Santa Claus has come…

And “She” brought me something I wanted. As usual… For a couple of months I have been looking for a stainless steel ring. I saw several but I could not decide myself for one. And “She” decided for me and it was a good choice.

Brad Pitt – 46

William Bradley “Brad” Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world’s most attractive men, a label that entices the media to report on his off-screen life. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one.

Pitt began his acting career with television guest appearances which included a role on the CBS soap opera Dallas in 1987; later gaining recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis’s character in the 1991 road movie Thelma & Louise. Pitt’s first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). He was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 drama Legends of the Fall which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. In 1995, he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film Twelve Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later in 1999, Pitt starred in the cult hit Fight Club. Subsequently in 2001, he starred in the major international hit Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). He has had his biggest commercial successes with Troy (2004) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Pitt received his second Academy Award nomination for his performance in the title role in the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. As of 2009, he lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. He and Jolie have three adopted children, Maddox, Zahara, and Pax, and also three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Pitt owns a production company named Plan B Entertainment, which produced the 2007 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, The Departed, among other films. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues both in the United States and internationally.

The first snow

Authorities were getting ready for the forecasted snowfall since Saturday.
Today it snowed. They have been caught off-guard again. It was not even a big snowfall but the removal equipment was nowhere to be seen. Many streets turned into skating rinks. It took me 50 minutes to get home. It usually takes me 20.
But I got the chance to test my car. It did really well although it doesn’t have winter tyres.

Black Friday Sales

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.
Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.
Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees have the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday (with the exceptions of those employed in retailing, health care, and banking), which increases the number of potential shoppers.

Retailers often decorate for the Christmas and holiday season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open extremely early, with most of the retailers typically opening at 5AM or even earlier. Some of the larger retailers (depending on the location) such as Sears, Best Buy, Macy’s, Toys “R” Us, and Walmart have been reported to open as early as midnight on the start of Black Friday in localized areas and remain open for 24 hours throughout the day until midnight the following Saturday. Upon opening, retailers offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores.

Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term “Black Friday” has been traced back only to the 1960s.

The term “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. In many cities it is not uncommon to see shoppers lined up for hours before stores with big sales open. Once inside the stores, shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have only a few of the big-draw items. On occasion, injuries and even fatalities are reported.

Tropicana Juice

This brand among many others reminds me of America. There was hardly a morning without the Tropicana Orange Juice.
100% Orange Pure & Natural… that’s how it is promoted and it sure feels like it.
It is made with fresh oranges, there are no water, sugar or preservatives added.

To make the best juice, Tropicana works with some of Florida’s most established groves. Tropica is the largest single buyer of Florida fruit. They are making sure they pick the fruit at the perfect time.

The orange oil is extracted from the peel to capture the from-the-orange taste and aromas which are later carefully blended into the juice for consistent quality and flavor.
Oranges have a limited growing season, and because there is demand for juice year round, an unspecified quantity of juice (some or potentially all) is deaerated and then stored for future packaging in chilled tanks to preserve quality. The aseptic tanks protect the juice from oxygen and light and hold the liquid at optimal temperatures just above freezing to maintain nutrition. It has been reported that deaerated juice no longer tastes like oranges, and must be supplemented with flavor packs derived from orange oils before consumption. Tropicana also uses small quantities of high-quality orange juice from Brazil to supplement the Florida crop.

Swatch

Swatch is a brand name for a line of wrist watches from the Swatch Group, a Swiss conglomerate with vertical control of the production of Swiss watches and related products. In 1982, Swatch was conceived and it was introduced to the market in Switzerland in March 1983.

This concept was realised in the early 1980s, under the leadership of the then ETA SA’s CEO, Ernst Thomke with a small team of enthusiastic watch engineers led by Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller, who had had the idea to use the case back as a movement main plate (platine), as it had been done to realise the flattest watch in the world, the Delirium, suppressing a lot of parts. And designed for easy assembling.

Swatch was originally intended to re-capture entry level market share lost by Swiss manufacturers during the aggressive growth of Japanese companies such as Seiko in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watches at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity.

The combination of marketing and manufacturing expertise restored Switzerland as a major player in the world wristwatch market. Synthetic materials were used for the watchcases as well as a new ultra-sonic welding process and the assembly technology. The number of components was reduced from 91 or more to 51, with no loss of accuracy. Compared to conventional watches, a Swatch was 80% cheaper to produce by fully automating assembly.

In light of the economic state of the Swiss watch industry at the time of the introduction of the Swatch, its directors understood that it was not enough to offer a good watch. The watches needed to be attractive, cheeky and good fun, daring in design and aggressively priced, with high quality and innovative flair. The Swatch watches were high-tech and came in a variety of fashion and art design.

The first meaning of the name “Swatch” was “Second Watch” — because the new watch was introduced with a new concept of watches as casual, fun, and relatively disposable accessories. However Franz Sprecher conceived it as the contraction of Swiss (Made) Watch: “S’Watch”, soon became “Swatch” as it is today perceived worldwide.

There are five families under the Swatch brand: Originals, Irony, Skin, Beat, Bijoux.

I have 2 Swatch Irony pieces. The first one was bought in 2000 and it still rocks.

The second was acquired this September. Its complete name is Swatch Full Blooded and will always remember me of Washington.

