King Sidabutar on Samosir Island, Indonesia

King Sidabutar on Samosir Island,

King Sidabutar was the Batak king who adopted Christianity. On the left of this picture is the grave of the missionary who converted the tribe.

Samosir Island in Indonesia : The Beatiful Island

The Beatiful Islan of Samosir Island in Sumatera Indonesia.

mantle and black chair

No Comment, just wanted to show you how pretty it is going to be (when I get it done:)

Black Toile & Hot Pink Valentines

So I found this chair at The Goodwill. Oh it was so beautiful!! I could just picture working on it. But they wanted $175!!!! I couldn't believe it. It was beautiful, but it wasn't that beautiful! So I passed on it.

The next weekend I went back and it had been marked down to $75!!! Wow! I still counldn't get it.

Well a dear friend of mine came in my shop one day and told me that everything had been marked down. So we jumped in her son's old Ford Pickup and raced over there. The entire way I was literally praying, "Dear God, you know how much I loved that chair and those other chairs. Please let them still be there. Please Lord, you know I could make them so beautiful." So, Normie and I get there and we rushed in straight to the furniture area and lo and behold, the chairs were still there! And the best part of it all is that the black chair was only $20 now and the beautiful little dining room chairs were only $2.50 each!! I couldn't believe it! Me and Normie drug them all up front to the register as fast as we could. I was so excited to get started on it, I was at The Cherry Pit Fabric Store the next day buying my materials for it. I am replacing the beige woven fabric and green trim with black and cream toile, black lace and hot pink pillows. I think it will be the center attraction at the store (until someone purchases it). I will post it's after pictures soon.

So here they are before:

Finally Friday - on Friday Flea Market!!

Hello all. I don't know how much time I will have to keep up with this. You would think I would have had a blog long ago. I feel I have been on the web forever by now! :)


But the truth of it all is, reading instructions is like reading a different language to me. I just get so confused. I would much rather be working in my "workshop" or moving things around in my store, or even playing house in my own home.


I do love decorating. I do love painting things. And I do love looking at everyone's sites, blogs and ads in magazines.


To start this blog I will try hard to keep a theme going. (yea right, wish me luck on this)


I have my favorite magazines. My most fave is "Romantic Country". I have issue #98 - Dream Rooms" open to page 35 on my coffee table. I can't quit looking at that kitchen!!! I have my Fiance' on the lookout for a table (or old wood so I can make one) for my kitchen. I MUST have that table!!! It is an article on Patti Silverman. She also has been in Country Living and you can visit it online at http://www.countryliving.com/homes/house-tours/rose-vintage-home-0507.


Picture 7 shows the table. But in Romantic Country magazine the table is in full view - OMG! Did I mention that I MUST have that table??!!!


Another item I will be working on is this "Garden Conservatory" I built out of old windows and an odd end table. My fiance' calls it a "Garden Santuary". I thought that was so cute. What are your takes on it, what do you think it should be called?




I so long for Spring. I want to force it into existence.

What I plan to do is put a glass shelf in the center and a tiny pendant chandelier hanging inside also. I have to find just the right one.
I think it will be a darling place to start seedlings, or put my most fragile plants and garden statues.
I will be in touch soon. And I will try to take pics of what it is looking like as I make the changes.

Haleakala

Dear Best Hawaii Vacation Visitors,

Our Hawaii winter rates 2009 included Maui Escape Winter at the Maui Prince Hotel - starting rate range $298, which is not really a bargain for the budget traveler. Don't let that discourage you from planning your Maui vacation. Maui's south coast, like the Kihei Coast, is beach territory for snorkeling, kayaking and whale watch from shore during the winter months. The Kihei community offers affordable condos and hotels for Maui budget travelers.

On our numerous posts about Maui Vacation, we gave our Hawaii blog visitors hints for finding the best Surfing Spots, shared Maui Surfing videos with you and best things to do on your Maui Vacation Not to forget our post 'How to have a great Maui vacation and save money'. If Maui is your vacation Hawaii destination, find useful information on our Maui Vacation posts. Start cruising and I bet you will find something which intrigues your interest on Maui, just like our today's article about Haleakala.

How could it happen that I neglected one of the biggest Maui attractions - or maybe the biggest - so far?! Easy answer: Hawaii and the Hawaiian islands are like a never ending reservoir of fascinating stories about white sand, tropical flowers, swaying palm trees, amazing ocean life and so much more. One can easily get carried away writing about the beauty of the islands. Well, today it's finally time to catch up on Heleakala Volcano on Maui. Before we give you some tips for visiting Haleakala on your Maui Vacation - Yes, do it. Don't just lie on the beaches. Have the adventure of your lifetime! - we thought a few facts about Haleakala can be educational and fun.

