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2011年11月17日 星期四

Our Heritage in Quilts: a glimpse into the past

Featuring over two dozen rarely seen antique quilts, the Our Heritage in Quilts exhibit at the Ocean City Historical Museum offers an interesting mix of what was popular in seashore bedding since the island was founded in 1879.

Sponsored by the museum, the exhibit offers colorful quilts from the museum’s vast collection.Every people wants to buy Best CHI Flat Iron Online but with best quality.

“We have so many beautiful patterns,” said Noel Wirth,wholesale GHD Flat Iron Online Shirts at low prices! a museum trustee and volunteer. “It’s a very popular exhibit. We only have so much room, so each year we change it up a little bit. People love it and look forward to it.”

“Some of them are over a hundred years old,” said Margaret Schock, a museum trustee who also serves on the curatorial committee. One quilt is dated 1879; another 1890. Both are featured on a “rope bed” as old as the quilts.

One of the quilts, Schock noted, features each of the 50 states with the year that the state became a part of the union. It’s not as old as most, but interesting, she said. Another quilt with a log cabin pattern from the 1800s is designed as a skirt, sitting prominently on a mannequin. It was donated by Samuel Hanna as part of the Hanna collection, which also donated a double monkey wrench, a mixed patchwork quilt, circa 1890 and a crazy quilt.

The late Esther Weil, a pianist, teacher and benefactor for all things musical in Ocean City, including the Ocean City Pops Orchestra, donated many quilts, including an embroidered one in the penny squares pattern. In a beautiful shade of burgundy on a white background, this quilt is “extra special” because it’s Weil’s own handiwork, Schock said.

Weil also donated a quilt to the collection created by her mother, Ida Mary Weida and her grandmother in 1896. Exquisite satin and velvet with silk taffeta ruffled edging, this crazy quilt was made with fabric purchased at the John Wannamaker Store in Philadelphia.

Crazy quilts, volunteer Ruth Anselm said, feature all kinds of materials and appliqués with no particular pattern.

“They had beautiful material, the satins and velvets are pretty shades, and they’re not cut in a shapes likes squares or triangles; there’s no pattern,” Anselm said.Buying a Best Cell Phones for sale from seller in another country. “They just sewed them together, that’s why they called them crazy quilts. It’s very Victorian. We have quite a few of them.

“They made parlor quilts, they used them for leg covers,” she said. “We have a couple of those too.”

One bicentennial quilt was donated to the museum in 1976 by Marie Branch’s fourth grade class from the Ocean City Intermediate School. Colorful red, white and blue triangles are pieced together to create individually made blocks.

Another bicentennial quilt features a red “Liberty” in the center with red, white and blue individual squares embroidered to represent all states in order of joining the union. It was made by members of the Colony Club in 1976.

Volunteer and museum trustee Jean Bell donated a blue and white embroidered quilt that she used as a child. Kay Sturm donated a pineapple quilt – a log cabin variation – in many prints, checks, solids with a diagonal striping border and yellow tulip appliqué, with red and yellow slashing.It truly is one of our tallest and appears great all of the signature bank wholesale Electric Products sale logo design.

2011年10月26日 星期三

Winter bedding ensembles show imagination

In the summer, I like my bed lightly dressed. But when the weather cools off, I love a bed layered in rich colors, fetching patterns and touchable textures. Here are some irresistible bedding ensembles:

Black and White and Chic All Over: This bed creates a DMZ in the battle of the sexes. The strong yet simple color palette of black and white appeals to the guys, as does the combination of traditional menswear fabrics, like the bold plaid and hound's tooth check. But it can go female-friendly by including a romantic paisley and kitten-soft gray velvet pillows.

Pea Green with Envy: Earthy yet luxurious, this bedding ensemble mixes different shades of green with wild abandon. Mother Nature tosses all manner of greens together, and so can you. A soft and romantic dust ruffle finishes the bed perfectly.

