The birthstone for April is the diamond. If you were lucky enough to be born in April, than the diamond is your birthstone, so maybe you would like to know more about it. We know now that diamonds are one of the strongest substances that there is, almost impossible to break or cut. That thought however, is not just one of a scientific era. The ancient Greeks believed diamonds to be strong as well. Even without our technology and sciences they called this stone diamond because of roots in the word for invincible. While most people often think of diamonds as being completely clear they do come in a wide range of colors in fact. They can be clear, black yellow, green, red, blue, pink, purple or orange. Some colors are more prevalent than others due to the impurities in the stone. Clear stones are pure carbon but to make the different colors different substances must also be present during formation.
It is believed by some that wearing a diamond will improve your relationships along with building inner strength. Balance, abundance and clarity are also said to be brought by these gems. In ancient times diamonds were thought to be the creation of pure lightning while others thought they were the tears of God. No matter the culture or the time periods, diamonds have always been, and even to this day are, considered precious and special. So those of you with an April birthday, consider yourselves both precious and special as well.
I have found a really great Canberra Locksmith. I think they cover everything one could need for residential and commercial security. They offer a free security check on windows and doors and I see they recommend deadlocks for real security. I think it’s very easy to take security for granted and it’s a good idea to have an expert check out your home for vulnerable areas where a thief could gain entry. Class Locksmiths recommend a spare key drop box which can be secured to a wall and has a combination lock for extra security. It’s certainly better than leaving it under the mat which so many people do. I think it’s a good security move to re key all the locks when moving into a new home.
I also noted their recommendation to have a gate lock at the back of the house because it’s out of sight from the neighbors. They also said to me that I should consider buying a safe for really important documents and possessions. I think it’s a great idea to have a free consultation like this because I need an objective review of my home security by an expert.
The locksmith pointed out that my security needs to correspond to local government regulations and fit in with my budget as well. It needs to be realistic but it also has to provide an effective response to the threat posed by burglars with their own sophisticated equipment. I trust this Canberra locksmith!
I don’t use a garage in the traditional way. My car has never seen the inside of it to be honest. It stays parked in the driveway no matter what the weather. I’d rather go out and scrape the snow and ice off the car than to park it in my garage. Crazy? Maybe, but I wanted a painting studio, and even though I lived in a 3 bedroom house which was a decent size, there just wasn’t extra space or an empty room that I could use. Hence, the garage was my studio. I was basically in there from the time I got off work on Friday until early morning hours on Monday morning so I could get a little sleep before another work week.
I wanted to be a painter so badly ever since I was young. Saying so myself, I don’t think I am half bad either. I’d even sold a couple awhile back, but not lately. It seemed there weren’t many opportunities where I lived. No one was really looking to buy art from just a no name painter in Brisbane.
There had been those sales though and that made me feel like I was missing out on my calling. My wife tolerated it, which didn’t really matter because it seemed she enjoyed spending her weekends with a bottle of wine in one hand and the phone in the other than with me anyway. My garage studio was the perfect getaway, and who knows, maybe I’ll be able to sell one again someday. To sell, or not to sell; that was not the question in my book. To paint, now that was the answer.
I was in line at a hotdog cart on my lunch break with my coworker Carl and when it was my turn I ordered the usual. The vendor knew what the usual was because I was there every day Monday through Friday as I hadn’t mastered the art of getting up early just to throw together a sandwich during time I could still be getting a couple of extra z’s.
The vendor, never learned his name odd enough as often as I was there, handed me my usual. Polish sausage with mustard and onions and I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before. On his right hand he had 2 mens rings and on his left he had another ring on his pinky. They were like rings I had never seen before. Each was unique.
On his right hand one was silver with a black what I perceived to be onyx stone on it shaped like an octagon, the other was yellow gold with the same type of stone but this one was shaped like a square. The on his left hand was what I perceived to be a simple plain yellow wedding band on his ring finger. It was the rings on his right hand that intrigued me the most.
I told him that I liked his style of ring choices and asked him if the 2 on his right hand had any special meaning. He said no, just that he liked to collect unusual rings and he appreciated the compliment. I wonder if I could pull off the look!
