The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Another important writing implement for scrapbooking is a wax pencil. Wax pencils are soft pencils designed to write on glass, plastic and photographs. These pencils are easy to draw with and can be used to color in portions of lettering, in borders, or to create accents.

The unique thing about wax pencils is that if they are used on the front of a photograph, the ink will rub off. However, when used on the back of a photograph, the ink will become permanent. Wax pencil ink is acid free and available in a variety of colors.

Stickers are fun and easy to stick to scrapbook pages. Stickers can be used for captions, thought bubbles, to hide mistakes, or as embellishments. Stickers of your child’s favorite cartoon or television program can add a personal accent to your scrapbook page.

However, not all stickers are suitable for scrapbooking. Check to see if the stickers are lignin free and acid free. Furthermore, be careful that the sticker adhesive does not dry out or seep around the edges. Never place a sticker on a photograph as the adhesive may cause irreversible damage to the photograph.

Rubber stamps dipped in acid free ink can be used to create various embellishments. Rubber stamps can be used to create cute images for children’s and grandparents scrapbooks. They can also be simple flowers or leaves to create elegant looks for gift scrapbooks.

Furthermore, these embellishments can be used to focus on a certain photograph or memento. Alternately, these embellishments can be used to soften the look of a busy or sharp image.

One low cost alternative to the rubber stamp is a cotton ball. This creates a shadowy effect.

Another alternative is to buy the pads and attach them to furniture castors. The thick caster allows you to position the stamp in exactly the right place. Moreover, attaching the stamp to a wider base allows you to press more evenly on the stamp. This creates a complete and evenly balanced stamp every time.

Mia LaCron is the founder of 101-scrapbooking-tidbits.info - http://www.101-scrapbooking-tidbits.info - devoted to helping individuals record, store, and preserve their most cherished memories via the art of scrapbooking.

According legend, first nested doll prototype appeared in Russia in the late 19th century (believed to be year 1890), it was figurine of bold headed old man, Buddhist sage by the name of Fukuruma, on the island of Honshu, Japan.

According Hakone Town Office, Japan, products such as “Shichifukujin” and “Irokawaridaruma” have been created from Junitamago. “Shichifukujin” was shipped to Russia at the end of the 19th century, becoming a folkcraft called Matryoshika, or a doll having children. It is thought that Russian missionaries from the Russian church which used to be in Tohnosawa visited Hakone for the summer and took “Junitamago” back to Russia as souvenirs. Let us explain what Shichifukujin mean.

According Japan sources -

Japan`s Shichifukujin–usually identified as Ebisu, Daikokuten, Bishamonten, Benzaiten, Fukurokuju, Jurojin, and Hotei–are traditionally believed to bring good fortune and happiness to people. The seven have long been depicted in painting, sculpture, song, and dance and began to be worshiped as a group several hundred years ago. The practice of making a meguri, or pilgrimage, to shrines and temples of all the Shichifukujin during the New Year season became popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). Shichifukujin Meguri are still popular everywhere in Japan–including the Fukagawa and Kameido districts of Tokyo`s Koto-ku.
But Russian nesting doll got another name and had a different meaning from the very beginning.

At the end of 19th century at Russia Children`s Education Workshop at Abramtzevo village near Moscow was established. Abramtzevo workshop started to produce dolls in traditional ethnic dress. That workshop collected dolls from all over the country and from countries abroad. Dolls series was designed to entertain childs and to give them knowledge of other ethnicities.

It is believed that Fukuruma doll inspired Russian artist S.V. Malyutin to produce first “Matrioshka” (nesting doll in Russian) doll.
But Russian doll was different from original Japanese one.
At Russia it became toy, game for childs, it depicted the chain of life, and got woman name.

It is the diminutive form of Matrona or Matriona. Therefore, Matroska, should be a feminine noun. “Matrona” is Bysantee and ancient Rome originated name, which means “well respected woman”.

Matrioshka appeared as synthesis of Buddhist sculpture, pre-Christian toys of Russia and Christian beliefs of 19th century.

Original, ancient Russian dolls was produced from solid piece of wood and depicted ancient - pre-Christian gods. That dolls was in fact, miniature ancient Indo-Iranian pagans, they depicted Horses, Cows, Birds, Humans.
Once Bysantee Empire style Christianity appeared in Russia at VIII-IX century, that type of dolls was transformed into wooden figures of animals and Heroes of fairy tales, cause ” pagan toys ” was not Ok to use anymore.
Russian Matrioshka produced from solid piece of wood too, but became nested, and depicts people, fairy tales heroes or animals - same as many centuries ago, but now - with Buddhist sence, nested.

