Category Archives: Guest Post

Tips to Create a Pretty and Whimsical Garden Display

Gardening has always been fun and therapeutic for all gardeners which is why there are so many that spend money on pots, garden tools and tons of hot plants of the month.

Creating a pretty garden arrangement is very simple and you can create something spectacular worthy of oohs and aahs. Get out your garden tools and get ready to create something marvelous. The easiest way to create a striking arrangement is to have a good picture in your mind of what you would like it to resemble.

The arrangement can be something colorful (you can mix various colors together to make something bold or just simple and pretty). If you are playing with colors then use the color wheel as your guide to help you make pretty combinations. Colors that lie directly across from each other on the color wheel will automatically look great together because of how different they are.

They can make very striking and powerful arrangements when paired together. Those colors that lie on either side of each other on the color wheel will look pretty and soothing next to each other. These are the colors that are related to each other such as pink and light pink and even red.

To create your arrangement, start with a few small plants and a large planter such as a pretty wooden wheelbarrow planter that will accommodate them. Keep in mind, that the plants will grow tall or branch out, so think about this when you are placing them in your arrangement.

The plants that will grow taller will need to be placed in the center or back side of your arrangement, otherwise if placed in the front or sides, the arrangement might look lopsided. Or you may want something like this! You just need to experiment to find the right look for you and you can slowly add more plants to it over time.

Soon enough, you will have a gorgeous work in progress garden planter arrangement that you will display proudly and you will receive plenty of complements on.

Finding Amethyst Crystals

If you are looking to add some amethyst crystals to your mineral collection, then you have a few choices. You can head down to the local hobby shop frequented by rock hounds and shell out some cash for a few dollars in exchange for some amethyst.

You can head to your local store for New Age supplies and related materials and rifle through their crystal bins. They’re sure to have some stones as well that you can purchase.

But if you are a hardcore mineral collector – whether you use your stones for health and wellness or simply to admire cool rocks – then there really is no substitute for heading into the field on your own. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of digging up your own specimens.

The trouble is, when it comes to amethyst, that’s a bit trickier than finding, say, a few samples of quartz. These days, the biggest deposits of natural amethyst are located in Brazil. Yes, you can find some in other parts of the globe but you have to be ready to hire a geologist!

Still, it’s not the worst way to spend one’s vacation. You can spend a few days taking in the culture of Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, then throw on your Indian Jones duds and see if you can’t score some quality amethysts. Either way, you’re going to return home tanned and with a few good stories.

But if you don’t have the time or the money to head into the Southern hemisphere, you still have some options. One is to simply buy a lot of geodes from Brazil. Geodes are hollow rocks inside of which minerals – such as amethysts – are formed. They’re like a rock enthusiast’s ultimate holiday gift. Break one open and see what you got!

There’s no guarantee, of course, that your geode will contain any amethyst, much less an amethyst for which you would actually pay money. But that’s the joy of buying in bulk – after a while, the law of large numbers pretty much ensures that you’re going to find something.

If you do it his way, you have to remember that what you get are not likely to be jewelry quality gemstones. You won’t be making any money, in other words. But the odds are much more likely that you will turn up some pretty good crystals that most collector’s would envy.

Any amethyst collection takes time to build. Your short-term goal should be to acquire some lower or mid-range quality stones. Use those to trade up for one or two higher quality crystals. After a while, between trading and cracking geodes, you’re likely to have the sort of collection that even the experts would admire.

And remember – amethyst is worth a little effort!

How to Choose From the Various Types of Aluminum Carport Kits

There are different types of aluminum carports for sale these days so it may prove to be a challenge to find the right vehicle shelter that would meet your standards for the protection of your valuable items. The first thing to consider before you make your choice is to know what you need and the available space on your property. Once you have determined this, you can narrow down your choices. Keep in mind that there are almost an unlimited number of accessories that you can add to enhance the details and functions of a carport.

The availability of space plays an important role when deciding what type of aluminum carport to purchase. Your basic choice is to get either an attached or free standing shelter. Attached shelters are the ones which are installed on and adjacently to the house, while free standing shelters can pretty much be placed anywhere on a property as long as there is space and there are no applicable building restrictions or zoning laws. Because there are particular areas that experience bad weather, many local communities have set limitations on shelters for safety purposes, so check first.

When shopping for aluminum carport kits, keep in mind to consider the size of the vehicle you currently have, if you are planning to purchase another one, make sure that the shelter you will be purchasing can fit several vehicles. If you do add a additional car you will not have to alter the carport. This is an excellent idea especially if you have a generous amount of space on your property. Being prepared is always best.

Aluminum carport kits are usually have a wide verity of add-ons, allowing you to customize your shelter for your needs.

Make Fresh And Healthy Nut Butter With Your Blender

A speed blender is undoubtedly the most versatile kitchen appliance that you will ever buy. Heck if it was down to the two most versatile things that you could find in a kitchen, then the spoon and the blender would probably end up in a tie with the kind of things that you can do with them. Today’s blender can do everything (and more) that yesteryear’s food processor could do. With Blendtec’s ‘Will it blend?’ series of internet videos showed that many things were possible.

Blendtec’s series involved putting popular consumer electronics inside one of their most powerful high speed blender and then giving it a spin to see if it would ‘blend’! Most of the times with disastrous results; for the iPod or cellphone that was in the blender that is.

As far as making soup in a blender is concerned, let me assure you it is all very possible. I can say it with assurance as I’ve used my own Vita Mix 1300 TurboBlend 4500 to whip up a quick batch of soup on more than one occasion. Just take hot water, add your vegetables to it and then sprinkle in a dash of salt and pepper and blend–piping hot soup is ready for your consumption.

While the above was all a testament to the immense power that these blenders wield, the recipe for making peanut butter is quite a simple task. Simply toss in about two cups of roasted peanuts, add a little peanut oil (half a teaspoon should do), add some sugar to taste and give it a few whirs. If you like your peanut butter crunchy, then you can add a few peanuts in after that and use the pulse mode on your blender or a low power setting until you get the consistency you are seeking.

3D Scanners In Archaeology

3d scanners are relatively new technology. Only the advent of the laser and computers has allowed for the transfer of all details about an object into a computer, and possibly the manipulation of these items with computer aided drawing (CAD) software or similar software. 3d scanners have a huge variety of uses, but perhaps the best use is for reverse engineering and cultural purposes.

Such devices have been used by archaeologists since the invention of the technology. This application is excellent for the purpose of finding hidden details in an artifact or piece of artwork that are too small for the eye to detect it. Also, as the technology typically uses lasers or sound waves for the purposes of scanning the object, it is minimally invasive. For example, a scientist or historian may want to know more about the content of an oil painting and the chemical properties of the paint. He or she could take a small chip of paint out of the painting, but if the painting is historic enough, that likely would not be allowed. However, oil paint is very well known for accumulating in large bumps, with a lot of texture. A 3d scan of the painting could likely give enough information about the structure of the painting to figure out the contents of the paint.

There are a number of famous examples of the use of 3d scanners in archaeology. Perhaps the earliest is two different groups of researchers who were able to scan Michelangelo’s famous statue David in 1999. Both of these groups used scans at a resolution of .25 mm, which accumulated a huge amount of data, detailed enough to see the chisel marks. These data were able to tell the researchers a large amount about how the statue was made, what tools Michelangelo had to work with, and other important archaeological information. Today, most famous works of art have been subject to the same treatment. And best of all, it is completely noninvasive.