Never think that a box of Valentines chocolates is a mundane, overdone gift that won’t be appreciated. The fact is that we are a nation of chocoholics and there is nothing we would like more than to receive a box of luxurious chocolates that we can indulge in and will set our taste buds alight. By steering clear of the cheap brands and getting some that are that little bit special, you will delight your loved one more than other gift will.

The key is to make an effort. Don’t just head to the corner shop or garage and grab a box that looks nice. Chocolate lovers are connoisseurs, and know exactly what chocolates can be bought from where. Recipients need to know that you have put in the groundwork and the effort to track down the best chocolate you possibly could for them, so go that extra mile and see how much it is appreciated.

The rookie mistake is thinking that just because someone loves chocolate, they will love all chocolate. If this is your way of thinking, you couldn’t be more wrong, chocolate is as personal as perfume, everyone has a particular favourite that is so special they would never buy it for themselves. This is what you are aiming for this Valentines Day, the wow factor.

Go for a respected brand that allows you to make up a box of individually selected chocolates. This ensures that they get all the varieties they like, and none go to waste. It also shows the effort you have put into them by choosing them specially, and as many produce heart shaped chocolates especially for Valentines Day, a few of these certainly won’t go amiss; especially luxurious soft centres such as Strawberry or Cherry.

These will also let you create a box of all milk, or all plain chocolates, depending on the receiver’s personal preference. If they like both, you can create a bespoke box with all their different types and flavours, and if they are more expensive than you would normally pay, the look on their face when you give them to them on Valentines Day will be priceless.

The living room is one of the most important rooms in the house, as it is the space in which we relax and unwind and should be designed accordingly. It is very simple to bring together a living room space that is both calm, relaxing, and gives of a soothing ambiance to allow us to recharge our batteries in comfort. Here are few tips for designing your perfect living room space with very little effort.

Colour is vital; too vibrant and it will stimulate your senses rather than relax them, too cold and you too will feel chilly. A neutral colour on three walls and a feature wall with a splash colour is the perfect balance. This wall should be the one which houses your fireplace, which will be the focal point of your living room. Whether you look into buying or exploring chair hire options, these should be turned towards the focus of the room regardless. If you don’t have one already, a fireplace adds a touch of elegance that is also functional.

If you don’t like carpet and prefer laminate flooring, add the odd rug or two, depending on the amount of floor space available, in the warm colour you have added to your feature wall. Lighting is all important when creating your ideal living room, discreet wall lights and an attractive central light gives you the best of both words and you can have the lighting to suit the occasion and your mood.

Many of us have dispensed with the dozens of ornaments our ancestors found so attractive, and while this is understandable it’s important to ensure that your room doesn’t seem stark or bare. Cushions and modern prints on the wall with give the impression of modern chic without the clutter.

Arrange the furniture to ensure that everyone can see each other and you have the perfect room to spend quality family time together. It is very easy to pull this together so if your living room isn’t creating the atmosphere you desire, simply change it.

Birmingham is one of the most stunning cities in England and is known for its vibrant night life, but it is also known for its unique one-off experiences such as the Coventry Transport Museum.  In fact, the Coventry Transport Museum is the only one of its kind in England as it is home to the largest collection of British road vehicles on the globe. Within the doors of the museum you can easily find over 230 different vehicles as well as a stunning array of 250 cycles and an additional 90 motorcycles.  For those who love mechanics, there is simply no better place to spend an afternoon.

Many of the cycles and cars are from more than two centuries ago making them a testament to how far transportation has come over the last few years.  On the other hand, you can also take place in some thrills such as trying out the land speed record simulator in which you will practically feel the air blowing past your face on the simulated open roads. Open every day from 10am until 5pm the museum is a great stop if you have a few hours to kill and one that you will likely want to stop back later at again with the children.

The West Midlands is a region of England that is full of upper educational opportunities as it is home to plenty of different universities and a few university colleges.  In fact, almost every major city within the West Midlands is home to at least one university.  The major nine universities that are spread across the West Midlands include the University of Worcester, University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, University of Wolverhampton, University of Warwick, Coventry University, Staffordshire University, Aston University, and Keele University. At the lower level there are also three university colleges including the University College Birmingham, Harper Adams University College, and the Newman University College.

