Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Wedding Favours

February 13th, 2010

There are many gifts that can be given as wedding favours, after all the purpose of wedding favours is to illustrate to your guests that you are grateful for them coming to your wedding and expressing their support for your wedding. Therefore, you ought to really try to find wedding favors, that your guests will be keen on.

Of course, the gift that most suits your guests, may not be one you would pick for yourself, but you are buying the wedding favours for your guests, not yourself. If you think about it, you should be able to come up with something that everyone will like and that you are proud to give. In order to help you get the task done, we will offer you a few suggestions below.

Love spoons are a popular souvenir at Welsh and other Celtic weddings. A love spoon was a wooden spoon carved by a love sick man for the woman he loved. She would then either take or refuse the love spoon, although she was not obliged by the acceptance of the spoon. Miniature versions are often used as wedding favours. They can be inscribed with dates and names and symbols of love such as a hearts, bells, vines, key holes, anchors and knots.

Wedding favours can also be suitable to eat. There are a pile of choices available for couples who wish to give their guests some kind of edible favour. You can have many items personalized these days. Some firms specialize in personalized presents, which can also be given as wedding favours. Some examples of edible, personalized wedding favours might be: chocolate bars, mints, biscuits or gourmet chocolates. The box or wrapper could bear your photo or / and your names and the date.

Miniature wedding cakes are another idea for edible wedding favours. Small wedding cakes have a short shelf life so they will have to include a warning, which will in all probability be put on the packaging automatically, but it is worth checking.

A half / quarter or small bottle of wine or other drink would also be fairly easy to arrange as wine bottle labels can be bought in any home brew shop.

Picture frames are frequent wedding favors. You could give a picture frame and follow it up with a photo of the beneficiary of the frame enjoying your wedding party. This might be expensive and tricky to set up as you will need to keep records of who has been photographed and who has not. It would be terrible to miss someone out, would it not? You will possibly also need a professional photographer or at least a dedicated amateur.

Wedding favours can be anything really, but I reckon that they are better if they are practical. We gave very unusual bottle-openers away at our wedding. They had a pattern of a couple getting married, our names and the date. They also had a magnet in them to catch the bottle top as it came off. I have seen dozens of our bottle-openers stuck on our guests’ fridges over the years and the wedding was three years ago.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Welsh love spoons, or Wales in general, go to our website at Welsh Products Online

Cottage Rentals

February 10th, 2010

Most people look forward to going away on holiday and a lot of people like to make complex plans and bookings. After all you frequently have to make allowances for flights and hotels. However, there can also be car, sightseeing and bicycle bookings as well, depending on the category of holiday you want.

As an alternative to a hotel, you might want to think about hiring a private cottage. Cottage rentals are a good alternative to a hotel or guest house. In general, cottage holidays are self-catering, so you would have to be prepared to put in a little more work than if you went on an all-inclusive hotel stay. A small cottage on the coast in a secluded setting would suit many people, but a holiday cottage on the coast could be better for others.

If you pick the right location, you can have whatever sort of cottage you want. Go to the coast if you like sailing or snorkeling. A seaside resort location would offer more night life probably. If you want a quieter fishing vacation with canoing or boating, a quiet lakeside hideaway would be more fitting. Then there are mountain huts and several other degrees of solitude and nightlife too.

If you would like to visit museums and other touristic sights, you should select a location near an appropriate city. It just requires a little forward preparation and thought.

We live in Wales and there are thousands of rental cottages of all types in all manner of locations. If you have a large family, you could hire several cottages close by each there and live in a kind of old fashioned village. There are also modern camps like ‘Center Parcs’ which have hundreds of very modern cottages in small groups of four or five so that families or friends can stay in a community together.

These modern cottages are very plush, with Jacuzzis, swirl baths, large flat screen televisions and all manner of entertainment equipment and satellite TV. The cottages are set in acres of woodland and wildlife is everywhere. There are deer, badgers, foxes, squirrels and dozens of types of birds including kingfishers, geese, ducks and swans.

The swimming pools are completely heated and go inside and outside into the woods, so that even in the middle of winter you remain warm. There is also archery, boating and hiking with many courses of differing hardship to follow. It is great to walk in the woods knowing that you cannot get lost with animals around every corner.

The wildlife is used to human company, so much or it is not afraid and they come right up to you if you stop for a picnic. These holidays are not so cheap as going to a self-catering private vacation, but they are safe, particularly for young families.