Nested doll was very popular toy for childs cause it helps to develop motility of fingers, imagination, representation about the sizes and colors.

“Matrioshka” nested doll spelled differently outside Russia.
Exactly, According to the spelling mat + ros (as in albatross OR as in metros) + ka (as in Alaska) [m̀trɔ́skə, m̀tróuskə] According to the original Russian word ma as in machine; tro as in tr in try + Yo in New York, but shorter and narrower; ska as in sh in ship + ka in Alaska [mətrʲóʃkə] —-

Article provided by Russian nesting dolls internet shop: http://www.rus-sell.com

This may come as a surprise to you, but there are people other than your grandmother who enjoy needlepoint as a hobby. Needlepoint has been around since the beginning of time but that doesn’t mean that you can’t become an expert at it. In fact, we’re pretty sure that if you focus enough of your energy at a certain hobby you can become an expert in just about anything. You can find just about anything you want on the internet. In fact, if you think it might be an exciting hobby, chances are someone has thought that before you did. Let’s take a look at needlepoint and how to get acquainted with the hobby.

1) Use the major search engines to search for these phrases: “needlepoint beginner,” o “needlepoint tutorial,” or “how to learn needlepoint.” Be sure and use quotes for the last phrase- it makes all the difference in finding that exact phrase. There are people starting new hobbies all the time and you aren’t going to be the only one interested in needlepoint. In fact, a quick search for just the term “needlepoint” returns more than 2.6 Million results in Google. If term needlepoint has been written at least 2.6million times on the web, you can be sure that there are others that have written a basic tutorial in getting started on the hobby.

2) Use DMOZ. Here is a trick that not everyone is going to tell you because they just don’t know about it (and that I’ve taken from another hobby). Visit Dmoz.org. Dmoz is an Open Directory edited by humans. If a site has been included in Dmoz, that means that a human has reviewed the site and decided that it is good enough to be included in the Dmoz directory. Usually, only real quality sites are added to the Dmoz directory as all the editors work for free and pride themselves on only including the best sites on the web.

We’ve notice that when we are looking for something (in this case, needlepoint), nothing beat dmoz.org as a great place to start. Start your quest at dmoz, then visit our site to learn all about needlepoint in easy step by step tutorials.

Roger Wembley is author of “Learn Needlepoint.” Grab your copy at www.needlepointastic.com

Frida

Spitting out her beauty and disgust, –She jiggled ghosts and skeletons, –Emptied blood and I was there. –I cleaned up her mess, –I fed her dog and I made her bed. –I watered the garden by the pyramid –And it blossomed.

In life or death, I must see her again. –She’s just like me; –God and the devil –Wrapped up in one tamale.

————————————

Rome in a Day

Rome sits on its seven haunches –And the pines, with fountains in their branches, –Old road markers in the Appian sun, –Are stolid, green and well run. –A conservative morning begins with dawn –And makes its logical way as a pawn –Is moved one square at a time –To Noon. It seems all right, but I’m –Conscious of a skip in my heartbeat, –And the day pops like corn in the heat –Of a sudden three o’clock. The wrench –Of time ticks in my ears. I hunch –My watch into a shadow to hide –It’s face from the white glare. Inside, –The gold hands turn green and catch –On the number six. I light a match –To see if they will stick there –As the fountains, with pines in their sprays, share –Their fate, dwindle and dry in the light –And Rome gets marching into the night.

————————————

A Swallow Speeds On

Morning: Two eggs, coffee with cream. –A fly noisily zigs and zags. –Noon: Ham and cheese on bread. –A butterfly silently flits and flits. –Evening: Steak and French Fries. –A hummingbird looks on while hovering. –Night: Four cookies and milk. –A bat menacingly zooms.

————————————

Tidepool

Invent the waves and vivid pools with me, –Cool, industrious, dibbling at our toes, –And let your knees snatch back at laps of sea. –Wade deeper toward the hole where seaweed grows, –Kick lively now, hitch up your sagging suit –And hold my hand. If you cannot see, –Loosen your grip, sit on my friendly foot, –Relax and let your hair float out to me. –I’ll pull you to a swirl for us alone –Where we can touch and float asleep or wake –And be content awhile with what we’ve sown. –To love where all we give is all we take, –As fishes waken from their restless sleep –To watch us drifting till we’re in too deep.

————————————

Medical Exam

Two soldiers, one all white, one all red, –Guard the north wall of the cubed room. –Squat, each with a pedal –To open the lids hands-free. –Fourteen inches square, fifteen high, –Steel with polished mechanisms, –Spare, utilitarian, –Made in Switzerland. –Plastic liner bags skirt the tops, –Peek from the edges of the covers –Like play-filled children unready for sleep. –The sentinels neither bark nor rattle. –They stand so white and so red –Keeping all predators at bay.

————————————

At The Center

“In Emergency Push To Open,” –The automatic doors read on the unwashed, dribbly glass. –The further, outer door carries the same remark. –Between the first and second lies a cross-hatched –Block-built carpet, mole-grey brown. –The door to the entrance-garden has the same dribbles –And moves just as automatically. –Inside the inside, thick nurses, men and women, pad by. –Television gurgles softly, patients and personnel murmur, –Little clicks and taps identify heels and wheels, –Medical machinery and dropped tongue depressors. –Outside the outside, greenstuffs, and –Traffic tooting and squealing. –Between the inside and the outside lies a –Cross-hatched, block-built, mole-grey brown –Carpet.

By Jack Wilson

©2006

My Creative Writing professor once passed out sheets of poetry. They were in pairs according to genre or topic of the poem. Our task was to pick the poem that had a greater depth to it. The “better” poem - not that the other poem was bad, by the way - and I chose correctly in every case, except one: the correct choice had antiquated language.

I can study period poetry that has antiquated language, that’s the way they spoke back then, but I have a real problem reading modern poetry that uses antiquated language. There are exceptions, but I’ll get into that in a minute.

Before anyone gets their britches in a bunch because they love their “forsooths,” let’s go over some pros and cons.

Antiquated Language CONS

-Difficult to effectively communicate your message to your twenty-first century reader.

-Can seem lofty, as if the writer is trying to be something he/she is not and a portion of trust is lost between the reader and writer.

PRO Antiquated Language

-Adds voice to certain topics

-Can add a comedic effect (as a contrast to the subject matter, etc)

NOTE: these pros and cons can be said for things like: prolific profanity and slang, as well.

Read this poem written in 1849:

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861)
Say not the Struggle nought Availeth

Say not the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not nor faileth,
And as things have been, things remain;

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers–
And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves vainly breaking
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.

Roberts, Edgar V.. Literature, An Introduction To Reading and Writing. seventh. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.

While this is a great poem as is, it is much easier to understand the parts of this poem not peppered with antiquated language.

Now that I have you convinced you, you have decided to use antiquated language nevermore.

But wait!

There are pros listed up there. Don’t use it “because it sounds like good poetry.” Like any poetic device: If you use it, use it with purpose and on purpose.

© 2006 Holly Bliss. All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely redistributed in its unedited form and on the condition that all copyright references are kept intact along with the hyperlinked URLs.

About the Author: Using her writing as paint on the canvas of her life, Holly Bliss is an eclectic writer, newsletter editor and an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Poetry.

I AM

Whatever you want me to be
I am
I am your lamb that loves you
I am your lion that leads you
I am your poet that enables you to feel
I am your priest that ministers and heals
I am your prophet giving you direction
I am your psalmist singing to you with inspiration
I am your nurturer giving you affection
I am your warrior giving you protection
I am your security from the storm
I am your embrace when your heart is weary and worn
I am your soulmate with whom you can bleed
I am your provider, your mouth I feed
I am your confidant with a sympathetic ear
I am your treasure who you hold dear
I am your activities coordinator making your life fun
I am your anchor, so you don’t run
I am your lover abiding always
I am your sunshine brightening your days
I am your financier with provision
I am your trust freeing you of suspicion
I am your giver not merely a taker
I am your dream-maker
I am your friend when you need understanding
I am your patience not demanding
I am your helper providing assistance
I am gentleness removing resistance
I am your cheerleader providing motivation
I am your coach instructing without condemnation
I am your blanket wrapping around you
I am your lover bonding with you
I am your transparency not a faker
I am your masterful love maker
I am your passion full of pleasure
I am your ecstasy without measure
I am your thrill providing expression
I am your purpose without regression
I am your fire full of desire
I am your man, never do I tire
I am your fitness trainer and masseur
I am your covenant keeper remaining pure
I am your psychiatrist and counselor
I am your personal care attendant
Ready to give a pedicure
I am your family mediator
I am your wedding coordinator
I am your intimacy initiator
I am your physician
Providing health and nutrition
I am your domestic servant
Helping you around the house
I am the practitioner
Modeling the message I espouse
I am your executive assistant and administrator
I am your solution and problem alleviator
I am your hospitable host
I am your celebration bringing cheer and toasts
I am all things to you
Whatever you want me to do
I am
Because I love you.

By Paul Davis

Paul Davis is author of Breakthrough for a Broken Heart a book telling us “How to overcome disappointments and blossom into your dreams!” He is a minister, life coach (relational & professional), dating expert, popular worldwide keynote speaker, creative consultant, humor being, adventurer, explorer, mediator, liberator and dream-maker.

Paul’s compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul has also brought revival to many in war-torn, impoverished and tsunami stricken regions of the earth. His nonprofit organization Dream-Maker Ministries is building dreams and breaking limitations.

Paul’s Breakthrough Seminars inspire, revive, awaken, impregnate with purpose, impart the fire of desire, catapult people into a new level of self-awareness, facilitate destiny discovery and dream fulfillment.

Paul can be contacted at: RevivingNations@yahoo.com - 407-967-7553 or 407-282-1745.

For additional info:
http://www.CreativeCommunications.TV
http://www.BreakthroughSeminars.org
http://www.DreamMakerMinistries.com

KICK THE CAN ©

When I was young,

How I loved to ‘Play the hero’,

To be the one

Who set the others free;

But, now it’s rough, I’m just ‘Another zero’,

It’s hard enough

To just take care of me…

Yet, memory still retains the sight,

Of ‘Standing up’ for what was ‘Right’,

Of ‘Taking turns’ at waiting for the swing;

The ‘Sleeping out’ and ‘Marshmallow roasts’,

The stories we told about ‘Terrible ghosts’,

Deciding which girl ‘I liked the most’,

Then, giving that girl ‘My ring’…

Of having a friend ‘To stay over’,

Of finding a ‘Four leaf clover’,

Folding the paper to make a ‘Hat’ or a ‘Fan’;

“He found a nickel, the lucky bum”,

Sharing the ‘Popsicle’ or ‘Bubble gum’,

“Ready or not, here I come…”

Running to ‘Kick the can’…

Of building a ‘Fort’

Way up in a tree,

Of painting a sign

For ‘Boys only’,

Knowing the ‘Crawdad’

Was going to pinch your hand;

The afternoon swimming

Down at the ‘Creek’,

The ‘All day suckers’,

And ‘Sharing a lick’ ,

Wishing ‘To heck’

To grow up ‘Real quick’…

Lord, I’d love another chance

To ‘Kick the can’…

The above poem was published in 1977 in Beacon©, a “Limited Edition” (1,000 copies) rhyming poetry book with black on white watercolour illustrations. In 1979, I had an “Attack-of-conscience” which caused me to remove the remaining ~ then selling like hotcakes ~ copies from the Portland, OR marketplaces that I had established…LOL…just prior to ordering a 5,000 book, 2nd Edition printing. If you are one of the original Beacon© buyers, your Beacon© book is worth ~ at least ~ three times what you paid for it then. I wish that the author was…LOL… Yes, I am the still the original Russ Miles.

While I was 28-years-old, when I published ‘ KICK THE CAN ‘, I was a kid when I lived it. Today, at 58 years of age, I am once more a kid ~ living in the year 1959 ~ when I read it. I am still transported back to a simple time when Studabaker speedometers went to 160 mph, problems were few, delights were many, and the world was ripe for my taking.

Roy Rogers was my hero, nobody died in a fist-fight, and Dale Evans was what every bride should be. As with Rusty and Rin-Tin-Tin, good always prevailed over evil, George Washington could “Not tell a lie,” and Dwight David Eisenhaur had to be honest, or else he couldn’t have been elected president. “Right?”

Both John F. Kennedy and Vice President Nixon were honest too. But, Kennedy was a Catholic and Nixon was a Quaker. Everything came down to black and white. I didn’t know what Quakers believed but I’d heard that they didn’t go to confession. Most of the mean kids that I knew didn’t go to confession either. My mom said that, “Confession is good for the soul.” I wasn’t even mean, but I went every chance that I got. There were always other “Things” that I needed forgiving for.

I thought that I had better ask my school teacher about what Quakers believed. At recess, when when he was headed to the out-house, I stopped him under the 10 commandments he’d posted above the door.

“Is it true that Quakers don’t go to confession?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s true, Rusty,” he replied. “Like most Protestants, they don’t pray to Mary, either. Here, take this bell and ring it for me in exactly seven minutes. I sure hope that there is some toilet paper out there.”

Wow, I thought. No wonder most of these kids are so mean. They don’t pray to Mary so she’s not praying for them. I decided right then and there that I’d tell people to vote for Kennedy. I wanted our next president to be getting all of the help he could get, with the Russians and all…

For those of you unfortunate grown-ups that have never played Kick the Can, it is a game much like Hide and Seek. The difference is, when you are found, the “It” person must run back to the coffee can and jump over it saying, “Over the can for Allen!” If Allan can get to the can and kick it first, then Billy, Diana, and Judy who were caught, are set free to hide again while the “It” person recovers and returns the coffee can to the same place…LOL… The first person who is caught becomes the “It” person when all of the hiders are captured. You can still teach Kick the Can to your children and grand kids. They will love you even more for their new, non-video game.

As for me, I hope that this Beacon Verse series of ezine articles will afford me another chance to Kick the Can of worms away from some who are wishing to escape the wayward wigglies.

Russ Miles writes romance books, poetry, songs, ezine articles, and mystery thriller novels. In 2006, his remaining copies of Beacon© and Imperfections© are being sold through his personal website ##MilesBooks.com## and via milesBooks@gmail.com

Comments: MilesRuss@gmail.com

Where The Soul Never Dies

Nature, a reflection of our soul,
reveals the seasons of our lives.
Like people, earth’s seasons teach us
patience, awareness, and encourage us to grow.
From the sparkle of sunlight in the doe’s eye
to the sparrow elevated by the air below its wings,
the spirit of God is the source of life that fuels our spirit
and raises us above pain and sorrow.

Only the soul can travel to this place above the clouds
where we are lifted by the breath of God.
Here, the lessons learned in nature
disclose to us that dying is a transition into life
and nothing completely disappears.
Rather, we are transformed into another realm of existence
to experience the essence of living
where the soul never dies.

Sam Oliver, author of, “A Life in Review”

————————————————–

Echoes of the Distant Past

Sounds of distant years
form vibrations in my ears.
They bring echoes from life behind
and impress memories in my mind.

Hearts tingle in succession
and flood my body with emotion
at the presence of an event or friend
real or imagined again and again.

The Spirit wails and wails

in search of twice-told tales
filling empty spaces with similarity
of a past life seen with clarity.

Will my life in the course of time
repeat itself like poetry in rhyme?
Or find a new path to take
that NO ONE, but I, can imitate!

Sam Oliver, author of, “A Fish Named Ed”

http://www.soulandspirit.org

In the midst of the journey of my life
I find too many paths all equal in mystery
yet I cannot be compelled to follow one with all conviction.

I know not where I am destined to follow or whom I am destined to follow with
I know only what my heart is devoted to and that presents my only certainty
That devotion so pure and white in truth is real in pain and certain misery of unfulfilled conviction.

I have no mind of future undertakings
and only have the thoughts of what I think should be
Yet in truth it has always been so.
Then why am I presented with these paths all equal in mystery. Why me?

Why me?

In the midst of the journey of my life
I find too many paths all equal in mystery
yet I cannot be compelled to follow one with all conviction.

I know not where I am destined to follow or whom I am destined to follow with
I know only what my heart is devoted to and that presents my only certainty
That devotion so pure and white in truth is real in pain and certain misery of unfulfilled conviction.

I have no mind of future undertakings
and only have the thoughts of what I think should be
Yet in truth it has always been so.
Then why am I presented with these paths all equal in mystery. Why me?

David Stockdale writes without agenda.

I waited thee thro a lifetime of years,

Till now when camest, your beauty was blind.

‘Tis written, “He that seeketh, he shall find,”

Hidden, I have found thy next, in all they spheres,

By my city’s river, a voice no man hears

Save from the Hunger unknown but well divined:

From the Mississippi behind hidden wind

Like a blue star your eyes flow thro many tears!

Thou art the silence, the city’s soul; thou

The beauty of things, unseen upon my brow.

O likened to Civil War walls, once dreamed

And winter found perfect! Cup of mystery

Upon your stones forgotten suns have gleamed,

Whose waters are waters from unseen streams!

St. Paul, MN #1044 12/27/05. Note: I woke up this morning, and thought about my Christmas, in which I took my lovely wife down to Hidden Fall; being a St. Paul-lite, I had never seen the falls, faintly remember hearing about it. And took a three day search to find where it was, and as I have said, found it on Christmas Day, a most beautiful hidden falls along the Mississippi in St. Paul, Minnesota. Back at the Café bookstore, I go to daily, my brother showed up the following day, and after describing the falls, he being an International Photographer, sought its whereabouts out also. It is funny, I’ve lived here most of my life, was born her, and I doubt I will die here, but I didn’t even know where the most beautiful falls in St. Paul was. We do have Minnehaha Falls, but that is across the river and is in Minneapolis, not St. Paul. So those coming to St. Paul for a visit, it would be worth your time to see this (what I call) Civil War treasure.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com