5 Great Gift Ideas for Pet Lovers

With the holidays just around the corner, it's time to start thinking of gifts to give your friends and loved ones. Finding unique gifts can present a challenge, and most people never consider giving pet-related gifts. Since the chances are good that more than one person on your holiday gift list has a pet that he or she adores, why not give a distinctive gift that your recipient will treasure? Here are five great gift ideas to get you started:

1. Fine Art Animal Prints

Dogs may come in many shapes and sizes, but each has a personality all its own. One of the most delightful gifts you can give to a pet lover is a fine art print of his or her breed. One of the most notable artists offering fine art animal prints is Lorena Pugh. Her print, "Princess," for example, depicts a white toy poodle laying atop a stack of twelve colorful pillows, while "Angel Face" showcases a gorgeous pug who has just snagged a cluster of grapes off of a dining room table. In "Chocolate Craving," she realistically captures the yearning of a chocolate lab as he reaches for a tennis ball against a beautiful background of blue sky. These limited edition animal prints are sure to be treasured, as each comes with a consecutively numbered dog tag to match the tag in the print.

2. Crystal Animal Statues

Whether your gift recipient has a dog, cat, horse, or rabbit, he or she is sure to enjoy an elegant crystal animal statue. Typically made from 24 percent lead crystal, hand-finished animal statues are beautiful yet whimsical. Crystal animal statues can depict a wide variety of pets, from a sitting cat to a dog with a bone; from a turtle to a frog; from a horse to a mouse; and from a duck to a dove.

3. Stone Animal Statues

Who wouldn't love a playful stone animal statue depicting their beloved pet? Animal garden statues are perfect gifts, as are stone animal statues for the home and office. While some statues - like a sleeping spaniel puppy or an eager dachshund - make you feel warm inside, others - like a cat holding a pair of binoculars up to his eyes, ever watchful for a bird - make you chuckle. Stone animal statues are available for virtually any type of pet, and are certain to be cherished.

4. Animal Posters

If you've ever owned a pet, you know how funny they can be. Animal posters depict pets in a variety of outlandish situations (remember the cat in "Hang in There"?), and are eminently affordable. An animal poster is sure to bring a smile to your recipient's face.

5. Entertainment

When it comes to gifts for pet lovers, there's nothing more unique that pet-related entertainment. There is actually a music company that creates music for animals, so consider giving a gift of music about and for cats, dogs, or birds. Another great gift idea is to buy a DVD or video that is designed to entertain your recipient's dog or cat. Your friend or loved one can play the DVD or video while he or she is at work or out running errands - guilt free!

It's both original and thoughtful to give a gift that acknowledges your recipient's pet as a central part of his or her life. Pet lovers will appreciate and treasure your gift, whether it's a fine art animal print or an entertaining DVD.

All About Sheet Music

Sheet music is an important tool for established musicians and those who want to learn. If you do not know how to read sheet music, don’t worry. There are many online tutorials that will take you step by step on learning how to read sheet music. Sheet music can speed the time in learning new songs. Sheet music can also help you capture your own original compositions to paper which will help in publishing and copyright issues.

Finding sheet music is relatively easy given the popularity of sheet music download sites. You can find sheet music for every genre of music and to suit every instrument. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced musician, sheet music can be found for your experience level. Searching the Internet will bring up a variety of sites where you can choose the sheet music most desirable for you.

When downloading sheet music, please be aware of copyright laws. The musician or composer usually holds the copyright to their sheet music. Some copyright owners will allow the download of their sheet music only under certain conditions. Others do not allow the download of their sheet music for free or at all. Be aware of the applicable copyrights so you do not have a problem.

Many artists who compose original works will provide sheet music to get their songs out to the public. Composers will use sheet music to try to sell their song to a band that can perform it with the hopes of getting a record deal. Whatever the motivation behind allowing public access to original sheet music, it is readily available for download at a variety of sites. Downloading sheet music is a great way to learn songs and increase your play set.

Musicians who are just starting out may not have a vast repertoire of songs. Downloading sheet music to learn can increase this much faster. Having a wide variety of available songs to perform will increase the likelihood of getting paid for performances. Sheet music can also help you during a performance. Sometimes a play set is so vast that no matter how many times you practice, it’s difficult to remember all the words and chord changes. Using sheet music as a guide can help you build confidence during a performance.

Sheet music can be found for download at a number of sites. Sometimes sheet music is available for free, others a small fee is required. Please be aware of any copyright issues, especially if downloading free sheet music. Do not steal sheet music or otherwise violate copyright as it harms the artist. If you are a composer, allowing others to view or download your sheet music is a great way to expose your art to the public. Use sheet music to learn, write and perform original works and songs by your favorite artists.

Girlfriend Gift Ideas

Whether you’re buying for the holidays, birthdays or special occasions, girlfriend gift ideas can be hard to come buy. Here’s a list of top gift ideas.

Girlfriend Gift Ideas

Unless this is your first girlfriend, I’ll assume you know jewelry tops the list of best girlfriend gift ideas. That being the case, we’ll skip to non-jewelry ideas you can afford. You can find all of these gift ideas online by just searching for them on your search engine of choice.

1. 1,000 Thread Count Sheets – .This is a serious luxury item. The softness of a sheet is determined by the thread count. Thread counts are the number of horizontal and vertical threads in one square inch of sheet. Typical thread counts are from 70 to 340 or so. 1,000 thread counts are so soft she will lose her mind. She might never get out of bed! Expect to pay $200 for this pampering girlfriend gift.

2. Down Memory Foam Slippers – Slippers? Yes, but not just any slippers. It is winter and she needs something comfortable and warm. The slippers conform to her feet and are made with duck down. They are super warm and, unlike other slippers, can be worn both indoors and outdoors. Expect to pay $45 or so with online retailers.

3. Eyesseuse – The grind of daily life can get her in a bad mood by the time she comes home. This, of course, is bad news for you what with the headaches and all. The Eyesseuse comes to the rescue. The device is worn over the eyes like ski goggles. The device then applies heat, pulses and air pressure to the area around her eyes. This promotes blood circulation and relieves stress around the eye area. Essentially, it is a massage for her eyes and she’ll be feeling chipper in no time. Expect to pay in the range of $50 for this gift.

4. Nomad Writing Journals – If she loves the outdoors or traveling, Nomad Writing Journals make great gifts. These journals are tailored to activities such as travel, fly fishing, bird watching, backpacking, camping, rock climbing and so on. They come with or without a case and provide writing space as well as cues for writing down important information. A great keepsake for her to preserve travel and outdoor experiences. The journals cost as low as $9 without waterproof case and $25 with case.

These girlfriend gift ideas should give a good starting place for buying your girlfriend gifts. Just don’t forget the jewelry!

How To Turn A "I'm Too Tired" Into A “Come And Get Me Big Boy”

When you hear your lady say she's too tired to make love, you need to understand that more often than not what she's really saying is:

* I have given all I've got to everyone else and I have nothing else to give.
* I need time for me.
* I want someone to hold me.
* I want someone to talk to me.
* I want someone to be my "nurse" for a little while.
* I need someone to care about "me" for a change.
* I want someone to make me feel better

Now that you understand what she’s really saying, you have a couple of choices to make. You pick the result you want from the following choices and carry out the instructions:

Result #1: 0% chance of S E X for the next several weeks

Tell her you despise the day you married her and that if there weren't kids involved, you would dump her in a minute. Then, ignore her while making it very clear you are extremely mad at her for not putting out.

Result #2: 10% chance of S E X tonight

Turn on your "best-behavior" and tell her you love her and that you understand how she feels. Ask her if you can get her a cup of hot tea or something. Then ask her if she would like for you to rub her feet.

The real point is that you are too late. You didn’t take responsibility for making sure she was turned on and ready by bed time.

That’s right! As a man, you are the one who needs to take responsibility for turning your lady on so that she is ready for you.

Unfortunately, you may well be too late to change anything for tonight. But, the good news is that tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow, you can cause things to be different.

What are you going to do to turn your wife on? What needs to happen so that you get a different response besides “I’m too tired” from her?

When you come up with the answers, then your job is to implement!

2 Simple Steps To Ripped Summertime Muscles

Summer is on the horizon, and the time has come to kick back and relax under the sun. It’s time for beach days, barbecues and pool parties, and for any serious weightlifter these activities also mean one thing: it’s time for the shirts to come off and to showcase that rock-solid physique they’ve been working on all year. No one wants to be walking around with a soft, smooth and flabby body, and for the next month or two, all of those serious lifters will be shifting into “get ripped” mode.

How do they usually go about this?

They lighten up the weights and perform higher reps.

This has always been a widely accepted method of “cutting down” and if you ask most trainers in the gym they’ll tell you that “heavy weights bulk up the muscle and lighter weights define the muscle”.

Do you want to know the reality behind the “light weight and high reps” method of obtaining a ripped and defined physique?

It is completely, totally and utterly DEAD WRONG.

It couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, there is no logical basis for this way of training whatsoever, and whoever dreamt up this downright ridiculous way of thinking has caused the vast majority of lifters to waste their time and impede their progress in the gym.

Let me clear this up once and for all: you CANNOT spot reduce. In other words, it is physically impossible to target fat loss from a specific area on your body. Performing bench presses with light resistance and high repetitions will not magically burn fat off of your chest or cause it to appear harder and more defined.

Every single time you wrap your hands around a barbell, dumbbell or cable, your goal is to stimulate as much muscle growth as you possibly can. There are no special, secret weightlifting exercises that will “define” your muscles or cause them to become more “ripped”.

Training with weights builds muscle mass, end of story.

So how exactly do you “define” a muscle?

The only way to “define” a muscle is by lowering your body fat level in order to make your muscles more visible. Body fat reduction can be achieved in two ways:

1) Modify your diet.

You should lower your overall caloric intake to around 15x your bodyweight and focus on consuming smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism naturally raised at all times and will keep your body in a constant fat burning state. Limit your intake of saturated fats and simple sugars, and focus instead on consuming lean sources of protein and low glycemic carbohydrates. It is also very important to keep your water intake high at a level of around 0.6 ounces per pound of bodyweight.

2) Perform proper cardio workouts.

Let go of the traditional method of moderate intensity cardio in 30-45 minute durations. If you want to maximize your body’s fat burning capacity and also minimize the muscle loss that inevitably accompanies a fat burning cycle, focus on shorter cardio workouts performed at a high level of intensity. These types of workouts will shoot your resting metabolism through the roof and will allow you to burn maximum amounts of fat even when you are at rest. I recommend 3-5 high intensity cardio sessions per week, spaced at least 8 hours away from your weight workouts.

That’s all there is to it, folks. Take the notion of “light weight and higher reps” and throw it right out the window, down the street and around the corner. Following this misguided method will only cause you to lose muscle mass and strength, and will not assist you in burning fat or defining your physique.

All you need to do to mold those rock-solid muscles for the summer time is this:

1) Train with heavy weights and low repetitions to build maximum muscle mass.

2) Modify your diet and implement cardio workouts to eliminate body fat and create visibly harder and more defined muscles.

End of story.

I’ll see you at the beach!

How to Get Free Movie Downloads ...??

Movies are a big business and the internet is helping them along quite well. Thanks to the new technology that allows movies to be played on the computer you are easily capable of having an entire movie collection right on your desktop providing you have the right type of computer. The free movie download is something that entices a good many people to make the change to the internet format of movies and all that comes with it. Barring any unforeseen circumstances in the near future, people will spend a fair amount of time downloading their favorite films right onto their computers and then playing them on the DVD players and such that grace their entertainment centers. But there is the matter of copyright and piracy laws that you should be aware of. There is not always the legal right to be downloading a movie and you should be very careful of the people who offer them for nothing.

A free movie download can be gotten legally through a good many channels. That means that the download of the movie is free but not the site in general. Most often you will see that many of the sites that offer the free movie download do so by offering unlimited downloading for a flat monthly fee. This is opposed to the sites that charge per download and allow for you to rack up quite the large bill in the meantime. This is truly the only legal way to get a free movie download because the sites are required to pay a certain percentage of the money they take in to royalties. So that way they do not violate the many copyright laws that govern the whole movie industry.

There is a set fee for the free movie download sites and you can manage to get some of the sites for free if you know what you are doing. Many of these places will offer the first month for free and then require you to pay from there on out. So if you can manage to get all of the movies that you want in the first month then cancel the subscription then you will actually have gotten a free movie download. Not all of the sites allow for this though. Many of them have minimum times that you must be a member to get the free month. You should read all of the fine print before signing up for anything.

A Few Hints for Turkey Hunters

If you are a novice or intermediate turkey hunter, you might have discovered that it's harder than it appears. The turkey out in the wild, even with it's name, is a difficult bird for a person to pursue and hunt. It may have a humorous name, but the turkey has a surprising intelligence level and sharp eyesight. It can take a long time for a hunter to improve the qualifications it takes to close in on and creep up on a turkey. But you can really increase your chances in turkey hunting by having the advantage with an effective camouflage. This cuts down on  visibility for the turkeys and allows the hunter to get in close enough to take a shot.

For the hunter  on the field, the most effective type of camouflage available is the ghillie suit, which was developed over a hundred and fifty years ago in the highlands of Scotland.  It is a suit that you can place over your normal clothes to significantly alter your form and significantly lower your visibility to animals out in the wild. Strands of fabric like jute or burlap hang down all over the suit, making it extremely hard for game to spot you. This makes the human  blend in to their  surroundings by blending the human pattern and  form. Ghillie camo can be so efficient that it is possible for game to come right up to a hunter that is being really still.

A turkey's fine vision is bewildered when human forms are broken up with the help of a ghillie suit. In order for a person to successfully hunt a turkey, they must get within a range to have a  kill shot to stop an injured turkey from running off in the forests. A person stalking the turkeys can cut this distance between themselves and a gang of turkeys by moving slowly and staying low to the ground.

It is best to try and locate turkeys in the evening as they are getting ready to roost. Stalking a turkey is extremely difficult. In fact, there's a good possibility it's already seen you if you spot a turkey  in the field. It is hard to stalk them because they not only can see a large distance but  have a broad range to their eyesight. A gang of turkeys will often face each other in circles to see all sides of the field and prevent other animals from sneaking up behind them.

Staying in a single location and waiting in a heavily populated turkey area can be a somewhat slow process that takes a lot of time being very still. And then there's  the chance that before you get an opportunity to get a good shot the gang of wary turkeys will spot you the moment you move and be on the run. It may take patience and ingenuity, but it is possible to get within range of a group of turkeys. With a good gun, a ghillie suit, and an effective turkey call you could get those turkeys once and for all.