A while back, a friend called me and broke some news to me that has changed my life completely.

Cassie: Girrrrrrrrrlllllll, don’t hate me, but I gotta tell you about a website.

Me: Why would I hate you for telling me about a website? Is it porn?

Cassie: It’s craft porn.

Me: Craft porn?! What’s the url?

Cassie: www.etsy.com You’ll never get off of it. You’re gonna be hooked. But you’re gonna love it.

Two months later, I still can’t get off of etsy.com. It’s kind of like ebay, but there’s way cooler sh*t and no lame bidding. Artists and craft-sters from around the world put their hand-crafted items on etsy with a price. If you like something, you buy it.

Yes, it sounds like the same-old shopping website, but it is so much cooler. The stuff on there is home-made and all kinds of awesome.

From tote bags made from seat belts to mushroom shaped salt and pepper shakers, etsy is seriously everything a craft-lover could ever dream of. It’s like going to Arts & Craft fairs from around the world without getting off your lazy ass.

It is the perfect one-stop-online-shop for all of your gifting needs: everything is unique, lots of the stuff is super cheap (those mushroom shaped salt and pepper shakers were on there for 5 bucks!), and you get to discover new talent from around the world.

If you love the idea of personal and crafty gifts, but you’re too lazy or talentless to make your own, definitely scope out etsy. You are going to love me it!

Finals week drained me of a lot – my last pint of Cherry Garcia, my final cup of Folger’s, my sanity – plus the extra cash I had stashed in my wallet all semester. Cash that was supposed to help buy gifts for well, everybody, on my holiday gift list.

But it’s the holidays and sometimes magical things happen. So I’d like to extend a big THANK YOU! to the Holiday gods for sending this little gem my way: SwapStyle.com. It reminds me of my junior high days when my BFFs would bring over extra clothes for me to model and “borrow.” We all knew that “borrowing,” however, actually meant my friend would never see her A&F tee again. And she was cool with it, because she only brought it over because it made her look fat.

Yeah, so it’s just like that only on a much larger scale. Thanks to the information superhighway you can “borrow” clothes from women from all over the globe! That means you’re not limited to extra large, ratty Mickey Mouse T’s and super-flare Mudd Jeans from your somewhat-frumpy best friend’s wardrobe. Instead you can “borrow” Coach bags, Forever 21 dresses and MAC eyeshadows.

Plus, clothes-swapping is super environmentally friendly (you are reusing other people’s things instead of wasting new materials!) and the site is easy to use. Did I mention it’ s free to sign up?

Check it out here.

Remember the days that you could glue pasta onto a piece of paper and call it a Christmas present for Mom and Dad? Those days are long gone, and choosing gifts for parents has become harder than ever. Not only do they always tell you, “I don’t really need anything,” when you want some answers, but you’re a student, and by Christmas that generally means you’re broke.

And, um, you only have a week left! Let us help:

Tips before you buy

-If you can make something your parents will appreciate, go for it. If you’re an art student, consider making a one-of-a-kind piece for your parents; it’s cheap and shows you are putting your education to good use.

-Before you go shopping, set a budget. Decide how much you want to spend on each parent and stick to it. Chances are your budget isn’t going to be very high, so if you want to splurge a bit, consider combining resources with your siblings. Not only will you have more money to work with, but your parents will appreciate that you are mature enough to cooperate.

-If your parents are together, consider buying one gift for both them. It can be something they can enjoy together, and you can either save money or get a more meaningful gift. Read More »

[Post courtesy of out friends at StyleBakery.com. For more awesome fashion, style and beauty news, check them out!]

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you beauty gift ideas galore! Each week, you’ll discover gifts of a certain category. Up this week are the most fabulous fragrance gifts money can buy. You’ll not only want to give these to others … you’ll so want to gift yourself a bit too.

Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Refillable Purse Spray Set

The sweet and sexy fragrance — infused with notes of honeysuckle, jasmine, amber, caramel and vanilla — takes on a new twist in a set of three purse sprays and a refillable atomizer. You’ll be good to go for months — and best of all, the atomizer will look beautiful when you pull it out of your clutch!

$50 at sephora.com

Clean Rollerball Fragrance Set

Shower Fresh. Ultimate. Warm Cotton. One smells better than the next in this set of three rollerball fragrances — though our fave is definitely Warm Cotton, which smells exactly like fresh laundry.

$48 at cleanperfume.com

Read More »

So the economy blows. Which is pretty perfect timing considering that one time of the year we’re expected to come to our loved ones bearing gifts is approaching. Great. So now we’re all expected to somehow make less money and still spend the same amount of money on Xmas gifts that we spent last year. How the eff do we make this work?

DIY crafts, kids.

If you need some inspiration, I highly suggest scoping out Etsy.com, but, regardless of Etsy, there are nifty gifts you can make yourself for friends and family. You can do it cheaply. You can do it easily. And lets face it, a handmade gift is always more appreciated than that bottle of body spray everyone knows you just got for free because you spent more than $50 at Bath & Body.

Heat it into a bracelet.

From vinyl records to spoons, heating every day objects to a point of flexibility for the purposes of making a bracelet is easy and always makes for a nice gift.

Heat your oven to 200 degrees for the vinyl record bracelet. Set the whole record on a cookie sheet and keep it in the oven until the record begins to bubble. Remove it from the oven and cut the record into strips while still hot. Place the strips back into the oven for a few minutes and then remove. When you remove the strips, wrap them around something that symbolizes your wrist, but is not your wrist. Think jars, paper towel tubes, anything other than your own flesh. Read More »

They say it is better to give than to receive, but what about giving in order to receive? Yeah, yeah; that goes against the spirit of the holidays, but as long as you are giving there is nothing wrong with gettin’ a little something in return, is there?

Like this game, which, unlike Guitar Hero, teaches boys an actually useful skill: pleasuring a woman.

Giving this is a gift is a total win/win. Your guy – who is obsessed with video games – gets a new toy to play with and a girlfriend who encourages him to do so. You get some much needed satisfaction in the bedroom.

Ok, so it’s not real, but how amazing would it be if it were? Just imagine coming home from class to find your guy and his friends playing in the living room; who cares if he just wasted six hours playing the game? He’s practicing for you! And instead of some dumb game where he lives out his fantasies of being a rock star, your man would be spending his time practicing a skill that is actually necessary in his day to day life!

Guys need some help when it comes to our nether regions; guiding them doesn’t seem to work and watching porn just makes everything worse. An instructional (and entertaining) video game seems like the best solution. This is definitely on my wish list this season.

There are only two days left to buy the guy who never forgets to call you back the perfect Father’s Day gift. But what does a middle aged man really want besides a jumbo screen TV, a flashy car, and a prolonged vacation on a tropical island? Probably lots of other very expensive things we can’t afford.

All kidding aside, finding something your dad will actually like can be a difficult task. This is why I have arranged ideas by budget in order to get your gift giving vibes flowing:

If you’re loaded: Maybe you have a killer summer job or maybe you run some type of sketchy monetary operation. Either way, you’re looking to spend the big bucks on dad.

BBQSauceoftheMonth.com membership- $19.95/mo ($240/yr)- Dads are known as universal masters of the grill. This website will send your dad two new barbecue sauces each month to experiment with. This is a plus for you if you like to eat because it will prompt your dad to throw some steaks or ribs onto the fire.

Snap-On Tools-$25-$500- Not all dads are handymen, but some can get pretty serious about their tools. Snap On tools are revered in male circles as one of the most respectable tool brands. Get a male friend or boyfriend to chat your dad up and see which tool he’s lacking. Then head online to snapon.com. You may want to check out eBay before making any purchases, because some of these items can cost more than a crappy car. Read More »

So you graduated. Whoop-de-do. Sure it’s amazing to be done with final exams/papers/all nighters and the like but who are you kidding? Is there anything to look forward to in the real world?

If you are like me, you are totally hesitant about becoming a Real Person with a real schedule and real responsibilities. And if you aren’t dreading the hard, fast and very rude awakening you are about to undergo, I’m here to tell you to jump on this train because it is going to suck.

But there is one thing to look forward to while you are home unpacking all your memories, sifting through pictures of your senior bar crawl and thinking about how it’s only downhill from here on out… graduation gifts! Now that deserves a whoop-de-do (with an exclamation point) !

Only problem is whenever I am put on the spot with a “What do you want for graduation?” it seems as though I can never think of anything and end up getting gifts I don’t really have any use for. Read More »