Hoop Earrings Are Having a Moment

Modern Earrings, ornaments decorating the ears, have been one of the principal forms of jewelry throughout recorded history. The term usually refers to ornaments worn attached to the earlobes, though in the late twentieth century it expanded somewhat to include ornaments worn on other parts of the ear, such as ear cuffs, and is used to describe pieces of jewelry in earring form, even when they are worn through piercings in other parts of the body (for example, in the nose). The most common means of attaching earrings to the earlobes have been to pierce holes in the lobes, through which a loop or post may be passed. But a variety of other devices have also been used, including spring clips, tensioning devices such as screw backs, and, for particularly heavy earrings, loops passing over the top of the ear or attaching to the hair or headdress.

In many cultures and contexts, earrings have traditionally been worn as symbols of cultural or tribal identity, as markers of age, marital status, or rank, or because they are believed to have protective or medicinal powers. Even when they have served other purposes, however, the primary function of earrings has been a decorative one. As earrings are so prominently placed near the face, and at the juncture between costume and coiffure, they, perhaps more than any other element of jewelry, have been particularly responsive to changes in fashion; as hairstyles, hats, collars, and necklines have risen and fallen, earrings have correspondingly increased and decreased in size and prominence, and during many periods they have been instrumental in balancing and tying together the desired fashionable appearance.

The Ancient World

In antiquity, earrings were one of the most popular forms of jewelry. The crescent-shaped gold hoops worn by Sumerian women around 2500 B.C.E. are the earliest earrings for which there is archaeological evidence. By 1000 B.C.E., tapered hoop (also known as boat-shaped) earrings, most commonly of gold but also of silver and bronze, had spread throughout the Aegean world and Western Asia. In Crete and Cyprus, earrings were embellished with twisted gold wire, clusters of beads, and pendants stamped out of thin sheet gold.

Tom Schwartz And Katie Maloney - Inside Their Baby Plans And More!

After Brittany Cartwright squashed the rumors that she is expecting, it turns out that Katie Maloney has been joking with her quite a lot that the two of them will be welcoming a bundle of joy ‘around the same time.’ That being said, one insider report claims to know when that might be for Katie and Tom Schwartz.

One source close to the Vanderpump Rules star chatted with HollywoodLife, dishing about the couple’s plans for the future. Tom Schwartz And Katie Maloney - Inside Their Baby Plans And More!

Apparently, ‘Tom and Katie are talking having a baby and they would like to do it sooner rather than later.’

Supposedly, their fellow VPR cast members, Brittany Cartwright and Jax Taylor do not want to be left out of those baby plans.

‘Katie and Brittany joke that it’d be very fun to be pregnant around the same time, especially since [their husbands] Schwartz and Jax are so close, too,’ the insider explained.

They also went on to say that they are not just saying that because they’re BFFs and dream of stuff like that which would never happen in real life.

Supposedly, ‘They are sort of being serious at the same time. Katie believes Brittany will get pregnant first, but most of the cast think it will actually be Brittany. Brittany seems to be more in a hurry as Katie does not openly talk about it as much.’

That theory makes perfect sense since the couple told HollywoodLife just a couple of days that they have been trying for a baby.

But since they are public people, the two women have also thought about motherhood while in the spotlight.

 

As it turns out, it seems like both pairs would be willing to document the pregnancies on Vanderpump Rules.

Intel Gaming Access Offers Open Access To The Dreadlands Beta On Steam Platform

If you’ve received an email from Intel today announced access to the Dreadlands Beta, don’t get too excited.  It’s an open beta to anyone that has Steam, so the Intel Gaming Access continues to be little more than advertising; disappointing for many that expected to be able to work with developers.

Dreadlands was covered back in April when it wasn’t entirely set in stone as to what players can expect.  Now, with the beta opened we can finally poke and prod the title to see what’s expected.

As an Early Access title, however, it’s vital to bear in mind that it is in development.  Mechanics become hung up on loops, large portions are missing, and nothing is very well fleshed out.  Much like Hades, the early access is a chance to open a dialogue with the developers in terms of how to flesh their game out; the mechanics yearned for, the combat that simply doesn’t excite.

Many looks at Early Access as a finished product, throwing negative connotations and insults at the developers for not having a full game to test.  The Elder Scrolls Online closed alpha and beta access was doing well enough until users began leaking everything for the public to bash across Reddit.  It hampered the development and deployment of the title, and many had developed their own views of the game before it even finished their marketing material.

It seems as though Dreadlands is having much of the same unfortunate experience thus far, based on the Steam reviews that people have opted to lambast the title with.  Complaints of the game acting like it’s Early Access, while it’s not even close to Early Access, have already harmed the title.  Complaints have begun popping up on Twitter as well, putting the developer studio Backfox on blast.

While betas are a fantastic opportunity for studios to gain perspective on their title, offering it openly to a wide variety of users that haven’t been walked through what a beta is continuing to stymie developers. Intel Gaming Access Offers Open Access To The Dreadlands Beta On Steam Platform.

Beyond access woes confusing users, the game appears promising enough so far; the Beta is granted through Steam, with users receiving a unique code to activate the title on the platform.  Wisely, the game is not connecting to the actual Steam game page; it’s a unique page just for the beta.

It’s a common enough isometric turn-based RPG, with players building their party to enhance their preferred style of play.  Think XCOM, but post-apocalyptic.  The percentages to hit are there (and feel far friendlier than XCOM) along with partial cover/full cover system, abilities, and everything else one would expect.

Even if you don’t have Intel Gaming Access, you can find the beta on Steam and try it out for free yourself; just don’t be surprised if it tastes like a reskin.

Square Enix Announces NieR: Theatrical Orchestra 12020 10th Anniversary Concerts For 2020

Video game soundtracks leave an impact on many gamers. Game developers and publishers realize how important music is to fans.

Publishers in Japan are bringing video game performances to fans. There were previously performances for Kingdom Hearts and Chrono Cross, but now NieR is joining in on the fun in time for the series’ 10th anniversary.

Square Enix has officially announced NieR: Theatrical Orchestra 12020, a live concert that celebrates the NieR series over the last decade.

The performance will cover the past ten years of the series, from April 2010 to April 2020, and will be held in Tokyo and Osaka.

The NieR series has many beautiful tracks, but only a selected few will be performed at the concert. Square Enix Announces NieR: Theatrical Orchestra 12020 10th Anniversary Concerts For 2020.

All of the performances will feature composer Keiichi Okabe, who has worked on multiple game series like NieR, Final Fantasy, and Tekken.

Each performance will host a different voice actor. In Tokyo, NieR RepliCant’s Koji Yusa and Ai Nonaka, NieR: Automata’s Yui Ishikawa, Natsu Hanae, and Kaoru Akiyama, and Hiroki Yasumoto will be in attendance.

Appearing in Osaka is Mai Kadowaki, but Kaoru Akiyama will not be in attendance.

Tickets are already available for Japanese residents. Since the orchestra is so popular, interested buyers must sign up for a ticket-based lottery through the official Square Enix website.

The tickets often sell out quickly, so fans will have to act fast.

Although the anniversary is only for Japanese residents, the NieR: Orchestra Concert re:12018 will be held in various locations around the world. Square Enix knows that NieR is popular with fans outside of Japan and has done their best to bring the music to some of the largest cities worldwide.

The English website details what fans may experience at a NieR concert: “These European and North American premiere concerts will be performed by full symphony orchestra and chorus, and will feature the vocal stylings of renowned soloist Emi Evans, under the direction of GRAMMY Award-winner and acclaimed conductor Arnie Roth. NieR director Yoko Taro and composer Keiichi Okabe have created HD video projections especially for these concerts, which will be projected onto giant screens throughout the performance. With these spectacular visuals, accompanied by the sonic power of over 100 musicians on stage, fans will be immersed in the world of NieR like never before!”

Meghan King Edmonds Defends Letting 3-Year-Old Daughter Aspen Sleep in a Crib

Meghan King Edmonds regularly posts photos of her three adorable kids on Instagram, but she recently shared one of her 3-year-old daughter Aspen that’s raising eyebrows.

