Friday, November 17, 2006

Flowers to Improve Your Life

Flowers can only add to your quality of life, at least that's the perception by more and more people. A ranking based on a survey by Society of American Florists put flowers in the 7th place among the top ten luxury items people buy. What is more interesting is that more and more people are buying non-essential items, and a larger portion of incomes are spent on what people want rather than need. Of course this is probably only true for the developed world.

The results support a common perception that purchases of luxury items, like flowers are based on emotions rather than need. For someone like me, it's the aesthetics of a floral arrangement that is appealing. However, I am not sure the purchase of flowers always based on desire. I am sure some people feel they absolutely need to send flowers on Valentine's day or Mother's day, lest they be considered unloving.

I would like to gauge what my readers feel about this matter. What are your top luxury purchases usually? Why do you tend to buy flowers? Do you think it is a necessity or a passing desire?

Friday, November 10, 2006

Eat yourself to good health with chocolates

Whenever I work on any chocolate related content in our website, I get a craving for dark chocolate. So I end up often purchasing a bar of dark chocolate. In fact, I am craving chocolates as I write this paragraph! Imagine my surprise when found out that dark chocolate is in fact a healthy food item? According to two studies in well-known journals, dark chocolate, and only dark chocolate is good for you. It has been shown to lower blood pressure, it contains antioxidants, and it contains compounds called flavoniods that improve the functioning of blood vessels. And for you, my dear reader, I suggest you visit our chocolates section. We recently began carrying a great selection of Quebec dark chocolates made by our Chocolatier Chocolats Privilège and also small box of Belgian chocolates that contain dark chocolates. The Quebec dark chocolates come in at least three varieties. Visit our chocolates section to find out more. And, for about the benefits of dark chocolate, read these two articles from WebMD.