Thank You!

Image by Jayegirl99 via Flickr

It seems like I hear about this issue a hundred times a year. A ticked off gift giver has purchased yet another gift for someone and received no thank you acknowledgment in return. Did they get it? Did they love it? Did they hate it? Why are we spending our money on people who don't have five minutes and a stamp to let us know? To those who find people’s lack of etiquette hurtful to the point of considering “cutting them off”, I’d like to offer an alternative. From now on, when a gifting situation arises for thankless youngsters and adults why not order them some personalized note cards? Look online. There are many companies that make fun or elegant items for teens as well as adults, both male or female. Have their first names or initials printed on them. Not sure of their style? Keep it simple; white with black ink and a clean, readable font. For a graduation or bigger gift giving occasion, add a nice pen and a roll of stamps so they can get right on to writing. You might include a book on how to write a personal note explaining that this will help their college entrance essay writing, job interview thank you notes or any social occasion when they really should be sending an acknowledgement. Some folks, mostly boys, hate to hand write notes because their handwriting is atrocious. They must have missed out on the nuns with rulers experience. To them I suggest writing a practice note on scratch paper and keep it short, or use your computer and print out a brief message and hand sign it. Slide the printed personal note into the card like an insert and send it out. It very well could be the little, clever thing that gets you the job or the invitation to the next party from that amazing host. Yes, our young are the tech generation, but I’d bet a fortune that if their secret crush were to hand write them a note on a paper napkin, they would keep that little treasure for years to come. They do understand the importance of hand written notes, they just need to be taught how to write their own. Start your own tradition of celebrating their name by giving them personalized stationary and note cards and maybe the first one they write will be to you.
Suggestion- check out the custom printing at www.moo.com
I love this company! 　Moooooooooo!

Happy New Year! 2010 is a golden year...

Mimi says:
It's a brand new year and another golden opportunity to begin your life anew. At my house, paint and color reign supreme. It makes me nuts when those designer makeover shows paint human being's living, working and play spaces with gray. GRAY! The color of cold, the color of damp, the color of death, the color of depression. UGH. I think gray paint should be reserved for accent details and used very, very sparingly. Or made illegal since it is abused so frequently by budding interior designers who are trying to impress us all with how "serious" their work can be.

If we are what we eat, then we are also what we surround ourselves with. What we wear on our bodies gives us a pretty good idea about the interior landscape of our own psyches. If we are always reaching for gray, it's a safe bet we work in a business that has no room for error, frolic or creativity outside the S.O.P. bible. That or we freakin hate our lives. Isn't it interesting how grabbing a colorful scarf to wear, or adding some lipstick, jewelry or any dash of color can instantly brighten our mood? Not a coincidence.

When I moved to Mid Michigan years ago, our 1933 house had been painted a sickly gray green outside and the inside was (surprise!) gray. Not just a little gray. The carpet, aluminum mini blinds, draperies, wall paint and even the fireplace was a dead, cold, ash gray. The first month here was an excavation of epic proportions. We ripped every inch of that hideous carpet out, exposing gorgeous oak floors that had been smothered since the day the house was built. We sent the window covers to Goodwill and repainted every wall until the house was humming with tones and hues that echoed all things alive around us.

Guests to my home plop down in comfort exclaiming their desire to move in and stay forever. Well, there are some drawbacks to creating a refuge that other people might not be bold enough to make of their own living spaces, but after you pry them off your sofa, you can enjoy your home in peace.

I painted the front door gold on the inside and the outside to remind us all that there are golden opportunities everywhere.

So here is my challenge to you for 2010. Look around your life and anywhere you see non-colors, ones that do not fit into a rainbow, replace it with actual color. Be bold. Lose the beige, taupe, cream, ivory and if you have to wear gray, make it a background. Are you in the funeral business? Do you live at a mortuary? No? Then if you must wear or live in or around gray, gray, gray, add a mad dash of red, magenta, mustard yellow, royal purple, cerulean blue or a delicious grass green. Go nuts! Add some shimmer as the gray-ish accent tone. Sparkle with silver, shimmer with pearl, dazzle with diamondy reflection. OK. Diamondy isn't a word, but just go with it.

And if you've forgotten your science 101 and what constitutes rainbow colors, it's Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo & Violet. ROYGBIV. Remember? Pastel to intense hues, they all promote healthy attitude and more lively and welcoming living and work spaces. Put a flowering plant on your desk, even if it's a realistic silk, but real is better.

