Archive for February, 2010
Personalized jewelry is like engraving on steroids. Featuring gold, diamond and silver pendants, personalized jewelry has become the must have gift for special, romantic occasions.
Valentines Day just passed and it appears that I might be the only one not currently on the personalized jewelry bandwagon. Ok, ok, I’m not the jewelry master that some of my friends are, but am I really that out of the loop that I have not yet started purchasing personalized jewelry? After this weekend, I realize that, well, maybe I am.
For those of you who aren’t aware of the “personalized jewelry” movement that seems to be sweeping the market, think of engravings on steroids. Personalized jewelry utilizes such features as engraved diamond and gold pendants added to necklaces and bracelets to make each piece unique. These pendants can feature anything from engraved names to diamond studded initials, to precious stone hearts. In all honesty, these are beautiful pieces and having a personalized piece of jewelry is something that would impress many women on a special occasion like Valentines Day.
Even though these “personalized” pieces are rather new on the market, they are becoming big business for jewelry companies. The internet is full of companies offering these personalized pendants and pieces. It is becoming such big business that they are becoming expected gifts by women for romantic milestones. My friend told me a rather, umm, ok, I found it sad, story about when she was opening gifts for Valentines Day. Her boyfriend surprised her with a homemade, romantic dinner. After some champagne and homemade cheesecake (wow, this guy is a keeper), the guy elaborately revealed a brand new diamond necklace. Now, my friend’s reaction to this: “oh, it’s not personalized”? She said that she didn’t mean it in a bad way and she was just thinking out loud. Still, the guy was understandably a bit upset, and apparently she made it up to him, but this shows women are beginning to expect their jewelry to be personalized.
So if you’re a guy at this point, you’re probably thinking what you should do to make sure your jewelry is properly “personalized”. The best thing to remember is to go with your special women’s taste when trying to personalize. Chances are if you’ve been with a woman for any sort of time you know what she likes. If she likes hearts go with hearts. If she likes diamonds try a diamond initial pendant which looks perfect on a gold necklace. If you go online and checkout what different jewelry sites have to offer I’m sure you’ll find exactly the type of personalized jewelry she wants.
Author Kimberly Green agrees, her husband can’t go wrong with personalized jewelry for any occasion!
For over 100 years the Olympics have awarded excellence with gold, silver and bronze medals. What you might not know is that recently medals have been infused with such substances as glass and jade.
As most of you are aware, both men’s jewelry and women’s jewelry are usually deeply personal and treasured pieces of one’s overall ensemble. Many pieces of a person’s jewelry collection has deeply personal meaning as they are collected thru special purchases or from a significant other or through family hand-me-downs that passes antique jewelry thru generations.
For athletes, though, there is no better piece of jewelry that you can have in your possession than an Olympic medal. As the Olympics are in full swing, a whole new set of athletes are securing these sets of medals. Like jewelry, Olympic medals have become more stylish throughout the years. In the first Olympics games of the modern era in 1896, silver medals were given out to the winners. It wasn’t until later Olympics that the gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third system was adapted.
Up until the 1990’s Olympic medals were usually rather benign. They were usually one color and printed with a symbol and the name of the Olympic city. It wasn’t until the 1992 Winter Olympics that this changed. The Albertville, France hosted games were known for quirky designs, and their glass infused medals were no different. In fact, the medals were more glass then precious medal. Athletes didn’t seem to mind as they were beautifully crafted and, hey, an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal.
The 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympic medals continued this quirkiness, and it wasn’t until 2008 until the usually more traditional Summer Olympics utilized foreign materials in the medals. The highly praised 2008 Beijing Olympic Medals utilized jade, which gave them both a modern and classical look. Since China spent billions of dollars trying to prefect everything about the games (at least on the surface), it’s no surprise that they provided some of the most beautiful medals in Olympic history. My guess would be that London, the host of the 2012 Olympics, presents medals that are more in line with the classical medals instead of using foreign material as the Chinese did.
More Olympic medal trivia to impress your friends: the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was the first to feature Olympic medals with holes in the center of them (they were circles and rather fetching). The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic medals are the first to be “wavy”. They feature engraved emblems of the sports for which the winners participated in and are struck nine times to get their wave feature. Trust me, they look better then you might think.
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It used to be that sunglasses were only for the hot summer months. Not anymore as sunglasses have become an essential part of any winter fashion getup.
Now more than ever, sunglasses are a year round accessory. If you want proof that men’s and women’s sunglasses do a killing in the winter time, all you have to do is watch a couple of minutes of the Winter Olympics coverage. Not only are the athletes fully decked out in shades (or specially designed goggles that cost more then you could imagine paying for some head gear), but everywhere you look people are wearing shades to protect their eyes from the harmful rays of the sun. And, as they are probably thinking, while they are protecting their eyes why not look good with designer shades that will make them stand out from the crowd.
Skiers have known for years that sunglasses are important tools for snow play. Besides protecting your eyes from “snow blindness” (an actual medical term), sunglasses can also help skiers better see the course and those who surround you. When snowboarders began to rule the slopes, they brought their own style with them. Gone were expensive designer sunglasses and in were new, “cooler”, sometimes just as expensive counter-culture sunglasses. Now, as counter-culture has become mainstream, skier and snowboarder styles have become relatively similar and both enjoy rather similar tastes in shades. While they might not agree on everything, skier and snowboarders all seem to don the sunglasses of their choice.
