Guerrilla knitters invited to show work in New York

Spring is in full swing, meaning that now could be the perfect time to pick up the knitting patterns and immerse yourself in this creative habit, while also producing some snug designs to keep the family warm.

You may also be inspired by a group of knitters from Cornish town, who have recently hit the news after being invited to show their work in New York, the BBC reports.

These so-called “craftivists” have gained much attention after they took part in a new craze known as “yarn-bombing”, which involves decorating lampposts, signs and benches with knitted cosies and accessories.

The anonymous bunch have since been invited to a show held by Vogue Knitting, after the magazine got in touch with the group through Facebook.

One of the knitters told the BBC: “We thought they were hoaxing us so we ignored them. Then they came back and we thought maybe it was true.”

The Cornish gang of knitting enthusiasts are to begin showcasing their work at Vogue Knitting Live from January 14th.

More about knitting patterns

Group recreates nativity scene with knitting patterns

Group recreates nativity scene with knitting patternsA group from South Shields have recreated the nativity scene with the help of knitting patterns, according to the Shields Gazette.

The Knit and Natter group have been secretly using their talents to design the stable scene from wool and have presented it to the Boldon Lane Library, where it now takes pride of place.

It was presented as a surprise to the library, which is where the group meets, and features a scene with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the three kings and a range of different animals.

The set was given to Elaine McCulloch, who helps run the group.

Mrs McCulloch told the newspaper: “I had noticed them whispering in sessions, but didn’t have a clue as to what was actually going on.

“What they have done is amazing, absolutely incredible.”

Christmas could be a great time for you to dig out the knitting needles and learn to knit some festive decorations for the house.

More about knitting patterns

Posted by Alice Rowe

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Employees ‘need work-life balance’

A good work-life balance is important to workers in Britain, a leading pharmaceutical company has claimed.

Mike Wilkins, director of performance and reward at AstraZeneca, said that people should be enthusiastic and excited about their job.

He commented that part of this is ensuring family life matters such as a correct balance is in place.

Mr Wilkins added that that his firm aims to achieve this by offering employees support networks, as well as offering opportunities which could enable mothers to operate remotely.

He said: “As part of our reward and benefits schemes, we try to emphasise reward and flexibility wherever we can.”

Mr Wilkins went on to comment that in the US, childcare options and schemes in which parents can take advantage of up to 52 weeks combined paid and unpaid leave are in operation, during which time they can take care of family life issues.

Recently, research commissioned by HireScores.com found that 63 per cent of parents find a family holiday more stressful than a week at work.

Parents ‘will take kids from school to take holiday’

Parents are prepared to place their children from school to be able to obtain a cheaper holiday, a specialist claims.

Bob Atkinson, travel expert at travelsupermarket.com, states this behavior can help to save families as much as 48 percent on a holiday, with respect to the destination.

While he doesn’t have a stance about this practice, according to him that if you take a young child to a different atmosphere this functions as a kind of education.

Mr Atkinson comments: “It might potentially provide them with a variety of abilities like social abilities, confidence, acceptance and tolerance of stuff that will vary.Inch

He confesses this is probably not a national curriculum-style education but emphasises it still holds value. Explaining these as existence abilities, he states there’s still an academic benefit.

Based on Hotels.com, typically the most popular place to go for British travellers may be the British Riviera, with locations for example Torquay and Newquay seeing a rise in site visitors of 160 percent.

Some cereals ‘more sugary than ice cream’

Some cereals 'more sugary than ice cream'Parents should be wary of what they are serving their kids for breakfast, as recent research reveals many cereals have very high sugar levels.

Research published by Which? found only one in 28 breakfast cereals aimed at children do not have high sugar levels, while 31 of the 100 products studied had more than the four teaspoons recommended by health experts.

Cereals thought to be healthy, like Bran Flakes and Special K, were also found to have high levels of the substance, with a bowl of the latter being similar to Tesco’s Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Ice Cream in sugar content.

The report from Which? found Morrisons’ Choco Crackles had the most amount of sugar per serving, more than a Cadbury’s Chocolate Flake, with Frosties and Ricicles following soon after.

Sue Davis, chief policy adviser at Which?, says: “Some cereals deserve their healthy image, but most simply don’t. It’s especially shocking that almost all those targeted at children are less healthy. With such little choice, it’s a daily struggle for consumers.”

It follows similar research from the consumer information company a few years ago, when it found some cereals had almost the same amount of fat as a thick pork sausage.

For more advice see the Candisfamily magazine website.ADNFCR-2352-ID-19147646-ADNFCR

Health Report : Are superfoods really so super?

Health Report : Are superfoods really so super?

Virtually no week goes by without claims in regards to a wonder food which has a radical effect on our health and wellness. It may be tempting to think that one food could protect us from diseases, but the science supporting claims is usually flawed and it could even be dangerous to set an excessive amount of stock on the effects of superfoods.

January 2012

In market research commissioned by Bupa, 10 % of people said they believed superfoods avert cancer when there’s no firm medical evidence to aid this. And worryingly, over a third of the 55 percent who’d heard the term thought eating these foods alone was healthier than a balanced diet. “The superfood phenomenon has taken hold over the last decade as people have become more interested in the positive effect food can have on your health,” says Sian Porter, consultant dietician and spokesperson for the British Dietetics Association. “There is no official definition of what constitutes a superfood and, by law, manufacturers are not allowed to suggest foods can prevent, treat or cure disease. But that hasn’t stopped outlandish claims in the media.” One 2008 press report claimed garlic was as effective as medication like betablockers in reducing blood pressure. “Although the research was reliable, the newspaper’s claims were somewhat overblown,” says Sian. “The study looked at whether garlic was as effective as a placebo, but they did not directly compare with blood pressure medication or measure whether it reduced deaths from high blood pressure.” And experts can be critical of some research into the health benefits of single foods. The Alzheimer’s Society has slated studies alleging walnuts, blueberries, tea and coffee may protect against the disease, saying they are inconclusive.

Women’s Beauty Secrets & Tips

Women’s Beauty Secrets & Tips as seen in Candis Magazine

Several magazines specialise in beauty tips for women in their younger years, when the readers do not have any worry about wrinkles or laughter lines. For women in middle age, these magazines are mostly unsuitable, and often are not very interesting. Finding a magazine for women in their late thirties to early fifties is not always easy, but when you have the luck to find one of these magazines, you can be certain that you will find lots of beauty secrets and tips.

Like all magazines specialising in health and beauty, this magazine for women in their middle years can provide advice on looking great naturally through eating healthy and exercising regularly, as well as tips focused upon the more mature woman. These articles are likely to point out the many positive effects of looking after your body, even as you start to feel the onset of middle age. Exercising does not have to be a full work-out at the gym in order to make you look good, but it is a good idea to get the blood pumping around your veins quickly, as this will help increase the amount of nutrients which skin, hair and nails receives, ensuring that they look good for longer.

Another piece of advice which will make sense to the more mature woman is in dressing and using make-up to please herself. Younger women can be silly, and will dress in unsuitable clothes in order to get male attention. In later life women may not feel the need for such attention, and instead choose comfortable and good-looking wear that can still look amazing. Once the fashion rules have been thrown out of the window, mature women can get on with looking their best by finding clothing that flatters them.

Other features from a magazine designed for women in their forties and fifties will emphasise the importance of looking your age, of growing old gracefully. Being comfortable in your own skin is beautiful at any stage of life, and a fashionable magazine can focus upon being glamorous without having to fake your age. One of the best tips offered by magazines with more mature readers is changing your hairstyle to something more radical. Experts suggest that textured layers can help grey hair to still look great. Being over forty no longer means that women have to settle for a blue rinse.

Newhall Publications

Newhall Publications

Newhall Publications is an independent, family-owned magazine publishing and marketing company. It focuses on publishing the well-known family magazine, Candis and running the Candis Club which owns the magazine, together with providing telemarketing and subscription services through Core Contact, the third part of the business.

Newhall Publications has its origins back in 1962, when founder Joseph K. Douglas created a newsletter to provide updates on the fundraising activities of the Cancer & Polio Research Fund.

Candis began as a fortnightly newsletter, printed in black & white and costing just 15 pence. Candis magazine became a great success and grew to the full-colour, 164-page version being published today. There are now over 236,000 copies of the magazine sold every month and it is the UK’s biggest selling subscription Women’s magazine. Back when it started, the newsletter was delivered by hand and from door to door by a series of dedicated agents. Today, it is available from a range of newsagents, as well as by subscription, directly from Newhall the publishers.

The second part of the business is Candis Club, a subscribers club that arranges savings on a wide variety of goods and services for members, as well as organising a whole range of social events. Discounts are available on everything from travel, home insurance, car and health cover.

Candis Club makes regular donations to health charities and is very proud to have helped a whole range of organisations, including: Marie Curie Cancer Care, Meningitis Trust and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID). In total, Candis Club has raised over £53 million for charities in the United Kingdom.

The other important part of the business is Core Contact. This specializes in providing services to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) clients, specifically relating to telemarketing, data and subscription management. Newhall’s telemarketing division was formed in 2001, when it decided it could best serve Candis Magazine’s customers by bringing telemarketing services within the organisation. However, Core Contact has proven more successful than expected and has expanded to additionally provide telemarketing and data management services to an external client base.

Newhall Publications have been recognised externally as a real success story. In 2010 it was ranked as one of the Top one hundred companies to work for in the UK by the Sunday Times and by Best Companies, and in 2006 they were awarded the JP Morgan Family Business Honours Award for Social Responsibility. The company also achieved the Investors in People status.

The Candis story so far…

The Candis story so far…It was in ’62 that Joseph K Douglas set up the Cancer and Polio study Fund following losing friends as well asbacked medical analysis with normal donations. This is in which Candis has its ownroots.

Getting bigger

and a lot better:By 1971 a fortnightly newsletter, costing 15 new pence, has been published. It reported around the performance of the Cancer and Polio Research Fund (CPRF). At this time the CPRF was supporting the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the Nationwide Fund for Analysis directly into Crippling Illnesses by means of study grants.

Within 1978 Candis’s founder, Joseph Douglas, was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services tomedical charities.The JK Douglas Cancer Research Laboratories have been established at Clatterbridge Hospital on the Wirral in 1980.

A fresh look, full-colour newsletter was introduced in 1981. Priced at 60 pence it contained far more reports on the medical research projects members had been funding, the actual football pool and readerscompetitions.HRH Princess Alexandra opened the Douglas Cyclotorn Centre in Clatterbridge Hospital back in 1984. Members’ subscriptions had raised over £750,000 for this special cancer therapy centre named immediately after the founder of Candis.

By 1985 the newsletter had expanded to a 28-page magazine (and a totally free prize draw, promoted by the newly formed Newhall Publications, replaced the football pool). In 1986 a competition was held for members to come up with a new, catchier name for the magazine using its wider variety of attributes. Candis was the clear winner.

Within the late 1990s a new-seen Candis continued to bring readers the ideal characteristics, news, health tips, interviews and information in a 124-page complete-colour format magazine. A superb new array of Club added benefits brought members huge cost savings and much more members than ever became a member of the Club on especially organised occasions.In July 2002, after 40 years, the hands delivery of the magazine to shoppers by agents had been replaced by a speedier mailing fulfilment system, making certain members get their magazine on time. At this time the Club has almost 300,000 members.

Within October 2002 the 1st excellent-bound situation of Candis was published by Christmas 2003 the magazine had grown additional in size to148 pages.In November 2006 Newhall received the JP Morgan Family members Enterprise Honours Award in the category ofCorporate Social Duty.

In 2007 the very first 164-page Candis had been published, bringing members far more of the lively mixture of data and attributes on a monthly basis.