Shopping and Clothing

Do you have a general interest in watches? Do you sometimes see second hand watches for sale that you would like to buy but are not really sure what faults you should be looking for?

Maybe you enjoy visiting antique markets, trade fairs or auctions, possibly looking for bargain watches to buy for yourself or to even restore and sell on. Or are you a collector of old watches who wants to buy a watch but does not want to get caught out by an unscrupulous dealer who is trying to sell you a complete lump of rubbish! Then maybe I can help?

My name is David Adison C.M.B.H.I (Craft Member of the British Horological Institute) which basically means I am a fully qualified professional watchmaker. Just for the record, the technical term for watch making is horology, making me a horologist.

I repair watches for a living and, as you can see write articles too. So I thought I could use my knowledge to help you buy yourself a good quality second hand watch that you may want to keep or possibly sell for a profit.
As per usual, Finding faults with a watch by just looking at it in a crowded trade fair or auction with people moving around you and bumping in to you can be very difficult, so I am going to give you professional advice on what to look out for.

As you probably can appreciate there are tens of thousands of watches with the same amount of problems, so I am going to start by giving you advice on what to look out for when buying a second hand gent’s gold watch.

I am going to aim this information at the hobbyist or the enthusiast, so the information will be easy to understand and follow, it’s not going to be too technical but it will certainly make you look like you know exactly what you are doing, making any dealer will think twice about trying to rip you off. In fact most of the time if a dealer thinks you know what you’re talking about he will drop the price before you’ve even mentioned it.

This could be a money saver, reason being a lot of us might have never genuinely tried to pay much attention or time to why we buy jewelry. When picking jewelry, we have to spend some time picking out the perfect one for any occasion. Whatever jewelry you get, you first have to love it. Another key aspect of jewelry picking is knowing what outfit its being worn with and when you’re armed with that information you can make a more informed decision. You could also try on gold and silver jewelry to see which would go best with your clothing. If you are wondering why the suggestion, the reason is; gold and silver are so adaptable that they carefully adapt to any style or color you love.

You can find a lot of inexpensive jewelry but not every jewelry is for everybody. Keep in mind that sometimes the prettiest pieces are inexpensive, an example is; costume jewelry. The main attraction of costume jewelry is; they are usually cheap and fashionable, some of them are so realistic that it takes only the trained eye to see the difference between costume jewel and the real thing. Also jewelry can be found in all size and shapes, so you should understand what occasion you really need this jewelry for? (That is one point I will keep stressing).

Not to step on anyone’s toes but: always get subtle jewelry. I have never been a fan of loud jewelry simply because it takes away attention from the individual and instead focuses attention on the jewelry. Jewelry should compliment the wearer and not the other way around. I know that there are times when huge jewelry is suitable for an occasion and that’s no problem but I don’t think it’s appropriate for every occasion (But that’s a personal preference.

When in doubt, answer these checklist:

1. What’s the point of buying this jewelry?
2. What outfit is this jewelry going on?
3. How much are you willing to pay for it?
4. How long do you want it to last?
5. What jewelry size are you looking for?

When you have answered these questions honestly you should have a clear understanding on what jewelry you need. A final word; if you can, try on the jewelry and see how it looks first but remember everything that glitters is not gold.

I have become involved in reviewing the online store of Israeli Artists on Etsy.com. When embarking on the first review, the first question was which store to select. I did a search on Etsy for Israeli artists. The top of the list to come up was a stunning beaded item by Triz Designs, found at triz.etsy.com I took a brief look at the store to find out more and loved what I found. A whole array of exquisite beaded items of jewelry.

Having dabbled with a beaded item for the tables at my wedding, I liked the idea of starting with an artist who works with beads but who was the artist behind Triz Designs. Though the bio does not yet have much information, browsing the store, reading the shop policies and feedback will give you quite an idea of who you will be buying from.

After sending a convo to the artist, I was delighted to find the real person is just as special as her work. Patrizia Tager comes across as a warm, friendly person who is inspired to create beautiful items by whatever she sees. Patrizia’s respect for others comes through in her willingness to create the same item in different colours, her speed at replying to a convo or Facebook post and her taking the privacy of her clients seriously.

When looking at her store, other than the high standard of craftsmanship and variety of designs and colours, something that stands out is her professional, quality photographs of every item. Reading a recent interview of Patrizia, one quickly discovers the high standard of work in all areas. Patrizia completed a BA honours in Fashion at The Americans Intercontinental University, London. Following this she studied photography for 2 years in Israel and then studied Social Policy and Criminal Justice.

After taking just 4 basic beading classes, Patrizia fell in love with the art of beading and spent the next year learning everything she could from magazines, books and fellow artists.

A single Mom of a 4 year old boy, a dog and a puppy, Patrizia’s dream is to focus on her beading, producing creative pieces, selling and teaching bead work.

It is inspiring to watch the new updates on Facebook of competitions entered, new items added to her store, ready for sale. This is a woman who has set herself a goal and is actively working towards achieving it.

Her work is beautiful, stylish and professionally made. It is well worth a visit to her store, if nothing else, it will be a treat to your eye, or who knows, you just might find a gift to buy.

I can remember as a very little girl being entranced by my aunt’s charm bracelets. Every time she visited, I would reach for her bracelet and count the charms to see if there was a new one; London Bridge, New York, a heart, a key… even a star fish to represent her visit to Hilton Head. I wanted one desperately so that I could add all the adventures and loving memories that I would have as I grew up. Such has been the history of these simple but charming bracelets. Just like their mate, charm necklaces, wearing talismans around your wrist that represented beauty, harmony, love and abundance, and safety and good health, is a tradition that has spanned thousands of years.

The History of Charm Bracelets

The history of bracelets is also the history of wearing mementos of occasions, places, and loved ones, known as charms. They were stones, bones, copper, iron, silver, and gold, wood, and leather; any material that represented an emotion and a goal that you may have in your life. Worn as talismans, lucky charms simply carried a belief and a faith of a positive outcome for your life. Where once a saber tooth tiger claw or a shark’s tooth may have represented protection because of the strength of the animals, or a piece of quartz crystal found in the mountains brought good charm into a person’s life, charms evolved to more sophisticated and purposeful shapes.

The Evolution of Bracelets

Eventually, charm bracelets evolved to be created primarily out of silver and gold; hearty enough materials that that could be shaped and decorated and yet outlast the chinking and chiming inherent in the wearing of bracelets. The charms themselves carry precious memories and steel and copper just did not have the quality inherent in the nature of the jewelry. Charms started as being quite tiny, part of their charm, and often decorated with gems and crystals. They began to grow in size with the market recognizing that charms were popular keepsakes for places visited and the London Bridge simply required more space than a tiny heart or dolphin.

Personalized Charms

Today, the popularity of charm bracelets has increased a thousand fold with personalization taking on the biggest craze in jewelry that has been seen for many years. Now, charms are a significant size to encompass the name of your first born, their date of birth, their weight, and their length as well as a special message such as “Vous Avez Mon Coeur” or one of your favorite Psalms. They have become rounded discs with a few accents of crystals, hearts, and pearls, representing the totality of the love imbued in the charm.

A single name, or 9 characters, can fit on a delicate gold or silver charm can dime sized charm, but with the current fashion leaning toward etchings of hearts, some of which are inlaid with 22 karat gold, or of a baby’s feet and hands as well as personalized messages, we now see charms that are 1-2 inch in circumference. Today, the message of love, tenderness, and caring is direct and most often represented on charm bracelets in the name of a beloved engraved on a silver or gold disc.

If you ever decide to take a look at vintage jewelry, you had better be very careful, it doesn’t take more than a couple of good finds, and you’re hooked for life.

As far as how vintage jewelry is defined, it’s disputed among those in the industry, but in general, if it’s over 25 years old, a piece of jewelry is considered vintage. Of course the antique guidelines still remain in effect, in that if it’s over 100 years old, a piece of jewelry is still considered an antique, even if it’s also called vintage.

Vintage jewelry also involves a number of different periods in history, which are the Georgian period, and following the Georgian was the Victorian periods (early, mid and late; 1837 - 1900), then the Arts and Crafts (1894-1923), Art Nouveau (1895-1915), Edwardian (1901-1910), Art Deco (1920-1935), and Retro (1940s).

Some of the more popular vintage jewelry types are vintage wedding jewelry, Christmas jewelry, rings, cross-collectibles like Avon, earrings and rhinestones.

Of course there are a lot more than that, but these are very popular, and it would take a book to talk about the enormous variety you can find, discover and collect.

Not only is it fun, educational and entertaining to collect vintage jewelry, but it can be very profitable too, once you understand how things are priced,the quality to look for, and the demand for periods and themes.

Now if you go that route, you might as well surrender to your passion and give up. It’s like an announced gold rush, once you get the fever you’re hooked for life.

I hope I’ve instilled in you a little curiosity and fun warning, as collecting, trading and selling vintage jewelry gets in your blood, and once it is, there’s no escaping it, and you’ll be going on jewelry hunts, and thinking about going on jewelry hunts, all your waking hours.

But come to think of it, that’s not so bad is it?

Gems, by definition, are “natural or artificially produced minerals or other materials that have sufficient beauty and durability for use as a personal adornment”; “precious or semiprecious stones cut and polished for ornament” and “something prized especially for great beauty or perfection”. but a lot more can be said about them. The word gem comes from the Latin word “gemma” and it means: a bud on a plant.

The majorities of us is attracted to gemstones and are very familiar with the most popular and well known varieties of precious stones such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires but there are many other minerals that also possess qualities that make them very desirable. These are the semiprecious stones. Some of these lesser known stones are strikingly beautiful. Certain rocks, such as lapis-lazuli, organic materials, such as pearls, amber or corals are not minerals, but are products of once living plants or animals and they are also used for jewelry, and are therefore considered to be gemstones as well.

Some of my favorites TV shows are those that deal with geological stories about “how the earth was formed”. Watching those programs you can appreciate the complex processes that planet earth has gone through over billions of years. It is through that evolutionary process that these precious and semiprecious stones are formed. Gemstones are usually created underground over very long periods of time, through the effects of intense pressure and heat. As the earth renews itself and repositions the plates that form the crust of the planet, rocks and minerals are sent downwards in the places where the plates collide and fall and are absorbed into the magma.

Bellow the crust, where the crust and the mantle meet, there are many cracks and cavities that develop in the crust due to the constant and violent movement and friction of the magma against the plates. So once again minerals, in liquid form, flow back to the crust through cracks and cavities. After millions of years of pressure and heat, the flow of deposits cool and eventually develop into the precious and semiprecious stones that we value and like so much.

Pelvic floor toner reviews of the Athenafem Trainer and Kegel8 Ultra are few and far between as the latter is a brand new product which has just been launched in the UK. However, as these two products seem to be competing for a similar slice of the pelvic toner business, it seems appropriate to compare them.

Athenafem Trainer

Given the accolade of being a “no-brainer trainer” the Athenafem Trainer claims to be the most advanced device of its kind available. The feature which makes the Athenafem stand out from its competition is the fact that it is wireless. The control unit is completely separate from the tampon-like probe which is inserted into the vagina. It’s dual pulse setting feature means that you can treat stress, urge and mixed incontinence. There are different programs to use, so that you can work at various levels to give the best range of pelvic muscle workouts.

Kegel8 Ultra

The Kegel8 Ultra is new to the market and is the latest addition to the bestselling “Kegel8″ range. Designed with the help of physiotherapists, like the Athenafem, this device also claims to be the most advanced available! Although it retains a wire connection between the probe and control unit, it is very comfortable and simple to use. The Kegel8 Ultra has 14 different programs which you can alternate between. Like the Athenafem it is simple and comfortable to use.

Pelvic floor toner reviews often look at a number of products rather than just a couple. However, I felt it appropriate to look at these two side by side as in my opinion, they are so clearly in direct competition-even down to the claims that each is “the most advanced available”. In terms of price, the Athenafem is more expensive but this is justified, in my opinion, by the fact that the probe is wireless and therefore more discreet to use. Both devices have digital displays which are similar in terms of content and both have a range of programs which can treat stress, urge and mixed incontinence. The probe on each trainer is 3.5″ long by 1″ wide and both are battery operated.

The way that some companies advertise pheromones, you would think that there is a little genie in the bottle waiting to grant you three wishes. With all the big claims and huge promises how do you know where to buy pheromone perfumes that really work?

The most important thing to remember about buying pheromone products is that quality is the most important factor in determining results. Unfortunately, there are just as many poor quality products out there as high quality ones. How do you tell the difference?

How to get quality products. The flat out easiest way to find quality products is to buy from quality stores. To tell if the store you are dealing with is a quality shop look at their customer service policies. They should have a solid money back guarantee and post real customer comments and reviews. These two things indicate that they are a quality online distributor and that they more than likely only carry quality pheromone products.

How to choose the right pheromone for attraction. It is important to remember that different pheromone formualtions do different things. Some are designed solely for intense, immediate attraction (great for clubs and bars). Other products are more balanced and offer attraction with more social pheromones blended in (great for work and attraction long term relationships). To figure out what each product offers read the customer comments and order what you are looking for accordingly for the best results. Following these two tips will help you to know how and where to order pheromone perfumes.