Holiday Fashion

Tis the season for holiday parties and festive social gatherings with friends, family and co-workers. It’s always nice to play dress up, but when it comes to the holidays, many of us (including myself), tend to be a little extra self-conscious. There’s nothing wrong with a little glitz and glamour, but you don’t want to be the center of attraction for all the wrong reasons.

According to Cynthia Nellis, who has worked in the fashion industry for almost 20 years, most recently as a buyer, there are some holiday fashion faux pas to avoid.

1. Wearing Too Much Glitz
   Beading, metallic and shimmer are all fine for the holidays. In fact, most women wait until a good party to break out all of the glitzy finery. But too much shine can overwhelm anyone, especially if you wear it in areas that you don't necessarily want to highlight.
2. Showing Too Much Skin
   Thigh-high miniskirts and cut-to-the-navel dresses may look great on the runway, but in reality they are almost impossible to carry off. Not only is it possible to dress sexy while leaving lots to the imagination, it's also the best way to look your prettiest for the holidays. The secret here is to accentuate your best features with a suggestion: a lace trimmed camisole under a blazer hints at great cleavage, a small slit on a skirt gives a glimpse at gorgeous legs, a halter dress shows off toned arms.
3. Making It Too Complicated
   No wonder women approach the holidays with dread: trying to coordinate outfits, gifts, travel and parties can overload even the most organized woman. Instead of trying to match up dressy separates, try a little black dress this season. Not only is it universally flattering, it will take you to almost any event in style. Just add accessories and you're set.
4. Being Under or Over Dressed
   You show up in jeans, everyone else wears velvet; you wear a long dress and others wear business clothes. You're not alone if you have trouble deciphering dress codes on a party invitation: most people get confused by designations as ambiguous as "Dressy Casual" or "Cocktail Attire." A few dressy items span several categories -- such as the little black dress for her or dark suit for him -- both of which can attend everything from semi-formal to cocktail parties.

In the end, it’s always best to have fun with fashion. If you’re an “over the top” kind of person, so what if you light up more than the tree. Illuminate throughout the holiday season, celebrate the positive and stay connected!

Mother of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a traditional North American holiday to give thanks at the conclusion of the harvest season. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. Although over the years turkey seems to be the icon for the holiday, would you believe that a woman is behind the foundation of the annual event? Sarah Josepha Hale is a prominent woman in history that was very instrumental in getting Thanksgiving Day accepted as a national holiday in the United States.

Sarah Josepha Hale(1788 - 1879) was an American writer. She is well known as the author of the popular nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." From 1827 until 1836, Hale served as editor of Lady's Magazine in Boston. Ten year later she began working as editor of another women’s magazine, “Godey's Lady's Book,” in Philadelphia. She remained editor at Godey's for 40 years and retired at almost the age of 90 in 1877. Throughout the years Hale wrote many novels and poems and published nearly fifty volumes of work by the end of her life. Her biggest accomplishment of course, is being credited as one of the major forces behind the declaration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

For more information about Sarah and other prominent women writers of the 19^th century, visit Women Writers net. Throughout history and into the present women have been a driving force behind positive change. Let the women of the past inspire your future. Be thankful this holiday season and stay connected!

Tele-diva

With today’s rising gas prices and the corresponding headaches related to a stressful commute, many professionals are opting to telework. The luxury of working from home without ever having to come into the office may sound like a dream, but it’s closer to reality than you think. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 21 percent of the total U.S. workforce reported taking advantage of flexible work opportunities to balance their work lives with their home lives.

If you have the traditional “butts in seats” office job, with a little effort you might be able to convert your current position into a telecommuting one. If your work can be done at home easily with a laptop, internet access and conference call number, you may be good candidate for teleworking. It's much more common to convert an existing job into a telecommuting arrangement than to land a telecommuting job with a new company. According to the International Telework Association, most teleworking professionals work from home on a part-time basis, such as two or three days a week.

Before making the case to your boss, do a little detective work. Find out if your company already has a telecommuting program in place. If it doesn't, try to sell your boss on the idea by convincing him or her that your duties can be performed just as efficiently at home as they can from the office---if not better. To counter any opposition, propose a trial period. Offer a short work-at-home stint so your boss can see how it will feel to communicate with you from home until they are comfortable. The biggest fear is that you will be unproductive if out of the office.

Be one of the 100 million U.S. employees that will be working from home by 2010. According to the International Telework Association, this is a growing trend and the current 26 million telecommuters have realized some positive outcomes. Make your case to become a Tele-diva. Stay productive….and stay connected!

S.O.S! (Save Our Systems)- Tip #2

Scenario: You enjoyed a fabulous spontaneous weekend getaway to one of the world’s hottest destinations: Miami, Florida. Instead of confining yourself to your beach front hotel room to work on your presentation that’s due Monday afternoon, you indulge in a marathon shopping spree followed-up by a full day at the Elemis Spa located in the heart of South Beach. Feeling refreshed and energized, you cap off your vacation with a night of dancing and romancing up and down the strip. Suddenly in the taxi on your way to the airport you realize that you have not completed your presentation. Where did the time go?! You have always worked well under pressure, so rather than panic you devise a strategy. If you get an early start on Monday your presentation could be finished by lunch time, which would leave you an hour to rehearse before the 2:00 PM deadline.

You arrive at the office on Monday at 6:00 AM, triple espresso in hand. You sit down at your desk, boot up your PC and double-click on Microsoft PowerPoint to begin developing your presentation slides. The application does not open, so you double-click again. You immediately assume the worse and your heart rate quickens. The impending doom of your crashing PC is direct punishment for your frivolous weekend of unbridled fun.

But seriously, there may be no need for your blood pressure to rise. Consider She-Tech S.O.S. Tip #2 provided by the experts at PCWorld.

Tip #2: Regardless of what operating system you use, in general, whenever you repeatedly double-click a program icon without results, the first thing you should suspect is a hung application. A hung application is an annoying problem, but is far less severe than a complete system crash.

In Windows XP and 2000, right-click the Windows taskbar and click Task
Manager on the context menu. Select the Processes tab in the application window,
and click the list box column head labeled Image Name to sort the list of
running applications by name. Find the application you want to run. In many
cases two, three, or more instances will appear, as shown in FIGURE 1.

Right-click the offending application and choose End Process. Make sure to click
OK to confirm your choice. Repeat these steps until all instances of the program
are shut down. Close Task Manager and start the application again.

Unfortunately, Windows 98 and Me don't offer control over running processes. To
clear a frozen application, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Close Program
dialog box. Highlight the application and click the End Task button; you may
have to wait several seconds before it takes effect.

When these stressful moments arise, just take a deep breath and exercise a little patience. Within a few minutes you should be able to begin creating your presentation. Technology isn’t perfect, but like all tech-savvy divas, we never let them see us sweat. Continue to live it up, stay cool and stay connected!