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My friend has a shop that sells glass artwork. My personal favourite glass artwork is paperweights and I have a lot of fun attending art auctions and buying art glass with her. We pay close attention to what our friends and her clients like and dislike.

I often give people art glass paperweights that I find at art auctions for special birthdays and anniversaries. My mother turned seventy last August and I found a magnificent glass paperweight for her.

The art glass paperweight that I bought for my mother was made by Baccarat and I was extremely lucky that this was one of the last items auctioned. A lot of people had already left the auction when this item went under the hammer. My mother really liked the rose design because the rose is her favourite flower.

I have a Dutch friend from Den Bosch who loves effigies of frogs. She has managed to decorate her abode very stylishly with her favourite frogs. I have been on the lookout for an art glass paperweight for her for years. I finally found one at an art auction last year. The glass paperweight featured a frog sitting on a lily pad surrounded by blue water. It was really pretty and my friend began using it on her desk immediately.

I also have an aunt who collects art glass paperweights. She has asked me very often to find glass paperweights for her when I am attending art auctions. Of all of the pieces I have bought for her over the years, one sticks out in my memory more than any other.

The prettiest art glass paperweight I have ever won at an art auction has to be one that featured a blue and gold Macaw. Rick Ayotte was the artist that made it and it was even featured in a book of his work. He has created many lovely art glass paperweights.

There is no trouble at all selling art glass paperweights made by Rick Ayotte. His work seems to draw a great deal of interest. My friend tries to win any auction she finds for art glass paperweights made by him. She won one not so long ago that looked like pink roses. They looked so delicate and sweet. I know that this art glass paperweight will sell without delay.

There have been some inquiries at the shop for art glass paperweights by Richard Marquis, although we have not found any in any of the art auctions we have been to recently.

I will keep looking out for art glass paperweights at the auctions I go to, but I will not be going way out of my way to track them down. I now buy every art glass paperweight I can find that was made by Rick Satava. My favorite has to be the coral orange jellyfish that I found at an art auction an hour from my home. It was really pretty.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Waterford crystal vases. If you have an interest in Irish crystal or wedding rings, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

Everybody worries about the security of their homes and families. The question is: how can you make your home safe without turning it into Fort Knox? The sad fact is that, if someone is determined to get into your home, they can and will. Ten years ago, my home was ‘safe’, but I was tricked into opening the door and I let my attackers in. No home security system can safeguard against situation like that.

Burglars look for homes that seem vulnerable. Most burglars are opportunistic. In other words, if they see an open door or window or if it is obvious that no one is at home and if there is no noticeable security, then it is worth them attempting to get in. Open gates are also an incitement. So are valuable possessions put on show in windows.

It only takes minutes to steal something, you would be astonished. I let two armed robbers into my house and they timed 15 minutes to take everything of value in my house and then a car stopped outside to pick them up. It was night time and I was tied up. It could have been a taxi, which would not have aroused my neighbours’ suspicion.

It is important to show people (opportunistic thieves) that you have a home security system of some type. If you cannot afford a proper, working alarm system, get a dummy siren box with a flashing light. It is not as good as a real system, but it would take a brave or desolate burglar to find out, which means that you cannot tell anyone at all, in case it gets out.

A home security system is well-worth the money you will spend on it. The stress of being burgled or even held up, as I was, will make you wish that you were more security conscious. But it does not stop when the burglars leave. Then the police come and I spent from midnight until 4AM at the police station. I had to go back at least a dozen times after that. My insurance company had dozens of questions and it took four months to get a payout.

I felt certain that the burglars knew me, and I felt threatened everywhere I went for months. I could not stop glaring into people’s eyes to see if I could recognize my intruders’ (they had masks on, but I saw one man’s eyes). My life has altered radically. I even moved out of my house the next day and never went back again.

As I said before, I had a good system in place, but I had turned it off as soon as I got home and opened the front door to my intruders. My suggestion is to get a wired or wireless home security system and, if you can afford it, get a monitored home security system with at least one surveillance camera, but preferably one on each external wall and one inside in the hall.

Get contact sensors for all external doors and vibration sensors for every windows. Put a personal panic button by all external doors and have garden lights that are switched on by motion or body heat outside. Keep your system switched on and be very wary of who you open the door to.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with wired home security systems. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

If you and your partner are interested in a romantic vacation, you may have a hard time deciding on a location because there is such a large number of vacation destinations to choose from. However, I would like to propose St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands, which lies in the Caribbean.

St. Thomas is well-known for its romantic vacations. Hundreds of thousands of couples have been vacationing in St. Thomas in order to enjoy a private, intimate, and romantic break. If you are wondering why St. Thomas is such as wonderful place for romantic breaks, you ought to read more about St. Thomas on their official Internet web site.

The Caribbean, in general, is well known for its wonderful, tropical weather and this sort of setting is many couples’ ideal romantic vacation spot. The lovely weather means unparalleled opportunities for swimming and other beach activities. If seeing all the good-looking people in their bathing costumes does not turn you on then nothing will!.

However, do not think that St. Thomas is only intended for younger people. It caters very well for people of all age groups, although some areas are ‘adults only’. So, if you will have to check up on any age restrictions on some of the private beaches. Some may be Club 18-30, others may not admit under 18 year olds.

The ‘adults only’ resorts in St. Thomas are perfect for romantic holidays. The hotel rooms in these resorts are also of a higher class. Many of them have ocean views and large in room baths or jacuzzis. If you can get hold of one these rooms, you may not even care to go outside.

However, if you do want to go outside, many of St. Thomas’ beach resorts offer exceptional opportunities for all varieties of water sports like boat trips, snorkeling and assisted scuba diving tours. If you are not water-orientated or you want to try something on land then there is horseback riding too. Horse riding along the shoreline is very popular. Many resorts have their own specialist activities, so when you reserve your holiday, make sure you check out what is accessible to you in that district.

There are abundant opportunities for shopping and sight-seeing on your own too. You could hire a car and journey up the coast or inland to one of the national parks, where you may see wildlife or find a quiet restaurant offering delectable local food.

Last, but definitely not least, in the list of romantic things to do in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands is to get married. There are fewer limitations on marriage for American couples than on mainland America. The only observances are a $50 fee and an eight day posting of bans to announce your intention to wed. You can get married at almost any time of the day or night. So, a sunset wedding on the beach is easily workable and is, in fact, one of the most popular romantic reasons for young couples coming to St. Thomas.

Owen Jones writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with romantic men’s perfume. If you have an interest in romantic gifts, please go over to our website now at Romantic Gifts Ideas Check here for free reprint licence: A Romantic Vacation In St. Thomas, UVI.

Trying to burn off your belly fat is probably the most widespread reason for dieting. Next is trying to lose excess weight from one’s arms and legs, if you want to lose weight and get a slimmer body. Diet alone does not work well enough to get a flat abdomen, and many people are searching non stop for new methods to try to complement their diet.

Occasionally the battle you have to fight takes years, while in more fortunate situations, you’ll be able to burn belly off fat in a few months. The time span necessary for such an achievement varies according to a series of personal factors: first of all it depends on how big the fat deposit is around your waist.

Then, your age, your health and certain other personal factors affect the rate of weight loss significantly. You can burn belly fat at a more rapid pace if you stick to a training routine consisting of a series of well-determined exercises that include not only body crunches but also full body work.

Twists for example, have a great repute for the toning of the abdominal muscles and the creation of a slimmer waistline. While you can keep your calorie intake under control by carefully monitoring your diet, you can only burn your current deposits of fat with physical activity.

Nutritional supplements can help you burn your belly fat off without having to experience the consequences of a crash diet. Some of the most respected treatments for accelerating the metabolism include green tea extract, Garcinia Cambodia, pineapple extract, seaweed and other herbs with a stimulating impact on the digestive tract.

Be very careful with appetite suppressants because they do not burn belly fat like the rest of the supplements do, but rather they promote a sensation of satiation which tells your body that there is no requirement for it to long for food. However, if such a situation gets out of control, the user of these weight loss supplements could develop anemia because of poor nourishment.

Do not try to burn your belly fat within a rigid, predetermined time frame. Setting seven or ten-day goals could put a lot of strain on the body, and besides a flatter stomach you may end up with grave health problems. Every body has its own way of adapting to diets. For example, one’s level of activity changes with programs meant to speed up the metabolism.

If things are not done slowly but surely, the body could respond aggressively to the new stimuli, creating all sorts of discomforts such as diarrhea, exhaustion, anxiety, poor concentration and the so forth. Therefore, choose those ways to burn belly fat off that best suit your condition, age and physical structure.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with our blog why can’t I lose weight. If you have an interest in losing weight, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

It is quite natural that we all want to keep our homes and businesses safe and well looked after, but there are many ways in which this can be accomplished. The cheapest and most cost effective way is exterior security lighting

It truly is a no brainer, poor lighting can make a home or business a much more attractive target than the house next door because it has less adequate exterior security lighting. Burglars look for poorly lit points of entry into buildings that appear to contain wealth, so when you are designing the security system for your home or business you should try to think like a criminal.

Look at your buildings from the outside, or look at someone else’s first and ask yourself, how you would get in there if you had to. Pretend that you forgot your keys or that there is a crucial problem in your property. How would you get in? This is where chummy gets in and you must learn how to block his every move.

Ten years ago, I lived in a bungalow alone with my small, knee-high dog and armed robbers attacked me in my home, in spite of the fact that I had a decent home security system. Do not let it happen to you. My blunder was that I had insufficient exterior security lighting.

They had cut my phone line during the day and because I used a cell phone for most of my calls, I did not realize. Also my dog was sick, but I did not realize that she had been poisoned too. At eleven o’clock at night there was a knock on the front door and I opened it, thinking that it was a neighbour in distress.

A man charged in and over-powered me and the rest was not nice. However, the whole regrettable affair could have been prevented, if I had thought like them..

I was in the routine of drawing the curtains when I got home, so I did not see that they had removed the lamps from my exterior security lighting too.

My advice is to check your exterior security lighting every night when you get home and keep the bushes or shrubs cut low around your front and back doors. Make sure that your exterior security lighting is working every evening and make sure that you can see who is buzzing your door bell.

Provide your garden and your doors with plenty of light. Let them be on motion sensors and check who is at your door from a side window that looks out onto the front door. I had a gorgeous frosted glass pane in my front door, but that is no good. I could not recognize anyone through it.

Get a panic button fitted by your doors, a big one, so that if you are surprised you can swipe out and still hit it and above all make your next door neighbours conscious that if your external siren sounds, that you are in danger and that you need assistance immediately. If you are not in trouble, you can always apologize later.

Owen Jones, the writer of this writer, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

The Theobroma Cacao or ‘the food of the Gods’ is what we all know as the cocoa tree. It’s origin can be traced back to South America’s rain forests, particularly to Central America, although historians are still at variance over certain facts with regard to this tree.

It is suggested that the Mayans first grew the cacao tree in 300 AD, although others point to inadequate evidence that it was grown or at least harvested in around 3,000 BC. The Aztecs also used the cacao, but from about 1100 AD.

The chocolate (drink) that we all know nowadays was called ‘xocoatl’. It was a very exclusive beverage that was made with cacao, chilies, anise seed, vanilla, corn meal and some other spices. It is said that only royalty were allowed to drink it and then only from golden chalices, which were to be used for the purpose only once.

The cacao tree is very responsive to its environment and it most frequently grows in the shade of the rain forest canopy. If just for this reason alone, chocolate lovers should join forces with the environmentalists to save the rain forests so that the cacaos will continue to exist.

This tree is unusual because its fruits grow directly on its branches and trunk; midges cause the pollination of the flowers during the night time.

The cacao tree is very prolific, but not very fruitful. It can have in the region of 10,000 blossoms, but only about 10 to 50 of those will mature into fruits or pods. This is thought to be because the cacao tree can regulate the number of blossoms that will mature according to its ability to handle the energy loss of bearing fruit or pods.

The cacao tree regulates itself in this way to preserve its health. Too many pods might exhaust its energy so much that it could not survive a viral or insect attack or too many ripe pods might snap off its branches.

The cocoa beans grow within the pod, the fruit of the blossom. Harvesters wait for the pod to ripen. They will then break open the pods and take out the seeds, which are surrounded by a white pulp. This is thrown away these days, but it is thought that many years ago it was fermented into an alcoholic drink for ceremonial occasions. The beans are the source of chocolate, although there is plenty to do yet..

The seeds are very bitter at this stage and it is for this reason that they will go through a procedure of fermentation for between three and seven days. This causes the seeds to go through chemical as well as physical changes. The result of this was used for the royal drink, the ‘xocoatl’.

However, to turn it into what we recognize as chocolate, the fermented beans have to go through quite a few more processes. Processes by the name of: drying, cleaning, roasting, grading, opening, separation, grinding and liquefying.

After liquefying, you have pure chocolate in the form of chocolate liquor. This is sold to chocolate manufacturers and the good ones make high-class chocolate from it and the bad ones adulterate it so much that it is scarcely chocolate any more.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Gourmet Chocolate Candy. If you have an interest in romantic gifts, please go over to our website now at Romantic Gifts: Ideas

These days everybody is anxious about the security of their homes and justly so! According to official American government statistics, the number of house burglaries has increased by almost ten percent in the last five years to about fourteen million per annum.

That is a lot of homes. I was burgled ten years ago and I have studied and done my best to never be one of those statistics again. In this article, I will pass on some of my home security tips on how to make your home unappealing to thieves.

The first thing to think about is whether you have anything in your garden, shed or garage that will help a thief get into your house. Things like ladders, crow-bars, screwdrivers, sledge hammers. If you do, then lock them away. Keep the shed and garage doors locked at all times. If you have a ladder that will not fit in the shed or garage, chain and padlock it to a brick wall, so that nobody can use it to get in.

Never think that your home is less at danger just because you or someone else is inside it. Some thieves are crazy and it is simpler to ask someone where the money is than to try to find it yourself. It is easier to demand the keys to the safe than to break the lock. I know. thieves came into my house while I was at work. They saw my safe, but could not get into it, so they came back three nights later when I was at home. It was really not nice.

Do not put a spare front or back door key under the mat, a flower vase or near-by rock. Thieves expect people to do that and it is the first place they look. If you are thinking about leaving a key with a neighbour, choose your neighbour well. In fact select the family carefully. Does the family have teenage kids? If so, could their friends find out that that ‘spare key’ is to your house? Do you trust all the friends of that neighbour’s kids? Do you even know them?

Beware of people you do not know. I do not mean be fearful, but someone asking to make an urgent call because of a ‘breakdown’, could be casing your house or sizing you up. If you want to help, make the call for them or direct them to the nearest public telephone booth or a shop.

Keep all your doors and windows locked. If reasonable locked shut, when you are away from the house, but you can get window-stay locks so that you can lock a fanlight window ajar a few inches too. This is very helpful in the summer or if you have animals. Lock upstairs windows too – your neighbour may have a loose ladder that a thief can use.

Do not flaunt your valuables unnecessarily. Video recorders, DVD players and even the TV can be put in cabinets. Jewellery should be put in a box or a safe. Cash the same. Your house is a home, not a presentation case to would be criminals.

My last home security tip to make your home unappealing to thieves is to stay alert and to advise your neighbours of any slip-ups they are making too. If you can raise the general perception of crime in the people around you, everyone will be a lot more secure.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with wired home security systems. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.