Truly Affordable

The thrill of working for oneself, work on a project from start to finish, limitless income, making full utilisation of one’s skills are a few things that propel people to become self employed. These people might need a loan either for their personal or for their business need. These loans are known as self employed loans.

Self employed loans characteristics:

The profits from the business operations are related to the repayment capacity of the self employed people
Regular repayment schedules where borrowers amortise loan balance through fixed monthly repayments may not be suitable for the self employed since profits are largely irregular.

Insufficient proof of income forms a distinct characteristic of self employed people. A mainstream lender will want to see at least 3 years audited accounts as proof that your business has done well over that time.
Overpayments, underpayments, and payment holidays are some of the features of the repayment schedule in case of the self employed.

The degree of risk posed by the self employed borrowers is more. So the APR charged on self employed loans is more than the regular loans.

Self employed loans can be either secured or unsecured. The choice of the type of loan depends on the requirements of the borrower. Secured self employed loans are available at lower interest rates because the loan amount is given against some security. The security is usually home and real estate. This type is loan is suitable for taking a larger loan. Unsecured loans are available at higher interest rates and will not require any security. Since the interest rates are high unsecured loans are better suited for taking smaller amount loans.

Advantages of secured loans for the self employed:

Low interest charge
Some lending institutions don’t ask for any accounts
No proof of income might be required
Loan amount can be used for any purpose
Loan amount given is 1-1.5 times of the value of the collateral

These advantages come to the borrower because the collateral clause is satisfied by a secured loan. It pacifies the average lender and he provides the loan in spite of a lack of regular income. The collateral can be a house, a car, a property etc. held by the self-employed person. A diverse spectrum of professionals like painters, writers, doctors, mechanics, florists, beauticians etc. take such loans. The profession of the self-employed is not given much importance in case of secured loan processing for the self-employed as long as the collateral satisfies the lender.

However, the credit history of the borrowers carries a lot of weight for the lenders. Any self-employed person who offers sufficient collateral and has a good credit history to supplement can get a good loan offer within minimum possible time. On the other hand a borrower with insufficient collateral and a poor credit history is likely to get a reduced loan with high interest rates and tougher repayment options.

The drawback of secured loans for the self-employed is that if the borrower is unable to meet the repayment schedule and repeatedly defaults on installments, he might loose the pledged collateral to the lender permanently. So, to mitigate the risk the borrower should go for the minimum possible loan amount after considering his repayment capacity and doing a cash flow analysis.

Taking a secured loan for self-employed could be vital to the borrower from a personal or business point of view. The loan amount should be used efficiently and solely to fulfill the objective of taking the loan. This would ensure that the borrower does not land himself/herself in trouble later. So the borrower should enjoy the freedom of taking a larger loan but do have the responsibility of making the payments on time.

Christian Phelps is a Masters in Accounting and Financial Management from Lancaster University Management School . He has been working with loan for self employed since his academics got over. To find Self employed secured loan,unsecured self employed loan visit http://www.loanforselfemployed.co.uk.

Ideally, what comes in does not necessary all go out to creditors. Unfortunately, most of us know, that is one of our better dreams. Sometimes we find all our dreams shattered completely. Would you be prepared?

Once upon a time, I was living the ideal life. I had an excellent paying job. Who had to worry about finances or budgets? Ha! Not me. In fact, I never really paid much attention to price tags. I just knew I wanted it so I bought it. I had money in the bank, a nice car and a swell cushy condo.

But, in a blink of an eye, my dream life turned into a nightmare and I was totally unprepared. It was very frightening and intimidating to realize I had to do something drastic. Consequently, I had to learn quick, fast and in a hurry how to reduce my debts and budget my money or I would literally be out in the street.

Health problems forced me to give up my wonderful job and every luxury that went with it. My savings dwindled and I went from riches to rags faster than greased lightning. The shame of it all, what would my family and friends think? Oh poor me. What did I ever do to deserve this? This is so not fair!

Turns out, I was my own worse enemy. My family still loves and supports me and my friends are still my friends. As soon as I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I resigned myself to the fact that this is the way it was going to be, nothing in the world was going to change it and I had better learn to live with it. Don’t misunderstand me, it took quite awhile to get to that point, but the point is I’m there and I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. I still enjoy life, my illness is not terminal, I’m just on a darn ol budget. Grumble, grumble.

Sound familiar? You see my friends, you are not alone. Hopefully you will accept the fact, sooner than I; you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Many, many families find themselves in the same boat. So come on, put on your life jackets and let’s row, row, row!

If you’ve lost your job, there is, of course, unemployment. And, depending on your circumstances, there are state and county agencies that offer additional benefits especially if you have children. It would be advantageous for you to investigate the possibilities. You may qualify for assistance such as; locating a job, temporary financial assistance, health care, food stamps, clothing banks, shelter and transportation.

Perhaps you’ve been spending more than you make and you find yourself in a serious financial situation. Let me share with you some of the ways you may be able to achieve some financial stability.

Obviously, you need to set up a spending plan or budget. But at this point, it will be of no value if you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

First and foremost you need to reduce your debt and establish ways to save money. Once you’ve gotten your expenses inline, then develop a viable budget. You must discipline yourself to stick to it or you will find yourself without that life jacket and no boat to row, row, row.

You’ll need to do two things. Find some extra cash and reduce your debts. Here are some suggestions to help you achieve both. At the same time, you will be setting the ground work for your new budget.

Ways to obtain cash:
• Have a garage or yard sale. I was amazed at the amount of money I pulled in.
• You might want to look for a second job. I know, I know. What a yukky idea. But look on the bright side, it’s just until the crisis is over.

• Sell that extra car.

Ways to reduce your expenses:
• Refinance your home at a lower rate to reduce your mortgage payment. But do it now because the word on the street is that the Fed is going to increase the interest rate again!

• Increase your insurance deductibles. Then shop around for better rates for your homeowners, auto, life and health insurances.
• Stop eating out and prepare your dinners at home.
• Start taking your lunch to work instead of buying it.

• Shop with a grocery list and stick to it. Make your list using your grocery flyer and prepare your meals based on the specials. Take advantage of buy one, get one free offers. Be diligent and don’t buy what you really don’t need. Use coupons - most stores offer double the value. Buy store brands. Hey, don’t shake your head. I save plenty that way! If I, the once upon a time little princess, can do it so can you.
• Cancel your memberships and magazine subscriptions. Instead of going to the gym, take walks, exercise at home. Take trips to your local library for magazines, newspapers and books.
• Stay home instead of going out for entertainment. Curl up with a good book from the library and rent movies instead of going out to the movie theatre. Take trips to your local museums and free places of interest.
• Cancel that cell phone or reduce your monthly bill by lowering your peak hour minutes to the minimum and only use your cell phone in an emergency.
• Become a do-it yourselfer. Do your own home repair and change your own oil in your vehicles. Visit your local library for “how to” books.
• Take a look at your utilities. Do you have any water leaks? Lower your thermostat a few degrees and inquire if your electric and gas company has a budget plan.
• Shop at garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets and browse over the classified ads.

• Shop at your dollar store for cleaning products, paper goods, and toiletries. Oh now, now be nice … my dishes and clothes don’t know the difference and my teeth and hair haven’t fallen out yet.

There are so many other ways to reduce your expenses. Just exercise your common sense.

Most of the time money problems originate from our lifestyle choices. Before you buy something, ask yourself if you really need it.

Establish a realistic budget and make those sacrifices to live within your limits. To me, peace of mind costs a lot less than that new car I dream of owning. Who knows tomorrow I could meet Mr. Right or Mr. Down Right Filthy Rich *wink*

Lex lives in Ohio and is originally from NJ. She has three children and four grandchildren. Her hobbies include reading, crafting and writing.

