London in a Bag FSC Wooden Toys

Its your imagination that rules with this miniature city that features some of London’s most famous landmarks including the London Eye, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, the River Thames and more. And it wont be fair if we don’t mention the famous London Buses and the Buckingham Palace guards.

What if the property market is down, the budding property tycoons can set their eyes on some of the most famous buildings in the world.

Provided in a little cloth bag, and is made from FSC certified wood so guaranteed to be from a sustainable source.

League of Pirates

Front Porch Classics’ highly successful and award wining Coffee Table Game – comes League of Pirates, a fast paced game of cut throat action. In this board game players compete to place the best pirates onto their respective ships. Players can “recruit”, “press gang” or even “raid” for the pirates they need. Game comes with over 40 unique and beautifully illustrated pirate coins suitable for collecting.

1697 – A storm gathers upon the Caribbean; a confederacy of pirates which seeks to overthrow the great houses of Europe and take for themselves the riches and bounty of the New World. As a pirate lord your goal is to assemble, by hook or by crook, the best pirate crew on your ship. Players compete in a dice challenge to determine who may place a pirate coin onto their ship. Press gang, recruits, turn another pirate into a traitor or raid other ships to form your crew. The player with the best pirate crew at the end of the game wins. League of Pirates is a fast paced, easy to learn, head to head battle of pirate action.

The Retro Beetle Game

Even children who are terrified of bugs will love this old-fashioned jigsaw game. Throw the dice to complete the beetle on your puzzle board. The first player to collect a full set of beetle body parts wins.

Based on a 1960s design, youngsters will love the game’s funky flowers and groovy beetles (and we’re not talking the Fab Four). A gift that would make a welcome addition to any curious kid’s Christmas stocking.

Touring England Board Game
Take a trip down memory lane with this classic motoring board game from the 1930s.

Players must start from the same town or city, and race to one of eight secret destinations. The first car back is the winner.

There’s a race to be won, but there are plenty of hazards en route. Watch out for narrow country lanes, collisions and red lights. This is life on the open road as it used to be. Tallyho! We’re off to the land that speed cameras forgot!

Parents and grandparents: an old-style Birthday gift, Christmas gift or a present that will teach your kids to read a map and get to grips with the geography of the British Isles. No Sat Navs allowed.

Panic Post Retro Family or Party Game
First played in the 1920s, this vintage parlor game will bring old-fashioned fun to any family gathering.

There are letters to be delivered, but finding the post box is harder than you might think.

Youngsters will scream with excitement as they dash around the house trying to catch the last post. But be careful not to panic! Hurry too much, and a postcard meant for Aberdeen will end up in Aberdare.

Parents and Grandparents: we all know electronic games are great, but this retro game will get the entire family up and running. Can be played indoors or out – snow permitting.

and lots more. Party Games

vistaprint coupon codes

For the first century or so of their existence, movies were something that people would “go to,” as the only technology for viewing them was a 35mm projector in a commercial movie theater. People considered it a real treat when, with the advent of television, such shows as “Saturday Night at the Movies” would broadcast an edited, commercial-filled film.

Nowadays, people go to the theaters only for the newest releases, and bring the movies home the rest of the time. Some people don’t go to theaters at all, as there is a brisk trade in pirated films on the Internet, featuring studio “screener” DVDs, digital copies of same and low-quality camcorder movies of the film being shown in a theater. It’s hard to measure these changes, and the movie industry is still making big bucks from ticket buyers. But there is a growing sense that, within a generation perhaps, home TV screens will grow large enough to satisfy a majority of viewers.

Death of the theater?
The length of time between theatrical release and the availability of the movie on DVD (or, less commonly now, on VHS tape) is getting shorter all the time. And the number of ways that movies can find their way home is increasing all the time. There are DVD rental stores, online download services, Internet movie rentals that send discs through the mail and, of course, pirated films that show up in the dark corners of the Web or in cheap copies at flea markets. The point is, the public’s appetite for films is voracious, in no danger of diminishing and has led more and more people out of the movie theater and into the living room for film enjoyment.

The film industry, although famous for complaining about lower ticket sales, has had several years of record profits recently, and continues to produce a tremendous variety of motion pictures, something for everyone, it would seem. In recent years, children have enjoyed a number of animated blockbusters, young adults have flocked to spoofs of scary movies and more mature viewers have discovered serious themes of love, loss and hope in movies from Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese.

Special delivery films
The renewed interest in 3D movies and IMAX oversized screens may herald the evolution of a new specialty film market. The entertainment industry needs to offer viewers something that they cannot get at home, and that would be sheer size, volume and specialized displays. If 3D movies did not require wearing ugly cardboard-framed glasses, it could catch on even faster, but we will know more about this market when the receipts are counted for the 3D blockbusters planned for 2009-2011.

What is most likely to happen is further stratification of the film viewing market. There will be IMAX events for nature films and other documentaries needing the huge scale, and entry into that special theater market of mainstream “hit” movies. TV screens will continue to grow, and movies will be enjoyed at home by an increasing number of people. Whether you want a high-octane Hong Kong martial arts film or a fear-mongering tale of an upcoming apocalypse, the filmmakers of Hollywood (and everywhere else) are ready to give it to you, and there are plenty of ways for you to get and watch whatever it is that you like, too. There are some interesting (and entertaining) times ahead, that’s for sure.

wedding gifts

Positive personal impact is one of the keys to personal and professional success that I discuss in my books. If you want to create positive personal impact you need to do three things. First, develop and nurture your unique personal brand. Second, be impeccable in your presentation of self – in person and on line. Third, know and follow the basic rules of etiquette.

The Stacy Snyder story provides a good example of what not to do in all three.

In 2006, Stacy was a student at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She was studying education and doing her student teaching at Conestoga Valley High School. She also had a MySpace page on which she posted a picture of herself in a pirate costume, drinking out of a plastic cup. The caption read “Drunken Pirate.” Apparently she also posted a critical comment about the supervising teacher.

A parent of one the children in her student teaching class brought the photo to the attention of administrators at Conestoga Valley High School. One thing led to another, and Millersville University refused to grant her a degree in education. They said her photo and caption promoted underage drinking. The university did grant her a BA in English. However, this degree would not allow her to receive the teaching certificate required to teach in Pennsylvania.

Stacy sued the university charging that Millersville University violated her first amendment rights. She lost.

Writing in the WashingtonPost.com, Brian Krebs said…

“I have long urged readers to exercise caution on social networking sites, which have established themselves as fertile breeding grounds for scams and malicious software attacks. Regardless of which side was in the right in this dispute, Snyder’s story is yet another reminder about the privacy impact of social networking sites: Be judicious and exercise restraint before posting details about your personal life online, because those details will in all likelihood remain online indefinitely.”

He’s right.

Now let’s consider how Stacy Snyder violated all three tenets of creating positive personal impact.

First, branding herself as a “drunken pirate” was not a good idea. The picture, taken at a Halloween party, was not one Stacy should have posted on her MySpace page. As the school charged, it demonstrated a lack of professionalism on her part.

Second, as Brian Krebs points out: “Be judicious and exercise restraint before posting details about your personal life online, because those details will in all likelihood remain online indefinitely.” By posting the picture and the caption, Stacy was not presenting herself in a positive light. Even if she won her lawsuit against Millersville University, she would have found it very difficult to find a teaching job.

Finally, Stacy violated basic rule of etiquette by posting negative comments about her supervising teacher. Stacy should have heeded the advice most of our mothers have given us – “if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.”

In this situation, Stacy went 0 for 3 on creating positive personal impact. 1) She branded herself as a “drunken pirate” – not a good idea when job hunting. 2) She did a poor job of presenting herself as a professional. 3) She didn’t follow the rules of etiquette when she made disparaging remarks about her supervising teacher on her website.

Also, I have seen references to Stacy’s case in print and on line for three years now. While some of the articles have been sympathetic to her plight, most agree that she should have been more judicious in what she posted on line.

The common sense point here is clear. Successful people create positive personal impact. You create positive personal impact by building a solid, professional personal brand; presenting yourself professionally – in person and on line; and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette. What you post on line – on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or any number of places can help or hinder your attempts at creating positive personal impact. Be smart. Think before you hit that send button.

bridal shower favors