The history of wicker is a long one – ancient civilizations used it for baskets and seating, the Romans took it to Britain, and Portuguese traders carried it with spices and silks from India and distributed it throughout Europe. It fell out of favor around 1750 but was revived during the Victorian era when its smooth surfaces were thought to be more sanitary than upholstered furniture. This Victorian obsession with cleanliness and health was bolstered by the production of rattan wicker furniture in America beginning in the 1840s.

The frame: Check the frame carefully before buying, especially with an older piece of wicker. Experts can repair damage to the woven part of a wicker piece rather easily, but repairing a frame is a major job.

You may find antique wicker pieces with hardwood frames, but most frames today are made of either solid core rattan (preferable) or aluminium. If you’re buying a metal frame, welded is stronger than bolted.

Construction materials: Rattan is the most common material in “wooden” wicker pieces. It is the trunk of a climbing palm that is very long and thin, like a vine. The vine is native to the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and grows to lengths of up to 600 feet. Because rattan is a solid core plant, it makes sturdy furniture. Treated rattan pieces can be used in outdoor spaces that are protected from direct sun and rain, such as screened in porches or covered gazebos. Bamboo is a large tropical grass that commonly grows to over 100 feet. It is easy to identify because of the nodes along its surface and its hollow stem. Willow is more commonly used in Europe than in North America. The wood is light and durable and, because it retains its natural moisture, it is long lasting and easily woven. Fiberglass and resins are synthetic materials that are formed into long narrow vine-like pieces and woven into wicker furniture. Because dyes are often mixed right in with the resins, the color of such furniture is not subject to the same peeling and flaking that a painted piece is. Its durability and ease of care have given this type of wicker a permanent place in outdoor decorating.

Where to use it: Any non-resin wicker piece that is marked as “indoor use” only has probably been coated with a clear lacquer finish that will prevent scratching but will not provide adequate protection from the outdoor elements. Use it as advised – indoors. Limited exposure wicker furniture, intended for use on screened-in or covered outdoor areas, has additional finish layers. Highest quality pieces will have leather wrapped joints on the frame. All-weather wicker can be divided into two categories: loom-woven and synthetic. Loom woven wicker pieces use natural materials such as rattan, but are dipped in resin emulsions to form a moisture resistant shield. Synthetic wicker pieces, made from fiberglass or resin, often contain UV inhibitors that repel the damaging effects of the sun, harsh weather and temperature changes. Whether natural or synthetic, all-weather wicker will likely have aluminium frames. Even all-weather pieces should be put in storage for the winter months if you live in a cold climate.

With this information, you should be able to choose the wicker furniture that suits your intended purpose.

About the Author

Debbie Rodgers owns and operates Paradise Porch, and is dedicated to helping people create outdoor living spaces that nurture and enrich them. Visit her on the web at www.paradiseporch.com and get a free report on “Eight easy ways to create privacy in your outdoor space”. Mail to debbie@paradiseporch.com

2. Inform your significant other when you become “unpredictable.” No one goes through life the same person. We all make shifts and changes. Frankly sometimes we may be fairly clueless about what is happening and where we are going. Those times may be very intense and we do some silly things or make some downright dumb decisions. Life can get very squirrelly and unpredictable. (I have a favorite phrase: Gold is refined through intense heat.) Growth in an individual, marriage or family often is accompanied by a little chaos. Welcome these shifts, for there is a part of you searching for something better/different/richer/deeper, but for heaven’s sake, inform your partner of what you are experiencing. Say, “I really don’t know what is going on in me right now, but I’m moving in a different direction. Be a little patient with me while I figure this out. I might do some silly things, but my intent is not to harm you or scare you. Accept some of my wondering and wandering and please be there for me? I may need to run some of this by you every so often!”

3. Make sure your words match the message. Mean what you say and say what you mean. When your partner hears one thing in your words but your tone of voice, body language and facial expressions are really saying something else, you open the relationship to some crazy making days. Which message is she to believe? This can waste a tremendous amount of energy and she learns not to trust part of what you are saying. Here’s a very simple but common example. You are getting ready to go to a formal dinner. Your wife comes to you and says, “How do I look?” (And she’s wearing a dress you don’t particularly like and her hair is pulled back in a way that turns you off.) Not to spoil the evening you enthusiastically say, “You look great.” You don’t really mean it and a part of her knows you really don’t mean it. But, you leave it at that. This might not seem like a big deal – we all have done something similar – but if trust is shaky to begin with, it is even shakier now. Here’s how to match the words with the nonverbal: “I think you are a beautiful person. I want you to know that. I love you dearly and it will be wonderful to have you by my side tonight. Others will see your beauty. (As you say this, you look into her eyes as you put your hands around her waist.) She’s not concerned so much with how she looks but is expressing a need for affirmation. She’s not talking about her dress or hair, but about wanting to know the evening is going to go just fine. You respond to the real message. You can take this one step further, if you like. At some point you might bring up her need for affirmation and talk about that. Ask her is there is anything you can say or do so that need is met. Trust is awareness of the intent beneath the obvious message and responding to that!

