Do you know parasol?

<---- Parasols. Image courtesy: wikipedia.org Parasols are colorful paper umbrellas used in outdoor or garden wedding parties. I came across this word when I was asked to write about a web release by bridesmaid gifts, a pioneer in wedding favors and gifts.

I am always interested in knowing about new cultures and customs.
What about you?
Please read on; who knows what knowledge you gain, is going to be useful in your life.

They speak about 10 different types of wedding plans.
Each plan is loaded with different food, different decoration with games and shows to enliven the occasion. They also throw away a few useful tips.

If the wedding is formal, they suggest BBQ Bash.
The two families are introduced over burgers, dogs, and Aunt Jessica’s famous baked beans.
Scattered picnic tables allow everyone to interact casually as they pass food cooked up by the dads bonding over grill duty.
Tables are decorated with wildflowers in galvanized tin pails and jars of homemade jam laid out on red-and-white checkered tablecloths.

The Orient Express Think fusion:
Order a Chinese restaurant cater dinner, hire a sushi chef to make rolls, and serve mini-pad thais as an appetizer.
Litter colorful paper lanterns and parasols to ornate origami.
For centerpieces, put exotic and fragrant orchids, colorful lotus blossoms or just fanciful origami creations.
Fried bananas or mango ice cream bring a sweet finale to your gathering. Consider ornate fans or personalized fortune cookies as favors.

Dip From buffets:
Start with toast points and various cheese pots: blue cheese or Gruyere are good starters.
Move on to meats, potatoes, and veggies, which can each be dipped in sauces (like teriyaki, red wine, and ginger) and cooked right on the table.
For dessert, dip fresh fruit, squares of firm cake or brownies, bananas, and marshmallows in pots of melted chocolate, caramel, marshmallow, honey, and yogurt.
Give guests a take-home version of one of the dishes or even a monogrammed fondue fork.

Good Times Bowl:
A themed bowling party is big fun.
The menu is easy: microwave pizza (or delivery), nachos, pretzels, and other foods from the snack bar.
Stage competitions between the two families, or do boys vs. girls, and give awards at the end of the night. Winners receive a bowling shirt embroidered with “Team Chris & Sara,” while everyone else takes home sugar cookies iced to look like bowling balls.


Feelin’ Lucky:
Send out invitations on customized playing cards for your casino night, and decorate surfaces with chocolate poker chips.
Let your bridal party take turns dealing blackjack, poker, and other card games (or hire a real dealer), and consider, bingo matches and having raffle prizes.
No casino is complete with out lots of chic sips, so keep the champagne flowing as gambling guests spend the evening toasting the bride and groom.

Big League:
Proclaim the wedding festivities officially underway with an excursion to a local stadium or baseball field for some hoots and dogs.
Many ballparks offer group packages, complete with a congratulatory message on the scoreboard.
Personalized baseball caps or plastic beer steins make perfect souvenirs after guests have eaten their fill of Cracker Jacks and peanuts.
For your own memories, have all the guests sign a “game ball.”

Toast of the Town:
Select six to eight different wines of all the same grape varietals (do all Shiraz, or all chardonnay, etc.) so guests can really taste the difference a winemaker and a vineyard makes.
Start by presenting the different wines with the cheeses they complement, or invite a local vintner to do the honors.
For décor think grapes, grapes, and more grapes. You can hang, stream, and strategically place bunches of fresh red and green grapes, vines, and berries on tables with beautiful results. And for favors? Mini wine bottles, of course.

Destination Theme:
Going somewhere tropical for your honeymoon?
Give guests a little sneak peek and transform your dinner into your destination.
Hang hammocks from trees in your backyard, serve dinner buffet-style on long surfboards, blend pina coladas and daiquiris, and let Jimmy Buffet blast.
For fun favor ideas, try personalized messages in glass bottles, flip-flops, or gift certificates for a spray tans.

Tee Time:
If you and your fiancé share a love of the links, let your guests in on your spare-time passion. Have your rehearsal dinner at a country club or golf course, and let everyone spend cocktail hour perfecting their swing at the driving range.
Get creative with your gift ideas and personalize golf tees or golf balls. For a pared-down version, set up a putting area in your own yard and build an obstacle-laden mini-golf course. Fore!

