Island Holidays: Salt Spray Getaways

There is just something about the ocean breeze and salt spray that makes a holiday on an island something you won't soon forget.  Because islands can be found in every ocean and near every continent, island holidays can vary widely.  You can lay on a beach or watch whales, study botany or shop native craft stalls.  It's all up to you when you plan your island holidays.

North American islands include the Canadian east coast islands of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.  Island holidays to these areas will be filled with unspoiled natural beauty, cool, comfortable temperatures, and whale watching expeditions.

South of these regions is the little island of Bermuda off the eastern U.S. coast.  Bermuda is surrounded with hundreds of square miles of reef formations, making snorkeling an interesting activity there.  For the less adventurous, you can ride around in a glass bottom boat and view the beautiful undersea world.

Heading on south, we find the Carribean islands.  These have long been popular spots for tourists.  Here the beaches are white and sandy and the weather is very warm.  Up in the interior of these islands, you can find a wide variety of birds and other wildlife.  Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, the Virgin Islands, and many other spots make lovely island holidays.  Each island has it's own unique flavor and feel.

Europe has islands of all types nearby which make great spots for island holidays.  Visit the isles of Greece and you will see clear seas, quiet beaches, olive groves, and the simple life.  Corfu is the choice of those who like up-to-date restaurants and shopping, while Lefkas is popular with wind-surfers and sailors.  The Portuguese island of Madeira boasts beautiful weather and one of the lowest crime rates in the world.  The Canary Islands, off the coast of Spain, are a popular tourist spot for Europeans.

A new trend in island holidays is eco-tourism.  This is traveling in such a way that neither the earth nor the local people you are visiting is harmed in any way.  People who are drawn to eco-tourism may enjoy bird-watching, hiking, and other island activities that do not leave an impact on the area.

Everybody dreams of taking island holidays.  There are islands all over the world, each offering it's own cultural experience and natural wonders.  Many spots for island holidays are still unspoiled and secluded, while others are lively and exciting.  Island holidays offer a real diversion from your everyday life.

Returning to the Simple Joys of Home and Hobby

In the past decades, many mothers have made the decision to pursue careers, but that trend seems to be changing.  Home and hobby are calling to these women, who are willing to make financial and personal sacrifices in order to be the primary caregivers for their small children.  Many women have returned to being keepers at home, and hobby skills can help them meet the financial challenges of being a one income family.

One hobby that helps the mother at home is cooking.  Though it could be considered work, cooking and baking are fascinating hobbies.  One can explore the cuisine of different countries or learn to create gourmet treats.  Baking can yield wholesome whole grain products that nourish the family for a fraction of the cost of loaves bought at the store. 

Another home and hobby skill that comes in handy is sewing on a sewing machine.  Many homemakers are producing quilts that are works of art.  These beautiful offerings can be made inexpensively by recycling unwanted fabrics into squares and other shapes and artistically arranging the pieces.  Other sewing skills that are useful for the stay-at-home-mom are mending, altering, and creating clothing.  When polled about favorite pastimes, women often rank sewing at the top.

Some moms and their husbands actively work on remodeling their home, and hobby carpentry skills come in handy.  One income families hold down the cost of living by learning to "do it yourself," a term that is used so much it has been shortened into "diy."  The Internet has made it possible to find information on making all sorts of repairs and renovations to homes, furnishings and other belongings.

Gardening is a hobby that not only gets the participant close to nature, but also can put high quality produce on the family table.  Some families are even investing in hobby greenhouses or growing enough extra to sell a bit each week at farmers' markets.  A good practical hobby like growing a garden gives a person a sense of accomplishment when they realize their efforts have created something useful and profitable.

The homemaking parent that has a sense of art can inexpensively create harmony and beauty around the house, raising everyone's standard of living. It doesn't have to involve spending any money.  Perhaps she can arrange dried wild flowers beautifully or create simple hand-lettered wall mottoes that lift everyone's spirits.

Yes, home and hobby call to the women of today, suggesting a simpler way of life closer to those people and things that matter most.  While the career women are truly making an important impact on today's world, the quiet return of many to home and hobby may result in more impact than any of us realizes.

Holiday Crafts: Thanksgiving Decorations Kids Can Make

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday!  What a spiritual renewal to take a day to reflect over the past year about just how good God has been to you and your family, to give you harvest and shelter, health and hope.  To get the most out of this joyous occasion, make some holiday crafts with your children.  These days, Thanksgiving often gets squeezed out by Hallowe'en's spooky decorations and the lights and gala of Christmas.  With the following holiday crafts, your home can be decorated for this quieter but important celebration.

Turkeys are a natural choice for decorations.  A familiar project at this time of year is for a child to trace around her hand and make the resulting drawing into a turkey.  The thumb is the head and the fingers are the tail feathers all displayed.  While many of the turkeys that are raised for food are now the domestic white variety, the turkeys eaten by the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving were the wild brown ones.  The tail feathers on a wild turkey are brown, but they are iridescent. catching light and appearing to be multi-colored.  This is why children color the tail feathers in bright colors. 

The turkey's head has a wattle under the beak.  This is a vertical flap of loose skin that is red colored.  Be sure to draw this in order to make the hand turkey look like a turkey.  Add skinny legs and bird feet.  When done, the children can cut out the turkeys and hang them on the wall.  It's really cute to make a whole flock of these turkeys in the sizes of all the hands in the family.  The little hand shapes are particularly sweet.

Another nice turkey decoration to make when making Thanksgiving holiday crafts is a turkey door decoration.  Make a brown construction paper body and head of a turkey.  Now make a large number of colored feather shapes.  Each family member writes on a feather something he or she is thankful for before attaching as part of the turkey's tail.  Repeat until all the feathers are used, and hang the turkey on the front door to greet visitors with a message of gratitude.  Make a sign to accompany the turkey that says "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!" or simply "Be thankful!"  or "We're thankful for you!" or whatever you like.

Children love making construction paper chains.  To further decorate the house for Thanksgiving, let them make a paper chain in fall colors as one of their holiday crafts.  Using 9 by 12 inch construction paper, cut the paper in half across the long side and cut the halves into one inch thick six inch long strips.  Use a stapler to attach the ends of the strip into a circle.  Loop the next strip into the circle and staple it.  Continue the process alternating colors of brown, red, yellow, and orange.  When the chains are long, you can drap them along the ceiling or stair rail.  If you don't make the door turkey, the children can write something they're thankful for on each strip of paper before adding it to the chain.

Thanksgiving is too nice a holiday to let the other more commercial holidays crowd it out.  By making holiday crafts to decorate the home for Thanksgiving, you can keep this day special, too.  The extended family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc., will be pleased to see the holiday crafts the young ones have made to decorate the house and make it cheerful for their visit.

Bored? Look at These Hobby Ideas!

Have you ever played one too many computer game or watched one too many old rerun?  You just can't get into another mystery and you just feel flat?  Maybe you are suffering from boredom, that familiar accomaniment to our automated, precooked lifestyles.  If so, you need to check out these hobby ideas.  Hobbies have been found to be therapeutic as they relieve stress and get the mind active.  In this article, you'll find hobby ideas for every sort of person, from the intellectual to the athlete, from the homemaker to the attorney.

Many times we are bored because we have become too inactive.  If this is your problem, you might like a sports hobby.  Have you ever tried tennis?  How about golf?  Many people simply love bowling until it becomes an important part of their lives.  Sports hobbies get you out of the house and often are a way to make friends with others.  Then again, some active hobbies can be enjoyed in our own homes, such as weight lifting and doing aerobic dance to a video.

Speaking of aerobic dance, dancing is another great pastime.  When you think of hobby ideas, don't forget the many forms of dance.  Square dancing is fun for people who like getting together with groups, while ballet and modern dance appeal to the more contemplative souls.  And while we're on contemplation, you might enjoy doing yoga stretches as a hobby.

Maybe we're feeling bored and listless because we've been cooped up in the house too long.  If that's the problem, here are a few hobby ideas to get you out in the fresh air.  Have you ever thought of taking up canoeing, hiking, or trapping?  How about getting involved with an environmental group?  In many states, you can form groups to clean riverbanks and monitor water quality, and the state will provide perks such as t-shirts, work gloves, and first-aid kits.  Or maybe you'd like studying the flora and fauna of your region.  It can be great fun to stroll through the woods and fields with a field guide, learning to identify each wildflower, insect, tree, and bird.

There are almost as many hobby ideas as there are bored people in the world, because everyone puts their own spin on their favorite hobbies.  Maybe you'd enjoy decorating your house with antiques, or learning to bake specialty breads from around the World.  Maybe you'd like to take part in a little theatre production, or learn to play guitar.  What about the fine arts of weaving tapestries or painting with oils?  Candle making, soap making, and many other old-time crafts are being enjoyed again.  Truly, with all these hobby ideas, there is no reason to stay bored for long!

A Hobby Greenhouse Will Get You Growing!

For people who would like to do more gardening but live in a short growing season area, a hobby greenhouse is the answer.  A hobby greenhouse is not large enough to produce vegetables or flowers on a commercial basis.  It will, however, give you a place for a tomato plant or two and some fresh greens even if you live in the northern regions.  Greenhouse enthusiasts even have their own association, called the Hobby Greenhouse Association, which publishes a quarterly magazine.  The organization also sponsers events and helps individuals connect to get help with the aspect of gardening that they are interested in, whether it's growing cacti or saving seeds.

