Home is a place where you want to return after a hard day, where it is warm and pleasant. Coziness in the house will not appear by itself, it must be created, and in this case there are no trifles. The choice of finishes for the walls and furniture is, of course, important, but the true comfort lies in the details.

Home textiles

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To decorate the house is not bored, it must sometimes be updated. It is especially nice to do this for a holiday. For example, in the run-up to Christmas, you can place decorative pillows with a picture of reindeer and Christmas wreaths.

Bathroom

When furnishing a bathroom, the first thing to consider is functionality. There are many ways to make your hygiene routine as comfortable as possible:

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- An automatic toothpaste dispenser will optimize toothpaste consumption.

- A super absorbent foot mat with anti-slip coating will solve the problem of a wet floor and prevent falls.

To keep the shower close at hand, you can place it on a special suction cup or corner shelf. A hair filter will prevent the drain from clogging.

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Decor

In the interior of any home, there are details that have no functional value, but give the interior personality. These are, for example, decorative stickers for walls and windows. Especially popular are Christmas and New Year stickers in the form of snowflakes, Christmas trees or Santa Claus, there are also many options for ordinary days:

- Glowing stickers in the form of the moon and stars will create a romantic setting in the bedroom.

- Butterflies, leaves or flowers will decorate the living room.

- In the children's room cartoon characters will be appropriate.

To create comfort in your home, you will need to buy a lot of things, and it is much more convenient to buy them in one place. You can do it on AliExpress, and to find everything you need quickly will help service https://www.pricearchive.org/aliexpress.com/category/13. It has everything for a comfortable search: and product selections with discounts, and ratings of sellers and customer reviews, you can even track changes in prices over the year. Pricearchive service will help you make a good choice for your home.

Address of the Pricearchive website - Aliexpress tracking

On a doctor’s advice to cover up a minor surgery scar on my face.

But I changed my mind.

So nothing for me. I won’t even colour my hair. I like my gray. It makes me distinguished.

Will be getting rid of my pot though. Nothing a little exercise can’t fix. :pow:

This is Ethel the Cat.

Jennifer, who ya'll know I love and adore, had to take Ethel into the kitty hospital this morning for an indefinite amount of time. Ethel has to get a kittycat IV and X-rays and tests, and then the doctors will hopefully know what's wrong. We have a great veterinary clinic -- Shannon and Karman and I all take our pets there, too -- and Jen, she's just so damn sad, feeling like she was a bad kitty mom, blaming herself as we all do even when there was nothing, nothing on this planet, we could have done differently.

There's a love we have for our pets that's so simple, so completely emotionally driven, it's one of the most rewarding relationships you can ever have. People who don't like animals scare me. The way a person treats an animal says a lot about their character. The love of a pet, the appreciation for a dog or a cat or a bird or a fish, the amazement that this little creature has a heart and a circulatory system and a brain and thoughts all its own ... it's just a miracle. A pure love. A respect for life and a little piece of happy that you just can't describe.

When I think of unconditional love, I think of my pets.

But our pets can't talk to us and tell us when they feel bad. Jen loves those little furballs, Fred and Ethel, and she's a great cat-mom. I know she's home right now, with one kitty in the hospital, not knowing what comes next, just blaming herself. Ya'll, I'd be doing the same thing. But the truth is: she has no fault in this. It's Ethel's liver. How could Jen have known that? Ethel didn't tell her. It's not her fault.

So, ya'll, go visit Jennifer's website and give her some comment love and karma and tell her how Ethel is the prettiest, strongest, most loved cat on the Internets today.

And she is. We love you, Ethel. Come home soon!

Ever since The Thing accompanied us to the Motley Crue/Aerosmith concert a few months ago, he’s been acting strange.

First came his penchant for swearing repeatedly while playing darts. He also refused to stand the correct distance from the board when throwing. I still have the scar.

Then came his addictive behavior: smoking. Inside the house, even. And he doesn’t use an ashtray.

And finally, we caught him with some less-than-savory characters. That’s Jenna Jameson. Even in this weather she doesn’t dress appropriately.

He’s out of control. That’s the last time we let him listen to an 80s hair band.

Well, I’m typing this post and feeling sad :( , and yes it’s rather sudden, but…it’s probably not surprising. So here it it is. This will be the final week for the Naughty and Spice blog.

Times have changed, and with Twitter and Facebook, not as many people blog or blog hop. All the NAS girls’ schedules have changed, our lives have changed, our writing paths have changed…change is in the air.

I really want to thank all our readers (including the authors!) and all the Open Mic Spice bloggers we’ve had join us over the years. And I’m so sorry to those Open Mic Spice bloggers who are losing future spots I gave out.

I had a lot of fun on this blog. A LOT. It was the place to just say (pretty much) whatever we wanted and let our hair down. This was a fun blog. We had great readers who were so much fun with their interactions. I’m really going to miss it here. But maybe the bonus is I’ll start blogging more on my OWN blog, since I tended to put my heart into NAS. And you’ll still find me floating around the blogosphere at the Bradford Bunch, and Samhain Blog, and the Aphrodisia Blog for a bit longer.

