If you have never entertained in your home before, you may be wondering how you can wow your friends with a party they will never forget. When the weather is nice the answer to that question is a classy backyard barbeque. You may have cooked out with your family before and be asking yourself how you can turn a barbeque into a world class dinner party. The right food and a few fabulous touches will turn your soiree into the talk of the town. Barbeques are becoming so much more than a cheap evening in the backyard. You can find high end recipes for the grill on the internet. Many famous chefs are sharing their favorite recipes and tricks.

The first thing to take into consideration is bug control. Even if you are serving the best food in town, your guests will be very unhappy if they are constantly being bitten by mosquitoes. You will need mosquito repellant candles and possible mosquito repellant torches. Make sure you calculate the amount of space that your guests will occupy and buy enough protection. Instructions will be on the packaging of the products you buy. IF you are hosting a big event or you want to step up the atmosphere, consider renting tents. If you can, serve food inside and then allow your guests to go outside and eat. A mud room or sun porch can easily be turned into a make shift serving station. This will ensure that no ants crash your party.

What drinks to serve should be next on your list. It is your decision whether or not to serve any alcohol at your barbeque. If you do try having a limited selection of beer, wine and you can whip up a quick mixed drink or two. Try finding a recipe for a mango margarita or a strawberry daiquiri; both are guaranteed to be popular with your guests. Pinot Gringo and Merlot are two good wines to choose and you should offer two domestics and one imported beer for your guests to choose from. Ice tea and lemonade are good non-alcoholic choices. Guests will really appreciate a cooler stocked with regular and diet sodas.

Food should be kept simple and tasty. On the grill you can have hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled chicken. If you really want to impress, you can try your hand at some surf and turf by offering steak and grilled lobster tail. You can also serve shrimp on skewers or kabobs. Make kabobs by alternating chicken or beef with vegetables on a skewer. You can also add a little Greek flair to your barbeque by using lamb meat on the kabobs. Serve snacks throughout your barbeque in cute plastic bowls. These snacks can include potato chips, pretzels, and vegetable trays. You do not need to buy expensive pre-made trays at the store. Go to your local party store and pick up a couple of inexpensive plastic trays and make your own. You just put a small bowl of dip in the center and then arrange the cut vegetables around the dip; this is easy to do with fruit, meats and cheeses too. Try broccoli, carrots, pea pods, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes and green pepper strips. Cole slaw and baked beans are easy to prepare and are usually crowd pleasers. Most people will also enjoy pasta, potato and macaroni salad. The ingredients you can include in these are diverse and you can really come up with some creative and inspired dishes. Do not worry about the mayonnaise spoiling; it is a little know fact that the mayonnaise actually makes these salads last longer.

It is the little things that will really impress your guests. Make sure that you have enough plastic silverware, paper plates, napkins and drink cups. Nothing ruins a party faster than not being able to find a cup or napkin. If your party has a theme you can find everything you need at the local party store. Place trash cans in convenient places and keep them emptied throughout your event. You may have to bus the tables a little bit but it is better than everything getting messy. Do not save all of the clean up for the end of the night. Simple flower arrangements will add the perfect finishing touch. Place them on serving and guest tables for a touch of color.

Celadon is just one of the beautiful glazes used on Chinese ceramics. The colour is derived from iron and ranges in tone from putty to sea-green. It is also intended to reflect the wide range of greens found in jade. It is usually greenish, high fired and applied to the surface of white porcelain.

We should remember that in 17th century Europe, porcelain was known only by rare examples from China. No one is sure of the real story behind the name ”Celadon”, but two rather romantic stories survive.

The first entails the French, who were captivated with this new and refined ceramic ware. The story tells of the name being derived from a shepherd, the principal character in a popular 17th century, French pastoral romance, L’Astrée by Honoré d’Urfé. In this early operatic style production, the hero “Celadon” was characterized by a pale green cloak and it is supposedly from this cloak that we now identify the  jade green glaze!



It was the French, who, in fact, not only gave us the name for this colour but also a full range of other sublime coloured glazes, still used as standards in the West today to identify the major range of Chinese ceramic colours. Some of these names will be familiar such as “Famille Jaune”, or, the yellow family of glazes in which yellow is the predominant colour, “Famille Noir”, or the black family of coloured glazes, “Famille Rose”, or the pink family of colours and “Famille Verte”, or the green range of glazes.

The second story that persists is another romantic tale, this time set in the Middle East. This jade green porcelain was greatly prized throughout the East and we know from court records that in the year 1171 Salah-ed-din (Saladin) Sultan of Egypt, sent as a gift, 40 pieces of this ware to Nur-ed-din, Sultan of Damascus. It is from the name of the Sultan “Salah-ed-din” that the name “Celadon” is said to have been derived.

This version of the two stories is thought to be the most probable, however, it really is a case of which story you prefer!

Wherever the name originates, the glaze we know as “Celadon” is today still as popular as ever with its elegant, cool, jade green depth of colour



A very decorative pair of mirror image, Chinese Celadon table lamps.

The shaped lamps with a pale Celadon glaze and fitted with naturalistic handles.

The lamps decorated with mirror shaped reserves well painted in polychrome enamels with subjects of Mandarin pheasants perched in peonies and water birds at a lotus pond. The lamps with original gilded copper caps, standing on well carved custom made rosewood bases.

This pair of well proportioned lamps were made around the turn of the 20th century and have been  restored and rewired to original condition.

Overall height (including shades) 19″/48cm                Circa 1900

The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co specialise in antique table lamp lighting with an on-line range of over 100 unique, antique and vintage lamps on view.

Lamps are shipped ready wired for the U.S, the U.K and Australia.

You are invited to visit their web site at www.antiquelampshop.com

© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2009

Everyone wants to lose 15 pounds fast, and of course we all want those pounds to stay off with minimal effort. The diet industry would not be a booming multi-million dollar business if we were not all willing to do about anything to lose 15 pounds fast. The problem is most of the pills and diet plans sitting on store shelves do not offer us what we really want: a healthy body that fights fat for years to come.

It is one thing to lose 15 pounds fast, and another thing entirely to keep those 15 pounds off next year and the year after. What many people do not realize is that it is possible to lose 15 pounds fast simply by becoming more active in our daily lives. You do not have to crash your metabolism with a diet nearly starvation level calories or eliminate all the carbohydrates from your kitchen to have a chance to lose 15 pounds fast!

There are programs out there that will help you lose 15 pounds fast just by learning basic healthy eating strategies that you can live with for the rest of your life. You will be able to tell these programs apart from others that also promise to help you lose 15 pounds fast because they will not require you to eliminate entire food groups, go without food for long periods of time, or exist solely on liquids which of course must be bought through them at extraordinary prices.

A healthy program that can help you lose 15 pounds fast will teach you how to pick the healthiest forms of carbohydrates and tell you the best times of day to eat them so that they help your body burn fat, not prevent the process. It will also instruct you on how to get started in an effective exercise program so that your metabolism boosts and you build more lean muscle mass.

It would be great to pop a pill and lose 15 pounds fast, without having to worry about calories in or calories out, but that is not the way your body works. To lose 15 pounds fast and actually keep it off for a healthy future you must learn to work with your bodies natural processes. Tricking your body into dropping a bunch of water weight or tearing into your muscle for fuel is only going to cause you worse problems in the future.