Posts Tagged ‘tradition’

Knitted Baby Blankets

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

What can you gift the parents of a new-born baby who have everything? Parents who have already had a baby or two will already have objects like a crib, baby’s clothes, a pram and most other things, but the one gift that is always appreciated is a personalized or handmade knitted blanket. Home knitted baby blankets are much better than shop-purchased baby blankets and can either be handed down or kept to give to the baby twenty years later as an heirloom.

Up until fifty years ago, many people, such as aunts and grandmothers knitted and it was fairly common to see hand-knitted baby blankets. This all but died out in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, but handcrafts have seen a resurgence in the new millennium. This has to be a positive sign. Coupled with this is the fact that contemporary wools, yarns and other fibres are more sturdy and safer than ever before.

That means that a hand-knitted baby blanket is a better gift than ever before. There are dozens of colours and textures which makes it easy for the knitter to match any theme that the parents may have decided on for the baby’s nursery.

A hand-knitted quilt or blanket is a very special gift which can either be passed down to the next baby or can be put away to be a present for the ‘baby’ at a later date, in the same way that a bride might put away her bridal gown for her daughter if she ever has one.

Whilst you are deciding on a design for your baby blanket, you ought to make safety your prime consideration. That ought to include thought for the size or the blanket. The blanket has to fit the cot exactly so that there are no dangerous folds or gaps. The weave should also be tight enough so that small fingers and toes cannot get caught up in them.

It is not a good idea to have beads sewn into the blanket either. This is because babies soon begin teething and you do not want your baby to bite off a few beads and choke on them. Traditionally, parents used blue colours for a boy baby and pink for a girl and although that distinction blurred for a couple of decades it is being respected again so you will have to find out the sex of the baby – subtly if the knitted blanket is going to be a surprise gift.

There is no parent in the world that would not treasure a hand-knitted blanket or quilt for their new baby. It is a very special present that really will be considered as an heirloom to be passed down through the family or kept as a very extraordinary twenty-first birthday gift. Embroider your name in a corner so that the person you gave it to will always remember you as well.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Valentines Day Gift Baskets. If you have an interest in romantic gifts, please go over to our website now at Romantic Gifts Ideas

Some Ideas On Baby Cribs, Cots And Blankets

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

It is vital for everyone, even babies, to have somewhere safe and secure to sleep. I say ‘even babies’ because it is easy to think that babies are not quite conscious, but closer contact makes the observer soon realize that babies have a sense of security. For instance, they might cry if one stranger approaches and smile if a different one comes near. A bit like animals, they have instincts.

Well, they are animals and so are we adults, so that should not come as much of a revelation either. Babies need warmth and softness and something akin to a nest. Of course, parents have realized this for thousands of generations and the way we have dealt with that need for thousands of years is by wrapping babies up and laying them in cribs or cots.

In other words somewhere safe and secure. Even though they do not know it, they have a feeling that they are in a walled enclosure where animals cannot see them easily and they cannot drop out of either. a crib or cot allows a baby to sleep comfortably as if it is hidden from danger.

However, as they get older, they become more adventurous, which is precisely why they require ‘walls’ around them, which make them feel safe and frustrated at the same time. This is obviously the time when toddlers are at their most vulnerable, because they want to explore but are not very aware of the dangers of the world. Every parent worries about their children wandering off.

Once a child can walk and climb is the time when it has to be removed from a crib that is off the ground to a safer bed, from which they cannot clamber out and fall.

These beds are frequently known as toddlers’ beds, but now the sides have to be high enough for them not to be able to escape from – a sort of pen.

Some cribs can be converted and although they may seem more expensive at first, they can be cheaper in the long run.

It is one of the most hazardous times for babies and one of the most worrying times for recent parents too. Putting the toddler’s pen in the parents’ room is an easy trap to fall into, because it can make the eventual necessary break moving the child from the parents’ room to the nursery all the more a problem when the time ultimately comes.