Until we actually live in one of those sterile, lifeless, sci-fi futures where everyone is medicinally altered into docile automatons in matching interstellar steel color jumpsuits, let's celebrate a living Earth by shaking off the winter doldrums and wrapping a Monet around your neck! You'll feel so much better and people will tell you so. Taste the rainbow!!

Our Favorite Things- Under $100 Gifts for friends or you!

Image by zizzybaloobah via Flickr

Mimi Says~

While Oprah’s getting ready to do her big Favorite Things show, we thought we would share some of ours as well. These items are so fun and cool and if I still had a retail store, I would be selling them. They make great gifts for all occasions and since we are women, these are for women, though you’ll find guy stuff on the websites as well. Enjoy!
These are a few of OUR favorite things- under $100.00!

KALI BAGS...Fabulous, small, unique Day Planners- Even if your meetings are boring you planner doesn’t have to be too! Order a 2010 calendar with some pizzazz. Your friends will be asking where you got that gorgeous planner and you can say, Kali Bags! I had the violet one last year and this year, maybe the vert. And they have other things for guys and more conservative friends. Look at the Cavelli, Italian leather goods. Classy and durable.
http://www.kaligiftbag.com/store/2010-paperblanks-dayplanner-slim-horizontal-week-at-a-time-french-ornate-c-216-p-1678.html

Etsy's lizix26...Vintage inspired jewelry- Over on the Etsy site you will find hundreds of artisans and a world of one of a kind pieces. I love this Heloise necklace from the lizix26 shop, gold with pearl. How great would that look with a black cocktail dress or even a plain shirt and jeans?http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30073494


TAGO DESIGN...While you’re over on Etsy- don’t miss the Japanese Kimono Bags from the tagodesign shop! So cool and at $64.00 you can afford the stylish luxury of a hand made bag!!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30097169&ref=sr_gallery_2&&ga_search_query=purses&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=2&order=date_desc&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

CUPCAKE COURIER...Want to carry just one cupcake to work, or pack in a lunch box or how about transporting several for a party? On the Cupcake Courier site from Australia, I found these genius cupcake holders and trays for transporting many. So smart and they’re cute!
http://www.thecupcakecourier.com.au/shop-now/cup-a-cake/

JESSIE STEELE...And on the same Cupcake Courier website, if you or your friends are crazy for kitchy, vintage things, ( I’m talkin to you Emma),have a look at these aprons from Jessie Steele, made from tablecloth fabric from the 1940’s and 50’s. Matching tea towels and pot holders too. How very I Love Lucy!
http://www.thecupcakecourier.com.au/shop-now/jessie-steele-designer-aprons/

MOO.COM...Custom Printing- Looking for a really different calling card can give to people you think should have your real phone number or email? How about custom holiday cards this year or even a calendar that features your own artwork? Check out moo.com, where you can either use their great designs or upload your own art or photos for high quality printed mini or full size cards. Print 100 mini card (half a business card size) for $19.99. They make great custom gift tags too with a small hole punched for ribbon.
http://www.moo.com


Happy Shopping!

The Static of Clingy Relationships

Image by joeltelling via Flickr

Why do guys care so much about not coming across as clingy? There is this guy that my best friend is dating and recently he won’t ring her when he say’s he will or he won’t be able to meet up when they arranged to. Before all this he seemed like the perfect gentleman but now he is acting so strange. She recently told him that she liked him a lot and now she is concerned it may have turned him off her. Although he told her that he liked her just as much. He also told one of our friends that he does not want her to think that he is clingy. If he knows that she likes him and likes spending time with him and he likes it too. Why is he playing these games? Why is he putting his fear of seeming clingy before spending time with the girl he likes? Signed, Confused Friend　
　
Mimi says:
OK. I’m old, so I have data on human behavior over extended periods of time. To clarify, “clingy” is Guyspeak for “there’s too much emotion going on here and I don’t want to get attached to you because I want to keep my options open but if I tell you that, you‘ll tell me to frack off and you‘ll find someone else who isn‘t as emotionally constipated as I am so I am using this vague word as a place holder for the whole truth.” ...aaand breathe.

Guys move through phases of needing a relationship and being allergic to them. High school, at least until mid senior year, is a relationship safe time period. By December of senior year, guys start shopping the virtual catalog of girls that they can date next year at college and even their “serious” girlfriend starts to look like an old car to them when the shiny new models are right around the corner. Between ages 19 and about 28, don’t expect any guy to be completely, 100% done with “ catalog shopping”. Even if they aren’t actually “buying”, they are looking. Girls, on the other hand, at least the ones without much vision of themselves as viable sources of power in the world, start playing “wedding” before they have breasts.

