Modest clothing for women

As a woman who loves to impress everyone with the most fashionable and stylish clothes, the truth is that I tend to spend many hours on the high street shops every month! Still, I am the first to admit that with the current financial downturn I will have to look for new clothes elsewhere.

Keeping this in mind, I recently heard about this website selling modest clothing for women and after visiting the website I was really impressed not only with the quality of the clothing but with the prices also! In fact, everything is incredibly affordable when we keep in mind the quality of the fabrics, designs and cuts of the clothes, making it absolutely mandatory for any woman to take some time to visit the website above.

So, are you looking for the clothes that you will be wearing this summer? If that’s the case, then I would personally advise you to have a look at the website to which I have linked above.

Discovering Portugal

Have you ever been to Portugal before? Do you have an idea of what you can find on that country apart from the great beaches? If you are going to travel to Portugal anytime soon or if you would like to know more about what you will be able to experience there, then you definitely need to have a look at the msnbc.com article just below:

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SALINAS, Portugal - Shoveling drying salt in a pit under scorching sun while tourists and fellow villagers drink beer and look on from above may sound like a miserable experience, but not in Salinas, Portugal.

The presence of tourists in the cafes on the ancient wall above the salt pit in this tiny Portuguese village some 60 miles north of Portugal's capital Lisbon is more than welcome and causes no consternation.

"One thing works with the other. Without tourism, the salt business would probably collapse, and vice versa," said Casimiro Froes Ferreira, 82, and the head of the Salinas cooperative.

The village has been extracting salt since at least 1170, when the local ruler sold part of the pit to the Knights Templar — the first known record of Salinas.

In the middle of a pool in the salt pit lies a deep well of water heavily laden with salt — Portugal's only natural saltworks. The water is pumped to shallow cells in the pool where it dries up over a few days, leaving a layer of salt.

"We work seven days a week between May and October when the weather is good and when salt needs to be dried and removed — practically the same way our ancestors did. After work everyone just joins the crowd in the bars overhead," Froes Ferreira said.

Most of the village's old salt depots and stores — made entirely of wood, including door locks to avoid corrosion from salt — have been transformed into souvenir shops and bars, where one can try a local cheese baked in salt.

Even the local bikers club is headquartered in such a hut.

"It's really cool, it's kind of like one of those medieval fairs, but you know it's for real, and the people are real," said Eliza Castro from Lisbon, who stopped in Salinas with her two children for a meal and some sightseeing after visiting the ancient castle of Obidos nearby.

Some larger, newer depots are also made of wood, as cement and metals are easily corroded by the mineral.

Maria Luisa Santos Dias, 74, who like most workers here is a member of the cooperative and owns a plot in the huge 300,000-square-foot pit, swaps periods of work in the sun with rest in the diner. Here she grabs a snack, chats to neighbors and helpfully provides directions to visitors.

"I feel good here in the pit, I started at seven in the morning today, before anyone got here," said the woman, who is wearing heavy rubber shoes to protect her feet from salt. "I married a salter many years back and got to liking this work." Her son, Jose Antonio, 37, and 16-year-old granddaughter Ines often work alongside her.

When I was six I started coming here and played with a wooden shovel. I'm no longer a little girl, but I still like coming here to work," said Ines, who is a student.

The cooperative was formed in 1979 after a crisis caused by growing imports, which nearly killed off the salt industry in Salinas and put an end to small private salt depots.

Although hardly prospering, it now makes ends meet thanks to its "all-natural" salt production, including manual collection and cleaning, which have attracted eco-conscious consumers in Germany. Only a small part of the work is done with the help of machinery, mainly lifting the salt from the pit.

"Here in Portugal we have to sell at the production cost, we're not competitive. But the Germans want the salt the way it comes out of the pit, the way it was done for centuries. And they pay extra for that," Froes Ferreira said.

Salinas produces 1,500 tons of salt a year. Workers earn 4.5 euros ($6.27) an hour, which makes up more than the average salary in Portugal of 840 euros, but only in the hot season.

"It's more of a good supplement, people have to have other jobs. But we have the tourism and our little invention — the cheese in salt. That's strictly for tourists, of course," he said, admitting that he does not like salt in his food.

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Finding the best sniper paint ball guns

Even considering the fact that I am a woman, the truth is that as a lover of the nature and sports, I also take some time during the summer to go to the paintball field right next to my house with some friends of mine! In fact, paintball is a great way of enjoying some amazing moments with our friends!

Keeping this in mind, I recently had to buy new sniper paint ball guns, paintball pistols but also some new AK47 paintball guns, which are my favorite ones. Personally, I tend to take some guns with me when we go to the paintball field simply because they make me feel more secure, while also allowing me to have the ideal guns for different situations and ranges. Moreover, the AK47 paintball guns are probably the ones that offer us the best relation of shot precision/speed, making them absolutely essential for me. Below is an image of the AK47 paintball guns that I have recently bought:


So, would you also like to buy some new sniper paint ball guns, accessories, upgrades, ammo and other important gadgets for any paintball lover? If that’s the case, then I definitely recommend you to have a look at the website above and take full advantage of the great prices that you are able to get there, while also getting free shipping on selected products.

