I often wish that my husband and I were more into entertaining. It has a lot to do with the good dishes my sister-in-law insisted we HAD to register for that rarely get used. So far it’s just when the kids want to do a fancy dinner. Holidays are always at someone else’s home.

To make matters worse, we saw a huge set of fine china at an antique shop for less than was spent on the 6 place settings we received of our pattern. It was hard to resist the temtation to sell them so we could buy the complete set, but we felt that wasn’t a kind thing to do to the people who had bought from our registry.

Now I’m looking at the serveware on the Villeroy & Boch website, and oh is it nice! I clicked over to the classic section, and there’s this beautiful set called Wildberries that I really like. As the name implies, it’s a berry pattern, very simple and not excessively accented. And I’m trying very hard to not think more than necessary about their current 20% off deal that ends October 31.

The Aureus pattern has some beautiful flowers, but I never like more than a little gold patterning when I see it in person, at least for my own use. It’s still very nicely done when I look at it more closely.

One of these years I’m just going to have to insist that my husband and I host for Thanksgiving (not a chance we could get Christmas, just the way things work in our families), and actually get to use our good dishes. Beautiful dishes just add a little something to a special family dinner, and with more family moving away of late it is actually approaching where it would not be impossible for us to get enough dishes to manage it, especially since I would love to have a collection where each place setting matches, but each place has a different pattern. I just like that look.

Elegant isn’t something most people get to do very often anymore, but I do enjoy it every once in a while.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a master of makeup. Matter of fact, I’ve used it about once in the past 5 years, that being for my sister’s recent wedding. But I do think about it here and there because I do know how much better I can look when I take the time.

On the other hand, I do a lot with my hair. It’s really long and while I don’t expect to mess with that anytime soon, considering a new hairdo can be fun.

The MakeoverSolutions website lets you do that without all the actual trauma of getting a bad haircut. You can upload a photo of yourself and see how you’d look with a different hairstyle. If you have a free membership you can upload just one photo, but paid members can upload more. They offer tips to make it easier to pick a good photo, for example you don’t want hair in your face.

Free memberships also only get a limited number of hairstyles to try. It’s enough to play with and get a feel for things, but paid members get over 3000 hairstyles to play with, along with more celebrity hair styles, more makeup colors and accessories to play with. Paid members also don’t have to deal with interstitial ads.

And of course, it’s not just for women. They have hairstyles for men as well.

Overall, it’s just a fun site to play around at. You can get really serious about it or not.

Well, almost. You could be. At least with the help of some glow sticks.

So it’s not quite you glowing. They’re still fun, and with Halloween coming up, it’s a great time to shop for them. I got mine locally last year, but I love the selection available at the Premier Glow website. Plenty of glow sticks to help the kids be a little more visible when they go trick or treating.

On the other side of things, the flashing margarita glasses look like fun for the grownups. Add a little color to the party. Just make sure people don’t tilt their glass when it’s full as they try to play with the switch on the bottom of the glass. On the other hand, that could be funny if they’re outside and you don’t mind a spill so much.

They have a lot of really fun looking products. I would imagine that my daughter would go nuts upon seeing the butterfly wand, but that’s currently sold out. Then again, it plays music, so I’d probably go nuts too. For an entirely different reason.

Let’s face it; if it glows or flashes different colors, kids are generally going to love it. Sometimes it’s just that simple.

There’s a big rock in the front of our front yard. Real, not fake. The kids love to jump off of it all the time.

But I can’t blame people who want to go for fake rocks. Real ones are expensive and very heavy, making them expensive and difficult to move. Fake rocks can at least be moved relatively easily.

Artificial Rocks Factory offers artificial rocks that they have cast from natural rocks, which helps them to look better than other artificial rocks. These rocks weigh about 50-60 pounds, rather than several hundred.

The really interesting part is the 360 degree view you can get of the rocks on the site. You can really get a feel for how the whole rock looks.

The casting looks to have been well done on the rocks on the site. While it’s hard to get a real feel for how good they would look in person, the website images are encouraging. They do look realistic in the photos. The 3 colors available look good. Not so difficult to make look realistic as some choices might be.

These are supposed to be durable. If I saw one, I think my temptation would be to put it to the kid test, along with weather and other factors. But knowing how kids love to climb rocks, knowing that an artificial rock can put up with that would matter to me.

Not to mention how much the kids would enjoy it.

Have you ever wondered how to get the most for your money? Sometimes you can get extra perks for buying from the right folks. Some car dealers in my area, for example, give 3 months’ of gas with purchase. That’s not a bad little extra.

The trick is finding out who offers these perks. That is, of course, where ePERKS.com comes in. They have the information, and that’s how I found out about the dealers in my area offering perks like free gas. The deals go through the ePerks website.

The site overall is pretty good, although a FAQ would be nice. They do have a place where you can ask questions. Look under the Answers tab. Membership is free and there were a fair number of professionals in my area already offering perks.

Sorry, I’m not having one. They are fun though, aren’t they? Perhaps you should consider the $1000 photo contest offered through weneedavacation.com. The prize goes toward renting a property through the weneedavacation.com site.

But they will also donate $5 to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC), up to $1,000, for every photo entered into the contest. The contest ends September 3, 2007.

The focus is on Florida, and they specialize in Cape Cod vacation rental. At the right time of year, Florida is a great vacation spot. Sometimes you may have to cope with extremely hot and muggy weather, but there’s lots to do in Florida. Theme parks, of course, but also lots of beautiful beaches and warm water.

I’ll be the first to admit that $1000 towards a rental isn’t quite as much fun as cash, but talk about a great way to make a vacation in Florida more affordable. If it’s something you’re planning, this contest should be well worth entering.