Essential tips for a webdirectory owner.

As a directory owner, I am intrigued by so many SEO advises and different opinions about the value of PR.

Sleepless nights and long working hours made me ask myself one question repeatedly, ‘Is operating a directory worth the trouble?’

I am hungry for knowledge and possess a fierce determination to achieve satisfaction on my effort. Still, reading so many forums and stuffing me with myriad tips and strategies for running a successful web directory left me drained for the last week.

One area I thought I am good at, is, editing the submissions. I have laid out very clear submission guidelines and am following it (almost) to the letter. But no, here also I have a lot to learn.

I happened to stumble on a blog where I read about some important points while editing submissions.

I reproduce below a small paragraph from it:
“A directory owner should not allow keyword anchor text in the Title Area. If the directory becomes popular, there could be hundreds to thousands of “Web Hosting” Title tags. Searching the directory for “Web Hosting” would display thousands of results with the same title tag, making it nearly impossible to distinguish all the sites.”

I think this is a very valid parameter while editing. This can also be a lesson for webmasters of directories.

This blog has some more useful information for directory owners.
If you like it, bookmark it and share it with others.


ps: he owns two good looking web directories.
Bayengine
Inclusio

Do you know you can talk to your website visitor live.

Many of you might have purchased a tracking tool.

It gives statistics like the number of visitors, date and time, location and so on.

But you always see the past.

Have you wanted to catch the visitor to your website red handed when he/she is currently on your website?

With this tool, you can literally chat with the visitor when he/she is browsing your website.

Create a free account with meebo me

Insert the given script on your website wherever you want it.

It allows people to contact you and see when you’re online whenever they visit your site through the meebo me chat window.

When logged into meebo, you can chat with all of your visitors in real time and access your favorite IM networks (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, gtalk,jabber) as well, all in one place.

A very useful widget-isn't?

Courtesy: meebome.com

website visitor tracking

"The Night Before Christmas."

The jolly elf image of Santa Claus had received a big boost with the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now better known as "The Night Before Christmas." written in 1823.

Sure, Santa Claus, and Christmas Gifts are synonymous.
When St.Nicholas was brought by the first Europeans who arrived in the New World he was regarded as a kindly Christian saint, good Bishop.

So when, St. Nicholas became a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity? Before you know that please be aware of his difficult time during the 16th century Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints.

Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success,
because the common people so loved St. Nicholas.

He survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.

Deriving from some of the legendary snippets such as St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts, Washington Irving, first gave the modern day image of Santa Claus in his satirical fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, published in 1809.

When Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace by artist Alexander Anderson, people loved it instantly and the rest is history.

Enough of history? Ready to envision the next Christmas’s custom made gift baskets?

Order online with gourmetgiftbaskets.com for unique, high-quality gourmet Christmas gift baskets that are fantastic gifts for both personal and corporate gift giving.

Find out your website’s worth in U.S. dollars.

Ok, we have done everything we can do to promote our website or blog.

• Our website or blog is already indexed by major search engines like google, yahoo, MSN, technorati etc.
• We have submitted our website in at least 25 web directories.
• We are satisfied with the present backlinks.
• Achieved a PR3 and above.
• Witnessing about 3000 to 5000 visitors every month.

Now if we can find out website’s or blog’s worth in terms of hard currency like US$, wouldn’t that be a big morale booster?

That will give us a definite indication that our efforts are correct and we can be an useful guide to the overall internet community.

Ok, here it is, check out your website’s or blog’s worth in US$ now.

How are the values of the websites calculated?

I quote from their website:

“The valuations are based on backlinks only.

The results are based on backlink totals culled from Yahoo's API. Check their SiteExplorer page to see your backlink totals. Feel free to sell your website for much than the tool indicates its worth.”

Won’t you confess this tool is absolutely fantastic?

Acknowledgement with sincere gratitude to: Scootle web directory

website worth