Sunday, July 28, 2013

Why would buyers pay retail if everything

Sydney Monday 29 July, 2013. In Australia, it is the younger people who have adapted to the digital revolution. Teenagers instantly pick up on opportunities that are made possible by technology and entrepreneurs. They are quick to recognise opportunities like online gaming, travel guides and shopping online because it they are attractive options.We have a great selection of blown glass backyard solar landscape lights and Cheap Granite Countertops. Almost everything they need to buy is cheaper, requires little effort and does not need cash. 

For some people, the best part of online shopping is that they can see what the competition is offering without making a lot of phone calls or spending hours driving around from shop to shop.What is the future for retail shops? Are shopping mall tenants commercial dodos or dinosaurs struggling under the actual demise of their business model from cyber trade ?An example of the real and ongoing revolution in buying behaviour is footwear. 

Every local Westfield Mall has a shoe shop. There are also giant businesses like Target or a Kmart where the shoe department is much smaller but the stock is cheap. These retail giants have in house brands made cheaply in Asia while online stores like Surfstich have fashion brands that are also made in Asia with a huge range of sizes and colours. For price and range reasons, online footwear websites are destroying local shoe shops. 

The cost of buying and holding stock to match the online warehouse sites is too high for a local shoe retailer.The worlds most efficient and cost effective Cheap Bathroom Decoration Products? The more astute footwear buyer will watch online auction sites like GraysOnline or eBay and look for the shoes they want that are being sold on behalf of failed businesses with no reserve. For the price of one pair of shoes at the shopping mall they might get four pairs delivered at an online auction site ! 

Convenience stores get away with rip off prices for milk, cigarettes and chocolate because they are offering desperate last minute crave items but shoes, clothing, electronics or home wares are not cravings. Buyers want to save on everything. Poorer people have to and wealthy people insist on it.To a rational potential retailer or industry observer, the question is, "Why would anyone buy retail and pay full price?" 

The folly of paying too much for anything is not apparent to everyone just yet but older consumers are becoming more comfortable with iphones, ipads and laptops as their own personal checkout. Every new online buyer was yesterdays' retail store customer. It is not a fad. It is retail commercial reality. The evidence of the destruction of the retail industry by online marketing is visible in every small town, suburb or city where "For Rent" signs have appeared in windows that were once showing, clothing, shoes, typewriters or alarm clocks. 

There are winners in old retail because they have adapted to sell online and in person at large warehouses. They do both. They offer cheap fast turnover items like building materials, appliances and food that are all items required for immediate use, are too big to post or are too cheap to post. The postage would be more than the buying price. 

We are seeing the change in Australia. Harvey Norman run by Gerry Harvey and his wife started to complain last year about overseas online stores taking Australian money.. Their protests did not make the government change the rules so Harvey Norman joined the cyber trade march. Harvey Norman now does a lot of business online as a result. For such a polite, quiet and unassuming guy, Ames, who is the co-owner of Twin State Sand and Gravel Co. and Blaktop Inc., has been in the news a lot recently as the moving force behind some of the biggest developments in the Upper Valley, and that has opened up his business to much public speculation. 

In recent weeks, hes heard it on good authority that his Iron A China Stone Carving concept that would double as a quick charge station for gadgets.Horse Park development will be the future home of a Target store or a Lowes or some other giant retailer, or that hes selling his business to rival Pike Industries, or that hes shutting down all together.I just laugh, Ames said last week. Ive even had people come up to me and say they heard it from a reliable source that so-and-so is moving in. I tell them that Im the property owner, and I dont even know who it is. 

Ames and his partner, Stuart Close, are in the final stages of negotiation with a developer to buy Iron Horse Park a 92-acre mixed use development in West Lebanon that has been approved for a 150,000-square-foot retail box store. The developer will provide the anchor tenant. 

Though Ames is not saying who the developer is either Ill let him make that public his identity may be known by September when he appears before the Lebanon Planning Board to request two minor changes to the two office lots in the Iron Horse Park site plan. The approved plan also has two large retail lots, two small restaurant sites and four industrial lots. 

If he gets Planning Board approval, then I think well close by the end of the year, and hell probably start construction next year. 

To make room for the new development, Ames plans to move his business headquarters to the lot next door, which had been a Carroll Concrete plant. (Carroll consolidated its operation at its Plainfield Road plant.) In August, the Twin State office staff will work out of temporary quarters until the current building can be picked up and moved to a new foundation on the adjacent lot. After remodeling is completed in November, the staff will return to the building. 

As far as selling the business, that was never considered. And Pike, a long-time rival of Twin State now owned by the Dublin, Ireland-based Old Castle Materials, would not be a candidate, Ames said. 

The West Lebanon site hasnt been a viable primary source for material for some time, and about 10 years ago a decision was made to find another use for the land, which had been operating as a gravel pit since 1927. The Iron Horse development is the result of that process, which took more than five years. Final city approval was granted this spring.Ames and Close also have benefitted from the foresight of their predecessors Tom Close, Stuarts.father, and Bill Taylor, Ames grandfather who started the company in 1947 to provide the aggregate material needed to build the Wilder Dam. 

The founders had the business sense to realize, in the 1960s, that the West Lebanon site was closing in on its useful life as a primary stone source, and they purchased a large tract of land along the Connecticut River in North Hartland. That site is the future of the company, Ames said.
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Forest Hills was Tampa's overlooked boom-time

Nestled among sprawling oaks and curved roads with names like Fairway,Need a compatible Cheap Stair & Baluster for your car? Fore and Bogie lies an interesting neighborhood with homes that, judging by their general size and age, belie the area's history.Though it dates from the storied 1920s boom years, the neighborhood is not located in South Tampa or Temple Terrace. And though it was designed around and named after a golf course, the course itself no longer has that name. 

The community - Forest Hills - and its golf course, now known as Babe Zaharias, are as old as Davis Islands, Beach Park and Temple Terrace, but it doesn't receive the same attention.The Forest Hills neighborhood, originally part of a much larger area known as Tampa's North Side Country Club, was created in 1926 by Tampa real estate developer Burks L. Hamner. Hamner already had attained a great deal of success earlier in the decade when he partnered with several other investors to create Temple Terrace. He is also credited with establishing the Parkland Estates neighborhood just west of Howard Avenue between Swann and Morrison Avenues. 

Both Parkland Estates and Temple Terrace were well underway by 1926 and, despite the ominous signs of slower land sales, shortages of building materials and an overall backlash against Florida real estate, Hamner pushed forward with his plans to build a new golf course community. Golfland, located in the southern half of his North Side Country Club, is the nucleus of today's Forest Hills/Babe Zaharias neighborhood. 

While the layout of the 18-hole golf course has changed over the years, much has remained the same since the start of Hamner's development. Many of the streets retain their original names, including those mentioned above and others with a golf theme, including Underpar, Teegreen,Most modern headlight designs include Cheap Packing & Loading Products. Divot and Elbow. One name, Anglenine, has since been altered to Angeline, with the majority of the street completely renamed to Forest Hills Drive. 

Linebaugh Avenue was, and is, the southern limit of Golfland/Forest Hills, and Lake Eckles and Lake Eckles Drive made up the northern boundary (Eckles Drive is now known as Forest Hills Drive, too). Woodleigh Avenue, since changed to Armenia Avenue after the latter street was extended this far north, was Golfland's western boundary and North Boulevard was the border to the east. 

Hamner's Golfland neighborhood was just a small part of his larger North Side Country Club community. The North Side community was aptly named - it sat at the northern edge of the city of Tampa, well north of most existing neighborhoods at the time, including West Tampa, Seminole Heights and Sulphur Springs. Due to its location, Hamner marketed, developed and sold the North Side community from south to north. The first subdivision, appropriately named El Portal (The Entrance), was platted in October 1925 with Waters Avenue as its southern border. Just north of that was South Gate, which was almost completely sold out by the end of December 1925, according to newspaper accounts from that time. 

His main focus, though, was Golfland. Hamner decided to go against the prevailing architectural trends, which were dominated by the Mediterranean Revival family of styles, and incorporated a Tudor style into the neighborhood. Several homes from this era still exist, and they certainly stand out from the more common 1950s and 1960s block ranch-style homes. 

One dominating Tudor structure that does not remain is the original golf club clubhouse. It burned down and was replaced by a much simpler building.After the real estate crash of late-1926, land sales in Forest Hills, and Florida in general, diminished greatly.You benefit from buying Cheap Carving Products ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer: The situation worsened after the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. World War II brought prosperity back to the Tampa area, but it took time for it to make it all the way up to Forest Hills. Burks Hamner died in 1948, and his heirs decided to sell their stake in the golf course. 

During this same time, Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was becoming a national celebrity. Her athletic prowess already had won her gold medals in the 1932 Olympic Games, plus dozens of other awards and endorsements. By the late 1930s, she turned her attention to golf. As she did with every other sport in which she participated, she became a world-class golfer. The sport even brought her a husband: She met professional wrestler George Zaharias at a golf tournament in January 1938, and they married a year later. They bought the Forest Hills golf course in 1951 (according to Babe Zaharias' obituary in the New York Times). 

Their time in Tampa didn't last long due to their travel schedules and Babe's cancer diagnosis. Still, they improved the golf course and renamed it the Tampa Golf and Country Club. Unfortunately, they were forced to sell the course when Zaharias' cancer returned. She passed away in 1956 in her home state of Texas. She was 42. 

The golf course again fell into disrepair and was eventually acquired by the city of Tampa in 1974. The Tampa Sports Authority, which operates the course, has worked to upgrade the irrigation system and condition of the course. As a fitting tribute, the golf course is named in honor of its former owner, Babe Zaharias.
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Time to change the story

Some people have asked me Is this redwood marketing campaign just a last-ditch effort to save the timber industry? Absolutely not last ditch. Definitely an effort that will sustain and grow the forest products industry and Humboldt's economy.The industry itself continues to make 50- and 100-year investments that will sustain the industry for the long haul. They face numerous and constantly changing challenges in the current national and global economy. 

One challenge that we make here in Humboldt County is our attitude, our story about the economy. If we keep saying The timber industry is dead, we're looking at the future through the rear-view mirror and anticipating disaster.Certainly, it's been a long, painful slide. In 1965 (the year I was born), just one segment of the industry -- lumber manufacturing -- employed about 11,500 people in Humboldt County. Today, about 4,000 people work in the larger Forest Products industry in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, about 1,500 of which are self-employed. 

It's understandable that we feel loss and pessimism. In less than one lifetime, we have witnessed the bust of the old-growth based boom industry with the departure of some large companies that provided good wages, health and retirement benefits, and scholarships for our children. Many businesses and much personal wealth have been built with timber dollars. 

Sadly, we can't bring back the past. We can't make a boom industry boom again. But the Forest Products industry is still an integral part of our economy and it is sustainable here. It still pays 30 percent higher than the regional average wage, and we anticipate about 2,400 jobs opening up as people retire from the industry. 

It's time for a new story. Today, Forest Products is a key industry among others that are bringing new products to market. Through Prosperity 2012, we asked business owners and executives what opportunities and constraints do their industries need to address. This process involved a cross-section of leaders in each of the eight target industries. Even as over 450 community leaders helped shape the action plan of our economic development strategy, the target industry priorities remained the foundation and focus of the actions.You benefit from buying Cheap Carving Products ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer: 

For the leaders in the Forest Products industry, re-building the market share of redwood is a real opportunity. Like cotton in the 1960s losing market share to synthetic fabrics, redwood has lost about 40 percent market to composite decking materials. Plastic and composite decking brands debuted in the 1990s with aggressive marketing campaigns. (Today Trex, the plastic decking leader, spends about $20 million a year on marketing). Redwood did not respond. Until now. 

The benefits of using redwood are compelling -- the natural material is stronger, more beautiful, less expensive, more comfortable to the touch, and far more environmentally friendly than plastic/composite products.For example, plastic/composite products spew emissions into the atmosphere when they are produced, while redwood actually reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Ask yourself: Where does a plastic/composite deck go when the deck is replaced? In the landfill. If it burns, in our air. 

Humboldt Redwood Company and The California Redwood Company,Most modern headlight designs include Cheap Packing & Loading Products. along with the Humboldt County Economic Development Division, are collaborating and pooling resources to bring customers back to redwood.Together, we utilized market research to create a new advertising campaign touting the benefits of Real. Strong. Redwood. A large research panel was shown a short video clip about the benefits of redwood decking versus plastic/composite decking; after viewing the clip, reports showed their buying intentions changed dramatically to redwood. 

With the Real.Strong.Redwood campaign, The California Redwood Company and Humboldt Redwood Company have launched a 10-year mission to make redwood the premier brand in decking. Their investments for the first three years match a $750,000 grant from the Headwaters Fund Forest Products Initiative. 

The dictionary defines it as "the simultaneous action of separate agencies which, together, have a greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects" -- precisely what may be happening at the airport in Vacaville. 

In April, Solano County, which operates the airport, joined with the city of Vacaville and Solano Community College in agreeing to officially negotiate with the Jimmy Doolittle Air and Space Museum Education Foundation to bring a museum to the Nut Tree facility.More than a museum, actually. The preliminary proposal for the 21-acre site includes a museum,Need a compatible Cheap Stair & Baluster for your car? an air park, a multi-use facility that could accommodate up to 1,000 people, a hotel, a restaurant and an education and restoration center. 

In recent years, some of SCC's aviation students have been volunteering with the foundation, helping it maintain aircraft currently on display at the Travis Air Force Base Heritage Center. The foundation benefits from the volunteer labor and the students get some hands-on experience in maintaining aircraft. 

If ICON comes in, it could bring as many as 500 manufacturing jobs, at least some of which will almost certainly require workers with aviation training. SCC's aviation graduates would seem to be well placed -- and President Laguerre says the college is open to expanding that program to fill the needs of the job market. 

Both pilots in training and museum visitors will need places to stay and restaurants in which to dine. That might finally bring about the hotel and upscale restaurants initially proposed to accompany the Nut Tree shopping center.And if there are enough people trying to get from the airport to the shopping center on a regular basis, might the Nut Tree Train once again run between the two? Plenty of local residents would welcome that. 

Of course, there are still a lot of "ifs" to all of these plans: The Doolittle Foundation is still trying to raise the initial $2 million to purchase the property. It hasn't even started on funding the actual museum.ICON is still negotiating with the city and has other sites in mind, too. Even if it locates here, there's no guarantee it will succeed as a business.
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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Father's patience runs out for sunday picnic

EMC Lifestyle -All Mother needed for an excuse to have a picnic was a sunny and hot Sunday afternoon - after church, of course. Father thought the whole idea was nonsense, when you could spend the afternoon having a little nap in the grape arbour."That once-a-year church picnic is enough for me," he lamented. Father's resting in the summer often moved him from the rocking chair in the kitchen with his feet on the oven door of the Findlay Oval, to the grape arbour, where an old lawn chair and the two-seater swing sat in the cool haven of the overhanging grape leaves.

But of course, as for the Sunday picnic, Mother overruled and we five children were thrilled beyond belief...we would be spending the afternoon on the banks of the Bonnechere. It was a hefty walk to get to the river, overloaded as we were with baskets of lunch, bats and balls, our swim suits and towels, Mother's newspapers, scrap books and diaries, and always I had to take at least one doll with me too.As long as Father had his pipe and a good supply of tobacco that was about all he was interested in lugging down to the Bonnechere. The cook stove would be allowed to go out on Saturday night. That meant a cold breakfast, which further annoyed Father,

who didn't consider any meal worth pulling a chair up to the table for, unless it included meat and potatoes as part of the menu. But Mother let the stove die down because that meant a nice cool kitchen when we got back from our picnic on Sunday, a rare treat from a stove that blasted out blistering heat waves 24 hours a day every other day of the week.

As soon as we got back from church, and while the boys and Father tended to the last-minute chores at the barn, Audrey and Mother would haul out of the ice box bowls of food that had been prepared the night before. This meant hard boiled eggs, mashed fine, sliced cold pork and roast beef, cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes, and of course, a slab cake smothered in brown-sugar icing. It didn't take long for thick sandwiches, sliced vegetables and a huge sealer of iced tea to be ready to pack into 11-quart baskets, all wrapped in an ample supply of clean flour bag tea towels. We had enough food to feed half of Renfrew County! As much as could be would be piled on the little wagon with the wobbly tin wheels,We have a great selection of blown glass backyard solar landscape lights and Shun Stone Granite Countertops. and which I used to hitch our old collie dog to, to pull my dolls around the yard. But it was better than lugging the heavy baskets down to the river.

We always went to the same spot on the Bonnechere. This was where the old maple tree had long since fallen across the narrowest part of the river, and where there was a wide grassy bank and more trees. My sister Audrey spread out two blankets and covered the little wagon with another to keep the lunch as cold as possible.Wearing short pants for bathing suits, my brothers were in the water almost as soon as we hit the river, Mother had propped herself against a tree with her books and papers spread around her, Audrey and I hid behind a tree and stripped off our clothes and got into two suits Aunt Freda had sent us from Chicago. They were scratchy, made of pure wool,Are you still hesitating about where to buy Shun Stone Granite Slabs? and as soon as they were wet, went as hard as cement, but they were all we had.

Father walked around with his pipe hanging out of his mouth, not looking at all pleased. He asked Mother when she planned on taking out the lunch, lamenting that what he had for breakfast couldn't really be called a decent meal. Mother said lunch was a long way off, and he might as well settle down and have a little nap.The afternoon wore on. Emerson said he didn't care if we ever went back home. The three boys had water fights, tried to catch fish with a makeshift pole, and jumped off the fallen tree to see who could land the farthest. Audrey was reading her books gotten from the Renfrew Library and I was playing with my doll, pretending she was a brand new baby and this was her first outing on a picnic.

Well, Father never did settle down for a nap. He walked the shoreline, he lit and relit his pipe, and when he finally sat down with his back against a tree, he never took his eyes off the blanket covering the lunch."Think I'll head back to the barns to check on that cow that didn't look too good this morning," he said.Even though we had yet to eat the lunch, I knew Father wouldn't be back. And I knew too, the cow had little to do with it.

When the sun was heading for the west, and we had eaten the lunch, the boys had dried off, and everything was packed onto the little red wagon, Father still hadn't come back. Mother assured me he would be just fine. "He just doesn't like picnics," she said. We gathered up our belongings and started for home.I saw it before anyone else. There was smoke coming out of the chimney over our house! Mother just let out a long and laboured sigh when I pointed it out to her.

We opened the kitchen door to blazing heat, and there was Father sitting at the old pine table. He hadn't bothered taking off his straw hat, and in front of him was a dinner plate piled high with fried potatoes, slabs of salt pork, and enough buttered bread to feed a family of six! The white granite teapot was boiling on the stove, Father had opened a jar of preserves and they weren't in a fruit nappy, but in a soup bowl! "Well, so much for a nice cool kitchen," was all Mother said.Finally, Father stopped shovelling in his food long enough to look up from his plate and say to Mother. "A man can't be expected to work from dawn to dusk and survive on a sandwich and a piece of cake," then taking another long slurp of hot tea from his saucer.

Art is its own kind of alchemy. It puts materials together in hopes that the resulting creation might transcend its form. Put spray paint to a wall and you can reclaim a space as if you were adding props to a set between scenes. Cut a marble slab with a chisel and it's possible you'll find a human body buried somewhere within.

The Medium's Session, the current exhibit hanging at Zeitgeist's new space in the ever-expanding Wedgewood-Houston district, takes this idea and builds a comprehensive, fully realized survey of art forms around it. Curator Patrick DeGuira himself an artist, although he doesn't exhibit his own work here called the title a reference to "medium as a material and the medium as a channel," and calls the word "session" a derivative of "sance," another supernatural exploration. But this is not an exhibit that stirs up Holy Mountain-esque imaginings of the occult or even the psychedelic. It's more like an episode of Twin Peaks, where the ordinary a box fan, a draped piece of cloth, a single tree swaying in the breeze takes on mystical, otherworldly values.

The gallery entrance is flanked by some of the exhibition's most arresting works. On the floor to the right, it appears that a couple of discarded cardboard boxes have been broken down and stacked haphazardly on top of one another. Almost as quickly as you begin to wonder why the gallery owner hasn't taken out the trash, a detail or two comes into focus. Upon closer inspection, the boxes are pieces of handwoven fabric, which artist Frances Trombly has meticulously crafted with embroidered UPS labels, postal codes, even a few odd scrawls that look like they're written in Sharpie.

Hanging from the ceiling nearby is "Said Something," a sculpture by Ron Lambert that seems both sad and comical, like a Ziggy cartoon come to life. It looks like a round marquee that's been broken apart, but its two missing pieces lying on the floor below are still connected by wires, so each piece still has functioning lights. It's like a visual sad trombone, at once majestic and failing.
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Empowering women in South Sudan

When Sevda Cibo returned to the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici in March 1996 after spending most of the war as a refugee, she found her house in ruins with only a few walls still standing.With a family to support and no other means of earning an income to rebuild her home, she began using one simple skill C knitting.When we returned to Hadzici after the war, everything was destroyed, but in time, I earned enough from knitting to rebuild the house, said Cibo, now 55 and a widow. 

Every penny Cibo has earned since then has been invested into the house she shares with her younger son, his wife and their son. Her other son lives with his wife and three children nearby. None of them works, so Sevdas knitting is the main source of income for them all.Cibo has found new support as a member of the Udruzene, Association of Women for the Preservation of Handicrafts, set up a year ago with about 50 female members from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members produce clothing which they mostly design themselves, sometimes using patterns from France and Japan, the markets to which they then export. 

I wouldnt be able to survive without knitting today because my only other source of income is [my late husbands monthly] pension of 300 BAM [Bosnian marks; 150 euro], Cibo said. However, thanks to my knitting, both my children and I have enough, she added as she slowly crocheted a cotton necklace with black and white flowers, a present for her grandchild.My older granddaughter is about to finish high school and her grandma has made her a necklace for a graduation ceremony. This is a unique piece. Shell be wearing something that no one else has, Cibo said proudly. My grandson will start school in September. I will buy him everything he needs, a pencil-box, bag, notebooks, and clothes. Knitting enables me to help my family and it also makes me happy. 

Udruzene was founded by Nadira Mingasson, a young woman who worked in childrens fashion during a long period spent living in France.I had always looked for a way to establish a link between France and Bosnia because I really wanted to participate in the development and reconstruction of this country after the war, Mingasson said.Many members of the association suffered greatly during the 1992-1995 conflict. Some were injured, spent time in prison camps or were sexually abused. Others lost family members or were forced from their homes.Are you still hesitating about where to buy Shun Stone Granite Slabs? 

For many of them, crocheting and knitting mean more than just an extra income, but also contribute to psychological recovery.Fazila Bahtanovic is originally from Rogatica, a small town near Sarajevo, and lost a leg during the war, in May 1992. She also spent time in a Bosnian Serb-run prison camp in Rogatica before she fled to Sarajevo, where she still lives.Work is important to me because it helps me not to think about the past. Knitting relaxes me and it pays well, too, said Fazila, now in her fifties. I hope that one day Ill see our products on TV, worn by professional models. 

Mingasson says she herself has noticed how fulfilling her members find their work, boosted by becoming independent members of their households.A lot of women say they are happy to have their own money, the money they have earned due to their talent and knowledge, Mingasson said. One of our members, whom we call Diva,We have a great selection of blown glass backyard solar landscape lights and Shun Stone Granite Countertops. is much happier than she used to be. Now she takes care of her appearance C she puts her make up on, dyes her hair, and has even fixed her teeth. Besides being a mother and a housewife, she is now proud to be an equal member of society who works and contributes. 

When Im knitting, I feel useful, and when I feel useful, I know what I am living for, said Azra Dedic, another association member.Dedic, now 42, lived in Visegrad before the war, a historic town in eastern Bosnia where Bosnian Serb forces committed numerous crimes against the non-Serb population during the war.She lost many members of her family there and was forced to leave her home in June 1992. Today, she lives with her family in Tarcin, a small town near Sarajevo, and rarely visits Visegrad. 

My husband was imprisoned there and he is one of the few who have survived, she said. We have a new life here in Tarcin and I have decided to turn the page and stop thinking about the past because I cannot change anything.But Dedic says that she has found peace and happiness in knitting for Udruzene and still remembers how thrilled she was when she received her first paycheck. 

I was circling around the bank with my colleague, waiting to hear that the money was transferred to my account, she recalled. Then we went to a supermarket and bought a lot of stuff. We didnt get much money, but we managed to buy a lot, she added with a smile.Working in the association means a lot to me. If nothing, I can cover my overheads and some of my personal needs. 

Bahtanovic, too, spent her first payment on food, but now manages to surprise her husband and herself with some clothing bought with the money she earns.All of us women have our own wishes and plans, she added. My house is being refurbished and my priorities are to repair the steps, the kitchen and to get new curtains, and I hope I will be able to do all that with the money Ill earn by knitting. 

In early 2013, with the help of the Norwegian embassy in Sarajevo, Udruzenes handicrafts were shown at a fair in Tokyo.At a fair in Paris, I established contact with Japanese clients, explained Mingasson. Then we decided to take a chance and I went to Tokyo to participate in a fair with these womens handicrafts. And it paid off.The association has big plans, which include new sales exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo and Amsterdam, and will soon move from into bigger premises, where they will be able to organise training and social events. 

The idea is that we gather more women and increase our production, said Mingasson.Mingasson believes that it is vital to invest in these women through crafts training as it also boosts their confidence.Its important that they realise that they can contribute to this society, she said. But for Bosnian society to really change, the role of women C especially those who were the victims of war C has to change, too. Enabling them to work and feel useful is one of the best ways to achieve that.
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Rundown bungalow gives way to a chic

Blythwood Road is a hilly road. And 355 Blythwood happens to be on the south side of one of its hills. As such, the lot is slanted, which posed a challenge for Mr. Toma and his team.You will never need to change the bulbs and your granitetrade will last for years and years. But once he was finished with digging and the foundation, it was smooth sailing and the rest of the home was built within 10 months. 

The finished house has a traditional North Toronto front that reveals a chic, contemporary inside. I wanted to build something with very clean lines, Mr. Toma said. I didnt want it to be gaudy.The new home takes up a similar footprint to the bungalow. The four main bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom and walk-in closets, are on the second floor. 

