DIY: FOOT SPA @ HOME

I consider my feet as the most worn-out parts of the body. Just imagine how heavy our bodies are which they carry to wherever we feel like going to, we drag our feet just about anywhere! Ladies, imagine how you try to fit your feet into those close pointed or stiletto shoes then have them walk to rough roads, steep stairways, making 'em feel they are being taken advantage of. 

At the end of the day, your feet feels physically abused, having calluses and sweaty feet as end result, and if they could only talk, I swear they want to curse you and say " I don't want to wear those shoes anymore!! I don't want to walk ever again". 

Our feet deserves some pampering to do. Feet also wants to be treated dairly. I'm not talking about going to the salon and having you feet undergo a foot spa from professionals. I'm not talking spending big bucks here to get a foot treatment. 

Yes, you just want your feet to feel that they are important like the other parts of your body, and it just sounds right to splurge on having your feet pampered. But then again, if you can do it at the comforts of your home while curling up on your couch while reading a good book or while watching tv or mobile Facebook-ing, why the heck you have to spend extra on something that can be done on your end, right?

Feet should really be taken cared of. They say that hygiene of a person can be reflected on how the feet looks. All you need are few low-cost foot products and you're good to go.

What you need:

• Basin/tub with warm water to soak your tired and aching feet
• Pumice stone or foot file
• Foot scrub
• Mositurizer/Lotion
• Nail cutter
• Bubble bath or liquid soap
• Salt

 How you do it:

1. SOAK UP AND RELAX! - Soak your sore and exhausted feet in a lukewarm water. Loosen up and let your feet stay in the water for 10 to 15 minutes. You can read magazines or books while waiting, you can even surf the net and create hubs if you want. Put some salt and liquid soap or your bubble bath. make it foamy for a soothing effect.
2. EXFOLIATE DEAD SKIN - Surely after soaking your feet in foamy warm water, skin has become so soft and ready to be scrubbed. To exfoliate, use a pumice stone or a foot file. You can buy such at very reasonable prices on beauty shops. Put a generous amount of foot scrub on your palm and dab it on your feet. Scrub the dead skins on the focal points like the heels and toes which are very vulnerable to calluses and cracks.
3. MOISTURIZE AND MASSAGE - After scrubbing off the dead skin cells, rinse your feet and towel it dry. Then put lotion or moisturizer (moisturizer is better)on your feet. Include the ankles. Massage your feet using yout fingertips, making your feet more relaxed than ever
4. CUT AND POLISH - Your almost done! For the final touch, cut your toe nails and polish it. There, you got a set of "Happy Feet!".

Today is the 42nd EARTH DAY

On April 22, 1970, Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Now celebrated in about 180 countries world-wide every year. It is coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, and is now "the largest secular holid...ay in the world, celebrated by more than a half billion people every year." It is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.

"Go Green" your lifestyle and appreciate the beauty of nature. What we can do about it? a simple changes to your lifestyle will have a positive impact on the environment. Think green, show, teach & share it, starts at home.

Earth Day is the perfect time to think outside the box. What are the consequences of our choices? What products are better for the earth? What should we avoid?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Buy locally grown food. Take some time to visit local Farmers Markets
2. Change at least one light bulb to a compact fluorescent. Those qualified to ENERGY STAR use about a quarter as much electricity as a conventional light bulb to produce the same amount of light.
3. Take a walk on the wild side. Go for a day hike on a local nature trail and revel in the beauty and serenity you're trying to preserve for future generations.
4. Turn off your computer when you're not using it. A home computer monitor and printer, it can use up to 200 watts of electricity. 
5. Carry a cloth bag (eco-friendly) or keep one in your car. Avoid plastic bags. Most plastic bags wind up in landfill sites, where they can take up to a thousand years to biodegrade.
6. Plant a tree, go greening your surroundings.
7. Become a vegetarian, or just for today.
8. Turn down the heat, the water heater, air-con or even better off the electricity if it's not in-use. The idea is energy savings.
9. Stop open-fire, burn things that you don't like to see isn't a good idea. The carbon from the burning fire will damage the ozone layer.
10. Stop smoking, burning a stick or two will damage lot more than just yourself.

Instagram 3 Steps to $1 Billion

18 months & 3 simple, not-so-simple steps to $1 billion...

Today, Instagram sold to Facebook for $1 billion. A week ago, when TIME asked Instagram founder, Kevin Systrom, if he would sell the company, he said “It’s not really on the top of our minds right now.”

Kevin is 27 years old and started Instagram 18 months ago with Mike Krieger, in October 2010. The company has grown with just 4 staff, and today has just 9 in the team. With the $1 billion deal that was announced today, was Kevin just plain lucky, or was there some simple steps that he (and others who have had the same luck) have in common?

Here’s three steps he followed. They may not guarantee you exactly the same success - but they will increase your own good fortune:

1. THING BIG FROM DAY ONE - THEN LEARN FROM OTHERS:
It was while Kevin was studying at Stanford 7 years ago that he had the idea of a photo-sharing site, from his passion for photography. That was before iPhones, and before Facebook. Step one is to cultivate your idea by learning from others. He met Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and talked about his idea. Mark then offered him a job at Facebook, which had just launched (in hindsight, a cheaper option that the $1 billion he’s just paid to work with Kevin). Kevin turned him down but they stayed in touch. He went to intern at Odeo with Evan Williams, who sold Blogger and Jack Dorsey, who launched Twitter. This is where Kevin got to understand the power of social sharing. Kevin later said “Comparing Instagram to photography is like comparing Twitter to Microsoft Word”.

