Maybe you’ve never seen the excellent television series Lost, or maybe you’ve only recently become hooked. Either way, this article was written with the intention of giving you a brief rundown of all the pivotal characters. Unless otherwise mentioned, each character was a survivor of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815.

Jack – A doctor, Jack had traveled to Australia to pick up the body of his father to take him back to America for burial. Since he’s the doctor among the survivors, Jack has become the de facto leader of the group. Hardheaded, but always tries to do what he thinks is right. Has an attraction to Kate.

John Locke – Traveled to Australia to go on a walking tour of the Outback. He was turned away because he was in a wheelchair. It is still unknown how he came to be in the wheelchair, as flashbacks show him to be walking without trouble. After crashing on the island, Locke found that he could once again walk. Skilled at hunting and tracking, Locke has natural leadership talents. This has caused he and Jack to clash on several occasions.

Sawyer – A con man, Sawyer was in Australia to kill the man responsible for the death of his parents. Hates himself and wants everyone else to hate him. Very charismatic. Is constantly getting shot, tortured, or knocked over the head. Has an attraction to Kate.

Kate – Was being brought back to the United States by a federal marshal when the plane crashed. She was wanted for the murder of her father, an abusive drunk who beat her mother. Has had other run-ins with the law, but much of this is still unexplained. Is torn between her feelings for both Jack and Sawyer. Strong survival instincts.

Hugo Hurley – Likeable overweight fellow who won the lottery and is worth millions of dollars. Laid back attitude and often serves as the comic relief. Spent time in a mental institution. Has an imaginary friend named Dave. Was working on a relationship with Libby before her death.

Charlie – The creative force behind the once-famous band known as DriveShaft. Heroin addict. Traveled to Australia to see his brother, the former lead singer of the band. Attracted to Claire. Hates Locke and would like nothing more than to see him look like a fool. Has demonstrated that he is more than capable of violence.

Claire – Was pregnant when the plane crashed. Has since given birth to a baby boy named Aaron. Native of Australia. She was flying to America to put her baby up for adoption. She and her baby were captured by the Others, but she was able to escape.

Sayid – Former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Skilled torturer and interrogator. Was involved with Shannon before her death.

Sun – Wife of Jin. Korean. Was planning on leaving her husband before the plane crash. Was recently revealed to be pregnant, even though her husband was supposed to be sterile. Often tends to her garden and seems very gentle, but recently shot and killed one of the Others. Father was a crime boss.

Jin – Husband of Sun. Korean from a very poor fisherman’s family. Fell in love with Sun and became an enforcer for her father. This job made him very cold and distant. On the island, he puts his skills as a fisherman to good use. Has reconciled with his wife.

Michael – Had traveled to Australia to take his son, Walt, back home after the death of Walt’s mother. An artist who was also involved in construction. Built a boat to try and escape the island, but it was destroyed by the Others. After his son was abducted, Michael seemed to go a little crazy. He eventually killed Ana Lucia and Libby in a desperate bid to get his son back. Walt was returned and the two were given a boat and directions to the nearest continent. They have not been seen since.

Walt – Young kid. The son of Michael. Was going to live with Michael after the death of his mother. Possesses strange powers to manipulate reality. Captured by the Others. At the end of season two, he is returned to his father and the pair is allowed to leave the island.

Shannon – Spoiled brat from a rich family. When her father died, she was forced to fend for herself. Was in love with her step-brother, Boone. Was involved with Sayid shortly before her death. Fatally shot by Ana Lucia.

Rose – Wife of Bernard. Dying of cancer, but the cancer went into remission on the island. Very straightforward.

Bernard – Husband of Rose. Had taken her to Australia to a faith healer. Does not want to leave the island, for fear that his wife’s cancer will return.

Henry Gale – Seems to be the leader of the Others, although he claims he answers to someone else. Highly intelligent and well-read. Played Jack and Locke against one another. Has a tumor on his spine and has had Jack captured so that he can remove it. Claims to be one of “the good guys.”

Ana Lucia – Former L.A. cop. She quit the force after killing a man who had shot her (she was pregnant at the time and lost the baby). Tough and no nonsense. Attracted to Jack and slept with Sawyer. Accidentally killed Shannon after mistaking her for one of the Others. Shot and killed by Michael while she was guarding Henry Gale.

Libby – Claimed to be a psychiatrist, but spent time in the same institution as Hurley. A widower, she gave her husband’s yacht to Desmond during a chance encounter. Was developing a romance with Hurley. Accidentally shot and killed by Michael when he assisted Henry Gale in escaping.

Mr. Eko – A Nigerian warlord turned holy man. Eko clashed with Locke on several occasions. Physically, the most imposing of the survivors. Stood up to a strange black smoke which has appeared a few times. When the smoke took the form of his dead brother and demanded that Eko repent for his sins, Eko refused. The smoke then lifted him up and killed him.

Boone – Step-brother of Shannon. Had traveled to Australia to bring her back home. Boone died in season one from injuries sustained when he fell off the side of a cliff. Was in love with Shannon.

Juliette – A member of the Others, Juliette has been assigned to gather information from Jack. Claims to have once been a fertility doctor. Wants Henry Gale dead.

Desmond – A former military man and convict, Desmond found the island while on a boat race around the world. He became involved with the Dharma Initiative and was living underground until discovered by the crash survivors. He has since joined up with their group. Unbeknownst to him, his former fiancee is still combing the world in an effort to find him.

Danielle – A French scientist who has been stranded on the island for decades. Her young daughter was captured and raised by the Others. Has went a bit mad living alone for so many years. Master of tracking, hunting, and survival. Still wants to rescue her daughter.

Talk about Lost and many other television shows at Cinema Threads

Charm Quilts usually feature a single shape, such as a square, hexagon or diamond, with no two patches cut from the same fabric. Creating these enchanting quilts was originally popular from 1860 – 1900.

Charm Quilts are the type of quilt you only do once. It can be an enormous undertaking to accumulate the sheer number of fabric bits, each different, to complete this quilt.

The collecting is probably a large part of the appeal of a Charm Quilt, similar to that of “Charm Strings”. In the late 1800′s, the gift of a button was considered lucky and young girls collected and traded buttons. Strung upon a string, every one of the buttons was different, each a special memento.

Collecting is a pastime many enjoy, with the challenge being to acquire as many different examples of an item as possible.

Scraps of fabrics gathered and traded with friends and relatives, sewn into a quilt, would have been an appealing hobby for young women. It would also be a reminder of pleasant times and the loved ones.

These quilts were at times called Beggar Quilts, referring to the method of attaining the fabrics. The name Charm Quilt is more common, and may have originated with the belief that pieces that came from so many hands possessed good fortune. The finished quilt acquired a magical quality – to be charmed or to bring good luck.

Renewed interest in this type of quilt began with the creation of Millennium Quilts in recent times – a version of a Charm Quilt with 2000 different fabric squares.

Just think how much fun it would be to collect, trade and touch so many different prints. To get started on your Charm Quilt go through your own stash. If you are a real fabric-holic you may be able to make a Charm Quilt from your own stash.

After you look at your own scraps for a while, go and look at another quilter’s scraps. You will notice that some of hers would go well with yours. You suggest a swap. As a fabric lover never forgets where a fabric came from, a bit of history begins to creep into your project.

Charming and charmed, a quilt with no two pieces alike is fun to organize, and fairly simple to make. This is a great chance to use all kinds of pieces – have a go. Start collecting today to begin on your memories for tomorrow.

Pauline Rogers has travelled throughout Australia and New Zealand for over 20 years, teaching the art of patchwork and quilting. She operates an award winning shop, Country Fabrics and Quilters, in Toowoomba, Queensland as well as a successful mail order and online service. She founded Quiltfest, an annual quilting event and Margie’s Quilts of Hope, a quilting challenge which raises funds for breast cancer research. Visit her website at http://www.cfaq.com.au.

In this day and age, part of being well-dressed is having the right scent to match our mood and outfit for the day. A quick visit around any department store and you’ll realize that there is probably a scent marketed for every man, woman, and even child out there. But for many of us who have been in the search for the perfect perfume, we know that many times it is hard to find one that we truly love and makes us unique. This is where the home perfume makers make their niche. They can make one-of-a-kind scents that will not make you smell like everybody else.

The handcrafted toiletries market, including home perfume making, is indeed on the rise. Everything, from handcrafted soap, lotions, and other spa products can be seen, in various specialty shops, and at times, even the big department stores have jumped on this bandwagon and attempt to make their products appear “handcrafted”. The handcrafted and natural appeal is now very much in vogue.