Plum Perfect Purple: Color trends in interior design closely follow those in the fashion world, so it's no surprise that purple is coming on strong. Mix an invigorating blend of colors and patterns that shows off a sublime palette of plum and blue. By using some ready-made bedding, such as a purple quilt and shams, you can stretch your decorating dollar to have enough left to invest in a few show-stealing pieces, like luxury sheets, reversible duvets or custom pillows finished with unique details.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice: This bed features a feather-soft palette of winter blue and soft brown. Thanks to bold patterns, it's anything but boring. Layer two reversible custom duvets on this snuggly bed. With a flip of the blankets, you can get several different looks so you won't ever tire of this ensemble.

Marigold and Gray Greet the Day: This contemporary bedding look celebrates one of today's most popular color combos: marigold and gray. Go with a toned-down interpretation, as easy on the eye as a field covered in fresh snow. But you could go with a bright yellow and deep gray and get a completely different effect.

Autumn Bliss: This bedding ensembles pulls in autumn's most riotous colors, like rust, brown and amber. Blend plaid and floral fabrics for a good compromise for him and her.

A Study in Blue and Brown: With a muted fall and winter palette of brown and blue, you can get funky with the fabric. Pull together a crazy assortment of patterns: an animal print, a chain, a herringbone, a floral and a solid. Invest in a few killer custom accent pillows.

Royal Chambers: Ever want to be queen for the day? Create a bedding ensemble that makes you feel like royalty every single day. Pull together the richest colors of the season deep red, black, camel and cream and bring them to life with patterns so bold they demand your respect. Combine the traditional and the contemporary in a set of custom pillows. A combination of the traditional toile, animal print, plaid and damask print in these irrepressibly bold colors really works.

Coral and Black: Contemporary yet romantic, this bed interprets this season's hot coral hue in a brand-new way, giving it more lush layers for the cold winter months. Mixing the bold contemporary patterns with a simple, unassuming ticking ensures the overall ensemble will have some punch but won't be overwhelming.

2011年10月12日 星期三

A job that’s for the birds

Like that revelatory moment when martinis start to taste good or summer turns with one chill breeze to fall, that’s how chicken farming entered my synapses — synap, crackle, pop.

Our friends Mitch and Teresa were taking the kids on vacation for a few weeks, leaving their pre-pubescent hens in the hands of several neighbors, who tag-teamed the task. One neighbor one week, another the next. I found our stint with the chickens just long enough to fall in love with the whole concept.

“I want chickens too,” said the little guy. So there you go.

Reminds me of disco, the senseless way raising your own chickens has swept the country, except that I think there is something deeper to it, more symptomatic of our current neuroses over the economy. Being self-sustaining seems suddenly very appealing.

All I know for sure is that organic is good, but nonorganic is far cheaper. And a chicken is really a beautiful and impressive bird, particularly when properly seasoned and roasted.

In Mitch and Teresa’s case,Save on Bedding and fittings, they were simply seeking some fresh eggs in the morning, along with a little hobby for their two boys.

When I first visited, I’d expected something like that yard in “The Wizard of Oz,” with chickens running everywhere and gingham-wearing movie stars falling into hog pens, but Teresa and Mitch’s backyard was remarkably normal.Initially the banks didn't want our RUBBER SHEET . Nice pool. Cabana. Chicken hut.

There were tomatoes reddening in the garden, and loads of lettuce, which we were told we could feed to the chickens because they love greens. There was also a tub of chicken feed.ceramic Floor tiles for the medical,

Basically, like me, a chicken will eat anything.

Mitch had built the 10-foot-by-10-foot coop. Before the California real estate crash,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop . it alone would’ve fetched $450,000. Now far less. Because the schools are decent, probably in the $200,000-$300,000 range. Like I said, they have a pool.

Anyway, the first thing a backyard chicken farmer does is acquire some chicks, which apparently — like Canadian Viagra — can be bought through the mail.

“As long as the birds are properly packaged and can reach their destination within 72 hours of hatching, the U.S. Postal Service will accept live birds for delivery,” a National Geographic article explains.

Foolishly obsessive over all new activities, I picked up a copy of “Recipe for Raising Chickens” by Minnie Rose Lovgreen, who is to chickens what Shakespeare was to broken hearts.

