[Ad – Gifted Products] Fidgets have been a popular sub-genre of toys for quite some time now, and we’ve got so, so many of them! Yet, every single year, we see more and more coming out. Robin got some keyboard-style clicking fidgets at MCM Comic Con earlier this year and some Clickeez at Toy Fair, so was excited to discover the Clickeez Clickable Bubble Pops.
Continue reading “Clickeez Clickable Bubble Pops – Keyboard-styled fidgets”
[Ad – Gifted Products] It’s now officially Autumn, so the stores all over have switched to more Halloween items. I absolutely love seeing all of the Halloween items out, so went to our local LUSH store to check out their Halloween range, which features a bunch of past favorites along with a new new things! Here’s a little look at what our store had.
With most gemstones, the cut is an optical decision. Facet angles are calculated to return light, and the outline that results is almost a byproduct. Moss agate does not work that way. It is translucent rather than transparent, so it is usually finished as a cabochon or a flat-faceted slice, and light does not bounce around inside it the way it does in a faceted sapphire. What the cutter is really deciding is composition. A moss agate kite cut engagement ring and an oval version of the same rough can look like two entirely different stones, because the outline is the frame and the dendritic pattern is the picture hanging inside it.
Moss agate is a chalcedony, a microcrystalline quartz that carries branching mineral inclusions of iron or manganese oxide. Those dendrites look like ferns or forest canopy, but nothing organic is trapped inside. They grew as mineral formations while the chalcedony was forming, which is why the patterns are irregular, directional, and completely unrepeatable from one stone to the next.
Continue reading “Cut Shapes for Moss Agate: How the Outline Frames the Stone”
Spending a day out in London comes with the opportunity to capture some of the most beautiful holiday photos. But family photos aren’t the easiest to take because not everyone wants to cooperate. You know the scene: someone is holding the camera, while someone is refusing to smile, someone suddenly needs a snack, and someone is mysteriously missing from the scene.
We understand that you want to capture memories, but a family day out isn’t about photos only. Don’t turn the day into a professional photoshoot. We have discovered that the best photographs happen when nobody pays attention or puts great effort into taking them. One of the kids is racing towards the river, and you just snap a photo. Your partner has a funny expression on the Tube. You’re watching your children together as they discover something for the first time and know they cannot wait to tell the story to their friends. These scenes will make better memories than a perfectly arranged family portrait.
Continue reading “How to Plan a Family Day Out That You Will Want to Remember in Photos”
The grass has been cut. The planting beds have clean edges. There is a patio, a few established trees, maybe a path to the gate, and enough outdoor furniture to suggest that people are supposed to spend time there. Yet nobody really does. Someone carries a chair into the shade because the patio gets too hot.
The children cut across the lawn instead of using the walkway. One corner stays soggy after heavy rain. A sprinkler keeps hitting the driveway. The side gate is technically accessible, but getting a wheelbarrow through it feels like solving a puzzle. None of those problems necessarily makes a yard look unfinished. They make it feel unfinished.
A usable landscape is more than a collection of attractive plants and outdoor features. It has to account for movement, water, sunlight, maintenance, privacy, changing seasons, and the ordinary routines of the people who use the property. That is where some otherwise attractive yards go wrong. They were arranged to look complete rather than designed to work as a complete system.
Continue reading “The Yard Looks Finished. Why Does It Still Feel Hard to Use?”