I have been interested in getting a pet for years. For some reason I just never have been able to commit and take that step to get a pet for myself. I have gone through different phases, for a dog, a cat, a hamster, but I finally decided on what I wanted to get: a parrot.
Asking around, I couldn’t really find many people who had bought a parrot before. It’s not that surprising I guess; I wouldn’t have imagined that there were a lot of people who owned parrots. While it wasn’t surprising, it did make searching a bit more difficult in that I had a hard time getting feedback from different owners seeing what the pros and cons were.
Normally with different breeds of dogs or cats you can simply ask around to people you know to see how they have liked having them. With finding people who have bought a parrot, I had to work a little harder to get that feedback. While it was slightly more difficult I was still able to find plenty of resources online that were able to help me find what I was looking for. Luckily there are many different blogs with different resources that helped me figure out what I needed to do and what I needed to prepare for before I actually went out and made the big step and bought a parrot. All in all, this was a great decision that I made.
I wanted to buy a motel because I knew it could be a successful business. I also knew not all motels were successful so it was important to me to buy the very best one that I could. With a little research I was able to come up with a plan to help me find a successful motel.
The first thing I did, once I had a list of motels I was interested in, was to spend two nights at the motels. I did this without telling the owners I was a prospective buyer because I wanted to see what sort of customer service each motel offered. Once a motel receives a reputation for bad customer service, it can be hard to overcome so it was important to me that the motel I bought had a reputation for providing good customer service. Spending a few nights at the motel would also help me determine the overall quality of the motel rooms and amenities.
Once I knew which motel I was interested in, I contacted the city planner’s office to find out if there were any upcoming city or roadway projects that could impact the motel. It is important to do this with any business because construction projects, especially closing roads for construction, can have a big impact on small businesses.
Next, I reviewed the motel’s financial records for the last few years. The motel had little competition in the area and it was in good shape and it provided great customer service. All these things added up to the motel having been very profitable.
Finally, I paid for a property inspection, just to make sure there weren’t any unexpected, expensive repairs that needed to be done. The motel was given a clean bill of health.
Now, two years later, the motel is still very successful. With a little bit of preparation, you can find a motel that will be a successful and profitable business venture.
We were on a really tight budget for our wedding. I mean I was cutting corners and saving everywhere I could. For me, the wedding car wasn’t such an important item for our wedding, but my husband to be felt very different about that. We each made a list of the five things that were most important to us on our big day. Mine were my dress, the cake, the location, the rings and the flowers. His list was very different. His list was the party food, the location, the wedding car, his suit and number of guests (he wanted a large party).
Since my dress and his suit should both be nice, we both agreed that they should take top priority. He said that since the rings would last forever, he would also understand that it should be a priority for the wedding. After a lot of thought and discussion, I felt like he was much more willing to give me the wedding of my dreams and maybe I hadn’t given as much thought to what was important to him.
I told him to contact a Melbourne wedding car hire company and select the car he wanted for our wedding. I would give up other items to make sure he got to depart our wedding in the classy style he always dreamed of. He was really surprised by my gesture. He did not turn me down though. He immediately called a wedding car hire company and made the arrangements he had always dreamed of.
My daughter wanted a carnival themed birthday party. I thought it would be fun to have some masquerade masks for the kids to wear. I looked around at a couple of shops and online and I found several places (mostly party supply stores) that sold inexpensive masks in bulk. The problem was, they all looked sort of the same; the masks were just different colors. I started to wonder if I could make some masks for her birthday party. Or better yet: Could the kids make their own masks as a party game?
I did some online research and I found out that making these masks can be fairly easy and fun if you have all the materials. I went to the craft store and picked up a lot of card-stock in different colors, feathers, glitter, paint, ‘gemstones’, beads, and glue. I picked up ribbon to use as ties for the masks but wooden dowels could work, too. At the store, there were packages of plain plastic masks (in white and black) that could be decorated, but I decided to use card-stock so I could print out different mask shapes.
