Ever go to your neighborhood craft supply store and price the dried flowers, decorative branches, and leaves used for a flower and/or foliage arrangement? To buy the materials needed for a substantial collage of textures and colors you’d have to lay down some cash. Instead of paying high prices for dried foliage why not use what nature gives us free of charge! Fallen branches from your own trees (or those from a nearby park) can be used with any flower display you want to create. Simply gather fallen branches, wipe them clean with a rag, and prune or clip away any remaining leaves or stems. After cleaning and pruning, arrange the flower items in your vase and place the branches you want to incorporate depending on their different curves and heights. They’re perfect when you need an arrangement of significant height. In time, the branches dry out but keep their shape and size beautifully.

Another green craft idea is a decorative wall hanging made of recycled materials. Some items you’ll need for this type project include:
1. Paint (if needed)
2. Hot glue gun
3. Recycled piece(s) wood – this is the base of the wall hanging
4. Items of interest: Dried flowers, branches, cattails, bark, moss, pebbles, acorns, etc.

Clean the recycled wood, paint it if what you’re creating needs more color than the wood itself, and take all the items you are including and arrange them on the wood to your creative specifications. Once you have the look you desire, hot glue the items one by one to the wood. Allow the wall hanging to dry before holding it up to make sure no additional gluing is required. Fasten a wall mounting bracket to the back and hang it with pride.

You can attach items to old photo frames to make them new again, and we have all seen high priced candle holders made from hallowed out wood. So save some money and think green for your next craft idea. All it costs is a little bit of time and some creative juices.

                                      

Now, let me first start out by saying that yes, I am happily married.  My husband is also happily married, to my knowledge, and we have a wonderful life together.  This article is not to say otherwise, but to make it clear that marriage is not all easy and happy-go-lucky all the time.  In fact there are some tough times, but when you come out of those times you find you are even more happy that you and your spouse have each other.

With so many people and celebrities out there taking advantage of the idea of marriage as something that is self-pleasing, it make me value my marriage that much more.  There are people who decide the moment marriage is not fun for them or requires some type of effort that they should just call it quits and go on and do the next best thing.  This is sad, and it will never lead to any type of fulfillment.

As for my beautiful mess of a marriage, we got married in our mid to late twenties.  Our honeymoon immediately followed and on the whole trip my husband was sick.  So we did not get much of a honeymoon.  After we returned and moved in together it was supposedly “the honeymoon phase.”  Um, I think we missed that phase and skipped ahead.  We argued, a lot, mainly because we had not lived together and we were both just plain weird to one another.  Weird, as in he would leave his socks in bizarre places and I would put my dishes beside the sink, not in it.  Hey, we all have our quirks.  We worked through this weirdness though.  Did you catch that word “work?”  Yes, we had to work.

Then we bought our first house.  After moving in we were so excited and all in love, (a glimpse of that “honeymoon phase” perhaps?) but the water started running out of our well daily.  This made a lot of trouble for us as we were both in bad moods.  I think at one point we went an entire week without saying two words to each other.

The thing is in marriage it is okay to argue.  It is definitely okay to be weird and different.  It is also okay to be stubborn, but the fact of the matter is that you eventually have to come down off of your high horse and apologize.  Work is required and sometimes you might not get that honeymoon, but the love that you have for one another for the remainder of your life is far more better than a short time of supposed wedded bliss.  If I added up all the times my husband and I were in wedded bliss it would be a lot more than those who had their “honeymoon phases.”

Just know that marriage is far more than just happiness all the time.  It is you on a journey with your spouse for the rest of your life.  It takes work and effort, but it is more than worth it.

                                      

When you have children things do change. You both have to make sacrifices for the kids, and that is not a bad thing. It just means that you might be in need of some together time without the little ones around. I know a lot of couples feel guilty about leaving their kids for a couple of hours a few times a month. Some couples even say they do not need the time away from their children. There is no reason to feel guilty for maintaining a strong relationship for your children to witness, and that short time away is needed no matter what you think.

The video below has some great tips for taking a date night. Now, I don’t agree with all of the things that relationship expert Marni says, but overall she is pretty right on. Take a night every once in a while for fun just the two of you. You will be glad you did in the long run too.

                                      

I can understand sleeping in different rooms for some couples.  I even get that occasionally it is nice to vacation alone, but the fact that these women are saying it is okay to have relationships with other men whether they are physical or not is disturbing.  And don’t get me started on the living in separate homes and not having to tell your husband to pick up his socks.  Sure, I would love to not have to tell my husband to pick up his stuff, but that is what marriage is.  Marriage is compromising.  Marriage is taking those dirty socks, picking them up yourself and getting over it because your husband puts up with the fact that you wear sweatpants 80% of the time.

The woman with the cyber husband is not the only person in her marriage guilty of emotional infidelity, as her “real-life” husband also has an online wife.  This is just sick.  Marriage should be a physical and emotional connection.  If you need a cyber spouse to give you emotional satisfaction that your real husband does not offer, then you probably should have never married in the first place.  The woman actually said of her cyber husband, “He makes me feel good and lifts my mood, which carries over into my real life.”

I am just so frustrated that this article was ever featured for many to read.  These people are making a joke out of an institution that is a serious commitment that should not be taken lightly.  There are people fighting to be able to marry legally in this country, and these people are turning marriage into a circus.  And marriage traditionalists should also be offended that people would choose to treat marriage like a light-hearted and self-pleasing institution.

Shame on you WomansDay.com for posting such a joke, and shame on you MSN.com for featuring it.

                                      

1. Let him be in charge.  If a man asks you on a date, then let him take the reigns.  You might typically be a control freak, but this is one time when you absolutely need to let that go.  You should enjoy yourself on a date, so beforehand take some time to relax.  Take a bath, burn some relaxing incense–my favorite is legal herbs direct, and get ready in plenty of time so you are not stressing.  When you are calm and let him take the reigns, you are sure to have more fun…so will he.
2. Be yourself, and look like yourself.  So often, women get more than dolled up to go out on a first date.  It is probable that the man who asked you out sees you on a regular or occasional basis so he is familiar with how you normally look.  Do not wear so much make up or style your hair in such a way where you look like a totally different woman.  He will appreciate that you take some time to look nice, but he will not understand if you don’t look like yourself.
3. Have fun, but watch how much you drink.  Having a glass of wine or a cocktail on a date is perfectly respectable.  Having five or six might not be the best idea.  Limit your alcohol consumption so that you do not get too silly or sloppy.

                                      

1. Don’t play the jealousy card. Whenever a couple is apart from one another, whether it’s for a night or a month, they are each wondering what the other is up to.  Now I don’t think it’s fair to say that either the man or the woman is more prone to become jealous because I have seen some pretty serious cases of jealousy from both sides.  If you truly have a solid relationship, then you should be able to trust the other person to use good judgment and to value the bond you have created.  If this becomes a serious issue, it may be time to sit down the next time you are together and figure out exactly what is going through each others’ minds when jealousy is an issue.  You may find out that you two are thinking the same thing and that there is nothing to worry about because your relationship is stronger than something petty like jealousy.
2. Do something together while you are apart.  Maybe the two of you have a favorite show on Dish Network that you both love and always talk about.  Get on the phone together or skype during the show and watch it together.  Or you could make it your routine to always talk right after the show is over to discuss the details and catch up.  Creating a routine helps you feel more secure about the long term nature of your relationship since you know that there is always a constant factor you can share.
3. Send each other something out of the ordinary.  Everyone loves getting surprises, even if it is just a card for a random holiday.  Taking a few minutes out of your day to write a note or put together a care package shows your partner that you are thinking about him or her.  It truly is the little things that make all the difference when it comes to keeping the spark alive.

                                      

I can’t think of a single person who is willing to admit that their lackluster love life is their fault.  In fact, I don’t know many people who would even admit to having any issues period.  The truth is that we are all human, and that means that we all have flaws.  When true love comes your way that person will love you and care about you despite your flaws, but you’ve got to find that person first.  You might have some serious flaws that are keeping you from finding your love to begin with.  So here are the top reasons why you are hurting yourself in the love department and can’t find love.

• You have unrealistic expectations.  Just like we don’t like to admit flaws, we don’t like to think we are unattractive either.  I am a firm believer that everyone is beautiful in their own way, but let’s face it there are some people prettier than us.  If you think you are a ten on a one to ten scale when you are more realistically a six then you are probably passing up love with the girl or guy of your dreams who is closer to you on the looks scale so you can hold out for a ten.  Don’t wait around for a ten!  You will be waiting the rest of your life, and how’s that feel?  Look in the mirror and realistically think to yourself, “can I get a ten?”  The answer is probably no, but surely you can get a great looking seven-ish.
• You are a narcissist.  It’s funny to me how self-centered people are so consumed with themselves that they don’t even realize they’re narcissistic.  So, even if you are a self-obsessed fool reading this, you won’t even know it.  It’s hard to find someone who can look past this fault.  Try to take other people into consideration for at least thirty minutes a day.  After a while it will grow and you will be a caring human being that people might actually want to hang out with.  Here are some signs that you are that one person that people put up with because they feel so sorry for you:

1. All of your friends know every detail about what you do at work each day.  They can also tell you how much money you have in your IRA and savings accounts.
2. It takes you longer than an hour to get ready…to go grocery shopping.
3. The only pronouns you use are “I” and “Me.”

• You have bad hygiene.  This one is a given, right?  Well, one would think that it is a known fact that in order to attract a partner you need to take care of yourself, but I have seen people with less than stellar hygiene looking for love.  They, of course, did not succeed.  Heads up, you do need to bathe regularly, wear deodorant, and brush your teeth.  If you are a hippy looking for a hippy lover, then cool, just don’t think that you’re going to land a model.

                                      

Getting into arguments is never fun, unless you really like yelling, crying, and feeling bad all around.  If you are going to be in a relationship you have to expect it though.  Fighting and disagreeing is just something that comes along with the territory.  Now, if you are fighting all the time and it outweighs all the good stuff in the relationship then you probably should quit reading this and find a way out of your relationship.  For those of you still reading, this is my list of ways to make an argument worse, or possibly end it all together.  What does that mean?  Well, these are things that I do just to annoy my boyfriend when we fight.  Sometimes it makes him so angry the argument is worsened, other times I think he feels sorry for how lame I am and drops it which means I won the fight (yay!)

• Talk like a toddler.  This one is classic.  My boyfriend used to get so furious when I would stop talking in complete sentences that we would argue with me more.  Of course I would talk more and more like a two year old while he was going nuts.  In the middle of the argument, preferably while he/she is talking, just try something like, “You no love me.”  This can’t always be your go to because as I found out quickly your partner will catch on pretty quick.
• Text him/her while in the same room.  This one can go either way too.  Sometimes I will stop in the middle of a sentence and text the rest to my boyfriend.  This frustrates him tremendously, which makes me laugh…a lot.  It’s only ended an argument once though when I misspelled an easy word.
• Start blaming all of your relationship’s issues on the fact that you are fat.  This one is more for just the ladies.  When he starts an argument about how crappy of a driver you are, break it out, “You think I can’t drive because I’m fat, right?”  This one always makes him feel a little sorry for me so he backs off.

                                      

You do have to tread a little carefully when you do choose to date a co-worker, and you don’t want to hurt either of your careers or anything if it doesn’t work out.  If you have ever watched the television show “The Office,” then you have seen a couple office romances go down.  One romance has withstood the test of time and working together and that is the one of Jim and Pam.  So the infographic shows a guide to office romance.  It has some great guidelines for you to follow if you are thinking about dating one of your colleagues.