Wine Charms for Every Occasion

Wondering what to gift your hostess for today?s cocktail party? Here is the perfect gift. Wine charms. It is as charming as it sounds. Perfect for dinners, get-togethers, parties, wine tasting events and theme parties. With an attractive wine charm, you can keep track of your glass, as it will be tagged with an elegant charm. It can also be used for beer mugs and other glasses. Wouldn?t it be fun to tag a Monopoly wine charm to your glass? With pieces such as Free Parking, Community Chest and Go To Jail, it will surely make excellent conversation. At a poker game, you could choose the poker wine charm, which comes with six different cards. Loop it around your glass and you are surely bound to win!

Going to a bridal shower? Or a wedding party? Carry along a set of Pewter Wine Charms. It comes with a wedding car and cake, a wedding invitation and a bride and groom! It is ideal for the occasion. Do you prefer gold and silver metal beads? You can get it at just $9.99. It comes along with a silver pouch. For the same price you can get gambler charms, mythical charms and art charms. If you are looking for elegance and a little class, then multi-colored beads should be your choice. For those who love the sea, there is a boating wine charm. It has several attachments such as an anchor, wheel and sail. For beach lovers there is a beach wine charm complete with sun, sea and surf!

Or maybe you prefer a BBQ wine charm or a Big Money Pewter Wine Charm, both available at $9.99. A perfect gift for a woman would be a flower based wine charm, which looks so attractive you will want to carry it away with you. If you host is a stargazer, then the celestial wine charm is best suited. There really is a charm for every occasion. You name it and someone has already created it. Such a variety is difficult to find in other products. These wine charms are made with such precision and care that one would think it should be more expensive. However, wine charms are quite affordable and you can buy one that suits your taste.

For example, a golfer could go for the golf wine charm and an artist can go for the art wine charm. You can even find wine charm that relate to different countries in the world. The Egyptian wine charm comes with colored beads. During the festive season of Christmas, the Christmas wine charm is very apt. There is wine charms based on dogs, cats, insects, pets, wild animals, medicine, winter? the list goes on.

John Lamont is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.acewineracks.com/fine.pl/building-kedco-plan.html an online resource for all kinds of wine racks, including wall wine racks, metal wine racks and more

Sports Italian Charms

Extend the delightful enjoyment of your favorite sport by wearing License Sports Charms, to show to the world whatever your favorite sport may be. You can share your Passion for a sports team such as baseball, football, basketball and others, choosing from our special collection of License Sports Charms, those that match your taste. Manufactured as the highest quality products, our License Sport Charms feature a selection of authentic team logos of the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and Major League Baseball (MLB) and many others.

The team logos in our License Sports Charms are those of the team franchise itself and licensed by teams, ranging from classic sporting themes to your own personalized bracelet with custom charms. Football, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Hockey, or you name it. If not you, it may be your closest friend or a member of your family who have their favorite sports and teams, which would make the creation of a sport themed charm the perfect gift. Sports fans love to collect pictures and all kind of souvenirs related to their favorite teams and players. There are License Sports Charms for every budget, large or small, but for those wanting to collect charms; some basic principles may help them out.

Before starting a collection plan it, or do it in the early stages of your collection. Do you want to collect only gold charms? Many people have a particular taste for this metal while others prefer silver; however it may be only silver colored or golden colored charms depending on your budget.

This is only important if you want to give your collection a consistent look and feel, otherwise multi-colored charms collecting is not bad, the same as selecting the category, whether sports, animals, flowers, letters or whatever to express your personality. The collection may include only one category, or a few of the many available categories or assorted categories.

Then after, purchase a bracelet that already has only a few charms so that way you can start wearing your collection practically immediately, and if you are serious collector-to-be, keep a written history about each charm with the date, giver, and occasion.

Your Charms registry may be written in a regular paper notebook, or using custom collectible program software, available for download on the internet.

Italian Charms over 3500 Italian Charms online. http://www.pamlicojewelry.com/

February Birthstone - Amethyst

The signature February birthstone is amethyst which is characterized by its many variations of purple. When amethyst is subjected to extreme heat it changes color to a yellow colored amethyst referred to as burnt amethyst.

Amethyst is made up of several different varieties of quartz mineral. Amethyst comes from the Greek word amethystos which means sober. It is common belief that the name was made after the color of wine.

You are able to mine amethyst is South American countries that include Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Argentina. You are also able to mine it in African countries such as Zambia, Argentina, and Namibia.

There are a few key locations you can find certain amethyst. In Guerrero, Mexico you can find dark deep purple amethysts, known to be one of the most precious in the world. Also in Vera Cruz, Mexico you can find pale crystallized amethysts that have grown in light colored rocks.

In Maraba, Brazil the crystal is generally medium or pale colors. These amethysts are commonly cut. In Rio Grande de Sul, Brazil you can find amethyst stones from large volcanic rocks and is generally big.

North Carolina, USA offers some beautiful blue-violet colored amethysts. Maine, USA used to hold amethysts but they aren?t for distribution any more.

Amethyst is thought to have powerful calming effects on the owner. It is believed to enhance a person?s ability to learn new ideas quicker. It is can help you stabilize you mind and balance of emotional, mental, and physical states.

Amethyst is commonly known for being the gemstone for those who are the zodiac signs Pisces, Virgo, Aquarius, and Capricorn. It also symbolizes the gemstone for the 17th wedding anniversary.

These stones are beautiful and colorful, and for that reason usually pretty expensive. Amethyst has been cherished for quite some time, dating back as far as 25,000 years ago.

Find a vast selection of February birthstone jewellery, as well as other great birthstone jewellery gifts.

Callicarpa dichotoma 'Early Amethyst'

Callicarpas ? Loads of Berries from Late Summer through Autumn One of our favorite plants for fall interest is the Callicarpa. What puts these hardy deciduous shrubs at the top of our list is the profusion of lavender purple berries that are borne in autumn, adding distinctive color to the garden. Callicarpa is actually Greek for beautiful fruit, and these shrubs are commonly called Beauty Berries. This week we are featuring the Callicarpa with the showiest fruit display, 'Early Amethyst.'

Plant Early Amethyst for the Longest Berry Display of any Callicarpa Callicarpa 'Early Amethyst' is a striking deciduous shrub with lime-green foliage on arching branches. In the late summer and throughout the autumn, 'Early Amethyst' will deliver vivid color to your landscape with profuse clusters of glossy purple berries, a very unusual color for berries on hardy shrubs. The berries are particularly attractive after the leaves have fallen in mid fall. These beautiful berries remain into winter. On 'Early Amethyst' the berries begin to appear in August, several weeks before any other Beauty Berry. 'Early Amethyst' will quickly mature to about four feet tall and three to four feet wide. Use 'Early Amethyst' as a low hedge, in a border or as a specimen planting. Stems of dried Callicarpa berries make a display that lasts for over a month indoors. They combine beautifully with dried Pee Gee Hydrangea blooms or dried Winterberry Holly berries.

Not only is 'Early Amethyst' beautiful, but it is also very hardy and easy to grow. All Callicarpas are deer resistant. Plant in a rich, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade and watch your 'Early Amethyst' thrive. Any pruning of old or crowded branches or pruning to desired size should be done in early spring. Every three or four years, early spring rejuvenation pruning (cutting all stems almost to ground level) is desirable.

Planting and Care

For best results plant in well-drained soil in early fall or spring.

Prefers full sun to part shade.

Plant 5 feet apart.

Water regularly until established.

Fertilize with Plant-Tone and Kelp Meal in late autumn and early spring.

Hardy in Zones 5 (with protection)-8.

Rated as deer resistant.

Alan Summers, president of Carroll Gardens, Inc., has over 30 years experience in gardening and landscape design. He has made Carroll Gardens one of America?s preeminent nurseries, having introduced more than 20 new perennials and woody shrubs over the years and reintroduced numerous ?lost? cultivars back to American gardeners.

Carroll Gardens publishes a weekly online newsletter written by Alan. It contains valuable gardening advice and tips and answers to customer questions. Click here to sign up for the Carroll Gardens weekly enewsletter.

Every Saturday, Alan hosts a call-in gardening forum on WCBM radio - 680 AM. For those outside of the WCBM listening area, they can listen to radio show via the internet.

Visit CarrollGardens.com to learn more.

Pendants - Express the Power Within

A pendant is many things, emotions and qualities encapsulated in one piece of ornament. It has always been one of the essential pieces of jewelery, worn from the days of caveman. Both men and women have adored and adorned a pendant which many a time meant anything or everything to them. Sometimes it is faith – in the shape of God or any religious symbol. Sometimes a pendant defines the persona or any particular personality trait. And sometimes a pendant is a symbol of love, one that remains close to the heart.

A pendant, more often than not, symbolizes something for the one wearing it. Sometimes it is the kind of mood or situation the person is in. For instance, when in a professional environment, you can put a pearl necklace with a big pearl pendant or something that looks sedate yet earnest. Sometimes it is a figment of one’s thoughts, tastes and preferences. Like when you go out with friends, you can express your artistic self with an ethnic pendant.

