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We just got a Facebook post from a friend in the Yukon. It made us shiver; snow, snow everywhere, knee-deep already!
Even if winter weather hasn’t caught up with you yet, it soon will. So this week let’s look at ways of staying warm, both inside and outside.
First of all, make sure you get a toasty night’s sleep by ensuring you have a warm bed. Electric blankets will help warm it up so you don’t have to get in between cold sheets. You’ll want a heavy-duty duvet; it really is worth paying for quality here, as the best duvets will keep the heat in much better than cheaper options.

Fleece and flannel sheets will also help to store warmth.
We all have chunky knits, pullovers, and fleeces, but real warmth comes right from the bottom layer with thermal underwear. You can get basic stuff like granddad used to wear, but you don’t have to; there are some really attractive designs available these days. Synthetics, wool or even luxurious silk are available; the very best is merino wool, which will keep you warm and wick away any moisture.
Don’t let your feet get cold. Big socks come into their own in wintry weather. Some people swear by yak wool socks; if they can keep Mongolians and Tibetans warm in their six-month-long winters, they’ll work for you. Merino wool offers similar advantages but with a softer feel. Look for socks with a pile-lined or fluffy interior, which gives you an added layer of insulation.
Look after your hands with a good pair of gloves. If you need to be able to use your fingertips, but you’re working in a cold shed or garage, get fingerless gloves which will still keep your hands warm and your circulation moving. Leather or wool used to be the main choice, but now you’ll find a lot of gloves using different layers, particularly for waterproofing.

Looking after your hands (and face) should also include using a good moisturizer when you get home. Winter air is often very dry and can crack your skin. Lip salve is a must-have when you’re out in the cold, as well.
Keeping warm can be expensive. Heating bills have gone way up this year, and a goose down duvet can cost you a few hundred dollars. So save a bit of your hard earned money by looking for a good deal on Vipon. That should give you a nice warm feeling!

If you hadn’t noticed, it’s time to pull out the plaid and the chunky knits. But pay attention! There are some interesting trends this fall that you might want to add to your wardrobe.
What was on the runway? There were loads of chunky knits, and there was a bit of glitz atmosphere with sequins, bold colors and even bolder prints. But if you look at what people are actually getting excited about on the street, some of the more outrageous ideas didn’t make the cut.
Leather is the big thing this season (sorry, vegans). From soft nappa leather coats to thick hide biker jackets, it’s everywhere. Bomber jackets are popular, too, and even leather trousers are making an appearance. Black, tan, or fawn, leather and suede are the ‘feel’ of this fall.
And actually, vegans, there are some great vegan leather options available now, so go with the look.
Faux fur is another big thing this fall. You don’t need to buy a faux fur coat, though; small accents, like a furry handbag or a shaggy cap, are enough to give that furry vibe with your regular outfit.
Long skirts are in. The maxi and midi have been trending for a while, but this fall mixes in a specific style, the cargo skirt. For those women who hate the fact that ninety percent of women’s clothes don’t have pockets, this is great news! Wear longer skirts with clogs or sneakers – footwear this season isn’t dainty so you can be comfortable as well as fashionable.
Knee high boots are part of the look (and go with a cowgirl trend if you wear them with leather), or clogs, particularly Birkenstocks.
Upcycled and vintage looks remain in fashion, so if you have treasured old tweeds, plaids and knits, mix and match them with this season’s favorites to create your own take on the trends.
On the other hand, if you dare, you could go ‘bikercore’. This style, derived from BMX culture, matches leather or PVC trousers (again!) with racing jackets and bright tee shirts. You can upgrade it with a bit of bling if you like. Very much street fashion, it’s perhaps not a style for soccer moms or anyone who has to work in an office.
If you’re looking for a few new glad rags for fall, or a couple of accessories to update your look, don’t forget to try Vipon first. Access to some of the best discounts on the web will let you look fabulous for a lot less.

So your best friend has a new baby! Or maybe you’ve just become a grandparent for the first time. A present is definitely in order, but what should you get for the lucky mom (and dad)?
Unless you’ve already talked about contributing basics like a baby food maker, crib, or bassinet, don’t get stuff they will already have purchased. Though an additional soft blanket or snug, or a stylish baby sling, will always be welcome; any new parent knows at least half of your entire baby wardrobe will be in the washing machine at any one time!
However, what people forget is that moms and dads actually used to have a life, before they had a baby. Maybe you can help them get that life back. Some things will just make life easier and more enjoyable, such as a thermos coffee mug so that hot drink is still hot when baby

emergency number 302,376 is over. And remember that shopping probably wasn’t high on the list of essentials in the last week or two before the birth, so buying a couple of packets of real good coffee could be a friendly gesture (make that decaf, if mom is breastfeeding, though).
A white noise generator may sound a weird gift, but what you’re actually giving the parents is the gift of a good night’s sleep. These machines are great for helping babies to sleep; in fact you can get ones specially made for that purpose. A night-light might also be a good idea.
Simplify the new parents’ lives by using Amazon’s Subscribe & Save feature to gift a supply of diapers or other essentials. Just remember to fill in the right address! Gift cards for meal delivery are another helpful way to say you care.

Pregnancy really takes it out of the female body, so a little pampering or help to get back in form is always welcome. Beauty treatments, a spa day, hand lotion or a hair care kit, or aromatherapy oils and a diffuser, might all be gifts a new mom will receive with real gratitude. A new silk or linen scarf, a pretty headband, or even a new dress for your BFF, are other nice ideas, and a lot of women swear by Lululemon’s super-comfortable leggings.
Remember Dads are also involved! Everyone forgets they might be dealing with the diapers and having sleepless nights too. (Okay, they did not go through labor, but they still have work to do.) Noise canceling headphones can help one parent to sleep through the night (they’ll have to take it in turns) while comfortable athleisure wear is always acceptable.
If you want to be the best of all fairy godmothers (or fathers), take a look on Vipon to see if you can grab a good deal. You might be able to contribute a bit more if you can get it half price!

First, make a list of the things you really need and really want.
There are going to be hundreds of sales so make sure you know which to focus on. For example, if you are buying a TV, think a bit about the specs you need.
Or, if you’re going traveling around the world, for instance, you might need a dual-sim smartphone which lets you stay connected at home and get cheap calls and data abroad.
Next, research the products you are thinking of getting. If you want a new tablet, save the websites that sell them so you are ready to buy!

Some products may have huge discount if they are a slightly older model. New TVs come out every year, so a one-year-old TV might be good value compared to a newer one, and it is far more likely to be discounted.
Check out the price history of the products you’re looking at using a site like CamelCamelCamel. Sometimes, the Black Friday price isn’t really such a bargain, as the product has already been heavily discounted for a while. You might also use the Shopsavvy app to check bricks and mortar shop prices for products.
Black Friday can see websites overwhelmed and servers crashing, so it’s a good idea to have accounts open at several different sites and the relevant product pages bookmarked. If sites let you set up a wish list, use the facility to put your top intended purchases in the list.
Don’t wait for Friday! Lots of sites now start their sales several days early. Particularly if you want to buy a big-ticket item, you’ll want to be an early bird to have a chance of bagging it.
And don’t forget that if you couldn’t get exactly what you wanted, Cyber Monday will be along on the 28th for another chance to grab computers, smartphones and other electronics.
Finally, remember to check out Vipon to see if you can get an even better discount!

Although the paperless office was a great idea, very few of us have gone totally paperless. Perhaps we’re printing less out, and perhaps we run our diaries on our smartphones, but pen or pencil and paper still seem to come in useful for jotting, annotating, or simply doodling your way through one of your organization’s more boring meetings.

What perhaps has changed is that stationery no longer needs to be bland and functional; it can actually be fun. If you’re keeping a journal, it can be bound in leather, or it can have glitter all over it, or Hello Kitty on the front, and you can use a metallic gel pen, a glass pen with purple ink, scented ink, a highlighter, whatever you like, to write with. Bye bye black pen and lined paper! Hello individuality and enjoyment!

Different types of journals and planners run the gamut from project manager style planners to gratitude journals or notebooks with creative writing prompts. Some still prefer plain white paper sketchbooks, while many artists buy postcard-sized cards that they can work on.

If you’re not into washi tape, you should be. An absolute genius of a Japanese woman came up with the idea of masking tape made pretty, and it’s now a huge industry in itself. Whether you’re scrap booking, or just want some pretty tape to use for packing presents, washi tape is just the stuff.

Also a cute Japanese idea is the pen kimono – a tiny single pen case made of beautiful silk or cotton fabric. If you have a much loved and expensive pen, it needs to be properly dressed! Or choose a pen or pencil case from the numerous varieties available – from fold-out leather holders with elastic strips to hold ten or twenty pens, to denim or Harris tweed pencil cases.

In an increasingly digital world, going analogue is a style decision and it’s one that’s becoming increasingly popular. Fine writing lovers all over the world will be getting together in a couple of weeks at ‘Pelikan Hubs’ to share their love of Pelikan fine pens; older gentleman collectors will be joined by hipsters and millennials searching for the best italic nib or the shiniest glimmer ink.

Don’t forget though that style doesn’t have to be expensive. Take a look on Vipon for some incredible deals on stationery before you splash out!

Did you ever have a chemistry set? Or try the experiment of getting electricity out of half a lemon to work a light bulb?

The wonders of science are something kids love. Later in life, we often take its products for granted.

For instance, motion detectors integrated into lighting units can light that dim bit of the yard where you keep the trash can whenever you go out – no need to reach for a switch. Magic!

Perhaps it’s time to rediscover the magic. If you have children, why not share it with them?

A microscope or even just a large loupe or magnifying glass gives you access to a miniature world. Go bug-hunting and look a fly eye-to-eye, analyze the multiple life forms in a single square foot of garden, or explore the miniature landscapes of mosses and lichens.

Or look the other way, out into the universe, with a telescope pointed at the sky. You’ll want to get a couple of good books on astronomy, or an app like Sky Safari or Star Walk to navigate by.

Buy a Raspberry Pi or an electrical science kit to understand how electricity works and start programming your own computer. Keen mechanics may prefer such toys as Meccano, and you can even get kits to build your own steam engines and internal combustion engines. Beginners can start with LittleBits’ or SnapCircuits’ modular circuits to switch lights on and off; or grab the Lego Boost to create a robot, which is fully extendable if you have other Lego kit lying around.

Crystal kits allow you to grow crystal ‘trees’ and see how liquid solutions crystallize. They’re fascinating and beautiful, though some kids will enjoy the ‘stinks’ side of chemistry more (a full chemistry set should give you both options).

Meanwhile, budding biologists can build model skeletons or get the SmartLab Squishy Human Body, a disgustingly yukky skeleton which comes with removable organs tucked inside. Other ways to get involved with the animal world include growing silkworms, or even keeping bees, though the latter is possibly not a great idea if you live in an apartment.

And of course there remain all the things we did as kids, like growing mustard and cress seedlings on kitchen towel, or making a tiny vegetable garden. Though probably, “taking Dad’s watch apart” is not a great idea, although one of our team still claims it’s the single thing that taught him the most about how things work.

Look for cool gizmos on Vipon, and you’ll also benefit from a discount. That’s math, not science, but hey, there’s nothing wrong with math!

Are you bored with the way you look? Or just want to go way, way out of your comfort zone for a party? From small makeovers to complete disguise, you can order up a whole new you from Amazon.

For instance, those of us born with fine, flyaway hair can easily become rock gods or goddesses by simply buying a wig. That’s great news if you’re an accountant by day but play in a heavy metal band! Or you could use clip in hair extensions to get a bit more variety in your hairstyle, though you’ll need shoulder length hair for this to work.

You could simply change hair color. For those unsure of exactly what will suit them, temporary hair dyes offer a chance to try out a new color without having to commit to it long term, so if you always wanted to be a blond, try it out! Equally, if you want to go bright pink or purple or even neon green just for a night, temporary dyes are available.

You can even change the color of your eyes. Actors often use colored contact lenses for particular roles. You can go for werewolf red for a Halloween party, or simply darken your eyes; it’s quite safe to wear colored lenses every day, just like ordinary lenses. And false eyelashes could change you into an extreme vamp in one easy step!

Alternatively, go for really different eyeglasses to make a big impact. Even if you don’t need prescription eyeglasses, you could add sunglasses to change your style.

The options for men are a bit more limited than for women, but the results can be equally dramatic. A different hairstyle, more or less facial hair, and a different grooming regime like waxing your mustache can make a massive difference. Make sure you get really good shaving or beard trimming kit and watch some of the Youtube videos from good barbers or shaving brands to see just what’s possible!

You could change your complete style, including your entire wardrobe. Maybe try out a capsule wardrobe in the new style before you commit entirely, and buy street fashion rather than designer labels. If you like it, that’s the time to buy some more, and maybe donate your old stuff to a thrift store.

Whether you’re considering a big time makeover or just a way out costume for a party, look on Vipon for good deals. If your makeover is just too extreme, at least you won’t have broken the bank trying the look!

We’re coming up to Halloween and I’ve already got a supply of rats, snakes, worms and skulls in bright candy colors laid in for the Trick or Treaters. I like to be prepared.

You could have a traditional Halloween, like granddad did; apple bobbing, pumpkin jack’o’lanterns, spooks wearing bedsheets, and a few scary stories. But nowadays most of us want a bit more, from a few fake spiderwebs around the house to ten foot tall fluorescent skeletons.

You can even get a fully realistic, life size skeleton for the porch. Or just buy a few pairs of bony hands. A hand creeping round a door, out of a crack in the wall, or even worse out of the ground, is truly ghoulish!

Bats are actually rather cute creatures in the flesh, but at Halloween we’re thinking vampires. Bat decals on the windows, or bat mobiles, or rubber bats on elastic, are regular decorations. Spiders are also seasonal favorites, particularly great big ones – the biggest I could find was six feet across, which should be plenty large enough to put a scare into passers-by.

Orange and dark purple are the Halloween colors. Orange fairy lights cast a wicked glow; thread them through bare twigs for a spooky take on the Christmas tree. Or get a Halloween light projector that can make skulls and spooks appear all over the yard.

You might want a few witches around, as well. A besom tied with a bunch of herbs, a black cat, or a doll stabbed with pins, all suggest there’s one somewhere about … you might find her pointy hat, too.

The key to a good Halloween for the children is to make it spooky but not too scary, of course. For teenagers, or between adults, you can go a bit more in the scary direction. There’s some wonderfully realistic fake wounds and scars available, that you can apply to each other if you want to become real ghouls.

You might rent a couple of horror movies, and make some blood cocktails with tomato juice and the other ingredients of your choice. Or drink a bright green witches’ brew, made with Midori melon liqueur, Cointreau and lemon juice. (Kids can have a junior punch made of cranberry juice for the red color, apple juice, and ginger ale – add a tot of rum for grown-ups.)

Have a very spooky Halloween. And have an economical Halloween, too, by looking for your supplies on Vipon. See if you can snag a great deal!

Want to be the world’s greatest mixologist? Or just fancy a martini, shaken not stirred? You’ll need the right equipment, as well as some good ingredients.

For instance, no cocktail bar can exist without ice. First you have to make the ice. Your fridge ice maker might suffice, but then again, some people prefer round ice cubes, or you might want mini pineapples, so grab the ice cube tray of your choice.