“You can test a hen to see if she’s laying,” Lovgreen writes. “There are two bones (on) either side of a hen’s rectum. You see, a hen only has one vent for everything. If you can fit two of your folded knuckles ... .”

OK, let’s move on.

Lovgreen advises that it’s good to clean the henhouse once a year with lime, and the thought of all these suburban moms and dads spending a Saturday brushing lime paste onto nesting boxes makes me think this chicken-raising phenomenon might last about one more week.

“Another kind of mite gets on the chickens’ legs, and their legs get scaly,” Lovgreen writes. “Rubbing carbolated Vaseline on their legs at night should help this problem.”

There’s another activity that will be hugely popular with our suburb’s Chardonnay Moms.

Meanwhile, Lovgreen says roosters are necessary if you want fertile eggs, and “it’s perfectly all right to eat fertile eggs, or non-fertile eggs. They taste the same. Sometimes people wonder about that.”

Other things people might have wondered about:

“If two roosters get to fighting hard, the only (thing) I can do is take a board and slap one of them in the face,” Lovgreen writes. “I did that one time and the rooster never did know what hit him, so he gave up fighting.”

“And the flies,” confesses our friend Teresa. “That’s another thing.

“The first three weeks of school, I was overwhelmed,” she says of caring for the new chickens. “I do hear them more than I thought. I smell them more than I thought.

“But would I do it again? Absolutely.”

“I would definitely do it over,” says Patti Ann Miles of suburban Chicago, another friend. She has kept chickens since 2004. “We keep a very small garden, but we don’t eat from it; we give it to the hens. So it’s a nice cycle. And the eggs are truly delicious.”

So I’m all ready to order some chickens, though given today’s economy, I’m thinking it might be better just to lease a flock: three years with no money down,As many processors back away from Cable Ties , because you never want to put money upfront on a lease.

2011年10月8日 星期六

A Brief Look At Themes or Neutral Baby Furniture

Just before your new bundle of joy enters into this globe, parents have the daunting task of decorating the child’s room. Not merely do you need the appropriate furniture and accessories, you initial need to paint. Only then can you generate a cohesive room. In the event you know the sex of the baby, it’s straightforward to coordinate almost everything in either blue or pink. However, some parents may possibly want a much more neutral tone, while other people want a full blown Disney or Winnie-the-Pooh theme.

A lot of parents could locate themselves disagreeing with every other more than the child’s new room. 1 parent may really like the concept of getting almost everything in the room covered with Disney princesses, even though the other would rather tolerate just baby pink infant crib bedding. Themes are a terrific way for a child to display interest in one thing. Nonetheless, until your baby reaches toddler years, he has no way of expressing himself. The infant’s room, therefore, becomes a lot more of a reflection on the parents. Nurseries that have themes will not only be pleasing to parents, but also appealing to the baby as he stares in wonder at all the various animals and characters.

Even in case you don’t desire to know the sex of the child, you’ll find a lot of gender neutral themes, for example Winnie-the-Pooh, baby animals, teddy bears, the circus, under water scenery, and Precious Moments bedding. The primary drawback to selecting a theme is which you may have a much more challenging time altering the furniture and accessories as your child ages. Your daughter loved Dora when she was 3, but now she’s seven and only likes princesses. Naturally the infant crib bedding will need to go regardless, but should you purchased matching lighting, wallpaper, toy chests, and art, it’ll all have to be replaced.

In case you don’t know the sex of your child, you can still find gender neutral themes like the baby animals, teddy bears, under the sea, and circus. Even so, you have to watch more than the theme choice since the furniture and accessories will also depend on them together with the age of one’s child that may consistently change. Your small girl would really like Dora for a even though but when she turns seven, she will get pleasure from the princesses. Surely, the toddler crib bedding can be given a little attention but in the event you purchased excellent wallpaper that match it all, you may should replace them all too, possibly.