You can find cottage rentals through a travel agent, but you can also find them by searching in your local newspaper. These are some of the best finds because the cottages might be only a few hours drive away, but that is far enough to make a big change. You do not really need to get on a plane to have a great vacation with a difference.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the rental of Welsh coastal cottages. If you are interested in a cottage or Wales in general, please go to our website at Welsh Products Online

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Welsh love spoons, or Wales in general, go to our website at Welsh Products Online

Vacation Rental Homes

February 8th, 2010

Many people that go on vacation have a preference to rent a home in their destination rather than staying in a hotel. Most of these people do this because it gives them the freedom to cook their own food and eat out when they like without missing set meals that they have previously paid for.

It can be more difficult to find such a vacation rental than just booking a hotel reservation. However, most holiday makers say that the endeavor is worthwhile. There are a few points that you should check up on if you are not to be disappointed when you get there.

It is very useful if you have friends or family living in the destination locale and if you do have this advantage, you should use it, but all is far from lost if you do not. There are often agencies for these kinds of vacation rentals as many people who live in such places rent their homes out in the peak period and they do this through those agencies.

There are also quite a few web sites specializing in home rentals for holiday purposes. Some of these Internet agencies just charge on behalf of the property owner and others can arrange swaps, which is a great, cheap way to travel the world.

The surveys that these web sites carry out are often quite comprehensive, containing such predictable details as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, but also such information as whether there is a phone, a car, bicycles or scooters on the property, along with distance to the shops, main road, airport, train and bus stations.

However, if you have any questions still unanswered, you are usually encouraged to ask them directly to the property owner via the agency’s web link. It is a good idea to rent a vacation home through a rental agency for security purposes, because if a problem does arise then you have a mediator on hand. In these situations the agency would handle the whole affair, up to the point of criminal proceedings.

You may also like to ask about the age of the property, because often the day to day maintenance of the place is down to you while you are there, as are breakages, unless those things are covered by the owner’s insurance policy.

You should also find out whether you are allowed to use the home owner’s bedding, linen, and towels etc.. Often you just treat the house and its contents as your own, unles a cupboard or door is locked and you have not been given the key.

One last bit of advice is to get suitable directions. Places that you are not well-known will look very different in the dark than they do in the daylight, particularly if the property is out of the way.

Therefore, if you are expecting to arrive late or if there is a likelihood that you might be held up, ask for photographs of key points taken in the twighlight. It will make certain that you get to your destination vacation home rental with no difficulties.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the rental of Welsh coastal cottages. If you are interested in a cottage or Wales in general, please go to our website at Welsh Products Online

Welsh Terriers A Facing a Struggle

February 3rd, 2010

Originally, Welsh terriers were bred for hunting rabbits, foxes and badgers, but public opinion and the decline in the lust for blood in general have gone against blood sports and so this native breed of Wales has become a show dog and a pet. Breeders try to outdo each other by breeding the Welsh terrier to have a thicker wiry coat and deeper colouration. The Welsh terrier is also a popular pet because it is one of the most easy-going terriers.

The Welsh terrier is a fun loving dog. It just loves to run, chase and play, which makes it a smashing companion and a perfect pet. Welsh terriers require lots of exercise, so be prepared for plenty of walking, if you make your mind up to get one.

It is a good idea to ’socialize’ your dog as early as possible. This means that you should introduce your Welsh terrier puppy to children and other dogs at an early age. The more you encourage your dog to play with other dogs as a puppy, the less trouble you will have with your dog fighting or barking at other dogs and cats. It’s the same story with children. Children can play very roughly, and a dog could be forgiven for biting back, but it can be avoided by introducing your Welsh terrier puppy to children while it is still young. The child might learn respect, but the dog will learn tolerance.

The Welsh terrier is easily trained, if you like your dog to perform tricks. it is an intelligent breed and, being former hunters, they are good at learning commands and tricks. Train your Welsh terrier with kindheartedness and reiteration. They like to retrieve sticks and play with a ball. Many people train their Welsh terriers to catch a flying Frisbee too.

A Welsh terrier will groom himself quite meticulously, but you can help out by brushing him once a week in order to remove the dead and loose hair. This will also help reduce the amount of hairs dropping inside your house, although terriers in general, and wire-haired dogs in particular do not lose as much hair as soft coated dogs. You could also help by wiping him over with a damp cloth from time to time in order to pick up any dust on his coat.

A Welsh terrier is very active and very curious, so it is prudent to keep your dog in a yard that has been fenced off. However, the fence needs to be realistically high, because the Welsh terrier has an exceptional ability to jump due to its long legs.

The Welsh terrier is Britain’s oldest variety of dog, but it is now under pressure. The British kennel club registers only 300 Welsh terrier puppies a year, whereas it registers tens of thousands of puppies of other, more popular, breeds. The Welsh terrier is a strong-willed animal, so it does need a strong-willed and patient owner.

However. if you want a Welsh terrier and you persevere with it, you will never look back. They have a lot to give and, as with so many things in life, you only get out what you are willing to put in.

If you are interested in Welsh corgi puppies, or Wales in general, go to our website at Welsh Products Online

Boarding Dogs In Temporary Kennels

February 2nd, 2010

Are you the sort of dog owner who likes to take your companion with you wherever you go? If you are then you know that that there are times when you can do this, but there are also times when you can not, for whatever reason.

On the occasions when that happens, you will usually need to find a boarding kennels that will take care of your dog while you are away.

A vacation is a time for relaxing, so you do not want to be worrying about your dog, if you can help it. Within your own country, it is not usually a big problem, but if you go abroad, then taking your dog can be more trouble than it is worth. Not only for you, but for your doggy friend as well.

If you can not board your dog with someone it knows, like a member of your family or a neighbour, then the only option is a boarding kennels.

I have placed my dog in a bad kennel once and I learned a few lessons from that. I placed my Becky in a kennel in a highly regarded village just outside our town. I was happy with what I saw and the sales pitch of the owner, so I went to Spain, thinking that all was fine for both of us. I had a great holiday and went straight to the kennels from the airport on my return, although I had told them a fortnight before that I would pick Becky up the day after my arrival. I just could not wait to see her.

I went to the kennels and they were surprised to see me. Of course, I was a day early. They said that Becky was ‘resting’ and that it would be better to ‘come back tomorrow’. No way! So they took me to see her. I nearly cried. She was sitting in a good sized cage, but on newspaper sodden with pee.

She saw me and just looked down at her paws. I called her name again, but she did not want to know. I paid the bill and put her in the car on the front passenger seat where she always sat. She just looked out the window and showed no interest in me whatsoever.

It was three days before she would speak to me again! The moral of this story is not to be impressed by big adverts or impressive locations as I was. Ask your dog-owning friends, write into the local paper inviting recommendations, phone the local animal protection society or the kennel club or look on the Internet.

If you are interested in Welsh corgi puppies, or Wales in general, go to our website at Welsh Products Online

Wedding Cakes

February 2nd, 2010

Nearly every family or social event involves the eating of food and the imbibing or drinks in the celebration. Think of Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings. In this piece of writing, I would like to talk about that centre piece of any wedding reception: the wedding cake.

The guests come to eat, drink and be merry and the bride’s parents always put a great deal of work into the organization of the wedding reception. The wedding cake is the focal point of the top table and the whole function in general. The wedding cake has traditional significance and it is often considered bad luck not to have a slice of the wedding cake.

There are precise rules for the timing of the cutting of the wedding cake that have become part of tradition. For example, if the wedding reception takes place at lunch or dinner, it is traditional to cut the wedding cake just before the dessert is served.

However, if the reception is to take place in the late afternoon or early evening, the cake is served as soon as the guests arrive. In some traditions the bride and groom cut and eat the first slice together as a symbol of their vows to love, honour and obey each other. The remainder of the cake is generally cut by one of the assistants, like the maid of honour or a family relative.

It can be quite hard to choose the wedding cake. Traditionally, people opt for a white cake with white icing for weddings, however nowadays, people are becoming more adventurous and are picking more exotic flavours and colours.

Some people choose to have a wedding cake which has different flavours on each layer. While white icing is still the overwhelming favourite, people do order other colours like pink and yellow. Chocolate and mocha are also popular. These days you can have what you like. It is your day, after all.

Everybody enjoys the wedding reception. It is the favourite part of the wedding day and everyone looks forward to seeing the cake cut and sharing it with the bride and groom.

If you are considering becoming a cake decorator, you have a few choices to go about it. You could buy a book or a course or get a video in order to teach yourself how to decorate cakes from the plain to the ornate. You could also go to a night school class to learn the art or cake decoration.

Without a doubt, the very best way to learn cake decorating is to take a course. DVD’s, videos, and books are all well and good, but you cannot converse with them or ask questions. If you attend a class for three months or more you will learn more and get a more profound understanding of the art of cake decoration. You will learn how to put real emotion into the decoration of the cake and you will be able to translate the wedding couple’s dreams into a cake that you and they can be proud of.

If you are interested in a Welsh gold wedding ring, or Wales in general, go to our web site at Welsh Products Online

Avoiding Burnout in Home Schooling

December 13th, 2009

No matter if you are learning in a traditional school or in a home schooling environment, there will come a time when you will experience burnout. This is something that you have to avoid so that your learning progress is not affected.

Here are a couple of useful tips that you can use in order to avoid an occurrence of home schooling burnout:

Be aware of your abilities. From the very start, you should already know your limitations and those of your child. You must be capable of taking things slowly sometimes, especially if your child is still very young since you have to consider your child’s capacity to learn. Most students are average learners (obviously), so you will have to give the lessons according to your child’s learning speed. Never expect your small child to read complicated selections nor your teenager to get top marks in SAT exams.

Don’t adopt rigid schedules, because this can put pressure on your child. You should simply set an interesting routine for your child to follow. Children spend most of their time doing routine activities like getting up in the mornings, eating hearty breakfasts, reading, writing, doing light jobs about the place, etc. You must insist that they finish their routine activities before they can play outside or with the computer. Even the routine activities vary from day to day but you have to make sure that your child follows these routine activities. You can add in occasional incentives or fun activities if they finish their routine tasks earlier.

You should enjoy home schooling with your child. This is one way you can develop a good relationship with your child and if you and your child can relate to each other, you will find it very easy to handle curriculum struggles and motivation problems later. Aside from motivating and guiding your child, you can also pursue some of your own interests like gardening and cooking. If your child sees you enjoying your own interests, then he or she will also be motivated to do likewise.

Since your child is into a home schooling program, you should not try to mimic a traditional schools environment. Try to use unusual methods when teaching your child. Home schooling is also about flexibility and creativity, and if you can create a light-hearted atmosphere, you can probably avoid burnout.

Just always try to bear in mind that with home schooling, you don’t have to structure your teaching methods in the traditional way. You can simply do things in an enjoyable way especially when teaching very young children, so that they learn naturally. Ensure you keep the day in the right balance to prevent burnout. Although your children might forget some of the day’s lessons, that’s all right too because somehow children develop their intelligence as well as their physique.

Of course, your children will always cherish your moments together and remember fondly how well you treated them. The song goes: “… there’s no place like home” and for little students this is the best place to learn their first lessons in life. If your teens are already in high school or in college, they too can still pursue home schooling if they want to. That is also a good decision because you get to monitor your offsprings’ performance.

Parents always try to look after their children’s best interests, so, if after careful thought, you still think that home schooling is the right option for your family, then run with it. Just follow the advice stated above in order to prevent burnout. Make time for enjoyable activities from time to time in order to prevent monotony, which may lead to burnout.

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The Ancient History of Barry, South Wales: Part Two

November 12th, 2009

Barry Castle belonged to William de Barri in the 12th. Century, but was destroyed by Llewellyn Bren in-16. Some say it was later rebuilt and used by the Cavaliers only to be destroyed again by the Roundheads, never to be reconstructed.

The Norman interlopers were thoroughly hated by the local people and they had to build large mansions to defend themselves from the not infrequent raids on them by the people of the valleys and the mountains. During the time of the reign of Henry III, there were 12 castles within six miles of Barry; in Glamorgan, there were 30 castles and in South Wales as a whole there were 150 of those symbols of oppression.

Porthkerry and the church lying to its west is said to have taken its name from Ceri, who is said to have founded a port, ie ‘Port Ceri’. People say that Ceri ap Caid, the King of Essyllwg, resided in Porthkerry before the Christian era and that his bard, Corvinor, was the first to have built a ship with sails and a rudder for the race of Cymru. Some believe that Ceri was a nephew or grandson of Caractacus (Caradog) and that he assumed the leadership of the government in South Wales when Caractacus was sent to Rome.

John Wesley later preached from the Porthkerry Church pulpit, and sometimes outside, in 1741, 1742 and 1743. There are two very old churches still in use today St. Cadocs Church in Cadoxton and Merthyr Dyfan Church in Merthyr Dyfan. 150 years ago, Cadoxton was the largest village in the area: eg in’44 the Parliamentary register contained 25 names: 20 from Cadoxton and five from Barry. The church was dedicated to St. Cadoc, who used to spend Lent on Flat Holm and Barry Island. The village took its name from the church, which was founded in 800 AD.

Merthyr Dyfan Church, which is situated in the north of Barry, was founded in 600 AD and the name means Dyfan The Martyr. There were two saints of this name. The one travelled to Barry to convert the local people to Christianity and the other lived in the sixth century. He was the son of a Welsh chieftain. His sister was also martyred and the town of Merthyr Tydfil is named in her memory.

The Christian faith grew exponentially in the Vale of Glamorgan and in the middle of the 2nd. Century, Llewrwg, Prince of Siluria, became the first king, anywhere in the world of all time, to be baptized into the Christian faith. He sent to Rome for more Chritian teachers and was sent Dyfan and Fagan. The former was martyred near the site of the church and the latter was canonized. St. Fagan’s just outside Cardiff was named after him.