You’ll also want an ice crusher for some cocktails. These range from the simple nutcracker-style crusher, fine if you’re just making cocktails for yourself and your partner, to heavy duty electronic crushers which any professional bar tender would approve.

Strainers to get those little bits of ice out of a cocktail once you’ve shaken it, and to remove small pieces of citrus or herbs, are also important. You’ll probably want more than one, from coarse to fine, as different cocktails have different requirements.

Hawthorne strainers are particularly useful in a cocktail bar. They have a spring running round the edge which is specially designed to catch small pieces of ice. A Hawthorne strainer will fit on your shaker, so you can serve and strain at the same time. On the other hand a julep strainer fits on top of the mixing glass.

A cocktail bar without a cocktail shaker is hardly worthy of the name. You can get a two-piece or three-piece shaker; the three-piece has a strainer built into it which makes your job a little easier. Of course you could, in extremis, use a jam jar or a Tupperware box, but really, that’s not the right way to make a cocktail and you know it.

You’ll also want a mixing glass for cocktails that are stirred (assuming you don’t agree with James Bond that your Martini should be shaken). Most bartenders choose heavy glass – Yarai is the industry standard – and put the glass in the fridge before using it. But double-walled metal shakers are also available, and will survive your dishwasher a lot longer. You could use an ordinary glass, but that has two disadvantages; it won’t be as thick, so won’t make the cocktail quite as cold, and it doesn’t have a pouring spout so you won’t be able to serve quite as neatly.

And there’s more. Setting up a home mixology department, you’ll need shot glasses, a jigger for measuring, a long stirring spoon, a knife and chopping board for lemon slices, a lemon squeezer or juicer. (Many bar tenders like ‘Mexican elbows’, hinged hand-held squeezers that come in lime green, lemon yellow, and orange, so you always pick the right one for the job.) A swivel peeler to make twists, a metal funnel, and some metal straws (because plastic is so yesterday).

It all adds up and when you see how expensive it can be, that $15 Long Island Ice Tea at the local bar starts to look incredibly good value! But of course, if you look on Vipon, you can cut the price of your cocktails by grabbing your equipment at a discount.

Lots of us exercise our bodies. But can we say the same for our brains?

There’s actually some good scientific evidence that as you grow older, actively exercising your brain cells does them good. But most of us still slump in front of the TV too many nights running, or spend time doomscrolling (which, by the way, has been linked to depression in teens).

Puzzles are one good way to keep your gray matter working. For instance, while you might think jigsaw puzzles are basic toys for young children, a really big jigsaw puzzle can be a fascinating challenge. The biggest in the world has over 40,000 pieces according to manufacturer Ravensburger. If classical tourist views aren’t your thing you can try a Keith Haring, Banksy or Andy Warhol jigsaw, dip into the world of fantasy or even complete a huge mandala.

You might find sudoku a good wake-up exercise. Sudoku books can be slipped into a purse or backpack for those odd moments on the subway or between meetings. If you enjoy sudoku you can explore further in the realms of kakuro and futoshiki. You can even buy a sudoku board game which lets you make your own sudoku.

If numbers are not your thing, try Scrabble for a similar experience using words instead. Vocabulary counts for a lot in this game, but so does being able to get your highest-ranking letters on squares that offer double or triple scores, so you’ll also need to be cunning if you want to win.

While keeping your brain active is a good thing, sometimes you may need to get it to settle down. If you’re a worrier, stressed, or feeling hassled, try a coloring book. Originally these books were for children, but a whole sector of mandala and meditation coloring books for adults has now developed, designed to help you relax and calm your mind.

Fidget spinners may be yesterday’s craze, but the idea of keeping your fingers busy to help relax your mind goes all the way back to Buddhist and Catholic rosaries. Beads, rubber balls, spinning tops and even Rubik’s cubes and similar toys can all help you conquer worries and stress.

Of course, you’ll want to look on Vipon before you head to Amazon to buy any of these cool gadgets. You might be lucky enough to score a big discount, as well as triple word score in Scrabble!