She has been inducted into the TSWBA Bowling Hall of Fame and is a two time TSWBA Bowler of the Year. She is also a NJ Doubles and Women’s All Star Association Champion. Although she does not bowl now, she enjoys coaching young bowlers.

Currently, Lex is the financial advisor for a frugal living and sweepstakes group called “Our Winning Circle”. http://www.ourwinningcircle.net

My husband and I recently had a baby, and family and friends have been dropping by regularly to visit and see our new addition. We live near my family, so they’ve been over almost every day while my husband’s family is spread out all over the United States. Since his family can’t exactly drop by for obvious reasons, we’ve gotten a lot of cards, letters and gifts in the mail. One day the doorbell to our apartment rang and I opened it to find a delivery person with a gift basket. After thanking him, I took the basket and placed it on the table with all the cards and letters we received in the mail that day. I thought I would wait until my husband got home from work so we could open them together.

As I looked at the gift basket, I noticed it was filled with European chocolates. I briefly thought that was an odd choice and was going to look at who sent it when my newborn awoke and let me know it was time for the bottle. After feeding her and putting her back to sleep, I had a bit of a sweet tooth so I decided to open the gift basket and have a chocolate. It was delicious. One chocolate turned to two and two quickly turned to four and before I knew it, I had eaten almost half the basket. This was no small feat as there were a lot of chocolates. I guess I wasn’t quite ready to give up the eating habits I had before the baby was born. As I was enjoying the chocolates, my husband came home and I mentioned that whoever in his family that sent the gift basket really knew what they were doing.

I thought it a bit odd at first (expecting a baby gift basket, if anything) but once I bit into the first chocolate, I knew that whoever had sent this realized just how much I needed a quality chocolate break from the stress of all that comes with having your first baby. This made me remember that I forgot to check the card, so I asked my husband to look since he was up. As it turns out, this gift basket I had halfway devoured was intended for our next door neighbor. It was delivered to us by accident. Here I am, relaxing on the couch with a chocolate in my hand when my husband breaks the news to me. With my chocolate filled mouth wide open, I looked at him so seriously as if to say, “What are we going to do?” He started laughing, which made me start laughing as I now saw the humor in the situation. We ordered a new basket to be delivered the next day for our neighbor and also went by to explain what had happened.

We all had a good laugh over it and I was relieved since I had never formally met our neighbor and didn’t know what to expect. I’m actually quite glad that this happened. I got to meet our neighbor and learned a valuable lesson about checking the card before you open the gift. I also know what I will send my friends and family after they welcome a new addition. I’m sending chocolate.

To purchase a gift basket for any occasion visit www.giftbasketontheweb.com/

So it’s Friday night, and you’re out on the town with your mates. You’re well dressed and you’ve had a few drinks. Isn’t life grand? You puff away on your cigarette, sipping a pint, and round the pool table considering your next shot. You are keenly aware of the gorgeous woman sitting at the bar, watching your every move. Follow these pool rules, and show her that you are as slick as your slicked-back hair!

Now you may be wondering who gets to break? The traditional way of determining who gets to break is a method called “lagging”. Both players line up their ball at the head string (the line on the table). Shoot your ball to the far rail, and bank it straight back towards yourself without touching the rail you are standing closest to. Have your opponent do the same. Whoever has the ball closest to the rail, without touching it, gets to break. Hitting a side rail is an immediate disqualification.

When you are racking the balls, they should be frozen or touching slightly. The lead ball must be on the foot spot (the dot on the felt). The “8″ ball must be in the center of the racked balls. The white or “cue” ball must be located behind the head string. When breaking, you want to use enough power to split the balls. Ideally you want to sink a couple balls, preferably one of either “solids” or “stripes”. This way you have the option of shooting for any ball on the table during your next shot. If you “scratch”, or sink the white ball off the break, it automatically becomes your opponents turn.

