Three Online Florists

Three big online florists include FTD, ProFlowers and 1-800 Flowers. I have used all of their services at one time or another. I always seem to find exactly what the occasion calls for when I use online florists.

I have always had great success with using online florists. I used FTD to send my mother a bouquet for Mother's Day last year. She loved it. Most recently I used FTD to send her a Basket of Cheer Bouquet. She was very pleased with the arrangement.

I like all of the websites I've visited for the online florists I've used. The FTD website is laid out really well and the photography of the flowers is great. They give you the opportunity to shop by product, occasion or price. There is even a section with more gift ideas.

My stepmother is part of a Red Hat Society group in San Antonio. I have used online florists to send her things over the years, but when I saw the featured bouquet on the ProFlowers website, I just had to send it to her. The blue iris and red tulips were stunning. I upgraded the vase, of course, and they looked wonderful.

My daughter attended a Montessori preschool many years ago, but it was such a positive experience for her and our entire family, I send a bouquet of sunflowers to her old teacher at the start of every school year. I like using online florists to bring a smile to someone's face.

I used 1-800-Flowers begin_of_the_skype_highlighting online florists to send my sister something really special not long ago. She got engaged over the Easter weekend and I sent her a Strawberry Floral Margarita to convey my congratulations. The orchids in the arrangement were so beautiful. She took a picture with her camera phone as soon as it arrived.

My brother was a little taken aback when I used one the online florists to send him a bouquet for his birthday. It was completely unexpected and he loved it. The vase was a nice green and the flowers were all gerbera daisies, my favorite!

Source: http://www.usflowerdirectory.com/articles/three_online_florists.htm

Learn how to the Florists' Online Resource for Marketing Knowhow, Tools and Links

This web site is for professional florists looking for new markets for selling flowers and ways to add value to your services.

Here you will find a number of free articles regarding the marketing and sale of flowers through a professional florist's outlet.

We will also bring to light groundbreaking NEW innovations on marketing your florist services, methods that can give you not only an edge over the competition but also significantly increased income and profits.

In fact, some of these innovations may actually change the whole outlook of the industry and certainly increase the market share of your flower shop in your local area.

Be sure to subscribe to our FREE Florists' Marketing Newsletter and please bookmark this page for there are lots of articles and we create new ones from time to time, so you may want to return.

And if you want to find the one truly effective way to ensure that online flower sellers won't be able to cut into YOUR market locally, click here to view the unique system for guaranteeing that YOU receive all the flower orders from your area!

Hopefully, you'll enjoy the articles on this web site. I believe that our approach to the cut flower / floriculture industry marketing & sales ideas is a fresh one and certainly different from the traditional way.

We believe that in marketing one needs to have a fresh-new approach to obtain results. Read the articles and see if you agree!


Source: http://www.successflorist.com/

Best Online Florists

With the help of online florists you can easily convey your feelings to your loved ones. This is a beautiful medium to get your message crossways to the recipient. The aim is to give customers with best quality, best selection and absolute satisfaction guarantee on every single order, all around the world. You want to send gifts to your husband, wife, children, close friend, parents or anyone else, just take the help of these florists.

Celebrate special occasion with festive arrangement. Wish special person happy birthday. You can express your caring thoughts, gratitude, congratulation, wishes and other gestures with the special gift baskets. No gift is better than the unexpected bouquet of the red roses or teddy bear. Through cards you can make any day special of any one special. Express your appreciation or gratefulness to special person, relative, friend or colleague.

Flowers do have universal appeal. Message of cheer and love to all the loved ones make them feel special and different. Beautiful bouquets come with gorgeous lilies, stunning roses, tulips, marvelous snapdragons and much more.

Roses come in different colors and each color of the rose has its own importance. Red roses are a symbol of love. Whereas yellow signifies gratitude and friendship. White roses can be used to show sympathy. Roses can be artistically arranged in the elegant vases as well as baskets which let you share joy, peace, sorrow and love with friends and family. Best online florists Lucknow provide suitable online ordering system almost through out a day so as to serve the customers.

Ferns N Petals is a well reputed florist in India. Over the years it has been linked with excellent quality flowers as well as flowers arrangements. Buy and send fresh cut flowers to any corner of the world and pamper your loved ones with exquisite and exotic flower arrangements. We are the popular local Lucknow florist and guarantee to deliver your order to the recipient on the given time.

