Since Christmas is a time where charity and doing things for other people is more important than ever, I love it when I can find a way to buy a unique gift for someone and know that my purchase honestly benefits someone who will actually see the difference my purchase made.

I receive Food and Wine magazine and I first saw JacarandaStyle in one of my past issues. I visited their website to find out more about their completely stunning merchandise and ended up spending a lot time learning about how the company is able to create employment for artists in the world market and also donates a portion of each sale to the Ethembeni School for Disabled Youth, in South Africa. According to the JacarandaStyle, the school has been around since 1984 and “serves 300 physically disabled and visually impaired children from all over Kwazulu -Natal, Kingdom of the Zulu.”

I’m looking around their site again tonight and I’m particularly drawn to the ceramics, which tend toward bold colors and sharp imagery. This new Jazz Bowl elicits a musical theme, even incorporating piano keys into the design. It’s earthy and sultry. It is fantastic, eye-catching, a true conversation piece. Each piece is hand painted (lead free paints) and signed by the artist. I can see this in a prominent spot on my coffee table, but the pieces are actually safe to use for food and you can put them in the dishwasher. Here, I’m including a picture so you can see just how cool this bowl is:

Oh, and I want to point out that there is actually a coupon code you can use on the site for 10% off that is valid through December, 14, 2007: JSTYLE.

These cookies were passed down by my great-great-grandmother, Charity. My great-grandmother made these cookies quite often and usually put a raisin or nut on the top. They are simple and perfect for dipping. My great grandparents thought these cookies were the “best of all”.

As with many older recipes, you will find several inexact measures.

1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening (can use butter or half butter)
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
dash of salt
nutmeg to taste
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
flour (guess at it, she always made a “test” cookie first)

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Blend the two mixtures. Drop cookies on a cookie sheet with teaspoon. Sprinkle with nuts or raisins.

Bake at 375º for 8-10 minutes, or until set (light brown with no imprint remaining when touched).

I just spoke to my dad again last night. Tuesday was his birthday and yesterday was his wedding anniversary (and today is his wife’s birthday – fancy that!) Anyway, he was telling me about the snow falling as I spoke to him on the phone. It might have been enviable, had said snow not been icy and bone-chilling. He said the wind was ramping up to bring in even colder temperatures. Not my cup of tea. Lots of states in the US are getting early snows this year. Is it cold where you live?

It’s not cold here! This morning was vaguely chilly, but this afternoon it is 74 and the bright blue skies are free from clouds. It is simply lovely out there. Between a doctor’s appointment right after lunch and picking up my daughter from her school, I decided to kill a little bit of time and drive down by the Gulf. The water was filled will boaters and some swimmers and the some leisure lovers riding beach bikes on the powder white sand. I had a very strong urge to go home and get my swimsuit. You cannot help but want to stop and enjoy a blissful December afternoon like this one. My daughter and I ride our bikes here in our neighborhood, but I would really like to have a bike to ride along the water, on the sand, where I can ride slow and watch for dolphins and birds. Beach cruisers tend to have fatter tires and bigger frames. Oh, and lower, wider, more comfortable seats. They are designed with leisure in mind.

You know you wish you were in Florida right now. I know you do! Hands down, this is the place to be in the winter. We’re going to put on our sandals in a minute and head out to pick lemons and star fruit and just enjoy being out in the yard. No snow here!

It’s tongue-in-cheek, so to speak, but it’s porn for women and it definitely elicits a unique response.

Porn for Women is a book full of lovely PG-rated pictures of hot men doing all of the things you wish they would do, but were afraid to ask: cooking, listening, asking for directions, skipping a game on TV take you to an arts and craft show. *sigh* These guys know what a woman wants.

The collection is  by  The Cambridge Women’s Pornography Cooperative, with photos by Susan Anderson.  It addresses the question “What really, really gets you hot?” Maybe the scenerios inside the book are pure fantasy, but we can dream — right ladies? And the irony is that if men really would do the dishes without being asked, they might get lucky a little more often. This is erotica for the emotions, baby.

I have a letter in front of my from my car insurance agent asking me to give her a call about some additional information she needs for my upcoming renewal. I keep putting it off, because once January rolls around I am going to be switching carriers. I would have already switched, but Florida keeps changing up their laws on PIP (personal injury) coverage and other insurance companies are unable to quote me accurately until then.

