Although it might look like penmanship is a dying art, it’s one that is even nowadays crucial in many walks of life. A written missive carries more importance than a typed letter; for example an application for a job, an invitation or an apology.

One may imagine it’s a recent trend of the masses eschewing hand writing for the keyboard, but way back to the late 19th century, there were that penmanship was being uncared-for due to the invention of those times : the typwriter. These days, the rap is being connected to the usage of computer keyboards.

Even so, there is still a strong need for handwriting skills in both the business world and academia. Handwritten letters are viewed as more authentic, they demonstrate the author has carefully thought out his words, while demonstrating more deference to the recipient. In this era of “canned responses”, the penned missive has never been more potent.

I must confess to something. I’ve often been caught out with my own bad hand writing - made even worse due to years of relying on the keyboard. In situations in which I’ve had to hand write something, my words have been almost unreadable at times. That can be embarrassing. What did I do? I handwrote whenever the opportunity came to do so, and it improved greatly. So it’s wise to brush up on your hand-writing by practise.

Another piece of advice is to get a pen your hand is comfortable with, and it must accept refills. Great pens to refill with include the renowned mont blanc fountain pens. This enables you to improve your hand writing with a single pen.

Posted by admin as The Arts at 3:08 AM CST

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Card holders allow for one of the cost-effective methods, which warrants a visual point for your company or brand and provides numerous outstanding chances to promote your organisation. It is a stylishly fashioned promotional product, which makes an superior campaigning platform for your company and supplies a solid platform for your business organisation. Oyster wallets enable you to match the want as well as the sample of your possible clients. It is a perfect token of usefulness, which provides an modern, working and a trustworthy way of campaigning your trade name. It forms a great choice for gift granting, assisting you to exhibit or promote your business organization among your worthy clients, disregarding of the character of your business organization.

1) These Oyster card holders are double-sided and prepared from operational PVC plastic. They will prevent the card or photograph from being scraped or damaged. These items can also be printed up to rich coloring with a variety of unique colors, designs and patterns.

2) It has deep wallets and is ideal for Bus Passes, charge plates, business organization cards or even photographs. It comes in a box and would create an perfect gift for that fantastic person. It is a superior quality ware, with a outstanding feeling,look and is rather worthy for travel. It serves very well as an rough-and-ready little wallet and also helps you to stay prepared in busy places.

3) An Oyster holder is built from a indestructible PVC finish on one side of the Oyster card holder and on the other it holds 2 wallets to store charge plates or oyster cards. They can also be presented in a pleasant gift box and is the correct product, to serve your clients.

4) These Card holders are double sided and made from functional PVC plastic. They will keep the card or picture from being scratched or weakened. These items can also be up to full colouring with a diversity of different colours, designs and patterns.

5) An Oyster wallet is attractively hand crafted in the most durable PVC plastic. You can add names of each receiver, or expertly emboss your company logo on top of it. It is made by using superior quality prints and makes a great corporate present that lasts eternally. It is perfect for your freedom pass, train tickets, or Driver’s Licence. This Card holder allows for decent space for your extraordinary design or company logotype.

Posted by admin as Market Brands, Marketing Stuff, The Arts at 6:26 PM CST

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You do tempering of chocolates to acquire the luster, creaminess, and firmness that chocolates are famous for chocolates do not possess these traits on their own. With conching, the cocoa granules in the liquor do turn fine but to a limited extent. To refine these granules even more so, tempering alone will do it.

Besides the appealing patina and smoothness, you also get chocolate with a longer storage life with tempering. Blooming can also be prevented, that something behind the crumbliness, grittiness and blotchy faade to chocolates, usually caused by the crystals of cocoa butter becoming larger and visible to the turned-off buyer.

Chocolate temper is first of all lost when you start melting them at temperatures higher than 90F that’s why tempering is done.

Chocolatiers must learn manual tempering because some situations may arise when they may be forced to do so even though they may be used to conveniently tempering a large volume of chocolates with their tempering machines.

France innovated on tabliering, one of a couple of methods in manual tempering. Tabliering is popularly known as the marble-slab method whereby a cold surface, like a marble slab, takes in the heat from the melted chocolate to bring it down to cooling temperature.

In tabliering, one pound of chocolate is melted then cooled on the stone or marble slab, in two batches. In seeding, the one pound of chocolate is divided into four parts, three-fourths of which is melted and the other one-fourth is chopped and used as temper starter by letting it melt with the melted chocolate in a bowl. The seeds from the chopped chocolate chips will lead the way in crystallization for the loose crystals in the melted mush.

Since both the methods of tempering chocolates by hand will be successful only if you preserve specific tempering temperatures unswervingly, you should not lapse on this obligation at this point. A temperature, regularly calibrated for this purpose, can help you maintain accurate chocolate temperatures. only then can you turn your tempered handiwork into fruit-filled chocolates or different fascinating shapes to lure old and new customers.

Manual tempering takes a lot of your time and attention and there may be no pleasurable experience for the creative part of you that delights in these crafts. But tempering machines will make available for you the leeway and the fun of creatively planning for new chocolate products and the development of your business.

Posted by admin as Business Performance, The Arts, Vittles at 5:03 PM CST

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A water fountain makes an incomparable and reflective Valentine’s Day gift. The reason they are unique is because of their unmatched combination of 3 fundamental characteristics: Love, Sustainability, and Prosperity.

Incessant flow of Constantly re-circulating water in a water fountain symbolizes your ceaseless love for your loved one. It reminds your beloved about the long-lasting and Incessant spiritual alliance that both of you share with each other.

There are different kinds of water fountain in today’s marketplace. Tabletop fountain design information is easily accessible if your want to design your own desk fountain for your partner. It is more often than not effortless to design an indoor fountain from scratch. For horticulture devotees, a Japanese styled bamboo fountain, also known as shishi odoshi, makes a exquisite gift item. Shidhi odoshi fountain design is easy and simple. It takes less than a few hours to design a calming tabletop fountain and the end result is simply incredible.

Another aspect of a water fountain is that it typifies sustainability. Ceaseless flow of water from a tabletop fountain communicates your Endless love for you beloved. It strengthens the love between you and your partner.

If you are looking for a real divine gift, nothing beats a glorious table fountain in that category. Tabletop fountain makes the divine gift-giving process an easy process. Give a present of your love to your Valentine this year and brighten your relationship.

Posted by admin as The Arts at 9:52 AM CST

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Art on canvas has risen up to be the latest art craze during the last few years, mostly because of A0 printers, inexpensive stretcher bars and canvas and an unceasing craving for individuals to express themselves in a very personalised way.

Today it’s possible to go to a print shop carrying a digital camera, and a short time later leave the shop with a canvas print of one of your photos. There’s no end to the possibilities of what you can decorate your house with : family photos, your own artwork represented as a canvas print, holiday photos, other artist’s works, street scenes, graffiti prints, nature scenes etc. Fundamentally, you can determine your desired photo/design/artwork you wish on the canvas these days, rather than simply be forced to pick from a limited list of prints.

So is this a DIY art movement? No, not if you want a quality print adorning your walls. You’re better going to a dedicated canvas shop - they should be using the best canvas, robust stretcher bars, will be skilled in stretching and clipping canvas, and have top-grade software and printers to create the best prints. They also have the expertise to tweak your photos to get the greatest result.

Numerous canvas print shops are selling their canvases online. Simply enter some keywords into Google such as canvas prints and you’ll locate a lot of vendors where you can buy these sorts of prints from.

Posted by admin as The Arts at 8:11 PM CST

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Ask anyone their opinion on graffiti, and you’ll get opinions right across the board : some people see it as a nuisance, others a subtle artform. On the one hand, graffiti artists like Banksy have turned graffiti into an aesthetic pleasure, utilizing stencils to produce difficult artworks loaded with political points attached. This type of graffiti was certain to get popular with both the masses and the art critics : visually pleasing and intellectually satisfying. This kind of graffiti is now even acquired as canvas prints, and hung on the walls of suburban homes and corporate reception areas.

All the same, when it comes to your down and dirty graffiti - the gangbanger, the tagger, the street urchin - this kind of graffiti is oftentimes seen as vandalism, a crime perpetrated by the talentless. But is graffiti merely art? To many people, it’s not just art, but a way to mark a district, or even two fingers up at society : anti-establishment, anti-social, even anti-art.

Graffiti has forever been a covert pursuit, although the effects are very much public. The targeted audience is often unidentified. Is it for a rival gang? A message to an individual? To the public? Possibly it’s just uncalled-for and out of boredom.

Whatever the reasons may be, there appears to be some kind of enduring demand to spray graffiti. Some town councils have conceded that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve designated areas where graffiti is allowed - normally unoccupied areas, but now and again more civic areas like temporary boarding surrounding inner city buildings under construction.

Posted by admin as The Arts at 10:25 PM CDT

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Art has been an integral part of the lives of the tribal communities for thousands of years. Right from birth to death, every occasion in the day to day lives of tribal communities is depicted in some form of art by tribal artists.

Like other tribal communities from across the world, African tribal communities have had their own art traditions, reflected in their various art items. Thanks to the internet age, the hitherto unknown African tribal art forms are now being noticed by art lovers in the furthest corners of the globe.

African tribal art comes in a wide range of forms. However, the most popular ones are:

1. Sculpture: African tribes usually create beautiful sculptures in wood. The common features that can be noticed in the sculptures are the symmetric facial expressions, unmoving posture, large heads, distinct navels and celebration of youth.

2. Jewellery: The earrings, neck pieces, bracelets and other jewellery items used by both the male and female members of the various tribes have a genuine ceremonial or daily usage background. The jewellery is hand crafted from elephant hair, lion claw, ivory, giraffe hair and strong bones from other animals.

3. Masks: African masks are world famous. Traditional dance forms, local festivals, processions, and even funeral ceremonies remain incomplete without the colourful and majestic masks. In Africa, one can even find tribal masks made of animals such as elephants, zebras and antelopes.

4. African Paintings: African painters typically use bright and unusual shades of colours for painting. Apart from the human figure, nature is the most common subject for African paintings.

Posted by admin as The Arts at 12:04 AM CDT

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The California Council for Interior Design Certification (CCIDC) board is working to replace the CCRE and the three national examinations with one certification examination that will be accessible online at numerous examination sites throughout California, beginning in 2009.

During the past eight years, it has been required for anyone wanting to be a Certified Interior Designer to pass one of the three recognized national examinations, namely the CQRID, the NCIDQ, or both parts of the NKBA, as well as a supplemental California Codes and Regulations Examination, the CCRE. Only one national examination was recognized, until eight years ago. These examinations were added to the necessary education and experience described in Section 5800 of the Business & Professions Code.

The purpose for this change in examinations is to bring the certification in interior design in California in line with Section 139 of the California Business and Professions Code and to make it available to those who fall under the three categories of education and experience under the law. This also applied to those with “experience only”.

For Candidates and Students, only passing in the examination will not be adequate to allow qualification and they will still need to meet all the other requirements to become a Certified Interior Designer. CCRE will be extended for anyone interested as a way for CCIDC to honor students that have passed one of the national examinations.

Posted by admin as Design Resources, Education, The Arts at 7:17 AM CDT

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Don’t get rid of your shoulder pads. Sew portable slip covered custom shoulder pads and look really smart.

Shoulder pads seem to go in and out of style, but you really ought to consider stitching them in all of your garments.

Check your pattern envelopes for recommended sizes of pads for garments or adjust your sewing patterns accordingly.

You may not need or want big, thick pads, but you will most likely look better with some padding on your shoulders even if it is just a small pad to smooth out your shoulder line.

Shoulder pads really do help to balance out your hips and visually create a slimmer looking figure. We all want that!

Slip cover your shoulder pads to make them removable for easy cleaning and laundering.

Use your garment or lining fabric to make the pad slip covers for a custom quality look.

By making your pads portable or removable, you can use one set of pads for all of your garments. This is a great idea when you travel a lot.

When you stitch your shoulder pad into your garment, catch only the cover. Then you can slip the pads in and out whenever you want.

You can easily add additional padding on one side if you have one shoulder lower than the other. That really helps to level your shoulders and gives you an overall better image if you are a lopsided person.

How To Make A Shoulder Pad Slip Cover

1. Trace the outline of your shoulder pad onto a piece of tissue or pattern paper.

2. Add a 1/2″ seam allowance all around the pad.

This is your pattern for the top of the pad slip cover that will be attached to the garment shoulder seam.

3. Cut one of these for each pad or 2 for each garment.

4. Make a copy of the above pattern on a separate piece of paper.

5. Draw a line through the center lengthwise.

6. Add 1″ seam allowance at the line drawn through the center.

This half pattern with the additional 1″ center seam allowance is the pattern for the bottom of the pad slip cover.

7. Cut 2 of these for each pad or 4 for 2 pads.

8. On the 2 half triangle shapes, turn under the straight edge 1/2″ and stitch.

9. Overlap the stitched edges of the 2 half triangles(right side to wrong side) and position them over the top full pad cover.

10. Stitch a 1/2″ seam around the outside edge. Press and trim to 1/4″ seam. You may serge this seam if you prefer.

11. Turn right side out.

12. Attach the top of the slip cover to your garment shoulder seam.

13. Slip the shoulder pad into the cover.

Voila! Portable slip covered custom shoulder pads! How smart!

It just makes sense!

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Marian Lewis is a sewing instructor and the creator of an amazing new fitting method for hard-to-fit sewing folks.

In her ebook, “Common Sense Fitting Method For Hard-To-Fit Sewing Folks Who Want Great Fitting Skirts And Pants”, find out step-by-step WHAT you really need, WHERE you really need it and HOW to apply that to a commercial sewing pattern.

For more information, go to: => http://www.1ststeptosewingsuccess.com/fitting.html

Marian is also the author of other eBooks related to sewing including, “Sew A Tee Pee And Accessories For Your Tribe Of Kids” where she teaches basic sewing techniques while you have fun doing it!

To learn more, go to: => http://www.1ststeptosewingsuccess.com/sewing.html

To discover sewing and fitting secrets to achieve sewing success, follow the link: => http://www.1ststeptosewingsuccess.com

Posted by admin as The Arts at 5:11 AM CDT

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