While the main floor has the elegant and modern dining/living room space, a family room is adjoined to the expansive kitchen, which is nearly 17 feet by 13 feet.In the basement, there is a fifth bedroom, a wine cellar, a mirrored exercise room and a massive lounge area, equally suited for a man cave or a childrens playroom.But some of the more impressive elements of 355 Blythwood Rd. are in the details. Its hard not to notice the height of the building, for example. Mr. Toma incorporated vaulted ceilings since he couldnt build a third floor (due to zoning restrictions). When youre standing in the hallway of the second floor, theres 27 feet of space before you hit the skyline. 

The effect of these high ceilings is that it makes you feel like youre living in a larger house, said Harvey Kalles sales representative Adam Weiner. It really opens the space and makes it airy.There are also the pale oak floors that run through the main and second floors. They give the house a rustic quality, tying in the cottage-feel that the fa?ade of the home brings to the property.This flooring is very friendly for living, Mr. Toma said. You could be moving furniture or your kids could be playing and you wont even notice any scratches. 

Being able to live in this luxury house is important to Mr. Toma, who envisioned it being a home for a young family that appreciates design.He made a conscious effort to provide continuity through his reincorporation of details in different areas of the house. For example, the marble in the foyer is also featured around the living-room fireplace, and a similar shade of tiles was used for the backsplash of the kitchen. 

All of the details tie in, right down to the colour palette for the house, said Mr. Toma, adding that only three shades of paint were used in the entire structure.The level of detail that was brought to the inside of the home was also implemented when Mr. Toma built the outdoor space. In order to enjoy the long backyard, which backs onto the ravine, he built a patio space made of interlocking brick that has a gas line for a barbecue. There is also a deck that overlooks the greenery below. 

And yet Mr. Tomas favourite place to enjoy the backyard is not out on the deck but inside the master bathroom that overlooks the canopy outside.You could be in the master bath, with its big windows, and you wont need curtains, he said. There is great privacy to the back of the house.Mr. Weiner agrees that the master suite is an exceptional place in the house.After searching around the Lights section of this forum, I've come across two main suppliers for Shun Stone Tombstone & Monuments. He adds that he appreciates its high ceilings (even inside the walk-in closet) and the Juliet balcony. 

Another room that is special to Mr. Toma, though, is the study.Its so different from the other rooms with its floor-to-ceiling walnut panelling, he said. But it doesnt feel so dark.Part of the reason why its not dark is because it shares the same high-gloss white cabinetry as the storage units in the kitchen and family room. And even though it has a traditional, almost academic feel to it, the office has some very modern finishes, like its sleek fireplace and globular light fixture. 

It looks like a photo from a catalog for California-style living. And that is no accident: This is home to Lily Kanter, co-founder of Serena & Lily, the nearly 10-year-old home-dcor catalog company known for its West Coast aesthetic and Marimekko-meets-Lilly Pulitzer style. Typical Serena & Lily items include laid-back rattan chairs, turquoise leather footstools and bed sheets imprinted with an aqua mosaic pattern modeled on Spanish tiles. The brand just opened a store in the Hamptons and has celebrity clients including Princess Haya bint Al Hussein and actress Jennifer Garner, who used Serena & Lily to decorate her first nursery. The company won't comment on its sales, but it distributes more than seven million catalogs a year. 

The house didn't always look so picture-perfect. Ms. Kanter, 48, and her husband, Marc Sarosi, 51, a gemstone dealer, bought the six-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot craftsman in 2005 for about $2 million. In foreclosure, it was what Mr. Sarosi calls a "total disaster," with leaky sewage pipes, wires hanging out of the ceiling, trees overgrown and rooms in bad condition. The couple didn't change much of the house's structure, knocking down only one wall and taking out one bedroom to create a master bathroom. But they redid all the surfaces and installed new gas, heating, electrical and sewage systems. 

The overall effect is simple and upscale, and, of course, in line with the Serena & Lily look.The worlds most efficient and cost effective Shun Stone Bathroom Decoration Products? There are upholstered white chairs and Serena & Lily bed sheets, paintings and mirrors. The kitchen has white cabinets with glass doors, marble countertops, beadboard walls and ceilings, slate floors and gray subway-tiled backsplashes. The master bedroom has a balcony that looks out to the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and downtown San Francisco. 

What isn't from Serena & Lily looks just as All-American. The third-floor playroom has a bar with a popcorn machine, a movie-theater-style hot dog maker, a jukebox, and ping pong, foosball and air hockey. Ms. Kanter painted all the moldings white, put in Ann Sacks tiles, refinished the wood floors and painted the walls mostly gray. 

Ms. Kanter made sure every aspect of the house hewed to her aesthetics, which meant that the majority of Mr. Sarosi's collection of about 60 crystals and rocksmineral specimens collected from Africa, where he lived mining gemstones for a number of yearsdidn't make it past the front door. Only a fewthose with certain colors that work with the rest of the dcorwere allowed in the living room, he says. The rest are now displayed along the walkways and between the retaining walls in the terraced gardens that Mr. Sarosi created. 

In 2002, Ms. Kanter started a luxury baby and kids furnishing store in Mill Valley near their 2,200-square-foot home at the time. "I missed the pace of my former career. I have an entrepreneurial energy," she says. Frustrated by the lack of high-end crib sheets, she teamed up with textile designer Serena Dugan in 2003 to start a company creating and selling kids' bedding of their own design, putting out a catalog for their 15 collections. Ms. Kanter cites Finnish design company Marimekko and American fashion designer Tory Burch as sources of inspiration, and says she and Ms. Dugan travel extensively to get ideas for fabric designs and products. 

In 2005, on the verge of having their third son, Ms. Kanter and Mr. Sarosi were ready to move to a bigger house. They loved the size and the bones of the house on the hill they bought as well as its history: On Miller Avenue, it is one of the original Mill Valley homes, built by one of the town's pioneers.
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A collection of a lifetime

Photographs and trinkets overflowing onto the cleared path beneath his feet, Dan Brooks looks fondly upon his mothers 96 years of life, represented in an art installation he and his daughter Treeya created, entitled, Maybelle.Maybelle celebrates Seattle native Maybelle Brooks life through her artwork, crafts, collections and pictures. 

Mimicking the natural flow of a river, the exhibit displayed Maybelles collection of pressed flowers, dried mushrooms,I'm looking at getting the light bar from ford racing and was wondering who sells the Shun Stone Marble Tiles. nuts and greeting cards sent from friends over Maybelles life, snaking through four rooms of a vacant office building. At the mouth of the river rests two waterfalls, one composed of greeting cards from the 1930s and the other of crocheted doilies and tablecloths handmade by Maybelles mother. After she passed away we had all of this stuff, so we decided that we would put together a show to honor her, Treeya said. 

We had [the installation] in the shape of a river to represent the flow of life, and water, how everything is constantly moving, Treeya said.Dan and his daughter Treeya put on the art installation celebrating Maybelles life through her lifelong collections and art work July 5 through 16. The exhibition was part of the Commercial Street Theater Project, a local groups effort to turn the office buildings into a community performance and gathering space. 

The installation featured four generations of artwork in the family. Treeyas photography, Dans paintings, Maybelles brothers wood carvings and the dollhouse her father built for her as a little girl, were all interspersed with Maybelles crafty collections.Yesterday, the WSJ featured a piece explaining how the economy's "stuck in neutral." Today, it features"reasons for economic hope," including repaired balance sheets, the shale boom, reduced health care inflation, and falling budget deficits. 

At the risk of being a little too folksy, I think the gear shift analogy is a good one (with the caveat that standard transmissions are a dying breed; I recently needed my 23-year-old assistant to park my car for me, but this highly capable young man had no idea how to drive a stick).If we think of the gears as points of real GDP growth, the U.S. is more in second gear than neutral (i.e., we're puttering along at around 2 percent). France is in neutral, the UK maybe shifting from neutral to first. The Euro area as a whole is in reverse, with Italy and Spain driving backwards pretty fast. 

The problem here is that while the above list of positive developments from today's sunnier WSJ assessment is a good one, and every forecast I've seen has us growing faster pretty soon, the job market, even with recent gains, still remains slack. And as long as that's the case, it will be tough to accelerate to higher gears. 

Then there's distribution. Protracted unemployment is a big reason why growth has flowed upwards. The real income of the typical household is down 5 percent over the recovery, corporate profitability is near an all-time high, the real S&P index is up 60 percent, and the compensation share of national income -- the stuff working people depend on -- is at a 50-year low. 

Frankly, I'm worried. We're definitely doing better than Europe, but we have a problem they don't: structural inequalities are more deeply embedded in our economy than their economies. So, especially with the president about to hold forth on a pro-middle-class economic agenda, it's not enough to cite positive macro trends without considering whether they're reaching the broad swath of households whose economic prospects have been disconnected from growth for many years. 

We may shift into higher gears, but if we're zipping along through gated neighborhoods in a Ferrari with no passengers from the bottom 99 percent, we'll still be in trouble.In other words, moving my folksy analogies from cars to arts-and-crafts, now is the time to get out the policy glue that can reconnect growth and middle-class prosperity. And that's what I expect to hear from the president later this week. 

Three new tenants will fill three vacant retail buildings near Parmatown Mall, city officials have revealed.The news came Monday during a City Council discussion about renovation of the mall into The Shoppes at Parma.Councilwoman Debbie Lime asked whether a new business is moving into the former OfficeMax building at 8443 Day Drive, just south of the mall. 

Shelley Cullins, the citys economic development officer and grant writer, said a fitness business is moving into the former OfficeMax.On Tuesday, Erik Tollerup, the citys director of community services and economic development, said the fitness business is Planet Fitness, a nationwide chain of health clubs. 

In March, the groups meeting space was vandalized. Three computers and a small amount of cash were stolen. In response, the group received more donations, including a large equipment donation from 454 Life Sciences, a Branford company that develops and commercializes DNA sequencing.Members decided to use the money and equipment to move into a 4,000-square-foot space at 290 Pratt St. The new lab includes a classroom, an arts and crafts workspace, a metal working shop and a data center.Im excited about the changes,Most modern headlight designs include Shun Stone Marble Slabs. more room, more industrial tools, more IT gear to tinker with and learn on, said Will Genovese, vice president of the groups board of directors. We are essentially a hacker space that encompasses all type of learning, hands-on woodworking, 3D printing, robotics, electronics, soldering, art and more. 

The servers can host peoples projects, run projects continuously and store a lot of information at one time. William Reyor, president of the groups board of directors, said the organization wants to make the data center available for students, classes and people working on scientific and educational projects. 

Since the new space was once occupied by a woodworking company, much of the tools and equipment were left there,We are professional wholesale best Shun Stone Outdoor Paving Stone,large LED Dome / Reading Lampwholesale order. including industrial wood presses and saws, Reyor said. A classroom area is now available, outfitted with a projector and sound system.
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Creating quality craftsmen

As the Sultanate celebrates Blessed Renaissance Day on July 23, the reality of Omani achievements looms large. Full-fledged Renaissance projects have made the Sultanate a leader in terms of development and stability.I'm looking at getting the light bar from ford racing and was wondering who sells the Shun Stone Marble Tiles. The country is currently witnessing integrated development under the wise and inspirational leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. Renaissance Day is close to the heart of every Omani who contributes towards cementing the renaissance of civilisation in Oman by providing a dignified life for every Omani citizen. The comprehensive Omani Renaissance has yielded over 43 years of lofty achievements that have laid a firm foundation for the present and the future, paying homage to the relationship between Oman's beloved leader and His loyal people.

As part of efforts to highlight the civilised face of the Sultanate, considerable attention was paid to Royal directives on the importance of development and modernisation, based upon respecting the professions of our parents and grandparents and on maintaining the country's national identity. PACI continues to adopt measures that serve the Royal directives.

The authority contributes to the course of progress, development, and cultural, social, and economic prosperity by establishing an integrated system for the Omani craft sector.

The Omani Craft Sector has witnessed during the first decade following the establishment of the PACI a record growth and a qualitative leap in various areas of craft work and performance inside the Sultanate to meet the royal vision of HM Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, May Allah keep and protect Him, emphasizing on the importance of maintaining the craft legacies and promoting the self-motivation to perform such craft works.

The comprehensive development that has been achieved during the reign of the Blessed Renaissance had a great effect on the growth and development of the craft sector and in increasing the efficiency of productivity. The crafts have derived their innovation and unique design from pivotal foundations that embody the royal vision for the civilizational identity. It is a sound approach taken by our beloved Leader since the beginning of the renaissance age and continuing until now. This royal care contributed in promoting the craft sector and maintaining craft industries as a legacy of our civilization.

The craft projects scattered throughout the different wilayats of the Sultanate realistically express the scheduled progress and the qualitative leap achieved in various areas of work with a view to reaching an integrated sector according to a modern developed vision that contributes to the diverse growth for the economic source of income for citizens.

The craft industries sector now represents an important source of income for many Omani nationals. For this reason, the PACI works on developing and protecting the crafts sector according to an integrated and deliberate strategy that includes contributing to providing support for craftsmen, with the objective of improving their sources of income and increasing local production of advanced Omani craft industries, in addition to increasing the contribution of the craft sector to the economic diversification and Oman's Gross Domestic Product.

The Omani Craft Sector has witnessed a significant development in various training and production areas. The PACI has endeavored to promote the craft sector through setting the plans and executive programs for the approved policies in the fields of the nation's craft industries. It also records details about all craft industries, including raw materials and their uses. Moreover, authorities takes care of the research activities to meet present and future needs and create other potential craft industries.

he Sultanate, represented by the Public Authority for Craft Industries, has been recently chosen to fill the position of the vice chairperson for the World Crafts Council for the Asia Western Pacific Region (AWP), due to the contribution of the PACI in promoting the craft sector and its efforts to promote common international actions in the field of protecting and developing the craft industries. This, in turn, reflects the trust of the member countries of the international Craft Council in the Sultanate and its pivotal role in executing meaningful joint programs that promote community awareness about craft industries. It also has developed efforts of joint coordination and cooperation. The unanimous choice of the Sultanate to fill the position of Vice President for the International Craft Council reflects the wide international appreciation for the Sultanate, under the wise leadership of HM Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, May Allah keep and protect Him, and the royal care paid by HM for craft legacies and traditional industries.We are professional wholesale best Shun Stone Outdoor Paving Stone,large LED Dome / Reading Lampwholesale order.

International and regional organizations and authorities have a clear impact on adopting the joint initiatives concerning the preservation of craft industries, to ensure the protection of innovations through complying with signed agreements and pacts. The Sultanate has enriched efforts, in the course of international actions with regard to conserving and developing crafts. To show its appreciation for such a role, the Public Authority for Craft Industries has been chosen to fill the position of vice chairperson for the World Crafts Council for the Asia Western Pacific Region (AWP).

The General Commission for the vice chairman of the World Crafts Council for the Asia Western Pacific Region (AWP) praised, during its session held recently in Kuwait under the chairmanship of the World Crafts Council, the efforts exerted by the Sultanate in different fields of protecting and developing crafts; in addition to its plans and programs to ensure the sustainability of the craft industries. The commission stressed the importance of using the Sultanate as role-model in supporting and care for crafts and their craftsmen.Most modern headlight designs include Shun Stone Marble Slabs.

Also, the Sultanate receives high praise from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The "Muscat Declaration", which was adopted unanimously by all participating countries during the International Seminar on Intellectual Properties and Sustainable Development, held recently in Muscat, is considered one of the most important internationally approved projects. The idea of setting an "international record" for protecting the craft industries, adopted by the Sultanate as part of its initiative aiming at documenting and protecting the crafts, should also be highlighted.
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Monday, July 22, 2013

Crafts Center announces 2013-2014 shows

The Worcester Center for Crafts has announced its schedule for exhibits in the Krikorian Gallery for the 2013-2014 season at the center, 25 Sagamore Road. The schedule fincludes shows of individual artists,Most modern headlight designs include Shun Stone Packing & Loading Products. group shows, an anniversary show and an exhibit being circulated by NEH On the Road, among others.

Opening on Aug. 1 during the center's Hot Night in the City WOOphoria is "Blinded by Science," an exhibit guest curated by local artist Carrie Crane. This exhibit showcases the artwork of five women, all of whom are inspired by scientific ideas. The artists include Ms. Crane of Boylston, Linda Huey of Boston/New York state, Deanna Leamon of Worcester, Michelle Lougee of Cambridge and Guhapriya Ranganthan of Wayland. The show will close with a talk by the artists at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at 5:30 pm and is supported in part by the Worcester Arts Council.

In the Gallery Store, a Bowl Show will open on Sept. 12 providing opportunities to contemplate the many creative interpretations of a bowl and to buy artist-made bowls. Artists in the Bowl Show will be from throughout the United States."Windows on a World: Collages by Judith King" opens with a celebration and benefit sale on Sept. 19 and continues through Oct. 19. Ms. King, of Southboro, presents intimate views on worlds of wonder and tranquility through her cut-paper and mixed media works.

The major show for the winter, "?Carnaval!," highlights the carnival experience in eight different cultures around the world Switzerland, Spain, New Orleans, Brazil, Peru, Trinidad-Tobago, Bolivia, and Mexico.How to change your dash lights to Shun Stone Crafts Products this is how I have done mine. The exhibit will be accompanied by talks on the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans and the masking traditions of Venice, as well as tours, mask-making opportunities and other activities underwritten in part by the MassHumanities. The show will be on view from Jan. 28, 2014, through March 16, 2014.

