How to Make a Girl's Journal

If you're looking for the perfect gift for a teen or pre-teen girl or female friend, then you might want to consider a handmade journal. Use these tips to get started, then use your own creativity to create a personalized work of art. These journals also make great birthday or graduation gifts.

To get started, pick out some pretty card stock for the cover, maybe a favorite color of the girl the journal is intended for. I used a paper cutter to cut the piece of paper in half. You should end up with two sheets of paper 4 x 5 .

Select the paper you will use for the inside pages of the journal. I chose about 50 sheets of unlined copy/printer paper and cut them in half.

Then you get to be creative and decorate the cover. You can look at my example photos for inspiration. For one I used decals used for scrapbooking and card making. I placed a floral border down the left side and used rubber stamps to stamp the girl's name vertically on a scrap of white card stock that I then glued to the right side of the cover.

On another cover I placed the girl's name horizontally on the top of the cover, also using rubber stamps to spell out her name. Behind the cardstock that the name was stamped on I glued a piece of mulberry paper (craft paper that is thin like tissue paper) that I had torn around the edges. To finish this journal I placed a large floral sticker in the center of the cover.

To bind the journal together, I used a comb binding machine. If you don't know someone who has one of these that you can borrow, you can go to a local office supply store like Office Max or Office Depot, and they will either let you do it yourself in their copy department, or they will do it for you for a small fee.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com

Women Coming Full Circle

The evolution of women seems to have come full circle. It was less than two generations ago that it was rare that a woman held a job, let alone her own business. It was less than twenty years ago that women slowly made their way into the workforce, some out of necessity and some out of wanting a career outside of the home. Women have since bridged the gap of working outside the home and staying home with their children by starting their own home-based business or even taking advantage of the new trend of telecommuting. The goal of working from home is to combine being able to stay at home with children and yet maintaining a career. It seems that this would be the best of both worlds yet; finding a balance to pull off working from home while juggling raising children is no easy task.

I relish the time that I get with my son. I love being able to start my day hearing his happy chatter over a leisurely breakfast, but it is not always the greatest. I found challenges as I transitioned to working at home. The first one was the adjustment period. I was not use to being able to flex my time, I was use to structure start work at 8:00 am and work until 4:00 pm. Not only was I struggling to working out my schedule to maximize my time while allowing for the flexibility that drew me to working at home, but my son had some adjusting to do as well. He was accustomed to daycare and sitters during the day. Now, he had mommy home all day long and he equated that with playing with mommy all day long. When it was time for him to play in his custom play yard while I tried to get some work, my little angel, my heart, my happy little 1 year old, threw his first officially 1 year old tantrum. After a couple weeks of unproductive time spent trying to get work done while dealing with a very unhappy little boy I decide it was time to figure out how to make it all work.

Here are steps that I took to make work at home a better and productive experience for both me and my son.

1) After I set up my work goals, I estimated how much time I need to devote to my business to accomplish them each day.

2) I build my schedule around the existing schedule. For example, the bulk of my work is done around my sons nap time, which gives me 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time.

3) I slowly incorporated the new schedule, giving both of us a chance to adjust to me working at home.

4) I set up time weekly for both of us to be out of the house. He goes to daycare for a half a day to play and I work, then after I pick him up we have an outing together.

Women are choosing to stay home to persuade their careers and their role as mother. It really can be the best of both worlds, here are a few tips and things to keep in mind:

BE FLEXIBLE. Things happen, work on fluctuating your work schedule so that as things come up you can work around them.

LEARN HOW TO MULTI-TASK. Many times I have a roast in the oven, laundry washing, while I am sorting mail and watching a movie with my son.

TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF! Now that your two worlds have merged you may find those little escapes such as being able to unwind after you get home, become difficult to capture. Hire someone to come in weekly for a couple of hours to give you some time to yourself. Someone to come in and help with the house work can free up your time for the important things that make working at home so appealing to you.

ENJOY YOUR TIME. Whether it is the time spent working on your business or playing with your child(ren), enjoy the fact that you have the opportunity to do both without feeling that you have to sacrifice anything.

We are back to the time when women were able to stay home with their children, but with the added bonus of still being able to persuade our own career goals as well. As we are with our children helping them grow it to the people they will become, we are evolving, growing, and learning as well. Evolving into a new generation of women that do not have to choose between our family and our career; Growing into women that are learning how to have it all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tonya Ramsey is a life coach and owner of Life By Design. She specializes in assisting working mothers find life balance to maintain a healthy and peaceful life. For more information on Tonyas services or to receive a free life coaching session to help you design the life that you want, visit http://lifebydesignsite.com or send an e-mail to Tonya@lifebydesignsite.com Why juggle your life when you can balance it.

[ copyright 2006 Tonya Ramsey. All Rights Reserved. This article may be freely reproduced as long as the ABOUT THE AUTHOR at the bottom of this article is included unedited. Links must be Active/Linkable]

Methods of Controlling Premature Ejaculation

Premature ejaculation is defined as reaching orgasm too quickly, usually prior to or within seconds of penetration. You may also be experiencing premature ejaculation if you are reaching orgasm before you or your partner intend in a manner that leaves either of you (or both of you) feeling unsatisfied.

At least 29% or more of the male population report problems in this area. There are many causes both psychological and physical. Psychological causes include stress, performance anxiety, insecurity, and sex-related fears. Physical causes are actually quite rare but can include an unusually high sensitivity in sexual nerve endings or other structural issues of the penis.

One method of controlling premature ejaculation is with exercises. The most common is the use of kegel exercises. These are done to strengthen the pubococcygeus muscle, which is the main muscle affecting ejaculation and orgasm function.

This is the same muscle you use to stop the flow of urine. Kegel exercises are performed by alternately holding and releasing the muscle and are most effective if done in varying lengths in sets of ten.

For example, you can hold and release in ten sets of ten seconds each and then try ten sets of twenty seconds each. Strengthening this muscle through exercise will work to an extent, but it takes quite a while to build up muscle strength. The exercises will also have to be continued to have lasting effects, and you also may not be able to get to the improvement level you are seeking.

Another way to combat premature ejaculation is with the various creams and gels on the market. These work by using the numbing agents lidocaine or benzocaine. They are applied to the penis prior to each sexual encounter. They work by severely desensitizing the penile area.

However, the numbing agents may cause too severe of a desensitizing effect making it hard to achieve orgasm at all. You will also have to wait an allotted amount of time after applying before engaging in activity, which decreases spontaneity. Side affects reported are redness, burning, and rashes. Sometimes this is due to not washing immediately after sex, though you can still have skin reactions even if you have thoroughly washed.

There are now pills on the market that can treat the problem of premature ejaculation. Many have been proven to be highly effective in increasing the time before ejaculation and many report much higher sexual satisfaction with regular use. They use a combination of safe herbal remedies to drastically improve the time before you reach an orgasm.

You will not have to worry about skin reactions and scrubbing after sexual contact nor will you experience the severe desensitization found in numbing creams and gels. You will also not have the exercise time involved and will not have to wait to see results. Instead, you will see improvements in your endurance quite quickly. Between the three main methods of controlling premature ejaculation, pills offer the highest potential results in the quickest amount of time. Pills that treat premature ejaculation offer safety, convenience and ease of use and will leave you and your partner much more sexually satisfied.

Tyler Williams helps men with premature ejaculation find the best way to cure it. He recommends this Premature ejaculation cure.