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The Traditional Birthstones for those with a Birth Month of April are Diamonds and Sapphires.

“… She who from April dates her years,
Diamonds shall wear,
lest bitter tears
For vain repentance flow …”(1)

The Mystical Birthstone for April is Opal (White or Black – both with hints of other colors).

The Ayurvedic Birthstone for April is Diamond.

The 15th – 20th Century Birthstones for April are Diamond (White) and  Sapphire (Blue)

The “Other” alternative Birthstone for the Birth Month of April is Quartz (White), White Sapphire (White).

The Zodiac Stones or Star Sign Stones for the following Astrological Signs / Sun Signs / Signs of the Zodiac with dates in the month of April are:

Sun Sign (Start – End Date) | Birthstone | Planetary Stone | Lucky Charms:

Aries (Mar. 21-Apr. 19) | Bloodstone,  Diamond | Jasper | Bloodstone,  Jasper, Diamond

Taurus (Apr. 20-May 20)| Sapphire, Turquoise, Amber, Blood Coral, Emerald | Emerald, Aventurine | Sapphire, Diamond

Who do you know who was born in the month of April whom would just Love a Gift of one or more of their April Birthstones?

I-ShopTheWorld.com currently has available all of the following April Birthstone items from which you may select the Perfect Gift for anyone you know born in the month of April :

Click Here ( => http://i-shoptheworld.com/products-page/gemstones/diamonds/ ) to see All of the Diamond April Birthstone items currently available at I-ShopTheWorld.com

Click Here ( => http://i-shoptheworld.com/products-page/gemstones/sapphires/ ) to see All of the Sapphire April Birthstone items currently available at I-ShopTheWorld.com

Click Here ( => http://i-shoptheworld.com/products-page/gemstones/opals/ ) to see All of the Opal April Birthstone items currently available at I-ShopTheWorld.com

Please Contact Us via the Contact information on our About web page and/or Reply to this Posting with Your Comments / Requests for any Custom items with any of these April Birthstones that you would like handcrafted by our Master Jewelers for that Special Person you know born in the month of April, ok?

Please see http://i-shoptheworld.com/birthstones-by-birth-month/ for more information regarding Birthstones by Birth Month and the Birthstones for other Birth Months.

(Additional References:

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthstone#Birthday_gift_symbolism
(2) jewelrymall.com/birthstones/April.html )

We here at I-ShopTheWorld.com like to party and honestly can’t say we have this problem so we evaluated our own style and gave some thought to what we are hearing and saying at parties this year to make for lively conversation.

Of course, favorite TV shows, movies, and books are always solid standby topics, and this time of year, “Are you ready for Christmas?” is getting a bit stale since we hear it even from store cashiers.

So we came up with a list of other possible questions and comments that avoid those taboo topics of politics and religion and create good food for thought and talk.

When you feel stuck and dull, don’t sit it out in a corner alone, approach someone and try these (the idea is to get the other person talking and let the conversation flow from  here):

•    What is your favorite holiday of the year? When they answer, be sure to follow up by asking why it’s their favorite and what’s their favorite memory of something that happened on that holiday.

•    How do you like to spend your birthday: with friends; with family; or alone?

•    What would you most like for someone to give you but are afraid to ask for? Use an example of something you’d like such as a piece of our gemstone jewelry.  Volunteering something personal like that warms up the other person to be more personable with you.

•    Do you have a collection? How long have you been collecting and do you buy collectibles for yourself or just receive them as gifts from others? How many do you have and where do you display or store them? If you don’t have a collection, tell them that you are starting one, for instance, collecting different sauces, like our Tortuga Rum sauces. Ask them “Have you ever tried to create a sauce from scratch? What ingredients did you start with and how did it turn out?” Tell them you are thinking about hosting a sauce tasting and ask if they’d be interested in attending.

•    Have you ever had a night-time dream that changed your life; like six winning lottery ticket numbers or the questions that were going to be on a test the next day?

•    Do you like to cook? What are your favorite spices? Do you like to try new flavors? Have you tried any of the unusual spices like dried kaffir lime leaf, galangal, boesenbergia rotunda, or krachaidum?

•    Have you ever just sat and watched a bee gather nectar and marveled at the contribution bees make to the food cycle, along with how that nectar gets converted to honey? You don’t happen to have ever been a beekeeper, do you?

•    What’s your favorite food to take to covered dish parties? What do you look forward to someone else bringing?

•    Did you ever go to a party just because you know they’d be serving something special, like gourmet coffee or other gourmet snacks and you needed comfort good at the time?

•    How did you come to know the host/hostess?

•    Have you traveled much? Where have you been? Where is your favorite place?

•    Do you buy local merchandise when you travel? How do you get it home; through customs, etc.?

•    Do you prefer to shop online or at the mall and why?

•    Have you ever visited I-ShopTheWorld.com? What’s your favorite item to order from them? Was the service good? Are you pleased with your purchase?

If you ask that last question, Please share the answers with us, at:

http://i-shoptheworld.com/2008/07/31/please-reply-with-your-feedback/

We’d love to have that conversation with you.

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Wherever you imagination can go, you can’t right now. You are pretty much stuck at home or at work or in the neighborhood. But, you must do something creative or you feel like you will explode.

Your mind wanders to those scrap booking projects you’ve been planning or to the online album you’ve been promising to complete. But you are easily diverted hoping for something that’s more spontaneous.

You look at those walls again. They need a boost but painting is just off your energy chart and is not an option.

Your mind wanders back to those photos, but you decide to ignore them and surf the Internet for a bit. It seems like a good way to go around the world on a shopping spree.

Voila! You enter the keywords “shop around the world” in your search engine box, and then click on I-ShopTheWorld.com. You click around the Tortuga Rum products and wonder what life would be like right now in the Cayman Islands.

You move on to the line of Thai silk clothing and handmade jewelry and can practically taste that Tom/Yam/Tom Yum Real Thai soup made from the mix sold online.

Then, you click on artwork and read that you can get your photographs converted to hand-painted works of art.

Your mind shifts back to those photos in your online photo file. You go there this time. You click around and reminisce about your vacation in the dessert when you got those great shots of large cactus plants.

You find that photograph of the old family home place where your dad grew up and you spent many hours playing with cousins in your youth. There’s a picture of your dad pushing you in the tree swing. Your grandmother’s vegetable garden is in the background and you can see spots of color from the flowers she always planted at the edge of the garden so she could have bouquets in the house when you visited every summer.

You want that memory to last a lifetime.

You return to I-ShopTheWorld.com and place your order to have that picture preserved in your very own custom hand-painted color oil portrait. You look forward to interacting with the artist to approve the finished portrait before it’s shipped. More importantly you look forward to displaying it on your walls in your own home and passing it and its story along to your children and grandchildren.

You think again. You realize you have other priceless photos. You choose one for your office wall. You choose one for your mother’s birthday. You choose one for your best friend just because.

The winter no longer seems so long nor the next holiday so far away. You’ve found a bright spot. It feels warm and exciting, and you can recreate it anytime just by looking at that oil painting.

We know you are busy and have the best of intentions,
And want to accomplish some things you’ve no doubt not mentioned.

So, we’re lending a hand from our I-ShopTheWorld.com blog
To kick start getting your head out of that fog.

The First Six Resolution Suggestions:

We wish you the best as you continue the list,
Because we’re sure you want to accomplish things we have missed.

I resolve to treat myself nice.
I will approach each day like it’s a new flavor of spice.

I resolve to let go of all guilt,
And lavish myself in luxury like silk.

I resolve to develop a knack
For only indulging in gourmet snacks.

I also resolve to host an event once a week
So I can seat my guest on fine furniture like that made of teak.

I resolve to continue feeling fine in ‘O Nine.
By indulging occasionally in shopping online.

If you are serious about your resolutions, they likely include some life-changing promises, pledges, and plans for yourself and those you love.

Most likely they include the categories of diet and fitness, wise financial management, and spiritual well being, emotional stability, mental alertness, and broader-based experiences.

Maybe they include starting your own business like we at I-ShopTheWorld.com did last. Maybe you’ll resolve to do something from your “bucket list” to borrow the concept from the movie by that same name.

Maybe you just want to feel special and fulfilled. Wherever your goals direct you and your life leaves you, Happy New Year!

Now, we’d like to share our top dozen resolutions with you from I-ShopTheWorld.com :

•    We resolve to increase the categories of worldwide products we offer in our online catalog.
•    We resolve to expand our product offerings to include desirable personal and gift items.
•    We resolve to search the world for unique products you won’t find at a corner market or in a store mall.
•    We resolve to personally talk to our vendors to establish strong, reliable relations with them and assure that you, our customers, get what you desire from our site.
•    We resolve to personally test the products and to showcase them so others can provide feedback to us.
•    We resolve to be very assertive in pricing our products competitively and offering our customers the best “deals” available.
•    We resolve to keep our Website up to date and informative.
•    We resolve to listen to our customers and welcome your feedback on aspects of our business, including what products and services you have used, like, and would ask us to provide.
•    We resolve to write interesting, informative articles on our blog to inform and entertain visitors to our website.
•    We resolve to provide you general how-to information you can use in your daily lives.
•    We resolve to look for new ways to build our company through excellent customer service and support.
•    We resolve to partner with other businesses with similar goals and objectives and provide quick links to their sites from ours.

We hereby further promise and pledge to keep providing you with the most exciting products we can find from around the world and from here at home.

###

Please Reply Here and Share any of Your other New Year’s Resolutions with all of Your Friends from all over the world!, ok?

No need to repeat those themes here. The magazines and e-zines are readily available, so where do we go from here? What do you need to know or do or talk about?

We are searching for topics for future blogs and are soliciting your input. Here are 21 topics we’re considering. Please tell us what you think. Better yet, if you are an expert on these or any other topic, please submit an article or product review to us or post a comment on our blog.

1.    How to make a saucy Brunswick stew
2.    How to plan a child’s birthday at home to keep costs down
3.    What to do with an old collection; perhaps you’ve inherited someone’s trophies, bells, spoons, plates, dolls, stamps
4.    How to have more fun at work
5.    Questions to ask on your next job interview
6.    What skills are most needed to run an online business
7.    How can you spend a day off from work or school without wasting time or spending money
8.    How can you stay in touch with people between New Year’s and Christmas
9.    Is an online business for you? What’s involved? How much time do you need to devote to it?
10.    Is it really safe to order online? What security measures are typical to protect one’s identity?
11.    Fun things to do with leftover popcorn
12.    Creative cooking ideas with Tortuga Rum sauces
13.    What are all those rare spices on I-ShopTheWorld.com, like Boesenbergia Rotunda or Krachaidum used for anyhow?
14.    What are the ingredients in our Tom Yam/Tom Yum Real Thai Soup mix?
15.    What’s a good recipe using India Long Pepper spice?
16.    How many recipes are in the Tortuga  Rum Fever Cook Book, and what other kinds of cook books should we offer?
17.    More detailed histories and stories behind our gemstones
18.    How much work goes into a handcrafted shell jewelry box?
19.    Is that Thai wooden jewelry really handcrafted?
20.    What kind of assurance do I get that your gemstone jewelry is real?
21.    If I order a custom piece of art from a photo, what sizes can I pick from?

We like to think of this as your blog so we propose this list of topics in hopes of inspiring a response from you. Tell us what you like, what sounds absurd, what tone you’d like to read (funny or serious), what might get you to post a comment, which articles you’ve read here that you like best.

And, by all means, please tell us what kinds of products you’d like to see us offer. We are taking an inventory now and assessing what has and hasn’t sold. If we see a solid report in our findings, we’ll share them with you. We will particularly alert you when a product is going away just in case you’ve been contemplating buying it and want to take advantage of a last-chance offering.

Do you like special sales, limited promotional offerings, and online shopping gimmicks or do you prefer what so far has been our straight-forward approach to marketing products from around the world to you?

We eagerly await your answers as we develop our blog plan for 2009.