If you keep up with celebrity style like I do, then you’ve noticed how popular watches are this season. From dainty watches, including the $57,000 Jaeger-LeCoultre Art Deco watch which graced the wrist of Diane Kruger at the Cannes Film Festival, to the substantial Rolex watches that adorn Brad Pitt, watches reign as the “must have” accessory this season.

And the best part about this style sensation is that anyone, not just stars and socialites, can grab a piece of the action.

The Fossil website is a great place to begin your search. They have both men’s and women’s watches starting at just $75.00. For men they feature neon bright orange and yellow dial watches, camo dial watches, and navy dial watches. For the more traditional male, there’s silver, black, and brown as well.

For women, Fossil offers a great selection of the popular white silicone and white ceramic styles. Also hot this year is the color – rose gold, which provides an elegant touch to any outfit. More casual outfits call for fun watches such as their white, brown, or black woven styles.

Another hot company this year is Michele. According to the Michele website, they strive to keep up with cutting edge fashion, including runways trends. Some of their most unique styles include deco, urban, and the uber bright Tahitian Jelly Beans. Although more expensive than Fossil, these watches, are extremely popular with twenty and thirty-somethings.

Michael Kors watches have excited the young set as well. His glitz and tortoise and horn watches offer the “it” factor that many seek. In an interview, Kors stated that when it gets warm again, people have feelings of joy. He adds, “It’s as though people have finally shed all those heavy winter layers – both physically and mentally – and are ready to embrace life again!” That’s what Kors’ watches offer, zest for any outfit.

A visit to the Cartier website is a valuable tool to see what’s hot this year. In existence since 1904, this prestigious company continues to create watches that are actually pieces of art. The prices of styles featured on the web site range anywhere from $2,500 to $18,000 and above. These watches are definitely investment pieces!

Of course your choice of what company to purchase a watch from remains completely up to you! Dozens of companies cater to those who value time pieces, not only for keeping track of appointments, but for completing the specific look of an outfit. Whatever watch you buy, you can rest assured you’re jumping on board one of the hottest style trends this summer.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. C.S. Lewis

Regularly check out local department stores’ sales racks. There are periods when department stores make markdowns on a lot of items including  jewelry. This usually happens when the next season’s shipments just have arrived or are about to arrive; they have to dispose of the old stock quickly and the only way to do it is by putting it on sale. You should be there at the right time.

It is also good to check out pawnshops. You cannot really tell what you will find in pawnshops, but you may chance upon a very good but inexpensive item. You also can visit thrift stores, but, of course, thrift stores rarely have really good jewelry. However, if you visit thrift stores regularly, your chance of coming upon a “rare” lucky find would be higher.

Always be on the lookout for yard sales. Like with pawnshops, you never can tell what you may find in yard sales, but you can get lucky and come upon a good item. What is good about yard sales is that you can use your bargaining skills to get a good deal.

You also can look for cheap jewelry online. There are good places to bid for jewelry online like eBay, Bidz.com, and JustBeads.com, these are just some of the sites where you can get good deals on jewelry. If you like handmade jewelry, you can visit online stores 0n Etsy. It is easy to find cheap but quality handmade jewelry there.

Inexpensive but quality jewelry can be found anywhere if you know how and where to look. A basic knowledge of jewelry is also a plus, so that you will know if the deal you got is really a good deal.

• The kids stay engaged during the day because they know they will get something
• The kids learn how to work with a budget

This past weekend, we went with two of our kids to the 75th Annual Craftsmen’s Fair in New Hampshire. The fair is a sprawling array of artisans demonstrating their crafts and offering them for sale. There are glassblowers, blacksmiths, painters, and sculptors working in every medium you can imagine.

Now a craft fair may not sound like a great day for kids, so we employed our strategy and told them they could each spend $20 on a craft of his or her choice. After looking at the hundreds of exhibits, the kids decided on pieces of hand-sculptured pewter from Walker Boyle. Our daughter chose two horse figurines and our son chose an eagle talon talisman. Mr. Boyle was friendly and accommodating to the kids, which made the entire transaction fun.

Each child hit the $20 mark exactly and left the fair happy as larks making it a great day for the whole family.

The most popular diamond engagement cuts are listed below:

Brilliant or Round Cut

Oval Cut

Marquise Cut

Trillion Cut

Princess Cut

Emerald Cut

Pear Cut

Heart Cut

Cushion Cut

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and if you have not picked out your gift for your mom, you may be interested in how much the average American spends and on what item for Mother’s Day gifts. According to BIGresearch the top items are:

• A Special Outing (like dinner or breakfast) – $25.48
• Jewelry – $23.80
• Flowers – $17.65
• Gift Certificate – $13.89

When I see this list one thing really jumps out at me…. where can you get any jewelry item for $23.80?!?

No matter, pick up something nice for your mom, I am sure she deserves it!

• Solitaire – It is exactly what it sounds like. The very classic engagement ring style of a single stone in a setting.
• Engagement – A multi-diamond ring that can be made up of many small stones that often wraps around the finger.
• Bridal Set – A bridal set is actually a series of rings that fit together. There is usually the engagement ring and the bridal band that work together.
• Three-Stone – A setting with three stones, one main stone and two smaller secondary stones. The three-stone setting is meant to represent your past, present, and future together.

Once you understand the styles of engagement rings the question is: which one is right for your future wife? That question really depends on the style of the woman of your dreams. Does she prefer the classics and a classic look? If so, the solitaire may be her choice. If she would need a larger amount of sparkle then the multi-stone settings are probably your choice.

No matter what your choice of style, make sure that you choose a style that matches your mate for life. If you do that, you will have made the right choice.

To help my fellow overwhelmed men, I am going to do a six part series (with this being Part 1) on the key aspects of making the correct ring purchase. The next five parts are:

• Style – You Mean Rings Come In Styles?
• Shape – All Diamonds Aren’t Diamond Shaped?
• Setting – There is More To The Ring Than Just The Stone
• Band Size – I Have No Idea What Size Her Finger Is
• The 4 Cs – