Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Lucky Bamboo Care
Quick Tips: Lucky Bamboo Care
As millions of “lucky” consumers around the world have discovered, Lucky Bamboo makes the perfect house or office plant, needing little care but an inch of water and little direct sunlight to keep it happy and thriving…
What is Lucky Bamboo?
Known for centuries as Lucky Bamboo, the plant is not a bamboo at all (botanical name: Dracaena) but a resilient member of the lily family that grows in the dark, tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Africa.
How Much Care Does Lucky Bamboo Need?
Keep water fresh by changing it every week, and always keep water levels at approximately an inch from the base of the canes. Lucky Bamboo prefers plenty of indirect sunlight and room temperatures at 65-70°. Although opinions differ on feeding, your Lucky Bamboo is a living organism, so it makes sense to occasionally add a mild solution to the water such as African Violet fertilizer. Since growth can be controlled by feeding, small amounts of fertilizer will keep the plant at a manageable size.
Why Are the Leaves Turning Yellow?
Two of the most common factors are 1.) too much direct sunlight; and 2.) too salty or heavily-fluoridated tap water. To give your new Lucky Bamboo a thriving start be sure to keep it away from direct sunlight, and water only with filtered or natural spring water.
Why Is It Called “Lucky” Bamboo?
Along with its ease of growth, Lucky Bamboo has long been associated with the Eastern practice of Feng Shui - or the bringing of natural elements of water, fire, earth, wood and metal into balance within the environment. Lucky Bamboo is believed to be an ideal example of the thriving wood and water element, with the addition of a red ribbon sometimes tied around the stalks - which is believed to “fire” the positive flow of energy or chi in the room. The number of stalks also has meaning : three stalks for happiness; five stalks for wealth; six stalks for health. Four stalks, however, are always avoided - since the word “four” in Chinese sounds too similar to the Chinese word for “death”!
Can I Take Cuttings from Lucky Bamboo?
Yes. New stalks can be propagated from the original plant by using a sharp knife to cut through a stalk - just below the joint. Place the cutting in fresh, clean water. A fine mist spray to stalks is sometimes suggested to stimulate new bud growth.
How Do I Repot Bamboo?
Like any other houseplant, Lucky Bamboo can be transferred to a vase or pot 2 inches larger than the original, or planted permanently into a loose sand or soil mixture that provides lots of bottom drainage. To avoid root rot, be careful to let the top of the soil dry out between waterings.
3 Things You Can Do to Help Yourself Be Successful In Life
I truly feel most people want to be in on the winning side. However, we always run into people that remain in the same place in life. Do you feel you are you one of those people? Obviously if you’re a person looking and trying to better your life you want to be on the winning side.
Being successful can mean many things. My definition of being successful is accomplishing what you intend to do. For example, I always intended to have a family and I now have a great family. I consider myself very successful.
Success does not mean to look better than the people around you. I believe it comes from within and how you perceive yourself and your life. Success is something that you do not have to show on a daily basis. Success is how you live your life.
Here are three tips on being successful:
Create a Vision of Yourself
Having a vision is the first and most critical step of any successful plan. Create a vision of what you intend to do. Write down how you want to see yourself 1 year from now. Think about how your life will look. Having a vision will help you focus on what you want to achieve.
Read Full Article
Resources for
American Gift Club
Law of Attraction Article: Freedom From The Opinion Of Others
As if it isn’t stressful enough dealing with the critical voices we hear in our own minds all the time, we also find we have to deal with the criticism and opinions of others on almost a daily basis.
While we can sometimes benefit from the advice of others, we can also make the mistake of letting their opinions carry far too much weight in the decisions we make and how we decide to live our lives.
It is necessary to take a step back once in awhile and ask ourselves the reasons behind so much of what we do.
For instance:
Why do you have the job or career that you have? Is it something you always wanted to do? Or is it a job or career that others such as your parents, spouse or friends think is the right job for you?
I have a friend who always wanted to be a writer. After she graduated high school she intended to look for a job in the publishing industry. Her parents however had a different idea. They didn’t think the writing field was solid enough. Jobs were hard to come by and easy to lose. Newspapers and magazines paid very little. Getting a book published was a one in a million shot. (This was all before the internet by the way.)
They convinced her that taking a job as a writer would be irresponsible on her part and that she should work as an administrative assistant on Wall Street instead. Plenty of positions available, good solid income, security. After enough pressure she caved and took their advice and became an administrative assistant for over 15 years. And hated every minute of it. The ironic part was when years later she decided to give her writing career another shot, it was now her spouse who didn’t want her to give up the steady income she was making as an assistant.
Even though they all knew she was miserable doing what she was doing, they wouldn’t or couldn’t, look past their own opinions of how she should live her life.
Luckily she finally came to the realization that this was in fact, her life, and not theirs. She started writing and submitting pieces in her spare time and eventually started earning enough to make it her full time job. She is now very successful and happy! But it was only when she realized that she had been sacrificing her desires because of the opinion of others that she was able to make the move.
Resources for
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Biggest Reasons Why Relationships Don’t Work
1. FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE MORE – in any relationship, communication is essential. One way is to build good listening skills. One needs to let the other person know what is in his or her mind. We cannot keep on second-guessing the other person. Open communication even becomes critical so as not to misunderstand each other. Problems arise when one partner expects the other to read his or her mind and you will agree with me that this is close to impossible.
My wife for example is an introvert. In our 1st years of marriage whenever she gets angry she just keeps quiet all the time and I get frustrated because it was like I was talking to a wall. But later she too realized that it was necessary for her to communicate and express herself in order to reconcile and put the unity back between us. We must also seek to be a listener, build good listening skills, and have an attitude like this:” I want to understand her so that I can know why she thinks and feels that way.”
2. SELFISHNESS - difficult as this may sound but when we are self-centered, we tend to dismiss the other person’s feelings and say anything we want to say to suit our moods. To be outward-looking is to be concerned of the feelings of the other person. You can ask yourself ”Did I make him happy today or did I hurt his feelings?” Again, its important to build good listening skills. Most of the time because of pride we tend to hurt the other. In order to maintain unity in a relationship, we need to remove our pride. How? By thinking and caring more for the other person and trying to serve him better.
3. LACK OF SHOW OF AFFECTION – we are social people. We interact with each other. One of the best ways to relay our feelings and concerns is a gentle touch, a warm hug, a peck in the cheek and other means of showing our affection. It is important to say “You know that I love you…” to the person dearest to you. However you need to also to show your love outwardly one way or another. For example, I make it a point to kiss my wife goodbye every time I leave for work. Affection brings warmth and closeness to each other.
Read Full Article
Resources for
American Gift Club
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Flirting Language
Another flirting language that everyone is familiar with is the eye. The eyes communicate a lot and depending with how you look at a person they will know exactly what you mean. When someone spots a person somewhere and looks at them at a glance it probably means nothing, but when the person looks at someone and he or she hold the gaze for sometime it means that you want to meet with them and that it would be great if you looked back at them in a suggestive manner so that they know whether to approach you or to keep off if the look of course you give back is repulsive.
Resources for
