Many of us do remember the fun we had as children playing under quilts during winters. It was fun like fun ought to be – unstoppable and hilarious. Whether it is a hand made quilt or a professionally designed one, quilts are more than just a bed dressing. They are an integral part of our memories and our culture.

The winter season brings with it a change in climate and temperature. It is the time to stay indoors at night. Days are short, and it gets dark sooner than at any other time. The year-end vacations have just begun. What time could be better than this to have a hot cup of tea in bed, wrapped between sheets of a hand-made quilt?

For children this is the chance of a lifetime to fight with each other inside quilts. For one thing, the noise made is less, and no one gets to see the action! The quilt also acts like a protective cover, absorbing the elbow pushes or sudden falls outside the bed. The closeness also ensures no hard blows are delivered by mistake. Real fun fighting for real kids.

It is the softness and the strength of the quilt that makes it ideal for long term bedding requirements. The colorful patterns never fail to attract children’s attention as they lie wrapped in a cozy warmness that goes deep inside their thin frames. How kids love to stay inside quilts and play with its multi-colored borders until they fall asleep! The intricate patterns keep their playful minds busy trying to understand the pattern in its logical structure and beauty.

Quilt making at home can be difficult for beginners. With some training, it should be possible to make hand made quilts with your chosen colors and designs. Not only would they give family members a good time, it would be a pleasure to look at them in the future with cherished memories of times spent together.

The author is a freelance writer. He can be contact at:

sharma_ameet@hotmail.com
amitontheweb@gmail.com

There is no dearth of love poems in Sanskrit Language. In fact, thousands of verses
can be cited for each and every mood of the lover.
From the hundreds of poems I have collected, given below are three poems that are beautiful and moving. The poems make everybody happy.
Lover is addressing a Bee!

——————————-

It is not the water lily, but her eye;

No lotus but her face;

And this is no bandhuka blossom

but her lip which bears the flowers selfsame pink

I too did err at first, Oh Bee;

How much the more should you

But give over your effort. Leave them, leave;

You work in vain

This beautiful poem has been written by Rajasekhara, (English

translation by Daniel H.H.Ingalls)

Admiring the beauty of the girl the lover is addressing the bee and
confesses that he too committed a mistake by thinking her lip as the
beautiful flower. Eye is like water lily, the face is like lotus and
the lip is like bandhuka!

The botanical name of the flower bandhuka is Pentapetes phoenica. It
blossoms in the afternoon and falls in the next morning. From its color
it serves as a simile for rising sun, red jewels, but especially for
the girl’s lip.

A thirsty lover

——————–

My eyes with difficulty pass her thighs,

To wander long in the land about her hips,

Then at her waist, uneven with the triple fold

Become quite powerless to move,

But now at last, like travelers parched by thirst

They‘ve climbed the mountains of her breasts

And see at last what they had hoped,

Their counterparts, her eyes, that flow with tears.

This verse was written by the great king Harsha Deva..

(English translation by Daniel H H Ingalls)

The youth’s eye is wandering through the various landscape of his
beloved -hips,

waist, breasts, then moves above and at last met the counterparts,
eyes.

The eyes are tearful.

In the Pleasure house two became one

————————————-

In the pleasure house, there is the young girl with her frame slightly
stooping due to the weight of the bosom, and there is the lord of her
life, husband, united with youth;

these two mutually embracing warmly have entered into the body of each
other and are thus concealed and to no one is their separate identity
clearly discernible.

This is one of the songs collected by Harikavi (English translation by A A
Ramanathan)

In the pleasure house two became one; and that is the ultimate end one
wants in the sports of love game.

One can reach thousands of Sanskrit love poems that are readily
available in English to elevate the knowledge to new heights.

S.Nagarajan is a vehicle body engineer by profession. He has written more than 1300 articles in 16 magazines and published 18 books so far. He is revealing Eastern Secret Wisdom through T.V.Programmes, magazine articles, seminars, courses. His email
address is : snagarajans@gmail.com

For those of you who prefer to keep your “undergarments” under your garments, here is a little sewing tip on how to sew “lingerie clasps” or “strap holders” to keep your bra straps in the proper place.

Make these discreet clasps from lining fabric or even rayon hem tape or ribbon.

They really help keep bra straps and lingerie from showing and also act as an anchor to keep wide necklines from falling away from the body and exposing everything from neck to waist every time you lean over.

These clasps can be attached to the inside at the shoulders and at the widest point of some necklines to control the dress and straps.

Here is how to make lingerie clasps.

From lining fabric:

1. For each clasp, cut a straight strip of fabric 1-3/4″ long and 3/4″ wide.

2. Fold the strip in half lengthwise, right sides together.

3. Stitch 1/4″ from the fold.

4. Turn strip right side out and press with seam along one edge.

5. Turn in raw edges at the ends and slip stitch.

You can also use 1/2″ wide ribbon or seam tape to make the clasps. Just cut 1-3/4″ long; fold the width in half to 1/4″ and top stitch.

Put on the dress or top over the lingerie you intend to wear with it and mark with pins where you want the clasps to be attached.

Clasps always open toward the neck.

Sew the end of the clasp farthest from the neck to the shoulder seam. Sew half of a small snap to the free end.

Sew the other half of the snap to the shoulder seam beneath the end of the clasp to line up with the snap already on the clasp.

For a wide neck, sew an additional set of clasps inside the neck in the same way. Attach the clasps to the facing or lining of the garment.

Now you have total control of those wandering straps and fall away wide necklines.

It just makes sense!

©2006 Marian Lewis - All Rights Reserved

1st Step To Sewing Success

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” and “Classy Designer Straight Skirt” where she teaches basic and advanced sewing techniques.

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

Love and its attendant passions has been the favorite subject of Spanish poetry since the time of the troubadours, medieval poets who earned their keep by singing for the people at the village square or for the nobility during royal gatherings at the palace. Composers in their own right, these court poets sang about courtly love and the bittersweet pain of unattained love for an idealized woman using the jarchas, a form of love song that was actually poetry written in very short stanzas.

It is important in the study of Spanish love poems to differentiate between poems that originated from countries outside of Spain including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, The United States, Uruguay and Venezuela which were written in Spanish but whose authors were not from Spain. All these poets and their respective poems have contributed in some way to the development of Spanish Poetry as a genre because they all wrote their work in Spanish albeit in the form of Spanish common to their country of origin. Although some of them wrote patriotic poems about their motherland, most of them utilized images of love to depict the sorrow of a country that has lost its freedom.

Some of these well-known Spanish poets and their popular poems are:

Carlos Alberto Garcia – Amor
Que soy
Quisiera
Yo te conozco
Olvidarte
Nestor Oscar Morris – Quiero decirte algo
Pienso solo en ti
Jorge E. Diaz Leyton – Tu
Manuel M. Mendez – Pertenencia

Focusing attention on Spanish poets who trace their origins to Spain, however; poets who lived, loved and wrote their best work within the Spanish Peninsula or the so-called ‘Poetas de España’, we come up with a list of illustrious writers whose works contributed to the development of Spanish Literature as it is today.

* Rafael Alberti - La Amante
* Vicente Aleixandre ( Nobel Laureate 1977) – Destruction of Love
* Dámaso Alonso – Hijos de la Ira
* Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer – Rimas y leyendas
* Saint John of the Cross - Dark Night of the Soul
* Luis Cernuda - La realidad y el deseo
* Francisco Domene - Arrabalías
* León Felipe – Drop a Star
* Federico García Lorca - Sonetos del amor oscuro
* Luis de Góngora - Soledades
* Jorge Guillén - Cántico
* Miguel Hernández - Nanas de cebolla
* Santa Teresa de Jesús - Laughter Came From Every Brick
* Juan Ramón Jiménez (Nobel Laureate 1956) – La Poetica
* Antonio Machado - Nuevas canciones
* Jorge Manrique - Coplas por la muerte de su padre
* Emilio Prados - Veinte poemas en verso
* Francisco de Quevedo - Flores de poetas ilustres
* Ana Rossetti – Where is My Man
* Pedro Salinas - Ayer Te Besé en los Labios
* Garcilaso de la Vega - Hora de Nuestra Señora
* Lope de Vega - La Arcadia
* Esteban Manuel de Villegas - Las Eróticas
* Leopoldo María Panero – Dedicatoria

