As the mother of a four-year-old, my life is filled with all things sparkly. Gigi loves sparkles in her hair, on her clothes, on her toys – anything that can sparkle, should sparkle if you ask her.

So, can you blame me for getting excited about Bling It On? They are little crystals that come in cool patterns that are ready to peel off and stick on pretty much anything you can imagine.

You buy Bling It On in pattern kits that contain more than 500 crystals. The, you just use your imagination and add a sparkle and blingto pretty much anything you want – hats, cell phones, ipods, laptops, sunglasses, hair clips. The options are endless.

Gigi and I just spent some time decorating an Indian Vest for her school Thanksgiving chapel performance. We bought some little crystals and I got out my glue gun. It ended up looking great, but we both burned our fingers and I got glue on the vest and in my hair. It was a messy endeavor. Bling It On’s easy peel and stick method means Gigi could add sparkle to her shoes or a pair of jeans on her own, with my help.

As a fun bonus, every 100th purchase of Bling It On will win a free Hannah Montana concert ticket. You all know hard those tickets are to come by. People here in Tampa went to crazy lengths to win tickets and paid scalpers outrageous amounts. All you really need to go is put some sparkle into your life.

It seems a small price to pay for the pain still being endured by more than one family.

Starting December 10, Nick Bollea’s driver’s license will be suspended for a year. Bollea is, in case you are unaware, the won of famous wrestler and Clearwater resident Hulk Hogan. His license is in risk of being permanently suspended if he fails to pay a fine for driving 106 mph in Osceola County in April.

In case you’ve been under a rock lately, Bollea’s (age 17) driving in general has been on the spotlight after his August 26 wreck that left his friend John Graziano critically injured. In fact, many sources say Graziano is still in a coma, unresponsive, and perhaps destined to remain that way for the rest of his life.

Bollea was charged with reckless driving with serious bodily injury. A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says, “We’ve deemed him dangerous to the general public on the road.”

An affidavit filed in support of the reckless-driving charge says that two hours after the wreck, Bollea’s blood-alcohol level was .055. In Florida, your license can be suspended if you are under 18 when your blood-alcohol level is found to be .02 or higher.

Bollea’s license has was already restricted to business purposes in September after he pleaded no contest to charges of driving 82 mph in a construction zone in U.S. 19 August.

Bollea’s driving record leading up to the accident shows that he has long had an issue with irresponsible driving habits. Many in the community wonder why it took almost ending a life to finally make authorities get involved?

Christmas, is one of the most spiritual and significant holidays of the entire year. I absolutely savor each card I receive, talking my time as I open it and reading each word. When someone spends time making a hand made car or the money or a truly unique and beautiful card – I appreciate it. I keep mine bundled up by year, away in a memory box.

I love the gilded, sumptuous cards at the Gallery Collection, for example. And, I wanted to take the time to pint out something deeply beautiful that gallery Collection is doing this year – aside from their holiday greeting cards.

They have teamed up with Soldiers Angels. Soldiers Angels is an organization that offers aide and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and the Coast Guard and amazing families. Several of my friends are actually involved in the Soldiers Angels programs, volunteering to send letters of support and care packages to one or more service person.

The folks at the Gallery Collection just donated greeting cards to be sent to each soldier, wishing them Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, as well as a heart-felt thank you for their sacrifice. They have also included a blank card and envelope for them to send home to their families. The cards will be tucked into the care packages sent by Soldiers Angels.

Not only does the Gallery Collection have a simply stunning of personalized individual and Business Christmas Cards, all occasion greeting cards, and assortment boxes; they also stay in involved in community project like the Soldiers Angels project on a regular basis. In fact, right now they are also running a student scholarship contest.

If you are anywhere near Largo, Florida (which is just south of Clearwater in Pinellas County), you have got to make sure you make the time to go and ssee the Illuminated Gardens. It’s a free night time event at the Florida Botanical Gardens. They put on a display of over 425,000 holiday lights each night. It starts November 22 and runs through January 3, each night from 6 pm to 10 pm.

Call (727) 582-2100 for more information.