Needless to say I am very content with my Swatches…

Swarovski

Swarovski is the luxury brand name for the range of precision-cut crystal glass and related products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria. The company was founded in 1895 by Armand Kosman and Franz Weis using Daniel Swarovski’s expertise at glass-cutting and his family name. It was the 1892 invention and patenting of Swarovski’s innovative electric glass-cutting machine which prompted the company to be created. Their first factory for producing carved crystal was built in Wattens, Austria.

The Swarovski Crystal range includes crystal sculptures and miniatures, jewelry and couture, home decor and chandeliers.

All sculptures are marked with a logo. The original Swarovski logo was an edelweiss flower, which was replaced by a “S.A.L.” logo which was finally replaced with the current swan logo in 1988. The Swan logo, however, is currently being phased out in favor of simply the Swarovski name.

In 2004, Swarovski created the nine-foot diameter, 550 pound star that tops the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City for the first of five consecutive years.

For the 75th anniversary of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Swarovski crystals decorated the costumes worn by the Rockettes during the finale number.

Swarovski is one of my favorite jewelry stores. My most recent acquisition is a Cross Jet Hematite Pendant.

MAC

Make-up Art Cosmetics, better known as MAC was founded in Toronto, Canada by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo in 1985. The first U.S MAC store opened in 1991, located at Greenwich Village.

Estée Lauder Companies acquired controlling interest of MAC in 1994, then completed their acquisition of the company in 1998. One year prior to the acquisition, original founder, Frank Angelo, died in 1997 due to complications during surgery.

The company’s product were originally designed specifically for professional make-up artists, but are now sold to consumers worldwide.

The list of past official spokespersons includes names like Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, and Catherine Deneuve. Eve, Missy Elliott, Lisa Marie Presely, Dita von Teese, Deborah Harry, Christina Aguilera, Linda Evangelista, Boy George, and others have been past spokespeople for the Viva Glam IV and V campaigns. (Viva Glam V got more notice for including a neutral shaded pink Viva Glam lipgloss).

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH (A&F)

I tried to delay as much as I could this post because I felt and still feel I am not ready. This is my favorite American brand. I could say I would go back to New York for a reason only: to shop there. I’ve heard a couple of weeks ago that I am not alone, a friend went to London for A&F.
I’ve also visited the store in London but the prices there are just ridiculous, compared to US. But the atmosphere was the same and people were waiting in line to get inside.

The modern Canoe store design features white molding and louvers on the exterior.

The interiors are highlighted with dim ceiling-lights and spot lighting.

Distinguishable aspects are the lingering scent of Fierce, an A&F fragrance, and the blasting electronic dance music.

The A&F brand holds over 353 locations nationwide the United States, three in Canada, one in London, and one in Milan. Four flagship stores are located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, within the The Grove in Los Angeles, at 7 Burlington Gardens in London, and at 12 Corso Giacomo Matteotti in Milan.

Selldorf Architects are responsible for the Fifth Avenue and Burlington Gardens flagships, that look practically alike.

A&F’s Milan flagship opened on October 29, 2009 at 10:00am and did over $1.2 million dollars (US) on its opening weekend.

A third opening in Europe, this location on the famed Avenue des Champs-Élysées in building No.23 is expected to open doors in 2011. Abercrombie & Fitch got the approval from the French government to go ahead with construction early in 2009. French law prohibits retailers from leasing space on the historically valuable avenue without consulting government approval, all in effort to protect its image by exclusively admitting image-appropriate retailers.

The official logo of Abercrombie & Fitch is the moose.

My ties with Abercrombie & Fitch are very strong. We will forever have something in common: the A&F initials.

I won’t talk about the controversy and criticism. I don’t know if products are overpriced as the materials really deserve the money. I don’t care if there are sales or not. Why should A&F offer sales if people of all age are waiting in line to enter?

A&F is not a store, is a successful concept. I encourage anyone to go visit and shop.

http://www.abercrombie.com

Forever 21

Forever 21 is a chain of clothing retailers throughout the United States, Philippines, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Thailand, China, South Korea, Japan and Puerto Rico offering fashion and accessories for young women and men. Most of the retailer’s apparel is private label and made in the United States in Southern California, with the exception of their “Fabulous Finds”, which are very cheap items imported from Vietnam. Forever 21 typically serves the same audience and competes with Urban Outfitters, Wet Seal, Guess, Deb Shops, and Charlotte Russe.

The chain, originally known as Fashion 21, was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1984 by Korean-American Do-Won Chang and his wife, Jin Sook. Trendy designs seen in South Korea were sold and targeted to the Los Angeles Korean Community. However, people from many other races and ethnicities began noticing the fashion forward designs, and the store became increasingly popular. By the end of the first year, sales had risen from $35,000 to $700,000. Fashion 21 eventually expanded at the rate of a new store every six months and changed the Fashion 21 brand name to Forever 21.
In 1995, the company expanded their store in Miami’s Mall of the Americas, this location was the first store outside of California. Adding new stores every six months, Forever 21 had reached a total of 40 stores by 1997.

Plans are in the works to open a 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) Forever 21 in Manhattan, in Times Square, in the space formerly occupied by the Virgin Megastore, in addition to some adjoining space.