4. Believe the other person is competent. I hear this phrase very often: “But, I don’t want to hurt him.” A couple things are at play here. First, she may not have the skill of confronting the other with the truth in a way that brings reconciliation and understanding. She believes truth telling is destructive or entails some sort of drama. Neither is true. The truth is never destructive and can be conveyed in loving ways. (With that said, what we believe to be the truth may indeed be a distorted perception that fits our personal needs.) Or, she may see the other person as a wimp; someone she believes cannot handle rigorous personal confrontation. She doesn’t trust that the other person has the internal strength or stamina or skills to be in a relationship of mutual respect and equality. The other person picks up on this mistrust and does what he does (feigns inadequacy and incompetence) to avoid the personal confrontation as well. A dance is acted out. Believe and know in your heart that the other person, somewhere and somehow, beneath the games, has the internal strength and capacity to handle anything. Such trust builds trust in the other person and begins to pervade the relationship. “Hey, she thinks I can handle this! Hmmmm, this is mighty good! I CAN engage her and be truly intimate!”

5. Be very very careful of keeping secrets. If he knows there is an elephant in the room and doesn’t talk about it, the elephant takes up tremendous space in the relationship. It takes energy for him to walk around it. She may not see the elephant but knows he is bending his neck to look around something. She will be curious, mildly disturbed, have feelings but no words to wrap around them, might wonder if something is wrong with her or struggle with trusting her intuition (her intuition KNOWS an elephant is there.) And, when we can’t trust the messages that come from within us, we find it very difficult to trust the messages of the other person. Secrets demand tremendous energy and erode trust. The relationship is doomed never to experience wall-banging intimacy. This is why extramarital affairs are so damaging. She is not so much concerned about him having sex with someone else as she is about the betrayal, lack of trust, the secrets and deception that are crazy making and energy draining. Now, please. I’m not saying that you sit your partner down and divulge the 23 secrets of your illicit past behaviors. If you have resolved those, i.e. forgiven yourself, understand those behaviors, learned from them and were able to use them to make the internal shifts necessary for your personal development, they do not qualify as an elephant. Hopefully, in the course of growing intimacy in your relationship you may want to share some of those events as you disclose to your partner where you were and where you are now. You do so without emotional charge. However, if a secret takes up room, i.e. still has an emotional charge and holds you back from disclosing more and more of yourself in the growing stages of intimacy, you have a problem that needs to be addressed with your partner.

6. Let YOUR needs be known – loudly. Be a little – no, be a lot – self-centered. (Be self-centered, but not selfish!) Here’s a problem I run into almost every day. He is backing away (perhaps attached to work, another person, etc.). She feels the trust and intimacy eroding, is scared and wants to “win him back.” So she begins an all out effort to “work on the marriage.” She invites him to do so as well. He may reluctantly agree. She blasts full throttle ahead trying to “be nice” and meet every need he ever said he had. She’s going to “fill his tank with goodies.” Doesn’t work. Her eyes are riveted on him. He feels “smothered” or maybe even resentful: “Why is she doing this NOW!” She’s hopeful, but eventually that turns to resentment. Her underlying motive – if I meet his needs, he will feel good and meet mine – just doesn’t work. It’s perceived as manipulation, which it is. Of course, he doesn’t say anything. After all, how do you get angry with someone who is so “nice and caring?” Trust disintegrates under a blanket of quiet niceties. Start with your eyes focused on YOU. What do YOU need? Explore your personal need system. Dig beneath the surface. And then say to him: “I need…x, y and z. I would like to talk to you about them. I would like us to work out a way so my needs are met. Are you open to that?” He is empowered to say yes or no. Or, he may say, “What about my needs?” You respond, “I am very interested in hearing what is important to you, certainly.” Have you ever been around someone who stated clearly what they needed/wanted? Didn’t you respect that person? Because you knew where he stood, and therefore where you stood, didn’t that interaction move toward a trusting relationship?

7. State who YOU are – loudly. It is very sad to see those in relationships of emotional investment hold back from letting the other person know who they really are. You build trust in a relationship by entrusting your SELF to the other person. This sounds easy but I find it difficult for most to pull off. Most of us have a difficult time declaring our SELF. For one thing, if you’re like most of us, you haven’t given much thought to what it is that makes YOU truly YOU. Don’t you feel like you glide through life on autopilot, focusing on tasks, goals, accomplishments, problems and the external realities? Don’t you tend to focus on those things out there or that person out there? You’re concerned about what he is thinking, how he is responding to you, whether he likes you, whether he will be an obstacle and where he will fit in your life? Your conversations may be pleasant but fairly superficial and bluntly, boringly inane. You converse about things/relationships/events out there. You are reluctant to share your thoughts, values, and impressions or take a stand. This doesn’t destroy trust. But it doesn’t create it either. And, if you do take a stand it may serve the purpose of protecting you or entrenching you as you react against someone. This more often than not creates trust barriers. Take some time to reflect on your standards. What are your standards for a relationship? What standards do you hold for yourself? What do you order your life around? What are the 4 top values in your life? What are some themes that you live by? What are you known for? And then…begin letting significant people in your life know. They will respect you. They will know you more deeply. They will thank you for the opportunity to know you. They will see you as a person of character. They will trust you. They can count on you. They know exactly what is behind and within you.

8. Learn to say NO! Sometimes you need to say NO! Often it is crucial to say NO! Saying NO sets boundaries around you that protects you from being hurt or venturing into territory that will be destructive to your heart and soul. You draw a line. You stop tolerating that which drains energy and makes you less than YOU. You refuse to allow the destructive behaviors of others to destroy you. You build a moat around the core of your life. You do this by informing the other person of what they are doing. You request they stop. If they don’t stop, you demand they stop. If they don’t stop you walk away without a snide remark, eye-roll or comment. To some this seems harsh, but saying NO is RESPECTED. Fear is the basis of mistrust. If you fear that someone will hurt you and believe you have no recourse but to endure that hurt, fear will prevail. How can you trust when you are in fear? Saying NO, protecting yourself, sends a message to the other person that you will not live in fear. This usually triggers a response of respect from the other person. After all, if you can protect yourself and refuse subjugation to that which is destructive, will not the other person come to trust you and see you as a person who just might protect him/her from harm as well?

9. Charge Neutral. When your significant other expresses something powerfully, charge neutral. Most of us are afraid of strong feelings or points of contention in a relationship. I commonly hear people respond by defending themselves (to a perceived attack), explaining themselves, counter-attacking, shutting down, or walking away. Of course, the relationship remains stuck in this quagmire of mistrust and fear. Rather than reacting and having your feelings flowing all over the place or shutting down, practice charging neutral. Communicate calmness, not only in your tone of voice but also in how you carry your body. Don’t speak with a charge to your voice. Control your voice! Say what you must say, state the truth and do it directly and calmly. You can do this, once you master your fears. It will dramatically change the flow of the relationship. You will be able to point out something big, without making a big deal out of it. You will be in control of you. This not only feels great, but your partner trusts that you won’t fly or fall apart. You will experience your personal power. This makes you very attractive. Don’t people really trust someone who knows their personal power and how to use it for the welfare of themselves and others? Your partner will love the fact that she can trust you consistently to operate from your “quiet center,” remain engaged, not back down and speak the truth with conviction and calmness.

10. Dig into the dirt. Relationships of emotional investment, by their nature, bring trials, tribulations, fears, chaos, turmoil, change, stretching and growth. They become the grist from which your life is shaped and formed. Be fearless when faced with turmoil, upset, crisis, questions, and fears. When the time is right, seek them out. Move toward the frightening unknown. Dig into the dirt of your relationship and uncover the treasures. Do you really TRUST that this can happen? The purpose of your relationship is not to make you happy. Do you realize this? Happiness may be an outcome, but your other is given to you to move you to where you really want to be. Obstacles, trials and moments of pain are given as lessons on which you intentionally write the script of your life individually and together. Embrace the difficult. Trust that in this embracing you will find more of your true self. Trust that you are given the resources and capacity to face what you and your significant other are to face. Once you are able to believe and trust these ultimate purposes, trusting your significant other will be that much more easy.
Dr. Robert Huizenga, The Infidelity Coach, has helped hundreds of couples over the past two decades heal from the agony of extramarital affairs and survive infidelity. Visit his website at: http://www.break-free-from-the-affair.com/cmd.php?ad=139627

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A Large amount of players each and every week prefer to use identical lotto numbers; invariably these are memorable dates, which in some lotteries can only cover part of any possible lotto choices.

Being the person to decide on those winning lotto numbers is by nature something every dedicated player wishes they could do and as human beings, we all possess a natural bias against anything random, we like some form of control and patterns that make sense to us all.

Just because a lottery number seems to come up more often; why should it come up again? its virtually impossible to pick any set of numbers that are more or less likely to win. All lotteries are a game of pure chance and every lotto number drawn is only at is hit-or-miss. So the upshot in that respect is – no one number is more random than the next.

If you look at the rules of probability, as one number is drawn the likelihood of your chosen number being drawn afterwards is slightly increased simply because the potential choice is reduced.

If you decide on the same numbers each week, just remember they are nevertheless random numbers and you stand just as much a chance of winning with those same lotto numbers as with a lucky dip selection. Yet, if you use birthday numbers in a lotto draw your prospects of winning the lottery jackpot still remain the same but also your individual prospect of keeping the jackpot to yourself is dramatically reduced because so many other people use birthday numbers in their selections.

Applying the same numbers would mean you will have to play 135,000 times to even get an evens chance of winning. Unfortunately, to win the lottery jackpot you will only have roughly a 1 in 14 million chance of being successful; nevertheless we all reckon it could be us. Does that sound like a good chance; would you be luckier joining a lotto syndicate?

1. The first lesson in safety for online dating beings with your profile. You don’t want to divulge all your personal data in your profile for the world to find. You should only comunicate with the other members through the messaging system of the online dating site. Once you feel more comfortable, you can choose to divulge your private information and possibly even go out on a date. And if you do determine that the individual you are talking to is a weirdo – and it will happen – your personal data is private since you are applying the messaging system of the online dating site.

2. If and when you do make up one’s mind to go out on a date, I would unquestionably not let them come to your house for dinner or any other reason. Not a good idea! and No, you should not even have them pick you up at your house. You can figure out a place to meet so you don’t have to give out your address till you are more comfortable.

3. Another idea is to make the date a double date, perhaps with one of your friends that also is into online dating. This is good for 2 reasons – there’s someone you know with you, and you can also get away with your friend if your date is boring!

4. The first date should never be in seclusion or in a private area. This could get you in a dangerous situation. You don’t really know these people you meet online. A eating place or some public place like a park is a much better idea. It’s always easier to be safe than sorry!

5. You probably shouldn’t drink on the first date. Not that you ever have to, but if you do – just have a few. And don’t have your date get your drink. Get it from the barman or server. And don’t leave your drink alone (like if you goto the bathroom).

6. You should make sure someone (roommate or friend) knows where you’re going or at least when you should be expected back. This way, if something were to happen, if an accident were to happen, or something worse, at least someone will know where you were or when you were supposed to be back.

By holding to these simple rules, you know some tips to keep yourself safe with singles online dating sites. Since you know that you will be safe – you can now have some fun when you go out on your date with your new online partner!

If you want to be a ski instructor, for example, you will more likely settle in one of the small Rocky Mountain towns of Steamboat Springs, Durango or Beaver Creek than in the big city of Denver. You may be in the motion picture/television business where a job awaits you not in Hollywood, but in the burgeoning film capitols along the Carolina coasts in Wilmington, North Carolina (Dawson’s Creek) or Beaufort, South Carolina (The Big Chill, Forest Gump, The Great Santini, Prince of Tides.) Perhaps you’ve taken a job in food technology for a prominent manufacturer, but you won’t be living in Grand Rapids or Battle Creek – chances are you’ll bed down in Hastings, Michigan.

What kind of housing will you find when you arrive? What will the lifestyle be like? And will you be able to adjust from the pace of the big city to the more relaxed, neighborly lifestyle of small town living?

As a renter, you will more likely find yourself living in a small apartment unit or a house than in a large apartment complex. Since apartments are created to meet the demands of a transient population, with turnover expected every six months to a year, a large apartment building would have to generate enough rentals to cover seasonal periods of low rentals, plus attract new renters on a revolving basis. A small town is not likely to have a large enough employer base to attract that number of renters, unless it is a military base or a tourist or coastal town. Instead you will more likely find house rentals, which can be found through local REALTORS®, or large homes which have been subdivided into duplexes, triplexes and quadriplexes. Bed and breakfast inns or boardinghouses will be more common for temporary living arrangements. Gone will be the anonymonity of big city apartment life.

Norman Crampton, author of The 100 Best Small Towns in America, Macmillan, and a veteran of the city-to-town downscale move, has some insights into some adjustments you will want to consider before making the move from a large city to a small town, the first of which is housing. In small towns, people are much more likely to own their own homes or to own rental properties, but the norm is likely to be single-family detached dwellings. While some small towns will mirror state averages in owner-occupied housing, some areas can be significantly higher. For example, in Monroe, Wisconsin 69.3% of homes are owner-occupied, while the state average is $66.7%, but in Mount Pleasant, Texas, owner-occupied housing is 72.3% while state homeownership is 60.9%. Plymouth, New Hampshire, with a large off-campus student population (Plymouth State College,) boasts approximately 45% multifamily housing.

So what is a small town, according to Crampton? A small town is between 5,000 and 15,000 people, with independent social and economic bases and stand-alone economies. For the criteria that he used to select the best towns for living, Crampton included the proportion of residents in the 25-34 age group, people he calls the “young volunteers” and “the new recruits for local leadership.” Also included in his criteria are annual growth rate; per capita income; per capita bank deposits; crime rate; available physicians; public school expenditures per pupil; and percentage of population with a bachelor’s degree or higher ( an indicator of possible employment opportunities.)

Small town living is not just in the logistics, it is also a mindset. Living in a small community knits people together, explaining why some behaviors may come unraveled in a more crowded, faceless environment. Take crime, for example. Everyone knows each other in a small town, so random violence by strangers is relatively rare. Some feel so safe and comfortable that they never lock their doors. Community involvement is another benefit, with volunteerism highly encouraged. Explains Crampton, “Small towns nurture the essential first part of civilization – civility…people don’t honk their horns very much in small towns.”

Will you be able to adjust to less noise, pollution, traffic, crime, loneliness and pressure? Surpisingly, Crampton notes that small town life is not for everyone. It is the small town’s simplicity that may make the difference. Making friends takes time. Along with less noise and hub bub is less excitement, but if you want to concentrate on family values, enjoy the sense of community, enjoy a higher standard of living in terms of affordable housing and services, and slow down the pace of your life, you are a good candidate for small town living.

About the Author

Since 1989 dan the roommate man has helped 1000’s of people find roommates. Need help? Contact him at 800-487-8050 or www.roommateexpress.com

With the hotter time allowing people to host outdoor and reside garden candle care might shift. Of course Arranging candles put to good use outdoors is terrific but nevertheless, what occurs As there is dash or better still what occurs once there is a hefty breeze? One’s candles go out and out and out. It can get truly troublesome, consequently for those windy garden nights candle holders are ideal. candles holder appear in plentiful appearances and measurements simply such as all the other candle. Me personally love the ones that include several lucent patterns as these give off memorable light. The candles holder creates a barrier for some 1 keeping them on and cheerful. One comment of counsel nonetheless, once obtaining candle holders for utilization in the outdoors make certain that those are also no cutouts, otherwise you are back to square one with the Scented Candles going out faster than birthday candles on a 3 year olds birthday celebration. Those should act for the indoors or perhaps quiet after hours though not if there is any whiff? A further option on these nights is to use LED h Should you be ready to give it a go and purchase scented candles have look here.

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And doubtless the impact of our carbon footprint will be about as far down the list of vacation essentials as a xmas cracker after the Christmas holidays.

But last winter, a late snowfall was in the broadsheets and tourists were panicky about the flecks of snow disappearing nearly as soon as they landed.

Ski company Chalet1802, located at the foot of Mount Blanc in Chamonix the French Alps, is one of the first autonomous firms to go carbon neutral and give snowboarders an environmentally friendly selection when reserving their ski vacations.

Chalet1802 owner Sahara said: Last winter was a bit of a surprise with the most warm winter in sixty years in the French Alps. French skiing areas such as La Plagne, Araches-la-Frasse and Espace Killy lacked clients.It was mild and the snow did not last so a lot of the early winter ski season in the French Alps was uneven. We decided to go carbon negative to help preserve the snowboarding resort.

Sahara said: We’re not seeking to prescribe to guests but we think its of import to give the clients the alternative without augmenting the price of the stay. When the guest book with us they may more than off set their carbon footprint and we take in the added costs. Naturally we still have a sauna and a hot tub – guests want lavishness but not at the expense of the environs, so we looked at ways of decreasing the results of a skier flying over here for a ski holiday.”