Haleakala Facts

Like all of the Hawaiian Islands, Maui was formed as the result of undersea volcanic activity. Although a lush and green, island today, evidence of its far more violent and volcanic past can be seen in the impressive Haleakala volcano, the centerpiece of Haleakala National Park. Standing over 10,000 feet it is the world's largest dormant volcano. Last eruption is registered though in 1790, which does not seem that long ago at all. Originally part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Haleakala National Park became its own entity in 1961.

The Haleakala Visitor Center, open daily from sunrise to 3pm, is near the summit, 11 miles from the park entrance. It offers a panoramic view of the volcanic landscape, with photos identifying the various features, and exhibits that explain its history, ecology, geology, and volcanology. Park staff members are often on hand to answer questions. The only facilities are restrooms and water.

Haleakala National Park Headquarters (ph 808/572-4400) is open daily from 7am to 4pm. It is one mile from the park entrance, at 7,000 feet. That's the perfect place to pick up information on rules and regulations, park programs, activities. You can also get camping permits and details on Haleakala hiking trails through the Park. Restrooms, a pay phone, and drinking water are available. This is a great place to get acclimated to the higher elevation. By the way, to tour Haleakala takes a round trip that covers about 76 miles throughout Haleakala National Park.

All park visitors, including campers, are required to purchase a recreational pass upon entering Haleakala National Park: $10 per car, $5 for motorcycles, bicycles and hikers. Passes are non-transferable. They are valid for 3 days. Campgrounds in Haleakala National Park are available for free on a first come first serve basis. The stay in the campgrounds is free.

A slideshow of Haleakala National Park, Mau'i, Hawai'i by Paradisedriver 2006

5 Best Tips to visit Haleakala Volcano on Maui

1.

Check the official Haleakala National Park site for maps, driving directions and times from different locations.

2.

Be prepared for sudden temperature change. Get dressed in layers the summit of Haleakala can be 30 degrees lower than they are at sea level. Your Mainland attire with warm anorak, gloves and woolen cap might come handy.

3.

Stop at Leleiwi Overlook. It is one of the most popular overlooks in Haleakala National Park. It stands at an elevation of about 8,000 feet and lies about 8 miles from the Visitor Center.

4.

Come prepared for your visit to Haleakala with plenty of food + water (maybe even warm tea in thermos). There won't be lodges, food or gas stations once you entered the Park!

5.

Always inquire locally before you start your trip to Haleakala to determine conditions at the summit or whether you might want to make the trip another day. Call tel. 808/572-4400 or the National Weather Service tel. 808/871-5054.

That's it from us for your adventure tour to Haleakala Volcano on Maui. Take Highway 37 to Highway 377, and then to Highway 378. After that it's just heading up to Haleakala - The House of Sun! If you are early birds, you might want to visit Haleakala for a spectacular sun rise! Let us know what you think of Haleakala. Mahalo, Pua Hawaii Vacations

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Tags: Haleakala, Maui Vacation, tips to visit Haleakala

Bromo Mountain : The Great Mountain in East Java

Bromo Mountain :
Mt. Bromo is without doubt East Java's most well known attraction. The pre-dawn departure and trek across the mountain's 'sand sea' to watch the sun rise at the crater rim has become a daily ritual, joined by visitors from all over the world. Although by no means the highest mountain in the region, Bromo has gained a reputation on account of its fantastic surrounding landscape. Little wonder that this mountain has been revered for centuries by the local inhabitants, the Tenggerese, who claim descent from a princess of Majapahit. Each year, on the fourteenth day of the Tenggerese month of Kasodo, which falls in December, a special ceremony is held on the sand sea below the crater of Bromo. Livestock and agricultural produce are offered to the spirit of the mountain as a kind of thanksgiving, and as a request for a bountiful harvest in the coming year. The Tenggerese believe that failure to observe this annual ceremony will result in a calamity.