Now, it seems like everyone is wearing sunglasses in the winter time. And not only when it’s sunny and snowy, but also when it’s cloudy and overcast usually for fashion reasons. Why else would people now be wearing sunglasses indoors (check out your next awards show). Just scanning over the crowd at Olympic venues you can see many people wearing sunglasses even when it’s not sunny out. It’s just become such a part of people’s daily dress that the fact it’s not even sunny out doesn’t really seem to matter anymore.
When picking good shades for the winter time, it is paramount to consider what conditions you are going to be using them in. If you’re using them for snow play such as skiing or snowboarding it is good to get something that will block out as much of the UV’s as possible. This will help you not only stave off snow blindness, but also see things clearer on the slopes. If, on the other hand, you’re using it just to look cool, well, you can just go with your typical summer sunglasses. You might want to go with something that doesn’t block out that much light if you’re going for merely fashion in the winter time. That way the world won’t look dark all the time.
Author Kimberly Green recently purchased a pair of women’s sunglasses from Kaenon and absolutely loves them!
Some people take HCG for weight loss. Others spend day in and day out trying to be the best athlete in the world. For them, it’s all about being .01 seconds better than your opponent.
At this moment I am obsessive watching the Winter Olympics. I would consider myself a bit of an Olympic junkie. Summer or Winter, doesn’t matter. Every two years for two weeks in either February or August, my life seems to stop and, to quote Fight Club, everything just seems to have the volume taken down- unless it’s Olympic related. These aren’t people who have decided to take HCG for weight loss to get their bodies in shape; these are people who have worked their entire life to for a chance to win. These people spend every day of their life in constant training for their event. They are in it physically and emotionally. So many sacrifices have been made all in the name of either making the Olympics or winning the gold. This, to me, is what makes the Olympics so incredible. It’s not about getting a new contract; it’s about giving your all and hopefully winning a medal.
One of the things that make the Olympics so incredible to watch is the idea of time. While some might like to watch the judged events like Figure Skating, I love watching events like downhill skiing and speed skating where one one-hundreth of a second can mean the difference between winning and losing. Yes, you heard that right: a hundredth of a second. That’s an amount of time that most of us can’t even comprehend. We deal in minutes and hours, we can’t imagine our entire life coming down to tenths and hundredths of seconds.
Yesterday I was watching a biathlon race where the winner won by four tenths of a second. Considering the fact that it was a 15 kilometer race, we are talking about mere inches separating the gold medalist from the silver medalist. It’s amazing to think that two athletes can stay that close for just over 10 miles.
Things like this make me wonder how this is worth it to the athletes. I’m not talking about the guy who won because I’m sure his life has just been made, no I’m talking about everyone is position 2-50. I’m sure a good majority of the participants are just happy to be there so they are just going for a personal best. But for those who were going for gold I can’t imagine what it would feel like to lose by .4 seconds. How do you sleep at night after something like that? I’m guessing being a world class means you’re as strong mentally as you are physically. That seems to be the only way you could get over that. Well, that, and keeping the faith that in another four years you’ll get your chance again.
Author Kimberly Green knows 3 people who have been successful using HCG for weight loss
A few weeks ago I went to a bridal shower and men were there. While it didn’t really bother me, it did make a difference. Should men be invited?
I was at a bridal shower a few weeks ago when something rather strange happened. To properly explain what surprised me, I must brief you on typical bridal shower etiquette. For those who don’t frequent many bridal showers, most are female only events. As I’m at the age where my friends are getting married, I’ve been to around five showers in the past two years and all of them have featured only female friends, co-workers and families. In fact most bridal shower invitations will mention to bring a female companion if you wish to bring someone (some though will not give you that option which means only bring yourself and, of course, a gift).
What made this last bridal shower so interesting was that there were men in attendance. Now, let me just say this didn’t really bother me. I’m sure there are some “purists” who would faint at the idea of a man being in attendance, but to me, eh, maybe I don’t care enough to freak out. While it didn’t bother me, I have to say it did make a difference. Maybe I’m just used to a bridal shower being a female only affair. Certain things occur when it’s only women in the room (mind out of the gutter, boys) and having men at the event changed the whole dynamics of the shower. It felt more like a friend get together then a bridal shower which, honestly, had its pluses and minuses. I did find myself at some point feeling kind of weird that I didn’t have a date there.
This got me to thinking, are there rules that a bridal shower has to be only female? Men don’t really have a shower for the groom, so isn’t it fair that they are involved in the bridal shower? Frankly, I don’t think guys want to be involved in the bridal showers. Sorry ladies, but the men that I saw at the bridal shower looked incredibly uncomfortable. They had a look of “wait, what am I doing here?”. I’m sure they got dragged and once one guy was invited every other female followed.
And why would a guy want to be there, anyways? It’s girly stuff. Not that a man has to be all “football-beer-construction”, but I’m sure there are other things they want to do with their Sunday afternoon. Maybe I’m just old fashioned but leave the bridal showers to the gals. Everyone involved will be happier.
Author Kimberly Green purchased bridal shower invitations online from SimplyWeddingStuff.com and was very impressed!
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