Saturday, February 1, 2014

Creative & Affordable Valentine’s Day Ideas For All Relationships

FALL IN LOVE WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK
 
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Creative & Affordable Valentine’s Day Ideas For All Relationships

As we say goodbye to the holiday season, another important day approaches: Valentine's Day. It’s time to start planning that unforgettable date that will sweep your significant other right off their feet! Brilliance Jewelry's COO, Jonathan Ohayon, shares creative ideas that can make your special day memorable, and be easy on your wallet. They also offer a few tips for new relationships that will make your date successful and ignite that spark between the two of you!

Stay home and make dinner together. Whether you whip up something simple like a homemade pizza or spend hours concocting an extravagant three-course meal, cook and enjoy the dinner together. After all, enjoying each other’s company is what Valentine’s Day is meant for. It saves money rather than eating out at a restaurant, and you’ll be able to have intimate quality time bonding with each other.

Give coupons as a gift. “Good for one free back-rub.” Who doesn’t like a free massage from your sexy sweetheart? Or the coupons can say, “Good for one HBO night at home,” and “Good for one night out with the guys.”  Be creative and generous when making them so he or she knows they came from the heart.

Exchange homemade gifts. Homemade doesn’t have to be lame. You can make anything from homemade beer and desserts, to ceramics, blankets, scrapbooks and more. Sew a scarf out of his favorite basketball team’s colors. Print out photos from your early years and make a picture collage for her. Don’t assume a homemade gift isn’t worth the time, for you’ll find it will be the most appreciated and thoughtful gift you give your significant other.

Write your sweetheart a letter. Remind them of all the quirks you love about them. Not only women are charmed by love notes. Even the studliest and most masculine of men will get mushy over an old-fashioned love letter written from the soul.

Send them on a scavenger hunt. You can keep it low budget by staying in the house and writing your own cute clues on Post-it notes, or make it a larger-scale event and send your sweetheart rushing around the city on big, eccentric activities. Just remember that the more time they spend on the hunt, the less time you can spend together.

Drop valentines all day long. Leave notes in his briefcase or heart-shaped chocolates in her car. Little complimentary love notes taped to the bathroom mirror will start his day off perfectly. Keep it PG-13 if you are going to remind him how much you love them while he is at work, or he may get a little flustered in public! Your partner will be sure to race home to be with you after reading those sexy and sweet love letters.

Repeat a date that was special to you. If you’ve been together for a long time, recreate that special night he proposed, or the moment you realized you were falling in love and take them to that special place. Get reservations at the same restaurant, rent the same movie and try to rekindle that initial puppy love and raw infatuation.

New Relationship: Have a picnic. Take a walk to the park with a wicker basket of delicious food and wine and a comfy blanket. Even if it is too cold outside, you can set a blanket on the floor and have an intimate picnic dinner with her favorite tunes playing in the background. This meal will be inexpensive, the environment will be very relaxed, and you can make the mood as romantic as you desire.

New Relationship: Start a new tradition. Pick that new Japanese restaurant you’ve wanted to try and declare it your new go-to sushi spot for Valentine’s Day. Take a walk at the pier and gaze at the ocean, or grab ice cream and catch an old drive-in movie. With a new relationship comes exciting new traditions, and Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to start making memories with your sweetheart.

New Relationship: Do something active. Go bowling, roller-skating, ice-skating, hike to your favorite waterfalls, or stay in and play board games. The more active you are, physically and mentally, the less uncomfortable the date will be. There is always so much pressure on Valentine’s Day to be your most charming and lovable self. Plan an active date ahead of time to remove any stress or fear of awkwardness. Finally, smile, go on your date, and HAVE FUN!!

The creative Valentine's Day date ideas above will ensure that you have an unforgettable time with your sweetheart without having to drain your entire bank account. 


Brought to You By Brilliance Eco-Luxe Jewelry 


Brilliance is known for its conflict-free diamonds and beautiful, luxury, and eco-friendly jewelry that can be given for all occasions, whether its for a proposal, a wedding exchange, or to show your significant other how much you love them, you can find the perfect piece just for the occasion! And, if you’d like to design your own special luxury gift, Brilliance effortlessly walks you through the process of creating jewelry your loved-one will be proud to share with the world.

halo-pink-ring-white-gold-zoom-1classic-six-prong-solitaire-ring-palladium-details-1_0trellis-three-emerald-ring-white-gold-details-1

Pictured above, left to right
Halo Pink Sapphire Gemstone Ring in White GoldClassic Six Prong Solitaire Ring in Palladium, and Trellis Three Emerald Gemstone Ring in White Gold.

Visit Brilliance at their website, follow them on Twitter, and “Like” them on Facebook.

A Review of The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green by Terra Wellington

Terra Wellington has written a great guide for any mom (or dad) interested in going green. From energy savings to green vacations you’ll get information, tips and ideas to help green your family in this detailed and well written green family guide, The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home.
Wellington doesn’t preach, instead she offers useful advice, green ideas, helpful tips and much needed information that will break through all the confusion and greenwashing going on today. She even includes handy little icons that let you know how beneficial the green aspect is and how much it is going to cost. Icons include those for health benefits, time savings, money savings, free stuff, and expenses that range from under $50 to over $1,000.
I can see that Terra really believes in what she writes because her passion and her earth loving tone shine through without being eco-needy, preachy, or flaky. This book is packed with information anyone can use to save time, money and the planet. You don’t have to be a hardcore greenie to want to save money and many tips in this book like switching to CFL’s (she includes a list of the best ones and the most effective ways to use them), putting a blanket on your water heater and turning off unused appliances and lights are simple and will save a lot of money and energy over time.
Terra includes every aspect of going green, too. From simple DIY projects to get-a-professional-to-do-it-for-you projects and all those in between. This is a one stop comprehensive go green mama guide not another green your baby book or get your kids to be green book. The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home has a little bit of that in the book like shopping green and promoting green communities but this book is more about greening the big stuff, saving massive amounts of energy and making big changes that will make a difference today and twenty years from now.
Of course she also tackles the small stuff like cleaning the house with the best green cleaners and how to find out if the cleaners are really green.
Throughout the book you’ll find handy green boxes filled with websites, companies, products and more that are easy to find and simple to use. Terra also includes a handy going green checklist, a guide to recycling just about anything, and even ideas, tips and advice for creating a green garden and growing your own produce.
This is another green reference book that will be finding a permanent home on my book shelf.
The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home
By Terra Wellington
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin; 1 edition
Date: March 17, 2009
ISBN: 978-0312384739
Cover Price: $16.95

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Alien Bride Guest Blog and Giveaway



Alien Bride: Falling For Angels and the Tall Ones

            In Alien Bride, I introduce a race of technologically superior, sentient, non-terrestrial beings, loosely referred to as “the Tall Ones.” They are something between angels and aliens, noncorporeal transhuman entities that became smitten with human life on earth.

            Or more specifically, they became smitten with human women.

            My inspiration in creating the Tall Ones stems from both musing upon sacred texts and scraping the bottom of the bowl of conspiracy theories. (I’d also like to make a quick disclaimer that while I drew inspiration from religious concepts, I make no claims to know The Unknowable--my ideas are simply ideas, what-if’s!)

            Angels are a fascinating subject; what woman wouldn’t love a hunky, heavenly protector? Forbidden love brings an even greater appeal; if one is to follow the pseudepigraphal lore, love between angels and humans is expressly forbidden.

            Delving one step deeper into writings like the Book of Enoch, love between angels and human women can only yield abominations--the Nephilim. The Nephilim are genetic aberrations, half-angel and half-human, giants at least twelve feet tall, with six toes, six fingers, insatiable hungers of all kinds, wicked menaces. According to the Book of Enoch, angels sent to watch over mankind fell when they caved into the temptation to make love to human women. Different angels are credited with teaching humanity different things; some taught of the constellations, some taught metallurgy, some taught the art of war and weaponry. What the angels taught humanity is a mixed bag--some of the skills clearly advanced civilization, while others seem to hasten its destruction. This forces me to speculate upon the motives of such angels, wondering if they did love humanity, or if they wanted to destroy it and took it by force... or perhaps it was a bit of both?

            I’m a junkie for all things ancient civilization, and the astronomical knowledge of ancient people has always been a huge point of fascination for me. It blows my mind thinking about how they could calculate the movements of the stars with precision on par with the Hubble, with no comparable tools at their disposal.

            The Annunaki are another race of beings from the stars said to have descended upon humanity to bestow upon them various great feats of civilization in ancient Sumerian myth. In modern internet-era myth (ask Google... at your own risk), the Annunaki are aliens, and there is a boatload of conspiracy theory extrapolating upon the original mythology, painting the Annunaki as instructors of civilization, and even as politicians today. Some claim they genetically engineered humans to be gold-harvesting slaves, or a food source to be fattened up for the slaughter.

            Honestly, I have no idea about any of it, much less the truth in any of it--but I do think it’s incredibly interesting to consider that some of the most mystifying bits of ancient knowledge came to humanity from an outside source. Then I thought about it, thought about it, thought about it some more... (binged on some Stargate SG-1 in the process...) and wondered, what if?

            Alien Bride is that what-if. It’s spaceships, it’s politics, it’s devils, angels, blood-sucking fiends, and a forbidden romance that is hella sexy. It’s not intended to be canonical; it is, however, completely intended to raise some appreciation about the unsolved mysteries of the world--and to get the reader tangled up in one of those, “oh, no, oh, we shouldn’t, oh--oh--OH--” kind of romances. Whew!



Alien Bride
Sex, Drugs, and Biopunk
Book 1
Brie McGill

Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 1492890758
ASIN: B00G1IL2PM

Number of pages: 419
Word Count: 140,000

Cover Artist: Cover Shot Creations

Amazon     Smashwords     ARe

Book Description:

Ninkasi Mara didn’t plan to celebrate her university graduation entangled in a bungled kidnapping meant for her father, a corrupt senator in the pocket of Techthonic Innovations. Locked alone in the gilded tower of Chateau Bernadette, Ninkasi fears its opulent pleasures will erode her will until she collapses into the comforting arms of the mysterious masked man who frequents her chamber with vintage wines and sumptuous dinners.

For more than twenty years, Orion has plotted the perfect revenge. Manipulating the hand of an insurrectionist faction, he intends to settle a shadowy score with Techthonic Innovations, a biotech giant with a history of dubious experiments. When the faction’s amateurs fail to return with the senator, they further complicate Orion’s task by returning instead with a woman who is a painful reminder of a love lost long ago. Torn between risking the secrecy of the faction and a maelstrom of emotion, Orion secretly visits her chamber in disguise.

When Orion disappears, Ninkasi is dragged into the search and rescue mission. To find him, she must learn the truth of his secrets about his hatred for the company and the physical anomalies he tries to hide. The answers await discovery in a terrifying alternate world beneath her feet in which human sacrifice is the least of her worries.

There is a reason Orion went alone...


About the Author:

Doctors suspect Brie developed an overactive imagination during childhood to cope with the expansive corn maze known as rural Pennsylvania. Unable to afford an operation to have the stories surgically removed from her brain, she opted instead to write them down.

Brie lives with two devious cats, Lunar and Loki. In her spare time, she enjoys making laser sounds with her MiniKorg, channeling entities in hyperspace, and roflstomping video games from the nineties.






https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7085769.Brie_McGill
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