However, that time will come when the child has to sleep in a room of its own either with other siblings or not, but the fact of the matter is that parents need their sleep too so that they are alert enough to both earn money to support their family and be awake enough to watch over their brood.

Owen Jones, the writer of that piece, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now concerned with the satin baby blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

How To Pick The Best Material For Your Sewing Project

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

Up until fifty years ago, the vast majority of women knew how to sew. All the women that I knew as a child sewed and knitted and manufactured some of the clothes for me and my four brothers. When I was eight or nine, I and each other child in my class was taught the fundamentals of knitting and before I went off to college, my mother taught me how to take up my jeans, sew on patches and repair my clothes.

Unfortunately, sewing, knitting and repairing clothes has largely died out in the United Kingdom. I now live in Thailand and I do not see much evidence of sewing or knitting here, so I assume that these arts are dying out all over the world among the masses, although I am certain that there are individuals everywhere who still knit and sew.

It is a real shame. If you are going to make your own clothes or furnishings like cushions, pillows or soft toys, it is quite essential that you choose the right fabric for the job. Using the wrong fabric will make your task harder and may even render your work worthless. So here are a few tips on choosing the correct cloth for the task in hand.

The first and most obvious thing to do is look at the suggestions on the pattern you are using and if you are a novice take that advice until you know what you are doing. Regrettably, a lot of people do not read the directions anymore. I can not remember the number of times I have seen someone struggling to assemble something and discovered the directions in the bin with the packaging.

Get to know textiles by examining the fabrics in the shop. Ask questions about fabrics and look at the cloth on the bolt or roll. If the fabric does not look correct on the bolt it probably will not look correct anywhere else either. When you unroll a couple of feet of the bolt, does it lie flat or does it roll up or crumple? Grab a handful and squeeze it. Does it crease easily? Does it feel correct?

Is the fabric fraying on the bolt? If so it will fray whilst you use it too. Look on the bolt for special cleaning or handling directions. Do they suit your requirements?

It is quite a problem to work with satin because it slips easily. T-shirt knit is also a problem because it rolls up on itself. It is almost certainly best to avoid these materials until you gain some experience

Cotton is the best fabric for beginners because it is easy to work with and everyone is very familiar with cotton goods. We know how they should feel and we can tell good, thick heavy cotton from cheap, thin cotton. We also all know that cotton shrinks. Therefore before you cut you cloth. wash it and cut the shrunken cotton fabric. In effect, you have pre-shrunk it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with decorative sofa pillows. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Modern Throw Pillows For Sale.

Ideas For Baby Showers

Friday, July 1st, 2011

Baby showers are well-liked events, particularly in America. A baby shower is usually given or hosted by a friend of the expectant mother, mostly before the birth but occasionally after it as well. The point of the baby shower is to collect presents for the child and its parents, which is why family of the mother find it awkward to organize the baby shower themselves – it seems too much like begging.

If you can get a friend to arrange a baby shower for you or if someone offers to do it, the invitations should be sent out a month or two before the birth day, so that the mother is not in too much discomfort and is not likely to drop the baby during the party.

It is nice to have handmade baby shower invitations. There are two ways that you can do this: either design the invitation card yourself and have it printed out or select a template at the printers. Both ideas give satisfactory results.

If you have the invitations printed to a standard size, you can purchase cheap envelopes at a budget stationery office, but if you go for some weird size, ask the printer to provide the envelopes too.

Standard details like the date, the time, the venue, your name and the baby’s name can all be printed but you will have to write or type the recipient’s name in personally. Add your phone number too so that people can ask questions if they have any. If you would like the party (and the presents) to have a theme, you ought to state that on the invitation. Perhaps the card could be in the same theme too.

In fact, if you want to go down that path, you could download a fitting image off the Internet, say, a scene from Peter Rabbit, and give that to the printer so that they can print that onto your card.

People are very busy these days, so make sure you give your friends at least a month to book you in and get a fitting present for the shower. If you would like to be fairly sure how many people are coming, enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard in with the invitation, so that they can let you know easily.

If you are searching for things to do during the party, you could get the guests to suggest names for your baby and guess the sex or weight of it too. You could use a cross on a chain as a pendant to see if it the movement predicts a boy or girl and how many people get the same movement. You could also discuss themes for the child’s nursery when it is born, one for if it is a boy and one for if it is a boy.

Owen Jones, the writer of that piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the satin baby blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

Making Beautiful Old-Style Quilts

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

One of the fantastic things about sewing quilts is the tradition behind quilt making and the usefulness of the final product. It is really nice to have a hobby that can improve your life by either being functional or by being saleable.

One of the other good things about quilt making is that it is so flexible. If there is more than one way to skin a cat, there are thousands of ways of making a quilt.

Patch work quilts are one of the most beautiful and traditional quilts to use to keep you snug at night. They are also one of the cheapest ways of sewing a quilt, but they are not the easiest of quilts to begin with. Matching all the squares in a patch work quilt is not quite as easy as it looks. The easiest way to start is to buy two large squares of fabric that you like.

However, there is a great tradition in Europe and America of making patch work quilts. The craft of doing this has even become a social gathering in the United States. If you would like to get going sewing patch work quilts, you could join a group if you live in America or you could join a Net group that specializes in constructing quilts. Do a search on line and you will discover what you are looking for.

There is such a lot of choice if you want to create a quilt. For example, you could make the top of the quilt either totally smooth or completely fluffy or completely smooth or a mixture of all or some of them. Then you can have the underside as a extraordinary cloth as well or you could simply use a sheet or preferably something a bit more robust.

If you are thoroughly intimidated by the idea of making a full-size quilt, you could try making a quilt for a baby. Okay, you might not have a baby and you may certainly not be planning having one, but you could make one for the practice and hold onto it to give to a special person in your life who is having a baby or only sell it through a local shop or even eBay.

Once you are confident about constructing and selling quilts for babies’ cots or toddlers’ beds, you could upgrade them a bit and offer to embroider your name and the baby’s name on the quilt. Later still, you could accept orders for custom quilts, manufactured to the requirements of the orderer.

Constructing quilts, particularly babies’ quilts is a decent way of making money from home for people who cannot leave home a lot. People such as work at home mothers and fathers, the elderly and the infirm.

Owen Jones, the writer of that piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with the chenille throw blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

The Traditional Use Of Dairy Produce: Part 3 – Eggs

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

The Basic Preparation Of Foods: Dairy Produce.

EGGS: Part 1

Eggs can be fresh or dried, the latter being only hens’ eggs without the shell and water. Dried egg should be stored in a cool, dry place – not in the fridge! Store eggs for a few days – up to a week – in a cool place away from strong-smelling foods. An egg stand is ideal for this. If the eggs are dirty, wipe them clean – washing will remove the natural oils which help preserve the eggs.

Pickled Eggs: eggs laid in the Spring keep better than those laid in the other seasons. Eggs that will not clean-up, must be rejected. Waterglass or the special preparations should be used. If an egg floats to the surface, use it immediately. Try to maintain the ambient temperature between 2 and 8 C and they should keep for 6 to 9 months.

Preparing Eggs for Cooking: break each egg singly into a cup, before adding it to the other ingredients to ensure it is still fresh. If you wish to separate the white from the yolk, tip the egg back and forth between the two egg shell halves and the white (albumen) will run off. Beat eggs with a whisk or a fork in an appropriately sized bowl, but whip egg whites with a knife on a large plate – a pinch of salt will help.

Raw eggs used to be prescribed for invalids as they are easily digestible, but, this not advisable these days due to the ubiquity of salmonella. One method, presented here for the curious was to strain a beaten egg into a mug and slowly add a cup of hot milk (or tea, coffee or lemon water; add sugar to taste. Sherry was often added too.

