Halloween Clips, Videos and Sound Effects

I built a Best Halloween Ideas collection on Squidoo last year and, while I had only 7 or 8 Halloween lenses, I earned some nice income during the holiday season.

This year, I built the missing elements to my Halloween Ideas and started with a few crafts to make at home along with the kids as well as completed the tips to host the best Halloween party ever. 

Halloween clips, videos and sound effects will guide you through the setting of the Halloween mood into your house when you prepare your Halloween party. The page covers three categories of chilling sounds, songs and ambiance so that you set up the frightening mood in your living room.

The first one is the easy option to buy some CDs and DVDs so that you just have to play them at the party. The second choice is to make your own Halloween sound effects with a recorder. The last choice is to set up a play list with the best Halloween-ish clips, videos and tunes. 

Is there a best way to dress in the best Halloween costume without an appropriate makeup?

Whether you want to feature a vampire or a witch, or your kids dress in fairy or animal costume, you want their and your own to be the most beautiful costume of your entire neighbourhood!

Hm... How to make a perfect dog face paint? Or a cat face paint? How to make a witch face paint for Halloween or even a vampire one?  If you're like me and need guidelines as well as pictures or videos, then you're going to find the best and easiest Halloween face paint in WordCustard's face paint collection of lenses!

She listed her best Face Painting examples in a lens which will give you detailed instructions on how to make a perfect Halloween face paint.  

If you're looking for ideas to celebrate Halloween while preserving the environment or celebrate Halloween the natural way, you'll surely like to pay How to Green your Halloween a visit!

And whenever you're looking for more Halloween ideas on Squidoo, I suggest to head to the SquidBlast, hosted by Bonnie, our Giant community organizer. 

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Meet Eleanor, Queen of France and England

It seems that I'm more productive than I was those last months - I think it's probably the effect of having been an angel and been overbusy for three whole months and then having nothing else but my work to do each day.

Never mind... I created a brand new lens today.

This one is an account of the life of one of the most interesting women in the history: Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Born in the medieval period, when women didn't have as many rights as those we have nowadays, duchess of Aquitaine at 15, princess of France by marriage the same year and crowned queen of France in the end of the very same year, Eleanor of Aquitaine never agreed to obey her husband.

She was also one of the first women to receive divorce authorization from the Pope.

She got married a second time, because she fell in love with a man and two years later, became queen of England. Because she didn't like life in England, she often travelled to France and created one of the most famous courts ever: the Courts of Love.

I invite you to read the story of this wonderful woman who used to sign "Eleanor, queen of England by the anger of God!"

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Ideas for Sailor Halloween Costumes

Halloween is quickly coming - after all, we're already at the end of July and there are only three months left before starting the Halloween fun!


Therefore, it's time for you to make a decision on the kind of costume you're going to wear this Halloween party.


If you think it's easy to select the right/perfect Halloween costume that will make you stand out from the crowd, you're wrong as there are so many options that you might find yourself completely lost!


This is the reason why I selected a few perfect sailor Halloween costume ideas; all included costumes, from Popeye, the sailor man to Olive Oyl, his thiny girlfriend, to classic sailor costumes, will help you wear the best Halloween costume on your upcoming Halloween party!




Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Most Beautiful Cupcake Tier Designs

Not long ago I discovered that cupcakes weren't made out of plastic or styrofoam or any other artificial or chemical material and was delighted by those cute small cakes showing exquisite decorations.

Indeed, to me, those bakers (or moms who bake and decorate cupcakes with love) are skilled artists as I think it's harder to make a piece of art work with food than with a pencil.

This is the reason why I wanted to feature the most beautiful cupcake tier designs I've found on the Web during my research about what cupcakes are made out of...

I've already got a blessing for this lens and it's also very popular. I'm impressed... who would have known that beautifully decorated tiered cupcakes would have such success... I wouldn't...



Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

What are Cupcakes?

