Cards with a family portrait on them have been popular for a while, however, in my opinion, a truly personalized gift card would include one’s own artwork, or artwork done by a member of the family. Or perhaps you could make a collage of family photos and put that on the gift card in order to set it apart from what everyone else is doing. Fortunately, this is easy to do these days. You can go to GiftCardLab.com and get cards printed that have whatever you’d like on them.

Personally, I’m thinking of having some done that feature my son’s artwork that I could then package and sell. This has all kinds of commercials applications! Sorry, I just can’t help but think that way! At any rate, I’d venture to say that our Christmas cards this year are going to be quite unique.

I have a friend who has recently retired and who is now putting his efforts into supplementing his retirement by selling his photography. I don’t think he’ll have any problem doing that, as he takes some amazing photos. Some of my favorites are the ones he takes that feature macro shots of hummingbirds.

I figure that in order to do that successfully, he must have several hummingbird feeders around his house. I know that they don’t bother coming around mine unless I hang one up! My mother is another person who absolutely loves hummingbirds. Although she doesn’t do photography, I know that she’d enjoy seeing hummingbirds on a daily basis. That’s why I think getting her a hummingbird feeder would be just brilliant. And while I’m at it, I may get one for my backyard. After all, I have a nice camera as well! I’d love some of my own shots of these colorful little guys.

For the past year, my family has been playing a game called The Jeep Game. It’s pretty simple. Whoever spots a Jeep first yells, “Jeep!” My son gets so excited that he’ll end up inadvertently saying things like “Meep!”, allowing someone else to call the Jeep and perhaps take the lead. So, when we began looking for a new car, the first place we wanted to go was to the Jeep dealership. However, a lot of dealerships have closed in our area, including that one. It was really disappointing. I wanted to go someplace like Utah valley auto and get to look at a really wide variety of them. And of course, my son wanted to take a couple for a test drive! Instead, we went to another dealership, and it wasn’t nearly as exciting of an experience. Looks like we’ll have to take a little trip in order to do those test drives!

Since all of my dinnerware is chipped, I’ve been looking at getting a new set. I really like the Corelle modern lines that are now available. If you go to their website, you’ll see what I mean. I really love mod circles and designs, as anyone who takes a look at my living room carpet can readily see. My absolute favorite is the Rola, which actually matches the carpet, although I’m not certain if matching one’s dinnerware to one’s carpet is really what’s done. Still, who cares? It’s definitely very modern, and I love it.

There’s another reason, though, that I’m looking at getting Corelle. I’ve been reading reviews on some of the dinnerware that I’m interested in, and the reviewers say that it cracks. This seems to be a huge problem with many lines of dinnerware. I noticed on the Corelle website that they offer break and chip warranties on their dishes! How cool is that? I doubt most of these companies could afford to do that, since only the very best stuff seems to last more than a couple of months without showing serious wear and tear.

Corelle also has some really fabulous square dishes that I like. The only problem there is that I have a circular Knoll table, and I don’t think the square plates would look right. It’s definitely a great look for a rectangular table, though.

You can’t beat a warranty on plates, for goodness sake. Especially when the design is good and the price is right. I think I’m going to browse around a bit longer and see what else I like!

It just seems that everywhere I look these days, I hear about someone losing their job. Reading posts on Facebook makes it something really personal, rather than just something that I’ve been hearing on the news. My cousin even lost his job. I think this is going to be really hard on people who have multiple bills to pay, especially multiple credit card bills. And it seems that the credit card companies really don’t care if someone has lost their job or not. That’s where a Debt Consolidation Loan can really help some folks. When you get all of the credit card and other debt consolidated, the overall payment is almost always lower than what it would be if you paid all of the bills separately. It can really be a financial lifesaver.

For debt consolidation to work for you, you need to do a couple of things. First of all, you need to discard every credit card that you have so that you don’t run up more debt. The last thing you need is a loan and a bunch of new credit card bills. This is something that you really have to be committed to. Also, in a financial crisis it’s easy to jump at an easy solution. Don’t forget to negotiate the terms of your loan. You don’t want to get stuck with a high interest rate for many years to come, because hopefully, this recession won’t last forever!