Buy Designer fresh flower online by FNP and send flowers to all over india with sending to attractive gift From FNP.

Source: http://www.articlefeeder.com/Business__Finance_and_Management/Best_Online_Florists.html

Sweet Muse

Luscious chocolates melting in your mouth while enjoying the sweet fragrance of the red roses in sheer radiance - a winsome prize to sweep the lady off her feet

Unconditional Carnation

A mother's love is unconditional, never fading. She will only love her children more, if that's even possible. Tell your mother today how much you love her with this sweet bouquet of pink carnations.

Purple Clouds

A cute and adorable gift to send to friends and colleagues on the Mid Autumn Festival. Featuring a purple orchid arrangement in a matching pot.

Path to Prosperity

Convey your warmest Lunar Festival wishes to relatives and business partners with this hamper. Presenting a basket of delicious goodies and nibbles.

A Stroll In The Park

This baby stroller is easy to use and still comfortable enough for Baby. Mom should find it easy to handle, too.

Red & White Surprise

6 red roses combine with 6 white ones to create a balance of passion and purity while forget-me-not fillers add a bit of pizzazz to the mix. Classy and elegant, just like she is.

Moon Cake and the Mid-Autumn Festival

Usually people eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival, and the round cake is symbolic of the moon in the sky and reunion in the mortal world. jieri.biz

The cake was named moon cake (yuebing in Chinese ) as early as Song dynasty (960--1279). It was given the name for its round shape, not specially designated for the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Ming dynasty the moon cake became an offering at the moon-worshiping ceremony and there was a story about lt. wish.1155815.com

Toward the end of Yuan dynasty (1206--1368) the peasants south of the Yangtze River were planning an armed uprising against the Yuan rulers. When they discussed how to pass around the message without being discovered by the officials, someone struck on a brilliant idea. They made a lot of moon cakes as offerings to be used at the moon-worshiping ceremonies and sent them to all the households concerned. On Mid-Autumn night when the people who had received moon cakes broke them, they found that the cakes all contained slips of paper inside with a written message on them saying “Every household get ready to kill the Yuan soldiers on Mid-Autumn night”. The peasants were well organized and the uprising succeeded and the Yuan government was overthrown. When Ming dynasty was established a decree was issued in memory of the uprising that moon cakes alone were designated as the food to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival. For this festival mooncakes every household would bake moon cakes to be presented to relatives and friends as Mid-Autumn gifts. This custom had to do with the way the uprising message was delivered among the peasants. In Qing dynasty there were professional shops for making moon cakes and the cakes made there were various in size, the largest ones one or two feet in diameter, and in external designs, for example Chang' e and Jade rabbits, both fairy ~mages related with the moon. 1155815

Today there are many new moon cakes and the quality and designs of moon cakes are much more refined, keeping traditional flavor. The famous ones are made in Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Yunnan. For the coatings there are soft ones, hard ones and crisp ones. For the contents there are peanuts, walnut, sunflower seeds, apricot kernel and sesame, date paste, soya bean paste and ham, etc.

Source: http://www.1155815.com/english/folklores/200804/1254.html

Mid-Autumn Festival & Moon Cake

Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated all over China every year. This year the Mid-autumn day is on October 6, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, around the time of the autumn.

This day was also considered as a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro and water caltrop, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns.

The round moon cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon can be traced back to the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty (1066 B.C.-221 B.C.), people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. Since the Ming (1368-1644 A.D.) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911A.D.), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake celebration becomes unprecedented popular. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them.

For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus-seed paste or Chinese dates, wrapped in a pastry. Sometimes a cooked egg yolk can be found in the middle of the rich tasting dessert. People compare moon cakes to the plum pudding and fruit cakes which are served in the English holiday seasons.

Nowadays, there are hundreds varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before the arrival of Moon Festival.


Source: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-31-2006-107232.asp

Chinese Mooncake Festival

Chinese Mooncake Festival has many names such as Mid Autumn Festival, Lantern Festival and also Moon Festival. Whatever name we call it, this festival goes hand in hand with mooncakes and lanterns. And it is a celebration of unity.