Would you believe that I didn't know what cupcakes were? Hm... this is very annoying as it is the plain naked truth! I was that ignorant!


Until lensmaster RMS (Robin, one of our Giant community organizers) launched her brand new Cupcake Club on Squidoo.


The first cupcake lens I've read is also one I blessed at the time I was a Squidangel: Flynn the Cat's invisible cupcake decorations. Well, this lens taught me that cupcakes were decorative items - but this was something I knew.


Then, not so long ago, there was a discussion in the forum because too few lensmasters create pages for the new clubs. This is where I decided to visit the cupcake club and learnt that cupcakes are something more than plastic or foam decorations. 


What about you? Learn more at my quest about what are cupcakes.  


Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Best Family Vacation Destinations in Europe

Are you searching for beach family vacation destinations in an European country? Here you'll obtain a list of hot family friendly holiday resorts in Spain, Italy, Greece and France. I don't travel a lot. But I like to go to Spain because and Great Britain. I saw Italy when I was younger and actually loved it. France is the country next door to mine, this makes not far to go even for a few hours. And I've always wanted to visit Greek Islands; which look like gems. Sadly, I've never been on holidays in Greece but my parents and some other family relatives chose Greece as their vacation destination few years ago and came back with a lot of memories they shared with me. I know those places for being family friendly vacation destinations and I'm about to share what I know about them with you. Best Family Vacation Destinations in Europe

Click here to get more ideas on how to make of any day a holly day

Summer Foovay Needs Your Help

Summer Foovay is a Squidoo lensmaster and her husband has end stage renal disease. Because he must go on dialysis treatment several days a week, Summer can't work any more and thus, no work means no revenue. 

Knowing that the social security system in the USA is quite different and almost inexistent in comparison to the one in my home country, I'd like to do something to help her and her dear hubby.

And I hope you will want to.

So head to ColorYourOwn.com and make a donation, then ask your close relatives to do so and ask their own relatives to do it too. The more we are, the best we can do. 

There is no need to donate a huge amount as it's out of small brooks that big rivers are made. And if only 5,000 persons would donate each $1, it'll end up with an enormous amount of money that will help Summer take care of her husband.

She stated that her website will be taken down at the end of June so if you read this post after June, I suggest to visit Summer Foovay's lensmaster profile: you will get more alternatives to help her.

Thank you very much in advance.

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Champagne posters, homemade flan, dhani harrison, garden, baseball

Champagne and the Vintage French Art Poster by LKW31
 

Do you like champagne? I do! When I was younger, I used to collect vintage alcohol and champagne posters, I had many of them hanged on the walls in my appartment. Vintage posters are always nice looking and therefore I liked Champagne and the Vintage French Art Poster made after those marvelous vintage poster ads. The title might be redundant as there's no other champagne than the French one - the French Controlled Term of Origin is the only one that has any value and any "sparkling" white wine that isn't produced in Champagne region is not champagne - but the overall layout is splendid, the lensmaster was very creative and has an eye for making a page attractive. I recommend a visit to their Absinth lens too.


Spring Flowers in my Garden by bakerwoman

I love garden and gardening, and even while I don't really love nor am proud of my own garden - that needs a lot of improvements - anything that is garden related is always delightful to me. So I liked this page a lot since it shows a lot of splendid pictures of flowers this lensmaster took in their own garden. In these pictures, I enjoyed looking at the geraniums; which absolutely don't look like those ugly ones I've had at one time, I also fell in love with those colored daisies, more particularly the blue ones. This lens allowed me to discover an Australian tea tree; which I didn't know that would exist and find splendid; the New Zealand one; which is white, is lovely too. And what about the Japanese cherry tree? Oh well, have a look, you won't be disappointed.


Crazy about Baseball by Wednesday_Elf

I don't like sports, any kind of sports, I've already said that. But once again, I found a page made by someone who really has a passion for something and I can appreciate any passion. So, I loved the page made by Wednesday_Elf and that relates to her passion for baseball. Instead of what many lensmasters do, this page is not one that features baseball related stuff for sale, like baseball themed cupcake toppers or Christmas tree decorations ; actually it's a relation of her passion, stories, pictures of her at baseball matches. This page hasn't been built to drive visitors but to share something Pat really enjoys in life. And this deserves a surge of visitors!


Who is Dhani Harrison by arncyn

How well do you know Dhani Harrison? As the Beatles' fan number one, I've heard about this singer but never really read anything related to his life. What a shame! But my lack of knowledge was balanced with this fantastic page built by lensmaster arncyn, a former angel, who's absent from Squidoo for the moment but is a wonderful lensmaster. Indeed, she's a designer expert and all her lenses are always crafted with perfection. Once again, she created something beautiful, entertaining and interesting. At least for any fan of the Beatles. And if you want to learn more about their children, there are two additional lenses that are surely going to get you stuck like glue!


Flan—Easy and Delicious by Ener-G
 

There's nothing like flan that reminds me of my childhood. Each weekday, at noon, we used to get back from school to my grandmother's home where we ate. Then back to school. Most of the time, we got homemade flan as dessert. My grandma was queen of homemade stuff, and she use to make her own flans, ice creams and so on. Flans were tasteful, especially with the caramel coat we added to it. And we would eat any meal - even those that we didn't like at all - for having the chance to get our flan dessert! I'm two left-handed when it comes to cooking and baking so I prefer to let you visit Ener-G's flan page to learn how to make your own homemade flans!

 

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Squidoo Summer Sunshine Award

Squidoo has set up the Summer Sunshine Award. It's some kind of challenge in which your favorite charity can get $99 - and best of all, you too can get a $99 reward if your lens is chosen for an award.

I know that many lensmasters nominated their own lenses, however, I didn't yet. I mostly never vote for my own work but this time I might do so if we're allowed to nominate more than one lens. However, I already nominated one. 

So, I made my lens for the challenge and I run for Polar Bear International, as I usually do since my lenses are set up to give part of my earnings to this organization. Polar Bear International is an organization that supports the research for polar bear protection - you know, with global warming, polar bears have hard times to find a place to live and it's even harder for them to find food as ices are melting and the overexploitation of sea bed reduced the production of fishes.

Like you, I know polar bears do exist, I know that I could see them, whenever I want to - Kathy Mc Graw spoke about it in her comment on the lens -  but what about our grandchildren?  Or their children? Are they going to learn that polar bear existed in the past and just get information in books, like we already do for those species that human of which is responsible for the disappearance? I don't want to think my grand grand kids will see a pic of a polar bear and won't be able to see one for real.

Like you, I've been a child and got my own Teddy Bear - it's the most popular toy ever. I love him, I slept with him, I brought him everywhere and after a few years, he even lost an eye, got his head separated from his body - luckily my grandmother repaired it - and I kept it for many years. I even bought one for my son when he was a child, who in turn brought his Teddy Bear everywhere, and so on.

Therefore I mixed and linked Teddy Bear and Polar Bears and built a page on Squidoo for the Summer Sunshine Award. Plush Teddy Polar Bear is a page which aim is to get some more money to Polar Bear International. By voting for this page, you won't just do me a favour, but you're going to do a favour to Polar Bear International.

And when you'll head to this page, don't think of me, but think to your children and their own children, and the children of their children, and ask yourself what you want as future for them. Polar bears risk to disappear and after them... what will be the following one on the list?

While browsing SquidU, I found a thread where some lensmasters posted their own Summer Sunshine Award lens and here's a short list of those I already visited:

My Scrap-Paper Sketches, donating to First Book. 

Using Human Hair (and animal fur) to Clean Oil Spills, donating to Kiva.