In the competitive world of perfume development and manufacturing, perfume was thought to be such a multifaceted chemical mixture of essential oils, aromatic compounds, fixatives, solvents, and, if you did not have a celebrity endorsing your product, then it is sure to be doomed. It used to be that if you wanted to manufacture your own perfume or fragrance, you would have to be prepared to spend well over $10,000. Many suppliers of raw materials had such steep minimum orders that you would have to have the pockets of the industrial giants to be able to even do some research and development. But the Internet has changed that. Many of the ingredients are now readily available over the Internet, including recipes, and many suppliers have minimum orders that are well within the reach of an average crafter, and you can actually start a business for sometimes as low as $200 depending on the kind of scent that you want.

Basically, perfume, the most concentrated of all fragrance products, is around 20-30% fragrance or essential oil (colognes, eau de colognes, eau de toilettes have lower percentages of the fragrance or essential oil, and more of the alcohol, with some mixtures even incorporating water). The rest is alcohol and fixatives because perfumes only have from 0-5% water (mostly 0%). Fixatives are used because many essential and fragrance oils are so volatile that if you expose them to the atmosphere, the scent evaporates in a very short time, and, in order to “fix” the scent, you need fixatives so that the scent stays longer. Also essential are pretty bottles to package your scents in, and basically, the two most expensive ingredients in the manufacturing of perfumes are the essential or fragrance oils, and the bottles.

A quick search in the internet will give you a slew of suppliers for essential oils, alcohols, fixatives, and bottles. For the essential or fragrance oils, many suppliers sell these at ½ an ounce, making it much more affordable for the home perfumer. Many even offer sample packs. Prices range from $2.00 to a high of $80 per half ounce of essential oil, but many of them ranging from $7-$15 per half ounce, the cost progressively lowering the higher the amount you buy per essential oil.

For the perfumer’s alcohol used to dilute the essential and fragrance oils, the average cost is around $6 to $10 for 8 ounces (around 1 cup), depending on your supplier. As with the essential oils, the costs go down if you buy in bulk. If your perfumer’s alcohol contains isopropyl myristate then there is no need to add a fixative because that in itself acts as the fixative.

Many suppliers of essential oils also supply perfume bottles. For the suppliers of perfume bottles alone, some just ask for a minimum order of $40, with the price per bottle ranging from below $1 to $9 for the larger bottles.

Cost vs. profit wise, the perfume industry is a very lucrative business, even for the home manufacturer. The internet has definitely changed this industry that in the olden days was limited to the very few big shots in the corporate perfume world. So go ahead, make your scent!

Sheila Hensen and Scott Ford, hobbyists and freelance writers for the perfume industry, have combined to bring together the best tips on making your own perfumes at home for fun and profit:

Check it out at:

http://makeperfumes.com/tips.html http://www.makeperfumes.com/

Christmas has so many wonderful and joyous traditions which include the once very popular Christmas game called Snap Dragon. We don’t hear of this Christmas game being played in modern times however there is no reason why you couldn’t revive it today. Although do take precautions as and ensure adult supervision.

This old fashion Christmas game was once very popular and commonly played Christmas Eve as families gathered for the festive Christmas celebrations. It was joyously looked forward to and all members of the family both young and old enjoyed Snap Dragon with much fun and jesting. If you would like to re-introduce it to your family this Christmas season here is how it was played in olden times:

• Piled high on a plate was raisins and other dried fruit
• Brandy was then poured over the fruit
• Candles (the then common lights for a room) were put out
• A flame would set the brandy alit
• The game would then begin

Family surrounds the flaming plate of fruit. They must snatch the fruit from the flames, blow out the flames and then eat the fruit.

Accompanying the game was a ‘Snap Dragon’ song was also popularly sung while playing this once considered exciting Christmas game. The Christmas song ‘Snap Dragon’ sung the praises of being bold, not greedy and you won’t get stung!

Christmas games are a wonderful way for family to get together and enjoy some quality time while creating warm and cherished memories for a life-time!

