A family-owned business, GNL Contractors stocks their own variety of marble and granite slabs imported from Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Italy, Spain, and many more countries. And, with the real estate market rising, it’s important to stay up to speed on the trend and have granite or marble countertops installed in one’s key feature rooms of a home: the kitchen and bathrooms. There are so many options of solid surfaces these days. Many homeowners and investors ask where to go to get reliable and high-quality craftsmenship for their granite, marble, or travertine countertops. The Slidell local area has a well-kept secret in GNL Contractors, Inc. Homeowners can visit their facility and hand pick their own slabs which hold unique patterns never again duplicated by mother nature. Granite has been the optimal choice for elegance, durability, and efficiency. Granite has a melting temperature of close to 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, so no worries on leaving hot pans on the surface. Also, with a density of about 18 lbs. per square foot of 3cm thick material, granite is a very solid solution.

In honor of the July 4th holiday, GNL Contractors of Slidell, Louisiana, is launching a special offer that will be running from July 1 to July 31, 2013. Homeowners can now pick from 4 very desirable granite colors, and any of the standard edges(full bullnose, half bullnose, bevel, or eased edge), with either a free undermount stainless steel sink or a 15 year warranty on the sealer of their granite. Customers could opt for a high-quality stainless steel that is undermounted which means the outer rim of the sink is actually all granite countertop flush with the rest of the kitchen surface. Or, one can opt for the sealer warranty, which guarantees to keep the countertops nearly impenetrable with a product that is similar to a “scotchguard” for natural stone countertop surfaces. This is a feature which enables one to protect their stone countertop surfaces better as it delays setting and soaking time for liquids or chemicals should they spill on the countertops. The sealer allows for red wine spills to sit for hours before they are cleaned so they do not soak into the stone for example.

No matter which of the freebies one chooses, the best thing about the special is the price. At $32 per square foot which includes measuring, fabricating, installing the granite, and the granite itself, it will be tough to find a better deal for homeowners and investors. GNL allows their customers to also browse their slabs and when possible, pick them out themselves from their vast selection! GNL has special sources of granite from all over the world, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, and Finland, to name a few.

As Bethune-Cookman University moves into the 21st century, a new vision must be articulated. This new vision requires that the university continue to play a significant role in the diverse communities we serve. It requires that we educate and empower people to seek their own solutions. It demands that we support public policies that create economic and social opportunities for the citizenry to improve their quality of life. To these ends, the university is pursuing strategies that create a vibrant teaching and learning community through curricular globalization, and the creation of "centers of excellence," while enhancing quality and improving productivity and efficiency.

Concomitant with the articulation of a new vision of the university, certain assumptions have been considered. The United States of America is undergoing dramatic shifts in semographic composition, and Florida is in the forefront. Our demographic provides a canvas upon which we can draw a fairly reliable portrait of society for decades to come. Historic images that emerge from the state, the nation, and the university are significantly different from those we saw just 10 years ago.

Today, women, people of color and immigrants — many of whom are non-English speaking — represent more than half of the workforce. By the year 2020, 85 percent of the 25 million people entering the workforce will be female, African-American, Hispanic -American, Asian-American, or new immigrants.

By the middle of this century, the majority of the population will be non-white. Hispanic-Americans will constitute the largest minority in the United States.

The majority of immigrants to the United States are no longer from Europe and Canada. In the last 30 years, the overwhelming majority of immigrants have come from Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Most of these new immigrants have settled in six states.“I love learning how every metal has different characteristics,” she said from her studio in The Tannery in the River Arts District. “It’s fun predicting what the metal will do when you manipulate it.”

Through talent and training at prestigious area arts institutions — such as Penland School of Crafts and Haywood Community College’s professional crafts program — elements are elementary to Merrill.But she also knows, humbly, that she is not the master of these always contrary, often impulsive materials. Metals mutate in milliseconds, destruct with just one temperature degree increase.After about a decade in metalwork, she is learned, and has also learned to let go.

“Sometimes, however, you are not ever going to get (metal) to do what you want it to do ... I have to let it go where it’s going and not have a lot of attachment to it,” Merrill said. “And that’s when I start seeing myself more in my work. It’s really rewarding in that way.”Merrill has forged her identity through fluidity, through freedom. She shuns structure in work and in life; softening the hard things in a fiery will, and shaping them to become her priorities.

So it’s not without some irony that Merrill is one of the newest members of an esteemed organization seeped in structure and with iron-clad tradition, The Southern Highland Craft Guild.She will be one of the almost 200 artists at the 66th annual Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, which returns to the US Cellular Center for four days beginning Thursday, manning a jewelry booth at the biannual event that draws crowds of 20,000 each year.

“We work very hard to make sure that the people we invite to join the guild are not only technically excellent craftsman, but have some understanding of the traditions that form the basis of the craft,” said Alan Hollar, who is the president of the Board of Trustees for the Southern Highland Craft Guild and has served on the guild’s Standards Committee.

Click on their website http://www.winbogifts.com/products/ear-cap.html.