Source Article: Http://www.eastjava.com/books/wilds/html/incomparable.html
Read More to in : http://theexcitingtraveldestinations.blogspot.com

The Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park

The Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park :

When you are in Kuala Lumpur and need to get away from the city, the Lake Gardens offers you several places to commune with nature.
One such attraction is the Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park, just a stone's throw from the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. The Butterfly Park houses more than 6,000 butterflies from 120 exotic species.
The park is an imitation of the butterfly's natural habitat. It includes more than 15,000 plants from 100 species that has been painstakingly landscaped to resemble a Malaysian rainforest atmosphere.
Contributing to the Butterfly Park's beautiful landscape is a uniquely designed hydro-pond built with a limestone path right in the centre. Surrounding this hydro-pond is a gazebo, commanding a breathtaking view. There is a nursery and breeding area for the butterflies. The park includes both preserved and live specimens, totaling 1,230 species in all. Facilities include an informative insect museum.
There is also a souvenir shop near the exit selling lots of local handicrafts and framed butterflies and beetles. You can enjoy a glimpse of butterflies at this unique park!

Penebel Butterfly Park in Bali

Penebel Butterfly Park in Bali :

Penebel Butterfly park, this place is best place for couple. Penebel Butterfly park is 5 kms
from Tabanan city Bali. we can find it near the street, not so difficult to find it. maybe all of you know Jatiluwih(Tourism objek in Penebel), if you go to Jatiluwih, you will pass this park.
so many kind of butterfly there. all kind of Butterfly from indonesia here. everyday they free 100 butterfly there, wow sound much isn it?? not only for refreshing, in this place many scientist do a reseach of bugs. they have alot kind of butterfly and another bugs.
one of famous kind of butterfly call heaven bird wings (Omithoptera Paradise). people there
said, this butterfly is so beautiful. but, bad time, when i go there, i cant find it. we can see it puppa theres. there is one box house that is placed for the puppa to metamophs to be a butterfly. we can find that every kind of butterfly has different puppa. wow. the butterfly that just metamorph still there until they can fly by it self. if you lucky, when all of that puppa was metamorph in the same time, all of the butterfly will come to you body, maybe you can be butterfly man, hahahaha.
we can se another bugs there, like grasshopper, bugs and scorpion. there are alot kind of grasshopper, like grasshopper that looks like wood, until looks like leaf. you not only can see that bugs, but you can touch to, like this grasshopper. if another bugs, we can find in inside the glass box, like scorpion, we can only see them, you want to touch?? iam not. thanks, dont want to touch them. there is a cave that containt a bugs, you can see them all there.
the ticket not so expensive, it depend on what kind of tourism you are. if you international tourism, its around Rp. 50.000,00 - Rp. 100.000,00, but if local tourism around Rp. 20.000,00 - Rp. 50.000,00, and also what time are you go there high season or low season.

Beautiful Rice Field of Jatih Luwih

Beautiful Rice of Jatih Luwih :

Jatiluwih, first time i see this place, just one word "WOW". this place realy great, Jatiluwih is groups of rice field that looks like stairs. this rice field use terasering concept. in around of Bali, we can only see this beautiful terasering concept in this place. its great place for our eyes. this is a great place to for landscape photograper.
beside rice field, the landscape include mountaint and forest behind the ricefield make this landscape more beatifull. this place 700km above the sea, thats make the air of this place so fresh, and also its cold there. where is this place, not to far from tabanan city Bali, its only about 24 kms from Tabanan, and all of tabanan people know this place. so dont be afraid if you lost, just ask the people there. if you go there by car, plis use car that has high suspension coz the road there not so good.
if i can describe this place, this place around the street, so you dont need to go inside the forest or walk so far. you can see this place from the car too. Jatiluwih acctualy is the name of this vilage. this village has great view of of ricefield. but there is a great spot there, near the Jatiluwih restourant.
so dont forget go here.

Beautiful Terasering Land's in Indonesia

This is a Beautiful Terasering Lands in Indonesia. Every one can see and look at the pictures.

Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur
The PETRONAS Twin Towers was designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates (USA) in association with KLCC architects.

The tower's floor plate design is based on simple Islamic geometric forms of two interlocking squares creating a shape of eight-pointed stars. Upon the eight-pointed stars, are eight superimposed semi-circles softening the inner angles.

These semicircles are themselves anchored by the arcs of the main structural columns of the buildings. The semi-circles were superimposed in the inner angles of the interlocked squares to create more usable floor space.

The design details continued to dictate the way in which the buildings would rise in as graceful a fashion as possible. To maintain the vertical axis and tapering of the design, each tower is set back five times in its ascent.

Architecturally, these forms reflect the paramount Islamic principles of "unity within unity, harmony, stability and rationality."

At the uppermost floors, the walls are gently sloped inward to taper and contribute visually to the height and the elegant form of horizontal silver ribbons of stainless steel.

Every aspect of the design contributes to the audacious verticality of the Towers. The decision to symmetrically align the Twin Towers and connect them with a spanning bridge emphasised the classical nature of the architectural design.