At home, I went online and found some free masks templates. I printed several different shapes and cut them out of the card-stock. The day of the party, I set up a long table and put several mask-making stations on the table. Each station had masks, glue, ribbon, and the decorative materials.
The kids had a blast making the masks. It was fun to see them get creative and make masks that fit their personalities.
I noticed my friend’s outdoor furniture still looked as good as the day she bought it whereas my furniture was already shabby and faded and had to be replaced. In order to ensure the new furniture set I just bought lasts longer, I asked my friend what she did to keep hers in such good shape and she gave me a few tips.
One of the things she does that I didn’t do is store her outdoor furniture during the winter. I always took the pillows off and stuck them in the garage but I left the furniture pieces outside all year long. This had caused my furniture to look weathered and old before its time. I don’t have room in the garage to store furniture but I did invest in heavy-duty patio furniture covers to protect the new furniture this winter.
Another thing she did was to pick an umbrella and furniture cushions in a light neutral color so they don’t look faded right away. My furniture had a bright floral pattern that faded after the first summer. She also stores her pillows inside when the outdoor furniture isn’t being used, plus she flips her cushions regularly so they get even wear.
And finally, my friend takes the time to wash her furniture with warm soapy water at the beginning of the summer and at the end. I have to confess, the most I did with my old set was spray it with the garden hose if it looked dirty.
I’m doing a much better job with my new outdoor furniture and I think it will look good for several years. I guess the biggest tip to remember is that even though it is called outdoor furniture, it still needs to be carefully cared for if you want it to last.
My grandmother moved into a gated retirement community that is fairly large and spread out but has few roads that are designed for cars. It quickly became obvious that she would need a golf cart more than she would need her car. I started to look around for a golf cart for sale. My grandmother’s retirement villa has a small attached garage with several electric plugs so it seemed an electric golf cart for sale would be good for her. It would be easier for her to plug in her golf cart at night than it would be to deal with a gas tank.
I thought I found a golf cart for sale that would fit my grandmother’s needs but when I looked at it, I realized it would need several expensive repairs. It made me wonder if I should look at new golf carts. I was going to start looking at new carts when I saw a golf cart for sale by a dealer. The used golf cart for sale by dealer seemed like a good compromise since I could get the lower cost of a used golf cart with the security of a dealer warranty.
The dealer was very knowledgeable about the golf cart for sale, explained to me the repairs that had been done and pointed out the new battery. The golf cart for sale looked good as well, it did not have any rust spots or dents and the tires were in very good condition.
My grandmother loves her golf cart and uses it to go everywhere in her retirement community and I am so glad we found a golf cart for sale that fits all of her needs.
We wanted a couple of refurbished slot machines for our club but were unsure how to tell if a game was in good condition. I did some research online and found out there are a few things to look for when you’re buying a slot machine that is used.
When you’re looking at used slot machines for sale, you want to make sure the bill and credit card acceptors are clean and in good condition. If these acceptors are not cleaned regularly, they will usually start to jam and need to be replaced. A machine that has a worn appearance can also be an indication that it has not been properly maintained.
The slot machine should have service records. If there aren’t any maintenance records, you should be wary of buying the machine because there is no way to tell if it has been well taken care of. Even if a machine looks nice on the outside, its internal components could have been neglected. It can be a good idea to buy used machines from a casino because they have a large staff of technicians who care for the machines and this increases your chances of getting a machine that has been looked after.
The easiest way to make sure you’re getting a quality used slot machine is to buy from a gaming equipment dealer because they specialize in refurbishing slot machines. Buying from a dealer will allow you to get a machine that comes with a warranty and service package. Machines from dealers can cost a little more but you have the added comfort of knowing they will fix it if something goes wrong.
When it came time to go shopping for wine fridges, I thought I would have to go to a specialty appliance store and spend a lot of money. It turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. Wine fridges are becoming a staple of modern kitchens and they can be found at many retail stores and online. Even retail stores that only carry small kitchen appliances like microwaves and blenders will usually have a few different models of wine fridges. Having so many stores carry wine fridges is actually a bonus because it let me look at many differ fridge types without having to travel to specialty stores, plus it made it easier to compare fridge prices.