I’m not sure each one of us will do a farewell post, but if we don’t, know we all heart you very much! But you’ll see us around online I’m certain! *Wave*

(Here are the NAS girls Amie, Me, Karen, Lilli, back when the blog was just beginning. Texas at RWA 2007)

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” John F. Kennedy

Hugs to you all! And keep being a little bit Naughty!

Shelli

Candi Jensen was on "Knitty Gritty" last season demonstrating how to make the CUTEST DAMN BABY ITEMS EVER... hand-knitted suede Ugg booties.

I know that ya'll hate Uggs and think they are the ugliest thing since shoulder pads. But I am here to tell you, I live in the Valley and I wear my Uggs (which is shorthand for "UGliest shoe on God's green earth") loud and proud. And I am not alone. The weather has been surprisingly cold here lately -- yesterday it only got up to about 80 degrees downtown! -- and this morning it was even OVERCAST (gasp! how on earth with the little Los Angelenos survive? will there be price-gouging on Starbucks and fizz-control hair gel? Will women in spaghetti-strap tank tops have to wrap 8-foot long skinny scarves around their necks? Will the world stop spinning on its axis?) but anyway, the point is that Ugg boots have been spotted already on the streets of Los Angeles.

It's the age-old question: which comes first -- the fall weather or the Ugg boots? Do people get so desperate to wear their Uggs and skinny scarves that they collectively bring on the Fall weather? Or does Fall bring out the Uggs?

We may never know the answer. It's a chicken-and-egg debate, really, best left to the great minds of paradoxical philosophy.

Me? I'm just over here contemplating your bootie. I've been, in fact, feeling on your bootie. Since that show aired, I have been dying for someone around me to get knocked up so I could make them, and finally (finally!) a girl at work fell into the family way and I started tapping that bootie.

Except ... well, I have READ and CAREFULLY FOLLOWED the pattern. And I really have enjoyed making my first bootie call. But so far my bootie looks REALLY different than the picture on the DIY website. It looks, maybe ... not so much like something that would hold a foot at all.

My swatch is completed, though with the amount of imbibing that went on around here last night I am as shocked as you are. By the way, it was all Jennifer. What a boozer! (Ha!)

So, I have a question. When you're knitting a swatch and measuring the gauge for your Mystery Knitted Cat Thingamajig, and you have two stitches per inch plus a smidge, do you just say it's two stitches? or do you have to add in a percentage, like 2.1 or something?

My swatch, resting on Britney's bikini-clad self.

And a close-up:

Also, Do you want to know what an AMAZING and TALENTED hostess I am? Oh please. You doubters! So, I decided to have a little dinner thing at my house last night, and this time I thought I should actually make dinner. (See: serving your guests potato chips as a main course.) And for whatever reason, this dinner seemed like a completely achievable idea. Perhaps it was the wine talking. We may never know.

There's so much an AMAZING hostess must do. First, one must go to the grocery store. The real grocery store, you know, not the 7-11 (shutup, you HAVE TOO bought groceries at 7-11.) And then you have to stray from the frozen foods aisle. Then you come home, and whip up a little masterpiece, I called mine "meatloaf."

Only, something went wrong. Perhaps it was around the time I totally forgot I was making dinner and sat on the patio just chatting and drinking and so on.

Now, I present to you our main course:

And you know what I served with it? Potato Buds. And Bud Light. And you know how classy I am? I served in on paper plates. (That's klassy with a "k" if you know what I mean.) But I have good friends who don't mind my cooking, once you get 'em liquored up enough.

Still life with Jen, paper plate, and meatloaf.

Thanks in advance for the gauge help, ya'll. How can I repay you? Oh, I know! Want some leftover meatloaf? I think if you put ketchup on it it'll be just great. Or maybe if you have a beer first that would help. Ahem.

I haven’t knitted anything lately except a cozy for Sammy, my iPod. I used a purple yarn that I bought in order to knit a squid hat for one of my online friends. (Incidentally, this squid hat pattern is bizarrely difficult to follow, but I vow to someday finish it. Preferably before my friend’s child turns 58.)

Anyway, I don’t know why I chose purple yarn for my cozy, because purple hasn’t been my favorite color since I was 11 and obsessed with unicorns, Espirit bags and jelly shoes.

But how can I explain this, then?

This is the tank top I knitted last year. With super heavy yarn. Yarn for a tank top. A tank top meant to be worn during the SUMMER.

Note to self: use brain more often.

This was the first garment I knitted. I worked laboriously on it, and when it came time to make the armhole decreases, I had to actually write out whether each stitch should be knitted or purled, because the stupid pattern had to LINE UP and if I was one stitch off, everything would be ruined. My brain ached from this pattern.

Also, my knitting needles gave me a splinter.

But I prevailed. I succeeded in making the armholes even, I made the side seams invisible and the thing actually looked like the pattern in the book.

I’ve haven’t worn it since.

Hi, my name is Emma Petersen. And I’ll be your blogger today here :) I’ve been doing some major pre-Autumn cleaner, and during this PSC I’ve gone through my many, many boxes of papers. (Please don’t ask. LOL.) Ever mindful of the possibility of identity theft and the other nasty things that can happen if you don’t properly dispose of documents that have your information, I’ve spent days shredding things I no longer needed.

It was tedious and boring but it needed to be done and I’m glad I buckled down and did it. Because if I hadn’t I would have never run across it. What is it you ask? It or what I like to call, “Aaaaah the pain, the horror. Oh Jebus, my career would be ruined if it ever sees the light of day”, is one of the very first manuscripts I wrote. And let’s just say it’s a doozy. Full of clichés, riddled with errors, it’s interesting to say the least.

I made myself read it, even though I wanted to stop after that first page. And while I continued to read I realized something. I’ve come a hell of a long way. Seriously, the writer I am today is definitely not the writer I was then.

While I’d like to claim sole responsibility for my progress from “Aaaaah the pain, the horror. Oh Jebus, my career would be ruined if it ever sees the light of day”, to one of my more recent works, I can’t. I’m one of those people who learn by seeing and doing. I ask questions and write notes. And thankfully, I have a circle of friends who are patient and willing to share what they’ve learned over the years.

So instead of seeing “Aaaaah the pain, the horror. Oh Jebus, my career would be ruined if it ever sees the light of day” as the monstrosity it is, I’m choosing to look at it positively. Just like a bottle of wine, my writing has gotten better with age. And that is something to be proud of.

So how about you guys? Have you ever come across something you wrote years ago? And when you read it, did you cringe and swear it would never see the light of day?
Thanks for letting me visit NAS(ty) chickies!

* Emma will be donating a copy of her book to one lucky commenter!

(Thanks to Kimberly for being our last guest blogger at Naughty and Spice! She even–without knowing–went with our change theme for the week ;) )

Wow, it’s so pretty here! I love guest blogging in a new place – new friends to make , new conversations to have. I love my regular blog haunts, but sometimes it’s fun to shake things up. It keeps me from getting bored, changes my perspective, and works new brain cells.

But while I like change, I also fear it a bit. Change is… well, it’s change and you never know what’s going to happen. Could be good; could be bad. The thing is, you never know until it’s too late to turn back.

Of course, change is at the heart of every book. That’s the point, right? No one wants to read about the same-old-same-old in a character’s life. I think the technical, writerly-type term for that change is the “Inciting Incident.” Something happens that changes the heroine’s life from the ordinary and sends her on her journey through the plot. In romance, that change is often called “The Hero.” ~grin~

But I like books where the heroine – for good reasons or not – makes a decision to make a change. Maybe she steps outside her comfort zone, does something she always wanted but only got the courage to do it today. Maybe she’s smarting over being called a prude by her ex, so she intentionally sets out to prove she’s not.

Is that always the wise, mature thing to do? Not necessarily. But I like those heroines who say “Nope. Not anymore. Today, I’m going to be brave, impetuous, and listen to that little inner voice that’s urging me to go for it.” That attitude is almost guaranteed to create one heck of a story for our heroine.

That’s one of the reasons I love my newest release (you knew I’d get to that eventually, right?). In Magnate’s Mistress…Accidentally Pregnant!, my heroine Ally is a bookish bookkeeper who is on her honeymoon – alone. She dumped her cheating fiancé but is just too practical to let a pre-paid vacation go to waste. Stepping outside her comfort zone onto a tropical island where she can be anyone and anything she wants, she embraces her inner femme fatale when the hero arrives on the scene.

That’s change. The good kind. The kind we should applaud.

But as I think you can tell from the title, that decision kinda backfired on my heroine, and now her life is about to change in a whole different kind of way. Pregnancy is a “no-going-back” kind of change, you know. J As the author, this kind of change is fun for me to write for my heroines, even if it’s not all that fun for the heroine herself.

One of my favorite quotes by Eleanor Roosevelt reads, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Maybe that’s why I like those moments in a book when the heroine makes that decision to do the thing that scares her simply because she wants to shake things up and make a change. Even if it doesn’t work out quite like she planned.

Have you ever listened to that inner voice that told you to go for it? Done that scary thing just because it seemed like it was time to do it? How’d that work out for you? Did it backfire or did it work like a charm? Tell me all about it, and I’ll send one of you a copy of Magnate’s Mistress…Accidentally Pregnant!

www.booksbykimberly.com

PS: Be sure to drop by my website… I’m running the Writing Playground’s Jan/Feb contest and you could win a prize pack to help chase away those winter blues!

Magnate’s Mistress… Accidentally Pregnant! is a February release from Harlequin Presents.

Pregnant by the wild and wicked billionaire!

Ally Smith might have dumped her cheating fiancé, but she refuses to waste her non-refundable honeymoon in the Caribbean!

Trying to embrace her freedom, Ally meets sexy stranger Chris Wells… Not recognizing him as the famous thrill-seeking tycoon, Ally throws caution to the wind and allows Chris, with his hot body, to sweep her into an even hotter summer fling!

But back home Ally realizes that, unlike her tan, memories of their wild night will never fade… Oh-so-sensible Ally is expecting the playboy’s baby!