Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Steps on How to Create a Shoe Rack on Your Cabinet

You like shoes; so, you have lots of it. You're interested in making a simple, yet useful shoe rack for your cabinet. Below are simple steps teaching you how to create a simple, functional shoe rack for your cabinet. Two examples of racks are illustrated how an individual making use of the step by step instructions could design a rack that's appropriate for the space available in his/closet.

Things that you'll need:

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3 precut boards Rods Tape measure Securing pin Drill bits Jig Saw Step #1

Buy 3 precut boards from hardware stores, such as Lowes or Home Depot. One board will go in the middle for support and 2 of the boards are used for the sides. You should buy rods to place your shoes into the rods. Take note, the rods must be different in sizes.

Step #2

Utilize a tape measure in order to see where you like to place the holes. Ensure all of the holes are equal for both sides.

Step #3

Drill holes for the rods to go over the holes.

Step #4

Put the rods in the drilled holes.

Step #5

Utilize securing pins to prevent the rods from slipping.

Step #6

2nd Design: Utilize the same idea as above, but you could utilize a jig saw to cut the design. See that this shoe rack is shorter and has only 3 shelves to place shoes. Take note, the key to any kind of shoe rack is personalizing it to match your space.

Steps on How to Create a Shoe Rack on Your Cabinet

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Path Of Construction - House in a Box

Need a new summer home or home for your in-laws? A Katrina Cottage might be just the thing. Developed in response to one of the worst natural disasters this country has ever seen, these sturdy little go-anywhere homes are now available at the retail level and are providing a range of unexpected alternative housing solutions as far from the Gulf Coast as Minnesota. The good design of these adaptable cottages make them attractive to people looking to develop vacant land, build a modest home or add value to an existing property. Uses include:

- lake front house or mountain home

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- place to shack up while building a larger residence or building on undeveloped land

- income generating guest house or rental

- practical in-law house or house for returning children

- student housing

- they also make fabulous green homes for people looking to reduce their environmental footprint.

The concept of buying your home in box isn't new. In 1908, you could buy a house kit out of the Sears cataloge for as little as 7. It's estimated that 100,000 DIY homes were picked out of the cataloge, delivered by train and assembled by eager families between 1908 and 1940 all across America.

All the plans and materials for a Katrina cottage can be had for as little as K, but the house requires its own foundation and in most cases - a professional builder. Still, the average cottage can be up in less than two months and some can be up in less than a week. Though some of the award winning designs take up a scant 400 square feet, they're designed for expansion. Over time, the small homes can be added on to.

HEY LITTLE HOUSE - HOW COME YOU LOOK SO GOOD?

Created in response to the need for emergency housing after hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States and the gulf coast, the cottages were meant to supplant the ugly and impermanent FEMA trailers that filled ravaged cities and outlying areas after the storm. More than 200,000 homes suffered major damage and 50,000 homes were obliterated by the storm. Because the devastation was so widespread and the need for housing so great - proponents of the Katrina Cottage movement realized that if speed in rebuilding were the main priority, "revitalizing" the devastated historic communities of the south would leave behind a landscape that lacked style to say the least.

Sparked by discussions at the Mississippi Renewal Forum in 2005, designers quickly got to work on the problem: designing a house that:

- could be built for as little as it costs to provide a FEMA trailer

- could be built quickly

- could stand up to hurricane force winds, earthquakes and other natural disasters

- met all international building codes

- could be delivered as a manufactured house, modular house, kit house, panelized house or as a site built house

- and above all - it had to look good.

The first designs emerged just months after the storm in 2005. In sync with the architectural traditions of Louisiana and Mississippi - the classic details, nine foot ceilings and quaint front porches elevate these mini-homes far above the tin-can ambiance of the FEMA trailers. They can be produced, transported and erected in a timely manner. Easy and cheap to heat, steel framed and concrete lined, they can also withstand almost anything you can throw at them including 140 mph winds and a ton of snow. Combine these qualities with their recent availability online through Lowes stores in the US, and we may be seeing a lot more of these mini-homes in years to come.

Path Of Construction - House in a Box

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Advantages of Growing Hemp

There are numerous advantages to growing industrial hemp on a widespread scale. These advantages come from both the physical act of growing the plant, as well as utilizing the yield for business and consumer products. Let's start off with how growing helps the environment.

The hemp plant is unique in that it grows in an incredible abundance. You can get over ten tons of hemp from only one acre of farmland, and since farmland is measured in the thousands of acres, you can imagine how much total hemp you can ultimately grow. When a plant is growing, it requires carbon dioxide to power photosynthesis; therefore, with a lot of plants, you take out a lot of carbon dioxide from the air. Growing large amounts of hemp will thus, over time, significantly affect CO2 levels and help fight global warming. Since climate change is one of the most dangerous issues we face in this time, this is certainly an important benefit.

Grow Calendar 2011

When most plants grow, they deplete the soil of vital nutrients and leave it with less vitality for the next crop. Hemp actually revitalizes the soil it grows in, both by aerating the soil and through the deposit of carbon dioxide in to it. This makes hemp ideal for crop rotation, and the crop that follows in the soil hemp grew in will develop better than if hemp had not been used.

These have been just the benefits from growing the plant, but there are even more for applying it. When hemp is used in the production of paper, fuel, and plastic substitutes, the resulting products are much cleaner and greener. For example, tree made paper requires the use of many harmful chemicals, both for the production and as preservatives. Hemp paper does not need these chemicals, and hemp fuel burns cleaner than gasoline or diesel.

With all of these uses for hemp, it is terrible that it is suppressed in this society. America is one of the leading nations of the world, and because it denounces hemp, many other countries follow suit, although they do grow it to some extent. If hemp were fully utilized, we could save this world and ensure an everlasting, sustainable future, and that is surely something to fight for.

Advantages of Growing Hemp

Grow Calendar 2011

An Astrological Forecast for October, 2011 Including a Look Into Scorpio Astrology

Fear is in the air and revolution in the streets! The stock market is melting down again and there is growing unrest in this country which is played down by the media. We have demonstrations on Wall Street and a revolution is brewing. We are all connected and we all have at least friends and family who have fallen on hard times, lost their houses or their jobs. We feel strongly what is happening because of that deeper inner connection of oneness or you could call it the morphogenetic field. It is easy to get caught up in anxiety and fear.

The question is how can we balance ourselves? How can we find our place in all this? How can we step up with courage into the unknown and the new horizon of consciousness? And how can we be of help for each other? Astrology is holding some answers for you because it gives you the conscious awareness for higher or lower choices based on the energetic, archetypal fields involved.

Grow Calendar 2011

Pluto, Uranus and Neptune

Wherever the big players are in your chart; Pluto in Capricorn squaring Uranus in Aries and Neptune in Pisces, you are called to active integration and contribution to the whole. Lately I have been looking almost exclusively at charts for people who have been part of that "call for evolution". We are living in exciting times. I believe we all have signed up to be part of this enormous revolution of consciousness.

But then some of us play a very active role in this process as leaders, healers or teachers. Depending on how Pluto, Uranus and Neptune touch your planets and houses it shows you where your expertise and soul commitment resides. It shows you how you personally can ride this enormous wave of tremendous changes breaking.

Mayan Calendar and New Moon

This month coincides with the end of the Mayan calendar Oct 11- 26 which is thought of as the emergence of a dimensional shift into higher consciousness. It is the completion of one cycle and the beginning of another. The Full Moon in Aries coincides with that final phase emphasizing the new beginning and sheds light and asks for emotional courage.

Libra Planets

We are relational beings! Families, relationships and social structures make us into who we take ourselves to be. We feel reflected, inspired, educated, loved or rejected by others. The sign of Libra indicates the whole mystery of close, intimate relationships as well as friends or meeting the "other" in general. With Libra we learn about love, harmony, peace and discrimination of our true needs and desires.

Earlier in October with 4 planets in Libra we will learn about compromise and balance in relationships which will be deepened with the Saturn Sun conjunction in Libra. Saturn brings to the fore issues of integrity, accountability, what works and the ability to set healthy boundaries.

The New Moon in Libra Sept 27, three days apart from the Equinox, started our journey into deeper wisdom and willingness to consider and attune to the others.

Five Planets in Scorpio Coming Up

The last week of this month we will have five planets in Scorpio, which will be dominating the heavens and our inner experience. There is the sense of urgency and time is running out. The New Moon in Scorpio makes us emotionally moody, intense and focused inwards. The Jupiter opposition and the trine to Neptune are adding another layer to the situation. Jupiter always wants to look at the big picture and Neptune can contribute higher awareness as well as misguidance, lies and betrayal.

Scorpios are known for being very intense, emotional, willing to go deep for the truth and maybe uncomfortably honest about it. Looking at the hidden structures, the deep inner psychology of the moment Scorpios are good at unraveling dark secrets.

With five planets in Scorpio we will have to look at uncomfortable truth and the strategies of misinformation and lies in the media might blow wide open.There will be more intensity on the streets with Mars still in fiery Leo till November 11.

What is pressing on all of us is the meltdown of our economy, the abuse through politicians, banks and corporate world dynamics for profit and greed.

How come that the people who caused the last meltdown in 2008 were the ones getting bonuses from the money we had to buy them out with? You really wonder how long that strategy will work for them.

With so much Scorpio energy this might be a month of facing the truth, gaining real insight into what needs to be done and acted upon. For real transformation and change to happen facing the truth of the moment is the first step.

Highlights of the Month and their Highest Possibilities

Mars squares Jupiter Oct 2

The energy is there to deal with financial matters and be successful with it.

Venus steps into Scorpio Oct 9

Deeper truth might be revealed in your relationships.

Full Moon in Aries Oct 11

Emotions are running high and in warrior mode. Courage and right action should be guiding you.

Mercury in Scorpio Oct 13

The ability to find a new vision based in ruthless examination of the facts.

Sun conjunction with Saturn Oct 13

Clarity, commitment or separation in relationships might happen.

Venus opposition to Jupiter Oct 14

Opportunities around your finances and resources are arising.

Mercury opposition Jupiter Oct 17

Study and learn to enhance your ability to process details into the bigger picture.

Sun into Scorpio Oct 23

Act on revelations and insights to help integrate the new.

New Moon in Scorpio Oct 26

Be truthful to yourself first!

Jupiter trine to Pluto Oct 28

We all agree on the fact that we need change in our society and transformation is needed desperately. The key factor is our consciousness and the decisions and choices we make.

Venus square Neptune Oct 31

Sensitivity for others, compassion and willingness to help is a possibility.

Remember astrology can be of tremendous help in navigating the rocky waters. Expand your knowledge, study astrology and get the support and insight of your personal situation with a professional astrologer of your choice. Your chart reveals the "itinerary of your soul" and the evolutionary intentions you have brought with you this life time. It can give deep meaning in times of choppy waters and help you to navigate the currents.

Aloha and many blessings, Shakti.

An Astrological Forecast for October, 2011 Including a Look Into Scorpio Astrology

Grow Calendar 2011

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Should Adult Harry Potter Fans Grow Up?

A few years ago, a journalist wrote a short article about his observation of three adults on a train on the London underground. They were all sitting in the same carriage and were all reading Harry Potter books. He mentioned the fact that as they read, two of them moved their lips and the third rather sheepishly looked around, as if to see if anyone had noticed what they were reading. The journalist, telling a friend about this was met with "Yes, isn't it utterly shameful?" The suggestion being that these adults had the reading age of a child, or should jokingly be labelled as 'liking children's books'.

Carefully reading that article, it occurred to me that it hadn't been written in order to demonstrate any symptoms of a 'dumbing down' in society, or to suggest that adults that enjoy Harry Potter books really do have a child's reading age. The debate about whether Harry Potter books constitute adult literature in any sense, or should be considered as great literary works, has been going on since the first book in the series was published in 1997. As each successive episode hit the bookstores, this debate has been renewed and the article was no more than another attempt to keep that debate alive and to prompt discussion.

Grow Calendar 2011

Some adults don't enjoy the Harry Potter books at all, finding them to be averagely written, rather mechanical, lacking flow and a little unconvincing. Even some intelligent and well-read children have also described them as boring. Personally, I'm with the millions of people (adults and children) who find them highly entertaining and enjoyable. Does it really matter what the target audience is, if they are written in such a way that all ages find something to like about them? In any case, many 'classics' of English literature would seem to be aimed at an adult audience, for example Peter Pan, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows. As to whether the Harry Potter stories will last as long, who can tell? But they begin, as all great children's stories do, with the need to escape from the present, out the window to Neverland, down the rabbit hole or spirited away from the pace of city life.

Should Adult Harry Potter Fans Grow Up?

Grow Calendar 2011

Upcoming Events in 2012

You might be wondering what the upcoming events will be in 2012. There are going to be some wonderful events happening in 2012. The annual solar eclipse of 2012 would fall on May, 20. In that year the center of the Galaxy is at 0 degree of the Western zodiacal sign Capricorn. According the 2012 calendar, the Sun will be at the center of the Galaxy during the December solstice on December 21. Many researchers might have endorsed the view that the current creation cycle ends on December 21, 2012. The calendar of the Maya might have kindled this thought.

The end of the Mayan calendar is expected after December 21, 2012. A comet is believed to enter into the Solar system near the Earth in December. During the month the moon will come close in the sky to a brighter comet. Solar experts have observed that the Sun will be in a bit of strife in 2012. The Sun storms would cause havoc according to those experts. They would reach a deadly pinnacle, though they would occasionally appear according to the 2011 calendar.

Grow Calendar 2011

The pressure under the Yellowstone in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States is building steadily and the date 2012 has been set by the geologists as the likely date for the annihilation. Physicists at the Berkeley University have predicted that the Earth would meet with the worst ever catastrophe in the year 2012. Scientists have also noted that the magnetic poles in the Earth are shifting places very fast. When they shift their places, they would cause the Sun's radiation to go unchecked. The fierce radiation has the ability to burn everything it touches. Thus the prediction goes out that the Sun will burn out in the year 2012. Solar eruptions could disrupt power grids too.

Upcoming Events in 2012

Grow Calendar 2011

The LEGO Advent Calendar - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

One of the most popular gifts for Christmas (or, more precisely - pre-Christmas) is the LEGO Advent Calendar. This great gift idea consists of twenty-four different LEGO gifts to be opened, one per day, starting on December 1st and continuing to December 24th - the day before Christmas. This year LEGO has produced two different versions of their Advent Calendar: one based on the Star Wars theme, and the other based on the LEGO City series of building sets. This is the first year for the appearance of a Star Wars themed calendar; in the past, other calendars have been based on a variety of themes including Kingdoms, Castles, and Pirates. The City theme has been the most consistent thread in the last several years.

The Advent Calendar is an idea that goes back to the early days of the 19th Century. It had its beginnings among the German Lutherans when they began the tradition of counting down the days to Christmas starting on December 1st. In some cases, the calendar consisted of nothing more than a mark on a door or wall. In other cases it was more elaborate, perhaps a series of lighted candles.

Grow Calendar 2011

Later, the idea evolved into a printed calendar with each day marked in some special way. That then became a multi-part calendar consisting of 24 little doors that covered each day on the calendar, each with a religious picture or other token behind it, such as a piece of candy or a bible verse. As time passed, the idea spread and became a secular tradition as well as a religious one, and today there are many different varieties of Advent Calendars available.

The LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar, which is designated as LEGO 7958, has quickly become one of the top 100 toys in the Amazon toy catalog this year. It consists of a plastic tray formed into twenty-four individual compartments. Each compartment is filled with a LEGO toy based on the Star Wars theme, either a small set of bricks that can be assembled, or a mini-figure, or some other special LEGO part to go with the theme.

The Star Wars Calendar toys are all extremely well designed, and very detailed. Among the nine minifigs included in the calendar are Chewbacca, a TIE Pilot, a Clone Pilot, Nute Gunray, and Yoda in a Santa Suit! The calendar also includes a veritable fleet of eleven different star cruisers, fighters, and ships, including the Millennium Falcon, a TIE Fighter, an Imperial Shuttle, and a Y-Wing fighter.

The City version of the LEGO Advent Calendar, designated LEGO 7553, continues a well-established theme for the LEGO Advent Calendar, going back as far as 2005. The twenty-four compartments in this year's calendar contain a total of 232 elements, as LEGO calls them (or more simply, "pieces"). With this calendar, some of the toys are assembled from pieces that are revealed over a period of several days. For example, the pieces for the Police Station come over four different days - days 4, 5, 11, and 12. The Police Car arrives in three parts, on days 15, 16, and 17.

The City Advent Calendar also contains a variety of mini-figures - eight in all - including a crook, several policemen, and a Police Dog with a bone. In addition to the minifigs and structures, there are several vehicles, including a Police Car, and a Snowmobile. Like the Star Wars version, this set is recommended for children over the age of 5, because of the presence of small pieces.

If you have one or more children on your Christmas gift list, a LEGO Advent Calendar is bound to be a huge hit. Not only is it a great gift in itself, but by stretching out over the first twenty-four days of December, it helps to pass the time leading up to the Big Day. Whether your child is a hard-core Star Wars fan, or just enjoys building with the LEGO City theme sets, this gift is bound to be received with great delight on December first!

The LEGO Advent Calendar - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Grow Calendar 2011