Author Spotlight : P G Wodehouse

It is no secret that I love reading since I have learned how to read first. I have written about reading and classic books I love to read before and not nearly enough as I really feel about it.  There are quite a few authors where I like everything they have written. One of my favorite author is Jane Austen and I am an avid fan. There is another author I like reading is British Author P. G. Wodehouse.

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Image source: Wikipedia

P. G. Wodehouse may not be as popular or well-known in US but some of you may have read or seen stories Jeeves, a smart and witty butler.  P. G. Wodehouse’s full name is Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, was an English writer whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years, and his many writings continue to be widely read. His all novels are funny, witty and has its British humor. Wodehouse took a modest attitude to his own works. In Over Seventy (1957) he wrote: “I go in for what is known in the trade as ‘light writing’ and those who do that – humorists they are sometimes called – are looked down upon by the intelligentsia and sneered at.”

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of 15 plays and of 250 lyrics for some 30 musical comedies.

His famous works includes;

  • Blanding Castle Series: It is about the upper class inhabitants of the fictional rural Blandings Castle. Includes the eccentric Lord Emsworth, obsessed by his prize-winning pig, “Percy” to Emsworth’s unappreciative second son Freddie Threepwood.
  • Psmith Stories: It is about an ingenious jack-of-all-trades with a charming, exaggeratedly refined manner. My favorite Psmith story, Leave it to Psmith, overlaps the Blandings stories in that Psmith works for Lord Emsworth.
  • The Jeeves and Wooster stories: narrated by the wealthy, scatterbrained Bertie Wooster tells stories about ingenious valet Jeeves is always able to solve problems by his intelligence and one of the most famous works by P.G. Wodehouse.
  • The Drones Club stories: It is about the mishaps of certain members of a raucous social club for London’s idle rich. Drones Club stories always involve unnamed club members known as “Eggs”, “Beans” and “Crumpets”, in each story, a well-informed Crumpet will endeavour to tell an Egg or Bean of the latest exploits of another Drones Club member, most frequently Freddie Widgeon or Bingo Little.
  • The Ukridge stories: It is about the charming but unprincipled Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, always looking to enlarge his income through the reluctant assistance of his friend in his schemes. Ukridge is one funny character.
  • His other works series are,  Mr Mulliner storiesOldest member stories, Uncle Fred’s stories and stand alone stories.

If you read some of his work, you will see some of the stories and characters from other series seemed to overlap.  However, it will not matter if you read his book in series or have not read it before as it stands and reads well on its own but surely knowing his other characters sometimes reading more fun.  Being an Indian from India, I am able to understand British humor and find it funny, however some of my US friends do not always get the dry British humor as one reads Wodehouse books, I believe with time his humor and quirkiness of characters gets entertaining so try reading some of his books.

He lived his later life in America and has written and published works from 1902 until  1977. He died in 1975 at age of 93 in New York and left a legacy of funniest stories and funny characters that are larger than life with British humor and lifestyle. He has written many novels, poems, and journalist pieces so it is not possible to list all of his works here. Here are few of my favorite books by my favorite author, P. G. Wodehouse. If you have not read his books before, try checking it out today, as funny, humorous books will lift up your mood in no time.

Best P. G. Wodehouse Books:

Product Details

My Man Jeeves:

If you have not read any Jeeves and Wooster stories, this book is a great book to start with, it comes with story collection of Jeeves and Wooster and also other stories by Wodehouse which are equally entertaining. If you know the ingeniousness of Jeeves, you will be able to reconnect with Jeeves again with this book, I have it in my book collection and I read it from time to time.

Product Details

Right Ho Jeeves:

This book is great for someone who does not know anything about Jeeves or Wooster, it will make you a fan of P.G. Wodehouse and Jeeves. It is funny, witty and you will crack up as you read the story. Remember it is a novel and not a short stories collection like previous one but still fun to read and enjoy.

 

Another funny Jeeves tales, The code of the Woosters is to never let a friend down, and Bertie would do this far more often were it not for his tactful and clever gentleman’s personal gentleman, Jeeves. Bertie is a marvelous type of fellow: over-educated but under-intelligent; useless to society but wealthy beyond any need for scruple; completely numbed by the simple pleasures of an aristocratic life, but always there for his friends and family in a pinch.

 

This is my one of the most favorite book by Wodehouse, while not as famous as Jeeves, this story is simply has it all, romance between Psmith and Eve, mystery, mistaken identity and witty dialogue.  Psmith cannot bear to be in the fish business any longer and advertises that he will do anything as long it has nothing to do with fishes. Clarence’s son, Freddie Threepwood, contacts Psmith and asks him to help with an inside-the-family theft of his aunt’s necklace and adventure begins.

Product Details

 P. G. Wodehouse 10 Books Collection:

This is 10 books series by P. G. Wodehouse. PG Wodehouse Collection The Clicking of Cuthbert, Summer Moonshine, Monkey for Nothing, A Damsel in Distress, The Girl in Blue, Service with a Smile, Ukridge, Full Moon, Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen, Piccadilly Jim.

 

These are my favorite books that I like reading again, which one of is your favorite Wodehouse books?

If you want to find out more click below:

P. G. Wodehouse Books

Product DetailsHis Jeeves and Wooster has been made in to a Television Series starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie from House: Jeeves and Woosters TV Series. Fans of Hugh Laurie’s prickly and dark House character may not realize that Laurie started as a slapstick comedian of the most British type: Very very silly. And nowhere has Laurie been sillier, or more likeable, than as Bertie Wooster in Jeeves & Wooster, the British TV series based on the famed P.G. Wodehouse characters. Playing off Laurie is the equally splendid Stephen Fry  as the arch and supremely competent valet Jeeves. The two create a winning, hilarious pair of tour guides into the world of early-20th-century upper-crust England. Bertie is kind-hearted and a soft touch, and, well, not exactly street smart and without Jeeves he will be lost in life. I wish I had my own Jeeves to help when problem arises! but until the day comes, I simply enjoy watching these 2 silly, great actors in this funny Wodehouse series.

101 Changes: Change 18- Heal The Hurting Heart

I am writing a series of posts about small changes we can make it our life to make our daily living and health improve tenfold. If we try to make huge changes, it is often difficult sustaining it and we have sense of  failure but small changes made slowly becomes habits if done over and over for 21 days.

These are changes I have made or working on it. Would you like to join with me in this journey?

Check out previous 101 Changes Article: 101 Changes: Change 17 – Help Someone Even In Bad Economy

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Life is funny in a way, as we do get most hurt by people closet to our heart, and not by someone whom we barely know. People close to us, be it close friend, sibling, cousins, spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, parents, can hurt us emotionally, sometimes with words and sometimes worse. We are going to talk about hurt by words, an emotional hurt here.

How to heal, when you are hurting and move on, when it is hard and you do not want to? I wrote a post not too long ago about being Have you gotten hurt , it was and is very hard for me to deal with.

We can not prevent of getting hurt by other person, as it would be impossible unless we lived alone in woods. But we can steps to minimize the pain and move forward. How so? Let’s explore.

1. Write down in journal or write a letter to them (Do not mail it, or give it to them, just write it for your eyes only) Write everything down you feel. Talk your feelings to someone else who will understand and not judge you. If you can not find/trust anyone to listen, that is okay, you can talk to a stuffed toy or picture of your friend and let it know how you are hurt and how it is making you feel in details.

2. Once your initial anger/frustration is out, you can try talking to a person who hurt you in person. Make sure, timing is good for both of you and there are no other distractions. When you talk, keep flow and mind open. Do not accuse or attack person but talk about situation in focus. Once you talk, listen to other person’s explanations. It simply could be that person, never realized that he/she was hurting you.

3. Once you talked your feelings out, see how genuine other person’s feelings are. If they are truly in dark or truly sorry, you can forgive and be friends with them slowly.

4. Sometimes, most of us are not so lucky, and other person may not feel they have done anything wrong and they accuse you instead. Try to remain calm but firm in your beliefs. Sometimes, you may have to walk out on that relationship for short-term or permanently, if you think it will not work out.

When relationship ends, it hurts a lot, specially, if you have invested so much of your time and efforts and your kids and their kids life have intermingled. Make a choice and stick to it, as it is not easy to do. Remember, your pride and dignity is important too, once you let someone walk all over you, they may do it again. Truly forgive them but you can choose not remain friends.

5. Forgive yourself for your feelings, it is okay to cry (yes, for guys too) but do not blame your self ,if relationship does not survive. One can not clap with one hand, you will need both parties willing to work out situation.

6. Friendships and relationship with people are complex as human emotions are complex. All of us want to be liked but sometimes, we can not please everyone. Do what you feel right for you and follow your gut feelings. Do not stop making new friends because old one hurt you. Sometimes taking a risk will benefit with new friendship that will be better suited for you.

No matter what happens, try to be open-minded and calm and try to resolve situation first. If you have hurt someone by mistake, tell your apology from heart, if you think you were not wrong, explain your situation and tell them you never meant to hurt them. All of us like to keep relationship intact but when it is not possible, move on without feeling guilty or blaming yourself.

Life teaches us new things and sometimes we became a better person because of it.

Do you have a story to share? Good or not so good ending? How would you handle your hurt emotions?

Gifts from heart during Holidays

Christmas is around the corner and many of us share or exchange gifts with friends and family around this time. Many times, these well meant gifts from people, after a few days or weeks, goes unused in some corner of our house and life. How should we give gifts that can be well liked and used by the receiver? Often time, it is possible to do with little thinking on our part. We will discuss a few type of traditional and not-so traditional gifts to give and receive.

1. Give gift of time

Giving gift of time is cost free, but very helpful. For example, give time for babysitting to someone who has small kids, so they can nap, go out or do something they like. You can take your elderly neighbor shopping, who may not be driving well. You can visit someone who is sick, deliver food, help someone with cleaning up their house, garage, mow their lawn etc., possibilities are endless. Make sure you know some tasks that may require longer time, volunteer and offer what you truly can, otherwise you and receiver both will resent it.
Sometimes, just listening others and being there in their time of need is more appreciated than any store bought gifts.

2. Gift of experience

Zenguy used to fly small plane, it has been a while since he has given up this expensive hobby. However, he has taken me and other friends, relatives on city flying tours and it has been wonderful for all of those who received it. You do not have to fly a plane, you can someone to a Museum they always want to go or subject they wanted to know more about. Cooking together also works, I cook meal with R, who makes mess of kitchen but it is a experience he will remember being part of. Watching stars, going camping, learning and doing something together will remain in our mind, long after, compared to silly plastic toys or gadgets.

3. Home made gifts

Simply made handbags, cookies in jar, soups in jar, hand made sweater or blanket, quilt has much more meaning to recipient. Here are some suggestions for home made gifts ideas from web.

Gifts and Crafts from a jar

50 home made gift ideas from the web

Free crafts and gifts made by you

4. Other suggestions

a. Give cash instead of gift cards, as some of the gift cards charges hidden access fees and expires as months rolls by.
b. If you buy store bought gifts, take gift receipt to recipient, so they can exchange freely without being guilty.
c. Ask them what they truly need or want before buying something you “think” they want.
d. Give partial or all money towards a big items they want/need to buy.
e. If you have large family, draw up names so every one needs to buy one or two gifts only, instead of 22.
f. Consider giving to others less fortunate people than you, charitable donation does not need to waited for Christmas time, and can be done through out the year.

Gift Free Christmas

How to celebrate Christmas without money

No Christmas gift this year has unique ways to letting your friends and family know about no gifts and suggesting alternatives instead. Check it out.

Remember, giving gifts from heart is more important than any expensive item. If we can not pay it with cash, or have money to pay when credit card arrives, we should not purchase it. You can celebrate Christmas without money or gifts and still have great time with family and friends.

Check out:

10 ways to help someone during bad economy

20 ways to be Romantic for Free (or cheap)

How to have Stress Free Thanksgiving

White Friday No shopping day

Meaningful Holiday Celebration from Heart, not wallet

How do you celebrate holidays with friends and family? What do you like or dislike about the gift givings? I sure would love to hear from you and your suggestions.

Zengirl

What Is A Blog? How Can You Start One Today?

What is a Blog?

If you asked this question around 2005, not many people knew what blog was and what that word meant. Now many people are writing on blog today and blogging has became a huge phenomenon. There are many free ways to start a blog such as from blogger and wordpress sites. There are hosted sites you can get from website hosting companies.