The object of the game is to sink all of your balls before your opponent, and then sink the “8″ ball in the pocket you have indicated. Take your time and line up your shots properly. Try not to use too much power when shooting. Yeah…..it looks cool to hit them hard, but it’s not exactly cool to miss your shot. Try to take your easiest shots first, and try not to leave your opponent with clear shots. Try to use a proper stance when shooting, and bow your head to be in line with the cue. Your best bet is to simply practice on your own, before you go out and play competitively. Be careful playing in bars too, as you might get hustled. Now be a good sport, go introduce yourself to that babe at the bar!

Nathaniel Jacobson lives and works in NYC. When he is not playing pool in a smoky bar trying to impress women, he does freelance writing for a number of websites including www.pooltablesandbilliardgames.com - a site dedicated to billiards, with information about on pool balls, pool cues, lighting for pool tables and more.

This story is about a plumber, and while that might not sound relevant to you, if you’ve ever advertised your business, if you’re currently advertising your business or if you plan to advertise your business - you need to read this.

Jim and Rebekah Ypma own Sonoran Desert Plumbing (SDP), about a year ago they asked me to design an advertisement that would help to separate them from the competition. SDP did not have a brand image or any way to separate them from the rest of the field, consequently, prospects didn’t pay them much attention and they had to compete on price more than they would like; that’s where we came in.

Plumbers love to advertise in the yellow pages, so there’s a tremendous amount of competition, that’s the bad news; the good news is that 95% are under leveraged, boring and ineffective ads that most people are inclined to ignore.

Take a moment to look at the plumbing section in the yellow pages, what do you see? You see questions like, “Do you need a plumber” or the obligatory plumber’s van in the ad. Well, these two ideas fail the “Well, that’s obvious” Test, which all marketers/designers should know; if the idea or information you are placing in the ad is obvious, take it out.

For example, “Do you need a plumber?” Well, I am in the plumbing section, there’s a good chance that I do. And you might guess that a plumber might drive a van over a semi truck or an Infiniti FX 35. Make sure that the content in your ad address your prospect’s pain, problem and wants, if what you are thinking of putting in there doesn’t, you need to get rid of it.

So what’s the solution? In order for this ad to be effective, we had to find out how people and why people selected one plumber over another, and finally, we wanted to get to the root of why people chose to work with Sonoran Desert Plumbing.

After talking with Jim and Rebekah, we determined it was Jim, his friendly demeanor, boyish looks and yes, his smile that made people feel at ease. It turns out that prospect’s are apprehensive about having a stranger they don’t trust in their house - imagine that!

Despite some initial reluctance to break away from the crowd, Jim agreed to have us photograph him and feature him, and his smile in the ad.

Well, the ad worked, it really worked!

In fact, here is the reaction I received:

“Thank you so much for all of your hard work on our logo & ad! You did a fabulous job! The ad was a home run, we love it! I feel we hit the nail on the head with adding his picture to the ad, people are noticing it, talking about it, and calling! It feels good to have professionals in the artwork and design field comment on what a great ad it is too! We are very proud of it.”

What can this case study teach you about how to invest in an effective ad?

• Work with a designer who is business and marketing savvy, if you want results from your investment, this is the only way to go.
• Don’t follow the crowd unless you want to blend in with them.
• Remember that people don’t talk or pay attention to businesses that are just like all the others
• Find out why clients really do business with you and use this as a part of your marketing message
• Hone your marketing strategy around the real value and benefits clients receive from you.
• Tell new prospects about the experiences your clients have had with you.

As a final note, I’d like to thank Jim and Rebekah Ypma for allowing us to feature their story. You can find out more about them at www.sonorandesertplumbing.com

Thanks Jim and Rebekah.

Jeremy Tuber runs the only business savvy graphic design firm who helps companies build more confidence and credibility into their business identities. He is an atypical designer with a passion for marketing as well as design. Jeremy infuses solid marketing expertise into design projects that he guarantees to bring satisfaction and results. Clients often remark that he brings a terrific enthusiasm and a “can do” attitude to each project. In 1st quarter 2006, he will introduce his first book aimed at helping aspiring artists run a more profitable and more enjoyable design business called, “Being a Starving Artist Sucks”.

