Update

Hi friends. I thought I'd update you on the family emergency I referred to yesterday.  Here's the situation:
- My mom was hospitalized on Sunday night in an emergency situation. She's still in the hospital.  She's been sick for a long time.  Her problems are more than just physical and that is the hardest part.
-As you can imagine between this situation, the job change, and the upcoming wedding, I am slightly overwhelmed.
-By "slightly overwhelmed" I mean I'd like curl up in bed and stay there for a long while.
-I have some amazing friends and a loving partner who never gives up on me and I am truly loved.  This is why I am not in bed right now.
-It's in these times, the times I feel like I want to give up, that I realize just how strong I really am.  Sometimes I need a gentle reminder.

image: here

Related Site
- title="mens clothing online, cheap womens clothes, fashion tops">Clothes Shops
-How Buy Cheap clothes Online

Related Videos :below I show related videos and not so related to this article.

Title: The Update

http://PhillyD.tv If you want check my real show and subscribe: http://youtube.com/sXePhil

Title: Can you give us an update on rankings for long-tail searches?

"Many are talking about losses of traffiic with long tail searches: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4132195.htm I was wondering if you could give us an update on what is happening with Google right now? Caffeine update? Algorithm change? Temporary?" Brian, Seattle, WA

Read More... »

Blog re-design and some things I've learned

Hi friends and happy Monday! I am super duper excited to announce the new blog design here on D&OC.  Lately, I'd feeling bleh about the blog's overall look.  Besides the banner, which I've kept as it was designed by one of my best friends and is part of D&OC's branding, I had done most of the "design work" which really just consisted of a bunch of hodge podge widgets thrown together.  I felt like D&OC needed to be taken to the next level visually, to be more of an accurate reflection of my aesthetic, and to be more user friendly for you lovely readers.  I thought I'd offer some blog re-design tips for any of you looking to hire an outside designer for the job.  

• Decide whether you want to do DIY or hire someone.  My training is in painting, not graphic design and although I've learned a lot the past couple of years blogging, I did not feel like I had the "know how" to do a re-design myself.  And, frankly, I didn't have the patience or time to try.


• My next step was to decide upon a budget for the re-design.  Many times, you tend to get what you pay for and I had no intentions of compromising the quality of design to save a buck; however, the cost had to fit within my means.  D&OC is not a new blog and I already had a banner and overall look that I was going for, so I wasn't going to need a ton of mock-ups or original designs for branding.  If you're starting from scratch, expect to pay more.


• I wasn't sure where to begin on finding a designer, so I tweeted about it!. I was specially looking for someone who works with the Blogger platform as opposed to Wordpress.  I've decided to stick with Blogger, for now, so I wanted to hire someone who very familiar with the quirks and features. I got lots of recommendations and got to work visiting sites, reviewing portfolios and comparing prices.  The most important detail for me was finding someone who's design aesthetic was closest to what I was looking for.  I definitely recommend figuring out the "look" you're wanting PRIOR to picking a designer.


• After compiling a list of potential designers, I remembered that my blog friend Rachel from Lovely Clusters does design so I decided to shoot her an e-mail.  I explained clearly what I would be needing and what I wouldn't be needing (this is important if you're getting quotes from people).  I then told her my budget and much to my relief, she agreed to take the job!


• Working with someone I've collaborated with in the past was a big relief because Rachel was already familiar with D&OC, she knows how I communicate, and I felt like I could be completely open with my concerns.  Rachel was incredibly professional, fast as lightening, and super easy to work with.  Handing over my blog for someone to mess with was very nerve racking (what if it got deleted accidentally?!) but Rachel simply exudes confidence, so I was put at ease.


• I suggest working out a payment plan with your designer (i.e. deposit, portion after mock ups, rest after coding, etc.) so that you don't hand all of the money over and then not know what to do if you're disappointed with the design.   Make sure your designer is legit by carefully reviewing the portfolio and perhaps getting recommendations from prior clients.  Do the legwork before hiring someone and be as clear as possible about what you're needing, otherwise you might end up miscommunicating your needs.

I hope your enjoy the new design as much as I do.  New pages have been added including an "about" page, info on advertising on D&OC, and a description of D&OC II.  A HUGE thank you to Rachel for an amazing job! Checkout Ironwood Design Studio for more of Rachel's work.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on your own blog design/re-design experiences or any tips you might have about the process.

xo,

Christina

image: Oh Deer (£18.00) Keep Calm Gallery

Related Site
- title="mens clothing online, cheap womens clothes, fashion tops">Clothes Shops
-How Buy Cheap clothes Online

Related Videos :below I show related videos and not so related to this article.

