When you think of a snow globe you see a clear glass sphere containing a heartwarming scene highlighted by flaking snow. It is a sight that will catch a child’s or even a grown-up’s attention, curiosity, and to some extent, approbation. But even the most meticulously made snow globe comes from a humble beginning.

A snow globe is actually easy to make. You can even pull up things at home to create your very own snow globe. All you need is a few things and a little know-how. For the basics here are the materials you would need to collect:

A clear glass jar with a tightly sealing cover – This may range from a variety of shapes and sizes. Used materials like a pickle jar, salsa jar, mason jar or whatever you can get your hands on will do.

Waterproof decorative supplies – These are what you will need for your scene. Best to think of a theme so that you know what you will need to collect. A variety of things would suit your needs like tiny figurines, baked clay, plastic things – go wild.

Crushed eggshells or glitters – This is what you will be using for snow. Remember to boil the egg and remove the film inside if you will be using egg shells. If you choose to put in glitters make sure they are not too small because they will just float.

Clear sealant (aquarium sealants work well for this project)

Glue gun or waterproof glue (to be used to attach decorations within the globe)

Distilled water or mineral oil

Glycerin (if distilled water is used this will be the additive to make the snow fall slower)

A bigger jar cover or a wooden circle (this is optional but will be very helpful as a base)

Crafts dcor material (to be used to finish your snow globe)

These are the materials you would wish to collect if you want to make your own snow globe. Keep in mind that your imagination is the only limit here and these are just examples of what you can use.

For the procedure you can do things a bit differently if you wish. Mix it up depending on your preference.

Attach your scene on the inner part of the jar lid using a glue gun or waterproof glue. Make sure you make them stable enough to withstand a good shaking. Let the glue dry well before exposing it to the liquid environment. Also make sure they are elevated so that they are at a good visible level.

Put your liquid medium in the jar but make sure to leave some space. The scene decoration will displace some of the liquid.

Put your improvised snow. If you are using egg shells you can crush them by using a rolling pin. Roll it over a bag with egg shells of about 2-3 eggs. Zip locks work well for this purpose.

Put some sealants on the inner rim of the jar lid before screwing it shut.

Carefully screw the lid on your jar with snow and liquid.

Seal the outer part of the lid with a bit more sealant.

Finish up your project by decorating the outer part.

And there you have it. Your home made snow globe.

For the past week or so, I have been holed up in my basement sitting right in front of my computer.  If you are wondering why I am so riveted to the screen, well, I have a story to tell you:  the computer game that I have been waiting for all year is finally out.

Kill some zombies with me in Left 4 Dead!

I’ll have to admit, I love zombie movies and this game is geared for people like me.  Basically you and a team of four survivors must try and make it to the extraction point while wading through hundreds of zombies.

It not only gives you the sense of being in one of those infamous zombie movies, but sometimes you quit playing because you are just too on edge.

Anyway, I should get back to playing – my friends need me!

I was recently introduced to a live action roleplaying club in my home town.  I had never tried it before, but with my experience playing Dungeons and Dragons as a youth, I thought that it would be something that I would be interested in.

Since it was my first larp game, I had to be explained how things worked and what to expect.  I thought that it would be similar to the pen and paper roleplaying games that I had played in the past, and I was right.  But, instead of just imagining things in my head, we actually acted it out which was a new experience for me.

I was particularly impressed by the larp costume armor that some of the players had – it was really quite amazing.  After the game, I asked to try some of it on, and it was a lot heavier than I had imagined.

Needless to say, I think that the traditional roleplaying games will be less satisfying now – there is just something about playing the game in real life.

I have always been one that needed to find the best deal possible on whatever I do.  Whether that be getting a discount on a car purchase or getting cheaper concert tickets, I am driven to get a deal.

So when our family went down to Disney World, I didn’t want to have to pay full price for the Disney World tickets.  This is going to be especially important considering I wanted to visit at least a couple of the attractions and I knew that without a deal, I would have to buy new tickets for each one.

When I explained my situation at the ticket office, the clerk suggested that I could take advantage of Disney Hopper tickets-it was a simple add-on to the tickets I was going to buy that would allow me to visit as many attractions as I would like in one day at all I would have to do is buy tickets one time.

So that is exactly what we did and we saved a bundle on money doing it.  If you are heading down there, you can click here to learn more about purchasing Disney Hopper tickets.

I have always been a big superhero nut.  Okay, that makes me sound like I am a bit of a geek, but hey, that is okay, right?

Anyway, I have been patiently waiting for Hancock to come out.  It will be one of the better superhero movies of the summer (not including Batman: Dark Knight) starring Will Smith. Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman.

From the trailers I have seen, it looks like it will be great – I guess I will have to wait a few more days before I can go see it – but you can count on me being one of the first in line.

There are days when I think that the Information Age is just flying by too fast for me to keep up. New social bookmarking sites spring up with goofy, made-up names. Everyone wants to be the next new buzz word, but bizarre spellings and strange names don’t guarantee being memorable.

Then there are the texting codes springing up among heavy text messaging users. These range from BFF (best friends forever) to NBD (no big deal) and from there, you have to be on the “in” crowd to keep up. Sorry, not interested.

I do sympathize, to a degree, with the need for such abbreviations. I am a Twitter user and 140 characters is awfully short to get a message across. But it has taught me to be economical with my words. That or have a part one, part two and sometimes part three to a Tweet. I know, that defeats the whole purpose of tweeting on Twitter. But that’s better than sending something like this: “Get ur p-s pw 4 Tarzan tx 2day,” and hope my followers know p-s pw means pre-sale password.

It doesn’t matter the reason for wanting to ride in style. From heading out on that special date, to wowing classmates on prom night. Or from just plain showing off at graduation, to arriving and leaving in comfort for your wedding. From the sad but necessary rides from a funeral to the cemetery, to stress free travel to and from the airport.  Or from “there and back again” at the theatre, to simply going for a night out on the town. For all of these reasons and more, people are queuing up to secure a luxury limo hire.

This is not a local phenomenon. All over the world limousine hire is big business. Online ads for “limousine hire Cleveland,” “limo hire Surrey,” and “top of the line limos Vancouver” are appearing with increasing frequency.

You can chose luxury SUVs, sedans and the ever popular Hummer these days. In my humble opinion, the inside is more important for me, but the outside is where all the ooh’s and ah’s come from. It’s a toss-up.

As an artist and a former performer, I find that MMA or mixed martial arts is a fantastic form of both. Not only do the competitors hone skills to an art form and use them against their opponent in the ring, they do want to give a good performance for the fans.

However, MMA is nothing like the wrestling community shown on TV. There is no showmanship or choreographed moves. The fights are very real and so is the contact. If someone gets punched, there will be blood eventually.

Another way art comes into the fights is that many of the fighters wear special MMA clothing designed just for teams or even individual fighters. They have some fantastic and up to date detailed designs for both men and women fans of the sport too.

With lines like TapouT and Jesus didn’t Tap, you can see that the sport actually appeals a wide fan base.

Sometimes I feel that most of the businesses in town are all business, but no fun.  Sure, something like a car wash really isn’t that exciting, but I wanted to start something new and fun.

So, I looked far and wide to see if I could find the perfect business for what I was looking for.  Out of all the choices that I could pick from, in the end I decided to have a party rental shop.

Now, what that means is that I had to find some bouncy castles for sale and some inflatable slides to get started.  I also picked up some cotton candy machines, and a couple of canisters of helium for the balloons.

We have a storefront leased already, and we are waiting for our signs to be delivered.  I figure that we should be able to open our doors next week.  I can’t wait to see how well the company does – we will be the only ones in town that offer the services that we do. 

My best friend’s 30th birthday is coming up and I want to do something silly and fun that won’t take more than about 3 hours. We are renting a Philadelphia limousine service and I don’t want to be out of the car too much. Since we’ll already be drinking I don’t want to go to bars either.

Our other friend suggested doing a progressive dinner, where we go to one place and order one menu item, like fries from McDonald’s, then go on to order a shake from another place, and so on.

Maybe we will combine the food with a scavenger hunt where she has to figure out where to go next using photos of the places to eat. She is silly and our friends would love to do this with her. I think it would keep us in the car longer in order to get our money’s worth and enjoy the accommodations.