While my blog is surely not about how to start blogging or making money, I do often get asked by new readers who may want to start a blog, either to express themselves, show off their recipes, poems and what not. I am certainly not blog expert, but I know a few things since blogging since mid 2009, it has been over 3.5 years so I have picked up things that I want to share.

One caution is, blogging is never get rich quick thing for most of us, I am blogging for a few years and making money takes time and true passion. If one want to make money, then keyword and seo is important. I recommend expert such as Pat Flynn at smart Passive Income blog and Darren at Problogger to find out more on how to blog for making money as they are far better and expert in the blogging to make money field.

I started out on free blogger site first. However, I personally prefer to have my own site hosted on web hosting account, as it give me more control over design and content of my blog sites. I use BlueHost for hosting and I am quite happy with them. However there are many web hosting choices to choose from.

If you are starting out check out how to get blog set up  and website tools needed to get you started off on right Path.

Various Types of Blogs and Sites

As long there is a internet alive, blogging will be too and it has future. It may change with time as internet changes.

Type of Blogs:

Personal Blogs: This is where people write about themselves as a journal, to keep in touch with long distance friends and families, to create a online journal to keep a goal such as losing weight or saving money etc.,

Information Blog: These type of blogs are great for sharing and learning about some particular topic such as gardening, cooking or fitness.

Some people do it for fun, some do it for making money. I like to do it for mostly fun, however it would be nice to make money to recover cost involving hosting, domain and time spent a little for most people.

Details about Type of Sites:

Static Websites: These type of website do not change, they are usually few pages long and have information about one subject and people can learn, click and go. Example includes many bank sites, picture images site, how to articles.

Blog: Blog is where content is often updated and posted. Some on daily basis or some on weekly basis. People can blog how often they like about one subject to multi subjects they like. Fresh content makes it easier for search engine to find and rank your site. That is one of the reason many site including corporates site now has a blog section.

Forum: Some site has a blog and forums and some sites are only forums on specific topic. Even many money and parenting sites has several forums which are quite popular among people. It could be addicting. Forums are best for asking questions and learning from it.

Knowledge/Wiki: Some sites are open for others to share their reviews or point such as IMDB or wikipedia, where people may learn and post knowledge they have.

Podcast Blog: These type of sites have audio based postings, such as interviews you can listen to, music you can listen to and so on. It seems to be popular with many people who can listen to podcast while driving or doing other things.

Video Site: You tube, Vimeo are popular example of these sites that are big. One can start his or her video blog by recording a topic or places to put on the blogs and share the knowledge on subject they are expert on.

I think it is best to use all or some combination of above types of site to get more exposure! What is your view on blog sites?

Famous Homeschoolers

Homeschooler You May Know

There are many famous who were homeschooled in past and our present. Some of the famous actors, writers, scientists, composers, US presidents who were homeschooled. Did you know? I sure did not. Here are some of the famous homeschooler, that you know but did not know they were homeschooled until now.

Here are some of the famous actors and artists of our time that were homeschooled.

  • · Louis Armstrong – king of jazz
  • · Charlie Chaplin – actor
  • · Whoopi Goldberg – actress
  • · Hanson – sibling singing group
  • · Jennifer Love Hewitt – actress
  • · Yehudi Menuhin – child prodigy violinist
  • · Moffatts – Canadian version of Hanson
  • · Frankie Muniz – child actor
  • · LeAnne Rimes – teen-prodigy country music singer
  • · Barlow Girl – Alyssa, Rebecca, and Lauren Contemporary Christian Music
  • · Jonas Brothers – Kevin, Joe, and Nick Performers
  • · Jacob Clemente – Broadway Actor

Famous Homeschoolers

Famous US Presidents Who were Homeschooled:

· John Adams

· John Quincy Adams

· Grover Cleveland

· James Garfield

· William Henry Harrison

· Andrew Jackson

· Thomas Jefferson

· Abraham Lincoln

· James Madison

· Franklin Delano Roosevelt

· Theodore Roosevelt

· John Tyler

· George Washington

· Woodrow Wilson

Homeschooling resources

U.S. Supreme Court Judges

· John Jay

· John Marshall

· John Rutledge

· Sandra Day O’Connor

Scientists

· George Washington Carver

· Pierre Curie

· Albert Einstein

· Michael Faraday – electrochemist

· Oliver Heaviside – physicist and electromagnetism researcher

· T.H. Huxley

· Blaise Pascal

· Booker T. Washington

· Erik Demaine –

Artists Who were Homeschooled

· William Blake

· John Singleton Copley

· Claude Monet

· Grandma Moses

· Charles Peale

· Leonardo da Vinci

· Andrew Wyeth

· Jamie Wyeth

Inventors

· Alexander Graham Bell – invented the telephone

· John Moses Browning – firearms inventor and designer

· Peter Cooper – invented skyscraper, built first U.S. commercial locomotive

· Thomas Edison – invented the stock ticker, mimeograph, phonograph, and perfected the electric light bulb

· Benjamin Franklin – invented the lightning rod

· Elias Howe – invented sewing machine

· William Lear – airplane creator

· Cyrus McCormick – invented grain reaper

· Guglielmo Marconi – developed radio

· Eli Whitney – invented the cotton gin

· Sir Frank Whittle – invented turbo jet engine

· Orville and Wilbur Wright – built the first successful airplane

Composers

· Irving Berlin

· Anton Bruckner

· Noel Coward

· Felix Mendelssohn

· Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

· Francis Poulenc

· John Philip Sousa

Writers

· Hans Christian Anderson

· Margaret Atwood

· Pearl S. Buck

· William F. Buckley, Jr.

· Willa Cather

· Agatha Christie

· Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

· Charles Dickens

· Robert Frost – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

· Charlotte Perkins Gilman

· Alex Haley

· Brett Harte

· L. Ron Hubbard

· C.S. Lewis

· Amy Lowell

· Gabriela Mistral

· Sean O’Casey

· Christopher Paolini – author of #1 NY Times bestseller, Eragon

· Isabel Paterson

· Beatrix Potter – author of the beloved Peter Rabbit Tales

· Carl Sandburg

· George Bernard Shaw

· Mattie J. T. Stepanek – 11-year-old author of Heartsongs

· Mercy Warren

· Phillis Wheatley

· Walt Whitman

· Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Famous Homeschoolers

 

Good source to check out homeschooling resource homeschool world

Importance Of Laughter

Importance of Humor

They say laughter is the best medicine for any one of us, and it is so true when we read or hear funny quotes or funny jokes. I thought of sharing some of the best lawyer jokes humor I have read with you for either small chuckle or big burst of life. Why lawyer jokes? law and lawyer seemed to be dreaded word for most of us. I recently went to lawyer with my friend and it was stressful to say the least, and I thought why not balance it with some of the best lawyer jokes to smile with. You do not have to visit lawyer recently to enjoy this. Hope all of us can enjoy lawyer jokes and its humor without needing the services of any attorneys.

More Q and A and Humor

Question:What do you call parachuting lawyers?
Answer:Skeet.

Question: What’s the difference between lawyers and vampire bats?
Answer: One’s a bloodsucking parasite and the other is a mouse-like creature with wings!

Question:What’s the difference between lawyers and vultures?
Answer:Vultures can’t take their wing tips off.

Question: What’s the difference between female prosecutors and terrorists?
Answer: You can negotiate with terrorists.

Question:What’s the difference between a porcupine and an ambulance chasing BMW carrying three lawyers?
Answer: A porcupine has the pricks on the outside.

Question:How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Fifty-Four — Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their time cards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and twenty eight to bill for professional services.

Question: What separates witnesses from the lowest form of life on earth?
Answer: The partitions around the witness stand.

Question: What do lawyers use for birth control?
Answer: Their personalities.

Question:What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
Answer: A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.

Question:Why should you not run over a lawyer on a bicycle?
Answer: It might be your bicycle.

Question:What do you call a lawyer who doesn’t chase ambulances?
Answer:Retired.

Question:What’s the difference between a lawyer and an onion?
Answer: You cry when you cut up an onion.

Question:What does “NFL football player, NBA basketball player, preacher, lawyer” represent?
Answer:pro’s and con’s

Lawyer Jokes

Old Man, Priest, Doctor and Lawyer:

There was this old man was on his death bed. He wanted badly to take all his money with him. He called his priest, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. The Old man said: “Here’s $30,000 cash to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me.”

At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin.Riding away in a limousine, the priest suddenly broke into tears and confessed that he had only put $20,000 into the envelope because he needed $10,000 for a new baptistery.

Doctor said “Well, since we’re confiding in each other, I only put $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new machine at the hospital which cost $20,000.”

The lawyer was aghast and said. “I’m ashamed of both of you, I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, it held my personal check for the full $30,000.”

Image source: 2013 calendar

101 Changes: Change 15: How To Get Beautiful With Nature Bounty

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I am writing a series of 101 small changes that we can make to make the quality of our life better and build and lead a more happier life that is in tune with our heart and mind. These are small changes that I have made and am working on right now, so I know they are possible for anyone to do.

If you have not read previous posts, check out a few posts on the changes from the past:

101 changes: Change 104: Try New Food; Pomegranate

101 changes series:

I am lazy occasionally to make special time for me to feel beautiful and relax. Another reason that I do not use many store bought beauty products is some of the products my skin is sensitive to it so I like natural way to get beauty as much as possible. I took a special course on how to use natural plant product for beauty treatment when I was in college. It has been awhile, so I forgot all about it until I found my hand written notebook recently and it had some good ideas that made me get started and pumped about using some of the tips.

How To Get Beautiful Natural Way: Tropical Fruits

 

I further did search on how to use natural raw fruits to make beauty regime that is easy to make, does not cost much and easy on my skin. Here are some of the ideas that may work for all women who want natural ways to make skin, nails or face better and beautiful.

1. Softer Skin With Papaya

Papaya has high skin regenerating antioxidant and Vitamin A which helps skin cell and making skin smooth and glowing.  To best use papaya for beauty treatment blend or mash 1/2 cup ripe papaya, 2 table spoon honey and mix it well. Place the puree over clean damp skin on face, hand or feet. Keep for 10 minutes and rinse it warm water and pat dry with soft towel. The mixture can stay in fridge for 1 week.

2. Use Coconut for Shiny and Long Hair

Creamy Coconut milk inside the green coconut has lot of  protein and fatty acid that helps the hair for growth and make it shine. It is instant conditioner of putting shine and life back in to your hair. Break open green coconut (hard part) and get creamy coconut milk from it. If you use canned coconut milk, make sure it is unsweetened before using it on hair. Warm the coconut milk for 30 seconds and massage it in hair and scalp with fingers. Leave it for 15 minutes and then shampoo as usual way. In Indian store you can buy coconut oil for hair and it is simply marvelous.

3. Banana for Double Duty on Skin and Hair

My kids love bananas so we always have some bananas on hand. Banana is rich on Potassium, protein and fatty acid like coconut so it is surely great for hair and as well as skin nourishment.  Mix mashed banana and 2 table spoon of honey and massage in to hair and scalp. Leave it for 10-12 minutes and rinse with shampoo as usual. For skin, use plain mashed banana for a facial peel and leave on for 5 minutes of so, before rinsing it with warm water.

4. Glow Your Skin With Kiwi

I love kiwi fruit but I admit, I do not buy it as often as I should. Now this tip gives me reason to buy these small fruit and eat some and use rest for beautifying my skin. Kiwi fruit are high on Vitamin C, it reduces skin discoloration and makes even tone on skin. Peel the brown skin from Kiwi fruit, add cut and peeled kiwi to blender, add 1 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil and blend it well. Massage the paste over the clean and dry skin. Leave on for 5 minutes and rinse it warm water. Doing twice a week for 1 month will make sure skin glow with radiance!

5. Get Rid Of Pores with Pineapple

Pineapple is great as skin softner as well cleaner. If your pores are visible like mine are, they are clogged with extra oil and dead skin. To reduce or get rid of pores is to mix 1/4 table spoon of fresh pineapple juice with your regular face wash. Use it on your pores daily to minimize the pores. For dry and hard patches of skin area such as elbow, knees and heel, use a thick slice of pineapple and use it as a sponge like to rub on your rough skin area to soften and refresh the skin.

