skincolour

In some countries and during some times in history a white skin was a sign of wealth. People who didn't need to work outside or on the land had a white skin.

Now a white skin is consideren healthy, even though we start to understand that sunbathing can be dangerous.
A healthy skin is considered to be brownish.

When you take great pride in your teint, relaise that there are places on the skin with a thicker layer of cells than at other places.
So scrub well before sunbathing.

Remover for your nails

Red nails can be nice, or black or blue ones, but when you want a new colour it's time to use the remover and start with a new colour all over again.

But do you know that even when you don't have coloured nails it's best to use remover before painting your nails again?

It's because remover also removes the fat on your nails and this enables the new colour to adhere a lot better.

Try it out and you'll see I'm right.

Hairmask

When you've been in the swimmingpool a lot or when you just want an afternoon to pamper yourself, don't forget a nice hairmask.
You can find them in all sorts of smells in the shop, but you can also make one yourself.

Any good ideas? You're welcome to post them here.

Red, white and blue.

It's Queensday in The Netherlands. A special day for all the Dutch and certainly a day to use the national flag.

Already in 1572 the Dutch had their own flag, which consisted of three horizontal colours: orange, white and blue.
Soon after it came to use the orange colour was exchanged for red.
It's not known why. Maybe the orange colours bleached too quick in the sun, maybe the sailors wanted red as it can be seen better.

Some americans mean they have to claim the colours, but they forget that the american flag was not even in use in 1572 and it would take another 200 years before some consensus would be reached about a flag there.

Because in the past century the colours red, white and blue got associated too much with america and the american politics and wars, the dutch started to use the colour of orange far more than before.
When I was young the colours of Queensday were red , white and blue, and the orange was only used as an accent. Now the flag is still decorated with an orange fane on special occasions to honour the royal house, which is called the house of orange, but the main colour of queensday has become orange.

Watch the wedding on TV with kids

Small children love to feel like a prince or princess.
Why not provide them with everything they need now the royal wedding of Wliiam and Kate is on TV?

Children will love watching the wedding dressed like their favorite person.

Take photos!!

Photographs

When you're visiting elderly people of your family ask them to show the photographs they have.
Take notes of names, so they won't be forgotten.

It's also nice to record the songs old people know from their youth.

Clean your bicycle

People often forget that cleaning a bicycle prolongs it's lifespan and makes bicycling a lot easier.

Clean it by using the same shampoo as is used on cars.

Oil the parts that needs oil, or use sillicones instead.

take special care of the places that might get in touch with your clothes or shoes.

Pancakes

Do you know you can make very tasteful pancakes with.....coffee?

Just add some coffee you've left. You'll love it.

To make a pancake a real surprise add some chocolate. You can smash the eastereggs and add the little pieces. Yummy!

Scissors in the kitchen

My grandmom always had a pair od scissors in the ktichen to use when preparing food.
She used them to get rid of the fat on meat.

My kids found out that those very same scissors are also perfect to cut a thin pizza in pieces. It's a lot easier than using a knife.

Peel a tomatoe

Some people take a lot of effort to peel a tomatoe.
All they get is a mess.

You can keep things clean by using the next tip:

Put the tomatoe in boiling water for about 10 seconds. Then put it in cold water.
You can peel it without any effort and without getting a mess.

Carrots

Do you know you can peel carrots with a cheese slicer?
It's a very fast way of dealing with the peeling. ofcourse you'll lose a bit more of the carrot than in the regular way, but it's handy for older people.

Exchange alarms

When you won't wake up at the sound of your own alarm anymore, why not exchange it with one of your friends?

Many people need a new sound once in a while, so you're both helped.

Cleaning the Senseo machine

Cleaning the Senseo machine can be done with tablets you can buy in the shop where they've sold you the machine.
They're quiet expensive.

Do you know lemonjuice works as well?

Put about 5 ml of lemon juice in the watercan.
Heat the water and pour 1 cuppa.

Repeat this after about half an hour.

Then clean the machine from the lemonjuice with making two cuppa's with clean water.

Buy eastereggs

It's almost easter and that means there are plenty of chocolate eastereggs in the shops.
Most shops provide a free taste, when you ask for it or just because they want to be nice.
So you'll know which shop has the best eggs.

Keep a close watch on what they have in store.

Some only sell a limited amount of eggs. Others simply have too much and sell them with a huge discount the last hour or hours before the shops close for easter.

When your internetconnection is down

We're dealing with very bad internetconnections at the moment and it's almost impossible to do everything I need to do.
I'm sure you have to deal with that too once in a while.

Write down the times the connection is down and claim the money you've lost because you couldn't access internet.

You won't get it back, I think.
But you'll make the business aware they have to take care of their services far better.

First go to customer services, then go higher.

They'll settle the matter by giving you free internet for one or two months to make you shut up.
Isn't that nice?

No spilling when boiling

Are you a messy cook?

Do you know what to do when the water boils and you don't want it to spill over?

Just add some butter to the water.
That's all.

Kids and history

History at school can be boring, but witnessing history when it happens never is.

So when something special happens that can be special for children, give them the opportunity to watch it on TV, be present and make a scrapbook about it.

Ideas?

• The wedding of William and Kate,
• Flights of the space shuttle
• the political situation in some countries in Africa
• recession
• changes in the educational system

History is not only what happens at the international level.
Blogging about their hometown can be very educational and make kids aware of what history means to people.

Tip for your hair

Do you want nice hair?

Before you wash your hair, rinse a whole egg in your hair and leave it there for a short while.

Wash your hair throughly after that with your regular shampoo.

When you're done, rinse your hair with the juice of a half a lemon.

You'll smell nice, and look wonderful.

Burned potatoes

When your potatoes are beyond normality and start smelling when on the fire, put the lid well on and switch the flame off.

Then put the pan in water, so the sissling stops.

Then pour the potatoes in another pan and you'll realise they don't smell and can be eaten.

Unless they're black as charcoal. LOL!

Medicine chest spring cleaning

People tend to keep all sorts of pills, lotions and other stuff at the medicine cabinet. They never take the old stuff out.

So take everything out and clean the cabinet. For instance with vinegar, which kills bacteria.

Then throw away everything past the date.

That means that pills have to go back to the pharmacists or have to be disposed of at special chemical waste collectors.

When you haven't used lotions for a year, you won't use them.
They might smell awful too, as perfume degenerates.