Skin Care Tips

Exfoliate, exfoliate
For a fast, at-home body exfoliation, mix olive oil with sea salt or sugar. Smooth over skin in circular motions all over the body, avoiding the breast area. Rinse off in the shower and apply your favourite moisturizer.

Body brush
Dry brushing your skin before a shower is a great way to stimulate the natural oil glands in your body. Using a natural bristle body brush, start at your feet and lightly brush your skin in a circular motion. Follow by a warm shower and slather your body with your favourite moisturizer.

Hand moisturizer
For regular, well-moisturized hands, keep hand cream on your desk at work or in the car. Apply the cream throughout the day to rejuvenate your cuticles and keep skin saturated.

Natural cleansers
Dip into your fridge for facial cleansers when your regular cleanser runs out. In a pinch buttermilk, yogurt and even cream are gentle, natural skin cleansers.

Moisturizer alternative
Instead of using a cream moisturizer after you bath or shower, rub almond oil (available at your local health food store) into your skin for a treat. Combined with a few drops of your favourite essential oil (peppermint, lavender or neroli) it will leave your skin smooth and supple.

Make shaving easier
An easy way to avoid razor burn after shaving is to moisturize beforehand. While shaving cream is the most popular method, try prepping your leg with hair conditioner for a few minutes before shaving. It will hold moisture on the leg longer and provide a very smooth shave.

Tired eye solution
Need to get rid of tired or puffy eyes immediately? Keep a spoon in the freezer and apply to eyelids for a few minutes to reduce redness.

Sunscreen
Its a must, essential for preventing sun damage and lowering your risk of developing skin cancer. Many skin care lines have facial moisturizers with SPF already included; they offer a more luxurious, makeup-friendly texture than traditional sunscreens. If you use only one product, sunscreen should be it. A lotion like Neutrogena's Healthy Skin Lotion with SPF 15 moisturizes, protects with SPF, and smoothes skin with alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) and vitamin C -- practically the perfect all-purpose face lotion.

Eye cream
The skin under your eyes is more delicate and dry than the skin on the rest of your face. It's wise to invest in an eye cream, which treats the eye area with more emollient moisturizers. Some eye creams even claim to minimize dark circles and temporarily tighten fine lines.

Retinols
If you're concerned with wrinkles and pigmentation spots, a face cream with retinol (a derivative of vitamin A) can help. Use it in place of your daytime, SPF moisturizer after you wash your face at night

Body lotion with alpha-hydroxy acids
A lotion with skin-sloughing AHAs smoothes your whole body, including hands, feet, arms, and legs. For tough dry spots, apply extra lotion before bed and let it soak in while you sleep.

technorati tags: beauty,, skin,, skin+care,, pretty,, soft,, woman,, girl

Ways to Get Your Finances Under Control

Establish a budget: There's no better way to manage your finances than by being keenly aware of the interplay between your net income (how much you take home after taxes) and your total expenses (including fixed expenses like bills and variable expenses like clothing or entertainment). See our companion article "Creating a Household Budget" for an easy path to a clear and cogent financial plan. Making use of software, like Budget Forecaster from Strativia, makes the task even easier.

Make more money: Indeed, it may sound simpler than it really is, but it's by no means outside the realm of reason. Just take a look at what you're making now and try to find ways to augment it, be it asking for a raise, working extra hours, holiday or overtime, taking on a part-time second job, applying for a promotion or for a whole new job with an entirely different employer - there are numerous ways to increase your earning power.

Pay yourself first: This is an ages old lesson that is as tried and true as they come - the instant you receive each paycheck, take 10% and sock it away in savings. Plan to live off of 90% of your income and you'll be slowly but surely building a sizable nest egg that could end up lasting you a lifetime. But if you don't do this religiously, first and foremost upon being paid, then there will be no money at month's end to save at all, not 10%, not 1%.

Pay your credits cards off: Credit card debt is a brutal, self-feeding cycle that can decimate your savings faster and more effectively than almost any other financial burden. At the very least, make your minimum payments on time so that your credit report remains untainted. Good credit is priceless in today's world. And in many important circumstances, excellent credit can even compensate for poor income and savings. The best course of action, however, is to carry no balance. Pay your credit cards off in full as soon as you possibly can. Then restrain yourself from using your credit cards except when you know you can pay off new purchases in full at your very next billing period.

Make your 401K contributions: Especially if your employer makes matching contributions, take maximum advantage of any 401K plan you have available to you. Not doing so would cheat you at the very least of the income from those matching funds, not to mention the income that can be gained from savings account interest or investment maturity. You wouldn't turn down a company bonus would you? Then don't let your company's 401K plan go to waste.

Stay on top of your investments: As time passes, the economy fluctuates, and an intelligent investment today may be a foolish investment tomorrow. You need to review your portfolio regularly and readjust it regularly to avoid loss and pursue gain. Remember, though, avoiding loss - or protecting your capital - is infinitely more important than pursuing gain. Don't let any one stock comprise more than 5% of your total portfolio, and don't let any one industry comprise
more than 20%. Remain diversified and readjust your distribution of assets as the performance of your holdings changes. Seek professional financial guidance as necessary.

Build an emergency fund: Start saving money in a separate, FDIC-insured account and build it up until it contains enough to cover six months of your expenses. Take a look at your total expenses (both variable and fixed) from your personally designed or Budget Forecaster household budget and then multiply it by six to discover how much you should keep in an emergency fund. Then leave that money alone until and unless you need it. Should the unfortunate day come that you do, you'll be glad it's there.

Get your free credit reports: Your credit reports can be among your greatest tools for acquiring credit or they can be your biggest hurdle. The government decision to allow consumers a free copy per year of each of their credit reports from the three major reporting bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion - is an opportunity to take charge of your finances that should not be ignored. See our companion article entitled "Get a Free Copy of Your Credit Reports" for further details.

Review and update your insurance policies: As with bank terms and credit card rates, insurance premiums also change considerably over time. A good deal yesterday could be a lousy deal today. And with your ability to go online, you can easily compare and contrast insurance offers in an instant. Important coverage to make sure that you have on both your home and auto insurance plans is cost replacement insurance. Decent liability coverage is also of the utmost importance. And also be certain that the insurance on your home accurately reflects the true value of your home today.

Start A Business: Starting a business is easier today than ever before. There is all sorts of informational material, resources, and tools available to help you, and most of them are free. Whether it's selling books on eBay, developing a sleek new high-tech product from scratch, or outsourcing your intellectual talents there is a market out there for almost anything. Whether you decide to go into business full time or part time, there is money to be made that will ultimately help you to keep your finances under control by increasing your income.

Classic Jokes

1. A FOOLish man tells a woman to STOP talking, but a WISE man tells
her that “she looks extremely BEAUTIFUL when her LIPS are CLOSED”.


2. One GOOD way to REDUCE Alcohol consumption :
Before Marriage - Drink whenever you are SAD
After Marriage - Drink whenever you are HAPPY

3. Three FASTEST means of Communication :
1. Tele-Phone
2. Tele-Vision
3. Tell to Woman
Need still FASTER - Tell her NOT to tell ANY ONE.

4. Love your friends not their sisters. Love your sisters not their
friends.


5. A man got 2 wishes from GOD. He asked for the Best wine and Best
Woman.
Next moment, he had the Best Wine and Mother Teresa next to him.
Moral : BE SPECIFIC

6. What is a BEST and WORST news you can hear at the SAME time ?
It is when your Girl Friend says YOU are the BEST KISSER among all your
Friends.

7. Let us be generous like this : Four Ants are moving through a
forest.
They see an ELEPHANT comingt owards them. Ant 1 says : we should KILL
him.
Ant 2 says : No, Let us break his Leg alone. Ant 3 says : No, we will
just throw him away from our path. Ant 4 says : No, we will LEAVE him
because he is ALONE and we areF OUR.


8. If you do NOT have a Girl Friend - You are missing SOME thing in
your life. If you HAVE a Girl Friend - You are missing EVERY thing in
your life.

9. Question : When do you CONGRATULATE someone for their MISTAKE.
Answer : On their MARRIAGE.


10. When your LIFE is in DARKNESS, PRAY GOD and ask him to free you
from Darkness. Even after you pray, if U R still in Darkness - Please
PAY the ELECTRICITY BILL.

11. Why Government do NOT allow a Man to MARRY 2 Women. Because as per
Constitution, you can NOT PUNISH TWICE for the same Mistake.

technorati tags: humor, joke, jokes, funny

What is The Computer's Sex?

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

"House" for instance, is feminine: "la casa."

"Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lapiz."

A student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computadora"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ("el computador"), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model

technorati tags: humor, joke, jokes, funny,

Diary

WOMAN’S DIARY:

Thursday 24th March 2004 Saw him in the evening and he was acting really strangely. I went shopping in the afternoon with the girls and I did turn up a bit late so thought it might be that. The bar was really crowded and loud so I suggested we go Somewhere

quieter to talk. He was still very subdued and distracted so I suggested we go somewhere nice to eat. All through dinner he just didn’t seem himself; he hardly Laughed and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me or to what I Was saying. I just knew that something was wrong. He dropped me back home and I wondered if he was going to come in; he hesitated but followed. I asked him again if there was Something the matter but he just half shook his head and turned the television on. After about 10 minutes of Silence, I said I was going upstairs To bed. I put my arms around him and told him that I loved him deeply. He just gave a sigh and a sad sort of smile. He didn’t follow me up but later He did, and I was surprised when we made love. He still seemed Distant and a bit cold, and I started to think that he was going to Leave me and that he had found someone else. I cried myself to sleep.

MAN’S DIARY:

Thursday 24th March 2004 United lost to Liverpool. Gutted. Got a sh*g though.