Title: Is Your Website or Blog Optimized? Here Are 5 Questions You Can Ask

http://www.smartpassiveincome.com I'm redesigning The Smart Passive Income Blog, and wanted to give you an insider, over the shoulder look at my thought process. I'll ask and answer 5 questions that you can ask yourself to help you improve your website or blog's design.

Title: Daily Blog Tips - Blog Review 3

http://www.dailyblogtips.com - Another blog review focused on design & layout aspects. The blog review is "The Boomer Chronicles"

Read More... »

Rugged Earthy Jasper

Jasper is a massive opaque variety that is a mixture of chalcedony, quartz, and opal. The name comes from the Latin name for the stone, iaspis, which probably also referred to other types of chalcedony. Jasper is found as small veins and replacements in different metamorphic and sedimentary rock, and in cracks of volcanic rocks. It is fine-grained and colored by red and yellow iron oxides or green chlorite and actinolite.
Jasper was used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans who carved portraits and such ornamental objects as amulets. It was believed that a person wearing jasper would be protected from illness, especially stomach problems. It has traditionally been used as a gemstone for jewelry; pictured to the left is slabs of landscape/picture jasper.

In this design, these colorful jasper rondelles remind me of the southwest. They give an appearance of rugged earth caverns in shades of rusts, browns, creams, hints of yellow, green and blue. The perfect accent is this beautiful turquoise cross pendant in a lovely shade of blue/green and heavy veining in black/brown; the bail and wire work are of artistic non-tarnish silver wire. I’ve added in a few round turquoise stones that have light brown/tan veining and pewter metal barrel beads that have been etched, giving another flavor of southwest to this necklace design.

Jaspers: Protection, nurturing, joy, awareness; balancing of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies.
Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.

Browse our jewelry collection of artisan handcrafted designs!

Related Site

-The Mens Fashion

-Dresses Online and Cheap Clothes

-Urban Clothing For Mens

Read More... »

18th Annual Holiday Extravaganza

In the San Antonio, Texas area, come on by our next show! We are combining with Jewelry by CnC at the following this weekend....

18th Annual Holiday Extravaganza
Alzafar Shrine (1604 between Stone Oak and Blanco)
San Antonio , Texas
Saturday & Sunday; November 7th – 8th
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (both days)

Timeless Designs will have….

Glass Pendant & Earring Sets
Stone, Ocos Agate, & Fossil Pendant Sets
New designs to with fossils, ocos agates and stone pendants
Small stock of bagged loose beading stones

Jewelry by CnC will have….
New stock of over 100 unmounted pendants; wide selection of cuts to choose from
New jewelry set designs include some with wired or mounted pendants, some for men
Select lapidary slabs and small selection of faceted gemstones, mounted and unmounted

Come early as we have knocked down prices for the coming Holidays! Wide selection of custom jewelry featuring some of the world’s most unique and unusual natural stones and cuts; and as always, each piece comes with it’s own tag describing what type of stones are used in each jewelry design.

Related Site
-The Mens Fashion
-Dresses Online and Cheap Clothes
-Urban Clothing For Mens

Read More... »

Hot Jewelry Trends Fall/Winter 2009

It’s that time to take a breath after the hot long summer and look toward the nice cooler fall and winter seasons. Depending on where you are, the forecast for hot jewelry trends this Fall/Winter are all about natural stones, natures finest is being put out on display and she is giving us some really unique and interesting materials to work with as jewelry artists. So after endless browsing the net, here’s what I’ve seen…again, depending on where you live and what your style is, these may or may not be your ‘cup of tea’.


Natural Stones and lots of them are the hottest trend this coming season. Look for natural gemstones such as jade and turquoise to be the biggest hits along with wood, bone, and freshwater pearls to accent or mix and match. Any of these stones are perfect for incorporating into dramatic statement necklaces to wear this fall.

Bracelets are again mentioned as the big thing this year. Bracelets are more of an accessory to the whole outfit look, especially in bold cuffs or stretch multi-layer strands. Cuffs will be adorned with jewels and stones alike, bring that bit of ‘bling’ on a budget to the jewelry world.
Pendants are still in, so dig them out if you got’em. From bold to dramatic, many with multi-strand necklaces, layered with singled chains or worn with omegas, collars, or ribbon cords (all the rage again this year too); chose from designs in Swarovski crystals, natural stones, raw clusters of natural stones, or mounted in different metals from Sterling Silver to Copper.

Necklaces as always ‘make or brake’ the whole outfit and this year they are not exception to that finished look. Chose from bold, exotic trendy chunky or give a little attitude with multi-strand or layers of several different styles together. Make sure to top if off with either long single earrings or multi-layer chandeliers.

As a recap, jewelry will remain an important accent to the wardrobe this year for woman. The accent though will be less ‘bling’ and more of an edge, trendy self designing style. From bold cuffs to large pendants, big hoops, and any style of necklaces; it’s a woman’s game out there. Almost anything goes this Fall/Winter as women try to define their own style rather than copy someone else’s of the mass production lines of the past. This will make fashion fun again and women will embrace the opportunity to establish themselves in the forefront.

Check out Timeless Designs for uniquely handcrafted stone jewelry.

*Researched from various websites and magazines.

Related Site
-The Mens Fashion
-Dresses Online and Cheap Clothes
-Urban Clothing For Mens

Related Videos :below I show related videos and not so related to this article.

Title: Zipper Jewelry Trend Alert + Giveaway Winner

Bella Dawn TV Host Fashion expert Dawn Del Russo lets you in on a major trend alert..zipper jewelry. Dawn Del Russo is a TV personality, fashion expert seen on National TV Better TV, Fox 5 NY, InStyle Magazine, Life and Style Magazine, US Weekly for her fashion and lifestyle tips and advice. She is the author of "101 Glam Girl Ways to an Ultra Chic Lifestyle" www.belladawn.com www.dawndelrusso.com www.twitter.com/dawndelrusso www.myintimateaffairwithfashion.com Buy Gold Zipper Bangle http://www.belladawn.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BD&Product_Code=BD-OPER-09052911&Category_Code= Buy Black Zipper Cuff http://www.belladawn.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BD&Product_Code=BD-R33G00138BLK&Category_Code=

Title: 2010 Emmy Red Carpet Jewelry Trends/Fall Trends 2010

We patrolled StyleLabs' Jewelry Suite for the 2010 Primetime Emmy Awards at an undisclosed location in Beverly Hills to check out what they have prepared for celebrities to wear on the awards night. The collection, which includes one-of-a-kind pieces from world renowned designers, include Neil Lane, Erica Courtney, Jeffrey Daniels Unique Designs for Gem Platinum, The Everlon Diamond Knot Collection, The AGTA Collection, Syna, True Knots, CliQ by Superfit, and Farah Khan. We all know that the hot trends for fall are all about bold statements - the chunky or bib necklaces, ornate earrings or that oversize ring. Colors are huge and so are jungle motifs. And this is not the time to go understated, mix metals and do layering - the more the merrier! We spoke to celebrity stylist, jewelry and style expert Michael O' Connor regarding red carpet trends at the Emmys. Visit the www.thefashionpatrol.com for more!

Read More... »

How to Improve Your Vocals i.e. My Top 10 Tips for improving your sound

Photo

Hi Darlings,

I mentioned earlier that I'd started taking voice classes in order to improve my sound. I'm really glad I did because there are so many valuable things that I've learnt because of this training. This is valuable information that could interest anyone be you a closet rock star or seasoned opera singer. Enjoy

1. Do not clear your throat by doing that close-mouthed coughing thing. It scratches your vocal cords and can cause you to lose your voice. Instead drink water or swallow/ lightly cough in order to clear your throat.

2. Drink TONNES of Water. Try really hard to avoid singing with a dry throat. It is aweful for your voice and doesn't sound good.

3.Don't listen and critique yourself while singing. What you hear yourself sing is different from what others here from you.

4. When you have a cough or any sickness that harms your throat do not sing.

5. Always warm up your voice before singing . Sing a particular phrase with increasing pitch and decreasing pitches or you could sing through the scales (your do-re-mis).

6.If your voice tends to be dry, drinking milk or eating chocolate some time before practice can actually help.

7. If you have a vocal performance coming up, warming up and daily practice is really important, and even if you don't have one coming up, warming up your voice at the beginning of the day is usually good, especially if you tend to sing a lot randomly throughout the day like me.

8. When singing higher notes, breathe deeper and try to open all your airways as much as you can. This is important because the tendency is that the higher we go, the more we want to close up because of innate fear of the high notes.

9. When the air is really free and you are singing on or near the top of your range, a lovely thing called vibratto can happen in which your voice sort of vibrates (haha) on whatever pitch you are singing. It's beautiful when it's natural but you shouldn't force it because it can be really bad for your voice. Also it doesn't sound as nice.

10. Always sing from your diaphragm: Seriously. I didn't take this seriously until I lost my voice the day of my voice final, after practicing everywhere I could the week up to my final. I woke up and it was gone. Thankfully my professor was lenient and I still ended up doing well but honestly try to make a conscious effort to sing from your diaphragm by using deep breaths that fill your stomach to sing.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. What advice do you have for the singers out there? Any performance horror stories? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Related Site
-Cheap Clothes for Women and Men
-The Online Fashion Shopping

Related Videos :below I show related videos and not so related to this article.

Title: Modern Warfare 2: Hutch Presents Ten FTW (Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Sniping)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E2OkX2me6k Click above to watch Hutchs episode of 10 FTW for Ways to Improve in MW2! Modern Warfare 2: Hutch Presents Ten FTW (Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Sniping) Hutch comes back for yet another episode of 10 FTW, tackling an aspect of the game that is more tricky than anything elsesniping. Enjoyed? Didnt? Leave feedback :D Hutchs Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/shaun0728 Hutchs Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hutch/425587170606 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow Machinima on Twitter! Machinima ?http://twitter.com/machinima_com? Inside Gaming ?http://twitter.com/insidegaming? Machinima Respawn ?http://twitter.com/mcom_respawn? Machinima Entertainment, Technology, Culture ?http://twitter.com/machinima_etc? FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinima FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimarespawn Tags: yt:quality=high Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 MW2 UPC 47875333376 047875837492 0047875333376 PS3 XBox 360 XBox360 X360 PC MPN 83747 Infinity Ward Activision Duty 6 CoD MW two 10 FTW hutch presents improve your sniping ca theimightyhutch hutchisyodaddy

Title: How to Improve Your Old Car's Performance - Part 1/3

The Smoking Tire gets all scientific in this episode, trying to discover exactly how much power can be unlocked from an old car simply by performing routine maintenance.

Read More... »

Children Wear (1)

As a mom, of course we will get proud and pleasant when we could give our children good looking dressing. But, something that we should consider is that when we buy them we should consider the children preference. it is not wise when we just buy some dresses because we like them but in fact, our children do not like them. May be they will not be willing to wear them or the will wear them, but they wear them reluctantly. Just imagine, how will we feel when we must wear a dress that we do not like it? So, we should consider the children feeling too :). In order that we can buy the appropriate dress that agree with our children prefer, so we can ask them about what kind of dress they would like to, but of course we can give some inputs for them without forcing them to achieve our ideas. Let them decide what kind of dress they would like to. Or, we can also looking for about what their prefer, perhaps about the color they prefer, picture, hobbies, etc. By knowing these preference we can select the appropriate dress for them.
The others are about price and place. We should consider about the price by selecting the best place and best price. Why? Just remember that we will buy the dresses for children and we should follow what they prefer, so we should consider about the price and place selecting. What will happen when we have get in the big mall and our children would like to get the expensive ones? in other side, we also has budget for those dresses. SO, we would not like to get over our budget, aren't we? And we also would not like to make our children disappointed, of course. Hence, by selecting the best place in best price, we will get what we want and pur children too.
Finally, the other is about the size. In this case, we can select the suitable size for them, but we can also get over size, but the gap just one, yes just one level. Why? the children are groing up so fast. by buying the size that ovel one level of their size, it will help us economically, because the children can wear it until next month, two months, next semester, or maype next year :).

Related Site

-The Mens Fashion

-Dresses Online and Cheap Clothes

-Urban Clothing For Mens


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/videos?vq=%20Children%20Wear&alt=rss&start-index=1&max-results=11) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden
in /home1/desarro4/public_html/alexcastaneda/PROYECTO_ALEXCASTANEDA/sistemadeactualizacion/google/youtube.class.php on line 286



Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/videos?vq=%20Children%20Wear&alt=rss&start-index=1&max-results=11" in /home1/desarro4/public_html/alexcastaneda/PROYECTO_ALEXCASTANEDA/sistemadeactualizacion/google/youtube.class.php on line 286

Error

Read More... »