If you’re looking for the perfect present for your picky family member or friend, try being creative this year. Here are some presents to consider.

-Pets/Children: A Christmas dress or dog purse for your Chihuahua or little dog.

-Grandparents/Adults: For the adults, you can give a membership to LifeBio.com, which provides individuals and families to create a life story and share memories. It’s a great way to bring the family together this holiday season.

-The Trucking man: Get him a product like ShurTrax, which helps him safely add weight and fill up his truck during the winter weather.

-Athletes: Buy him or her a membership to a gym, a few personal training lessons, or a subscription to a health/fitness magazine. Or check in at your local health store for other great gifts.

-Everyone: Look up a niche item online to surprise and please everyone on your list.

Rather than getting a second job if you can’t pull in more money at work, organize your life and make money while doing it.

First, sell your extra items on eBay. Burn extra CDs and DVDs and sell the original. Anything you don’t use, sell.

Next, start using a wholesale dropship service to sell niche items at your own set retail price. It saves you the time of buying inventory and shipping products.

Continue this trend and you can make a great side income that may even blossom into a full-time income. Get selling!

As I was searching through real estate listings, I was amazed at how many resources there are on the internet. Besides finding a complete first time buyer’s guide and mortgage calculators, I also found dozens of sites with home listings. Some of these homes were for sale by owner while others were using a real estate agent. I also found a few websites with listings of foreclosure homes, but many of the sites required a subscription with payment to view the homes.

Lucky for me, I also found a website that had listings specifically for Bella Vista Arkansas real estate. I personalized my search and receive email updates every time a new listing that meets my qualifications is posted. It sure makes it easier to find a home when I’m doing less work searching. Plus it’s less expensive than hiring a real estate agent.

Since I live in Utah Valley where many college students live, I feel like I go to a wedding reception at least once a month. Last week I went to my friend’s reception in American Fork. I was impressed with her reception, it certainly looked like she spent more on her wedding than the average Utah couple.

Her food was the best wedding food I’ve ever had. Her Salt Lake City caterer had a beautiful display of food, including a light dinner of sweet pork loin, caesar salad, and plenty of light desserts, although my favorites were the raspberry sorbet and chocolate-covered strawberries. They even had the desserts displayed on a vertical shelf, something I had never seen at a wedding before.

The whole affair was very elegant, not to mention a comfortable, pleasing atmosphere for all the guests and the happy couple. If I had to get married again, I would use her design ideas! Maybe for my 50th wedding anniversary…

I was so excited to see Kat’s post about HGTV!  I have to admit that I am (slightly) obsessed with that network.  Maybe it’s because we are finally and officially homeowners!  After numerous condos and town homes, it is so nice to be in an actual house and be able to make it our “own.”   Thanks to HGTV, these creative impaired homeowners (i.e. my husband and me) are able to beautifully decorate our home without breaking the bank.

The HGTV website is also jam packed with fun decorating ideas, tips, and advice.  They even have a MarketPlace, where you can shop over a million products.  Cool, huh?

…By the way, TLC is another great network for homeowners.

My grandparents live in the scenic White Mountains of Northern Arizona.  For months now they have been telling my husband and I that we need to take a vacation and come visit.  While my husband agrees we need a vacation, a mountain backdrop wouldn’t be his first choice.  He’s more of a beach and palm trees vacation personality.  I, on the other hand, grew up in a quaint town nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains so I absolutely love the mountains.

Anyways, they suggested we look into getting an Arizona cabin rental, which are apparently popular in the area.  After doing some research online, I was pleasantly surprised to find that vacation homes in that particular part of Arizona are not your average one or two room cabins replete with out houses.  Nope, these cabins are definitely luxury resorts complete with beautiful décor, spa treatments, and five star dining.  We recently booked a room at Greer Lodge, in beautiful (no surprise) Greer, Arizona. And the best part about our trip?  No kids!  Only a few weeks away, we are definitely looking forward to some well-deserved R&R.

I love watching HGTV to learn tips on home improvement. These shows often have inexpensive tips on how to improve the value of your home by remodeling a room.

After buying my house, I took tips from the shows to add color through paint and add great accessories to my living room and bedroom.

They show inexpensive ways to make shelves and bookcases to hold china, photos, or knick knacks. (Don’t worry, if you’re not the best craftsmen, you can always use find a china replacement dish online.)

Or, if you don’t want to make your furniture, you can stop by wholesale furniture stores or buy through classified ads like craigslist.org.

If you want to improve the value of your home, check out my favorite shows: Flip That House, Design on a Dime, Decorating Cents, Curb Appeal, My House is Worth What? and Trading Spaces.

My little brother is finally getting married after four years of dating and a two year engagement. I couldn’t be happier for them both, plus it feels like his fiancee is already part of our family.

It’s fun to plan a wedding without the stress that is present when you plan your own. I feel as if I get to vicariously relive my wedding through them.

She’s already found her dress, the SLC caterer, and is now working on one of the most important parts–the wedding photographer. I’ve recommended my wedding photographer, and she’s meeting with some other photographers that her friends recommended. With her amazing sense of style, the SLC wedding photographer that she chooses shouldn’t have a hard time capturing this fairytale wedding.

It’s officially fall and getting colder every day as it fades into winter. In just a few more days, the winter activities can begin! If you’ve read the previous post, you know that on Nov. 16-17, many of Utah’s big skiing and snowboarding resorts open to the public. In just two weeks from today Alta, Park City Mtn, Solitude, and the Canyons (my favorite) resorts will be open. I’m so excited to start using my rusty skiing skills again. Find out what other Utah outdoor adventure is available in the next few weeks. Get your calendars out and start planning for some cold, but seriously fun times!

After graduating from high school, I wanted to take a break from school and explore my possibilities. I’d always been really interested in working in TV or broadcasting, but I didn’t want to jump into a boring and competitive communications program at a college.

I obtained a full-time job and began to build my networking skills and continued to play around with the idea of working in TV. While surfing the web one day, I came across a great broadcasting internship. It seemed perfect for me. Not only did it let me continue to work at my present job, but the internship provided me a mentor and gave me experience working at a real TV news station.

The internship was less expensive than school, so I could use my saved money for college and some financial assistance to cover it. I’m so excited to start learning about the career of my dreams!