"The Pottery Invitational" will be held April 11-13, 2014, and includes artists' talks, an opportunity to speak directly with the pottery makers/artists in proximity to their work, and an opportunity to see the center's resident ceramics artists do demonstrations in the ceramics studio.The perfumers art is usually the province of experts, passed down in traditional guilds or from father to son. Known as the purest art, the field is associated with poetic theories of scent, high-saturation advertising and well-known presenters who sell everything but the scent itself.

Thats why it was surprising to find a new perfume store in the Jaffa flea market that looked like a pharmacy filled with plain glass bottles. A small sign above the door reads Zielinski and Rozen Perfumerie. The owner, Erez Rozen ? who came to the perfume-making field by accident in Eastern Europe more than a decade ago ? returned to Israel to open his shop, where he creates individual scents for customers and avoids ostentatious advertising.

Rozen, 39, studied business management in Israel. Twelve years ago he went to Sofia, without knowing what he wanted to do there. At that time, stores such as Laline and Nerot BeShenkin began selling scented candles and perfumes, and Rozen thought it would be a good idea to import the trend and sell similar products there.

He found people who taught him the trade, did research on the Internet and opened a small store that sold homemade candles and soap that he created on his own. The store was successful and grew into a chain of 27 branches in several countries, including Greece, Cyprus and Austria. He set up a small factory for candles, soap and cosmetics, and became a manufacturer during the economic boom in Eastern Europe, providing the products for the Israeli Laline chain, until it was sold to the owners of the Fox fashion chain.

I actually sold scents. It was my favorite part, Rozen recalls. Everything that has happened to me over the past 12 years revolved around scent, candles and soap. I discovered that I had a good nose. Its true that the field has lots of rules and there are schools that teach the art, but in the end its all based on intuition, a good nose and a great deal of ability to work with people. Maybe that was the reason I missed Israel so much ? the connection with people,You benefit from buying Shun Stone Carving Products ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer: and also the language and the fact that I had to run the business and spend less time in the store creating scents.

For Rozen, returning to Israel was a return to his starting point. In his shop, he creates and mixes individual perfumes for customers, using a small laboratory nearby and local production that he does himself. For Rozen, returning to Israel was a return to his starting point. In his shop, he creates and mixes individual perfumes for customers, using a small laboratory nearby and local production that he does himself.What is perfume? he asks, delving deeply into the topic. Perfume is a story that a person tells, a memory, part of what we wear. Its an invisible but very important accessory. We can make a mistake in the color of the shoes we wear or in matching a blouse with a pair of trousers, but a bad odor is inexcusable. Perfume-making usually has rules, but not for me. As far as Im concerned, the perfume has to be one that you find pleasant.

The process of creating perfume in the shop includes a long conversation and smelling many bottles of scent. I dont tell people what theyre smelling, he says. Forget about names and titles. We sit with the person and build him a scent ? something thats suitable for him and that has no brand. Hes not buying the models or the bottle. Our bottle is plain and inexpensive ? it looks just like a bottle in a pharmacy ? and the branding work is minimalist. During the process, we smell raw ingredients without my revealing what they are. I ask only that the customer tell me what he likes and doesnt like. Its only after he tells me that I tell him what hes smelling. The perfume is individually tailored, and it can be tweaked. Tomorrow, if you want more jasmine, it can be added. I want to create a perfume your nose will love. In addition, if you change your mind, you can always return the perfume. Im aware that peoples tastes change, and I dont want my perfume to stand unused.

Perfume is created like a pyramid. It has high notes, middle notes and base notes. The high notes are the most acidic: grapefruit, lemon, lemongrass. The middle notes are more floral and fruity: lavender, jasmine, lilac. The base notes are deeper ? vanilla and patchouli, for example. When we wear a perfume, we smell the high notes right away, since they evaporate quickly. After that we smell the middle notes, and we smell the base notes only at the end.
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July 22 news

Worthington Public Utilities Manager Scott Hain is once again asking city residents to be cautious with water, although the non-essential watering ban not been put back into effect.In the three weeks since ban was lifted, the water level in Well 26 has dropped significantly and become a cause for concern. As of Friday, the level was at 23 feet 9 inches, which is approximately 4 feet lower than 90 percent of the 10-year average, a measuring tool used in the past. Hain said the Water and Light Commission will be meeting this afternoon, but he wont be asking for and does not anticipate any action to re-instate the ban on non-essential use today.Five people were injured in an explosion at a Sibley manufacturing plant late Saturday morning, according to the Osceola County Sheriffs Office.

Lt. Seth Hoffman said the explosion at Timewell Tile in southeast Sibley was first reported by neighbors to the plant. According to witnesses, the explosion occurred inside the plant while TimeWell employees, electricians from Current Electric of Sibley and the City of Sibley utility workers were switching over electrical lines. Two of the injured men worked for TimeWell, the other three worked for Current Electric.

All five of the injured were transported by ambulance to the Osceola Community Hospital in Sibley. Two were later airlifted to Avera in Sioux Falls, two others were taken to Sioux Falls by ambulance, and one was treated and released. Hoffman says the cause of the explosion has not been determined.

Musical Theater Night will be the theme for the Amazing Worthington City Bands final concert of the summer season. Master of ceremonies will be Judge Gordon Moore. Special guests will be cast members from the upcoming local production of Shrek The Musical. Intermission entertainment will be by the Great Plains String Quartet. Under the direction of Jon Loy, the band will present a variety of selections from musical theater,Most modern headlight designs include Shun Stone Marble Slabs. including Hairspray, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Mary Poppins. In case of inclement weather, the concert will be in the auxiliary gym at Worthington High School.

The Veterans Memorial Park Committee of the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce will serve free hamburger and cheeseburger baskets to veterans and their spouses at the Elks Lodge from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. tonight. The group will use funds donated from the Ken McNab Freedom Veterans Memorial Fund for the event.The American Reformed Church is hosting a Japanese handbell concert at the church at 7 p.m. Tuesday. 14 students from a Christian high school in Tokyo are traveling around the US performing concerts for 4 weeks. The handbell group performs a variety of music, including patriotic songs, hymns, Disney songs, classics and oldies. The concert is free and open to the community. There will be a free-will offering to help cover expenses, and refreshments after the concert at the church.

A motorcycle crash injured a Canadian woman Sunday on I-90 near the state line in Rock County. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Erin Goulet, 25, of Alberta, received non-life threatening injuries while traveling westbound on I-90 at approximately 9:40 a.m. She swerved to avoid a slower motorcycle and was ejected from the 2009 Harley-Davidson, coming to rest in the median. She was taken by ambulance to Avera-McKennan Hospital.

At approximately 3:02 PM Sunday, the Lyon County Sheriff's Department investigated a one vehicle accident at Apple Avenue and 125th Street near Granite. Dewayne L Callies, age 59, from Sioux Falls, SD was driving a 2007 Harley Davidson South on Apple Avenue when he and another motorcycle failed to notice the turn onto 125th Street. The first bike attempted to turn left on 125th Street, Callies then tried to avoid hitting him but ended up laying the bike down on the gravel road. Callies received minor injuries in the accident. The Harley sustained approximately $1,200.00 in damage.

The Lyon County Sheriffs Office on Friday executed a search warrant in the 300 block of South Marshall Street that resulted in the arrest of 28-year-old Adam Anthony Anderson.I'm looking at getting the light bar from ford racing and was wondering who sells the Shun Stone Marble Tiles. He was charged with second-degree theft, manufacturing marijuana and more. Anderson is accused of committing several scrap metal thefts from a salvage yard. While searching for evidence to those thefts, authorities found marijuana plants growing in his basement in buckets and a hydroponic planter.

Jackson County 4-H Program Coordinator Jen Schoenfeld has announced that resigning from her position on July 30. Schoenfeld said she has accepted a teaching position in the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton school district. She has served in her current position for more than three years.State auditors say a Spencer, Iowa attorney working under contract as a public defender overbilled the state more than $177,000, claiming he worked more than 24 hours in a single day for 80 days in a 3 1/2 year period. Auditors say Ney McDaniel also improperly claimed more than $6,000 in mileage.We are professional wholesale best Shun Stone Outdoor Paving Stone,large LED Dome / Reading Lampwholesale order.The audit report shows McDaniel took in $1.1 million from 2005 through March of 2011 when his contract was terminated. He mostly represented clients charged with crimes who couldn't afford an attorney.

Like many other traditional crafts, wood craft is also dying a slow death. But a tribal couple of Mundasahi under Barimula panchayat in Kendrapara district has been struggling hard to keep it alive despite all odds.

As Gopinath Hansdas (34) dexterous fingers carve a piece of wood, his gnarled face brightens up with satisfaction.However, it does not last long. To his disappointment, he is one of the last in a long line of craftspersons trapped in a rapidly changing society where artisans are exploited by the middlemen and ignored by the authorities.

I developed the art of wood crafts 10 years back when such products were in great demand, said Gopinath. But lack of proper marketing took its toll on the craft. Middlemen mint money by purchasing the wooden items at a very cheap rate and sell those at a high cost. They pay Rs 20 for a pair of earrings and sell those at Rs 50 in the open market, said Gopinath.

The misery and the extent of exploitation of the craftsmen is evident when Gopinath says that he would never want his children to become wood craftspersons.With a steep slump in their business, Gopinath and his wife Malati Hemrum are facing economic hardship. Malati said once they were earning enough to pursue their business but these days they can hardly survive on their paltry income.

They make decorative items such as the statues of Gods, Goddesses, animals, ornaments, pen stands besides a number of household articles.Malati said now-a-days wood craft is becoming popular as city dwellers are taking a fancy for the wood products which are eco-friendly and biodegradable. It does not need a large investment as the main raw material, the wood of Chakhunda, Karanga and other trees are easily available in rural areas. However, we need the help of the authorities. We earn around Rs 3000 per month which is not enough to fulfil our needs and also get raw materials, she added.
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Shops altering pavements must pay for restoration

For pedestrians, navigating the city's footpaths is no easy task. One has to watch out for broken paver blocks, flower pots, and of course the parts where the footpath disappears altogether to make way for entrances to shops. Hopefully, all this will soon change, with the BMC announcing a crackdown on all shops and eateries that make alterations to footpaths.

From now on, if a shop or restaurant makes minor modifications to the pavement, the altered portion will be demolished by the BMC and the original pavement will be restored. "If the changes are minor, like a staircase encroaching on the pavement, BMC will demolish it. But if they make major changes, the shop will have to bear the entire cost of the restoration work," said a senior civic official.

The move has come after increasing complaints about shops destroying parts of the pavement to install marble tiles marking their entrances, inconveniencing pedestrians and violating BMC rules.According to officials, while the facade of a shop can be changed, civic norms do not permit changes to the footpath outside the shops. "There are many shops which remove paver blocks laid by the BMC and put their own tiles to suit the shop. This often leads to loosening of the paver blocks of the entire stretch," said the official.

For pedestrians, this is a major hazard. "Footpaths are public property. They cannot be modified. People often slip on the marble flooring and such alterations change the level of that part of the footpath, due to which people can trip and fall. There are stretches where an entire part has been redone by shop owners. Hawkers are already occupying the pavements reducing walking space, but the quality of footpaths is one thing that cannot be compromised," he added.

"I have seen several shops which have tiled the entire pavement, starting from their entrance to the road. Shops should also not be allowed to build ramps on pavements," said Nihil Jain, a Dadar resident.During its 'Talk the Walk' campaign, Mirror had consistently highlighted the issue of the lack of walking space in the city. Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte had admitted that pedestrians were not the top priority of planners, but had promised that the BMC would try to make the city more pedestrian-friendly.

Back in 1983, when he was interviewed for the Art Institute's Chicago Architects Oral History Project, Edo Belli, the most important Chicago architect you've probably never heard of, told a charming story about how he became the chosen architect for the archdiocese of Chicago and wound up designing Uptown's Cuneo Hospital and scads of other Catholic institutions in the city and beyond.Cuneo Hospital is that big,I'm looking at getting the light bar from ford racing and was wondering who sells the Shun Stone Marble Tiles. glassy sweep of a building that curves around the corner of Montrose and Clarendon, looking like the grandpap of 333 West Wacker. The subject of a recently issued demolition permit, it's in imminent danger, which is why I'm mentioning itbut I'm getting ahead of myself. First, the story.

Belli was born in Chicago in 1918, graduated from Lane Tech, and learned architecture by working for $5 a week in the office of Henry K.We are professional wholesale best Shun Stone Outdoor Paving Stone,large LED Dome / Reading Lampwholesale order. Holsman, where he also rubbed elbows with architects from Perkins & Will. He took classes at the Armour Institute (now IIT), and passed the certification exam without graduating. In 1945, just out of the army and attempting to establish his own practice, he got a break: a chance to do a project for the archdiocese, which wanted to convert an apartment building into a parish school. That didn't look like such a good idea to Belli, but he drew up a preliminary plan and, escorted by the parish priest, met with then archbishop and future cardinal Samuel Stritch in his office.

Belli, who'd learned how to pitch a project by watching Larry Perkins, recalled that he was doing all he could to sell it when things took an unexpected turn."Cardinal Stritch was a nice, easygoing individual. He ends up looking at me and he said, 'Edo, if you were sitting here and I was sitting where you're at, would you do what you're trying to convince me to do?" And I told him, 'No, it's like putting new shoes on a bum.' But I said, 'If somebody is going to do it, I'd like to do it.' So he said, 'That's what I wanted to hear.' And with that he dismisses us, and we go downstairs, and the priest [was so furious he] didn't even want me to take him home."

In the mid-1950s, handpicked by another loyal clientprinting magnate John Cuneo, who was funding the project for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred HeartBelli got the assignment for the Frank Cuneo Hospital for Women & Children, on West Montrose. Working with a tiny, soggy lot on former water department property adjacent to Clarendon Park and the lakefront, he conjured up an innovative six-story, steel-frame, glass-and-concrete structure with circular surgery suites,Most modern headlight designs include Shun Stone Marble Slabs. a roofline that mimics an artist's palette, and majestic walls of mullioned windows that catch the sun, both east and west. And he dressed the whole thing up, inside and out, with crazy-quilt walls and accents of tiny, brightly colored Romany Spartan ceramic tiles. Photos of the surgical suites suggest that the effect must have been like operating in a jar of Jelly Bellies. The hospital opened in 1957.

Nearly two decades later Belli designed a very different companion structure for the site of the sisters' former convent, directly across the street from the hospital and connected to it by a sky bridge. A long-term care and rehabilitation center, it's a graceful, whimsical play on the brutalist turn contemporary architecture had by then taken, an assemblage of angled windows and surprising geometric shapes, including a circular "suspended" chapel and outcroppings of green-roof terrace that would be cutting-edge todayall in concrete with a textured skin of embedded marble chips.

The hospital complex closed in 1988 and became the Maryville Academy shelter for kids, but by 2009 the shelter had also closed and the sisters were looking to sell. In 2010, in the waning days of Helen Shiller's tenure as 46th Ward alderman, the Montrose/Clarendon TIF district was created specifically to encourage redevelopment of the Cuneo property. In 2011 a couple of heavy-handed, high-density plans were rejected by the community, now under the watch of Alderman James Cappelman. By early this year a group affiliated with JDL Development had a contract on the propertysubject to city approval of planning and zoning changes, destruction of the existing buildings, and $32 million in TIF funds. JDL plans to build what critics say is an equally problematic project: a $200 million, 800-unit luxury apartment and retail complex, designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, on the west-side property. (JDL president Jim Letchinger says negotiations with the city are continuing this week and that the TIF funding in question will be "substantially less than" $32 million.) The land where the east building stands would be donated to the Chicago Park District.
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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Ho-ning big plans for Stone Master

The turnaround plan comes under the fresh leadership of Andrew Ho Tho Kong (pix), a restructuring specialist who was named executive director of the company on June 7, 2013.This follows a series of major changes at board level including the resignation of executive director Lee Fook Kow in March this year, and then Wong Khiew last month, both citing health condition.

The period also saw Lee, Wong and another director Lim Chong Kwee paring down their substantial stake in the struggling granite and marble products maker to the current 4.4%, 2.38% and 3.29 % stake respectively.In an interview with SunBiz, Ho said he believes Stone Master has a viable underlying business and will now be working closely with the current board and management reviewing the business to determine its future options.

He said his prime task will be to oversee the business turnaround and regain Stone Master's former stature as a leader in the stone industry. Asked if the turnaround would see the entry of a "white knight" to buy the company, Ho declined to comment.The 46-year-old has identified two badly needed ingredients to kick start his plan: cash and people.

Ho fired the first salvo in his restructuring plan on Tuesday by proposing a private placement of up to 10% of its share capital that could potentially raise as much as RM2.56 million."We are now putting the plan in first gear... We need to raise cash to help grease the mechanism so that we can start moving forward. As such, we hope to use proceeds from the proposed private placement to build up our sales and marketing team from the current 100-odd staff to serve the markets in Ipoh and Johor Baru and open a new office in Kuala Lumpur, with three to five employees to serve the market here," he said.

Stone Master, known as a pioneer in granite and marble products, has lost money for seven straight fiscal years since its financial year ended March 31, 2006 (FY06) as a result of the unfavourable conditions in the construction industry. The global financial crisis of 2008 had made the situation worse and the company has never recovered from it.

It posted a smaller net loss of RM5.87 million on a revenue of RM29.61 million for the six months ended March 31, 2013.In the past few years, the company has been occupied cutting jobs, slashing its number of factories and showrooms and selling the parts of Stone Master that are not contributing to the bottom line in a bid to revive its business.

Today, it has only its main office and a 120,000 sq ft marble- and granite-processing plant in Ipoh as well as three showrooms in Johor Baru.In the second part of his plan to raise money, Ho said the company will look at disposing idle assets to raise cash including its Ipoh plant, and monetising inventory and receivables worth almost RM20 million."The Ipoh plant is currently running at just 30-40% of capacity. We are undertaking a revaluation update on the 5.8-acre piece of land since its last review in 2010," said Ho.

"We need to rethink our large-scale facility given the competitive nature of the stone industry today where it is cheaper to bring in semi-finished stone products. Thus, all we may need is a small facility to do the final measure, cut and polish (of the stone products)," he added.Once the fund-raising is done, Ho said the company will go back to focus its business back on trading in marble and granite, ceramic tiles, sanitary wares and related products."There is no business that is going to increase overnight. The bulk of the money is going to be spent on hiring people.

"Until I get that done, I don't think there is going to be a significant increase in sales. But we hope that to happen in FY14," said Ho, adding that he is convinced that with the right combination of staff, Stone Master can compete with its much larger rivals.Ho is no stranger to turnaround situations. He has spent much of his career in the financial and capital markets. Currently, he is the senior advisor to NDE Capital,I'm looking at getting the light bar from ford racing and was wondering who sells the Shun Stone Marble Tiles. a China-based private equity fund focusing on growth capital investments in Asean and China.

Ho previously served various senior positions with major financial institutions. These include Maybank Ventures Sdn Bhd, where he was the acting CEO of the private equity fund. Before joining Maybank, Ho was director and head of investment banking office in Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd.

His private equity experience extends to Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd, where he was senior vice-president, and is a chartered financial analyst and chartered accountant."The focus now is to start delivering the results. We owe it to the minority shareholders in Stone Master, of whom many have been with the company since its IPO. They have seen the ups and downs of the company.Most modern headlight designs include Shun Stone Marble Slabs. Hopefully the company is on the mend," said Ho.

The company's recent distribution agreement with FIRC Trade (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd is a start. The deal grants Stone Master exclusive rights to distribute iron ore fine in Jiangsu Province, China."We have one end (of the business) in place. Now we have to get the other end, which is to get a buyer to kick off this relationship. We are constantly looking out," he added.

The outcome of the request from Francesco Schettino, the sole defendant, won't be known until at least September. After only two full days of hearings, Judge Giovanni Puliatti on Thursday adjourned the trial until Sept. 23 for summer's break.We are professional wholesale best Shun Stone Outdoor Paving Stone,large LED Dome / Reading Lampwholesale order.

Schettino is also charged with causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship before all aboard had been evacuated. His defense claims that no one died in the collision itself, but that the failure of a backup generator and supposedly water-tight compartments that were flooded created problems during the evacuation, when the deaths occurred.

The court needs "to understand what happened after the collision," Domenico Pepe, one of Schettino's lawyers, said outside the trial, which is being held in a theater in Grosseto to accommodate all the survivors or victims' families who might want to attend.As one example, Pepe cited the failure of an emergency generator to work. Had it functioned after the cruise ship's hull was pierced by the rocky reef, "there would have been power to run elevators" to facilitate the evacuation of the 4,200 passengers and crew members who were aboard, Pepe told reporters.

Salvage crews working on an ambitious project to try to right the ship, which is lying on one side just outside Giglio's port, and then float it to the Italian mainland for demolition, hope to pull up the Concordia in mid-September. But if Italian authorities decide to wait until Judge Puliatti rules on the defense request for experts to expert the ship, that timetable be delayed.

Engineers have said the ship might not survive another winter of stormy seas intact enough to be righted and then floated away. They said earlier this week that the ship is slowing compressing under its own weight atop a granite ledge of seabed where it came to rest. However, extensive monitoring indicates the Concordia hasn't budged from its perch.

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Honda Racing crafts a 109-hp lawn mower

With a little help from the company's British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) team, Honda U.K. took one of the company's HF2620 ride-on lawn mowers and turned it into a fire-breathing grass-shredder they called the Mean Mower.

The 688-cc OHV V-twin engine, the stock ride-on mower wasn't enough for Team Dynamics, who prepped the championship-winning Honda Yuasa Racing Civic for the BTCC.The g-sensor high brightness Shun Stone Landscape Stone is designed with motorcyclist safety in mind. So the engineers took the 996-cc V-twin from the VTR Firestorm superbike and built a new frame around it out of chromoly 4130. They then mated the engine to a custom paddle-shift, six-speed transmission; crafted a fiberglass deck; put a 15-liter fuel tank in the grass bag; fitted a new cooling system; slotted in a custom Cobra bucket seat; rigged the steering rack from a Morris Minor (of all things); bolted on a Scorpion exhaust; tuned a custom suspension; and stole the wheels from an ATV.

The result? A 109-hp lawn mower than can hit 60 in four seconds flat and reach an estimated top speed of over 130 mph. But it still wears much of the original bodywork from the stock mower, and most crucially, can still cut grass at speeds of up to 15 mphwhich is a lot slower than the 100-mph machine has reached on the track with reigning BTCC champ Gordon Shedden behind the wheel, but is already double what the stock mower can do. See it in action in the video clip below.

Experience a tour of James Burnside's colonial home, barns and summer kitchen, or stroll through the colonial gardens. Young and old can catch the hoop in a rousing game of graces, tackle Jacobs Ladder and take in the sweet smells from the Dessert Tent. Kids can enjoy crafts and colonial costume dress-up, make a bluebird house, and of course, take part in the popular Blueberry Pie-Eating Contest for all ages.

The festival will include more than 30 craft vendors selling everything from wood carvings to pottery to jewelry to homemade blueberry specialties to festival T-shirts. Items purchased at the festival support local vendors and the Historic Bethlehem Partnerships mission to preserve 20 historic structuresincluding two National Historic Landmarksand 270-plus years of history in Bethlehem.

Children can experience life on a farm through colonial crafts and games, a petting zoo and pony rides. There will also be strolling performers, including Phydeauxs Flying Flea Circus and Wahoo Medicine Show.All young participants will have the opportunity to participant in Back to Your Roots hands-on activities, and will receive a complimentary member card for future programs.

Guides in period dress will be available for tours of the James Burnside colonial house, barns and garden. The tours highlight stories about colonial farming and James Burnside, a Moravian missionary and county representative.

Publishing announced today the launch of Birthday in a Book, a all-in-one childrens party planning series. The first two books in the series of themed party guides are being released today; Princess Tea Party and Mad Scientist. This breakthrough series puts all you need to know in your hands in one convenient, easy to use handbook. Features include, full printable packages, detailed instructions and picture tutorials for crafts, easy-to-follow ideas that can also be used for other celebrations or events, themed recipes and Make It or Buy It options that fit almost any budget.

The Make It chapter guides moms in easy step-by-step instructions with detailed picture tutorials. Little Helpers will have a blast working with mom on many money-saving crafts like paper flower centerpieces, tulle pom-poms,Get the led fog lamp products information, find Shun Stone Interior Decoration Products, manufacturers on the hot channel. and a surgical glove chandelier. Use the printables for invitations,Are you still hesitating about where to buy Shun Stone Tools Products? biohazard labels, princess crowns, bow ties, food labels, much, much more. As an added feature the Buy It chapter has the average price listed and links to where you can order the items online.

As far as we know, no other book provides a countdown for party preparation as clear and comprehensive as is found in this series of books. Moms can relax as the Birthday in Book series provides a detailed schedule for party preparation and a schedule for the actual party, too.

Many friends have told me that they want to plan parties like mine but didnt know where to start. I was surprised to find that there werent any books available that gave parents the tools needed to create a themed birthday party. That is when Birthday in a Book was born! says author, Angie Morrissey who is a graphic designer, crafter, party planner and lover of all things inspirational.

The childrens party planning series will be releasing the first eight books of the series in 2013. The two eBook titles; Princess Tea Party and Mad Scientist Birthday are available now. In August of 2013, Superhero Birthday Bash and Night Owl Sleepover will be released. Over the Rainbow and Diggin' for Dinosaur's will be released in September 2013. Lets Go Camping! and Under the Sea will be released in November 2013. Paperback editions of the entire series are scheduled for release in spring 2014.

Bromstad recommends cutting off the wine bottles' bottoms and stringing the lights through the bottles with outdoor lamp cord. Visit Pinterest, the online projects board, for images of this and other ways to use wine bottles as lighting.

Bromstad is known for creating large pieces bursting with color for his TV show clients. DIYers can do the same for an outdoor space, he says, by using outdoor-safe supplies: pressure-treated plywood instead of canvas, and an outdoor primer and paint. Bromstad uses Nova Color, an acrylic paint that stands up well to the elements.

Distress the plywood before painting to accentuate its roughness, he suggests. Do drip painting a la Jackson Pollock if your artistic skills are limited."Everything that has to be outdoors has to last through the elements," Bromstad says, "so you might as well make it look rough from the beginning."

Both Bromstad and Olsen say concrete blocks are useful in the garden: Stack them to build a wall, cement couch, bench or table. Make it artsy by planting the openings with flowers, herbs or other greenery. Again, Pinterest posts scads of images.
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