Every year on the fifteenth day of the eight month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the Chinese celebrate Mooncake Festival otherwise known as “zhongqiujie”. At this point in time, the moon being at the fullest and roundest shines on us with its utmost brilliance. Many a times we listened to the tale of the Moon Goddess living on the moon. This legend dates back to 2170BC during the reign of Emperor Yao. According to legend, at that time there were ten suns. This phenomenon was causing the earth to burn. Emperor Yao then ordered the great archer General Houyi to shoot down the nine additional suns. Houyi succeeded in this almost impossible task and was rewarded with a pill that gives eternal life. However he has to pray and fast for a year before consuming the pill. One day his beautiful wife Chang’e found the pill and swallowed it. She began to float towards the sky and finally ended up on the moon. And she lived there ever since. Legend has it that Chang’e beauty is the greatest on “zhongqiujie”.

This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty collections (206 BC-24 AD):

1) Shan Hai Jing, the Classic of the Mountains and Seas

2) Huainanzi, a philosophical classic.

A famous folk tale surrounding Chinese Mid Autumn Festival is the uprising of the Chinese against the Mongol rulers in the 14^th century. The Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang was planning for a rebellion. However group gatherings were banned by the Mongols. How do the Chinese coordinate this plan? Knowing that the Mongols do not eat mooncakes, they distributed thousands of mooncakes to the people on the pretext of blessing the Mongol emperor. Inside each mooncake was a piece of paper with a message. “Kill the Mongols on the 15^th day of the 8^th month”. On that day with the precise coordination, the Chinese succeeded in overthrowing their oppressors. Under Zhu, the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) was established. And Festival Moon cakes was celebrated henceforth to commemorate this unforgettable event.

Source : http://hubpages.com/hub/Chinese-Mooncake-Festival

The Chinese Lantern Festival

Often confused with the Mid-Autumn Festival in the fall, the Chinese moon cake festival is actually the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations and falls on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. It is supposed to be the first day of the new year when the full moon can be seen. The Lantern Festival is also called the Yuan Xiao Festival in Chinese.

Mooncake day marks the last day of the Lunar New Year holiday in early spring (also known as the Spring Festival), and is therefore an occasion for festivities and celebration, before people have to go back to work after the holiday.

Celebrating the Lantern Festival

On the day of the Lantern Festival, people will go out to eat with friends or family, and paper lanterns will be hung outside temples and other buildings. In China, many buildings and even street lights are hung with red lanterns in celebration of the Chinese New Year. People will light fireworks and firecrackers, as well as sky lanterns that, after being lit, float up into the sky like hot air balloons.


Source: http://www.suite101.com/content/the-chinese-lantern-festival-a206622

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which can be anytime from mid-September to early October. It was traditionally a time when people honoured the moon and round pastries, known as 'mooncake', were given as offerings and families still come together to make them.

With fillings ranging from sweet red bean to salty egg yolk, they are often given as personal and corporate gifts and can be bought, complete with fancy packaging, from most supermarkets and upscale hotels. The festival is also known as Festival moon cakes.

Source : http://www.chinese.cn/travel/en/article/2010-08/25/content_167585.htm

About Mooncake

During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy to live under foreign rule. They decided to coordinate a rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Festival Moon cakes was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Inside each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. Because it's a Han (the main clan before the Mongolian took over) cake, the Mongolian people are not interested. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.

When do we eat moon cakes?

The answer is: any time you like. Typically when Dragon Boat Festival is over, you will start to see advertisement everywhere about mooncake, which means you can start to buy moon cakes!

Eat it any time you like. You don't have to save it till festival night. But after the Mid autumn festival, everybody is tired of it and no one would want to eat it.

Installment for moon-cakes

As I said, if you love to eat mooncakes or you have lots and lots of relatives, you will need a lot of moon cakes. I remember when I was a kid, some major mooncake bakers have already launched the moon-cake installment plan. Basically, you choose how many boxes you want and you start to pay the baker one year in advance month-by-month. The baker will also throw in goodies like Chinese preserved meat sausages.

