Capehart Blog » Tips

Chair Covers

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:03:17 +0000

Are you planning a wedding in the near future? Everyone wants the reception to be an absolutely magical and beautiful experience for the bride and groom as well as the guests. Wedding chair covers are a small detail that helps you achieve that beautiful look you are trying to achieve at your wedding reception.

Regardless of what type of material the cover is made from or what specific style it is, you can count on the chair covering to enhance the look of your party, giving the room a unified and finished feel.

Not only are chair covers beautiful, they can also be quite practical. A lot of people rent most of their wedding supplies. If that is your plan, then chair coverings will be a good investment for you. A lot of chair rental companies use the same chairs from one wedding to the next. After so many parties, the chairs will begin to be a little worn and not look their best any longer.

Not only that, if the rental company got the chairs from several different companies, they could be slightly different from one another. Chair coverings will help cover up any worn or bad spots on the chair. They are so versatile, coming in lots of different styles and fabrics.

Since it is so neutral, a lot of brides will opt for white. Having a white chair cover will also help make the bow or sash color really pop. You can also choose to use the same color for both the sash and the chair cover, giving a clean and monochromatic look. Have fun and get creative!

The Fascination of Japanese Lacquer Inro and Boxes

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:57:14 +0000

Antique Japanese lacquer inro and boxes are such incredibly beautiful works of art, particularly, pieces from the late 18th and early 19th century. I consider many of them to rate very highly, amongst the finest treasures of the World!

Without I hope being too technical, my intention is to use and to explain the terms and names, that are most commonly in use. This way readers who might be tempted to look at sale catalogues, will be more able to appreciate and understand the descriptions.

Inro Fashion
With the introduction of the kimono, the inro became one of the most important and essential fashion accessories used to carry on ones person such items as ink seals and medicines.

The kimono had no pockets so the inro was a clever container, consisting of a number of interlocking small separate sections, all held together on a silk cord and worn hanging from the sash tied at the waist. Soon it evolved from a purely functional item to one of very high fashion, and the designs and decoration gradually became richer, finer and even more lavish.

Netsuke, Ojime and Inro
A bead known as an ‘Ojime’ kept the various sections closed tight together. A toggle normally a small wood or ivory carving known as a ‘Netsuke’ would also be threaded on to the silk cord. The netsuke (these are such superb little sculptures) would be pushed up under the sash (known as the ‘Obi’) that was tied round the waist, and would thus hold the inro hanging below.

The silk cord would have had to be about 56 inches long, and was threaded in such a way, that about 3 to 4 inches of the cord would show below the ‘Obi’ to the ‘Ojime’ and ‘Inro’. Are you still with me? Under the inro a many-looped special bow was formed, with normally six loops all of the same size. There would only be one knot and this would be hidden in the larger of the two cord holes, within the Japanese netsuke. No loose ends would be visible.

Sometimes a ‘Manju’ would be used instead of the netsuke. These are rather like a thick pocket watch shaped carving, comprising two sections that open up. The lower piece has a central hole, and an eyelet for the cord is fixed inside the upper section. Once attached to the cord, the knot would remain hidden inside but unlike the netsuke, the carving or decoration of a manju is only two-dimensional.

The earliest ‘Ojime’ were simply a drilled bead, often of coral, as they had faith in a superstition that coral would disintegrate if near to poison. Quite valuable to them, if only it had been true, as they carried and took some very strange medicines. Later semiprecious stones and ivory were used, some of them are beautifully carved, and there are also many very fine metal ojime. Today collectors even specialise in just ojime and they have become quite valuable. I do think it is rather a shame that so many of these items are now collected separately, when they really all belong together.

For many years there have been Japanese netsuke collectors, and I can appreciate why, as they are complete artworks, as well as being wonderful handling pieces. Anyway, so many netsuke collectors given time find they are tempted by inro too! I always considered myself to be rather a specialist collector, but I would not be happy to own inro, without an ojime or netsuke, as they would seem so incomplete! I could not imagine being satisfied with only collecting the ojime, beautiful as some of them are. Obviously these high prices have been the main reason for such specialisation!