Pendant is also a wonderful symbol of love. It can be some hobby you follow passionately, for instance a guitar if you love music, a basketball or a golf club if you have a penchant for sports, or it can be your own name woven into a thread along your neck. It can also be the picture or name of someone whom you love. This is the best way you can express your emotions for someone, with a help of a pendant.

Apart from self expression, Pendants also make wonderful gifts. It is a very romantic way a husband surprises his wife. Besides, you can also gift beautiful pendants to your best friend on her birthday. A pendant will be the most cherished gift on Mother’s Day. Just one small piece of jewellery and you can imagine the power it holds and spreads all around the one wearing it.

Paul Shane cherishes a hobby of studying and collecting jewelery, to dig out the making and story behind them, especially the rare or exquisite ones, also the Pendants being used for manufacturing the jewelery. He also loves studying consumer behavior related to jewelery selecting and buying. At present he is associated with a leading group called E-Beads Limited.

Residential Art Glass Lighting - Design Trends in Chandeliers, Sconces, & Pendants

Much in the way jazz altered our concept of music, glass art has changed our expectations of residential lighting. In fact, glass art lighting is being hailed as one of the hottest new trends to hit luxury home design. According to 25-year Southern California interior designer Greg Griffith, G. Griffith & Co. of Destin, FL, “It’s emerging as a transitional point for a more energetic look. From Asian to 18th Century, every style and design can incorporate glass art lighting. The fact that these are actual sculptured pieces means you’re adding art to the room without cluttering the wall.”

Aside from aesthetics, the benefit to glass art lighting is that it’s so flexible, it ends up resolving many design conflicts. Take, for example, the story of the Wisdom Window. This stained glass piece was created by a California glass artist to create a welcoming light at the end of a dark, New York apartment hallway. The artist created four matching sconces, but wanted the end of the hallway to feel like a window. He innovated a design where a diffuser sheet will be installed underneath the stained glass piece, and lit from behind.

One New York glass artist developed a unique way to illuminate her bathroom. She created her own mosaic glass sink and lit it from underneath to create a warm, amber glow. It also doubles as her nightlight. To underscore the look of an underlit sink, matching sconces are ideal. Some kitchen designers are commissioning glass art sconces and pendants to match underlit glass kitchen countertops. This creates interesting, ambient lighting in a more finished-looking lighting package.

Glass art lighting can be a subtle accent, or a prism through which the light bathes a room in a swatch of exotic colors. “I find many decorators driving décor based on the lighting fixtures,” says Seattle-based glass artist, Suzanne Guttman. “It’s easy to fall in love with a tentacled pendant light or chandelier and make it the centerpiece of a room.”

The Cost of Beautiful

Investing in gorgeous glass art lighting is less daunting than one may assume. A Bellagio budget isn’t necessary to incorporate museum-quality glass lighting into a residential design. Sconces range from $400 to $1,200; small pendant lighting (suspended by one point in the ceiling) ranges from $300 to $600; larger pendants and chandeliers can range from $1,500 to $10,000. Serious collectors consider glass art an investment as well as being an aesthetic piece, just as they would an original painting, or a piece of antique furniture.

Glass Art Lighting 101

Once a homeowner decides on glass art lighting, it’s helpful to know a little about the glass and where it should be used, based on its physical characteristics. Here are some tips:

Blown glass has some limitations to the size and diameter that an artist can create. Some blown glass lighting utilizes many pieces in its design to create a larger, more sculptural effect.

Cast glass is very beautiful, but quite unusual in lighting because it is very heavy to suspend. One glass artist has created a woven glass technique that takes on the look of woven fabric, and results in a glass art lighting fixture that feels like a glass blanket.

Fused & slumped glass is popular for glass art lighting. Through the use of molds, fusing allows the artist to create large diameter canopied type lighting, thus enabling a single shade to be up to 48” in diameter. This creates consistency in shape and wonderful, unusual textures.

Etched glass is another wonderful medium for flat panel lighting. Pieces such as The Three Graces, by glass artist Margaret Oldman, can be lit with plain or multi-colored fiber optics, depending on the look a designer is trying to achieve.

Mosaic and stained glass are similar, in that they’re both ideal for flat panel lighting. Artists will often incorporate Italian smalti glass, blown sheets of transparent glass broken into small pieces, or dichroic glass, which is coated on one side with a metallic-like mirror finish.