There were so many types of wine fridges available and from so many stores that I actually had a hard time deciding which one to purchase. I was able to narrow down the type of wine fridge I wanted by figuring out how many bottles of wine we drink in a week. On average we drink two bottles a week, which is 104 bottles for the year. Now I didn’t think we needed a large wine fridge that held over 100 bottles, but knowing how much we consume let me know that I should look at wine fridges that held around 16 or 18 bottles of wine.
Since we like to keep red and white wines at home, I knew I wanted a dual zone wine fridge but a single zone works just as well if you only drink one type of wine or only drink it occasionally.
So are you shopping for wine fridges? If so, don’t be intimidated by it. It’s much easier than you think.
Some girlfriends and I thought it would be fun to get together for a weekend since it’s been several years since we’ve all been together. We would always talk about having a girls’ weekend but finally, after years of talking we were going to get together. On friend suggested we should hire a Sydney limousine for an evening.
It was such a fun idea and I was sure that splitting the cost between the six of us would make it reasonable. I went online to look at the different hire Sydney limousine services available. The different car types available was enormous. Everything from sedans all the way up to stretch Hummer limousines. A sedan would be much too small for the six of us, plus we wanted an actual limousine and while a Hummer limousine would be fun, it wasn’t what we were looking for in Sydney limousine hire service. We settled on a black stretch limousine that seated up to nine people—more than enough room for the six of us!
The hire Sydney limousine service had several packages available, ranging from a straightforward pickup at our hotel and drop-off at the restaurant, to hiring the Sydney limousine for three to four hours or more. We wanted to be chauffeured in a stretch limousine all night so of course we chose one of the multiple hour packages! The Sydney limousine hire service made the evening so much fun. They had the colored lights on in the car which made it feel really festive and the mini-bar had a nice selection of bottled drinks. My girlfriends and I had a blast and for the night we felt less like married women with careers and families and more like the silly, fun-loving girls that we used to be.
I have been shopping for my first maternity swimsuit. At the first few stores, I have been really disappointed in the selection that is available. It isn’t so much that the stores didn’t have very many choices in styles, but they really lacked very much in color and pattern choices. There were lots and lots of black maternity swimsuits and ones with horrible looking tropical patterns. I was really hoping for something a little more frilly and feminine.
After a disappointing shopping trip, I decided to try some shops that were specifically geared towards maternity swimwear instead of shopping at the larger department stores. These maternity shops definitely offered a better selection not only in style but in color and patterns. I found an adorable white and pink polka-dot pattern on a swimsuit. I thought the material was so cute, but I hated the style of swimsuit. It was more like a swim dress than a swimsuit. I tried it on anyway. When the sales lady saw my disappointment she explained that she could order a different style of swimsuit in the same material from the manufacturer.
I tried on several styles until I found one that I really liked. Â The sales lady took down the style number then looked the material number up on the manufacturer’s website. She then placed the order over the phone. I had to pay for it in advance, but I think I am going to have the kind of swimsuit I was really looking for. Now I am very impatiently awaiting the arrival of my swimsuit.
Emily was a wiggler.
She was always moving as if she had some imaginary music playing in her head as she just kept squirming whenever it was time for bed.
I have a feeling it had to do with the fact that she didn’t want the day to end as she still had so many things left to do. We used to laugh about this tiny little being, still not even talking, but with a full agenda that kept her moving.
We got concerned when the squirming affected her sleep and in conversation about it at work someone suggested we get Emily a baby bean bag.
I had seen them in the baby section of the couple of clothing stores I frequent but never thought of them as anything more than a gimmick.
Well, was I ever wrong.
The baby sleeping bag we got basically ‘trapped’ Emily in a flat position on her back with her head and arms sticking out of fitted holes. Almost from the first night she quit wiggling and fell asleep quicker and stay asleep longer.
We do have to monitor the temperature in her room, which we were doing in the first place, and we have lighter and heavier bags we use depending on the regular temperature in the room.