The presence of the universities not only help to bring an atmosphere of education to the West Midlands, but also help keep the cities trendy and hip as they aim to college at their college aged clientele. In fact, it is easy to find hip and trendy bars and cafes in almost all of urban areas of the West Midlands and independent shops and pubs are the norm across the area making it easy to break away from the demands of normal day to day life and just have fun on a city break over the weekend.

One of the most thrilling events in the motorsport calendar has just taken place. The legendary Red Bull Dakar Rally is winding its way through deserts and mountains from its starting point in Argentina, through the Andes and Chile and onto the finishing point in Lima, Peru. For just over 2 weeks the bravest and most intrepid of motorcyclists have battled their way through all terrains to win the ultimate prize.

The bike race was claimed this year, for the fourth time, by Frenchman Cyril Despres from team KTM. Mentally and physically exhausted, all clearly delighted as being crowned as the Dakar King for the fourth time, Despres said that this was by far the toughest Dakar rally he had ever taken part in, and the fact he had triumphed was a huge testimony to his team .

Fans of this iconic event have eagerly followed events on the specialist Red Bull Dakar website, which has uploaded videos, blogs and comments to keep moto fans bang up to date with all the thrills and spills. There have even been comments posted from the leading competitors such as Marc Como, Geniel de Villiers, the third placed competitor in the car race and eventual bike winner Cyril Depres. You can post all the videos in the world, but reading the comments of the actual racers is priceless.

On the 13^th day, when the rally hit Peru, the riders comments paint the picture of what these competitors were going through on a daily basis. The mixture of exhilaration and exhaustion, and how both physically and mentally tired they were after travelling at speed across the unforgiving landscape for the best part of two weeks, but the fact they were so close to the finish gave them the strength to keep going.

For anybody who yearns to take place in such a gruelling race, the website is the next best thing, and gives you a real taste of what really went on down in South America when men on wheels took on everything that nature threw at them and triumphed. If you haven’t seen what went on in the Dakar Rally 2012, or have only seen edited highlights, log on now to experience the thrills as they unfolded.

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For those who like looking at lace doilies and lace curtains there is now a new exhibit in Birmingham that will allow visitors to see lace in a completely new way, and taking a closer look at the patterns, language, and techniques of creating lace in a very theatrical way.  The exhibit is called Lost in Lace and is the new feature of the Birmingham Museum. The aim of the showcase is to change the way that people view lace and making it a fluid material that can create a new image of its own.

The featured artists in the exhibit include Chiharu Shiota, Lise Bjorne Linnert, Atelier Manferdini, and Tamar Frank as well as a few international artists that are displaying their works for the first time in the UK.  Most of the art shows their brilliant fervour to get displayed, as the artworks are breathtaking and almost control the gallery space that they are contained within.

University for the Creative Arts Professor of Textile Culture Lesley Miller is the curator for the exhibit and has created an illustrated catalogue for it that is available for those that want to take the images home with them.

The collection is on display for the first time at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and is the first of the Fifty: Fifty Programme project which is a partnership between the Crafts Council and the Museum. It is being presented with assistance from the University for the Creative Arts and will be open to the public for free until February 19^th 2012.

For many, the French have got ‘it’ as far as style and elegance are concerned. From clothing to décor, we have followed their lead for decades, and creating a perfect French bedroom, or boudoir, is what many aspire to. It is a well known fact that the way your bedroom is furnished and decorated can have a great effect on how you sleep and its quality, and the French have mastered this.

What makes a bedroom typically French should, on paper anyway, not work. Traditional fittings, stripes and chintzes shouldn’t go together, but put together cleverly and with that quintessential French panache, TFM’s French bedroom pieces create a room of calm ambience that encourages deep and rejuvenating sleep and nothing but sweet dreams.

Colours are all important; plain walls in a pastel shade, and team them with a striped bedspread and chintz curtains. Colours such as lilac, baby pink and light grey are all good colours to use for you walls. Team the latter with a lilac and white striped bed cover and gold chintz curtains will give you the French looking bedroom you yearn for.

Traditional wooden furniture is a must, as are elaborate fittings for wall and ceiling lights. The key is neither to overdo the ornate nor the plain. Where furniture is concerned, disregard all notions for traditional bedroom tables, a mini bureau is ideal and will add one those little finishing touches that are all so important. Keep the wood used in these, wardrobes and drawers consistent to create the appearance of both chic and classical.

The biggest item of furniture is a bed, and an ordinary divan with a large, ornate headboard will look superb. Throw a neutral coloured rug on the floor beside the bed and maybe a cane chair two into the mix and you will have perfect French bedroom.

If you are looking to get away to the West Midlands for a weekend there are plenty of locations to choose from including small villages that are unspoiled in their simple lifestyles and rolling hills, to large cities where there is a bustle of activity.

Birmingham falls into the latter group offering plenty of music and jazz festivals including a great deal of theatre, museums, and art galleries. The city also offers a great nightlife and plenty of places to sight see such as the amazing Botanical Gardens, the Aston Hall, and the Bantock House Museum.

Bewdley is a smaller town that sits in the heart of the West Midlands and has attracted tourists for the last few centuries given its many yearly events and plenty of riverside ambiances. In fact, the restaurants and bars that line the river are some of the best places to stop to dine unless of course you happen to be taking a river cruise through town.

Finally, for either romance of a dash of British culture in its finest head towards Bristol where you can easily hideaway for the weekend with plenty of activities to keep you busy both inside and out of the many charming B&Bs that dot the area.

The market opens at the start of November and runs until December 23^rd with some celebrations such as Diwali serving as the kick off for the winter festivities. It is located throughout the Victoria Square area, the New Street, and across Chamberlain square taking up a large portion of the city centre area.

Typically, there are about 90 market stalls spread throughout the Victoria Square area offering everything from crafts to Christmas decorations to jewellery. In addition, during this time period there are a few German wines that cannot usually be purchased in the UK available as a special treat for the Yuletide season.  Farther into November a thirty stall market expands into Chamberlain Square making the market even larger and including plenty of fun drinks and food from Germany.

In addition, just outside of  the market during the Christmas season Birmingham comes alive with concerts held in Victoria Square on the bandstand, and over at Millennium Point at the beginning of the month is a celebration of the Hindi Holiday Diwali. Over on Centenary Square there is also an open air ice skating rink for children and canal boats that are lit up for the season that lead the way in a parade down the Broad Street Canal.

As England’s second city, Birmingham has the kind of vibrant and extensive leisure industry you would expect from a heaving metropolis. Leisure is defined by spending your free time away from the home by either relaxing or taking part in enjoyable activities; as far as this is concerned you are spoilt for choice if you live in Birmingham itself or one of the many surrounding areas.

The pinnacle of this is Leisure Industry Week, or LIW, Birmingham. This annual event is held each year and brings together the many players who are part of Birmingham’s leisure industry. Every year, hundreds of leisure professionals converge at the NEC Birmingham to celebrate what is great about the industry in this city, and this takes the form of conferences, networking, exhibitions, education and checking out new ideas or suppliers.

This week long event encompasses all aspects of the leisure jobs industry in Birmingham, including health and fitness, sport, bars and restaurants, play and attractions, pool and spa and licenced businesses. Numerous guest speakers are also invited and visitors can take part in fascinating question and answer sessions that are both educational and, more often than not, humerous and entertaining. This year’s speakers included Olympian James Cracknell and Amanda Hamilton, the TV presenter and nutritionist.

With Birmingham being such a large city with many suburbs and outlying areas, this is the perfect way to bring all those in the leisure industry together under one roof to let everyone know just how strong the depth of the leisure facilities are in Birmingham and is the perfect opportunity for new players to get themselves known. In these tough economic times, the leisure industry in vital to Birmingham jobs and events like these make sure it stays at the forefront and that is remains a popular and thriving industry.

As England's second city, Birmingham has the kind of vibrant and extensive leisure industry you would expect from a heaving metropolis. Leisure is defined by spending your free time away from the home by either relaxing or taking part in enjoyable activities; as far as this is concerned you are spoilt for choice if you live in Birmingham itself or one of the many surrounding areas.

The pinnacle of this is Leisure Industry Week, or LIW, Birmingham. This annual event is held each year and brings together the many players who are part of Birmingham's leisure industry. Every year, hundreds of leisure professionals converge at the NEC Birmingham to celebrate what is great about the industry in this city, and this takes the form of conferences, networking, exhibitions, education and checking out new ideas or suppliers. 

This week long event encompasses all aspects of the leisure industry in Birmingham, including health and fitness, sport, bars and restaurants, play and attractions, pool and spa and licenced businesses. Numerous guest speakers are also invited and visitors can take part in fascinating question and answer sessions that are both educational and, more often than not, humerous and entertaining. This year’s speakers included Olympian James Cracknell and Amanda Hamilton, the TV presenter and nutritionist.