I’ve been looking for a steel supplier that is somewhat local for a while. I finally found one that sells a variety of products, such as perforated metal panels, metal mesh and wire cloth. The reason that finding a supplier is important to me is because my husband’s family owns a metal fabrication shop. I am offered the use of the equipment (with professional help of course) if I supply my own materials. One of the things that they have that I love is a water jet machine, and I am always thinking of things I’d like to cut out with it.

But of course you have to have the metal, and good suppliers can be difficult to find. I really like to cut out the middleman and go straight to the source, such as the company I mentioned above, Petro Wire and Steel (PWS). I’ve found that if you like doing your own projects, it is best to track down companies like this one and get your materials directly, rather than going through someone who is going to mark it up to double or triple the price.

I think artists, people who like doing home improvement and others are really going to enjoy this site. You can download their entire catalog and browse products at your leisure.

One thing you might want to think of before you get that used couch or bed at a garage sale is the possibility that it could be infested with bed bugs. The reason this is important to think about is because once you get a bed bug infestation in your house, it can be very difficult to get rid of. And getting a bedbug bite is no fun, especially because you probably don’t know what it is right away. Get several of them, and you’ll be walking around looking like you have a disease of some sort!

Just a friendly little tip. I’ve been thinking about this because I’m about to post my old couch and twin bed on a neighborhood site, although the people who buy mine won’t have to worry about bed bugs, thank goodness!

When Sky was little, we were returning from a trip to Portugal and driving back to Texas from New York. I was so tired of travel by the time we were about halfway home that it was unbelievable. Then we hit Greenville, South Carolina. I was simply floored by how nice the people there are, the beautiful homes and the overall ambiance in general. At the time, I tried to talk my husband into moving there, I was so impressed.

I’ve found a site that is great for anyone wanting to know more about Greenville SC attractions or just Greenville in general. You can watch a video about Greenville. Oh, and I’ll bet I know why it’s called Greenville. It is so incredibly green! Nature in that area is simply astounding. Believe me, it’s definitely worth the trip.

Recently, I have found that I cannot do sit-ups. I could do them in high school to the tune of 55 a minute. Now? Nothing. After two kids, those muscles are gone! It’s quite alarming, really. What’s even worse is how my stomach looks on the outside. I have too much fat, and it’s pretty droopy.

In desperation, I’ve put myself on a raw diet. People tend to have pretty dramatic results with those if they can stick with it. The thing I keep thinking about, though, is if I were to lose weight quickly, what would happen to the skin on my stomach? My breasts I’m not so worried about, as losing weight is a bit like Breast Reduction Surgery, only they’re not as perky after. But the tummy, well, I can definitely see having a tummy tuck.

The thing about having a tummy tuck is that if you want it done right, you can’t just go to whoever happens to be in your town and schedule a surgery. You could end up with a worse situation if it’s not done right. I’d go somewhere where there have been many, many happy clients with good reports, like Mya Cosmetic Surgery, where even well-known people go.

One of my concerns is being able to pay for it. Did you know that you can get financing for a tummy tuck? I had no idea, but Mya Cosmetic Surgery does it. Another thing they’ve got going on is a competition, where you can win quite a bit of money towards your procedure. Not bad!

I don’t know about you, but I love looking at before and after photos. There are plenty of them on Mya’s site. Go check them out. It’s the best way to really evaluate the work they do.

The folks in the UK are on the ball. They have created what I think of as an “insurance superstore” that offers all kinds of insurance. For example, you can go to autonetinsurance.co.uk and get pet insurance, car insurance, motor trade insurance and home insurance in one shot. Should I even mention that this is far more service than my local insurance carrier offers? And I haven’t even scratched the surface. To me, it seems as though they offer insurance for pretty much anything that you could need insurance for. Business insurance for example.

I remember when I was trying to find business insurance when I lived in Austin. I had a small maid service, and I could hardly find any companies that offered it, much less anyone who wanted to deal with a small business like me. Not only does AutoNet offer business insurance, but they offer all kinds of business insurance! I’m really impressed.

It’s really easy to get a quote for the kind of insurance that you want. All you have to do is fill out a quick form on the site, or call the toll-free number. No sitting in insurance offices waiting forever for an agent to get a chance to talk to you for a moment! No waiting all day for someone to finally have a chance to call you back. This is what I call service! Now if they would just get something like this going in my area!