Selecting color schemes will be an simpler alternative for many parents. For those not wishing to flood the room with absolutely nothing but pink or blue, you’ll be able to use shades of light green and yellow -the two most gender neutral colors. As the child gets older, it’ll be a bit simpler to incorporate a theme. Your small boy’s room can stay blue when you get him a Disney Car’s toddler bed -if which is what he is considering.

In certain circumstances, you are able to simply have couple of accessories and new bedding so as to give a superb ambiance for your child’s convenience. Essentially the most practical but exemplary way to jive with your kid’s changing interest would be to update the bedding instead of giving considerable time for the whole paint or wallpaper.

Following all is stated and carried out, the decision will be a reflection of one’s taste and what you need to examine each time you walk into that room. Each themes and color schemes will delight any child, but keep it easy and stunning. Over time, you child will want to express himself and you do not want it to be a costly endeavor each time.

Selecting color schemes is going to be an less difficult selection for many parents. For those not wishing to flood the room with nothing but pink or blue, you are able to use shades of light green and yellow -the two most gender neutral colors. As the child gets older, it’ll be a bit less complicated to incorporate a theme. Your small boy’s room can stay blue when you buy him a Disney Car’s toddler bed -if that’s what he is thinking about.

Simply add in several accessories and some new bedding and also the room can have a fully new appear and really feel. The very best, and least expensive, technique to continually evolve with your child’s ever-changing interests would be to update the bedding as opposed to change wallpaper and every single matching piece of furniture.

2011年9月29日 星期四

Married women's holiday blues

I am the eldest daughter-in-law who has to prepare the ancestral ritual four times a year, including Chuseok and Seollal. As my husband has many siblings, almost 20 people get together in my house to attend the ritual. For the two major holidays they come over to my place one day before. That means I, as the hostess, have to prepare accommodation and three meals for the guests.

A few weeks before the holiday, I have to be ready to welcome them. I wash the bedding and clean every corner of my house on weekends. One week before D-day, I have to make kimchi and go grocery shopping (for the non-perishables needed) for the ritual.

On the eves of Chuseok and Seollal, when my two younger sisters-in-law come with their family members, our holiday work starts in earnest. The three of us go to the street market after lunch. The food for the ritual must be immaculately fresh.there's a lovely winter hypodermic needle cannula by William Zorach. Following my grandmother`s imprecations, we pick out the best of everything: fruit, meat, fish and vegetables.

We divide the cooking tasks: my two sisters make five different Korean pancakes, songpyeon (rice cake for Chuseok) or dumplings (for Seollal tteokkuk). My job is seasoning five different vegetables and making soup. While we are cooking, my husband writes calligraphic jibang (an invocation to our ancestors). My brothers-in-law usually peel chestnuts and roast marinated beef and croaker fish.

As we must not eat the food before the ritual, I have to prepare our dinner separately. If we finish cooking early, we three women go to sauna together leaving behind the three men drinking, talking and laughing. This is a last opportunity to recharge ourselves before the next day`s service.

However, as the hostess, I have to go to bed last and get up earliest of all to ensure my guests have slept comfortably. After a near sleepless night, I get up early in the morning to start the longest and busiest day. While I heat the dishes my sisters-in-law put all the food on wooden plates.

Setting the ritual table is the men`s job. They put reddish food to the east, and white to the west. Fish should be in the east and meat, west. The fish head should be directed toward the east and the tail west. The number of vegetable plates and fruits on each plate should be odd numbers.

The ritual starts at 10 a.m. as my father-in-law was the third son. The entrance door should be open to welcome the sprits. Getting through several deep bows and pouring rice wine, the long and thoroughly-prepared process is over. Everybody sincerely prays to the sprits to grant their wishes during the ritual. We share not only the food but our memories of the deceased ancestors.

After having a meal, we hit the road toward our ancestor`s gravesite. By the time we arrive there, most of us are exhausted due to heavy traffic. We set another stone table in front of the graves. We all perform deep bows to the graves. The descendants, having shared this food, have almost completed the whole ritual

That moment is a turning point for me to change role from an exhausted and stressed out daughter-in-law to a happy and excited daughter. My family moves to my own parents` house. On arrival, I am treated like a queen by my mom. As a first daughter-in-law herself, she knows what a difficult time I have had so far. If possible, she wanted her three daughters to not marry first sons. She did not want her daughters to follow in her footsteps. Ironically, and to her disappointment, all three of us became the first daughters-in-law.

Some weeks have passed since Chuseok, but I still have minor symptoms. Through my experience I know that it will last for some time. And I know this is not only my own annual pain but that of my mother and my two sisters, and many more daughters-in-law in Korea.

2011年9月23日 星期五

You'll survive your child going to college

So you're sending your first child off to college. Been there,The additions focus on key tag and TMJ combinations, done that three times and one to the army. And let me tell you, there is nothing, nothing that can prepare you for a visit to their dorm rooms or apartments off campus.

When we delivered our first, a son, to the University of Minnesota, we had done all the parental things with clothing, toiletries, checkbook and bedding, linens - even a rug. (The rug died a grimy death and had to be removed from his room's inventory.) Weeks later we went to visit him. The windows in the next room were entirely filled with empty beer cans to form an impenetrable curtain. (Remember I said nothing can prepare you for a visit to your child's college room?) The hallways had shoe prints halfway up the walls. It was explained to us that there was a contest to see who could navigate the halls by wall walking.

This dorm housed many 6-foot, 7-foot plus basketball players; they were capable of spanning the hallway with their feet on one wall, hands on the opposite wall and rears toward the ceiling. I used to nag about fingerprints on the walls; that now seemed a petty complaint.

This same son called on a cold winter afternoon, "just to talk," he said. But in the course of the conversation we learned he was denied entry to his dorm room because his roommate had a guest of the opposite gender. It seemed he was getting lots of fresh air that semester. Considering that, the room rent was pretty steep.

A visit to child No. 2's apartment at Mankato State University also raised some questions to which I wasn't sure I wanted answers.the Bedding by special invited artist for 2011, This was during the years when the Vikings training camp was at MSU, and several of her roommates socialized with Vikings. That's a scary thought, isn't it? The house was below par, substandard, slum housing - the kind encircling campuses around the nation. But all the residents felt it was better than dorm living.

During a phone call to child No.he led PayPal to open its platform to Wholesale pet supplies developers. 3's room at the U of M, we heard a thumping background noise. When we asked our daughter what the noise was, she replied that someone was rolling a keg up the stairs. After a year in the dorm, she opted for off-campus apartment dwelling with five friends, three cats and assorted male guests. That,the Hemorrhoids pain and pain radiating from the arms or legs. too, was below par, substandard, slum housing. If we had lived in such dumps, they would never have brought friends home.

Child No. 4 went into the army. Aha, I thought, things will be better this time, and they were. Compared to his sergeant, we were pussycats.A custom-made Cable Ties is then fixed over the gums. At first he got demerits for nearly everything - an empty pizza box under his bunk, stuff in the wastebasket, wrinkles in the

bed covers, dust on the window sill. I wonder how many push-ups he would have done if his sergeant had found the mouse nest in his dresser as we did at home.

2011年9月20日 星期二

Three-Dimensional Design Leads to Better Solar Cells

A Santa Barbara, California, company called Solar3D plans to make silicon solar cells that are more efficient than conventional cells by borrowing the light-trapping concept behind optical-fiber technology. The company claims that its three-dimensional design will funnel light into silicon and keep it trapped—giving the material more time to convert it into electricity.

Silicon has a theoretical maximum light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 29 percent, but panels on the market today are only 15 to 18 percent efficient.Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an plastic card , and not a metal, Solar3D does not have exact efficiency numbers for its design yet, but CEO Jim Nelson says, "We think it's going to approach silicon's theoretical efficiency. We won't get to 29 percent—nobody's going to get that high with silicon—but we're hoping to get as close as possible."

Solar3D's design will tackle two factors that bring down solar efficiency. First, 30 percent of the light hitting solar panels is reflected and lost. Second, many of the electrons created when light hits silicon are reabsorbed by the material before they reach the external circuit.

The new design has channels in its top light-collecting layer, which will be made of silicon dioxide or another similar material; these direct light downward, helping to eliminate reflection, Nelson says. The lower layer is an array of three-dimensional structures, each a few micrometers wide, which trap light by emulating the waveguides used in optical fibers. Optical fibers contain two cylindrical layers with different refractive indices that continuously reflect light back into the core. Nelson says this 3D structure will allow the light to bounce around until the photons have yielded as many electrons as possible. "We'll also put contacts very close to where that happens so that the electrons don't have to travel very far," he says.

Many other light-trapping concepts exist. Another that borrows the technology of optical fibers is a fiber-optic solar cell that Georgia Tech researchers have made by wrapping dye-sensitized solar cells around optical fibers. But, says Nelson, Solar3D's cells use conventional silicon materials, so they could be produced on existing manufacturing equipment and be dropped into existing modules.

Solar3D is at a very early stage and is starting out at a time when venture capitalists are hesitant to fund solar technologies with high startup costs. But the company is not seeking venture capital.There is good integration with PayPal and most Aion Kinah providers, Instead, it is funded by private investors, including Nelson, who come from a finance background but have a passion for renewable energy.A custom-made Cable Ties is then fixed over the gums. Analysts say the company's success will hinge on whether its manufacturing costs will compete with conventional crystalline silicon technology. "It's very difficult for new emerging technologies to gain a foothold in the market," says Matthew Feinstein, an analyst with Lux Research.then used cut pieces of impact socket garden hose to get through the electric fence. "Bankability is often a major concern,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar RUBBER MATS systems, as these technologies don't have a proven track record."

2011年9月4日 星期日

Growers, biologists debate invasive plant list

Ask a local nursery owner to list the commonly grown invasive plants that ought to be banned in Encinitas, and he or she will probably mention no more than a trio of really bad guys.

But people who remove non-native species locally say the troublemakers number in the dozens.

Conflict over how aggressive a plant must be before it's considered an unwanted pest has pushed to the forefront in Encinitas because of a draft invasive plant list put together by a city-sponsored citizen committee.

The list mentions nearly 90 undesirable species, ranging in size from giant palm trees to annual bedding plants.

That list and a proposed invasive plant policy were scheduled for discussion at the Aug. 24 City Council meeting, but new City Manager Gus Vina announced instead that he wanted to hold off on debate for a month so he could take time to review the document.

Area growers say they hope the city gives the list a very hard pruning.

"We don't grow any of the plants on that invasive plant list, but as a gardener myself, I think the city is going overboard on the list," said Janet Kister, an Encinitas resident who owns Sunlet Nursery in Fallbrook.

She mentions sweet alyssum, a common nursery bedding plant that grows just a few inches tall, as one that has no place on the city's list.

Other growers say oleander, a drought-tolerant shrub, and the blue-flowering, "Pride of Madeira" echium are top items to cross off the list.

The city's draft policy says plants from other lands become "invasive when they are so successful in this foreign environment that they displace native plants and adversely affect wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation, and biological diversity by crowding out native species."

The list was created using local plant-growth observations, plus information from the California Invasive Plant Council, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, citizen committee members said last week.

"We don't want to be taking away plants that are bread and butter (for the local nursery industry)," committee member Doug Gibson of the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy said. "(But) we're sort of speaking for the areas that have been hit really hard .... we lose a significant amount of habitat ... due to invasive plants."

The proposed city policy would require Encinitas to actively combat unwanted non-native invaders in its open-space areas, gradually remove them from city parkland, and ban developers from planting them around new housing projects.

Homeowners who have some of these species of ill repute wouldn't have to yank them out unless they seek city permission for a large structural addition to their home or other major changes to their property, the draft policy states.

The proposed policy also mentions that the state spends $85 million a year to fight unwanted, non-native plants, particularly ones that invade waterways and the riparian areas that surround them.

Efforts to control non-native plants in north coastal San Diego County have totaled $4.5 million over a five-year period, the report states.