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Archive for March, 2015

Top Ten Flowers in the World

March 11th, 2015

Among several of God’s creations, flowers are the most beautiful. They give a fresh look and fragrance wherever they are placed. They can symbolize many emotions and values like peace, harmony and love.

Modern scientific advances in floriculture have resulted in evolution of thousands of types of flowers, with different colours and fragrance.

Here is a list of the ten most beautiful flowers in the world:

  • Sakura-Cherry Blossom: Sakura or Cherry blossoms are rated as one of the loveliest flowers in the world. These are a species of flowering plants that do not produce fruit. Rather they are used for ornamental purposes because of their beauty and wonderful scent. In Japan, they use the flowers and leaves as edible items. There are species that produce fruit also.
  • Canna: It is not a true lily but belong to the genus of 19 species of lilies. They are easy to grow in most parts of the world. This is also an agricultural plant, being a rich source of starch. The plant grows tall and flowers are of yellow, red and orange colour.
  • Bird of Paradise (Sterlitzia): It is native to South Africa. The name is after the English Queen Charlotte. It grows well in warm and sunny climes. It is an ornamental plant and official flower of Los Angeles city. Flowers resemble birds, hence the name. They grow slowly but last long.
  • Hydrangea: It is native to Asia and North and South America. Some are small tress and some grow up to 1-3 m tall. Trees can be either evergreen or deciduous. They are usually white in colour but can also be red, blue, and pink, dark purple and light purple. The flowers resemble pom poms.
  • Calla Lily:  Calla is native to cool temperate regions of North hemisphere in Asia, Europe and America. They prefer temperate or rainy climate. They are usually white coloured with a yellow spadix that measures to 90 mm in length. There are also pink and purple versions by cross breeding. They are also the national flower of the island country of Saint Helena.
  • Colorado Columbine: Grows in the high regions of the Rocky Mountain. Only available to those who climb the 14,000 foot high mountain. But plucking the flower accrues a fine of $5-$50.
  • Lily Of The Valley: The source of many legends, it is a delicate and fragrant flower. Some believe that Lily flowers are the tears of Mother Mary transformed into flowers, so it is also called as ‘Our Lady’s tears’. Another legend says that the flowers emerged from the blood spilt by Saint George as he battled the dragon.
  • Black Eyed Susan: It is a cheery wild flower and is a perennial as well as perfect backdrop for your garden. The yellow petals and dark brown centre make them easy to spot.
  • Bleeding Heart: These angelic blossoms are a welcome addition to any garden. Flowers are pink, white or red and bloom in April to June
  • Blue Bells: Most European countries feature large swaths of these blue bell blossoms highlighting the spring season. Legend has it that they were named by 19th century romantic poets who linked them to regret and solitude.

These are some of the most beautiful flowers in the world. There are online stores that can get any of these flowers delivered in most parts of the world.

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How to Gift Baby Shower Hampers

March 11th, 2015

One can decorate baskets to give the new mum at her baby shower. Celebrating baby shower is a great way to congratulate a new mum and help her prepare for bringing up the new born.

One can do well by gifting a baby shower hamper based on a theme.  Especially, if the baby shower itself has a theme, one can incorporate it into the baby shower gift hamper.

Here are a few tips for creating baby shower hampers:

  • Choosing the Basket:  Select a basket, which complements your requirements. If you can afford a big budget, consider spending a little extra on beautiful wire baskets or decorative, hand crafted wicker baskets. You can give the recipient, a basket which they can use for a long time after the baby shower party, by selecting a sturdy and handsome one. Also, remember to select a basket that is large enough to hold all the goodies you have selected to gift the new mom. If you pack small items in a large basket, they will look lost, over whelmed and paltry. Or else, do something creative like making the basket with your own hands. You can learn how to do one by referring to crafts magazines.
  • Hampers Based On Themes: If the baby shower has a theme, incorporate it into the design of your baby show hamper. For a shower based on the theme of ‘birds’, choose a basket made of natural fibres. Fill it with nature related items like cleaned pine needles and place decorative eggs amidst other gift items. Some things that fits thematically in the gift hampers are egg shaped soaps. Place brooch, comb, barrette and bird shaped paper weights inside the hamper.

Instead, if the baby shower has a beach theme, the contents of your gift hamper will be different. This makes for an excellent gender-neutral gift hamper. Fill your basket with sea shells and some green ribbons to resemble sea weed. To further adhere to the theme, replace woven wicker baskets by beach pails. Try and get metal pails from crafts shops and paint them attractively in pastel shades. Fill hamper with sea shell shaped cookies, marzipan and chocolates.

  • Gender Neutral Themes: If the gender of the baby is already known, it is easy to go forward with pink and blue decorations. For a gender neutral theme, experiment with the colour palette and choose colours that do not fit the boyish or girlish stereotype. A charming and inexpensive way to decorate a hamper is using colourful ribbons. Just thread a few satin ribbons along the edges or around the handles of their basket. You can include pink and blue along with other pastels like buttercup yellow, moss green and lavender.

Decorate with silk or paper flowers. Buy ornamental butterflies and bees from local crafts shops and keep alongside the flowers. The decoration of the baby shower basket can be made complete with stars and other celestial objects. You can wind silver ribbons around the basket and fill it with moons and stars. Such ornaments can be found at online crafts shores that stock such Christmas decorations, the year round.

  • Baby Items: Fill basket with baby items. These may include stuffed toys, powder, lotions, ointments, diapers, teething rings, bibs and baby clothes. Arrange items carefully according to a colour scheme.

These are some ideas for baby shower gift hampers. Get hampers delivered by a reliable courier if you cannot do it yourself.

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Tips on making the perfect sponge cake

March 11th, 2015

Cake baking is a vital part of British and Irish cuisine. We are ardent bakers, who are most interested in baking the lightest of cakes. The sign of a good baker is mostly his creation of a light and airy sponge cake.

This has resulted in many myths surrounding the baking of a sponge cake. As such, many are deterred by the prospect of making a good sponge cake. But here are a few simple tips to make the perfect sponge cake:

  • Groundwork:

Before you start out with mixing ingredients, it is wise to measure and keep ingredients ready so that you don’t waste too much time at the procedure for mixing. You can prevent over mixing the cake by working quickly. Also, if you waste too much time in weighing ingredients after starting to cook, the cake batter will start losing air.

  • Preparing Cake Tins:

You need to grease tins and line the bottom with parchment paper. Doing this in advance makes it simple to fill in the cake mix. Less time spent in the kitchen for steps like preparing tins will result in a lighter cake.

  • Preparing Oven:

Always pre-heat the oven for saving time. Additionally, arrange the shelves in advance since most sponge cakes do well to be baked in the middle shelf.  This is not necessary if you have an ultra modern fan oven, which enables you to cook the cakes, keeping them anywhere.

  • Temperature:

It is vital to keep all ingredients at room temperature. For instance, cold eggs may not whip easily and will not contain as much air as a slightly warm one.

  • Sifting Flour:

Sift flour at least three times to remove lumps and aerate it. This enables you to create a light sponge cake. Always do sifting of flour into the cake mix or add baking powder and sifting thereafter. Air is added to the mix by sifting and makes it light.

  • Beating The Mixture:

When you start beating the mix, utilize electric beaters at high speed to make air pockets. Now to keep it airy and light, downgrade speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes or till the beaters leave a ribbon trail when you lift them. Avoid beating for too long as it will result in making the mix thin and also lose its airiness.

  • Adding Dry Ingredients: 

During the process of adding dry ingredients, make use of a large metal spoon to slowly add the mixture till well combined. Avoid using a wooden spoon: it is heavy and thick and can cause the mixture to squander air.

  • The Butter:

Ingredients of cake must be at temperature, but butter or the baking spread you use must be slightly warm (not hot). Butter must be soft but able to hold together. If butter is too soft, it will become oily and the cake, dense and heavy. If butter is cold, it will take a long time to mix in with eggs or sugar and result in over mixing and a heavy cake.

These are some tips for making a perfect, light and airy sponge cake. Above all, enjoy the baking process and get cakes delivered to the doorstep of your loved ones far away from you. Nothing could make for a better way to say you care!

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CHOCOLATE GIFT HAMPERS: AN EASY WAY TO PLEASE YOUR CHILDREN ON CHRISTMAS

March 10th, 2015

Christmas is the most sacred event of the entire christens community. It is celebrated with great zeal and interest at the end of every year. In most of the countries the weather is quite cold and heavy snow fall is also considered as the characteristic of the Christmas. People make snowmen, play with snowballs and decorate their homes and shops. Although, the event of Christmas is for everyone and for each age group, but it can be easily noticed that this event carries huge importance for the children.

 No doubt, Christmas brings with it a lot of happiness and joy for the children as it brings with it the winter vacations on which every kid is so much happy. On the holy event of Christmas markets and shops are offering special discounts, so parents buy new clothes and different toys for their children at this holy event. Children receive gifts in the form of toys and different gift hampers from their elders. They are taken to parks, museums and various other places of fun and amusement by their parents. Also the event of Christmas is important for the children because it is associated with the Santa clause.

Santa clause is the famous character of different tales. Many people believe on the stories of the Santa clause that brings with him different toys for the children who remain very pious and showed good behavior during the whole year. God knows these stories are true or not, but they are the source of excitement and fun for the children. Mothers used to warn their children about not receiving the gifts from the Santa clause on their bad behavior and also create a sense of obedience in them by creating the wish of getting a gift from the Santa clause in them. Parents used to place the gifts on their bed or beside the pillow of their children while they are sleeping and in the morning tell them that Santa came in the night during their sleep and place these gifts on their bed.

So, this event surely contains an element of joy and excitement for the children. They are also expecting gifts from their elders on this occasion. It becomes quite difficult for the parents and the elders of the family to decide what should be presented to children in the event of Christmas.

The gift presented should possess two elements in it. First, it should be liked by the children and they should feel happy while receiving the gift. Secondly it should be cheap and easily available. The best in this sense are the Christmas chocolate gifts.  Chocolates are simply a treat for the children, they like each and every form of chocolate. Chocolates are also available easily on any store these days, even a variety of chocolate hampers are available on the web stores these days like the clypso chocolate box, nibles delight hamper or the deluxe gift hamper. These hampers contain in them variety of chocolates which are packed in a very attractive manner. When children receive these hampers then they feel so happy and delightful. Their happiness is evident from their face and eyes.

Children are considered as the most delicate creation of god, they are compared to the fragile flowers in their nature. They can easily get hurt and also it is easy to make them with a little effort. To make their faces sparkle and happy is our responsibility and especially on the sacred occasion of Christmas, their happiness should be given extreme importance. Christmas chocolate gift hampers are one of the ways to bring a smile on their innocent faces.

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CHOCOLATE GIFT HAMPERS: ADDING MUCH TO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

March 10th, 2015

Several occasions and events come every year. Different kinds of religious events like Easter and many other modern festivals like mother’s day, father’s day constitutes a year. Several sports events are also important for some of the people. Among all these events the highly awaited event is Christmas. As the year starts people start waiting for it, although it comes at the end of each year.  The Christian community all over the world celebrates this holy occasion during the end of December. Christmas is celebrated specifically on the twenty fifth of December, every year.

There are several reasons due to which people wait for this event most utterly throughout the year. It is the holy occasion celebrated in memory of the birth of Christ. People consider this as a day of fulfillment of all their wishes. It is the most honorable event in a life of a Christian that comes every year to please him and to make him realize that he has some association with his god. This is a day on which the people of the common locality are gathered in a church and greet each other, this create an environment of brother hood in them.

At the end of December different shops and markets offer special discount offers on their products. This is because they want to include everyone in the joy and celebration of Christmas even if they are financially weak. Christmas is an occasion on which every place is decorated. The markets, shops and even people decorate their homes. There are lots of ornamental objects which can be made use on the night of Christmas.

This is an event carrying a lot of vacations with it; many people who are living far from their families for the purpose of their earning their livelihood or for the purpose of gaining education are given a chance to spend some time with families. It is a usual practice by many companies, school and universities to not to give any task or assignment in these holidays because it is considered as a time of celebration and glee. Children are especially happy because they buy new clothes; they are also waiting for the gifts of Santa clause. Every child is waiting or dreaming that on this Christmas he will be seeing the Santa clause. On the whole this is an event of joy and celebration.

People visit each other place and present gifts to each other. Many types of gifts can be given on this occasion. Flowers, decoration items and other such stuffs are the examples of gift items presented on the event of Christmas. People now a day prefers to gift chocolates on this day. Now a day’s market offers special Christmas chocolates that are specially given on this day to their loved ones. Especially if you are going to select a gift for someone who is having children at their home than Christmas chocolates are the best gift. These are also available on the online markets and web stores, who are offering a range of delicious, beautifully decorated and stunning chocolate hampers that can be selected as a best gift option on the day of Christmas.

You can select any one of them and then you can place your order. These web stores also provide the services of home delivery and provide the order on time and date you have asked for. This is a convenient mode of shopping and these web stores are really becoming popular these days.

Christmas is surely a great event and should be celebrated with great love and attention. It is an event that brings the different family members and friends together by giving an opportunity in the form of holidays. To exchange gifts is a very good practice on this holy event that adds a lot to the overall celebrations of this event.

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