My current insurance carrier took off the PIP when the FL law said we no longer had to carry it, but they reabsorbed the costs into other aspects of my premium. Now that FL says we have to put PIP back on our policies, they are simply raising my premium, rather than putting it back to what it was before they removed the PIP and did not lower my rate. The PIP changes were a headache for those of us using car insurance and a windfall for the carriers. It just gave them the opportunity to raise rates. Add

Add to that the fact that even though I have been on the phone with customer service twice before about having my ex husband’s name and car accidents removed from this policy now that he is not on it, they have apparently failed to have done so thus far.

So, I am not staying with them, mostly on principle. That is unfortunate for them, since now that I am on my own again, I am looking for both home insurance and life insurance policies. I will initially look for one carrier for all of my insurance needs, but I am pretty sure it will not be this carrier I am using for auto currently.

I have mailing list of over 100 people who are all involved in one way or another in the business of hair accessories. There are hobbyists who only sell to friends, small businesses in their local communities, and big online retailers. We all have the same goal and share a lot of information.

One thing the members of the group are great about is helping one in another in brainstorming things like business names and logo ideas. So, I see a lot of those logos bandies about. I have a couple tips that I would like to share, because all too often the logos I see people choosing to use in the end are complicated, multi-colored designs.

1. Make sure your logo is just as attractive and easy to recognize if it is printed in straight black and white – no grey, no half tones, nothing except solid black and white. There will come a time you want a simple version of your logo for invoices or low-cost flyers. When you get into color, costs go up, so you want to always have a b/w option.

2. Use clean lines and simple designs. Think about what your logo might look like if you need to shrink it down to a 1-inch square. What does it look like if you make a copy of a copy of a Xerox machine? Will it become incomprehensible once you make it small? Is there so much detail that it turns into an unattractive blob?

3. Your logo needs to be easy to remember. If a customer sees your logo, will they remember it? This is your brand, your image. Think about how the Nike swoosh is burned into your brain. Ideally, your logo will incorporate something just as unique, simple and memorable.

4. Make sure you keep your logo in a vector-based file format for future use. A jpg might work if you are putting your logo online, but it won’t print well.

One thing I do a lot of as a freelance designer who specializes in corporate and industrial business work is what I call logo repair or logo recovery. Often, a business or individual will have a copy of their logo that someone else designed for them, but not in an appropriate digital format. They will have a printout or a low resolution jpg and when they need to have print jobs done, they no longer have a clean logo in a print quality format. I go back and re-design their logo, often improving it as I go, and give it back tot hem in an appropriate vector file format. If you need a service like this, please drop me a line via my contact form. My prices are super reasonable.

I talked about several topics involved in getting your online presence up and running when you are a small business owner. I’ve gone over choosing a host, designing a logo, choosing a name for your business and ways to make sure you stay ahead of your competitors in the search engines.

So, how about taking a look at who is visiting your site, how much traffic you are generating and where that traffic is finding you? That is all as simple as making sure you have a good stats program installed on your site and then learning how to make the most of the data it gives you.

GoStats offers both free and paid professional stats for your site. Best of all, they are simple to install and even easier to interpret. I suggest at least signing up for the free stats and seeing how comfortable you are with the data presentation. You can always upgrade to a more advanced account.

The free account does give you access to information about when and where your visitors are coming. I find this to be the most useful part of my stats, because it tells me if advertising is driving traffic, if links from other businesses are successful, or if a particular search engine is returning results for me. It also tells me which days of the week are best for my target demographic and what time throughout the day those people are online and looking for the particular information my website offers.

If you know which pages on your site are most popular, you can gauge where you need to focus future efforts. If I see that a majority of my traffic is coming in to look at a particular product, I will add new products along the same lines.

If you already have stats, learn how to use them. If you don’t have them yet, sign on at GoStats and start learning more about your site’s traffic.

There has been a lot of speculation as to why when Debra Lafave plead guilty to having sex with a teenaged boy she was able to swing house arrest, while Jaymee Wallace was just handed three years in prison for admitting to having sex with a 14-year-oldgirl. Both Tampa, FL female teachers asked for leniency.

Much has been made about the role of the parents of the two victims. Apparently, what they had to say and how hard they pressed the issue contributed to the way the sentences played out in the end.

In Lafave’s case, the victim’s mother agreed to a plea deal that did not include prison. The parents of Wallace’s victim were focused on a prison sentence.

While Lafave does not have children of her own, Wallace has a 10-month-old child. Lafave was able to work and live with family while on house arrest, while Wallace will be separated from her infant.