6. Get Stronger nail with Mango

Mango is my favorite fruit and same goes for my whole family so finding any leftover mango for this treatment seems very tough however, I may just try that in season by hiding a mango for me. Take fresh ripe mango and 1 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil, add 3 tablespoon of white sugar until it becomes like a scrub consistency. Take a dab with small finer and rub it over each nail cuticle for minute or so. Rinse with warm water. Scrub will keep for 2 weeks in a fridge.

7. Strawberry for spa facial at home

Once I saw strawberry being used in spa facial and I thought why not to try it at home myself at much cheaper price and without having to drive anywhere. Did you know that some of the teenage acne products has strawberry as an ingredient? Strawberry has type of acid which helps troubled skin of teens with acne problem as well sun spots on adults too. Mash ripe strawberry with fork or blender, add 1 table spoon of sour cream to make a facial mask scrub. Gently massage on face or other troubled skin area, leave it for about 5-7 minutes. Rinse it with warm water.

Summary:

There are many fruits and vegetables can be used for beauty treatments such as peaches, potatoes, cucumber and more. I will have to write part 2 for more beauty from nature tips. You can get more ideas from Nature’s Beauty Secrets: Recipes for Beauty Treatments from the World’s Best Spas.

Image source: http://www.womenworld.org

101 changes: Change 3 – Slow blogging Movement

I wrote this article originally when I was blogging for less than a year, a few years ago. I believe in slow blogging movement then and I still do now.  I blog for passion and not as a business, so it makes it easier for me to do that. As a mother for 2 young kids, my priorities are different. I rather write when I have time and something worth while to say. Read on and I feel it is still relevant as it was then.

I have been blogging at Heart and Mind  at snail’s pace. Recently someone asked, how come I do not post every day.  I said I am into “slow blogging” jokingly, not knowing how much time we can spend doing blog related activities.  Here are a few things that are in blog time black hole.

Many of us are busy bloggers and also blog readers. Blogs are now easy to set up for free and for a few lucky ones have became very famous and made some money in the process. With social network sites such as twitter, facebook, digg, stumble upon and many other social media out there, many bloggers are working crazy hours on internet. Starting a blog is easy but Being a successful blogger is not, as one needs to be out there to market themselves and their blog.  A few bloggers have quit their 9-to-5 job and make enough money to survive just from blogging. Good for them but are they burned out? Can they relax for a few weeks without posting on a vacation or take care of Family in time of need.

Here are a few ways we blogger can spend long and crazy hours on our blog and blog related work; If we are not careful, we can easily spend over 60 hours in a week, that is more than a full time job!

1. Many blogger post article once a day, and some other hard working people like Trent at Simple dollar posts articles twice a day, including weekends and Trent does long posting and great quality content posting. That is lot of writing time! I am always impressed by sheer quantity and quality posts on his site. And there are many good blogs are like that, who are posting good quality content regularly.

2. Many blogger write original content, that requires a some research, typing up and proof reading and editing each post before it goes live. It generally takes about 1 hour to 5 hour for each post as I read it somewhere over the net. (I am unable to find original link, so can not give credit, if you know it, let me know)

3. Many blogger, often write guest posts for other popular and similar niche subject blogs. Generally Guest posts are the best of best stuff and requires great research and time. Also, asking and getting approval of guest posts takes some time.

4. One way we keep in touch and market our blogs is to comment on other blogs, in similar niche subject. That means, really going through RSS or feed burner feed, or actually going on the website to read and leave, thoughtful, maybe helpful and relevant comment on the blogs you read. If you are like me, you read lot of blogs, commenting on each one can take lot of time. Some time I see many commenter leaving generic comments, and one can tell who really read your post and who browsed through it 🙂

5. Many bloggers are on social media, I am told it is part of necessary evil of blogging world. Many times we follow people, read and comment and reply to tweet and face-book fan. It is very easy to spend hours a day on it, if one is not careful. That is one of the reason, I am not on ANY social media for now.

6. Maintaining your own comments, spams, emails takes time each day and must in your blogging-to-do list.

7. Adding new plug-ins and features and looks on your site can take up lot of time. For example, my website, even though Zenguy and web designer did most of the work, I had to supply and give ideas on what I wanted. That meant, I needed to know what features and plug-ins and features are available.

8. For people who have advertisements on their blog, will have to maintain in that area as well.

9. One of my blogger friend is obsessed with Google analytic and keyword search and other site statistics, he is always tweaking and seeing stats, that can hinder creativity and put focus on wrong thing such as traffic, ad revenues and Alexa ranks, instead of following creative writing juices.

10. Some people also attend blog conventions, get together and social in-person meeting, that can be fun to really meet people only you know through their blog only but requires time. If you are doing only as strict business sense, you may miss out on true friendship.

11. Many blogger can create e-books or other valuable content to sell, which requires either time or money to get it written by someone else.

12. Reading and browsing through many blogs, this is my biggest weakness. There are so many wonderful blogs out there, and I have interest not only on personal development, self improvement but also food/cooking, parenting, crafts, news, finance, blogging itself and much more. I may not comment on each blog I read, but I spend lot of time reading cool blogs out there. I am always learning something from everything I read, and there is so much to learn.

As we can see, there is many ways to spend so much time on the blog or blogging related activities. I blog about once or twice a week at Heart and Mind , not because I am not serious about my blogging but I do not want to make blogging a chore, it should be fun or something you value.  No, I am not telling others to stop writing everyday, I enjoy all these posts, but if you think, you are being burned out, you can choose to slow down. I am sure, many loyal readers will stick by you, if your blog content is good enough.

There is also slow blogging movement going on that I was not aware of, read the New york times Article Slow Blog here. Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way. Do what works for you but give a slow blogging a try, you may like it, or at least get some much needed rest.

How do you blog, if you have one? If you are reader, how many blogs do you read and how often? I am curious to others point of view on this.  Are you in to slow blogging movement like slow food movement? I am doing it since I started about 9 months ago, so far I am satisfied but am I am successful? Only time will tell. But, I am enjoying the pace and liking it so far.

To see previous post on 101 changes click here 101 changes -Getting to email Zen and next post 101 changes: Change 4: Plant something .

Blog Related Resource:

Web Hosting: If you are looking for a hosting for you blog, the only one I feel comfortable recommending Bluehost as my Heart and Mind Blog uses Bluehost for hosting.CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM A few of the benefits they offer are;

  • Unlimited hosting space and file transfer, free domain, multiple blogs hosting
  • 30 days money back Guarantee, after 30 days pro rated refund
  • $6.95 for month hosting, 24/7 customer service, free search engine submission

Theme: There are many free and premium themes out there for blogger and websites. Heart and Mind uses Bavotasan Theme. Some of the neat things I like about them;

  • They offer free and low cost Premium theme for $40, a great value
  • They have great customer forum and support where they get back to you quickly

Web Design and Customization: Many of bloggers like me are not programmer, if you need a help with colors, logo, transfer your blog from one platform to another like I did, I would strongly recommend Krissoft Web Design . They are friendly, affordable and reliable and I have used them personally for my site here and very pleased with the result. They are still my go-to-team even now. I do not make money on this, I am simply a happy customer.

  • See their services hereKrissoft Web Services .
  • Very affordable and reliable, a few I had called were charging 10 times of what they are asking
  • Friendly staff, who answered my silly nitpicks without making me feel like tech-fool that I am

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How to Organize: I would not be able to survive without my to-do list and planner. I have taken Franklin Covey Seminar and since then I use for organizing my life with it.

  • I use it for my family organization planning, but you could use it for work/job or business
  • It comes with quick start guide, 52 weekly compass cards and pouch page finder plus more


Zengirl

101 changes: Change 1- Reduce Drinking Soda

101 changes: Change 2: Getting to email Zen

101 changes: Change 3: Slow down- Slow blogging movement

101 changes: Change 4 – Plant something

101 changes: Change 5 – Smile when you wake up

101 changes: Change 6:: Read a book – Benefits of reading

101 changes: Change 7 – Watch less Television and Be more productive

101 changes: Change 8 – Stretch your comfort zone

101 changes: Change 9:  Drink to your health- Benefits of Drinking Tea

101 changes: Change 10: Bring out the artist in You AKA be creative