Shoppers are being warned to be vigilant during the busy sales following a spate of handbag and purse thefts.

These handbag and purse thefts normally take place in the pre-Christmas rush. So, people doing their Christmas should be vigilant at all times and keep belongings, particularly handbags and purses, close to them.

These are not merely opportunist offenses and thieves will often target elderly and vulnerable people.

People are advised to buy handbag or purse alarms to safeguard their handbags or purses.

Tags: busy sales, festive shoppers, handbag and purse thefts, pickpockets, pre-Christmas rush, purse alarms, shoppers

When it comes to shopping, I am more prone to buying handbags than clothes. I am known to my family and friends as a fanatic handbag lover.

To be honest, I can’t really afford designer handbags. I only shop for discount designer handbags. I mean genuine designer handbags which are at hugely discounted prices.

Is it possible they are fake ones? No. If you frequent your favorite designer’s outlet, you can be sure that discount designer handbags are not cheap imitations. You will also find that there are many discount designer handbags available when the season changes at which time everything is being attempted to be cleared from existing stocks.

Most of my handbag shopping tips I learned from handbag lovers in the Stylehive. Stylehive is the world’s largest social shopping community. All the fanatical shopping bees in the Stylehive share their hottest fashion finds and trends among each other.

It is a fantastic resource for handbags as all the hot handbags are found, “hived”, and tagged “handbag” by all the fanatical handbag lovers in the Stylehive. Whenever I need to know the latest trend of handbags, I will hop over and hive the ones I love. I can blog about them, put my comments or save them as wishlist items first.

Tags: buying handbags, designer handbags, discounted prices, genuine designer handbags, handbag lover, handbag shopping tips, hottest finds, shopping bees

People are so obsessed with hot mama celebrities and their Babies and Toddlers that they want to know in details what Gwen Stefani is putting on her son, how much Jennifer Lopez has spent decorating each of the babies’ rooms or what Halle Berry has filled up the nursery rooms with.

Due to celebrity-obsession culture, the quality of baby accessories has risen dramatically, and prices have increased with the same affect. Still, parents and grandparents are willing to spend on their precious little ones. How about $800 on a stroller? Or $300 for a diaper bag? A diaper bag! Well, you can’t tell the difference between a diaper bag and a fashionable tote these days.

The best place to start your shopping adventures for Babies and Toddlers is ShopWiki. ShopWiki is a general search engine that pulls product listings directly from more than 180,000 online stores to find the best deals for your searches.

Let’s say you are trying to find the best diaper bag. Make sure that you don’t base your selections purely on appearances, spend some time reading the Bags and Carriers Guide at ShopWiki. You need to know the different types of diaper bags and their sizes, prices or materials so that they will go a long way to helping you to take on challenges like diaper blow-outs and baby vomits.

Tags: babies, baby vomits, blow-outs, carriers, diaper bag, fashionable tote, online stores, shopping adventures, toddlers

From long scarves and big, bulky handbags to lengthy sweaters and flowy dresses, pregnant celebs (and those suspected of being in the family way) have developed all sorts of innovative ways to hide their growing bellies.

Is-she-or-isn’t-she Angelina gives nothing away in this baggy tent dress, except for an impressive cleavage display…and maybe a lack of good taste?

Before she officially confirmed her pregnancy, J.Lo used a funky pattern and loose fit to throw off attention to her bump, while Jessica opted for a well-placed scarf. As for Halle, she propped an oversize handbag over her belly and brought mom along for added distraction.

For their efforts, we certainly have to give these lovely ladies an A—even if the guessing game does keep us on our toes.

Tags: Angelina Jolie, baggy tent dress, bulky handbags, good taste, growing bellies, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, lengthy sweaters, long scarves, pregnant celebs

Every woman wants a designer handbag. Designer handbags are stylish and beautiful as well as durable and prestigious. However, most women just cannot afford the price tag that accompanies these designer handbags.

For those of you who cannot afford to spend a mortgage payment on a designer handbag, there are inexpensive alternatives to the expensive designer handbags that we all covet.

Try shopping around and you can yield some great deals. Many designers sell the excess from their old collections to clearance houses who then sell them to the consumers at very low prices. This means that you, the consumer, can snatch a real but cheap designer handbag for hundreds off the original price.

The internet is another place to hunt for cheap designer handbags. Clearance sites, comparison sites and online auctions are always offering quality but cheap designer handbags, both new and used.

ShopWiki is a powerful search engine that enables you to find all the available products and ensures you’re getting the best deal. ShopWiki actively crawls more than 180,000 online stores to ensure you’ll find the products you want at the best prices.

ShopWiki has one of the most extensive selections of new and used designer handbags available on the web. Whether you’re just beginning to research a designer handbag or you know exactly what designer handbag you want, ShopWiki should be your first stop when you’re ready to shop.

Tags: cheap designer handbag, designer handbag, designer handbags, durable, extensive selections, inexpensive alternatives, low prices, online stores, quality

The number on foster care in Georgia will break your heart. Georgia has over 15,000 children in foster care. 66 percent are under 12 years old. Georgia ranks 39 out of the 50 states in overall child well-being.

A bright spot is a statewide program helps kids of all ages in foster care. Lee Perkins, of Georgia Cancer Specialists, coordinates “Totes for Tots.”

They collect brand new, or gently used bags for the children. DFACS takes their belongings with them when they go from some type of traumatic situation or a new foster home, or from foster home to foster home, which does often happen. (more…)

Tags: belongings, black garbage, foster kids, Lee Perkins, Tote for kids

Give-away shopping bags, the reusable type have become quite a fashion statement among the chic in some of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities from New York to Hong Kong.

The best-designed shopping bags are obviously worth fighting for, as the stampede for a limited supply of designer shopping bags a few months ago in Hong Kong showed.

In New York, retailers ranging from upscale department stores, mid-price chains to fashion boutiques are engaged in heated competition to make the most durable, fashionable shopping bags.

To retailers, the sudden popularity of shopping bags is a marketing opportunity as customers carry them around like walking billboards to the office, the beach, or restaurants.

Indeed, many young women are treating shopping bags as a second handbag. More and more men, too, can be seen using them to carry items that they otherwise would have stuffed into their jacket or trouser pockets.

Nobody is known to have done a serious study to explain the rise of the lowly shopping bag in the world of haute couture. But there are plenty of commentators and knowledgeable bloggers suggesting that the new breed of shopping bags, because of their reusability, have won a place in the hearts of many young, trendy and environmentally conscious city people.

In the past, most shopping bags, whether plastic or paper, were thin and equipped with crude handles. Few shoppers ever thought twice about throwing away these bags as soon as they got home. Toting a shopping bag around with one’s personal belongings inside was definitely not the cool thing to do.

Apparently, the common perception about shopping bags has changed a lot in the past few years along with growing public concern about the environment. As a gesture to preservation, more people began reusing shopping bags for as long as they could last. This change in habit obviously has not gone unnoticed by retailers.

Retailers in the United States have reportedly gone to even greater lengths in creating the ultimate shopping bag. Envisioning the shopping bag as “a work of modern art”, Saks Fifth Avenue, an up-market department store in Manhattan, hired a renowned graphic artist to create it.

Despite the higher costs, shopping bags have remained free of charge. All smart retailers can see that penny-pinching on shopping bags is bad business considering the huge benefits from free advertising.

Tags: chic, durable, fashion statement, fashionable shopping bags, free of charge, give-away shopping bags, haute couture, Hong Kong, New York, reusable type

In the 1990s, the fashion industry pulled off the ultimate marketing coup by introducing trendy, luxurious accessories that women would feel compelled to replace every season.