We also like that Emily can rest up all that nervous energy and use it when she’s awake during the day instead of waking up from it at night.
Emily has never slept so well until we switched to the baby bean bags.
There are many ways you can avoid some dental emergencies. One of the best ways to save dental emergencies is through regular dental care. You should regularly brush and floss your teeth. Preventative dental care also includes regularly scheduled visits to the dentist for checkups and cleanings. Â Another great way to protect your teeth is through the use of a mouth guard while participating in sporting events. Â You should avoid chewing on hard objects like hard candies or ice. And you should never use your teeth to open packaging or hold objects.
Even though you can take all of these precautions, accidents are still bound to happen. Â When you have a dental emergency, you should visit an emergency dentist. They are available most hours, including nights and weekends. They can repair damage you encounter with your teeth through injury or neglect. Â An emergency dentist can fix a lost filling, a chipped tooth, even pain from that cavity you have been trying to ignore.
Some regular dentists even have an emergency dentist as part of their practice or partner with them to provide continuous service to their clients. Next time you visit your regular dentist, ask them what they suggest you do in case of a dental emergency. They may recommend an emergency dentist (I can recommend an emergency dentist perth or emergency dentist sydney), or they may tell you that you have to wait until the office reopens on the next business day to reach them. Either way, find a good emergency dentist so if the need arises, you will not be struggling to find someone to address your dental emergency.
Several years ago, there was a science fiction show on television that was about genetically altered humans that became a bit super human. Since they were kind of science experiments, these genetically altered humans each had a barcode tattooed on the back of their neck. I was a huge fan of the show, and I wanted to be like the main character so badly. I studied photographs from the show so that I could have a barcode tattoo put on my body just like the main character.
I had it done and I loved it. It was a great conversation starter when the show was still on the air (and for a few years after that). Â By this time, I had long hair so no one could see my tattoo unless I had my hair up in a ponytail. I often kind of forgot about the tattoo being on the back of my neck since I never see that part of my body.
Then inverted bob hairstyle became all of the rage and of course I got my hair cut in that style. But it highlighted my tattoo more than I ever expected it to. Â I looked into different types of tattoo removal in nyc. I really wanted laser tattoo removal, but I decided that I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money to remove something so trivial from the back of my neck. I just live with the tattoo. One of these days I will probably just grow my hair long again to help cover it up.
Most people think of stretch marks as being something only women get and usually only pregnant women at that. But men get stretch marks too. We often get them from weight loss, rapid growth, or like in my situation from being a bodybuilder. I had been told by other bodybuilders that there are several things that contribute to developing stretch marks as a bodybuilder and there are ways you can help avoid them. I was basically told there are two reasons that bodybuilders have stretch marks: their muscles grow too fast or their skin has weak fibers from insufficient vitamins.
Many bodybuilders told me there are some ways to ward off the development of these stretch marks. The main one is to not bulk up too quickly. They said body building should be done very gradually. Some guys train to bulk up in spurts, but slow and steady is less likely to result in stretch marks. The other way to avoid stretch marks as a bodybuilder is to keep your skin hydrated and flexible. This can be achieved by drinking plenty of water, eating healthy and using lotions like cocoa butter on your skin. This will help your skin stretch without tearing the fibers which is what causes the stretch marks to appear.
I took all of the advice and tried to follow it as much as possible. I have been pretty lucky and only have a few small stretch marks on my biceps. I don’t think they show very much during competition after I have used the body bronzer.
My best friend is so creative. She is always coming up with really unusual birthday and Christmas presents. It is like she is in an originality contest that no one else can even come close to competing with her in. She is been on a kick about birth flowers lately. I didn’t even know that birth flowers existed. I thought she had completely made it up until I searched the internet. But the thing about her is that she goes beyond just getting a flower arrangement with birth flowers and calling it a day. Nope, her idea is always an interesting gift which includes flowers.
For instance, we have a mutual friend that has a January birthday. January’s birth flower is the carnation. If I was buying the flowers, I would have gone to the florist and ordered a simple carnation arrangement, not Sue. She bought a bunch of fabric carnations in pink and white. Then she attached them to a piece of foam in the form of the recipient’s first initial. Of course it matched the decor in the birthday girl’s new laundry room perfectly.