The writings of Lao Tse, the ancient philosopher and founder of Taoism in China, tell that the reality of a hollow object is in the void and not in the walls. Cesar Pelli, architect of the Towers, has drawn upon the strength of the void between the buildings -- delineating an invisible axis of symmetry. For the architect, it is this void that gives the PETRONAS Twin Towers their sense of grandeur and unique identity.

Read more in : http://theexcitingtraveldestinations.blogspot.com

The Exotic Kuta Beach in Bali

Sunset in Kuta Beach bali

People's in Kuta Beach Bali

Kuta Beach Bali Picture

People's In Kuta Beach Bali

Kuta Beach in Bali

Kuta is a town in southern Bali, Indonesia. A former fishing village, it was one of the first towns on Bali to see substantial tourist development, and as a beach resort remains one of Indonesia's major tourist destinations. It is known internationally for its long sandy beach, varied accommodation, many restaurants and bars, and substantial Australian population. It is located near Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport.
Kuta was the site of the October 12, 2002 Bali bombing (202 killed) and the October 1, 2005 Bali bombing (26 killed).
Kuta is now the center of an extensive tourist-oriented urban area that merges into the neighboring towns. Legian, to the north, is the commercial hub of Kuta and the site of many restaurants and entertainment spots. Most of the area's big beachfront hotels are in the southern section of Tuban.
Legian and Seminyak are northern extensions of Kuta along Jl. Legian and Jl. Basangkasa. They are somewhat quieter suburbs with cottage-style accommodations, where many of the expat crowd live. Also to the north are Petitenget, Berawa, Canggu, and Seseh - new and quieter continuations of Kuta's beach. They are easy to reach through Abian Timbul or Denpasar and Kerobokan. Several large hotels are located in this area: the Oberoi Bali, Hard Rock Hotel Bali, the Intan Bali Village, the Legian in Petitenget, the Dewata Beach and the Bali Sani Suites in Berawa.
To the south, Kuta Beach extends beyond the airport into Jimbaran. Other nearby towns and villages include Seseh (6.4 nm), Denpasar (4.5 nm), Ujung (1.8 nm), Pesanggaran (2.0 nm), Kedunganan (2.9 nm) and Tuban (1.0 nm).
The Balinese Provincial Government have taken the view that the preservation of the Balinese culture, natural resources and wildlife are of primary importance in the development of the island. To this end they have limited tourist development to the peninsula on the extreme southern aspect of the island; Kuta beach is on the western side of this peninsula and Sanur is on the east. To the north of the peninsula no new tourist development is supposedly permitted.

Read More : http://en.wikipedia.org

Decorate on a Budget – Buy Used, Budget, Buy Unfinished

The previous post on this blog talked about decorating on a budget by recovering furniture, replacing lampshades, and repainting.

Make sure you are taking advantage of used furniture stores, thrift stores, dollar stores, and used shopping websites such as craigslist and ebay. These are places where you can find wonderful deals on home decorating items, new furniture or accent items. You might have a hard time finding something very specific, but if you look through these places with an open mind you can usually find some killer deals that you can make work with your décor in a great creative way.

If you are planning a large redesign that you think will cost quite a bit and be something you will have to really plan for, make sure you make a budget for the project. List everything you will need to consider, and take time to consider how much you can spend in each category. This way you can rest assured that you will not end up in debt over your redesign.

Unfinished wooden products are usually much cheaper than the finished versions.

Buying unfinished furniture is actually pretty great, because you get to choose any color of the rainbow to paint the furniture instead of being limited to what the normal colors generally are. It is more work of course, but in the end you’re getting a customized product for less money.

Check back soon for the next blog post about decorating on a budget.

This blog is brought to you by dialysis jobs.

Borobudur Temple Beautiful Place in Indonesia

Borobudur is built as a single large stupa, and when viewed from above takes the form of a giant tantric Buddhist mandala, simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and the nature of mind. Some scholars think that this massive monument is a gigantic textbook of Buddhism to help people to achieve enlightenment. To read this Buddhist textbook in stone requires a walk of more than two miles. The walls of the galleries are adorned with impressive reliefs illustrating the life of Buddha Shakyamuni and the principles of his teaching.

Taj Mahal Beautiful Place in India

The Taj Mahal (pronounced /tɑdʒ mə'hɑl/ ---- Hindi: ताज महल; Persian/Urdu: تاج محل) is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj") is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

While the white domed marble mausoleum is its most familiar component, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen. Ustad Ahmad Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer of the Taj Mahal.

Source Article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal