Wednesday, July 14, 2010

If you are buying for a pet lover this year, you should check out the bargains to be found at The Animal Rescue Site.  There are gifts for just about anyone on your list.  You can check out Global Girlfriend and purchase items on your list that will help support women artisans in struggling nations.  Your purchase will help shelters and animal rescue groups throughout the nation.  Check it out!  You have everything to gain and so do the animals and people being helped by this wonderful organization.


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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A Christmas tree inside a home.Image via Wikipedia
Here's a video I found that helps you understand how to plan for the holidays in advance.  This is just the first video in the series, so I suggest you visit the site and watch the rest.  They are pretty good, but not all inclusive of the planning that you need to do.  Overall, these videos are a good beginning spot.  Enjoy!
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 Christmas is a time for family and rejoicing, for celebrating the good things we have in life. Christmas is also the time during which retailers and advertisers bombard the senses, desperate to get those dollars you've worked so hard for. But unless you're okay with losing a few friends, and possibly being ignored by a few family members, you are hopelessly obligated to get something for everyone you expect to speak to for the next year or so. Shopping for Christmas gifts can be source of extreme stress, trying to stretch your limited budget and still pay the bills. But Expert Village offers these free videos to help you create and execute a holiday spending plan that won't leave you eating nothing but black eyed peas for the entire month of January. Expert Melissa Schenk will teach you how to budget your holiday spending, first by making a Christmas shopping list, setting a limit on Christmas spending, and how to fine-tune your budget by brainstorming for gift ideas and separating your gift spending from your other holiday expenses. You'll also learn how to resist the temptation of buying for yourself when shopping for gifts. Skipping the expensive Christmas cards and fancy gift wrap are also great ways to save money this holiday season.




How to Crate a Holiday Spending Budget -- powered by eHow.com
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Monday, July 12, 2010

Strategies For Planning For Early Christmas Shopping

Christmas decoration at a shopping mall in BrazilImage via Wikipedia
Here is an article I found on Barbieinablender, which is a site that posts information about women's fashion and issues affecting women.  The actual article can be found here.  I think there are several really good tips for those who want to be organized and who want to shop early.  What do you think?  Will this work for you?

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Shopping early for the Christmas is always a good idea because you will find yourself ahead of vast majority of the crowds that only start their shopping when Christmas is just days or weeks away. Shoppers and other people generally will be green in envy this holiday season knowing that you are way ahead of them in your shopping for the Christmas and in fact, already finished your shopping by then. Having said that, you do not need to worry about getting stuck in the traffic jam on the way to the shopping centers and malls that are crowded with mostly last minute shoppers days before the Christmas day.

For those of you who appreciate the advantages of getting ready for your early Christmas shopping, I am certain that you have developed your own means of planning and accomplishing for your Christmas celebration. Meanwhile, for the rest of you who belong to the last minute shoppers group in organizing the Christmas shopping, you will be provided with some tips on early Christmas shopping for this year.

Planning for the Christmas shopping for the following year right after the Christmas this year is an excellent strategy that you can attempt to allow you to start and finish your Christmas shopping early. These methods have been adopted by many with extra disposable income. The pros about shopping few days just after the Christmas are twofold: Firstly, shopping right after Christmas can be enjoyable in the Christmas atmosphere. While the shops and shopping malls and centers may still be very crowded on these days, nevertheless, you can slow down your pace to enjoy the shopping in a more relaxed manner. Secondly, with grand sales still going on, you are in it for shopping big times and very likely, a great saving for your shopping.

The next big thing about getting your Christmas shopping done earlier is through purchasing online at the comfort of your home. Imagine that you can make purchases for the variety of goods and gifts online ranging from toys, fruits, wine, gift baskets, flowers and so forth at a click of your finger and the gifts will be wrapped brilliantly and delivered according to your instruction. The convenience of shopping online removes you of the need to worry over the wrapping process or long queue wait at post offices at some reasonable charges for the service. Therefore, if you like the idea of online Christmas shopping, remember to commit yourself to perform your purchases early in order to avoid disappointment due to short of stock or late shipment.

The other way to approach planning and shopping for your early Christmas this year would be purchasing at least two gifts for each of the person on your name list for their coming birthdays. The idea behind this is that while one gift serves as a birthday gift for the intended recipient, the second gift would be set aside as his or her Christmas gift. Not only would this allows you to break away from the crowd that swamps the shopping malls and stores near the Christmas seasons, sometimes, early shopping allows you to grab better and ideal gift which is difficult to come across at certain times of the year. I come across people who get agitated and stressful when it comes so close to Christmas that they have troubles finding the perfect gift for everyone in their name lists after hitting the shopping malls times after times. There is really no need to be in such a rush for the Christmas shopping should you have prepared earlier for your Christmas shopping and would have finished your purchases when the Christmas season arrives. Despite this, if you happen to encounter people on your name list with birthdays in December, that may mean some last minute shopping but what you can do is to mark down these people and plan the purchases of their birthday and Christmas gifts a month or few months earlier.
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Friday, July 9, 2010

Black Friday Deals online?

Inside Hawthorn mall on Black Friday 2006Image via Wikipedia
Here's a snippet from a new site I just found called Black-Friday.net. 
This is really exciting to know that you can get the super sales offered on that specific day online--no fighting crowds, no waiting outside stores early in the morning.  That is really a great thing for those of us who plan ahead.  Check out the site and as it gets closer to the holiday, check out their Facebook page to keep up with specials.

Black Friday 2010

January 1st, 2010
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when major retailers around the country discount products to help kick off the Christmas shopping season. This Black Friday ads are usually kept secret until you receive the circulars in your Thanksgiving Day newspaper. However at Black-Friday.net, we give you the advantage by showing you all of the Black Friday 2010 ads before anyone else. We also offer direct links to each product so you can purchase the items online on Black Friday without having to stand in line at the store!
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Here's a Carol Duval video showing a holiday craft--a reindeer sock doll

I love the Carol Duval show and I found this video showing how to make a reindeer sock doll for Christmas.  Here is the link to the video.  Let me know if you try this and show me a picture of the finished doll.  I may try this myself before it gets too crazy for the holidays.

Here's the link
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