, the "Should I Friend Mom/Dad/Boss?" issue is becoming more prevalent than ever.

How To Use Friend Lists

To get started with Facebook Lists, you first need to build one. You can do this from your Friends page. (Click "Friends" in the blue bar at the top). On the left side of the page, click the button "Make a New List." Give it a title.

Now you'll have the option to add your friends to the list. You can either start typing in names one by one or click on "Select Multiple Friends" to add several people to the list all at once. (To add people, just click on their photos.) When you're finished, click the "Save List" button at the bottom.

Once you have some lists created, it's time to figure out who gets to see what. To edit your privacy settings, go to "Settings" at the top-right of the screen next to the search box. When you hover your mouse over the link, you'll see a menu appear; click "Privacy Settings"on this menu. On the following page, click "Profile," the top choice in the list of options.

On the profile privacy page, you have the option of customizing exactly who gets to see what. You can modify the following areas: Profile, Basic Info, Personal Info, Status Updates, Photos Tagged of You, Videos Tagged of You, Friends, Wall Posts, Education Info, and Work Info. If you're unsure of what any of those things are, click the "?" next to the item to read a definition.

Using the drop-down boxes, you can customize who gets to see your info: "Only Friends," "Friends of Friends," or "My Network of Friends." To lock down your profile to friends only, you could set all these to "only friends." But since you have now created specialized lists, you'll want to use these instead.

To do so, click the fourth option from the drop-down box: "Customize." From here, you can add lists of people who should NOT be able to see this part of your profile. For example, if you wanted to block a list of work colleagues or those in your family from seeing your status updates, you could do so here - just type the name of your list in the box "Except these people" and save your changes.

Note: you can also block certain people individually just by typing in their names, but given the ever-growing number of Facebook users, you're probably going to need a Friend List at some point. We recommend biting the bullet and creating your lists now instead of treating everyone as a one-off.

After you've saved your changes, you're done. You'll have your privacy back without having to change the way you and your friends use Facebook. Of course, keep in mind that nothing is foolproof - determined hackers can gain access to your account as can anyone who guesses your password....so maybe you shouldn't use your dog's name.

When lists are finally in place, you can assign new friends to a list right when you're accepting their friend request - just look for the option "Add to Friend List" before you click "Accept."

It may seem like quite a bit of work to set up, but you'll thank yourself for doing this later...like every Monday morning when you go back to work after a great weekend...or the next time you need to borrow money from mom and dad. You get the idea. Better safe than sorry.

By: SARAH PEREZ
source : times.com

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7 Tips on Giving Chocolates to Your Valentine

Every year millions of people exchange candy and chocolate gifts on February 14th for Valentine’s Day. This trend has grown very popular recently, especially with the rise of quality chocolates (…and the number of chocoholics). Still, even in these modern times there are a few things you need to consider before running out to grab a chocolate gift.

Fresh chocolates are the best to get
Some of the larger chocolate candy makers make their chocolates for the “busy season” (December through February) as early as summer time. That means that some of the packaged chocolates you can purchase are several months old. Also, some of these chocolates are made with added preservatives which allow the chocolates to stay good longer, but can affect the taste. To get around this it is recommended you buy from a local chocolatier, candy store, or bakery who can produce a fresh chocolate treat for you (or at least one that is only a day or two old). If you are sending your chocolates to someone far away, check to see if there is a good local place that could deliver fresh chocolates for you and lessen the chance of shipping mishaps.

Nothing beats a homemade gift
For a more personal touch you can make your own box of chocolates to give to your valentine. Don’t worry if you are not a whiz in the kitchen - even if your gift does not turn out perfectly, it will earn extra points because you made it especially for them. There are many books, magazines, and websites to turn to for help and guidance so you do not have to go it alone. This is also a chance for you to personalize the chocolates an make them extra special by adding your valentine’s favorite fruits, nuts, liqueurs, flavors, etc. See the Chocolate Truffle recipe below for a good way to make your own homemade gift.

The shape of love
While hearts are often a common theme used for shaping chocolates and gift boxes, you can use any shape that would appeal to your valentine, such as flowers. You can be creative with cookie cutters, stencils, or decorator’s icing to give your chocolates extra flair, such as drawing a heart, smiley face, or bow on your chocolates. Also consider the different ways you can dress up the gift box with ribbons, flowers, handwritten love poems, etc..

Milk chocolate is not the only chocolate out there
While most Americans favor milk chocolates, don’t be afraid of using dark chocolate in your gift; for instance, you can do a mixed selection of 1/2 milk chocolate and 1/2 dark chocolate. If you are not sure if your valentine likes dark chocolate you might want to go for the mild and sweet taste of semisweet chocolate. If you want to go for intense chocolate flavor then go with the bittersweet dark chocolate. Generally, the higher the percentage of cocoa, the more bittersweet the chocolate will taste. If you are using unsweetened or baking chocolate, then you will want to mix it with something else, such as cream and sugar, to help bring down the intensity level.

Timing is everything
It is important to give the right amount of time towards your chocolate gift. If you are buying the chocolates you need to get your order in early to help avoid the last-minute rush. Some places have a cut-off date that they will take Valentine orders, especially if shipping or local delivery is involved. If you are making the chocolates you might want to try a practice run to work out any kinks that might come up and to help you get familiar with the recipe. The odds are good that you will do even better the next time you go through the recipe and you can make any adjustments you think would taste good to your valentine. Make sure you can get the ingredients you need from the store since the holiday rush can often deplete the local supply of chocolate, sugar, and other handy ingredients. If you purchase the chocolate early, store it in a cool, dry, dark place, not the refrigerator.

So much chocolate, so little time
There are a wide variety of chocolate gifts you can give: chocolate truffles, bonbons (chocolate shell with a creamy center), cake, brownies, fudge, cookies (chocolate, chocolate chip, chocolate dipped, etc.), chocolate dipped fruit/nuts/pretzels/whatever, and many others that you can purchase or make, so let your imagination run wild.

As a final tip, here is a recipe for making Chocolate Truffles to help you get started:

Chocolate Truffles

* ½ cup heavy cream
* 8 ounces semisweet dark chocolate (not chips), chopped
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
* powdered sugar
* cocoa powder

Equipment needed: baking sheets, baking paper, pastry bag

1. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is just boiling.
2. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate and butter until it is completed melted.
3. Let cool a few minutes, then stir in vanilla.
4. Wait until mixture starts to thicken, then form ½ - ¾ inch mounds using a pastry bag with a No.6 plain tip, a melon ball scoop, or 2 spoons to form the right shape.
5. Place mounds on sheet pans lined with baking paper. Refrigerate for a few minutes to set.
6. Roll the mounds in powdered sugar, then roll into roughly round balls between your hands, using more powdered sugar to keep them from sticking to you.
7. Then roll balls in cocoa powder until they are completely covered.
8. Let the truffles set on baking paper for about 10 minutes to finish.
   

Makes about 35 truffles.

Source : www.chocolate-candy-gifts.info

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The History of Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

An alternative theory from Belarus states that the holiday originates from the story of Saint Valentine, who upon rejection by his mistress was so heartbroken that he took a knife to his chest and sent her his still-beating heart as a token of his undying love for her. Hence, heart-shaped cards are now sent as a tribute to his overwhelming passion and suffering.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

Source: wikipedia

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Make Your Garden Beautiful

Beautiful garden is a perfect place to relax and spent some moments after a hectic, busy schedule. Any garden can be made more attractive and beautiful with the addition of various plants. If you live in tropic area you can try to plant such as beautiful tropical flowers, but if you live dry area you can Try a cactus and succulent garden instead of a lawn.



To make your garden more beautiful, You need to spend more on the decoration with accessories such as bird baths, bird feeders, and wild bird food If you love to watch wildlife. These are the unique decoration that catch people's attention. There still many thing that you can find in this outdoor and garden shop to make and treat your garden more beautiful

So, if you have this beautiful outdoor garden area, remember that garden benches are the seating you need in place to enjoy it.

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A Rainbow in the Morning

I woke up today to the site of a beautiful rainbow. As I walked out of my bedroom one of my daughters says, "mom, look outside", I thought oh God, what now?, "mom, just look outside now". So I turned around and there it was-the biggest and most beautiful rainbow I have seen in a long time.

I ran in and got the camera, before it disappeared. I videotaped it, but it is a little annoying, because my Ginnies were being really loud and would not quiet down. I'll have to make a video of them another time and also of the chickens.

Find a Treasure under the sea with google earth

Google has lifted the lid on its first major upgrade to its global mapping software, Google Earth.

Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain.

Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain.

The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world's leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.

Al Gore was at the launch event in San Francisco which, Google hopes, will take its mapping software a step closer to total coverage of the entire globe.

In a statement, Mr Gore said that the update would make Google Earth a "magical experience".

"You can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet's surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world's ocean that covers almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions."

Approximately 70% of the world's surface is covered by water, which contains nearly 80% of all life - yet less than 5% of it has actually been explored.

Google Ocean aims to let users visit some of the more interesting locations, including underwater volcanoes, as well as running videos on marine life, shipwrecks and clips of favourite surf and dive spots.

Conservation organisations hope the tool will improve awareness of issues facing undersea life.

"With this, everybody can see the unbelievable beauty of our marine life and how incredibly threatened it is," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the global marine programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"We hope this major technological innovation will get the public more involved in marine conservation and encourage governments and businesses to stop driving ocean species to extinction."

Coloured worlds

The new features were developed in close collaboration with oceanographer Sylvia Earle and an advisory council of more than 25 ocean advocates and scientists.

Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic Society's explorer in residence, said the new features would bring the blue planet to life.

"I cannot imagine a more effective way to inspire awareness and caring for the blue heart of the planet than the new ocean in Google Earth.

"For the first time, everyone from curious kids to serious researchers can see the world, the whole world, with new eyes," she added.

There are also updates on the terrestrial side, including GPS tracking, virtual time travel (where users can observe changes in satellite images, such as the 2006 World Cup stadium or the desertification of Africa's Lake Chad) and narrated tours of imagery and content in Google Earth.

There are also updates to the Mars 3D section, so if users have had enough of the blue planet, they can always look at the red one.

Source : bbc.co.uk

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Heart touching pictures

We must always be thankful to God for giving us healthy body, roof over our head, education for our children, food on the table where in many parts of the world these are uncertainties

Amidst Rain and Wind
Your elderly mother and little children are waiting for you to come home
With the day's wages.

Mothers' Love
Mothers and their children .
This is life.

Together, through Warm and Cold
(Photographer: An Hejie. Market Place, Town of Chifeng , Inner Mongolia)
Beyond the northern ( Inner Mongolia ) frontier, spring has arrived but the
Cold weather lingered on. Snow fell on this April morning. Flakes danced
In the sky. A middle-aged man tended to his cart, on which sat a little
Boy, wrapped up with blanket used to keep the vegetables from freezing.
>From time to time, the father would tuck at the blanket to make sure that
His son was all right. These are the words from the photographer: "Set in
The dark and shadowy background and the dancing snow flakes, the pink
Puffy face of the little boy stood out in great contrast to that of the
Father which was apparently shaped by the caprices of life. And life was
Indeed harsh. Father and son only have each other for support. When the
Father yelled out a sales pitch on top of his voice, his facial expression
Was shockingly touching. One cannot help but be moved."

Love
The father and his son live in an impoverished hilly area.. They demand
Nothing but a piece of land to call their own. Perhaps they will not have
A chance to see the outside world all their lives -- they will not know
What a staircase is, they will never ride in a taxi, nor will they ever
Step into a movie theater. But the truth is these are the people who offer
Us everything our lives depend on, generation after generation. The heaven
And earth have nothing to repay them. Love them!

Spirit to live
No rose, no diamond ring, but if this is not love, what is love?
With enthusiasm, love your life! Love the people around you!

When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look, you most likely turned your back on the world.
Be thankful for what we have. Love your life & appreciate the people around you.
Most people walk in and out of our life ...... But FRIENDS leave footprints in our heart.

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Enjoy Bonus and a big Profit by palying a game

Poker is one of the popular in the world. Many online services that provide poker game online. However many of them only scam or fake.

That's why we need to be more careful when we chose which services that where we are going to play this online game. However you don't need to be worry, there are many services are not scam or fake. If you are being interested, you can sign up in PokerStars Marketing Code with flopturnriver. Only with several minutes, you can gather with the other player all over the world.

Ffter you finished sign up, it's mean you have the right to begin to play the game PokerStars Bonus when ever you want. There are many profits and bonus that offer if you can win the game with certain conditions that were easy, that is Poker Stars Bonus Code. With this code, you are guarante to receive the bonus that could not be receive on the others service poker.

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