Source : http://www.hkfastfacts.com/Chinese%20Festivals/mid-autumn-festival-moon-cakes.htm

Legends of Mid-Autumn Festival

Almost every traditional Chinese festival has a connection with legends. The most well-known stories of the Mid Autumn Festival is Chang'e flying to the moon, Jade Rabbit making heavenly medicine, and Wu Gang chopping the cherry bay. Those stories have been passed down from generations to generations alongside the celebrations of the festival itself. Today for young children, listening to the stories is still an important part of their way to celebrate the Festival moon cakes.

Chang'e Flying to the Moon
It is said that long ago there used to be 10 suns in the sky. Each day, one of the suns would travel around the sky on a carriage driven by Xihe, the mother of the suns. One day, unexpectedly, all 10 suns simultaneously appeared in the sky, which instantly dried the crops and caused disaster to the people on earth.
Hou Yi, a local archer, had great sympathy for people's sufferings from the blistering weather and decided to help them out. Houyi climbed up to the summit of Kunlun Mountains and shot down the suns leaving only one to benefit people. After he shot down the sun, Hou Yi became a hero who was revered by local people.

Later, Hou Yi married a beautiful girl—Chang'e. The young couple lived a happy and sweet life.

Hou Yi was so famous for his perfect archery skills that he had a lot of apprentices, including the unrighteous Peng Meng. One day when Hou Yi was on the way to visit his friend, the Queen Mother of the West gave him an elixir of immortality as a reward for his heroic undertaking. Meanwhile, he warned Hou Yi "Do not swallow this pill before preparing yourself with prayer and fasting for a year". Hou Yi gave the elixir to Chang'e for safekeeping and she took it as a treasure and hid it in her jewelry box. Unfortunately, Peng Meng found this secret and made a plan to steal it. Several days later, when Hou Yi and other apprentices went out for hunting, Peng pretended to fall ill and stayed at home. After they left, Peng forced Chang'e to give him the elixir. Chang'e, knowing that she could not defeat Peng, swallowed the elixir herself, and mmediately she felt herself floating up and flied to the sky. With deep love to her husband, Chang'e chose to be an immortal on the moon, closest to the earth; then she could see her husband every day.

In late afternoon, Hou Yi came back and was told what had happened. Heart-stricken, Hou Yi went to the back garden and called his wife's name ceaselessly. Surprisingly, he found that the moon was extremely clean and bright that night; and that there was a moving figure like Chang'e in the moon. Hou Yi desperately tried to catch up with the moon, but he could not do it. Hou Yi then asked servants to set a table in his back garden and with his wife's favorite snacks and fruits on it. In a short time, more and more people heard about the news that Chang'e had become an immortal, and they also put tables under the moon to pray to Chang'e for good fortune and safety. From then on, the custom of worshipping the moon on the Mid-Autumn Festival began to spread in China with Mooncake as its special food.

Source : http://www.chinatravel.com/facts/chinese-festivals/traditional-chinese-festival/Middle-Autumn-Festival.htm#1

Mooncake

The Chinese custom of eating moon cake was first recorded in the reign of the emperor Hsi Tzung (A.D. 874-889) of the Tang dynasty and became popular in the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1279) The moon cake is traditionally made in the shape of a full moon, symbolizing union and perfection, is usually about the size of a doughnut, and is stuffed with a variety of fillings such as bean paste, egg yolk, lotus seeds, dates, pineapple, walnuts, almonds, and sesame. The crafty Chu Yuan-chang, founder of the Ming dynasty, instigated a rebellion against the Mongol rulers by concealing a call to revolt in moon cakes, leading to the downfall of the Yuan dynasty.

There are many styles of Mooncake in China; the most popular in Taiwan are the Cantonese, Soochow, and Taiwanese styles. The Cantonese moon cake is thicker and heavier, while the Soochow and Taiwanese ones have a crispy skin. In the last couple of years a new breed of refrigerated, unbaked moon cake has been gaining popularity, especially among youngster; and durian, coconut meat, vanilla, tea, and coffer have added as ingredients.

Most Chinese consume moon cakes given to them by relatives, friend, employers, or public relations people.Hence, brands matter. Among the most famous are Kee Wah, Maria's and shin Tung Yang. Moon cakes go best with oolong or jasmine tea.

It takes the moon about 29 1/2 days to revolve around the earth, and the Chinese lunar month is either 29 or 30 days. An extra month(called a leap month) is necessary about every three years. There will be a second eight lunar month in 1995. The 15th of the first eight lunar month is celebrated as the Mid autumn festival, which has been designed a public holiday by the Republic of China government. Have a nice holiday, and remember moon calkes taste best when shared by family members or lovers, or both.

Source : http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/festivals/0995_MidAutumn.html

Moon Festival in Australia

Traditionally, the middle of autumn is the end of the harvest, when people return home for a reunion, gathering with friends and family. In Australia, 'mid autumn' happens to be early spring and it gives the festival a new meaning - "the first full moon of the new season is a nostalgic time: Winter is behind us and the energy of summer is on the horizon".

Every year, over 600,000 people of Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean descent celebrate the Moon Festival across Australia. The most visual element among the Mid autumn festival activities is the sale of moon cakes. At Asian supermarkets, grocery stores, cake shops and restaurants, you will see at prominent places piles of moon cakes and colour posters.

In Sydney Chinatown, in the two weekends leading to the Festival, there are fire crackers, loud drumming accompanying the dragon and lion dances. Local councils with large Asian population such as Hurstville, Parramatta, Cabrammatta, and Kograh would sometimes join hands with local businesses in organizing Moon Festival celebrations in the town centre. The celebrations would usually take the form of street market with food and craft stalls and a stage where traditional entertainment is performed.

Another popular form of celebration in Sydney is the harbour cruise under the moonlight where families and friends can get together to enjoy foods of the festival, good laughter and appreciate the beauty of the full moon.

Some times there are also groups who would organize lantern shows in local parks. Some schools would orgainse students to re-enact folklores as part of the school Moon Festival celebrations.

Besides the public celebrations, more people celebrate at home with a small group of family friends. After dinner comes the traditional celebration time - colourful lanterns, tables and chairs would be put up in the garden or backyard where adults and children would enjoy abundant supply of mooncake and fruits and gaze the moon. It's also the gayest time for small children when they are allowed to run around with candlelit paper lanterns.

Source : http://www.chinatown.com.au/eng/article.asp?masterid=155&articleid=741

Charmed Replica Book Of Shadows Ebook

By: ajax

As a fan of Charmed TV serial, it feels not completed if we do not have the Book of Shadow which is one of the icon of the serial.

Charmed Replica Book of Shadows eBook

With the Internet and eBooks becoming ever more popular, buying a Charmed Book of Shadows Replica eBook is now a very popular decision amongst the legions of loyal Charmed fans.

Many fans of the show would love to own their very own Book of Shadows, but buying an exact replica often costs several hundred dollars and in the current economic climate, it's a luxury few can afford.

So many are now turning to the eBook version, as a viable alternative. The Charmed Book of Shadows eBook features over 200 replica pages, with all the Spells, Demons, Potions, Rituals and Recipes used by the famous Halliwell sisters in the hit TV series Charmed.

Each spell, demon, warlock, ritual, potion and recipe has it's own page, with a parchment style background and with highly detailed information such as; who wrote the spell, who cast it, the history and background of each demon, how to vanquish each demon, the purpose of each ritual and how to perform it, how to make potions and when to use them.

The Charmed Book of Shadows eBook is lovingly created by a professional artist and a huge fan of the show! The artist has tried to make the pages as authentic as possible, including a "Parchment Paper Style Background" to give them a genuinely aged look and feel.

The pages can be printed out on any standard Inkjet printer and can be stored in one of the many leather look Book of Shadows covers being sold all over the Internet.

To make the Book of Shadows look as authentic as possible, many people also artificially age the paper to give the "centuries old" feel of the Charmed Book of Shadows used in the show.

When purchasing your own Charmed Book of Shadows eBook, be sure to purchase yours from a reputable source as the quality varies greatly depending on the designer.
Being a massive fan of the show, I have bought numerous different versions, most of which turned out to be largely disappointed. However, one particular Charmed Book of Shadows eBook did stand out above all the others.

Source : http://www.floweradvisor.com.sg/lifestyle/technology/television/130903/charmed_replica_book_of_shadows_ebook/

See Also : Mooncake, Mid autumn festival