Now, in terms girls can relate to, here's my theory on guys "catalog shopping" habits. Let’s say you have a shoe budget of $100 and you find the perfect pair of red heels and they’re $89.99. They look great and they feel great on your feet. A female will gladly hand over every cent and she’ll make those shoes work for her even if they are impractical. She will buy them and love them and wear them with everything, even jeans, even if she looks like a hooker on her day off at the grocery store. Now a guys brain, if he could reach the same level of infatuation with a shoe as a woman can, would fall madly in love with the shoe but the practical side of his brain would overrule the passionate side. He would look at the shoe and then look at the $100 and say, “I can buy ten pairs of cheap shoes and toss them out as they wear out and that will last me a very long time That makes more sense than blowing my entire budget right now on this one fabulous pair of red heels that I love”. Your friend with the waffling guy, by the way, ia the red pair of heels. Guys would rather keep their options open until they absolutely, positively must make a choice and even if it means saying goodbye to the most perfect thing they may ever find.
I think that most males suffer from a dread disease called Notenoughosis. They want the very best but they also want to be able to upgrade when something new catches their eye. They can’t grasp the concept that love is a resource that replenishes itself as “new” constantly. When you surrender to love right now then you are living completely, right now. And if you can do that every day, if you can make the choice to surrender to love every day, then you will have love every day. If you hold out for some imagined thing that is more perfect than the perfection you already have in your hands, then you have done the equivalent of buying ten pairs of inferior shoes that will each fall apart before long. Some guys would rather have a picture of the perfect red shoes they almost bought to brag to their guy friends than to just buy them and be happy now for as long as now is. Print this out and give it to your friend to give to the guy she is interested in. And to the guy: buy the shoes dumb ass.

Samm says:
Ah dear...ohhhhhhh dear. This is a very very hard one for me to answer...because unfortunately..I am dead center (24!) in the "guys are idiots" stage of life....All I can think is that, guys can't seem to commit. Some guys realize they have it incredibly good. They can't imagine meeting anyone better, and it scares the SHIT out of them..and as soon as an argument or uncomfortable situation comes along...they use that as a way to escape. "OH WE HAD A FIGHT! PERFECT! NOW I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO DUMP HER!". yah...guys are lame. But there ARE good guys out there!!! Being a girl that has always had more guy friends than girls, I can vouch for my older guy friends that have their head screwed on right. They have the balls to say "I'm not going to be in ANY relationship right now, because I'm not ready to commit...so there's no point in hurting somones feelings when it's really my feelings that need to be worked on". SO to your friend...dump the guy. Move on, but don't expect to find a guy within the next few years that is willing to be the right kind of clingy for you! Be happy being young, beautiful and free to live the life you want WITHOUT a clinger! And then one day when you stop looking, you'll be pleased to find someone that's willing to put as much effort into a relationship as you are:) As for you guys that might be reading this and saying "ya right these bitches don't know what they're talking about"...wait until you're 33, with a wonderful woman and ask her what her experience growing up was...then remove head from sphincter, and teach your son to be wiser than you were :)
BTW Mom...I would buy those red shoes. Yes I would!

Am I Blue?

Image by amandajane via Flickr

There was a product that I would add to my wash, along with the detergent, that was a whitening agent. I cannot think of the name of it, but believe it was a powder. I know that the product is no longer made, but it is driving me crazy that I cannot remember the name. And, once you come up with the name of the product, can you tell me if there is anything like that available anymore?that works as well as this one did? Signed, N

Mimi Says: Girl, you must be talking about LaFrance. I loved that stuff. It was a powdered bluing agent that left your white fabrics bright and beautiful. Sadly, the company went out of business and the Dial Corporation who had bought up the small company, has no plans to start production again. As an alternative, you can buy Reckitts Blue cubes, made since the early 1800’s , at the following website. You’ll be thrilled to know that it can be used to wash your floors while it wards off evil spirits. No joke. It says that on their website. (What?) http://divinafe.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=874
I also found another old product, , a bluing crystal product, at this other website and you can buy it for a great price! http://www.andyandmecountrytreasures.biz/ look for the-Antique Vintage Style Crystline Laundry Blueing
Wouldn’t it be great if a family owned grocery chain decided to start carrying loved products that are hard to find? They could sell them on their own website as well. Now to get someone in my Michigan to start carrying Francisco Renaldi spaghetti sauce, the only jar sauce tht should ever be sold ( said the Italian American girl)

Paradise Lost?