How Animals Help People -- The Healing Power of Pets donating to TLC Animal Shelter. 

http://www.squidoo.com/online-fund-raising, donating to Displaced People Intl.

http://www.squidoo.com/kidnapped-children, donating to The Polly Klaas Foundation.

OhMe made a page where you can ask for adding your own Summer Sunshine Award lenses. Visit the page, add your comment, show your support! Thanks for charities and lensmasters whose dedication never fails! 

Squidoo's Summer Sunshine Award Nominees 

Wishing good luck to everyone and their favourite charity. 

 

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Best Organic Gardening Tips

Did you ever wished to naturally produce vegetables, herbs, flowers and/or fruits? Supposing your response to this question is yes, then you have got on the appropriate site. Organic gardening is not only a trend, it is also a means to naturally and healthily produce those vegetables and fruits that you're going to consume while it enables you to not hurt the environment. Apart from those positive points, organic veggie, fruits and herbs are incredibly savory. Definition of Organic Gardening: Organic gardening is the science and art of producing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by complying to the fundamental precepts of organic agriculture in soil building and preservation, pest management, and heirloom variety saving. Best Organic Gardening Tips Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

What's going on on SquidU?

After my controversial post in SquidU forum, and because my reasons for writing it were for real: I didn't feel fine in SquidU any more, I logged out the forum and don't go there any more, except when I monitor important announcements. Luckily for me as it seems that the forum was taken over by some angels that seem to rule it now and I definitely wouldn't feel as fine as I did in the past.

It's a pity because it was a pleasant place where I liked talking this and that with lensmasters, whether they share my opinions or not.

I've always considered myself as being unpopular in Squidoo and SquidU because I always frankly express my thoughts, even as a Squid Angel, I wasn't that popular. I've also often been mistunderstood or even accused of claiming things which I have never written, more particularly regarding plagiarism and duplicate content, where I stated that I don't systematically consider that everyone who has content found elsewhere on their lens did steal it and that I mostly leave the benefit of the doubt in case it justifies.

So no wonder why I was massively attacked when I wrote this controversial post regarding my thoughts about SquidU, Squidoo and the angel program. Strangely, reactions were agressive although when other lensmasters attacked my fellow Angel Kathy McGraw in the first 2010 term, reactions were less vindictive. Hm... More food for thoughts.

This being said, I know for a fact that I wasn't wrong and I'm happy to not go there as often as I used to do. This allows me to not get stressed for nothing and in addition, I can focus on the new website that I create with two pals.

However, I'd like you to know that I transferred the Easy Guestbook Tutorial lens to WordCustard, in hope that this lens will get more visitors than it used to have when it was lying in my account. I'm pretty sure that this very skilled lensmaster and wonderful Squid Angel will take care of this lens. And as a matter of fact, she was one of the co-author of this page that should have been built with the Squidoo Tips template (my mistake, I'm sorry for this). So, if you want to learn how to make your guestbook search engine friendly, the Easy Guestbook Tutorial is the place to go.

Promised, next week I'll post the remaining lenses that I blessed in March.
 

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Never touch my private life

You will surely wonder why I'm posting such a title. 

Last Friday, I posted a new thread in our in-house forum where I questioned the SquidAngel program - questioned is probably a "big" word for the actual post, however, it opened the Pandora box and became some kind of open fight between those that agreed with me and those that didn't.

Problem being that I never questioned the angel program itself and certainly didn't want to start a fight.

Not so long ago, I was a SquidAngel myself and was really happy to see my term come to an end as all those responsibilities kept me away from building new lenses - to the exception of three/four only in three months!

During my three months term, I've seen some lensmasters - and one more particularly for reasons I'm going to expose below - complain all over the forum that they didn't get the number of blessings they used to get to their lenses as if an angel blessing was a due for any of their newly published lenses.

Actually I always considered - and I'm sure all angels do too - a blessing as a reward to the cream of the crop lenses. I even thought many of my lenses weren't that good for getting the blessings they got in reality.

In addition, still in the forum, I also saw an increasing tendency to post the same links in every other thread - once again, one lensmaster particularly.

And this led me in replying to this lensmaster regarding both matters: the complaints for not getting blessings and the link spamming. This lensmaster was also some kind of "online friend" (at least I thought they were) and we exchanged some friendly emails.

However, one day this person sent me a mail stating the angels didn't do their job properly because they didn't bless all her lenses as the former angels used to do and that this prevented her newly published lenses from entering the top tier; which would lead into lack of visits (that's what she thought) and of course, earnings.
 

This made me angry because I KNEW FOR A FACT that angels work all day long, visiting lenses, checking for potential duplicate content, checking bios and pictures, checking althrough the Web to learn if pictures are used in compliance of their terms and properly credited before blessing THAT lens that make their heart beat.

The lack of knowledge of the amount of work required from angels led me into kindly replying to this person that she shouldn't count on blessings to get her lens rank higher as other lensmasters also deserve to have their lenses ranked in the top tier and that she should instead learn a bit of SEO and promote her lenses OUTSIDE of Squidoo.

She replied that she wasn't interested in promoting her lenses nor in getting external traffic, that her lenses were made to promote her sites and for lensmasters to read only and that she just wanted to get the Squidoo rewards; which in my opinion is unfair for the hard workers who bring the most traffic to Squidoo and thus allow us to earn money!
 

Those mails are saved in my mailbox. I replied a last time, stating that she must learn how to bring traffic from outside sites but she definitely didn't want to listen to me.

Since then, we never exchanged emails any more and I only posted in her forum threads when I had enough of her many complaints and spams.

Don't believe that I didn't appreciate her any more, but the problem is that since she's extremely present in the forum and that she's teaching newbies how to Squidoo, many copied her and started to spam and complain too. This was the real matter. 

How can you tell a newbie "you can't do that" when an old timer makes it all the time?

Because she became an angel and of some threads she opened, I opened my thread in full respect of SquidU tos - thus NOT naming anyone - that many considered as a questioning of the whole Squid Angel program and, since they tought I was complaining about them, I've got some attacks. Those were frankly exposed in the thread itself and I respect those lensmasters while we didn't agree.

However, the lensmaster that was concerned by this thread never replied into the forum and chose to attack me in private.

She sent me a hateful and insulting email where she stated that now I only have enemies on Squidoo; which is false but well, she's free to think whatever she wants and I wasn't offended at all. She stated that I'm the kind of person who lowers the quality standards of Squidoo, she's free to think whatever she wants and I wasn't offended at all. 


However, she did more! She doesn't attacked me regarding my lensmaking but she attacked my private life.  

She doesn't know me, she isn't a "real" friend, she never met me, she doesn't know where I live, nor if I'm married or not, she doesn't know how many children I have, nor if I'm disabled or not, she ignores the kind of life I have, she knows NOTHING about me and she attacks me on this part of me, a part that she doesn't master at all and which isn't tied to my Squidoo profile!

I don't write from the heart - as some lensmasters do - because I don't want anyone to enter my private life, I never speak about me in public, I even cured my "personal" lenses in such a way that they don't look personal and you'll never know anything about me except what you can read in my lenses and that I allow you to know.

Stating that I'm a History lover doesn't mean that I'm not an historian... Maybe I'm one. Stating that I was secretary in the past doesn't imply that I'm not any more nor that I'm not the secretary of our Prime Minister... Well, actually nobody knows anything about me. And this lensmaster knows less than anyone else.

• I am NOT politically correct
• I don't follow the crowd
• I do my own things
• I think by myself
• I never copy others
• I won't agree with you when I actually disagree just to make you happy
• I am NOT a boot licker
• I am against the unique thought

To me such attack is cowardice. What a beautiful "enthusiastic" and "generous" lensmaster (as she is considered like this in the forum)! This is the kind of person I don't want to hear about any more.

This being said, I'm currently coding a new site that uses PHP only and I'm not that familiar with PHP; which is the reason why I couldn't post here for a while and won't be posting till the beginning of May. But after May 1st, I'm going to speak about the last lenses I blessed and didn't post yet.

There will be one lens per day along with the link included in the title. Hopefully this will bring those lensmasters an additional valuable backlink. And when the stock of lenses will be finished, I'll try to make a post about a lens that I particularly liked from time to time.

Happy Squidoo-ing.

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

Yahoo Pipes, Paragliding Experience, Christmas Trip, Baseball, Earth Angel, Appalachian Trail

A Guide to Yahoo Pipes by thefluffanutta
First time I went to thefluffanutta's SquidUtils, I was looking for my lens feeds. What I wanted was the feed link that would bring to my most recently updated lenses. This brought me to Yahoo Pipes. Oh, when I saw this, I thought I entered a hidden world and definitely wondered how I could get the right rss link to my lenses. This is where I started browsing thefluffanutta's lenses and finally discovered A guide to Yahoo Pipes that he created for us, lensmasters. This is, like most of his guides, a tutorial that teaches you step-by-step how to use Yahoo Pipes and makes you understand that using Yahoo Pipes is easy as pie. A must-read guide for any lensmaster out there.

A Tandem Paragliding Experience in Switzerland by WordCustard

Wordcustard is addicted to mountains. This is a healthy addiction and allows you to travel abroad, particularly in European mountains without moving from your chair and allows you to keep doing what you best like: browsing the Web. This page invites to you to discover this activity that WordCustard likes and enjoyed herself: paragliding. In this page, she relates her overall experience, from the day she started looking for more information to the wonderful time she spent flying like a butterfly. As usual with WordCustard, the page is not only informative but also visually really attractive.

An Empty-Nesters Christmas Trip by Wednesday Elf
How to survive Christmas when children are grown up, got married and couldn't spend Christmas time with you? Until now, I didn't know and to say the truth, I preferred not to think about it as I'm pretty sure this would get me depressed! But I visited Wednesday Elf's marvelous page that relates how her dear hubby and herself spent their Christmas time alone... Well, not so alone since they left town for a trip. And what trip!

Crazy about Baseball by Wednesday Elf
Wednesday Elf is one of those lensmasters who take their time to create a lens. Once the lens is made, she presents it and you can't do anything else but bless it because she put so much work and all her heart in her lens creation. This is why, while I definitely don't like any kind of sport - I even hate tennis, while having a grand cousin who's World Champion (guess who's my grand cousin, lol.) - I blessed this lens that I really enjoyed reading. Baseball; which is a sport that isn't popular in my country, is Wednesday Elf favorite sport and she shares her passion with you. This is brilliant account of her favorite baseball teams, matches she saw, and so on. I spent good time on this page and wish you'll like it too.

Are You An Earth Angel, Incarnated Elemental or Star Person? by Ener-G
A friend of mine is highly interested in such subjects and definitely thinks she had other lives, that her last life was the one of a wealthy and bad person and that she pays the bill in her present life. She believes in stars, angels and so many other things. But sometimes, when she speaks about her beliefs, she seems so passionate, trying to convince me that her statements are true and that I must believe myself, that I can't "play the game" and am quickly fed up. So, when I first went to Ener-G's lens I was a bit suspicious. However, the page is clear, objective, simple, and doesn't try to sell anything that you wouldn't want to believe in. It just lists clearly the different symbols and their particularities. An interesting and entertaining read.

Become An Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker by MysticTurtle
Ok, let's go for another seance of vertigo, lol. MysticTurtle went hiking on the Appalachian Trail and created this lens that is an account of her trip. Once again, I couldn't do such thing so, I admire her for this! Once again, this allowed me to travel and discover areas I've never seen and will surely never see in my life. Another great mountain lens on Squidoo.
 

Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66