Thus pricey handbags and shoes became the new stars in fashion, hyped to the max by photos of celebrities wearing them.

Among the “It” bags that caught fire in recent years were Louis Vuitton’s colorful and cartoony Murakami bags, Yves Saint Laurent’s Mombasa, Prada’s bowling bags and Fendi’s Spy bags.

The point of today’s designer handbags isn’t creating classics but pushing seasonal novelties to convince women who wear them that they’re on the cutting edge of fashion.

If you desire a truly classic handbag that will span the seasons, let your individual style guide you toward bags that are beautiful, functional and a bit more anonymous.

I prefer discount handbags with no logos, minimal hardware such as metal rings and buckles, and snappy-looking top handles that are long enough to fit over my shoulder.

Tags: buckles, celebrities, designer handbags, discount handbags, fashion industry, Fendi, functional, Louis Vuitton, luxurious accessories, metal rings, Prada, Spy bags

Whether it’s adulterated medicine that can kill, bogus batteries that can burn or wannabe Guccis that simply wear out fast (though they may look stylish for a while), counterfeit merchandise is almost impossible to avoid.

Among the phonies are some typical suspects: handbags, clothes, watches and amusingly renamed colognes such as Essey Miyami instead of Issey Miyake. But there are also surprising fakes, including golf balls, oil filters and baby formula. With some, the low price is a giveaway, such as a $2,000 Prada purse for $35. Others are priced close to retail to fool shoppers.

Vendors still peddle fakes on city streets, flea markets, salons, swap meets, college campuses, libraries and “purse parties” in private homes, at which a dealer shows merchandise.

The easiest way to avoid counterfeits is to deal with reputable retailers authorized to sell a manufacturer’s products. Be suspicious of third-party Web sites that offer deep discounts for products that are usually pricey.

Here are some other tips to avoid counterfeits:

• Think twice before buying at deep-discount and dollar stores, which have sold fake handbags, holiday lights, extension cords, toothpaste and batteries.

• Avoid no-name products. A manufacturer’s name and address lets people contact the company to try to remedy problems.

• Don’t buy if the seller won’t provide a receipt or if warranty data is missing.

• Missing or expired “use by” dates, broken or missing safety seals, misspellings or unfamiliar or flimsy packaging for big-name brands should send up a warning flag.

• For electrical goods, look for the UL safety mark. A silver holographic seal is required on decorative lighting made worldwide and on fans, other lighting and similar products made in China.

• Shoppers who suspect that they purchased a counterfeit product should contact the manufacturer.

Tags: clothes, counterfeit merchandise, Guccis, handbags, Prada purse, purse parties, shoppers, vendors

An evening bag may not hold much more than a valet ticket, some Listerine strips and a Razr phone, but without one, getting dressed up just wouldn’t be the same.

Evening bags can add extra sparkle or an unexpected dash of color to a simple dress, or breathe new life into an otherwise tired old frock.

But with the prices of accessories soaring, evening clutches can cost more than you paid for the dress, forcing you to use the same bag every time you go to a formal affair.

Thankfully, there are options beyond the diamond-encrusted boxes and bejeweled minaudieres that go for more than a monthly car payment. Less expensive styles are popping up in brilliant jewel-toned satins.

For evenings out, you don’t have to buy a new little black dress. Wear what you have and spice it up with an evening bag.

In recent months, Banana Republic has offered a dazzling peacock blue or radiant yellow satin. At about $50 for the bag, you could throw in a pair of new shoes or another accessory.

The girlish, ruffled Mansfield clutch that Hollywould designed for Target looks particularly saucy in red and will add texture and color to a simple dress. And at about $20, you can afford to like ruffles for just one night and not feel bad.

So, take a break from the frenzy of searching for a new dress and just change out the bag for something bright and festive.

The best part about these bags, other than the price? All of them comfortably hold a BlackBerry.

Tags: accessories, evening bag, evening bags, evening clutches, new dress, new shoes