If you have a store or a restaurant or a school in a physical location I think the old adage “if you build it they will come”. When you have a website, on the other hand, you need to actually put effort into making sure your site is accessible, easy to use, and helps the user navigate the pages. Look at this custom search engine that was compiled for Collins College, for example:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=004734434582323036421%3A182liotgk9y

Collins has set up the custom engine to use for searching their website. It’s a great example of utilizing technology that already exists on the internet to integrate usability into your site. When your site visitors feel like they have a better handle on how to find the information they are looking for, they are more apt to spend more time on your site and consider your pages their last stop in their quest for an answer.

Consider integrating a customized search on your own website.

Gigi is at that fun age when she knows all of her uppercase and lowercase letters. She recognizes them and can write them. She can write her name. She can write strong of letters that do not spell actual words. Our latest game is where we sit and she asks me how to spell a particular word, then as I call out each letter, she writes the word. She just brought me a picture she drew of a bird and then asked me how to spell bird. For some reason, she also opted to add the word Lion to the page. Maybe it is a newly discovered LionBird.

Making literacy into a fun family game is wonderful for retaining the enthusiasm young children have when they are initially making all the gains of learning to read. I make sure Gigi hands lot do pens and blank paper available to her. I make sure that no matter how tired or busy I am, I reply with overjoyed smiles when she comes to me with one of her pages pulled of gobbledygook.

How many of you have the courage to leave your homes on Black Friday?

Traditionally, most of my family members are enthusiastic Black Friday shoppers. I tend to be more than happy to stay far away from the crowds. My step-mother loves the toy and clothing bargains. My brother-in-law is a fool for camping out to get his hands on dirt-cheap flat panel monitors and other electronics. My sister usually finds the unique and charming items often overlooked by the majority of the shoppers.

My nephew wants a few xbox 360 games this Christmas and I have seen some advance Black Friday lists with great prices on the games he would like to have. I’m trying to gear up and steel my nerves. The thought of being out in the rabid crowds of super shoppers almost makes me itch with irritation. There is a reason I have taken so firmly to online shopping.

So, how many of you get out there and partake of the shopping bargains the day after Thanksgiving?

Every year my dad asks me to make up a Christmas list for me and my daughter. He usually buys what I put on there. This year, I have very little I have even had the time to think about wanting in the way of gifts. My life has just been so hectic between finishing my teaching certification, moving and trying to make a roadmap of the year to come for finances and income.

So, I asked Dad to look around the house for things he may have been eventually planning to give me in the way of family heirlooms. There are so many items I would rather have than some new makeup or a sweater. I can picture some our old family portraits, a great grandmother’s diamond rings, toys that belonged to my dad’s grandmother, glassware and pottery that has been in the family for generations. Things like that mean more to me that most anything new he could buy at a store.

I joked to a friend the other day that will all the toys flooding the American market from China, my daughter might look under the Christmas tree this year only to find a homemade corn husk doll. If you take into account the recalls lately due to lead, loose magnets and coatings that turn into date rape drugs, it is very hard indeed to trust anything was made, assembled, packaged, or even flew over China’s air space. And still, over 80% of the toys you will find on our shelves this year were made in China.

All of these terrible toy stories coming out of China might even just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg, since these are just results from toys that have actually been fully inspected, tested, or run into problems at the consumer end. I am sure there are other ticking time bombs out there sitting on store shelves.

The newest magnet fiasco involved Mattel’s “Barbie and Tanner” sets. Is nothing sacred? Barbie and her dog cannot even manage to pass safety standards.

I think even after all of the horrific news about lead paint and kids swallowing loose magnets, most of us who thought we were becoming hardened to the repeated bad news were shocked back into fully alert status when the news came out a week or so ago about the recall of Aqua Dots.

I had been seeing Aqua Dots commercials on TV for months and month and so had my daughter. She had asked me to get them for her so often that I had finally relented and decided she would be getting some for Christmas. Boy am I glad I put off actually buying them!

Aqua Dots are distributed by Spin Master Ltd. in the U.S. but made in China. Reports began to surface that kids were being knocked unconscious after swallowing the colorful beads. It turns out that the beads were coated with a poisonous chemical that metabolizes into gamma hydroxy butyrate or GHB — the “date rape” drug.

I did give in and purchase one doll that was made in China, but for the most part I am buying more of the German dolls my daughter loves so much. And although I was kidding about the cornhusk doll, I am actually planning on making many of her gifts this Christmas.