Mother's Day Gifts and Gift Baskets - What Not To Buy For Your Wife

Mother's Day Gifts and Gift Baskets - What Not To Buy For Your Wife

Whether you and your wife have little ones at home or they have grown up and gone away, it is your job to treat your lady right on Mothers Day. After all, she has given you her heart and a lifetime of love and happiness. She deserves to be treated right by you of all people on this special occasion.

So, how can you treat your lady to the day she deserves? By remembering, she is not your mother. Before you wife was the mother of your children, she was your lover. Remember this and you will get Mothers Day right every time. She wants the sweet and even sappy gifts from her children. From you, she wants to be reminded she is a beautiful woman.

To help you out, there are some gifts you might want to steer clear of. The kids might be able to get away with these buys, but you cannot.

The top gifts to avoid when shopping for your wife for Mothers Day include:

Cleaning supplies

Young kids especially love to buy gifts for their moms that can help make their lives easier. These are great coming from them, but not from you. If it is meant to clean, assist with cooking or otherwise organize or tidy a home, do not put your name on it. If you want to make her life easier, hire a maid service instead and present the certificate in a gift basket filled with gourmet chocolate, flowers and other fantastic presents.

Appliances

Small and large appliances are everyday gifts. They are not for Mothers Day from the man in her life. Do not make this mistake what ever you do. While your wife might be a domestic goddess, if you buy her a washer, dryer or can opener, you will soon discover what the wrath of the gods is all about. Think jewelry instead if you have bigger ticket items in mind.

Anything frumpy

Your eldest son might be able to buy mom a comfortable, cotton housecoat with flowers all over it and garner a huge smile and even tears. If you buy the exact same thing, you are soon to see tears that have nothing to do with joy. Go with silk and gift baskets full of special pampering treats like bubble bath instead.

Mothers Day is the time to honor your wife for all the gifts she has given you in your life. Do yourself a favor this time of year and remember your wife is not your mother. Treat her like the wonderful, sexy lady she is and you will have a hit of a gift on your hands. Use a little commonsense and you will dazzle and delight her. She does deserve it, after all.

By Romeo Gardner

Jewelry Repair

Jewelry Repair

One of the many ways to express ourselves is through jewelry - it is often luxurious, elegant and give an air of comfort and sophistication. It indicate our fashion sense, our flair for beauty and elegance. But, jewelry receives wear and tear like almost any other items that we possess. Oftentimes, a stone is lost from our earrings, chains of our bracelets get broken, or they get tarnished. Luckily, all is not lost and jewelry can be repaired.

Jewelry repair is a profession just like other technical professions and equipment and training is needed to do the work well. You may wish to entrust this work to someone else - the expense can be well worth the peace of mind.

Here are some tips to restore your old jewelry:

1. Precious metal jewelry tarnishes and bends easily. To remove tarnish, use a liquid jewelry cleaner with a dipping tray or a spray bottle. Wear gloves to protect yourselves from the strong chemicals and take care of any odour produced from the chemical reaction. Use the cleaners in a well-ventilated area. After rinsing the jewelry in warm water, dry it with a towel, then with a polishing cloth.

2. To mend a broken clasp, go to a jewelry supply store or a craft department and purchase a replacement clasp, "jump" rings, and fastening tools. These may also be purchased online in jewelry repair kits.

3. To flatten a chain, lay the piece down on a desk and roll a round pen or pencil over the area until it becomes smooth.

4. To prevent the posts on earrings from bending easily, do not apply a lot of pressure to them when putting them in your ears. You can try different styles of earrings such as a lever-back, French wire, or the newer "threader" earrings.

5. Soldering with gold solders is used to make repairs on broken chains. The loops or jump rings that hold clasps to chains are also soldered in better quality work. Soldering requires not only the equipment but a place to do it and training on torch work. This is not recommended at home - trust a professional.

6. Jewelry repair requires not only soldering equipment but also buffing machines, hand motor tools, acid pots, many assorted hand tools and a good bench set-up. This requires professional help.

7. Some equipment may be useful -you need a strong fingernail or two when dealing with jewelry but tools such as a chain nose (needle nose jeweler's plier) or other pliers may be helpful. When the repair requires you to attach a clasp, a jump ring (loop of gold) may be used to hold parts together. The pliers allow opening and closing the loop. Open a jump ring by moving one side toward you and the other away from you. Twist open then simply twist back the same way to close.

8. In repairing broken chains, the difficulty lies in the fact that the chain is made up of fine wires. The wires heat up fast when trying to melt the solder. Jewelers coat the chain with an anti-flux such as yellow orcher or white out, and cover the chain with a heat sink such as a washer, razor blade, or coins. Inspect the chain to discover how the links are put together. Double-check the work of the salesperson taking the repair. Remove the damaged links from the broken ends of the chain. Then, cut the end links to re-assemble the chain. Cut the links with a fine saw blade, small end cutters, or a cut-off wheel in your flex shaft. Re-assemble the chain, add the solder, heat, clean and then polish the chain. Do not polish chains on a polishing machine. Simply lay the chain across your bench pin, hold the chain down stiff with your thumb and index finger. With a bristle brush in your flex shaft polish at medium speed the area of chain between your thumb and finger. Polish the chain little by little in this manner.

By Dr. Mark Clayson

Do It Yourself Washer Pendant

Do It Yourself Washer Pendant

This is a great project for a rainy day...or any day! You can make several of them at once, and decide how far you want to go with them. Hang them from a simple cord, or use them as a centerpiece on your own beaded masterpiece.

Materials:

Washer (from any hardware store or your own toolbox)
Origami Paper (available online or at specialty craft stores)
Diamond Glaze (crafting adhesive medium, available at craft stores)
Craft sticks
X-ACTO Knife
Craft cutting board
Wax paper
Small grit sandpaper

Optional Materials:

Pour-On Epoxy (2 part mix is best, just mix up what you need)
Liquid Leaf (silver, by Plaid, available at craft and hardware stores)
Cotton Swabs

Start with selecting the section of your origami paper that you want to show on the pendant, and place the pendant over the area you want to cut. It is VERY important that you have a sharp exacto blade, or you may tear your paper. Cut around your washer first, and without moving the washer, cut the interior circle second. You should be able to push the cut piece right through, but if not, turn your origami paper over to the white side and just follow your edges you've created with your exacto knife until it is completely cut. Lay aside.

Place your washer on the wax paper. Place 4 drops of diamond glaze on the surface side of the washer you want to cover (I always cover the smoother, rounder side). Spread with craft stick, it's okay if some spills over the edge a little, you can clean it later. Place your origami cutting directly on the diamond glaze and press down. You should see some of the diamond glaze ooze out, and that's good...you want to make sure it's good and stuck! Then, add 4 more drops of diamond glaze to the top of your origami paper and spread around again. Let this dry...about an hour, depending on how much diamond gaze you used on top.

When your washer is dry, carefully remove it from the wax paper. Use your small grit sand paper to remove the extra diamond glaze from the sides and bottom of washer. You may choose to do the other side repeating the same instructions, but it is not necessary. Your pendant is now ready to string, unless you want the "high-gloss" option I've instructed below.

High Gloss Option

After your pendant is dry, remove to fresh piece of wax paper. Mix your epoxy per instructions on label, and remember, you don't need very much....about a tablespoon will cover several. After your epoxy is thoroughly mixed, very slowly and carefully pour over your pendant, trying not to get too much on, about 1/8" or less...you can spread it around with your craft stick to even it out. When you're done spreading your epoxy, you must let your pendant dry for 24-72 hours, depending on the thickness of the pour. I know it seems like a long time, but if you've made several it doesn't seem so long...and the wait is totally worth it! When the epoxy is dry, use your sandpaper on the sides and back to remove the excess dried epoxy. After sanding, I then use the Liquid Leaf and a cotton swab, and just dot the entire back of the washer to give it a "hammered" appearance. When this dries (about 30 minutes or less) put a quick coat of diamond glaze over the top, and your high gloss pendant is complete!

I hope these instructions will help you...it was a lot of trial and error for me to get this formula right, and hopefully you'll be able to make some beautiful pendants for yourself or for gifts this holiday season.

By Sheri Hill