In the picture, Aspen — who is her oldest child — can be seen lying on a DockATot and wearing a sleep sack while lounging inside a crib.

“She asked me to tell a story about a baby and then Christmas lights. The magic of being 3,” the Real Housewives of Orange County alum originally wrote in the caption. Meghan King Edmonds Defends Letting Daughter Aspen Sleep In Crib At Age 3.

Her comments section was flooded with messages from people concerned about Aspen’s choice of a bed.

“Think that cutie is outgrowing her crib,” one person wrote.

“How come she sleeps in the DockATot?” another added.

But others defended Edmonds, explaining that their toddlers, including some older than Aspen, were also still sleeping in cribs.

Edmonds later shared an “update” to her post by editing the caption.

“Yep she’s in her crib,” she wrote. “She climbs out when she wants and occasionally sleeps in her toddler bed but tonight Baby Alive had already claimed the (not-so-coveted) bed so AK opted for her too-small sleep sack, dock-a-tot, and way too small round crib.”

“This girl is a firecracker individual and I challenge any of you to challenge her," Edmonds added.

When should your toddler make the switch from crib to bed?

There's no one correct age to make the switch from crib to bed — it depends on when your tot is ready. Most toddlers make the move between 18 months and 3 1/2 years old. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it’s perfectly safe for your child to keep sleeping in a crib until he’s 35 inches tall. At that point, it’s time to move him into a bed.

That being said, make sure your toddler isn't frequently trying to climb out of the crib.

“If a toddler can climb out of a crib, they are ripe for accidents,” says Danelle Fisher, M.D., F.A.A.P., a pediatrician and vice-chair of pediatrics at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. “Safe sleep is so important and it just doesn’t happen in that first year of life — it happens to toddlers, too.”

Dr. Fisher says that neck and spine injuries, which can happen if a child falls out of their crib, are the “scariest and worst kind of injuries.” As for the DockATot, it doesn’t meet the American Academy of Pediatrics’ safe sleep guidelines. 

In general, it’s a good idea to move your child to a bed when they’re more mobile. “When the child can get out of the crib, they should be in a bed,” says Charles Shubin, M.D., a board-certified pediatrician with Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

When you make the crib-to-bed switch, be sure to choose a toddler bed that is low to the ground and has safety rails.

What Are The Best Supplements For Faster Muscle Gain?

There is no shortage of supplements that claim to boost muscle gains, but truly elite physiques are built by hard training and serious nutrition first and foremost. Supplements are just the icing on the cake.

But when your training and nutrition are locked in, these four science-backed supplements can definitely help you get your new physique a little faster, boost the quality of your workouts, and help you recover. Those three things can definitely help you gain weight—the good kind!

Here's everything you need to know!

Creatine

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance within our muscle cells, and it is one of the primary sources of cellular energy. Whenever you blink your eyes, scratch your elbow, chew your food, or perform most other movements, it's creatine—or rather, the creatine phosphate energy system— mass gain tablets that are powering you through it.

As a supplement, creatine has been popular since the 1990s and has been the subject of hundreds of studies since then. It comes in numerous forms, but none have been shown conclusively to be as effective as the cheapest and most popular variety, creatine monohydrate.

Benefits Of Creatine Supplementation

• Increased lean muscle mass, particularly with strength training[1,2]
• Improved muscular strength[1,2]
• Decreased muscle soreness and lower levels of exercise-induced inflammation[3]
• Improved blood flow during training[1]
• Improved performance during high-intensity training[1,5]

Many athletes follow a "loading" protocol of around 25 grams a day for five days, but this isn't essential. But as Ciaran Fairman notes in the article "Do I Need to Load With Creatine," you can also get the same benefits with around 5 grams a day, potentially with none of the mild side effects of the loading protocol, which include stomach pain and water weight gain. The catch is that you have to take it consistently. Don't skip it!

Recommended Dose: 5 grams, taken whenever works best for you. If it helps you remember, take half of your daily serving pre-workout, and the second half post-workout.

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is a naturally occurring non-essential amino acid that comes into the body through foods that are rich in protein. The performance-enhancing aspect of beta-alanine (BA) is due to its ability to increase intra-muscular levels of carnosine. Increasing beta-alanine through supplementation may raise carnosine levels by over 60 percent in as quickly as four weeks.[6]

This is significant because, during high-intensity exercise, our bodies accumulate a large number of hydrogen ions, which cause the blood pH to drop. This acidification can cause severe fatigue, decrease muscle performance, and shorten the time to muscular failure. What people chalk up to lactic acid is actually usually happening from hydrogen.

Beta-alanine is thought to "buffer" these ions, delaying the buildup in the blood and allowing you to knock out a few more reps, last longer in your workout, and increase your gains over the long term.

Benefits Of Beta-Alanine Supplementation

• Delayed fatigue during intense training[7]
• Increased total training volume[7]
• Improved power production[8]
• Increased muscle building[9]
• Improved endurance during hard training[10]
• Increases effectiveness of creatine, and vice versa[11,12]

Recommended Dose: 4-6 grams per day. Beta-alanine has to be taken regularly to be effective, so don't trust your pre-workout to give you everything you need. Consider taking it in smaller doses throughout the day to reduce the harmless skin-tingling sensation that can accompany higher doses.

Tips for a Bride Planning Her Own Wedding

First thing’s first: planning a wedding can feel pretty overwhelming at first (trust me, I do it for a living). While recruiting professionals to help out can be pretty ideal, maybe you’re working under a tight budget, or maybe you simply love going the DIY route. It may be a lot of work, but it is possible to plan your own dream wedding!

It just takes a bit of organization to keep everything on track when you’re faced with endless decisions, lists, deadlines and, you know, your own life to deal with. The trick is taking things one step at a time and recruiting friends and family (including that future spouse of yours!) to help. And give yourself plenty of time to plan. You’ll make things so much harder on yourself if you try to plan and oversee every detail and try to do it all at the last minute. A longer timeline is your friend here—aim for around a year if possible. Now, where do you begin?

Once you’ve spent some time spreading the news of your engagement and actually enjoying that special time, the budget will need to be the very first thing you finalize to get the wedding tips planning train going. And that can involve some uncomfortable conversations if you have any family members who are planning to chip in for the big day. So don’t delay! Have those conversations early and determine the amount everyone is comfortable spending, and then build in a 10% “splurge cushion” for any unexpected costs or urges you’ll inevitably succumb to. Be prepared for a reality check when it comes to budgeting for this big day. Many couples don’t realize the costs involved and may find that their dream wedding is a bit out of reach. In that case, be prepared to prioritize. You really can have your ideal wedding on almost any budget if you iron out what exactly is important to you and focus on those few things.

With the budget in place, it’s time to start getting inspired and delving into the nitty-gritty details! Have some fun with this part; now’s the time to indulge in all those bridal magazines (ahem, BRIDES!) and blogs to get a sense of the style of wedding you want. Think about weddings you recently attended. What did you like? What would you do differently? Real-life experience is always the best form of inspiration. Don’t forget to involve your fiancé in this step as well! Your wedding should represent both of you as a couple.

The organization is key when planning your own wedding. You’ll have so many balls up in the air at once, you’ll need a way to keep track of everything. You can use spreadsheets or one of the many wedding planning management apps or programs out there. Just find what works best for you and stick with it. Just remember that even with the most meticulous planning and organization system, there is bound to be some chaos from time to time. Try your best to plan ahead and don’t be too hard on yourself.

The most important thing to keep in mind: Try to have some fun! This is your wedding after all! Don’t get too hung up on those tiny details and focus on what’s truly important: a happy marriage with the person of your dreams.

Now that you’re armed and ready to begin the planning process, here are some of my top tips for planning an unforgettable wedding.

(And for more specific info on what to do the week before your wedding, check out our guide here!)

Mindy Weiss, a wedding planner to the stars and The Wedding Shop by Shutterfly’s Style Partner, is our go-to expert on all things wedding. With more than 20 years of planning weddings and events for top Hollywood personalities (think Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, and so many more), her best-selling The Wedding Book, and line of stylish bridal flats with Rollasole, Mindy is the ultimate authority on planning an unforgettable wedding.