Visit http://www.HoHoHoChristmas.com & sign up for our FREE Newsletter full of tips, tools & resources for reviving the fun, joy, magic and real meanings of Christmas PLUS receive our bonus f*r*e*e 10 day e-course with audio on how to enrich your Christmas experience from The HoHoHo Expert, Bernadette Dimitrov, author of the world’s best Christmas ebooks and audio books: “The HoHoHo Factor” discover fun whacky & joyous celebrations around the world, symbols, their meanings, Santa’s secret blessings & creeds & much more and author of “Bluey, Santa’s New Recruit!” Find out how Santa delivers to high-rise apartments & how to start the process that makes wishes come true. Fun for children of all ages! The first in a fun series of magical journeys with Bluey who teaches children how to draw on inner strengths with success principals for life such as ‘visualization’. The HoHoHo Expert creates family board games, ebooks and audios that create cherished, fun and magical memories for families!

I remember the most fun at Halloween time was picking up pumpkins for both my boys and me to carve. What faces could we make? What creepy patterns would be prefect to highlight? My “boys” are grown now, both in their twenties, so those special family pumpkin carving days are over, although I still love to carve unique pumpkins every Halloween myself.

Today it is very easy to find unique and wonderfully creative patterns designed specifically for pumpkin carving. It just takes a simple search to turn up dozens of web sites with downloadable patterns in truly unique designs. However, before you begin carving your creations this Halloween, you should keep some of the following tips in mind to be sure your efforts come out perfect and that your pumpkin doesn’t rot and shrivel before the big night.

Clean out your pumpkin well – After you have removed the seeds scrape out the inside of your pumpkin until you only have about 1/4″ of rind left along the edges. This will actually help make your carving easier and more precise… especially if you plan on cutting out an intricate design with many thin areas. Another reason to keep your jack o’ lantern walls thin is because it will help your pumpkin to last longer.

Keep your pumpkins cool – Store your pumpkins (before and after carving) in a cool area, such as in a cellar. Hot or warm temperatures will quickly begin to rot your pumpkin. Don’t leave it out in the sun during the day either, even it if is cool outside.

Moisturize all cut edges – Using petroleum jelly, rub all area that have been cut including along the top hole. This will help keep the pumpkin from drying out and shriveling up. However, don’t coat the inside of the pumpkin, especially if you plan on using a lit candle for lighting.

Cut a V-notch or small air hole in the pumpkin lid – This will allow heat and smoke to vent out of the pumpkin if you light the jack o’ lantern with a candle. Pumpkins that aren’t vented begin to “cook” from the heat of the candle causing it to deteriorate faster.

These simple tips should help ease the cutting process and keep your jack-o-lantern looking spiffy for several days during the Halloween holiday season. So have fun, search out some patterns or dream up your own creative designs this year!

(c) 2006. Rose Smith own HalloweenHowl.com a website filled with party ideas, costumes, decorating suggestions, games, graphics, Halloween crafts and more. It’s Halloween fun for all ages! Come visit us at: http://www.halloweenhowl.com/halloween-crafts.shtml

Trick-or-treaters will enjoy your outdoor Halloween decor when you use simple silhouette’s to lure them in. Any window, garage or flat surface on your house can be fair game to use as your canvas. Use double sided tape, temporary spray adhesive, or reusable adhesive putty (found at office supply stores) to secure your creations, yet allow for easy removal after the holiday is over.

Here’s one neat idea for those of you that have a garage that faces the street – decorate the front of it with cutout black craft foam in the shape of a fence. Add a black cat sitting on the fence along with some bats flying around. You could add some low, ambience lighting to highlight your decorations.

For those who wish to decorate their windows, use black poster board to cut out the shape of a bare tree with a wise owl peering out from one of its branches. In fact if you have a large window, why not create a whole Halloween graveyard scene?

There are many shapes that can be cut into silhouettes to use as outdoor Halloween decorations. Some additional suggestions are:

• a witch flying in front of a moon
• a jack-o-lantern face
• tombstones
• a skeleton
• a spider web and spider
• ghostly trees
• some ravens
• black cauldron
• witch broom and hat
• Frankenstein and his monster friends
• ghosts and ghouls
• the grim reaper

Using cut out silhouettes for Halloween decorations is a simple and cost effective way to spook up your home without it being overly scary for youngsters. So why not try your hand at something different this year? You may be surprised at all the compliments you receive on your creative Halloween decor.

(c) 2006. Rose Smith own HalloweenHowl.com a website filled with party ideas, costumes, unique Halloween decorating suggestions, games, graphics, crafts and more. It’s Halloween fun for all ages! Come visit us at: http://www.halloweenhowl.com/halloween-decorations.shtml