LearnMyLingo.com delivers a variety of quick language learning programs right to your desktop including Spanish and a free language learning guide, 8 ways to learn a language quickly and easily.

Almost any combination of oils can make a soap, but what really goes into the thought process behind making a genuinely skin friendly soap? That’s a difficult question to answer because there are many right answers. Every soapmaker has a different style and people in general have varying skin types. What one person can’t stand another might fall in love with. But whether a soap recipe was passed on from generation to generation, just tossed together in experimentation until someone stuck to it, or someone carefully strategized the recipe from a scientific standpoint- all soap recipes have a definite chemistry that makes them what they can become behind the curtains. This is not meant to be a “how to” on the soapmaking process for those interested in the craft of soapmaking, but rather a general guideline of considerations that can come into play when deciding what to use in recipe formulation. I think many be surprised at exactly how much science is really behind it and might help give a little extra appreciation for all quality soapmakers. If you’re just beginning soapmaking yourself you may find this useful to have another soapmaker’s ideas and insights.

Basics

First things first, it may helpful to understand the very basics of how soap is made and some of the commonly used terminology. Soap is the outcome of a chemical reaction when oils react to a high alkali substance such as lye, or caustic soda. In this article I briefly touched on how it happens and explains “saponification“: “Soaps With No Lye?” For every oil there it takes a specific amount of lye to make soap with without any remaining lye. That set number is known as the oil’s “saponification value“. Even carefully measured ingredients that meet the saponification values amount exactly, without going over or under, can make a harsher soap to skin, so extra oil beyond the amount called for to make soap is added. The extra oil added to to the recipe for mildness and/or moisturization is referred to as “superfatting“. However increasing superfatting by too much can leave a soap feeling too oily on the skin or drastically decrease the shelf life of the soap.

IMPORTANT- Please note once again, this is NOT an instructional on how to make soap! There are many free sources on the net for learning and if you plan on trying it yourself I urge you to read every single one you can find BEFORE attempting to make it yourself! Handling lye can be downright dangerous and possibly DEADLY if it is not handled with care and special safety precautions! A lye heavy soap can also create very unpleasant situations. I beg of you to do plenty of homework first, follow all recommended safety precautions, measure ingredients carefully with an accurate scale, and always use a good lye calculator no matter where you get your recipe from!

Oil Properties and Fatty Acid Composition

When I formulate a soap recipe the first thing I look at is a breakdown of the fatty acid composition of each oil I have on hand. An unbalanced recipe can wreck havoc on sensitive skin unless certain techniques aren’t modified. When deciding what base oils to use and how much, here are the fatty acid properties that I personally take into account:

1. lauric acid- Lauric acid is what helps contribute to big fluffy lather in a soap and helps to create a harder bar. Too much can make a horribly drying soap to skin so I pay special attention to make sure I don’t overdo this! Coconut and palm kernel oil are two common oils high in lauric acid that are considered “lathering oils”. I have found that there are many that actually have a sensitivity to coconut oil in particular, which is the most common oil of all used for lather. I have found it’s best keep even lower amounts of coconut and whenever possible I allow extra superfatting or purposely lower the sap (saponification value) for this ingredient.
2. oleic acid- Oleic acid is supposed to be one of the most moisturizing properties and is most plentiful in olive oil, for an example. However many find a pure olive oil soap, also known as a true “castile“, to still sometimes be drying. It is the most moisturizing, yes, but many soapmakers find that a really good soap also has a balance with the next property I’m about to mention.
3. linoleic acid- Linoleic acid, found plentiful in oils such as sunflower or safflower oil, can really boost the moisturization or mildness of a bar and used in conjunction with a balance of oleic acid can make a wonderful soap. There is only one downside. I try to watch I don’t go too high with this property because an extremely high amount of linoleic acid in a soap can help attribute to dos (dreaded orange spots) and cut down on the shelf life of a soap. Luckily you don’t need an massive amount of oils high in this property to feel it’s effects, and just in case there are tactics to help avoid this. In soap batches I have a nicer amount of linoleic acid than usual I’ll often add a “natural preservative” that is high in antioxidants to prevent the breakdown of the oils such as rosemary extract, grapefruit extract, or vitamin E. I have also found that using a water discount (less water in the lye solution) also helps with this. Some say soaping with oils at a lower temperature before mixing with the lye solution may help as well.
4. palmitic and stearic acid- Palmitic acid and stearic acid can help give an indication of how hard a bar of soap will be. The harder the bar of soap, the longer is lasts in the shower or bath. However, I only really watch these numbers because if they get too high they can also be drying.
5. ricinoleic acid- The only oil that I’m aware of that has this rare property among the soapmaking oil is castor oil. This property can help with lather, especially great for recipes where a lower amount of lathering oils are used, can greatly help the ability of the soap to lather without being overly drying- matter of fact castor oil is high in essential fatty acids which is great for the skin. You don’t NEED this property, however, to make a nice soap.
6. iodine value- This isn’t really a fatty acid composition but another number I keep an eye on in my final stats for my soap recipes. I think watching the iodine value really gives the best indication of all on how hard or soft a soap will be in the end. The lower the number, the harder the bar.

Now for each skin type I have set stats I tend to aim for. Of course I’m not going to give away all my exact secrets and specs I tend to lean toward though. If you are just taking up the craft of soapmaking yourself I truly feel it won’t do you any good. I really think to become skilled in this craft it takes a lot of experimentation and willingness to step “outside the box”- the more different techniques and strategies you try the more you learn and can better estimate how certain combinations and techniques will turn out in the end. Nearly anyone can follow a recipe that’s given to them, but a true master will have no fear in trying something new. Not only that, but for every “rule” you learn there’s exceptions and ways around things. But for the purposes of a good learning start, a recipe I put together for soap for somewhat sensitive skin, for an example, may look like something like this:

• lauric acid- 7%
• oleic acid- 45%
• linoleic acid- 16%
• palmitic acid- 15%
• stearic acid- 6%
• ricinoleic acid- 5% (optional)
• final iodine value- 70

Doesn’t add up, does it? That’s because there are fatty acid acid compositions involved, but I have only mentioned the one that I personally really watch out for. Now this all might sound like an awful lot of trouble and mathematics, but thankfully there are free lye calculators that help you figure out the final estimates of not just per oil, but your entire recipe! Good thing too because all that time with a calculator would have driven me batty by now! One really great lye calculator that is one of my favorites when it comes to sitting down o formulate recipes is the SoapCalc.

Exceptions and Superfatting

When I first began soapmaking I was a complete and utter butter addict! Cocoa butter, mango butter, shea butter… I knew this was some good stuff so I figured the more the better… Well that just isn’t always the case! I found my soap to be a tad on the drying side, which I didn’t expect because of the reputation of these luxury ingredients. This is where the fatty acid composition comes into play. If you take a look at the breakdown of these butters you’ll find they’re actually pretty high in stearic acid, which many people can be sensitive to. So what’s a person to do? What was the secret behind all these shea butter soaps and such? In time I learned there was two possible fixes for this. Increasing the amount of my oleic and especially linoleic acids made a difference. The other was upping on the superfatting.

Most soapmakers set their superfatting at 5-8%. Once again there are still exceptions. Some have superfatted at 4% and I have successfully soaped using up to 20%- it all lies in the goal of the bar and what you want to use. What you have to keep in mind is that the lower you go the more attention you have to pay to making sure your moisturizing properties are high in the combination of the oils chosen. If not you’ll have a more drying bar of soap- but the soap will be a harder bar, have a longer shelf life naturally, and may lather better. If you set your superfat sky high you may want to lower your linoleic acid drastically so that your soap won’t have the very opposite effects. It’s all in experimentation. By using either of these methods , or even a combination of the two, I was finally able to create a soap with up to 30% in butter that I was satisfied with.

Another exception is the wonders of unsaponifiables. A “standard” recipe might feel drastically different with only a mere 5% addition of shea butter, for an example. Unsaponifiables are parts of the oil that naturally will not react with the lye to form soap, leaving it behind to nourish the skin. Shea butter, as with most butters, is pretty high in unsaponifiables and that small 5% doesn’t add enough stearic acid to make the soap drying, but adds plenty to the moisturization and creaminess of a soap. Another big favorite for unsaponifiables is avocado oil. Many oils have their own unique little “niche”.

Some oils just can’t be explained and some have just seem to work well together. I might get some heat from this, but I found one of those oils are lard, to give an example. Even at 20% it just added something to the soap that oils that specialty oils I paid $15.00 per pound couldn’t even remotely come close to! Now adding 10-15% sunflower oil as well made some soaps feel beyond luxurious- even beyond what these two wonderful ingredients were capable of separately. Once again, it’s all in experimentation.

Additives

And then there’s always the fun “extras”. Tea, herbs, milks, silk, fruits, clays…. The possibilities are truly endless. If it’s in your kitchen or garden, chances are it could be soaped. I’ve even heard of people using flat soda just for the fun of it! Sometimes some of these ingredients just add special bonuses to the soaps as well. Honey, sugar, and silk, for an example, seem to greatly help with lather in some recipes. Milks and teas many of times seem to add a certain “creaminess” to the lather.

Soapmaking definitely is not something that can be learned overnight. Matter of fact I find it’s a never ending learning process. I may have given up some little “secrets of the trade” in some peoples eyes, but if helps just one person form a new appreciation for soapcrafters in general, or helps just one beginning soaper to expand themselves to keep this wonderful art alive- then I really think I have accomplished a darn good thing.

You can find more articles by this author at Chambers Essentials- Our blog for beauty, health, home, and soul…

I wish we had met 20 years ago…
A different place, a different time
when I actually had a chance
for you to be mine…

Although we cannot change
what brought us together today,
I don’t know why it is so hard
for me to think about walking away…

From you and from us… despite
the obstacles that stand in the way
of our chance to become something
more than just yesterday -

I believe in love at first site
as silly as it sounds…
I never actually realized that
that until you came around…

With your unmistakable smile,
quick wit and flattery
like the devilish look in your eyes
whenever you see me…

I know it’s real and
I know I’m not alone
in feeling so strongly
that you’ll never be gone…

Entirely from my life
no matter what it takes
for you and me to be together
I think we’ll always make…

Up a reason to see each other,
an excuse to escape to
be together anywhere
any time - we will do

What we feel we need
to be with one another
Regardless of how short
our time is together…

The quality in moments
between you and me
is something most people
only dream they will see…

Once in this lifetime…
No matter how late
when love like ours arrives
It has to be FATE…

I thought I had lived
before I met you
but the truth is
I honestly had no clue…

About what love means
or how it’s supposed to be…
I settled for less, for men
who were not good to me.

I thank God for you
even if we have to secretly date
for another 20 years…
I know it will be worth the wait…

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine - A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

What to Search

Poetry falls just short of celebrities, spam, porn and Internet marketing in the vast continuum of cyber-space searches. That means poetry is surprisingly popular on the Internet. Finding a poetry community to share your works won’t be an overly difficult task; however, finding one that fits your specific aim can get you feeling as though you are a character in the not-yet made movie, “Lost in Cyberspace.”

There are several types of forums for different types of poets.

• The show-and-tell
• The hard-core critique
• The ghost town forum
• The ego trogh
• no-spell-ums 4ums

The Show-and-Tell

If you are not particularly interested in having your work dissected by the serious critique forum, but you’d like to share your poetic experiences, perhaps you should look for a show-and-tell. These are communities where the members will give casual feedback on poetry, and usually, the feedback is heavily centered on the theme of the poem rather than the process of the poem.

The Hard-Core Critique

If you aren’t prepared or experienced in getting serious critique on your poetry, you might be taken aback by these types of forums. The members will give you their honest thoughts on your piece, and you’ll soon find out that a first time post rarely yields strictly positive comments.

A good critique forum will have members who read a lot of poetry and actually know what to look for in a good piece. These folks will comment on your structure, internal rhyme, general rhyme, awkward wording, abstract and concrete imagery, and your overall cohesion. You don’t have to blindly follow the members’ advice, but arguing and rationalizing the flaws in your poem will get you nowhere. Also, keep in mind, that a good critic will also point out the strengths in a poem, so it isn’t all that scary.

Also, your poem might go unnoticed until you give a few well-thought comments on other members’ poems. People can sometimes be apprehensive about giving a good critique to a poem until they know how that person critiques a poem.

The Ghost Town Forum

You probably won’t want to join this forum, but it can have it’s benefits. A “Ghost Town” forum is a forum that doesn’t seem to have very many members. “What,” you may ask, “could possibly be the benefit of this?” Well, it’s a clean slate. If you know of other poets who have the same aim as you, you can invite them to the forum. You can lead discussions and critiques in a style that will benefit those who do have the same aim as you.

Also, some “ghost towns” are actually very new. Some of them might quickly shoot up in popularity, and if you decide to stay with the forum, you can oftentimes build long-time relationships with the members.

The Ego Trough

There are forums out there where the sole purpose seems to give other poets a pat on the back. No, wait, where the poets are searching for pats on the back. It might feel pretty good to post your poem on a forum and get a response such as “Wow, this is so great. You’re talented. I can so relate to this.” Keep in mind that there is usually very minimal feedback going on in these forums, and a lot of times, it seems that the praise is generated in hopes of having someone come back and praise their own poems.

Some of these “Ego Troughs” were created by poets who were hoping to showcase their own poetry. For many, poetry is the ultimate expression of the soul, so the fact that people are hoping to garner a plethora of praise is understandable. The benefit of such a forum is that it can make you feel good about yourself, and it can help you to gain the confidence you want in order to move forward with your poetry. The consequence is that you might never develop the actual art and process of writing a good poem.

The No Spell-ums 4ums

There are some forums out there that seem to be developed by the youth of cyberspace. Unless you are a teenager (and even then), I really don’t see much use of these kinds of forums. These are the forums where even the poetry uses that new-fangled text-speak. Responses to these poems are even in text-speak, you know, “Ur so gr8!” I cringe at the idea of a poem that uses that kind of language, unless it is a parody or something.

I suppose poetry is relative, and even poetry spans the meaning and spelling of words.

The Bottom Line

Before posting your poetry in a poetry forum, lurk around a bit. Also, the very first thing you should do is determine what you really want to get out of a poetry forum. If you are really uber serious about developing your work, perhaps you should search for a closed community, but email the moderator and ask a lot of questions before jumping in. You can join one of those closed communities before posting your work, too. Check out the site and look at the things the other members are saying.

Here is a final list of things to consider when searching for a community:

• The Member Size. A REALLY big member base can have your poem lost in a matter of seconds.
• Publicity. If it is an open forum, even non-members can read your poem. Do you really want or mind that?
• Sign in or not? Even open forums usually require a member sign-in. If not, the forums may be subject to flamings and spam.
• Paid Membership? You might wince at the idea of paying for something you can get for free; however, a paid membership can filter out those who aren’t serious. Just be sure to ask a lot of questions before paying the doe (which shouldn’t be much more than $30 a year.)