Image via Wikipedia

Here's my 2 part issue: I have to decide whether to stay here in Hawaii or not. And if I stay here I have to figure out a way to make a living! I think I need a partner to continue in real estate since it is commission based. One person's base living expenses here are $27,000 and for 2 people it is $33,000. So to find a partner, going online is an option but stick to people in Hawaii???
And if I move, I would likely return to Arkansas since my people are there. I would have to make a living there, too...
Carol T. in Hawaii
　
Mimi Says: Aloha Carol! Ah, to stay or leave paradise. There are so many reasons why people move to islands but virtually all of those folks run into the inevitable conclusion that unless they brought everything they will ever need- including enough funding to see them into their golden years, they will have to find a way to stay there. Real estate is in a tough place right now… for sellers. Especially if they are American property owners trying to free up some cash. You mention the idea of finding a partner to stay in the real estate game in the islands. If I can play psychic for a moment, I would say that the current economic disaster that we are all facing, will not go on forever. Land, and especially land on a big ole gorgeous island, will always be valuable and given the privacy island living can offer the well to do, it will always be what they crave.
How about creating something that doesn’t exist right now, as far as I know? Instead of trying to have someone move to Hawaii to start a business with you, why not use the Internet and your realtor connections to find a few fellow female real estate agents in places like, Japan, England, Germany, emerging nations like India, and also, the USA and create a woman to woman network of property investing? In my state, (Michigan) we have had people coming over from the U.K. and purchasing homes at ridiculously low rates and then renting them as absentee owners. They just want in on the investment possibilities. It’s a buyer’s market and women comprise more than half the population of the world. We are also, finally, gathering our own wealth. Creating a group, right now, of women that assist other women in real estate purchases will put you ahead of the game. While you’re pulling that idea together, there are certainly other talents in your repertoire you can bring out in the light again. Perhaps something in the fashion world, or something related to organizational skills. You’ve got them, others need them! One woman I knew from my days in the tour and travel world, left our old business and started a wildly successful company in Scottsdale, Arizona. She now arranges private V.I.P. limo shopping tours for women to the finest specialty shops and boutiques in the Valley. Start your own in the islands or get in touch with her and ask about opening a branch office in Honolulu! And by the way, even if you decide to return to Arkansas to be near family, you can still start businesses like this, selling real estate in Hawaii while you sit in the shade of a magnolia tree and sip your sweet tea!

What was that smell?

Image by Julie70 via Flickr

My grandmother had a blue glass bottle of perfume with a little silver label perfume that I just loved and I can’t remember the name of the perfume so I can’t even look it up to see if they still make it. It was a soft, flowery smell. I wanted to get some for my Mom for her birthday. Any clues what it might be.? Signed, V. L.
　
　
Mimi Says: Samm isn’t going to remember this because there were no Pterodactyls in the sky when she was a child like in my own youth. Let’s see, it was from your grandmother’s era and you are old enough to make a sentimental connection for your mother’s gift, so I’m guessing you might be at least 20. Your grandmother’s perfume might have been a fragrance popular before and during World War II and one of the most popular in that era was Evening In Paris (Soir de Paris). It was created in the late 1920’s and was manufactured until 1969 by company named Bourjois. In 1992, a new company bought the rights and “reformulated” the perfume, so what you can get now is not the exact same fragrance that your mother will remember. The original formulation had these qualities according to a perfume specialist at Frangrantcia: The top notes are fruity fresh, featured with bergamot, apricot and peach, green notes and violet. The floral heart is composed of rose Damascena, jasmine, heliotrope, ylang-ylang, lily-of-the-valley and orris. The base includes amber, musk, sandalwood and vanilla. The new formulation has these qualities: Head-notes are bergamot and violet, the heart is very flowery with lilac, rose, jasmine, clover and linden blossom. The dry down is composed of vetiver and vanilla.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really good fragrance and though the new bottles are blue glass, they are not the original bullet shaped with the tassle or the elegant oval that adorned my own mothers dressing table. The power of scent memory is something we must all bow down to. One whiff of a scent that we have attached to a moment in our memory bank, and up comes the memory in Technicolor complete with the tune playing on the radio. You can purchase the “new” formulation through many websites including The Vermont Country Store. You can also buy the beautiful vintage bottles on the internet. Here’s a thought- buy the original bottle and fill it with the new formula for your mother. Wrap it up in a small box with a blue velvet bow. She’ll love it!