Keeping Lacquer
Great care needs to be taken when handling lacquer, as it can so easily be damaged by knocks. The most common cause occurs when the inro is picked up, for if the netsuke is allowed to swing and bump into the inro, the lacquer will dent and chip.

One should always try to hold the silk cord when inspecting inro, rather than finger the lacquer, as there is something in our perspiration that dulls the shine in time.

All lacquer is best kept in a reasonably humid atmosphere avoiding sudden changes of temperature. This is not so difficult to arrange in this country, it is simply a matter of keeping a bowl of water in the same cabinet and avoiding the use of any hot spot lights.

Lacquer Boxes
Most of the early ‘Boxes’ or ‘Kogo’ were made to keep things in, such as Suzuribako, these were fully fitted writing boxes that contained the ink block, water dropper, all the brushes and tools. Some were fitted with all the requirements for pastimes such as the Incense Game or the Shell Game, whilst others were designed as Picnic Sets.

A lot of Japanese lacquer boxes were used as a means of packaging, for deliveries of documents, or sweet cakes and gifts.

The practice used to be that once filled with gifts, they were then simply wrapped in a material that was formed into a sack. This was then carried, over the shoulder, by the messenger and delivered. The recipient would later have all the boxes returned, normally with a note and something little in them, as a gift to say thank you, and so these boxes would be used over and over again.

They all are beautifully decorated and it is surprising to us that these boxes were not, in those days, considered more valuable.

The Designs
Nearly all the designs were taken from early classical literature, paintings or woodblocks. Printed picture books had become very popular in the 17th century. They hardly ever had any text, but many of the illustrations were copied and used by lacquer artists, in the same way as other craftsmen had done, such as enamellers, potters and metal workers. This is why we find various popular scenes recurring in inro, such as the young herdsman playing the flute next to his resting ox, and Rosei’s dream is another subject frequently found.

The photograph (To see the photographs please click on the link at the end of this article) of an inro depicting Rosei’s dream is a very fine example: it shows him partially hidden by his fan that is inlaid with a very thin piece of iridescent shell. At certain angles of light his face can clearly be seen. On the reverse, in superbly fine gold work, is the subject of his dream. He is dreaming of his ride in a stately court procession. This inro is Signed Komo Kyuhaku.

Together with this inro is a lacquer Ojime, and a wood netsuke, carved as a kneeling man with a dagger. This intriguing netsuke is signed Minko. By pulling gently on the sheath, the steel blade comes into view, creating quite an effective illusion.

I must apologise, as the silk cord is not tied in the correct fashion in both of the inro photographed – one day I shall have to put this right!

Compositions in general favoured nature, animals, flowers, birds, insects, Mount Fuji, every day life, myths and legends. The first western visitors also fascinated the Japanese. The Portuguese were the first to arrive in 1542, followed soon by the Dutch, and all the arts were greatly influenced from the mid 16th century onwards. Dutchmen in particular are featured quite frequently in a wide range of Oriental art.

Amazing Skills
Many of the new Japanese techniques and most of the superb designs were originally to be found on the 14th and 15th century boxes. The skills and control in decoration that were developed in the 18th and early 19th century, were based both on these earlier techniques and designs, but this was a period where new peaks were reached and breathtakingly beautiful lacquer works have been created.

Several craftsmen were involved in the making of an inro. First the very thin wood base would have been painstakingly made, with carefully selected wood, where all the knots had to be avoided. Conifers were preferred as this wood contained very little resin.

It would then have been handed to the next craftsman, a specialist at applying the numerous base layers of lacquer. Each layer would be extremely thin, and gradually finer and finer quality lacquer was used, at least 30 layers were applied, so that no trace of the wood inside could any longer be visible. Only at this stage would the lacquer artist responsible to design and create the many layers of decoration begin.

What does seem amazing to me, when one considers how the wood base was made, was the fact that they would have had to make allowances for the thickness of all these layers. Yet the Inro sections fit and slot into each other so perfectly, that one can hardly see any of the dividing lines once closed.

The Decoration
Often two artists would collaborate to decorate an inro, one a lacquer artist, the other could be a metal worker or even a netsuke carver, providing wonderfully worked items, that would be inlaid in the lacquer. Various materials have been used in this way such as precious metals, pottery, ivory, shell, horn and many others. Incidentally, there had to be very close collaboration, for each time an inlay in the design overlapped more than one section, it had to be made in two pieces to allow the inro to open. Such inro often have two signatures as both of the artists would sign.

The superb gold inro photographed is decorated with exquisitely applied metal work, the scene being of an outside stage with two actors. One is an archer, about to fire his bow at the other on the reverse, who is crouching down protecting a monkey.

The face of the archer, although mostly viewed in profile, surprisingly, has his full-face details if viewed from the side.

The remarkable metal work extends over three of the Inro sections. In this particular case, both the Lacquer and the metal work were by the same artist and it is signed Noriyuki. (See the photograph by using the link at the end of this article).

This inro has an attractive metal Ojime, and a good Ivory Netsuke, of two musicians. The Netsuke is signed Harumin.

The Artists
Signatures however, are not always a sure way of knowing who did the work. Often the signature was placed in honour, not as a forgery, of a great artist who originated the design such as the top early artists Ritsuo and Korin. Many very fine lacquer works were not signed at all. Pieces that were commissioned by the Shogun or Daimyo, where only the highest of standards were acceptable, would not normally be signed, no matter how important the artist.

In 1868 the Meiji restoration meant the loss of such patrons, and Japan had opened up to the west. This meant that artists had to try to appeal to new clients, with an unknown Western taste. Thank goodness, they were not prepared however, to give up certain of their traditional designs and techniques.

Family names passed down from one generation to another; the name of a particularly admired artist would be signed by all the following generations. They would also have non related students, who would be encouraged to use the same name, on work of a high enough standard, that is, until they were sufficiently proficient to become independent. One such family name was Koma, where the later very famous 19th century artist, Shibata Zeshin was taught.

There is a wonderful display of Japanese inro by Zeshin at the V & A Museum, of a collection based on the twelve months of the year, which is well worth a visit. Each piece is superb, and a large variety of techniques can be seen all in one place!

The Great Schools
The finest artists were all talented members of schools, often under the supervision of a master, such as Koma and Kajikawa, and these two schools produced high quality Lacquer for over two hundred years. Other schools have become known for their special techniques. One is Somada that specialised in very fine Shell inlay; another is Shibayama who worked with more thickly encrusted materials such as shell, ivory, soapstone, pottery and many other materials. There was also Tsuishu Yosei who brilliantly carved red Lacquer, but the Shiomi Masanari School favoured the most difficult technique of all, known as Togadashi where the surface is kept perfectly flat.

Superb quality Lacquer work was not restricted to Inro, but there are also some magnificent boxes that were used, such as ‘Bunko’ for documents, ‘Fubako’ for letters and ‘Kogo’ incense boxes, originally used for cosmetics. Some of these boxes also have a fitted tray, and sometimes a set of smaller boxes, that all fit perfectly inside. Many of these items including the already described writing, games and picnic boxes as well as pieces of furniture, can all be found just as finely decorated as inro.

The little kogo photographed is signed Kosentie and so beautifully decorated on the cover and sides, with continuous scenes of bamboo growing besides a running stream. The fitted tray has a similar scene and every other part is covered in tiny gold pieces, each placed by hand individually. So much richer a finish is achieved, than the more usual ‘Nashiji’, where fine gold is carefully sprinkled on! (See the photograph by using the link at the end of this article).

If you have a good eye for composition the appreciation of lacquer work is hard to resist. On inro they have very ingenious methods of design to make one wish to see the other side, such as the use of a rope that mysteriously disappears round the side, or a scroll that flows round the inro.

When we began collecting, we were simply only buying pieces that we instinctively liked, and we have had no regrets. There is so much to learn however, once one becomes interested, especially these days when modern inro are being produced to a very high standard. Having seen the work of Unryuan, a very good artist born in 1952, his inro command nearly as much as the antique works. So many inro these days have been very cleverly repaired and now that so much money is involved a lot of care when buying is needed.

I do hope that there will always be private collections and that lacquer will not be confined to Museums, as it is such a fascinating hobby!

BMW M5 E39 Versus BMW M5 E60

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:23:41 +0000

What looks like a four door sedan, but drives like a sports car? Well… the first car that comes to mind is the BMW M5. The M5 has always been a favorite of mine because it’s an excellent mix of luxury and solid performance. This vehicle can transport you and three of your friends comfortably from point A to point B. However, the beauty of the M5 is that you can always choose to throw comfort out the window and give your friends a scare of a lifetime!

In a nutshell, the M5 is one of the most practical race cars ever made, if not the most. It has four doors, all the creature comforts of a BMW, seating for five, a huge engine and handles like a dream. In our video review, we drive two of the more recent generations, the 2003 E39 M5 and the 2010 E60 M5. Both are very fast cars, but the way they carry themselves is very different.

About the M5

The 2003 E39 M5 is the last year BMW built that generation of the M5 and is the best year for that model. Earlier E39 models had problems with the Vanos timing systems (which were expensive to repair), issues with carbon buildup and a couple of other minor things. However, in 2003 all the wrinkles have been ironed out and the car was near perfection.

The E39 M5 has a 4.9 liter V8 that produces approximately 400 hp at 6,600 rpm and 369 lb-ft of torque at 3,800 rpm and redlines at 7,000 rpm. Despite a curb weight of 4,000 lbs, the E39 M5 can hit 0-60 mph in 5.0 seconds according to official performance specs, but some have claimed they could consistently hit 0-60 mph times of 4.5 seconds. Additionally, the car is very well balanced and handles like a dream and gives the driver good feedback. I used to take mine out to the mountains and I was not afraid to push it on the curvy mountain roads following a group of M3s, which is not an easy feat.

The 2010 E60 M5 is also the last year BMW built that generation of the M5 and is likely the best year. Earlier E60 models had issues with the iDrive system and the 7-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) III, but after a series of upgrades, these issues seem to have gone away.

The E60 M5 has a 5.0 liter V10 that produces approximately 500 hp at 7,750 rpm and 383 lb-ft of torque at 6,100 rpm and redlines at 8,250 rpm. Although the E60 M5 also has a curb weight of approximately 4,000 lbs, the massive power upgrade propels it from 0-60 mph in only 4.8 seconds. What’s interesting about the two is that, up until 60 mph, both M5s are nearly neck and neck. However, the E60 M5 starts to pull away quickly after the 60 mph mark, and it keeps going and going. What’s more interesting is that the E39 M5 feels faster as the car’s peak torque is achieved at a much lower rpm (3,800 rpm versus 6,100 rpm for the E60 M5) and hits the driver instantly, whereas with the E60 the driver has to be a little more patient.

Uniqueness of the M5

Both of these M5s are very rare, to be specific, only 20,482 E39 M5s were built from 1999-2003 compared to total BMW worldwide production during the same period of 3,544,234. That means that the M5 represented only ~0.6% of total production during the same time frame. However, despite all of the unnecessary criticism from hardcore enthusiasts, the E60 M5 was the most successful M5 yet with 20,548 units sold from 2006-2010. However, total BMW worldwide production during the same four-year period increased to 5,957,170 lowering M5 production as a percentage of total production to ~0.3%. So technically, the E60 M5 is rarer than the E39.

Interior & Technology

When I look at cars I want to buy, I put a much greater weight on performance and a very small weight on the interior, but nonetheless an attractive and comfortable interior does matter. That said, I like both interiors but my preference goes to the newer E60 styling and technology.

The E39 interior is comfortable enough, but less ergonomic relative to the E60 and, as you would imagine, has much less going on in the technology department. The seats are comfortable but the leather is not as soft as the E60′s. However, the overall appearance of the E39 interior is attractive and I personally like the more contemporary look of the brushed aluminum trim rather than a wood trim. It just makes you feel younger.

The E60 interior is more ergonomic as everything is positioned to conform better to your body. For example, the door hand rest has a downward sloping angle towards the front of the car and is more comfortable relative to the flat hand rest in the E39. BMW took this concept and applied it the other interior features making the driving experience all that much better in terms of comfort when compared to the prior generation (E39).

Both cars have navigation, heated seats, dual zone climate control, interior active charcoal air filters, a premium sound system, rain sensors, driver seat/wheel/mirror position memorization and a lot of the other standard creature comforts that you normally get in a BMW. However, the E60 has a far more advanced user interface which is called the iDrive system. It includes a much better navigation system and multimedia management system which can store mp3s, play CDs and easily play music on a connected mp3 player. I am also a big fan of the Bluetooth connectivity, which did not come in the E39 model.

Another impressive E60 feature is the customization ability of the performance settings. For example, you can program the car’s horsepower to increase to 500 hp from the default 400 hp and have the suspension go to the stiffest setting from comfort when you press the “M” button on the steering wheel. The beauty is that you can adjust these settings to fit your driving style. Additionally, I am a big fan of the heads up display for speed and rpm that pops up when the “M” button is engaged.

Performance

After I had the chance to drive both cars, I noticed that the E39 was more of a “brute force” type of car whereas the E60 felt more like a “gentleman’s car.” The clutch pedal in the E39 was a lot tougher to press, the steering felt more “responsive” and the throttle response was instant as the torque hits you a lot quicker due to the E39′s low rpm max torque peak (at 3,800 rpm) compared to the E60 (6,100 rpm). In fact, at first I was actually misled by thinking the E39 was just as fast as the E60. However, despite the fact that everything (clutch, seats, steering, etc.) in the E60 feels more comfortable, when put head-to-head with the E39, the “gentleman” actually spanks “brute force” after 60 mph and I believe that a good driver can also spank the E39 from 0-60 mph.

In terms of top speed, both of the cars have an electronic limiter at 155 mph, but when removed the E39 can achieve 186 mph while the V10 E60 can hit a max of a whopping 204 mph. I think top speeds are very impressive given that we are talking about four-door family sedans here, not a Ferrari. What’s also impressive is how fast these cars keep accelerating past 100 mph, it just keeps going and going and going. It makes you wanna keep going to see how high it can go.

Evil Eye Pendant – The Protector

admin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:04:30 +0000

Every person irrespective of culture or time has felt a deep uneasiness in presence of people who adorn their outer shell with smiles and false praises and good wishes but hold greedy and evil intentions beneath. We have always felt that such eyes with no-so-well intentions. Though our knowledge about the physical interaction of such evil forces is not very well formed, yet most of us do believe that the strong intentions of such people do affect us. The Mediterranean and the Middle-Eastern people did not sit at home trying to validate the effect of such forces. They believed and they devised methods of protection against them. The Turkish people made the Evil Eye pendant. They call it ‘Nazar Boncugu’ which literally means the ‘Evil Eye bead’ or the bead or the stone that protects against cruel intentions.

The Bead or the stone is made by amalgamating molten glass, iron, copper, water and salt. The Turks believe that this particular combination of metals and other substances is what makes the Evil Eye Pendant the protector against the Evil look.

The stone is blue in colour. The Mediterranean people as well as people of many other cultures believe that the blue colour has an important role in the protection. The concept is the people with evil look or bad intentions underneath radiate some kind of negative evil energy. The blue colour absorbs such negative energy meant to harm the one to whom it is directed. This is the reason Mediterranean people paint the doors of their houses blue with the intent of warding off evil spirits.

The pendant has the design of an ‘eye’ made on it. This concept is not a local one, because many other cultures and religions including, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians consider the symbol of the ‘eye’ as a potent amulet of protection.

The bead is generally set into a frame made of gold, silver, or any other metal the wearer chooses. The Greeks wear not the pendant but the bracelet. But the belief is the same.

The universal protector
Evil eye pendants are not only worn with necklaces. They are used as a universal protection against evil intentions. Whether it be a newborn baby, or a house or and office or a newly purchased machinery people hang the Evil eye pendant on whatever might attract evil look.

But these days boys and girls with a more modern and cosmopolitan outlook wear Evil eye pendants more for their style quotients that their original mystic purpose.

BMW 3 Series Overheating

admin — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 08:22:25 +0000

BMW overheating problem. The BMW 3 series E36 model is known for an intermittent overheating problem. It seems to affect the 316 4 cylinder models around the years of 1996 to 1999. This three series model had problems with original water pumps and head gaskets that were not made of the same material as some of the other gaskets made by BMW.

If you find that your BMW starts to overheat and the water pump starts to sound a bit noisy then what might have happened is the plastic impeller that the original water pumps were made of may have snapped. This means although the pump is spinning it may not actually be pumping any water through the system. If your pump sounds noisy and your temperature gauge seems to be going into the red then get this pump changed as your first precaution. The modified pumps should have metal impellers to solve the problem. If the engine still seems to be overheating and the heater seems to be blowing cold air out check the thermostat is opening properly and the system is clear of any blockages.

It has been known that the BMW 3 series system seems to require constant topping up of water with no visible signs of the water leaking from anywhere. Some garages have pointed the finger straight at the head gasket or say the head maybe cracked and passing water through. It has been known that people have found that after going to the expense of changing the head gasket or head they have still had the same problem. One cure can be that the thermostat housing itself can be faulty. These housings can slightly warp maybe due to heat, which makes a slight area for the air too be drawn into the engine. This will in turn cause an airlock into the system and the water does not flow round as easily. It also appears that even after pressure testing and leak testing of the engine this fault is not easily detectable.

So my advice would be to check this item as your next port of call as it is a less costly option than going to change the head or gasket and then finding out that the thermostat housing was the cause all along. At the same time replace any rubber hoses that appear to be perished or do not fit snugly to make sure these can be ruled out for any faults.

Silk Cord – How Long Does It Last?

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:55:43 +0000

Jewelries are much more popular than what it used to be. Jewelry is basically made of different materials. Jewelry looks good when the entire element comes in sync. The cord is one of the important parts that support the basic structure of the jewelry. Cords are usually made of different materials. The most commonly used materials to make a cord are leather, metal and silk. As we all know silk is the most elegant material among the three.

Silk is actually very strong and soft material. Improper maintaining of the jewelry can damage the silk cord which in turn damages the entire jewelry. There are many reasons behind choosing silk for the manufacturing of cord. The common reason is durability and resilience. Although it’s very durable, proper cleaning is needed to make it long lasting. Silk is very absorbent in nature. They will absorb all most anything I the air including dirt and your sweat. This may result in degradation.

The simplest way to clean is wash it using soap and water. Nevertheless, this can be dangerous at times as some soap might contain chemicals in heavy amount and will eventually cause in the degradation of the cord. The second method is to use silk cleaner available in the market. Do remember to go through the ingredients in the cleaner prior to cleaning. If any strong chemical is found, avoid that silk cleaner, as it will also damage the fabric.

You should also avoid chlorine as it can also damage the cord. Washing of the cord can be done in finished in few minutes. Take some clean water, do avoid chlorine water. Do remember to take minimum amount of water as the silk cord can get damaged by heavy exposal to water. Check the temperature of the water. Make sure it isn’t too hot for the cord. Hot water can produce adverse results for you. Soak the silk cord in the water. Don’t leave the cord too long in the water to soak. Avoid the use of chlorine, heavy chemicals, and other bleaching element. Once you soaked the silk cord, dry it properly. Drying is the most important step in the cleaning of the cord. Drying should be done using soft fabrics, as soon as the washing process is completed. Don’t expose the cord directly in to sunlight as this will reduce the life span of the cord. This is one of the mistakes done by most of the people.

Do clean your cord once in a while to improve its life span. While doing the process remembers the things you shouldn’t do else the cleaning will have adverse effect.

Silk is one of the most durable and resilient material found if properly cared. You have to give good care to the material to make it long lasting. You are the one who will decide the time span of your cord. Proper care will increase the life span of your cord. So do wash your cord once in a while.

How to Get Silk Cord at 70% Off:

MapleStory Mesos Guide – Guide on How to Make Mesos Faster in MapleStory – John’s Pink Flower Basket

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:31:17 +0000

There are many great mesos-making quests inside MapleStory that can make you more mesos than some of the other quests.

Here is one of them:

Quest name: John’s Pink Flowering Basket
Location: Victoria Island: Lith Harbour
Level Required: 15

You can find John in Lith Harbour. He is a fisherman there and he needs flowers for his wife.

You need to go to Sleepywood to get these 10 Pink flowers.

If you do not know where Sleepywood is yet, you need to go to the Dungeon.

I prefer to take the Herseys route since I do not have the scroll yet.

To get to Sleepywood, take the Herseys path to the Dungeon. You will go through 2 zones until you finally get to the Dungeon.

When you get in the zone, keep dropping down until you will finally see a statue with a zone in it. Zone in and you will be in Sleepywood.

From there, walk right until you see a statue on the ground. Click on the statue. The statue will take you into a jumping quest zone.

Get through both of these zones and collect the flowers. Once you get the flowers, you will be transported out of the zone.

There is a chance that you will not get enough flowers if someone has just done the quest. If you do get all 10 flowers, return to Lith Harbour and get some EXP and 30 screws! Also, do not forget to get a Sleepywood scroll if you have $600 mesos.

There are 2 ways you can make money from this quest:

1. Finishing this quest allows you to do that jumping quest for ores. Remember Ores = Mesos. If you are good at it, you can get your time down to about 2 minutes per completion. That is one ore per minute. This is pretty good. If you collect enough of these ores with this method, you can make ore plates which sells for $20,000 to $60,000 each. IT can be more or less, depending on the ore, market and server you are on. So, it’s not a bad quest to practice especially at low levels of the game.

2. At the end of the quest, you get 30 screws. You can sell them for $1,000 each, making you $30,000! There are screws going for $5,000 each and it can actually make you $80,000!. So, this quest can potentially make you $80,000 at level 15.

I did an experiment to see how much mesos I could farm in 2 hours. I was able to do about 50 hours in 2 hours, got myself 100 pieces of ores, with the potential to make a maximum of 10 refined ores. Selling them separately at the free market ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 each, I made a grand total of $532,000! This is not bad for 2 hours of work at level 15. This will help to free up mesos problems for a while.

If you need more details on making more mesos fast in MapleStory, you can check out all our MapleStory guides with all the best mesos-making strategies!

Why You Cannot Miss SEO in Online Business?

admin — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 01:15:16 +0000

Today, a large number of people are opting for online business to maximize their profit, as millions of internet users visit websites with an intention to buy products online. The graph of online sales chart also shows a rising trends in recent years. But, does creating a website and uploading it on web is enough to get required response from customers? Well, we can find number of websites on the web, dealing with almost same products and services as your company offers. In such online competition getting quick response from customers can be difficult for any brand, be it big or small.

It has been observed that most of the time internet users start their quest for products or services using search engines. They type phrases or few relevant words called ‘keywords’ in the search engine box. If they do not find their product in the first attempt they change keywords and start searching again. Moreover, users rarely reach the second page of search result. In fact, they do not even roll their eye balls below first five results. So, if you are not in the first page, you can hardly expect traffic at your website. Certainly, competition is tough and at any cost you would not like to miss the chance of grabbing massive visitors. At this stage SEO is the sole solution to succeed.

SEO or search engine optimization takes up your website to the top search engine result list. When your website is optimized, SEO executives make sure that your brand captures the top position in the list and remains there as long as possible. Hence, you will be able to see your website on the top of the list every time you type relevant keyword in the search box.

Google is the most sought after search engine among the internet users and it also delivers search results to other big named search engines, like Yahoo, Bing, MSN etc. This surely is a benefit for SEO executives, as in case they are able to take up your brand at the top of the Google search results you are likely to get same response from other search engines as well.

There are various other strategies followed for the benefit of your websites, but the primary intension for any executive SEO is to make your products and services popular among the users. Today, SEO is the need of every business, especially smaller ones which are seeking global identity. SEO is the best possible strategic approach one can take to maximum business and popularize it among those who have not even heard of you before.

Selling Fame in Maplestory

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:49:36 +0000

Many people think highly of fame. This type of thing seems to be consistent on most games with similar ranking systems to Maple Story. There are a lot of people who will pay for that fame. While this may not seem to be a significant way to make mesos to some, it can help people who are just starting out in the game. There are a lot of people who will pay you for being famed. Depending on the person and/or situation, people will offer anywhere from three thousand to 50 thousand mesos, or more for fame. The method requires that you, or the person who wants to be famed, initiate a trade and exchange the mesos and then you fame them; though there are many who wish to be famed first before giving their mesos away. The caution here is that there’s always a chance a person on either side won’t get what they want be it fame or payment. For the most part both sides will, as a rule, keep their side of the bargain.

It is important to note that you can only raise or lower a single person’s fame once a day and the same person’s fame only once a month. For some people, paying 3 to 50 thousand mesos might be all they need to continue playing. Also it might be that they could use the mesos to buy that next piece of equipment they want to use.

There’s a way around this idea of buying one day of fame, and that is to make an extra character or two (or many more if you wish to go through the trouble of making new accounts) solely for the purpose of selling fame. Once you learn the basics of the game, it doesn’t take long (as little as 45 min to an hour with some decent starting equipment) to move a warrior, mage or thief class character to level 15. This just happens to be the minimum level needed to raise/lower someone’s fame.

A common place for people looking to buy or sell fame are the “hangout” places in channel one of each town. The left hand side of Henseys seems to be fairly popular place for this activity. Which is probably because of the training grounds near there. You can use the techniques discussed in the spamming section to try to sell your fame, or, you can just wait around to see if anyone shows up who wishes to buy it.

For those who do not play on GMS’ Windia, Seaserpen has arguably, the lowest fame in the world and probably the second lowest in GMS entirely. Most of the time I get free defames by asking for it in my shop, but I do “host” the occasional event to purchase fame to reach certain landmarks (every thousand defame) often paying millions of mesos per event. I also have enough mules to make a couple million a day from selling fame at 50k each. Selling fame or defame is the same basic concept. Some people actually prefer defame.

For more meso making ideas, check the site below.

The Choice in Maplestory – Leveling Or Making Mesos?

admin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:01:48 +0000

Many people in Maplestory believe that you have a choice when playing the game. Either you, level your character, boss, or make mesos. Lots of people do not think you can do a combination of them and be successful.

Depending on your job choice and levels, you might not be able to both make mesos and level in the fastest way possible; however it is more than possible to do both. In many cases, depending on what is available in the local version of Maplestory you are playing, you can effectively do both and do really good at it. You just need to put a little work into planning things through.

Starting with a 1st job character right up until nearing the max level (200 for most jobs) there are plenty of opportunities to both level and collect things to make mesos. Things like just picking up all the monster drops as you go is a huge start to making mesos, even more so if you play on a version with the maker skill.

If you decide to try to focus on making mesos for a while, it will likely help to speed up your training later on. Being able to upgrade equipment when you want/need to and being able to afford potions consistently can both improve your damage, leveling speed and increase the amount of time you can train without worrying too much about making extra mesos.

Depending on your current funding, just working solely on leveling, on the other hand, will often be much slower as you run out of potions and possibly use lower quality equipment than you might otherwise be able to use. All this will lower your damage and possibly force you to head to town more often to stock up on potions.

So how do you manage to do both at the same time and not slow down your leveling much? Well here are a few things to think about and look for

1) Choose monsters near your level you can quickly defeat that have decent drops.

2) Research good training patterns for what ever maps you decide to go to to train. Sometimes this involves a little trial and error to find out first hand.

3) If you have a hard time doing the above yourself, there are numerous popular fan sites that have lists of monsters that are good to train on for various levels. It could be a good start to your research.

4) Don’t forget to pick everything up. It might not sell to other players, but you can at least sell it to npcs, which can cut your potion costs significantly, if not entirely.

5) if you have access to the maker skill, make use of it, most monster crystals made from etc drops sell for a lot, and many equipment drops, which might not sell for much, can be disassembled into monster crystals.

6) If you don’t have a shop permit, it can be a great thing to invest into, your way of making mesos when you are not available to sell things. A hired merchant is a great choice if you don’t have a large amount of time to access a computer.

When deciding where to train, these hints can greatly help your ability to make mesos in the game while still training, possibly even at the fastest you possibly could for any given job and level.

For more meso making ideas, check out the site listed in the author section of this article.