If you are in the market for a hobby greenhouse, there are several types on the market.  The smallest type is not large enough to walk into and must be accessed from the outside.  It resembles an old-fashioned phone booth made all of glass and outfitted with shelves.  This type is designed to fit as many plants as possible in as small a place as possible.  The shelves are made of glass to allow as much light as possible to reach plants on the lower shelves.  Another inexpensive version of this sort of hobby greenhouse is shelving covered with a zippered tent of clear plastic.  This sort of arrangement is great for the small-scale hobby gardener wanting a place to keep her flowers or houseplant starts.

There are a variety of designs of hobby greenhouse that are large enough to walk into but made entirely of clear glass or plastic.  They are often about the same size as a small storage building.  Some independent builders have started making these to sell locally.  Among national brands, one of the nicest is called the "Solar Prism."  It is called this because of it's unique construction.  This hobby greenhouse is made of a single piece of durable clear plastic which is designed to work like tiny prisms side by side.  They trap the rays of the sun and shoot them back into the greenhouse at all angles.  For this reason, these little  greenhouses are said to glow when the weather is cloudy.

Better hobby greenhouses are equipped with automatic sensors that open vents which allow ventilation and keep the interior temperatures from getting too high.  These are a great labor saver, but can get expensive.  Another benefit sometimes found in nicer greenhouses is a built in irrigation or misting system.  Members of the Hobby Greenhouse Association, or HGA, have invented many interesting designs of greenhouses.

If gardening is your hobby, greenhouse growing will interest you.  With a greenhouse, you can have the earliest tomatoes and salad greens all year.  You can also start seedlings for the main garden early in the spring when outdoor temperatures would kill them.  A hobby greenhouse can be a good investment.

Handicraft Gift Idea: Make an Apron

If you are looking for a handicraft gift idea to make for someone special, perhaps that person would like an apron.  When we think of aprons, we often think of mothers and grandmothers in the kitchen, but men can often benefit from having an apron as well.  They often enjoy barbecuing, for one thing.  They also can use an apron in the workshop.  Children, too, can use an apron for many of their activities, such as arts and crafts.    Here are simple instructions for making a handicraft gift of an apron that can be adapted for anyone.

Start with a piece of sturdy fabric suitable for the individual for whom you are making the handicraft gift.  The fabric needs to be wide enough to wrap 1/2 to 3/4 of the way around them and long enough to cover them from collar bone to just above the knee.  For a large adult, 25 to 30 inches wide by 36 to 40 inches long should be about right.  A slimmer adult can use a narrower apron, but if they will be wiping their hands on the sides of it, they might appreciate the extra width.  An apron for a child of 10 could start with a piece of fabric about 18 inches wide by 25-30 inches long.

The best types of fabric to use are sturdy cottons, such as medium weight denim or twill.  Soft cottons such as broadcloth or muslin are all right in the kitchen, but will not last long, and would not hold up in the garden or workshop at all.  Other materials you'll need are thread and a sewing machine.  You will also need enough extra fabric to make a strap to go around the neck, ties for the back, and pockets.

When designing the handicraft gift, you can be as creative as you like with pockets.  Every apron is more useful with pockets.  A person who cleans houses, for instance, can use pockets for odds and ends they pick up as well as for their spray bottles, sponges, and scrub brushes.

To make the apron, fold the piece of fabric lengthwise.  This will allow you to cut the shape with one cut, making the two sides symmetrical.   What you will be shaping when you make the cut will be the bib section of the apron.  The bib for an adult sized apron will need to be about 9 inches wide.  Measure from the fold about 5-1/2 inches.  This is half the width of the bib plus an inch to fold under twice to form a hem.  The piece you will cut off the side to shape the bib will be a half bullet shape with the tip of the bullet being where the ties will be attached.  The length of the half bullet shape should be about a foot, and the width will be from the spot you marked 5-1/2 inches from the fold to the outside edge of the fabric.  When these pieces are cut off, the result should be an apron shaped piece of fabric.

Now decorate the apron with pockets and any other decorations you desire.  After this it is time to fold under the edges all around and stitch down with sturdy stitching for a nice hem all around the handicraft gift.  Cut two pieces of fabric a yard long by two inches wide.  Fold lengthwise and fold raw edges to the inside.  Press and stitch down along the length to make the ties.  Attach the ties at the waist of the apron handicraft gift.  (If these ties seem a little long, it is because a lot of people like to bring the ties to the front and tie them there.)  Cut another piece of fabric 18 to 20 inches long by 5 inches wide fold in half lengthwise and press.  Press again with the raw edges of the long side tucked under 1/2 inch.  Stitch down the open side.  Attach this piece to the sides of the top of the bib, sewing it to the back of the bib and topstitching on the front side of the bib.  Be careful not to twist it when you attach it.

People who work hard at homemaking, barbecuing and in the workshop will appreciate a handicraft gift of a sturdy apron.  Mostly they will appreciate the effort and design you have put into making a handicraft gift that they can use.