Families merging forces on vacation

As you know, almost everybody around the world loves to travel and discover new places! In fact, US families are no exception and now that the crisis is menacing us and making it harder to travel, the truth is that the families are joining forces and traveling together! Below is another msnbc.com article that tells you the story with full detail:

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By Eileen Ogintz

Tribune Media Services

The Gomez family may be one of the few in the country who won't be too disappointed if it rains over the Fourth of July weekend.

"We just play indoor games in the cabins," says Michele Abril. For the last 20 years, she explains, her extended family — 30 strong and including four generations, have gathered at rustic cabins on Lake Sebago in New York for some old-fashioned fun. They crowd into four cabins (showers are a walk away), tote everything they need (even toilet paper) and divide all the chores. And they wouldn't have it any other way.

Maybe it's the economy. Maybe it's the need to reconnect with friends and family. At beach houses and on sailboats, city condos and mountain cabins, families and friends are joining forces on vacation.

According to a new survey from TripAdvisor of people with children, nearly a third report they will vacation with another family this year to save money — a significant jump from 2008.

"We get calls daily from family and friends who want to get together in our cabins," says Stephanie Seacord from Point Lookout Resort in Maine where cabins that sleep nine or more start at $195. Cabins can be had for even less in Colorado at the YMCA of the Rockies where my family has also shared quarters —and cooking chores with relatives at a family reunion.

More visitors to Hawaii are opting to split condos rather than get individual hotel rooms, adds Lisa Cripe of Aston Hotels & Resorts, which has hotels, condo resorts and villas all across Hawaii.

Even Disney is getting into the act, with new Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts Vacation Club options (waltdisneyworld.com and disneyland.com) that you can turn into your home away form home — Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs Resort are brand-new with a third villa resort slated to open later this summer and one at Disneyland in the fall.

You do the math. Whether you are at rustic cabins or a luxurious beachfront condo house, you'll spend less when splitting costs with another family. Especially this year with rental owners — 66 percent — offering special deals to encourage business, according to a survey from homeaway.com, the leading online vacation rental Web site. They're throwing in everything from a free night to free cleaning service, discounts, even tickets to a local attraction or food.

No wonder families are joining forces on everything from city apartment rentals (lots cheaper than a hotel!) to road trips to tours of Alaska. Elaine Masters and her son joined forced with another family and, says Elaine, "stayed in several suites where we could cook our meals, had cereal breakfasts and packed picnic lunches when we could." And they spent less than they would have on a cruise. "We saw everything we wanted (except Denali stayed hidden behind clouds)."

When the kids were small, we met up ever summer in Minnesota at Ludlow Island Resort where we ate the fish we caught for dinner and the kids would chase frogs and ride in the special car that goes in the water.

We've shared Cape Cod and Caribbean houses, and every winter, Colorado ski condos with friends and family. Next week may be our farthest afield shared trip — a sailboat in Tahiti with another family and two of my daughter Mel's oldest camp friends — the girls' high school graduation present.

But these trips are about much more than saving money. "I love that our group can get together once a year or every other year and feel like we haven't missed a beat," says Carin Kromm, a geologist from Kernersville, N.C. Kromm gathers with her college friends and their children at a vacation home owned by one of the group.

Single mom Kelly Ladyga adds that it was much more relaxing to join forces with another single mom than to take her young daughter solo. Besides sharing the cost of rent at a beach house in North Carolina, groceries and rental car, she was able to get a much-needed break — far more relaxing than the solo trip she took to Hawaii. "Plus it was nice to sit with someone on the deck at night, drink wine and laugh about the day's adventures."

"It helps with your sanity for sure, kids seem to play better when they have other kids to play with — the more children, the busier they keep each other," says Michelle Revuelta, the Miami mom of two young daughters who has rented condos in Orlando and elsewhere with other families. "You truly feel you are on vacation," she says. And that isn't easy to accomplish with young kids in tow.

There are some rules to be sure. Never discipline anyone else's child, for one. That's a parent's prerogative.

Sophia Blinsky, who rents vacation homes as a business and who hosts her college group of seven families, says the hardest part is choosing the date. Make sure there are enough bedrooms, bathrooms and a common space where the kids can hang out in addition to the adults. "A swimming pool is mandatory," she adds.

"Just remember that where you are isn't as important as the place you rent."

Rates for some three-bedroom vacation homes start at just $99 per night, but sleep up to eight travelers, not just one or two, notes Alex Risser, president of the Vacation Rental Managers Association.

Be clear how you are dividing the costs. In her case, each family takes a day of the week and gets groceries, cooks dinner and cleans up. Other families simply split costs. Some divide the rent based on the number of bedrooms they are using or split the cost straight down the middle. However you do it, suggests Carin Kromm, keep it simple. "There is no need to schedule a lot of activities for the children."

The beauty of a vacation like this is allowing the kids to entertain themselves. A pool or the beach may be all they need. And once the kids are in bed, says Blinsky, the grown-ups can enjoy some "adult" time. They're not stuck staring at the wall in a hotel room watching the children sleep.

There's no corralling kids in restaurants, no getting dressed to feed the hungry preschoolers in an (overpriced) hotel dining room, no worrying about a tired toddler melting down in a hotel lobby.

There's no worrying about the rain either. "With a 30-person family, we make up our own entertainment," says Michelle Abril.

That's the best kind.