Cooking Eggs: eggs should be cooked very slowly because the albumen cooks at a temperature which is lower than that of boiling water and becomes ‘tough’ at higher temperatures. By the same token, if you use raw egg to thicken a sauce and the liquid is allowed to boil, the sauce will ‘curdle’, i.e. the egg will solidify into small specks, spoiling its texture.

Coddling: produces easily digested egg-whites, making it an ideal meal for invalids and children. Lower the eggs into 3″of boiling water; replace the lid and remove from heat. Let it stand for: 7 mins for medium-, 5 mins for soft- and 20 mins for hard-boiled eggs .

Boiling: lower fresh eggs gently into 75mm boiling water with a spoon. Cover and boil gently for 3-3″ mins for soft-, 4-5 mins medium- and 10 mins hard-boiled eggs.

Place in egg cups and tap the shell to crack it, allowing the steam to escape, thus preventing further cooking. For sandwiches, salads etc: boil the egg for 12 mins and plunge into cold water. This allows the shell to be easily removed and prevents a black ring forming around the yolk.

If you want to know more about Welsh food, food in general or cooking eggs in particular, just go over to Traditional Welsh Recipes

Diet Secrets Of The Stars

Monday, June 20th, 2011

The stars always look so marvelous, do they not? Both sorts of stars do. Celebrities as well. OK, we do not see them while they get up in the morning or with a severe hangover, but if we do see them, they always look at the pinnacle of physical fitness and dressed in perfectly tailored clothes. It is their job not just to act and remember their lines but to look good too.

most if not all of them have personal fitness coaches, dietitians and even chefs in order to help them tackle the flab, so it is not really so difficult for them as it is for us, but the penalty for gaining weight is more severe, they might not be offered much more work, which would mean falling out of the limelight and that would be a serious matter for any celebrity.

Therefore, it is not astonishing that most stars have their own favourite tips for staying on top of the weight difficulty that faces most individuals each day of their lives. Here are seven celebrities’ pointers on how they accomplish it.

Jennifer Aniston: follows the 40:30:30 method of counting sorts of foodstuffs. That is:

40% of what she eats has to be slow-burning, low glycaemic foodstuffs like beans, root vegetables (like swede and potatoes), dark-green leaves (like cabbage) and fruit (like bananas).

30% of what she eats has to be lean-to-fatless protein such as skinless chicken, tofu, turkey, ostrich, veal, fish and low fat dairy produce.

30% of what she eats must contain essential fatty acids such as oily fish, nuts, seeds and olive oil.

Kate Hudson; placed on 60 pounds during her pregnancy but was determined to lose it especially after the media was so cruel to her about her size. She did it in four months by concentrating on eating only high protein, but small meals often and training rigorously. This sounds a lot like the Atkins diet, but it worked for her and now she looks better than ever.

Oprah Winfrey: uses a similar plan to Kate Hudson’s. She works out at least five days a week and tries to consume predominantly fish, nuts, fruit, beans, seeds, chicken and vegetables. She is especially cautious to avoid, but not completely cut out, white sugar and white flour and last but not least, she does not eat anything after 19:00 hours.

Gwyneth Paltrow: has a regimen that is comparable again. She too avoids white sugar and flour, but follows a macrobiotic diet of vegetables, brown rice and very lean meat and fish. She does not eat any dairy produce at all and does yoga every day.

Madonna: also does yoga every day and follows a macrobiotic diet of organic vegetables, brown rice and fatless protein. She has given up junk food entirely.

Claudia Schiffer: will eat only fruit before noon and after noon she adds salad and steamed vegetables to her diet, She drinks lots of tomato juice and herbal tea and is particularly fond of black grapes.

Christie Brinkley: is a strict vegetarian, who has also eradicated all forms of junk food from her diet. She snacks on sweet potatoes and if she puts on a couple of pounds, she goes on a crash diet of fruit juices.

Do not forget that these celebrities have paid and almost certainly still are paying thousands of dollars for this advice, so if one of these outline diets appeals to you, do some more research and test it out free of charge. It works for them as you can clearly see.

If you would like to know more about Welsh food, food in general or the essentials for a healthy diet in particular, just go over too Traditional Welsh Recipes

Crocheted Babies Blankets – The Perfect Gift For Babies

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Whether your friends, the parents-to-be, are going to be parents for the first time or the n-th time, it is difficult to know that what you are buying for the child is not going to be a duplicate. An added complication is that not all parents-to-be want to know the sex of their new baby, so it is fairly hard to get a gift for the baby shower or Christening (or whatever) and still feel sure that it will be valued.

However, there are some gifts that are unlikely to be duplicated and without having to spend an total fortune, a crocheted baby’s blanket is one of them. If you have already gained the skills to create a crocheted baby’s blanket, then all well and good, otherwise you have two alternatives: you can either learn and thereby augment your number of skills or you can commission one.

Forty years ago and before, most women knew how to knit and crochet and knew about yarns and threads and knitting needles. Regrettably, the parents of the Seventies either did not learn these skills or did not pass them on in general, but knitting and crocheting are making quite a comeback now in the early Twenty-First Century. People are proud to own hand-made objects like crocheted baby’s blankets.

One of the benefits of using modern yarns and materials is that the dyes are likely to be less hazardous than before, but you will still have to buy them from trustworthy suppliers to be absolutely sure.

Another benefit of a handmade device like a crocheted baby’s blanket is that is probable to become a family heirloom. A handmade crocheted baby’s blanket is certain to be treasured because it was handmade and not shop-bought. It is even better if the maker’s name and the baby’s name are embroidered on it as well.

If you are a greenhorn to crocheting a baby’s blanket, there are a few items that you have to bear in mind with regard to the baby’s safety.

Firstly, choose a tightly-knit pattern so that the baby’s fingers and toes cannot get snarled up in the blanket. Secondly, the cloth or yarn should be soft, colour-fast, non-toxic and machine washable. Babies’ blankets get dirty quite often, so it really is a godsend to have a baby’s blanket that is machine washable.

Thirdly, take the time to enquire of the parents-to-be if they have a colour scheme or theme in mind for the nursery. Fourthly, the blanket must be the correct size. If your crocheted baby’s blanket is to be used in a cot, then it should be the exact same size of the cot for safety reasons. If it is to be a general blanket, then you can make it larger so that it can be functional for longer.

Lastly, but not least crucial is to take into account that babies teethe, so do not integrate anything into your handmade crocheted baby’s blanket if there is a chance of the baby choking on it, beads are a definite no-no.

Owen Jones, the author of that article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the chenille throw blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

Age Related Norms Changing Society

Friday, April 29th, 2011

The post Second World War years were an age of prosperity for numerous countries, but particularly the United States because their plant and infrastructure was undamaged and they earned a great deal of money furnishing the products the remainder of the world needed to rebuild their countries.

America was working flat-out in the Fifties and early Sixties and salaries and national wealth kept increasing. A equivalent feeling of goodwill was evident in many other countries, but it was relief that the war was finished and gratitude that their lives and cities were being rebuilt. This feeling of international joy and plentiful employment also led to a boom in babies.

The so-called Baby Boomers were being born in their millions into a joyful time where money and employment was everywhere to be had. Education was seized upon not just by these youngsters but also by many returning service men and women, who wished to assume a bigger role in that bright new world that was stretching out before them.

With a better education and the mood of liberation that the ending of the War brought about, the Civil Rights Movement began to thrive particularly in America were non-Caucasians were still being segregated.

Although it was not known as Apartheid, segregation is just the English word for the same concept and masses of people were starting to find it intolerable and not only non-Whites either.

Individuals after the War were far less respectful of Authority, Governments and the Old Ruling Orders for several reasons. It was these individuals who got us all into wars in the first place and it was these people who were denying Civil Rights. Even if they did not condone segregation they did not do much to stop it.

As Marx or Engels said, nobody gives up power, it has to be seized.

The people alive in the Fifties and Sixties were unlike any generation that had ever preceded them. They had money, education, a healthy disrespect for authority and a higher percentage of people who had been abroad than ever before in the past.

Even if they were carrying weapons at the time. This was a heady cocktail and civil disobedience raged all over the world from America to Europe to Thailand in the Sixties and Seventies.

The new order articulated itself in music and rock and roll was its name. Never before had youngsters had their own music and they had the technology to reproduce it cheaply, the freedom to transmit it and the money to buy it. A whole new industry was started in the Fifties – record labels aimed at kids.

Now that the Baby Boomers are getting old, they are breaking other norms as well. Boomers are inquiring why the are expected to feel old at sixty-five and quit work. At sixty-five these days people often still have twenty years left to live and if the past is anything to go by, they will not merely roll over and die on this one either.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with the cause of macular degeneration. If you want to know more, please visit our site at Macular Degenerative Disease

Thoughts On Baby Gift Baskets

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Are you going to give a baby shower soon? Or have you recently been invited to one and you are not certain what to do? If so, you will be expected to give a gift to the baby to help welcome him or her into the world. This is fine, but a great deal of people, especially single men, ask themselves what it is precisely that a baby so urgently needs.

If you fall into that category or if you want to take a scatter-gun approach to giving a present in the hope that something will be of use, then you could consider procuring the baby a baby gift basket. You see, a baby gift basket contains a lot of small objects or big objects or a mixture of the two. Whatever you can come up with or afford really.

There are two ways of getting a baby gift basket. You can either buy one ready-made or you can buy a basket and pick-and-mix the contents yourself. So, let us suppose that you are going to avoid duplication and fill your own basket.

First the basket. A traditional wicker basket like the ones they show on toffee tins, in which a maid is carrying eggs is pretty, but also pretty costly. You could get a plastic version, but maybe the box that the gifts are in is not as important as the gifts themselves. You could make your own by lining and wrapping a suitably-sized box and finishing it with a bow.

The contents. What do babies need? Or are you going to put some items in there for the parents too? If you are going to add a couple of objects for the parents as well, I will leave that up to you as you know them better than I do, I would imagine.

What can you get for the baby then? Something instructive is a must; something to occupy the baby’s attention, perhaps like a mobile or a fancy abacus to string across the pram. How about music? Brahm’s Lullaby is excellent, with or without voices, in German or in English, but get it sung by a choir or a solo, but professionally-trained singer – not Lady Gaga.

Whilst selecting music remember that by the time the baby can understand the words, the CD will have been lost, scratched or worn out. Go for peaceful music, classical is best in this case.

Other objects that always come in useful are bibs, teething rings, baby beakers and a small plate or dish. I do not think it is a good idea to do to get shampoos and soaps, it is better to let mum purchase them or you may be blamed for allergic reactions and dandruff. However, talcum powder is a fairly safe bet, but do not buy anything strongly perfumed.

Personalized bedding is a good idea. If you purchase a cot blanket, try to get one the same size as the cot for safety reasons. A lovely touch is to have the baby’s monogram or initials embroidered on it. That does not work well for clothing, because kids grow out of them, but it is fantastic for quilts and pillow cases.

Buy the bedding and ask (or pay) someone to do the embroidery for you. The child will grow out of the cot, but the blanket can then be used as a comforter. Embroidered pillow cases have a similarly long life.

Some individuals give sweets and biscuits, but personally I am not in favour of helping someone to rot their teeth, encouraging a sweet tooth or overweight babies. A decent bottle of wine though is another matter, but you will have to take advice on whether it will be at its peak in twenty years time. Good Port is a safe bet. Spirits do not mature in a bottle.

Owen Jones, the writer of that piece, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now concerned with the satin baby blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.