He then went on to work at Google. All in all, it was a full six years after having the idea of a photo sharing site that he worked with others leading the field: Getting paid for his own education before he launched his own start-up. As Kevin says, “I was given the opportunity to be in the middle of a ton of innovation, and meet some of the smartest people doing the coolest stuff in the world. When I finally did it [myself], it just felt so right."

Who could you (and should you) be working with today to lay your own foundation?

2. KEEP 100% FOCUSED ON WHAT PROBLEM YOU’RE SOLVING - AND FAIL FIRST:
When Kevin launched Instagram in October 2010, he explained in his first blog what problems Instagram intended to solve. He listed the top three problems users were having:

“My mobile photos look lame.”
“It’s a pain to share to all my friends.”
“Photos take forever to upload.”

How would he know these were the problems? Just by talking to people? No, by getting it wrong the first time. In early 2010 he launched his first attempt “Burbn” as a location-based photo app, using Foursquare. It was a one-man-band, but after a year of hard work it had failed to catch on. It was, however, a failure that allowed him to learn from his users what would work, and to attract interest from like-minded people, including his future co-founder of Instagram, Mike Krieger.

By focusing on these three problems, Instagram launched in October 2010. Kevin relates the first moments of launch: “It was 12:15am, October 6th and we had been working on the app non-stop, day and night for 8 weeks. With a bit of hesitation, I clicked the button that launched “Instagram” live to the Apple app store. We figured we’d have at least 6 hours before anyone discovered the app so we could grab some shut-eye. No problem, we figured. Within a few minutes, they started pouring in... The night of sleep we were hoping for turned into a few meager hours before we rushed into the office to add capacity to the service. Now, only a couple months later, we’re happy to announce that our community consists of more than a million registered users.”

What problem are you solving, and what are you learning by failing, that is setting you up for your own overnight success?

3. CUT OUT ALL THE NOISE:
Kevin explains the difference between Instagram and Burbn: “We actually got an entire version of Burbn done as an iPhone app, but it felt cluttered, and overrun with features. It was really difficult to decide to start from scratch, but we went out on a limb, and basically cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram.”

Kevin cut out all the noise. He then launched Instagram just on the Apple App Store (It just came to Android last week) and focused on sharing on Twitter and Facebook (Three platforms that didn’t even exist when he first had the idea). That’s it: Photo, comment, like. No other platforms. No other noise.

Simpler means sharper means easier to cut through the noise. Instagram went from one million users by Dec 2010 to 30 million users today. In 2011, Apple named Instagram the “App of the Year”. Why would Facebook buy it now for $1 billion? Because Mark already knows it will add more value than that to Facebook when it has its upcoming $100 billion IPO.

If you are already thinking big, connecting smart and focused at the problems you are solving - How could you solve them in the fewest number of steps?


A BILLION DOLLAR STORY

It obviously takes more than three simple, not-so-simple steps to get the pieces lined up and timed right for the kind of 18 month run that Kevin has had. But these three show up again and again in today’s stories of hyper-growth, and the ones I will continue to share here on Facebook and at my Fast Forward events.

As an end to this chapter of the Instagram story, here’s how Kevin relates the beginning of his photo-sharing idea. It is at the heart of his journey, as your story should be at the heart of yours:

“When I studied abroad my teacher set what I do now in motion by saying, “Give me that camera of yours.” He took my camera away and gave me a little, plastic camera. I was studying in Florence at the time and he told me that I wasn’t allowed to use my camera for the rest of the class. I had to use this plastic camera with a terrible lens. He said I was too focused on sharpness and “I feel like you’re more artsy than that.””

“He said, “I want you to use this Holga,” this plastic camera with a plastic lens that had this cult following in the ’80s and ’90. I was blown away by what it could do to photos. My photography teacher was totally right. I was too focused on being meticulous with these really beautiful, complex architectural shots. It helps to see the world through a different lens and that’s what we wanted to do with Instagram. We wanted to give everyone the same feeling of discovering the world around you through a different lens.”

It’s ironic that as Instagram hits a $1 billion value, mimicking the feel of these disposable cameras, the biggest producer of them, Kodak, has filed for bankruptcy.

Each wave that crashes is followed by another. The only question is who is already positioning themselves to surf it. Are you up for the ride?

by Roger James Hamilton

Modern and Cool Furniture by Esedra

Chair with chromed or lacquered metal frame, also available in steel. Furniture collection is very impressive, very good detail with a combination of transparent color. 

Esedra collection of indoor and outdoor furniture available. For the latest outdoor furniture with a very strong steel material, resistant to weather. Indoor furniture is made with smooth material, covered with leather seats.

The Impressive ‘Cirrata’ Lamps

The 'cirrata' lamp series by swedish designer Markus Johansson, inspired by the shape of sea creatures octopus. Design unique lamps made of wood that impressive. Johansson stated: unexpected experiences and surprises wait deep down on the ocean floor: a body with many arms which sweeps along  and lights up the depth.

Arrogant and presumptuous, there is no doubt about who is the ruler down here. a lonely but nevertheless unafraid character with forms born out of the resemblance to other inhabitants of the deep depths. sometimes still, sometimes alive, all depending on occasion and company. the character is 'cirrata', a glowing lamp in the darkness of the ocean.'

Beautiful Handmade Butterfly Glasses

This glass designs are made with real hand made by the designer of English. It is ordinary glass, there are objects in the middle of the glass. Object in it contains messages such as in a fairy tale, of which contains a bunch of butterflies with the words contained. This design is suitable for glass filled with wine, accompanied by beautiful objects that are in glass. Glasses with 3 choice of form, a wide but short, and wide lengthwise into strips.