Buyer Beware

One thing homeowners should remember, especially with lighting, is to be sure that the glass artist they’ve chosen understands how the electrical specs will dovetail with the piece, and that they know U.L. standards. As founder of Glass Artists Gallery, I estimate that close to 30% of our first-time customers come to us because they had negative experiences commissioning residential glass art lighting on their own. We are very careful about screening the artists we represent to make sure they understand the technical specifications

In short, glass art lighting choices become a very personal way to reveal a homeowner’s fingerprint on the interior design. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”

For more information or to see thousands of images of art glass lighting, visit Art Lighting Gallery

Jack Healy is part owner of Functional Art Gallery, LLC - Functional Art Gallery - a growing family of online resources for the designer, architect, builder and discerning homeowner. The company focuses on handcrafted functional & architectural works of art for both residential and commercial projects. The Functional Art Gallery family includes Glass Artists Gallery, Sinks Gallery and Art Lighting Gallery. Together these resources provide the largest collection of artisan and designer products available in North America.

Selecting the Right Ceiling Pendant Lighting Fixture

Pendant lighting is a relative newcomer to the market of home lighting fixtures. Although it has been around since the 1940’s, this type of lighting is just coming into its own as homes are built with higher ceilings. Although there is no evidence of this, the development of the pendant light was probably a reaction to finding a form of lighting that was less elaborate than the chandelier but that served basically the same function and purpose.

The description of the typical pendant light is a single fixture that hangs from the ceiling from a chain or other kind of supporting device such as a metal rod. They are far less elaborate than the chandelier and rather than having its lights exposed (like a chandelier), the pendant employs a shade of sorts at the end which, in fact, is described as the pendant.

One of the appealing factors of the pendant is its versatility. Pendants can often be found in hallways, small foyers, kitchens, bathrooms and hallways. Narrow areas that need lighting are ideal candidates for a pendant light. The pendant itself is generally completely enclosed, hiding the light fixture itself to avoid glare. Because of its simplicity, the pendant is usually made of a neutral substance employing white or opaque glass.

A slight contradiction in design is worth noting here. One of the more appealing uses of the pendant during the past decade, is in the kitchen. These fixtures are often suspended over a kitchen island or other food preparation area and feature an open-ended bottom through which a soft light is emitted. This is a very attractive feature in the right kind of kitchen because of the even lighting it provides. This type of pendant fixture is also finding its way into other areas of the home.

During its earliest days, the pendant featured a blown glass shell, which eventually evolved into a wide variety of styles. Today, the variety of styles used in pendant lighting is as varied as the styles used in other forms of lighting fixtures. Take a look online or at a fine lighting store or even in a home and garden periodical to see the extent to which this type of lighting has evolved.

One of the mistakes some homeowners make is to try and use a Tiffany style lampshade on a pendant fixture. Don’t get me wrong; Tiffany definitely has its place. Floor lamps and table lamps often add a dramatic flair when used with a Tiffany lampshade. The pendant, on the other hand, is designed to be slim and sleek and putting a Tiffany fixture on the end of one defeats the purpose, in my opinion, because you are really mismatching functional styles. I suggest that you stay with the more traditional style of pendant lighting such as something called the Colonial. This impressive fixture features a shade that gives one the appearance of a lantern with a candle inside.

Unlike the chandelier, the pendant doesn’t need a long lampshade and an understated look is what to go for.

With all of its advantages and eye appeal, you may be ready to head out to buy one. They are stylish, have a simple elegance, are functional and provide illumination in hard to light areas. There are some things to think about, however, before you make that purchase.

First and foremost, it is essential that you consider what you are planning in terms of the overall decorating of the home’s lighting. Pendants can be used as stand alone lighting for a particular area or can be used in combination with other lighting fixtures, particularly in larger areas. Many stores and online dealers offer other lighting fixtures that coordinate with a pendant. These include wall sconces, ceiling fixtures and decorative table lamps.

Pendants are an eye catcher in it’s not something you want to cut corners on when considering a purchase. There are tons of styles and configurations available today and with a little persistence, you can find just the right fixture for both your décor and your budget. An inexpensive pendant gives you what you pay for and if it wears out, replacing it can be a chore that you won’t relish.

Because of their increased popularity, the pendant can be seen in many modern homes. Don’t hesitate to pay a visit to the neighbors or to the model homes, etc. in the area (trust me, many of these model units will use the pendant in a variety of attractive and ingenious ways).

LightnBreezy.com is a well-known source for ceiling pendant lighting fixtures. LightnBreezy.com features hundreds of products to choose from. To order your discount pendant lighting fixtures , visit us at LightnBreezy.com.