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Home Schooling and the Family

November 6th, 2009

If a survey by the National Center For Education Statistics is to be believed, roughly 1.1 million children underwent home schooling in 2005 alone. That’s a lot of children. Not so long ago, homeschooling used to be an extreme statement – something like a declaration of independence.

It was the conservative Christians who pushed for homeschooling in the 1980’s and legalized it in every State. But nowadays the average homeschooling pupil is not religiously motivated.

More recent surveys show that parents are quite fed up with the public school system where a lot of the learning is superficial and compulsory. They are also concerned about the negative environment in school, ranging from drugs and abuse to negative peer pressure.

As a result, we have a surprising mixture of people who make up the homeschooling world of today. They cut across all religious creeds and all regional borders. Their chief aim is providing meaningful and productive education through a means that strengthens the bond between the various members of the family.

These families all have one major thing in common – a long standing commitment to the sanctity of childhood. The children of these families are given a primary position. Many believe, and, probably, rightly so, that home schooling allows parents to bring up their children in a more natural and nurturing environment.

Public schools can make a child nervous, diffident and downright mean. Children who get their education at home are protected from these damaging, negative influences until they reach an age where they can deal with them.

Home-schooling draws the whole family into the quasi religious job of teaching. Everyone has a role to play. Both the parents together form a bond with the children. Any experience can be turned into an learning experience. Both the parents are aware of exactly what is going into their child’s education.

Parents also have a greater say over the type of religious and moral values that the child is learning. Even watching a movie together can become a learning experience. Trips to the libraries, zoos, museums and other places become educational experiences as well as recreational ones.

A home-schooling family is usually dependent on the income of one earning member. That means that quite often spending has to be curtailed and proper planning of expenditure is a must. This helps to bring the family members together and everybody gets involved in the task of not spending money.

Just having a parent at home to look after, to nurture and to care for the children brings with it a lot of love and caring. Even the husband takes part and there is just no room for boredom.

All right, problems do occur, and there will be many misgivings in your mind, but when you know that your children can always count on you, and your kids know it too, then homeschooling becomes a richly rewarding experience.

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Learning History at Home Schooling

October 13th, 2009

Do you consider that passing time in traditional classrooms is a waste of time? For some people, that is probably true. For example, an exam is coming up and the pupils are asked to memorize a list of dates and names. However, after taking the exam, they will definitely forget 90% of those dates and names. That’s what the majority of students do when they have exams. If you are one of these people, you will find traditional history lessons boring, so home schooling, which focuses more on the history of the world, will surely interest you more.

Simple memorization is not enough to know the significance of famous people and important events. Through home schooling in history, you can learn about the different cultures of the past in a unique, but interesting way – your own way! Through the study of history, you will also understand the current situation of the world today.

If you think that home schooling is the most effective option for your child’s learning, you must also be prepared to take on some responsibilities. Since there will be no teacher physically present, you will have to supervise your child’s educational progress yourself.

Let’s suppose that your kid is interested in sports. Through history and home schooling, you can start by simply hanging a map on the wall of your child’s room. Mark the location of his favorite sports team and make sure that you track all the team’s activities and schedules. Then, you could go back to history by reading biographies of the various athletes, who had been popular in the particular sport that your child follows. Apart from that, you could also look into the history of that specific sport and discover where it originated, its inventor, and the other things happening at that particular time.

For example, if your child likes baseball, you can teach your child about the history baseball, government hearings on the use of drugs and other favourite hobbies at that period in time. Just remember that you can adapt this method to any interest such as dancing, cars or any invention. You can also have conversations with your child about current events or read interesting historical documents and other books. Apart from that, you could also watch documentaries together with the rest of the family. There are various resources that your child can use in home schooling, such as TV, maps, newspapers, books, a globe, an atlas, and encyclopedias. Because of the exciting adventures that you and your child will read about and see on film, he/she will find it easier to remember the names and dates of the history lessons. After all, education is best when it is done in an interesting way.

These ways are advisable for when your child is still young, however when your child is older, you should choose a home schooling program that is suited to his/her particular age group. The programs are pitched at the elementary, high school, and even college levels. You simply have to search the Internet for these various programs. One good thing about these programs is that you can adapt them to fit the needs of your child. However, you must make sure that all the modules are learned by your child.

Once you and your child have decided to go for home schooling, you must be prepared for some changes to take place in your life. The learning environment will now be your home not a school and through the various resources that you can use including the computer and Internet.

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