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As a defender, Haley Cutright is not accustomed to spending much time around her opponent’s goal.

In Tuesday’s Group AA girls soccer quarterfinal at Dwight Bogle Tiffany Notes Dangle Key ring, she made a rare appearance in that vicinity, and her Hidden Valley team will always remember the visit.

With just seconds of injury time left in regulation, Cutright headed a corner kick from Anna Moir into the upper left corner of the Jefferson Forest’s goal to break a scoreless tie.

And just like that, Hidden Valley had a 1-0 win and a spot in Friday’s state semifinals, where they will take on defending state champion Broad Run at Radford University.

Cutright, who admitted she was already starting to focus on what the Titans would need to do in overtime, said she was as surprised as anyone to see the ball fly into the goal.

“Right place, right time,” Cutright said. “I think the goalie touched it with her fingertips. … I’ve never done scored like that before.”

While coaches often have several set plays to run in corner kick situations, the Titans’ score came in the midst of chaos.

Hidden Valley coach Will Krause only had time for Tiffany keys heart key locket words of instruction.

“Hurry up,” Krause said he yelled. “I knew there was very little time left.”

Luckily for Krause, Moir was a good listener. The senior defender put the ball down and sent it toward the goal in almost a single motion.

“I saw their girl hit the ball out and I started sprinting right way,” she said. “I knew they were going to call it pretty soon. I just kicked it to the middle of the goal.”

Cutright wedged her way into a group of JF defenders. Everyone went for the ball, but only Cutright made contact.

The Cavaliers’ Anna Carter had six saves prior to Cutright’s header got through.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve been through this,” JF coach Stan Golon said. “It was a bit of magic for them — again.”

This was the second straight season that Hidden Valley ended the Cavs’ season. Last year, the Titans won 2-0 at JF.

Two years ago, a late corner kick goal scored by Tiffany Blue Box Charm and Chain in the state semifinals eliminated the Cavaliers.

“I even think we had the better scoring opportunities,” Golon said. “But it was very hard for both teams to get good shots off.”

After a tentative start for both teams, the Titans started to press the situation in the last 30 minutes.

Paxton Sauerwald had two open looks at the goal midway through the second half, but neither shot got through.

“The last 30 minutes were better, but it still wasn’t like what I think we’re capable of doing,” Krause said.

“On Friday, we’ll need to have 11 girls Tiffany Notes heart tag key ring together if we want to move on to the finals.”

UTPB head volleyball coach Steve Aicinena announced Tuesday the Paloma Picasso Loving Heart ring of five players for his program, a recruiting class he said in a news release was the strongest in program history.

Four of the players are attackers who helped teams reach the Texas high school playoffs last fall.

The fifth is 5-foot-7 setter Ariel Fralick, who hails from Puyallup High School in Puyallup, Wash.

One of the attackers signed to the Lady Falcons is Keeley Brogdon, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter and middle blocker from Amarillo Tascosa.

Brogdon was a first-team All-District 2-5A selection after helping lead the Lady Rebels to the Region I-5A Tournament semifinals, and she was selected to play in the Texas Girls Coaches Association All-Star Match in July.

Also signing with UTPB was 6-2 outside hitter Melissa Lusk from Mesquite Poteet; 5-10 opposite hitter and middle blocker Terra Peil from Deer Park; and 5-11 opposite hitter and middle blocker Cydney Stayton from Arlington High.

“Over the next four years, this group could develop into the most successful group to have played for UTPB,” Aicinena said in a news release. “Actually, these are my expectations. With the new additions and a good core of returning players, I look forward to having one of the strongest teams Paloma’s Crown of Hearts pendant have ever had in 2010.”

The Lady Falcons, who won the Heartland Conference title in 2008 and qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament, went 23-10 last season and lost in the Heartland Conference Tournament semifinals.

Credit: Odessa American, Texas

By JONATHAN BIRCHALL and JAMES POLITI

Nelson Peltz, the US activist investor, has taken a 3 per cent stake, worth about Dollars 1.7bn, in Kraft, and willput pressure on the USfood company to buy back shares and consider thesale of brands including Maxwell House coffee and Post cereals.

According to people familiar with the matter, Mr Peltz had not yet held talks with management at Kraft, which was spun off from Altria, its former parent company,earlier this year. However, it was likely that contact would be made shortly, these people said.

Kraft shares closed up 6.6 per cent at Dollars 36.74.

Mr Peltz’s pursuit of Kraft follows a largely successful series of campaigns by Trian, his investment fund, against managements at Wendy’s International, the US hamburger chain, Tiffany, the jewellery retailer, and Cadbury Schweppes, the UK drinks and confectionery group.

In addition, Mr Peltz last year emerged victorious from a proxy fight that pitted him against HJ Heinz, the ketchup and baked beans manufacturer, where he now sits on the board of directors.

Kraft and Trian yesterday declined to comment.

But one person familiar with Mr Peltz said he viewed Kraft in a similar light as Heinz: a company with strong brands that was not performing to its potential.

The right recipe for Kraft was a combination of changes to the balance sheet, including share buy-backs that would lift the company’s debt load and a realignment of its businesses, the person said.

The person added that after raising money from the sale of brands such as Post and Maxwell House, more investment could be ploughed into better performing segments such as groceries and frozen foods.

Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft’s chief executive, is pursuing a three- year plan aimed at improving its performance that includes cost- cutting, accompanied by increased spending on marketing ofits core brands such asOreo cookies and Maxwell House.

The company has not discussed any disposals of its collection of brands, though underperforming segments such as cheese and salad dressing have been earmarked for overhaul.

A Middle East private equity consortium led by Bahrain-based Investcorp has agreed to acquire a majority stake in a Saudi Arabian gold and jewellery company, betting that the Middle East’s young and affluent demographic composition will see off the worst of the downturn.

The group will take a total 70 per cent stake in L’Azurde, the world’s fourth largest gold and jewellery manufacturer, in a deal that values the company at more than $300m, financiers behind the deal told the Financial Times.

Investcorp – which has owned Tiffany, the jewellery chain, and Gucci, the luxury goods group – will take a 51 per cent stake in L’Azurde. Its partners – Eastgate Capital Group, the private equity arm of NCB, which is Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, and Abu Dhabi-based The National Investor – will take the remainder.

It is a bold move by Investcorp, which reported its first ever loss of $511m in the last six months of 2008. The company, which has specialised in investing Arab private and sovereign wealth in overseas private equity, hedge funds and other alternative assets, was downgraded to junk status by Standard & Poor’s in January, causing Investcorp to terminate its rating contract on what it saw as an “unjustified” downgrade.

While the credit crunch has hit demand for luxury goods, Investcorp executives are confident that the region’s social and demographic dynamics will allow the company to grow.

“Jewellery in general, and gold jewellery in particular, is almost a necessity in this region,” said Azmat Taufique, the co-head of Investcorp’s $1.1bn Gulf-focused private equity fund. “Sales are linked to social events, such as weddings, and with the Gulf’s positive demographics, we think these will increase.”

Half of the Middle East’s population is under 20 years old, and half a decade of oil-fuelled growth has swelled the size and affluence of the upper and middle classes.

L’Azurde produces 26 tonnes of gold jewellery a year and had revenues of $500m last year, selling its products through 4,200 wholesale accounts and 18 retail stores across the region. The Gulf makes up about 12 per cent of the global market for gold.

L’Azurde had implemented a pricing mechanism that would shield it from gold’s volatility, Investcorp’s executives said.

Tiffany & Co.’s famous little blue box has got competition — from a clunky minitrunk.

Louis Vuitton has shrunk its iconic brown trunk down to a jewelry box to hold such things as chokers from its first jewelry collection, which debuts today in its New York flagship. Vuitton is the star brand of the world’s largest luxury goods group, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.

Never mind that Vuitton’s history comprises 150 years in leather goods, not jewelry. The lack of heritage hasn’t deterred Vuitton or other fashion brands such as Italy’s Gucci, owned by French conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA, from launching jewelry lines in a fragmented market. “The powerful arrival of a fashion brand will animate the market,” said Yves Carcelle, chief executive of LVMH’s fashion and leather-goods division.

Just as branded items have taken over fashion in general, the jewelry sector is ripe for branded jewelry, whether from classic names such as Tiffany or Cie. Financiere Richemont SA’s Cartier, or from more fashion-forward labels like Gucci.

For luxury fashion houses in particular, the fine jewelry market — whose margins analysts put at more than 20% — seems like a golden opportunity compared with the overcrowded handbags market. Yet their lack of history in a sector boasting time-honored brands like Cartier and Roman jewelry house Bulgari SpA means more pressure to make designs stand out and find the sweet spot in pricing.

While analysts remain wary of extending a brand into far-flung product categories, jewelry is seen as a logical addition. “Many of the core values of the luxury brand in one product area — high quality, exclusivity and superlative design — can translate easily across to a luxury jewelry brand,” said James Lawson, director of luxury consultancy Ledbury Research.

Analysts at Bear Stearns in New York estimate that luxury brands make up only 15% of the market for fine jewelry, with the rest of the $125 billion jewelry and watch market dominated by unbranded jewelry makers and retailers. “As consumers try to find their way around a fragmented industry where guidance and trust are essential, we believe they will increasingly turn to branded product,” the analysts wrote in a September report on the jewelry and watch market. They anticipate growth in the sector to accelerate to 4% to 5% annually over the next few years, from a historical growth rate of 3%.

If it translates well, jewelry can become part of the core business of luxury fashion groups. Gucci jewelry sales came to 105 million euros ($128 million) in 2003, 7% of Gucci’s annual revenue, three years after it put its first designs in stores. According to Bear Stearns research, Gucci is already the seventh best-selling brand in jewelry and watches behind older brands like Cartier, Tiffany and Chopard.

Vuitton’s Mr. Carcelle said he thinks the jewelry line will make up “a few percent of our revenue” in the next few years, “but when the brand revenue is 3 billion euros, a few percent is not negligible.”

As the market for branded jewelry grows, customers are counting carats less. And jewelry is becoming more of an accessory because women are buying it for themselves, analysts say. “Before, jewelry was part of an investment — when you die, it becomes part of your heritage,” Gucci brand Chief Executive Giacomo Santucci said. “Now, jewelry is becoming more of a fashion accessory.”

“We don’t make engagement rings,” said Vuitton’s Mr. Carcelle, meaning that designer Marc Jacobs is focusing on design pieces, not sentimental jewelry.

Design in fashion jewelry is critical to identify the brands, but also to make up for a lack of heritage. “The lesson from watches, where fashion brands didn’t have any credibility in complicated watch movements, is that they should propose more fashionable items, and realize they have no history in the category,” says Claudia D’Arpizio, a partner at Bain & Co.’s Rome office specializing in luxury.

Using the brand’s icons is elementary. For instance, one of the three themes in Vuitton’s line is “clous,” the nails that pierce its trunks and leather goods. Four of the gold studs hold an enormous amethyst in place on a ring. Bear Stearns analysts praised the latest Gucci collection, which used well-known symbols like bamboo and the “GG” logo, for bearing a more obvious brand label than last year’s “elegant, sophisticated” designs.

As with other accessory lines, finding the right price range for fashion jewelry is key. According to Ms. D’Arpizio, the market for fine jewelry is growing most quickly for items priced between 700 euros and 5,000 euros. Anything more costly crosses the line from accessory to investment, while less expensive items aren’t perceived as exclusive enough to be true luxury goods.

Gucci’s Mr. Santucci says their bestseller is a “GG” logo ring for 1,000 euros, though a cheaper version exists in sterling silver for 250 euros. Vuitton, having sworn off anything lesser than gold and precious or semiprecious stones, will start its line at 550 euros for a pair of stud earrings. Goldman Sachs analyst Jacques-Franck Dossin says the entry-level price “bodes very well for potential client base and for margins.”

Spring Partners today announced its latest springpad, the Date Night Planner, a free online notebook to help plan and organize unique and memorable dates – whether it’s a dazzling night on the town or a relaxed evening at home.

As one of the biggest date nights of the year, Valentine’s Day gift comes with heightened expectations of fun and romance. Playing Cupid can be challenging with most people under a time and money crunch and trying to think outside the box of chocolates for ideas. By bringing together the best of the web in one place, the Date Night Planner springpad gives you a quick way to get ideas and easy access to your favorite online services like Google, Amazon, Open Table, Fandango and Yelp to organize your romantic evening.

“People are busy and Valentine’s Day really adds pressure to be creative and plan something special for your significant other. We’ve had great success with our meal planning and gift buying springpads, so adding a Date Night Planner that gives you a quick and easy way to set up a memorable date is a natural,” said Jeff Janer, CEO, Spring Partners. “We’ve also tapped into the most popular social media sites and brought together a group of bloggers and publishers to offer advice and tips to make the most of the big day.”

Whether you’re planning to dine in or out, see a movie or just looking for something different, the Date Night Planner springpad lets you:

– capture advice, tips and insights from your favorite web sites and popular bloggers

– collect recipes and shop for the perfect menu

– get restaurant recommendations and make your reservation

– access movie reviews, listings, show times and buy tickets

– find gift ideas and buy presents

“Our readers share our philosophy of having fun and living large while pendants saving money. Using the Date Night Planner will help them do just that on Valentine’s Day,” said Will Chen of Wisebread, one of the most popular personal finance blogs on the web. “springpad is a fun way to collect ideas and recommendations and quickly take action on them.”

Over the coming months, Spring Partners will roll out springpads for a variety of life events, including home remodeling, wedding planning, and a memory keeper. In addition, the company is encouraging people to create their own springpads and share them with the springpad community.

The Date Night Planner is free for everyone and available now at http://datenight.springpadit.com and more springpads can be found at http://springpadit.com.

About Spring Partners

Spring Partners is a software company dedicated to harnessing the power of the web to simply people’s lives. earrings springpad is a free set of online notebooks that help people organize, share and tackle life’s tasks and events. springpad also helps bloggers and online publishers to extend their expertise by making it easy for their readers to interact and apply insights and advice. Headquartered in Boston, the company was founded in 2008 and is venture backed.

Jackson Chapel First Baptist Church is gearing up for its third bike giveaway for the Christmas tiffany and co holiday season.

Requests for bikes are coming in, and the men who make up the “God’s Men” auxiliary at the church are getting ready to give away more than 100 bikes again this year.

“Every child wants something for Christmas,” said the Rev. Darryl Canady. “The men are meeting on a regular basis now to get everything started.”

Volunteers and donations in the form of new or used bikes and money are needed.

In addition to the bikes, families get a bag of toys for other children in the household.

The bikes and toys will be given away Dec. 19.

“The bike drive has been a huge success,” Canady said. “It’s a wonderful ministry and mission to bring some happiness to some other people’s lives who don’t have a lot.”

David Keith, who is in charge of this program, said this year they want to give money clips away more bikes than they did last year.

But Keith said Jackson Chapel can’t meet its goal without the community’s help.

“I have to say that every year we get people from all over the city and county who come to help us make children happy,” Keith said. “I have to say thank you to the people of Wilson and also ask for them to come and join us again this year.”

Last year, men from First Christian Church donated bikes.

“Men came from churches that never identified which church they came from; they just came and worked hard,” Keith said.

One of the biggest gifts the church got last year was from Bobby Aycock, who loaned them a warehouse to work on bikes and store them in before he opened his business.

Canady said they will need a space to work and store the bikes again this year.

“If somebody has a building we can use to fix and store the bicycles in, it would be pendants very helpful,” Canady said.

Keith also said they need to have more hands to put bikes together.

“We would have been able to give away even more bikes if we had more volunteers last year,” Keith said. “I hope we get the volunteers this year.”

The men in the group said those who come to the church get something in return for volunteering.

“You get joy in your soul as you get to put those bikes together,” said John Mitchell, a church member.

Mitchell, 78, is retired and can be seen at the church day and night working on bikes for children.

Mitchell said, growing up he never had a bike of his own, but shared a bike with his brother. He said it gives him a special feeling to know children are riding around on a bike he put together.

A.J. Jones, a deacon in the church, said one year two small boys were having a discussion over who would get the refurbished bike or the new bike.

“It was the most heart warming thing,” Jones said. “They both wanted the refurbished bike. They wanted the bike we put together. I still smile every time I think of it.”

Canady said the bike program is only one portion of the church’s Block of Hope outreach into earrings the community.

“Our vision is to provide education, employment and economic empowerment to help people who can not help themselves,” Canady said.

janet@wilsontimes.com — 265-7847

By Colin Brinsden, Economics Correspondent

CANBERRA, Nov 16 AAP – Christmas tiffany jewelry stockings may be a bit skinnier this year despite a high level of consumer confidence, and an economy that is outperforming other advanced countries.

Treasurer Wayne Swan concedes that the country still faces many challenges, such as rising unemployment, but his government will be working just as hard to ensure an enduring economic recovery.

Still, one financial market strategist, who has a nose for predicting official interest rate decisions correctly, does not believe the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will lift the cash rate again in December.

Last week’s monthly Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment survey found that while confidence fell 2.5 per cent in November, on the back of rising interest rates, it remained 38.3 per cent higher than a year ago with optimists still clearly outweighing pessimists.

However, additional responses to the survey released on Monday showed that just 14.2 per cent of respondents intend to spend more on gifts than they did last Christmas.

“Christmas spending intentions are at odds with buoyant levels of consumer sentiment,” money clips Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan said in releasing the findings.

Most consumers expect to either hold steady or reduce spending on gifts this year compared to last year.

Just under 35 per cent said they planned to spend less, while about half said they would spend around the same.

Mr Hassan said this was likely due to the federal government’s $8.7 billion in cash handouts this time last year as part of it first economic stimulus package.

“There may also be a regular bias towards restraint heading into Christmas that eases as the season gets underway.”

About 40 per cent of households plan to spend more than $500 on gifts this year, while a quarter expect to spend $300 to $500, and just over 30 per cent plan to spend less that $300.

Overall, households plan to spend an average of $317 on gifts in 2009, pointing to a total Christmas spend of $2.5 billion.

Mr Swan said the government’s stimulus strategy had helped the economy outperform other advanced economies.

“The government is working just as hard on the post-crisis economy as we did surviving the crisis itself pendants,” Mr Swan told parliament.

“We did the hard yards to position us as the strongest performing advanced economy, and we’ll do the hard yards to turn this into something much more enduring. In many ways we are just beginning.”

Macquarie Bank interest rate strategist Rory Robertson said the economy is “doing OK, not great”.

He did not think that last week’s official labour force report that showed an unexpected 24,500 more people in employment was necessarily a trigger for the RBA to raise the cash rate for an unprecedented third month in a row in December.

“My best guess today is that the RBA will sit on its hands in December, take a break over summer and then hike several times in the first half of 2010, if the local economy continues to strengthen,” he said.

The RBA will release the minutes of this month’s board meeting, where it lifted the cash rate to earrings 3.5 per cent from 3.25 per cent, on Tuesday.

Mr Robertson said the minutes will shed some further light on the near-term policy outlook.

SkyBitz, the leading remote asset tracking and information management service provider tiffany and co, will attach a mobile tracking unit to the trailer carrying the 85-foot blue spruce as it crosses the country from Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona using SkyBitz’s award-winning GLS asset tracking services. The tracking data, complete with a detailed street-level map of the most recent location, will be accessible to the general public on the company’s Web site, www.trackthetree.com, beginning November 10.

“We are excited to provide this unique and interactive experience for everyone, young and old, to get engaged in this event and the activities and history that surround it,” said SkyBitz Senior Vice President of Marketing Craig Montgomery.

The Capitol Christmas Tree is scheduled to leave Eagar, Ariz., on November 10 and will tour the state of Arizona for ten days before visiting: Amarillo, Texas; Tulsa, Okla.; Branson, Mo.; Nashville, Tenn.; Roanoke, Va.; and Chevy Chase, Md. The tree’s journey will culminate at the U.S. Capitol Building on November 30, with the lighting ceremony to take place the week of December 7. The SkyBitz tracking solution and interactive Web site will detail this journey every step of the way.

Since 1970, Congress has asked a different National Forest to provide “the People’s Tree” – complete tiffany pendants with all the trimmings – as a gift to our nation each holiday season. This year marks the first time Arizona has provided the Capitol Christmas Tree. About SkyBitz SkyBitz is the leading remote asset management solution provider, providing real-time information on the location and status of assets to customers in the fields of transportation, energy, and government. SkyBitz delivers a reliable, easy-to-use solution that provides in-transit visibility and assessment of assets anytime, anywhere. More than 600 enterprises rely on cost-effective SkyBitz technology to achieve total asset visibility, improve security, lower operating and capital expenses, and enhance customer service. SkyBitz is a privately held company backed by CIBC Capital Partners, Highstar Capital, Inverness Graham Investments, Motorola Ventures and ITV, a fund of Cordova Ventures. For additional information, visit www.SkyBitz.com. Release Summary:SkyBitz is tracking the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree from Arizona to the U.S. Capitol Building. The public can follow this year’s tree online at www.trackthetree.com. Keyword Tags:asset tracking, capitol christmas tree, information management, satellite, skybitz, technology, trackthetree.com, transportation, transportation technology, trucking

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A large part of the Christmas season involves songs, gathering with friends and loved ones and food. A local church, El Buen Pastor, has managed to combine all three for the past decade.

In the late 1990s Debbie Arrieta decided to gather the church’s older youth and organize Christmas tiffany jewelry caroling activities. The idea began to gain popularity.

“From there it kind of grew into even the primary-age students wanted to come and sing with us. And then even adults that wanted us to go to there homes wanted to tag along.”

The caroling takes place a few days before Christmas. About 15 church members hop in their cars and go to friends’, relatives’ and other members’ homes to sing. By the end of the evening its not unusual for the caroling group that was less than 20 people to have grown to more than 40 as people being sung to decide to go sing to others.

Andrew Arrieta started caroling with the group when he was 11 years old. He said he’s never tired of the annual activity.

“It’s being together that’s a lot of fun. The cars are all packed with people, you’re blasting Christmas music and you’re trying to be the first one to get to the door,” Andrew Arrieta said.

Some of the older carolers enjoy watching the children participate as much as they do singing themselves silver pendants.

“I really love to see the kids, especially our little kids. Watching them as they’re growing every year, they look forward to it and they have so much fun,” church member Irma Dominguez said. “I think it’s mutual, because we have fun being together first and laughing and joking and singing.”

The children jockey for position to determine who rings the doorbell at each house. But the caroling does not start until everyone has arrived, which can be tricky with a caravan of people trying to follow homemade maps guiding them around the city.

The song list remains the same from year-to-year. There’s about 15 tunes that include many of the classics — “Silent Night,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Jingle Bells,” and others. Alicia Mondragon said her favorite is “Joy to the World” because it captures the true meaning of Christmas, the arrival of Christ.

Each home — there’s about 15 visited each year — is treated to one song. Usually, which song is performed is decided only minutes before the doorbell is rung.

The carolers will go to homes of non-church members upon request. Sometimes the new people they’re singing to don’t know if they should give them gifts or money. Church members say they don’t want anything. They sing for the joy of it.

“It’s a great experience that we do. It’s not a chore, it’s a fun thing that we do,” Dominguez said.

After caroling the group gathers at church member Yolonda Mondragon’s home where there’s plenty of food waiting silver earrings. The carolers are especailly fond of her quesadillas, and the hot chocolate is always nice after singing for a couple hours in 30-degree weather.

The evening for the group can be summed up in the advice Debbie Arrieta gives everyone before they leave to go caroling.

“Make sure you bring Christmas move it, play it really loud, enjoy yourself, be careful, have a good time and keep Christ in mind,” she says.