Learn more about Jeremy and how you can gain a competitive advantage with a better brand by visiting http://www.candographics.com

Hampton Court Palace is placed to the south west of the City, on the edge of the River Thames, bounded by forest & spectacular estates. Hampton Court Palace, King Henry 8s incredible riverbank accommodation is set in over five hundred acres of land & private gardens.

Bringing back the atmosphere of well over four-hundred & fifty years of customs, costumed actors can be witnessed throughout Henry VIII?s and King William 3’s remarkable personal apartments. The views, sounds and reek of the inspiring Tudor kitchens where royal banquets were set-up for Henry?s court of well over one thousand folks can also be viewed. Discover Hampton Court London, one of the many wonders to visit in London.

Hampton Court Palace has been split into 6 distinct routes or outings. The Maze at Hampton Court Palace which is situated on the River Thames to the west of London is perhaps the most familiar hedge maze on this planet.

Hampton Court palace has a brutal heritage & is said to be possessed by a number of phantoms, including 2 of Henry 8th’s late wives and a nurse to his children. Hampton Court Palace wardens & personnel will be close at hand to help people to their elected state palace for a champagne & canap?s meeting. Fancy dress personnel will declare dinner and visitors will be called to take their designated seats for a superb 2 course dinner with chosen fine white wines.

Hampton Court Palace has 60 acres of official private grounds besides the five hundred acres of royal plants. The royal private grounds date back to the 16th Century, when the earliest Privy Garden was installed between fifteen thirty & fifteen-thirty eight for King Henry the 8th.

In these times of sky high gasoline prices and rising costs of transportation, consumers are increasingly interested in credit card services that give them discounts on gas. Instead of looking into a specific gas credit card from an oil and gas company, you might look at the offer for a Chase credit card that gives you gasoline rebates when you use your card.

You can find the Chase credit card offer online at their website, http://www.chase.com. Simply look for the card called the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard. There are several credit card services offered along with this card that consumers find attractive.

When you use your Chase PerfectCard MasterCard to buy gasoline for the first ninety days, you receive six percent of your purchase price back on your card. So you can go to any gas station anywhere and fill up your car or truck knowing that six percent of your bill will be come back to you. This gas credit card gives you the rebates in the form of credit on your account towards future purchases. So you will not receive a rebate check or cash back award at the end of the year as with some credit card services. Instead, you will automatically have access to this rebate amount when you use your Chase credit card in the future.

After your initial trial period of ninety days is complete, Chase gives you three percent back on all gas purchases. Anywhere you fill up your tank, you get this rebate benefit. This is better than having a traditional gas credit card with only one gas company, as you would not have the freedom and flexibility you have with the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard.

But the rebate deals do no stop there. You also receive one percent of all your purchases made on other products and services. This means that no matter what you buy with your Chase credit card, or when or where you buy it, you receive one percent of your purchase price in the form of a rebate. The one percent will be credited to your account for use in the future. Most cards only offer cash back rewards like this. But the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard offers you not only a return on your purchases, but a way to cut down on your transportation costs as well.

With the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard, there is no annual fee. This is a great deal. You get rebates on all your purchases and you do not have to pay a fee for the credit card services.

Chase also offers you the all important feature of quality customer service. The Chase customer service hotline is available to you where ever you live or travel at any time of day. If you have a question about your rebates or a need to review your account information, the Chase customer service representatives are at your disposal. And remember that Chase is a banking institution that has been around for many years and is one of the most reliable financial companies you can find.

Thomas Ohlum is the owner of www.find-solid-credit.com a website providing information about credit card offers and finance aspects to consider when applying for a credit card.

By following a few simple guidelines you can save money by creating rubber stamp artwork that a stamp manufacturer can download without any design input; stamp manufacturers love it when artwork arrives that is ‘ready’ for production.

You may currently be paying $12.00 for an unmounted, mass produced stamp in the shops, buying the same size stamp direct from a rubber stamp manufacturer will be about $9.00 and be custom made for you!

