DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   This most excellant recipe comes from www.doughmesstic.net . I hope you and a few close friends and family enjoy consuming some of these at your next get together.  Goodluck! When I was in California for the Rose Bowl, we were bumped from our return flight home. Bummer, I know. Trapped on the Left Coast an entire extra day, in a room at the Westin with a Heavenly Bed. The horror. So, to liven up our depression, we hopped on a shuttle that took us to Manhattan Beach, the cutest little town I’ve seen yet in California. So sweet. And speaking of sweet, I happened upon a Cupcake Shop – Cupcake Couture. It was tough deciding on their flavors, but eventually, I locked on to a Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake. Delicious! I knew right away it was something I wanted to recreate once I got home, and a few days ago I did just that. Good thing. At $4 a pop, I’d be broke if I didn’t figure out how to make ‘em myself. And so would you. So make them! Strawb...

Benjamin Franklin once wrote in a letter to a friend: "in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes". When the inevitable happens, funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies must be undertaken. Funeral customs are as old as civilization itself, and they vary from region to region. In many cultures and religions, cemeteries (from the Greek koimeterion or Latin coemeterium , meaning sleeping place) are used for death ceremonies, burial, mourning and memorial. Unusual or historical cemeteries have also become popular tourist attractions....cemetery tourism, the "dark" side of tourism, is a growing phenomenon around the world. Here is a list of the top 10 unusual and most visited cemeteries: Cimetiere Des Chiens - Cimetiere des Chiens , a cemetery for dogs and other domestic animals, is said to be the world's oldest public pet cemetery. It is located in Asnieres-sur Seine , a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, ...

    "Piazza del Campo" is still used today for the well known Palio horse race which is one of the most famous popular Italian manifestations. It takes place every year on July 2 and August 16. The Palio is run to celebrate the miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary near the old houses that belonged to Provenzano Salvani. The holy apparition was therefore called "Madonna di Provenzano" in whose honour the very first Palio was run on August 16, 1656. The Palio was run for the first time in 1701 in honour of the "Madonna dell'Assunta" the patroness and Advocate of Siena through all the tragic events since she protected the Sienese militia at the famous battle of Monteaperti on September 4, 1260, against the Florentines.    The Palio is a historical secular tradition strictly connected with the origin of the Contradas of Siena (districts into which the town is divided). The Contradas are spectacular agonistic institutions each having th...

    Almost every culture in the world has its own vampire legend, and some date back thousands of years. Today, we are most familiar with Count Dracula and other folklore from Eastern Europe. Do you want to learn more? Here is a wealth of juicy trivia to sink your fangs into sink your fangs into this Halloween season. 1. Was the first vampire a woman? The oldest known vampire legends come from Babylonian and Sumerian mythology. Female demons called the Lilu were said to hunt women and children at night, and drink their blood. 2. Vlad III Tepes, also known as Vlad Dracul, was known for his incredible cruelty; he was alleged to have killed up to 30,000 people at one time! His bloodthirsty reputation inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula . 3. The National Retail Federation listed "Vampire" as the second most popular adult Halloween costume in 2005. Vampires were the sixteenth most popular children's costume for the same year. 4. While modern pop culture us...

   This recipe I found at www.smells-like-home.com .   I hope you enjoy making these kind of campfire cookies.  Good luck! I swear I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to stuff something inside of something else. It was too trendy. And then, not trendy at all. (Neither of which I’m actually about, anyway.) But I succumbed to the pressure of a college kid who just finished finals. A college kid who squeaked with excitement when she exhaled the love she had for these s’mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies in a quick and breathless sentence. I told her that the only conditions I had to making them was that the graham cracker and cookie dough had to be homemade. And frankly, if we had put a little forethought into this, the marshmallows would have been too. She had no issues with my conditions. S’mores stuffed into thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies. A total diet/healthy lifestyle buster. But damn, it’s worth it. ...

   The Boryeong Mud Festival is an annual festival which takes place during the summer in Boryeong, a town around 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea. The first Mud Festival was staged in 1998 and, by 2007, the festival attracted 2.2 million visitors to Boryeong.    The mud is taken from the Boryeong mud flats, and trucked to the Daecheon beach area, where it is used as the centrepiece of the 'Mud Experience Land'. The mud is considered rich in minerals and used to manufacture cosmetics. The festival was originally conceived as a marketing vehicle for Boryeong mud cosmetics.    Although the festival takes place over a period of around two weeks, it is most famous for its final weekend, which is popular with Korea's western population. The final weekend of the festival usually falls on the second weekend in July. History of the Festival    In 1996 a range of cosmetics was produced using mud from the Boryeong mud flats. The c...

DIY: Decoupage Here's a great way to save some money on your craft addictions; make you own Decoupage! And it really works plus it's easy to do. You need.... A jar Elmers Glue Water Empty the glue into a jar. My jar is just an old Salsa Bottle. Add Water. You need it to be 50% glue and 50% water. Shake shake shake And you are done!! I know it works because i used it to paste this paper label onto the jar :) It could make a great gift for your crafting buddies