Christmas Shopping Advice for Men

Here is an article I found that is quite humorous.  You might want to print it out and "accidentally" leave it lying for your man to find.  It really gives some good advice on how to buy a present for a woman, and even if it was published in the UK, it has universal information.
I hope you find this as interesting as I did and I hope it helps you get what you "really" want for Christmas this year!

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Author: Carrie Spacey

Published: 11th November 2009 12:37

It's a well-worn cliche that many men put this task off until Christmas Eve - but have you ever wondered why that is? It won't necessarily be because he's lazy or disorganized, no, it's far more likely he just hasn't got a clue and has that "can't do right for doing wrong" mental block.

We're here to help, so all you worried men out there, read on....

Christmas shopping for the woman in your life can be daunting, but knowing a few basics about the noble art of buying gifts for women can help you on the way to a harmonious festive season:

It's About Her, Not You
This has to be the cardinal rule: Do not, under any circumstances, buy her something that's on your own wishlist. So, nothing from the DIY shop, no sports DVDs, no gardening implements. Most women will not have "52" LCD TV so I can watch Liverpool v Utd next Saturday" at the top of their must-haves.

No Household Appliances
You might think you're being helpful by getting her a chop-o-matic or one of those nifty new hoovers with a ball instead of wheels, but believe me, go that route and it's highly likely you'll be spending Christmas night in Arrowe Park A&E. Christmas is a time for gifts she wants, not stuff she needs.

Apply the Mother-in-Law test

Each idea you have must be put through this rigorous testing procedure. If you think your Mother would like it, forget it. Move on. Quickly.

Big Pants or Black Lace? Neither!
It's entirely possible that your loved one could do with some new knickers or a nightie. But, you must strike the right note - half-way between granny pants and your wildest fantasies should be about right.

Don't Attempt to "Do" Fashion
Clothing may seem to be an ideal gift, especially if your partner loooooves clothes. However, the point is, if she does love clothes, she probably has a very strong idea of what she does and doesn't like, honed over several thousand hours of window/online/real-life shopping. How can you hope to compete with that level of experience?

A far better idea is to figure out her favourite shop, buy an extravagantly generous voucher and then wrap it up beautifully - layers and layers of silk, ribbon, little notes in between each layer. Anything to disguise the fact you wimped out and got her a voucher, basically.

Listen and Learn
Once upon a time I had a craving for a particular, really funky, leather jacket. I went on, and on, and on about it in the presence of my then boyfriend. In fact, no-one in a 10 mile radius could have been in any doubt of what I wanted for Christmas. He, however, bought me an "ornamental" painted wooden frog. Called Bladder. I kid you not.

OK, I appreciate this is an extreme example, but it does serve the purpose of pointing out that you could do well to actually listen to the hints she is dropping. Sometimes these may be subtle, but most likely they will be like bricks landing in a duck-pond. They'll probably have started around late October. Listen and act on them. Definitely.

Love Conquers All
There's probably very little chance you will ever get it 100% right, because we women are a capricious bunch. But, if she can tell you've at least thought about it, and curbed your urges towards the mundane, the easiest option or the downright lazy, the chances are you will avoid the spectacle of your Christmas dinner ending up on the dining room wall.

Just show her you care enough to follow the above rules, and I'm prepared to bet my wooden frog Bladder that you'll see her smiling at you over the sprouts this Christmas.

Find the original article here

Here's a great idea for an evening spent with your daughters.  Help them to enjoy natural beauty and natural goodness. Cleansing the face is something we all do regularly.  Why not teach our daughters how to do this simple thing in a fun way and spend quality time while doing it?

Try this out during the holiday rush--take some time just for yourselves--to pamper and relax your mind and body!

Apple Face Mask, excerpt from The Natural Beauty Book
By Anne Akers Johnson

Mask are intensive treatments and should be limited to your once-a-week routine. Choose one that is well suited to your skin.
Facial Mask Basics
1. Before applying a mask, find a place where you can lie back without being disturbed. Spread a towel out where you will rest your head in case your mask drips.
2. Choose and prepare a recipe.
3. Pull your hair back off your face. Pull long hair back into a ponytail.
4. Wash your face so it's nice and clean.
5. Run a washcloth under warm water, squeeze it out and hold it over your face for a few seconds to dampen your face. If you've just had a steam, skip this step.
6. Apply the mask all over your face and neck (if you like), avoiding your eye area. Lie back and let the mask work for 10-15 minutes. If it starts to feel itchy or uncomfortable, less time is OK.
7. If your mask is particularly chunky (like oatmeal) use your washcloth to gently wipe it off your face, shaking the bits of mask into the trash (this is the trick to avoiding clogged drains). Once it's mostly off, rinse your face in warm water.

Apple Face Mask

Ingredients

1/2 Apple, grated into a bowl
2 t Honey
1 T Uncooked, regular oatmeal

Directions

Step 1: Grind the oatmeal into a flour in a clean coffee grinder or food processor if you have one. Unground oatmeal is OK too, it just makes the mask a little messier.
Step 2: Combine all the ingredients.
Step 3: Lie back and gently press small handfulls of the mask onto your face. Rub it along the sides of your face, then let it sit for 10-15 minutes before removing and rinsing.


For more homemade beauty projects like these, check out The Natural Beauty Book: Create Your Own Natural Spa Experience by Anne Akers Johnson.

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Recipe for making paper clay

Image by Swamibu via Flickr

Paper clay is fairly expensive at the hobby store, so I went online to find an alternate source of the stuff used to make many of the beautiful and expressive art dolls I have been viewing.  I also like paper mache, so when I found this video, I knew I would want to share it with you.  I can't wait to try to make this.  Maybe this recipe will be the answer to my "artistic" block!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video and try this out.  Won't you post me a comment and let me know if this worked for you?

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Here's a look at why I like paper mache!

This artist has the most enjoyable and whimsical creations.  Please browse through the galleries and see if you don't agree.  This really is why I love paper mache, it's so versatile.

I love that you can take a medium available anywhere, that children can use to create, and make these gorgeous sculptures.  If you do an online search, you will find many paper mache artists out there whose works are unbelievable!

Here is the link to view PapierDog

Here's an interesting video!

 I was reading posts on ADO and found this video.  It is amazing.  I really want to share it with you, so I hope you will find it as interesting as I did.  It is also quite a bit disturbing to watch the visual changes take place in such a short time.  If you enjoy this video, won't you visit the sculptor's site?

Do you want to start an online craft business? Here's some suggestions.

Image via CrunchBase

Making the Internet and Ecommerce Work for Your Craft Business

By Maire Loughran, About.com

If you’ve ever gotten together with a group of crafters discussing ecommerce, you probably found that the verdict was evenly split on the topic of its worth. In my experience, about half will think it’s the best thing since sliced bread while the other half find it too much of a hassle to coordinate the ordering, payment and shipping procedures. Even if you don’t want to sell your crafts online, a website is a fantastic way to market your crafts by providing potential customers with more information about your company.

1. Is Your Craft Suitable for Ecommerce?

I really don’t see this as being too much of a problem. Live plants, furniture, cut flowers, expensive jewelry, firearms, frozen groceries are all available for purchase via the Internet. From tiny to huge, there seems to be a shipping option for just about any product.
The only way I could anticipate ecommerce being a problem for your craft business is if you have some sort of health or safety issue involved. How likely is this with a craft type business? Well, I can’t think of an example.
Not interested in ecommerce? You still should have an informational website listing dates and locations for craft shows or retail shops that carry your product so your customers can find you.

2. Set up an Internet Presence¹

It’s very easy to get your company up and running on the internet. Some possibilites I recommend are using What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) software such as Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver, hire a website designer for a truly custom look or signing up for third party marketing through sites such as eBay or Yahoo stores.

3. Etsy²

If you’re involved in arts or crafts, you’ve more than likely heard of Etsy.com, an online venue for buying and selling handcrafted products. Like any online presence, maintaining an Etsy shop takes work. Curious about Etsy? Thinking it may be a good compliment to the way you’re marketing your craft business at present? Check out my brief Etsy tutorials.

4. ArtFire.com³

Find out about ArtFire.com, a inexpensive way to market your arts / crafts online. ArtFire offers both a free Basic plan and a Verified plan costing $12 per month with no listing fees or commissions.Thinking ArtFire.com may be a good compliment to the way you’re marketing your craft business at present? Check out my brief ArtFire tutorials.

5. Tailor Pages to Your Website

Depending if you have an ecommerce website or an informational only website there are standard pages that you should include. I wasn’t quite sure what pages to include as part of a well-written site and what was fluff when I started out, so I used various websites that I liked as guides.
If you have an ecommerce site don't skip having a Policy page. This page gives your customer the full scoop on your return, shipping and other company policies so there’s no confusion about the terms of the sale. An informed customer is a happy customer, give them a lot of info so there are no surprises regarding the order.

6. Web Images Have to be Perfect⁴

I just can’t emphasize this enough. Your images must look flawless. I mean, really, do you order from a website if the product image doesn’t look good? Well, you may if you’re buying groceries or computer parts. But you’re selling crafts, which is reaching a totally different audience. Your customer is going to need a killer image to give them that final push to click on the ‘Add to Cart’ button.
A stellar product image goes a long way toward reinforcing customer confidence in your product. This translates into sales. If your site is for informational purposes only, you still need great images to attract customers to your craft shows. Good images can save you money too since the website can replace a costly print catalog.

7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)⁵

You can have a fantastic website, with stellar images and killer product descriptions, but it will do you no good unless people can find it. It’s kind of like a needle in a haystack out there in cyberspace. Increase your chances of potential customers finding you through search engine optimization.

8. Selling Online? You Might Need Shopping Cart Software⁶

If you’re only accepting payment through a service like PayPal, you can relax. You won’t need shopping cart software – PayPal takes care of this for you. However, I have a merchant account in addition to PayPal (it comes in handy for my customers at craft shows).
Have the same situation as me? Check with your merchant account provider to see which shopping cart software works with their system. Also, protect your customers by only using shopping cart software that has Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protection.

9. Shipping Your Customer Orders

Congratulations, you’ve made your first sale online! Now, how are you going to get that order from your business to their house? Investigate the various possibilities (USPS, Federal Express, UPS etc) and see which works best for you. Another shipping issue to consider is if you are going to incorporate the cost of shipping into the cost of the product and offer ‘free’ shipping or if the shipping will be an add-on to the cost of the sale.

10. Should You Monetize Your Craft Web Site?⁷

If you’re not sure what this means, an excellent example are websites that use Google Ad Sense. I don’t recommend monetizing a craft business website. Once you've gotten that elusive potential customer to visit your site, you don't want to distract them with ads for other businesses. Keep your website on its main topic – that of promoting your product.

 

 

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Links in this article:

1. http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/makingwebsites/Start_Your_Own_Web_Site_Handbook_for_New_Designers.htm
2. http://artsandcrafts.about.com/od/etsycom/Using_Etsy_com_to_Market_Arts_and_Crafts.htm
3. http://artsandcrafts.about.com/od/artfirecom/ArtFire_com.htm
4. http://personalweb.about.com/od/addanduploadphotos/Add_Photos_To_Your_Computer_Edit_and_Upload_Photos_To_Your_Web_Site.htm
5. http://websearch.about.com/od/searchenginemarketing/Web_Site_Optimization_DIY_Web_Site_Optimization.htm
6. http://homebusiness.about.com/b/2007/06/28/mailbag-which-shopping-cart-system-is-best.htm
7. http://google.about.com/od/m/g/monetizedef.htm

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Here is some information for starting your own online craft business.  I know that there are many people out there who craft but don't know how to go about starting an online store or how to showcase their wares.  There is a good market for homemade items, but since most are not advertised, it seems that no one want to buy them.  Not so. 

Even other countries are great buyers of hand crafted items, so put your crafty hat on and get busy.  It never hurts to make a little extra money and having a home-business has tax advantages.  The soon you start one the better.

Tree Ornament - Felt Whimsical Santa

This free Christmas craft project shows you how to make a quick Christmas tree ornament. For those who do not know how to sew you can use craft glue instead of the needle and thread. Print off the pattern and cut out all the shapes.Using some sewing pins, pin the paper pattern to your piece of felt and cut out the shape. You need for each Christmas ornament (front and back). Sew the buttons onto the front pattern piece as shown in the picture. Using the needle and thread sew a blanket stitch around the edges leaving 1-2 inches at the top so you can fill it. Do not remove the thread as you will use it to finish off. Fill the Christmas ornament with a small amount of toy filling and then sew in the ribbon for hanging the Christmas ornament up. Close up the top of the Ornament with the remaining thread in the same blanket stitch style. If you do not know how to sew you can glue this project or use a different stitch style.

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