CUT and DRY

What Are You Looking Forward to, This Weekend?

This weekend I'm so excited for the simple little pleasures that I'm hoping to take full advantage of.

Here's what I'm...

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.

Josh Billings.

...to add a little bit of cuteness to your day!

It is a beautiful spring day; not quite as sunny as yesterday, but definitely pleasant. I sit by the window and look outside for a long time as I sip my morning coffee slowly, wrapped snugly in flannel against the chill.

What are you up to this weekend? The weather's pretty good here so I'll be spending some time outside. On Sunday I'm cooking up a nice meal for a couple of friends. Who wants to cook on the weekends? Me! Yeah, really. Smile. It's Friday!

Hope you have a safe and lovely weekend, my dears! xx

Linking to Happy Friday Camere Critters Tuesday Muse

G+ Comments + Left Holding the Baby

So I'm back from my wonderful blogging break. I always love coming back, catching up on reading your lovely blogs-always something interesting to learn.
To be honest with you, that two weeks holiday was so resting for me and has really given me a new lease of life.

Well, I've never thought that a comment from a fellow blogger, Lisa ,Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs on my page in a non-blogging environment like Google Plus would make me feel so glad. It is not often that bloggers stop by to comment on Google+ pages and vice versa. But I have to say folks, definitely, it's always beautiful in Blogland!-heartwarming people, interesting photos, kind words and loads of inspiration; I could go on...
I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you so much for reading CUT and DRY. Also, I want to reiterate how much I love my readers, and how much I love blogging and 'living' in Blogland!

Life is full of phenomena. Left holding the baby. Ever wondered why?

A few years ago, scientists revealed an instinct in women intact and unaffected by the age of technology. Glancing through glossy art books Lee Salk (Scientific American, May 1973) noticed that four times out of five Mary is depicted holding the infant Jesus against her left breast. The Madonna sparked off a series of experiments and observations to determine on which side women hold their babies and why.

First he determined that modern mothers still tend to hold their baby on the left. On 255 right-handed mothers, 83% held the baby on the left. As a control, women were watched emerging from supermarkets carrying baby-sized packages; the bundles were held with no side preference.

Then, dental patients were given a large rubber ball to hold during treatment. The majority clutched the ball to their left side, even when it interfered with the dentist's activities. This suggested that in times of stress objects are held against the left side.
At that point an apparently contradictory phenomenon was observed. A large number of mothers who brought their premature babies to a follow-up clinic were seen to hold their babies against their right side.

So, 115 mothers who had been separated from their babies for 24 hours after birth were observed for holding response. The experimenters presented the baby directly to the mid-line of the mother's body, and noted how she held the baby. 53% held the baby on the left and 47% on the right. And it was also noted that the mothers of the group who had held their baby on the left had already had a baby from which they had not been separated after birth.

The author suggests that "the time immediately after birth is a critical period when the stimulus of holding the baby releases a certain maternal response." That is to say, she senses the baby is better off on her left.
Left-handed holding enables the baby to hear the heartbeat-a sound associated with the security of the womb. In order to discover whether hearing the heart has a beneficial effect on the baby, the sound of a human heartbeat was played to 102 babies in a New York nursery for 4 days. A control group of babies was not exposed to heartbeats.
The babies in the beat group gained markedly more weight and cried far less than the babies in the control group.

(From an article in Spare Rib)

So interesting! Isn't it?

Wishing you all a wonderful, relaxing weekend! xx

10 Smart things . Inspiring and so true!

(Bottom Photo via Pinterest)

Have a Happy Weekend!

Everyone deserves a little "me" time every now and then. You know how hard it is to keep up with everything. There comes a point in our lives when we need to take some time off our busy schedules and do nothing. Just be and enjoy everything around us. It's been a bit of a hectic week...to say the least. So I'm going to take a little break next week from blogging-even an Internet pause. Because I truly need and want time to dedicate to myself and my family.
But I just wanted to pop in and try and quickly post something...for Easter's sake!

Last-minute Easter decorating ideas...
A Blog award and a hilariously hilarious video...

Welcome Spring, officially! (Spring arrived in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20, 2013.) Despite the chilly, rainy weather, some plants are starting to flower. Spring is finally here and I have much in the way of spring colour in my garden.

Flowers always make me feel happy. I believe in the goodness and power of flowers. According to a recent research conducted at Rutgers University-the State University of New Jersey-flowers can have a long-term positive effect upon people's moods.

In a perfect world, I would fill every square inch of my home...

Life without blogging is kind of like a life without air, right? :)

So I get asked this quite a lot. How did your blog name come about? Here's how...

While the choice of blog name is definitely quite important, naming my blog was not one of the hardest things I had to do. It was a ten minute decision and luckily I'm still happy with it.

My blog name came to me while watching a video about healthy lifestyle, in which a doctor says to his patient. "...take care when guessing, since health problems do not always have cut-and-dried answers."

And that saying struck me. I liked that Cut-and-dried (cut-and-dry less common) which means straightforward, clear or certain because of its meaning.
It's clever, honest, easy to memorize and precisely reflects the voice of my blog.

After 3 years of blogging, I'm still quite happy with my blog name; oh well...it seems to be working with me.

What about you?

Hope you have a lovely weekend! xx

P.S. Photo SOOC

Life Lately

Browsing through old photos. I totally love looking at old photos...brings back so many great memories. Reliving delightful memories will always bring a smile to my face. And I am a sucker for that nostalgic feeling, but sometimes it's too much and I need to stop!
Life has been going pretty good lately. Well, my life may not be perfect, but I am thankful for everything I have; I am blessed. I don't have everything that I want, but I do have all I need. I live a very positive lifestyle and encourage others to do so! After all, I've found it easier to look at things positively. Over the years, I have come to realize that "It pays to be positive".

My favourite quote right now.

I'm not gonna miss you, sweet little macaron...at least for the next couple of weeks. I'm on a diet to lose weight, but I'm much more conscious about what I'm putting into my body these days.