Another mutual friend has a March birthday. The birth flower for March is the daffodil. Sue bought this friend a nice necklace that had a beautiful image of a daffodil on it. It not only looked classy, but is a birth flower that isn’t going to wilt any time soon.
My birthday is in June. The birth flower for June is the rose. She got me a gorgeous candle snuffer with a carved rose on the top. It really is the thoughtfulness and originality that makes her gifts great.
I have eczema. It’s a skin condition that flares up often and covers me in places with a rash that not only shows up in scaly, red and dry patches, but they often itch like crazy.
I’ve tried a lot of different skin lotions and was surprised to discover that coconut oil has been quite successful in relieving symptoms associated with various kinds of dermatitis.
When I first heard about it I will admit I was a bit skeptical as I’ve tried just about everything. I was also curious because I knew that since coconut oil is all natural, it wasn’t going to make my break outs any worse.
When I started looking into it I learned that organic coconut oil is best. It has something to do with it not being processed and therefore not losing any healing properties.
My first application was wonderful. I could not believe how soothing it felt on a spot that had a horrible itch. The coconut oil actually penetrated into my skin and stopped the swelling, took away the itch and gave me enough comfort that I was able to sleep at night without waking from feeling the dry, scaly rash rubbing against my bed sheets. The oil also acted as a moisturizer, which took away the dryness.
I applied it a few more times over the following days and the rashes started to disappear. Because it is a natural product that comes from coconuts, I now use coconut oil for my face regularly, and rarely have severe outbreaks of eczema.
I have battled with menstrual cramps for years. My doctor says they are completely normal. I know he thinks I am a wimp because I want to curl up in a ball when I get them. My doctor told me to give up caffeine to reduce the cramps. He told me to exercise more. He told me to use a heating pad. The list of things he told me to try goes on and on, but I had very little success with his recommendations.
A friend recommended some home remedies. Â She suggested I try yoga, mineral baths, and eating parsley. I don’t think any of it made much of an impact. The one suggestion she made that changed my painful cramps into manageable cramps and eventually non-bothersome cramps was drinking chamomile tea. I thought she was crazy when she first suggested it, and honestly, it was the very last thing that I tried out of the list she gave me. The first month, I was still figuring out the how much and when to drink the tea to have too much of a major change happen. The second month I had things figured out a little better. By the third month, I was finally getting the kind of relief I had been seeking for so long.
There is a little bit of trial and error to find the amount that gives you relief. I found that drinking 3 cups of chamomile tea a day from the time the cramps first start until my period ends is best. Another friend drinks 3 to 4 cups per day starting three days before she expects her cramps to begin.
When we bought our campground several years ago, it was very run down and barely making ends meet. We bought it with the intention of fixing it up and selling it for a profit. But after putting that much work into renovating the campground, we grew attached to it and to the group of regular families that stayed there. Eventually, we lost sight of our initial goal of being campground flippers and became campground owners.
Not long ago, we were laughing about how we came to own and operate a campground and that laughter opened up a serious conversation: Should we sell our campground?
It was what we planned to do in the beginning but was it what we wanted to do now? There were many upsides to keeping our campground. The biggest one was that it was profitable. We made a very comfortable living running the campground. The second, but it was almost as close as the first was that owning the campground let us work for ourselves. It was hard work but it was for something we owned.
At first, it seemed like keeping the campground was the best thing for us as there seemed to be few drawbacks. Then we started to think about the small things we weren’t able to enjoy since we were small business owners. For instance, even though the campground was profitable, we weren’t able to hire lots of additional help and this meant one of us had to be at the campground pretty much 24/7. Also, we hadn’t been on a vacation since we purchased the campground. The more we talked the more it seemed going back to our original idea was the best thing for us. It took a little doing and we took a long route, but in the end we were able to achieve our original goal: Purchase a campground, renovate it, and flip it for a profit. Now we’re on to our next business adventure.