The following design guidelines assume that you have scanned a drawing into your computer or have located a piece of artwork and imported the image.

Design Guidelines

The easiest stamp to make from a manufacturing point of view is one where the artwork has a line thickness that does not fall below the minimum required. The minimum line thickness that is recommended is 0.2mm (0.00787 inch or 0.57 point), if it does fall below this, the ‘wall strength’ of that part of the stamp is compromised and may become distorted. Having said this, you can convert an image with fine lines to one suitable for stamp making.

Computer programs work with image data in a number of different ways, for example programs like CorelDraw work with both Vector images (lines) and Bitmap images (pixels), CorelDraw is also the preferred program for making rubber stamps from images.

When scanning a drawing into your computer it will always load as a bitmap image, (a bit like a photograph in a newspaper). This can be sent directly to a stamp manufacturer as long as it is a black and white scan and the line thicknesses do not fall below the minimum. If the lines are too thin you can convert the bitmap image into vector data by applying a trace to the image. Programs that have tracing ability place a vector line around the lines or can be set to follow the lines, these lines can then have a thickness applied to make them suitable for rubber stamp making.

Complex drawing and illustrations can also be made into rubber stamps; these may not contain many lines and look more like photographs. It is best to send a few different options of these to your stamp manufacturer; one option would be to increase the brightness of the image then convert the bitmap to a simple black and white image. Here it is best to select a rubber stamp manufacturer that is familiar with these types of images, see below recommendations.

File Formats

All images that enter your computer have an extension relating to what format they are in. You may have an image from a scan, a clipart disk or downloaded from a clipart service. Some are .eps and .wmf files (Vector line format more common for logos or line drawings) and others jpeg an .gif (Bitmap pixel photos and illustrations)
Both image formats can produce excellent stamps; however simple images are always best in .eps and .wmf format to allow you to easily manipulate line thickness in the event the lines are too thin.

Online Clipart Services

There are many online clipart services that provide excellent clipart for rubber stamping; the best images are from services that are subscription based that charge a yearly or per image fee. If this does not suit and you really want to save money you should find out which service your rubber stamp manufacturer belongs to, it costs nothing to search through the clipart service that he belongs to as he will be the person downloading the images. This bit of lateral thinking and finding the right manufacturer will save you lots of money because you will never have to pay for the clipart. Clipart.com is one of the best services that some manufacturers subscribe to; I estimate that over 3 million images at Clipart.com are suitable for stamp production and they are fine with manufacturers using the images for rubber stamps.

The craft stamp industry is very large indeed and most people are still buying stamps that are mass produced because they don’t know how to get a ‘custom made’ stamp manufactured. So if you are into card making or scrapbooking and want to find that ’special stamp’ you should find yourself a manufacturer, it doesn’t matter where they are in the world as unmounted stamps are thin and lightweight and can be posted easily.
A network of stamp manufacturers that offer stamps made from online clipart services can be found online, at www.stampsearch.com.au various manufacturers will make unmounted stamps from clipart or your own artwork and send the finished stamps anywhere in the world.

Robert de Rooy is based in Australia and has been involved with the rubber stamp industry in the Pacific region for over ten years; he has provided consultation to the development of http://stampsearch.com.au and operates http://www.instastamp.com.au manufacturing stamp making equipment for people wishing to enter the rubber stamp making industry.

Every year, as Christmas approaches, you hear Christmas carols everywhere. Sometimes to the point where another Silent Night would make you want to silent the sound system.

Everyone is scrambling to buy Christmas gifts for everyone in a list that seems miles long. The queues to pay up and the queues for a parking lot seem endlessly long too.

Christmas cards are sent out to friends and family, some of whom you might not have seen for years.

Beautifully decorated christmas trees pop up every where. Buildings are dressed in lights, mistletoes, bells, and other Christmas decorations. Santa Claus, his elves and reindeer are seen every where. Kids get more and more excited as Christmas approach. Even grown ups prepare for the onslaught of Christmas partying during that time of the year. Party dresses are purchased. Everyone gets ready to dress to their nines.

In all this excitement, do you know what you are celebrating?

What is Christmas actually? It sometimes seems like a brillian invention of the toy makers to push sales of toys to all the parents around the world. A sales marketing ploy of the retail industry.

Actually, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Long ago, a little baby was born to a girl who was still a virgin. The baby was born in a manger, among the animals, yet angels proclaimed his birth. Wise men followed a star that marked his birth and presented him with precious gifts, to pay homage to him. It all seemed so beautifully sweet.. until you realise the reason why this child was born.

This baby was born to die. To be crucified on the cross while still in his prime. Killed alongside murderers, on the insistence of the crowds, even though he had not committed a crime… days after being welcomed into Jerusalem by crowds of people waving palm leaves, shouting Hosanna, praising him.

It was a gruesome death. He was whipped and then his body, all covered with blood, still a live, was nailed to a cross and left to die. Upon his death, the skies turned dark. There was an earthquake The curtain separating the holiest place in the temple in Jerusalem from the rest of the area was torn in two.

3 days later, his tomb was empty and the heavy stone was rolled away. His disciples and those close to him saw him. He spent time with them, ate with them, showing he was alive and not a ghost. Later, while talking to a crowd of people, he rose up in the sky disappeared into the clouds.

All this happened for a reason.

The first man and women, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. That was the first sin. From then on, every one of us sins. A tiny white lie, doing what we know we shouldn’t do… The penalty for sin is death. The only one who did not sin is Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus. Jesus had to die on the cross to win forgiveness for anyone who chooses to accept his gift. The real Christmas gift.

Sounds far fetched? That’s why they are called miracles. Miracles are still happening today. All over the world. Check out Lighthouse which has miracle services every Saturday. You can read the pastor’s latest sermon each week there too.

A good resource that explains every detail of the Christmas story is http://www.answersingenesis.org/ Actually, that site explains the creation vs evolution theories, dinosaurs and a lot more.

So the next time the pressures of Christmas preparations drive you up the wall and you wish you could kill the person who invented Christmas, don’t worry. You already have.

About the Author

The writer is the webmaster of Christmas giftshop .

Originally Summerland was a community of Spiritualists when it was founded in 1889. The Spiritualists terraced the streets which are still there today and built a temple where they held séances and contacted spirits

Unfortunately for the Spiritualists they discovered oil in 1894 and soon there was a veritable forest of oil wells spurting off the coast. These days the oil rigs are several miles out into the channel so thing shave calmed down a lot.

So where is Summerland?? On the East it goes from the Padaro off ramp. On the West it extends to the top of Ortega Ridge Rd and includes all those wonderful new homes along Ortega Ridge. On the South Summerland Real Estate Starts at the Ocean and extends North East Valley Rd in Montecito..

Okay, so now we know where it is, what’s been going on with Summerland Real Estate for the past year? Well, 10 homes have been sold excluding Condominiums which comes $17.485 million worth of real estate that changed hands. This gives us a pretty amazing $2.74 million average home price. But even the Median Price for Summerland Real Estate is almost $1.7 million.

During the year 25 properties came on the market with a median asking price of $1.695 and an average asking price of $1.815 million. Currently there are 8 single family homes for sale with a median asking price of $1.495 million and an average asking price of $1.438.

On the Condominium front there have been 3 sold this year accounting for $2.917 million worth of Real Estate. This gives us an average sales price of $972,000. The condos in Summerland extend from close to Lillie Ave. next to the freeway to well up into the upper levels of the area.

25 Condos have come on the market so far in 2005 with a median list price of $659,000 and an average list price of $879,000. Currently there are only 2 Condos for Sale in Summerland with an average asking price of $882,000 and a median asking price of $679,000.

Well that’s it from
Summerland for now!!!

Gary Woods is a Realtor in Santa Barbara California. He is the Trainer for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors.