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.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Image via Wikipedia_______________________________________
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
Monday, July 12, 2010
Strategies For Planning For Early Christmas Shopping
Image via Wikipedia___________________________________________________________________________________
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.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Black Friday Deals online?
Image via WikipediaThis 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!
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
Here's the link
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The price wars between Kindle and Nook mean savings for you!
If you have a reader to buy for this year, you might want to take a look at a Kindle reader from Amazon. Right now, there is a price war going on and you can purchase one of these readers for under $200. Who knows how long this will last, so now is the time to buy. Christmas will be here before you know it and by then the price may return to almost $300.
The Kindle comes with free wi-fi connection and the ability to access so many different types of reading material that it makes your head spin. This device will allow you to read books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc. with ease. This is a slim, lightweight device that is much easier to carry around in your bag. No more wasting time waiting at the doctor's office or in line at the store. Now you can be connected and be reading no matter where you go.
Here are just a few articles in the news about this topic:
E-reader Price War --Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On the Business Beat, our focus is on the electronic reader and a new layaway plan.
The electronic reader war continues heating up today.
Bottom line, the prices are coming down.
Target is now selling the Amazon Kindle, with the price down to $189. The price drop follows Barnes & Noble cutting the price on its "Nook" to $149, and its 3G model to $199.
Also out there, the Borders version, called the KOBO, selling for $149 [...read more...]
Amazon Kindle sees price drop -- June 21st, 2010
Amazon just announced that their Kindle e-reader will receive a price drop to $189, falling all the way from $259. It would be interesting to see just how this rather steep price drop will help boost the Kindle’s sales in wake of the iPad’s phenomenal release and sales performance figures thus far. For those who have been living under a rock for the past few years, the Amazon Kindle is the 3G wireless portable reader which allows you to think of a book and be reading in 60 seconds, regardless of where you are – subject to availability of a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, of course. Best of all is, there are no monthly fees or annual contracts to worry about, and you can choose from more than 600,000 books. Woe to those who purchased the Kindle just a day earlier at the full $259 price, eh? Press Release
Bought a Kindle Too Soon? Ask For a Refund -- June 22, 2010, 4:43 PM ET
Some people who were on the fence about buying a dedicated e-reader may be celebrating Monday’s price war between Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle. For the first time, both devices now cost less than $200.
But there was one group who wasn’t celebrating: People who recently bought the devices at their former price of $259. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble were promoting the devices as Father’s Day gifts at the higher price (although Barnes & Noble was including a $50 gift card with purchases).
Now some good news: Both companies say they’re willing to refund customers who bought their e-reading devices recently. You just have to ask for it.
Amazon says it will give the $70 price difference between an old and new Kindle as a credit to customers whose devices were shipped in the last 30 days.
Barnes & Noble says it will give customers a $10 refund and $50 gift card to Nook customers who are still within their 14-day return policy period. You can contact customer service, or just find the store manager at your local Barnes & Noble branch.
Follow Geoffrey Fowler on Twitter.
For information on Kindle visit The Kindle Reader.
The Kindle comes with free wi-fi connection and the ability to access so many different types of reading material that it makes your head spin. This device will allow you to read books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc. with ease. This is a slim, lightweight device that is much easier to carry around in your bag. No more wasting time waiting at the doctor's office or in line at the store. Now you can be connected and be reading no matter where you go.
Here are just a few articles in the news about this topic:
E-reader Price War --Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On the Business Beat, our focus is on the electronic reader and a new layaway plan.
The electronic reader war continues heating up today.
Bottom line, the prices are coming down.
Target is now selling the Amazon Kindle, with the price down to $189. The price drop follows Barnes & Noble cutting the price on its "Nook" to $149, and its 3G model to $199.
Also out there, the Borders version, called the KOBO, selling for $149 [...read more...]
Amazon Kindle sees price drop -- June 21st, 2010
Amazon just announced that their Kindle e-reader will receive a price drop to $189, falling all the way from $259. It would be interesting to see just how this rather steep price drop will help boost the Kindle’s sales in wake of the iPad’s phenomenal release and sales performance figures thus far. For those who have been living under a rock for the past few years, the Amazon Kindle is the 3G wireless portable reader which allows you to think of a book and be reading in 60 seconds, regardless of where you are – subject to availability of a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, of course. Best of all is, there are no monthly fees or annual contracts to worry about, and you can choose from more than 600,000 books. Woe to those who purchased the Kindle just a day earlier at the full $259 price, eh? Press Release
Bought a Kindle Too Soon? Ask For a Refund -- June 22, 2010, 4:43 PM ET
Some people who were on the fence about buying a dedicated e-reader may be celebrating Monday’s price war between Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle. For the first time, both devices now cost less than $200.
- Associated Press
- Amazon’s Kindle
Now some good news: Both companies say they’re willing to refund customers who bought their e-reading devices recently. You just have to ask for it.
Amazon says it will give the $70 price difference between an old and new Kindle as a credit to customers whose devices were shipped in the last 30 days.
Barnes & Noble says it will give customers a $10 refund and $50 gift card to Nook customers who are still within their 14-day return policy period. You can contact customer service, or just find the store manager at your local Barnes & Noble branch.
Follow Geoffrey Fowler on Twitter.
For information on Kindle visit The Kindle Reader.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Here's a wonderful ornament that you can make for gifts!
Here's a really great tutorial to make easy gifts to give this year. I know that I will be trying this myself. These look so festive and I bet they are really easy. I may make these to give to my co-workers and to mail with my cards to friends far away. I really appreciate this wonderful tutorial. Please click on the title link and visit the blog for more.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Hi! I just sent all 9 packages to their recipients of my swap group today (Phew!) and decided to post the tutorial here as well. It's a christmas ornament made out of shrinkable plastic and adorned with my favourite itsy bitsy buttons. But first, download the template here.
STEP 1 : DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE. This is how the template looks. I've not included the patterns, you may want to decorate them as you like. Digitally or with sharpies/colour markers. I've used quilting textile patterns and put in the recipients name with Adobe Illustrator. If you need the illustrator file, just e-mail me.
STEP 2 : DESIGN YOUR ORNAMENT & PRINT. That's my work table with all the printed shrinkable plastics. Choose shrinkable plastics that allow you to print on your inkjet printer if you intend to do this digitally. Read instructions on shrinking percentage and enlarged as you seem fit. Bigger ornaments need bigger graphics (you may try out one first.) Usually shrinkable plastics will shrink about 50% tp 60% from the printed size. Some may even shrink horizontally more than vertical. For mine, the rounded ornaments started as perfect circles, but when they're heated it shrunk vertically more, so they now appear oval like.
STEP 3 : Remember to print at 50% lighter shade. Because of the shrinking that will take place in your ovennete, things will appear very much darker.
STEP 4 : CUTTING OUT THE PIECES. All arranged out. I'd advice you to cut 1 set at a time and punch the holes as soon as you do. Make sure the punches are on the same direction for all the pieces. If not, you will have the holes in the wrong edges.
Step 5 : PUNCHING THE PIECES. Only punch the edges where you will sew the pieces together. Always remember to punch before heating, if not it will be too late to punch once it is shrunk! Too thick and too damn hard! Oh yes, a bigger punch is used if you need a bigger hole. Too small of a hole will not be effective once it is shrunk. (I hope that makes sense.)
Step 6 : HEATING THE OVEN. Please use the oven. NO MICROWAVE OVENS (unless you want a Chernobyl incident here!) I use a simple toaster oven. You need very low heat (follow manufacturer's heating instructions). Pop them two at a time on top of foil. Watch them shrink and curl. Don't worry about the curling, it will naturally uncurl once it is ready to come out. This will take less than 30 seconds or more depending on heat. When there is no more movement or shrinking, pick them out with wooden chopsticks onto a wooden board and flatten while still warm.
STEP 7 : Place on wooden board to cool. Do the rest. It's quite automatic after awhile. If you notice unsightly dents in the middle, it means that your piece needs more heating. Do not overheat though, it will take a lot of heat to melt it again and it will be disastrous.
You can pop in The big pieces on at a time. Don't be in a rush, I know you'll get excited watching it shrink and dance but you need to control the curving when it comes out from the oven and you need to flatten it immediately.
Check out the shrinking.
Laid out to rest.
STEP 8 : VARNISHING. I used Modge podge to varnish and waterproof the pieces. You can also use aerosol sprays but Modge Podge is way cheaper. Let dry overnight and away from busybody 4 year olds.
STEP 9 : ATTACHING THE PIECES. Select matching buttons. Size of buttons depends on how far the holes are from one piece to another ornament piece. I tie a knot to secure the button first before sewing onto the pieces.
Select the last piece and sew to the upper one.
To knot off by going around a few times and knotting at the back to properly secure the button to the piece.
Sewing the upper pieces together depending on how many layers you want your ornament to be.
STEP 10 : ATTACHING THE RIBBON. Assemble the ribbon and buttons for the upper ornament.
STEP 11 : ATTACHING THE RIBBON FOR THE TOP MOST ORNAMENT. With the same method, attach the topmost ornament with a ribbon for hanging. Select soft ribbons for this.
Do the bow for the middle. You can opt for felt cutouts or maybe lace, there are many possibilities. Use your noodles!
Step 12 : ATTACH THE RIBBON to THE MIDDLE.
Knot off with the same method for a neat finish.
Tada! The finished ornament. This is for Melissa of Group 17.
All in a row. I even made one for myself. Now, remember to write to me about your creation this Christmas.
Merry Christmas Everyone. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. Do write and keep in touch. 
__________________________________________________________________________________
Christmas Ornament Tutorial
Hi! I just sent all 9 packages to their recipients of my swap group today (Phew!) and decided to post the tutorial here as well. It's a christmas ornament made out of shrinkable plastic and adorned with my favourite itsy bitsy buttons. But first, download the template here.
STEP 1 : DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE. This is how the template looks. I've not included the patterns, you may want to decorate them as you like. Digitally or with sharpies/colour markers. I've used quilting textile patterns and put in the recipients name with Adobe Illustrator. If you need the illustrator file, just e-mail me.
STEP 2 : DESIGN YOUR ORNAMENT & PRINT. That's my work table with all the printed shrinkable plastics. Choose shrinkable plastics that allow you to print on your inkjet printer if you intend to do this digitally. Read instructions on shrinking percentage and enlarged as you seem fit. Bigger ornaments need bigger graphics (you may try out one first.) Usually shrinkable plastics will shrink about 50% tp 60% from the printed size. Some may even shrink horizontally more than vertical. For mine, the rounded ornaments started as perfect circles, but when they're heated it shrunk vertically more, so they now appear oval like.
STEP 3 : Remember to print at 50% lighter shade. Because of the shrinking that will take place in your ovennete, things will appear very much darker.
STEP 4 : CUTTING OUT THE PIECES. All arranged out. I'd advice you to cut 1 set at a time and punch the holes as soon as you do. Make sure the punches are on the same direction for all the pieces. If not, you will have the holes in the wrong edges. 
Step 5 : PUNCHING THE PIECES. Only punch the edges where you will sew the pieces together. Always remember to punch before heating, if not it will be too late to punch once it is shrunk! Too thick and too damn hard! Oh yes, a bigger punch is used if you need a bigger hole. Too small of a hole will not be effective once it is shrunk. (I hope that makes sense.)
Step 6 : HEATING THE OVEN. Please use the oven. NO MICROWAVE OVENS (unless you want a Chernobyl incident here!) I use a simple toaster oven. You need very low heat (follow manufacturer's heating instructions). Pop them two at a time on top of foil. Watch them shrink and curl. Don't worry about the curling, it will naturally uncurl once it is ready to come out. This will take less than 30 seconds or more depending on heat. When there is no more movement or shrinking, pick them out with wooden chopsticks onto a wooden board and flatten while still warm. 
STEP 7 : Place on wooden board to cool. Do the rest. It's quite automatic after awhile. If you notice unsightly dents in the middle, it means that your piece needs more heating. Do not overheat though, it will take a lot of heat to melt it again and it will be disastrous.
You can pop in The big pieces on at a time. Don't be in a rush, I know you'll get excited watching it shrink and dance but you need to control the curving when it comes out from the oven and you need to flatten it immediately.
Check out the shrinking.
Laid out to rest.
STEP 8 : VARNISHING. I used Modge podge to varnish and waterproof the pieces. You can also use aerosol sprays but Modge Podge is way cheaper. Let dry overnight and away from busybody 4 year olds.
STEP 9 : ATTACHING THE PIECES. Select matching buttons. Size of buttons depends on how far the holes are from one piece to another ornament piece. I tie a knot to secure the button first before sewing onto the pieces.
Select the last piece and sew to the upper one.
To knot off by going around a few times and knotting at the back to properly secure the button to the piece.
Sewing the upper pieces together depending on how many layers you want your ornament to be.
STEP 10 : ATTACHING THE RIBBON. Assemble the ribbon and buttons for the upper ornament.
STEP 11 : ATTACHING THE RIBBON FOR THE TOP MOST ORNAMENT. With the same method, attach the topmost ornament with a ribbon for hanging. Select soft ribbons for this.
Do the bow for the middle. You can opt for felt cutouts or maybe lace, there are many possibilities. Use your noodles!
Step 12 : ATTACH THE RIBBON to THE MIDDLE.
Knot off with the same method for a neat finish.
Tada! The finished ornament. This is for Melissa of Group 17.
All in a row. I even made one for myself. Now, remember to write to me about your creation this Christmas.Merry Christmas Everyone. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. Do write and keep in touch.
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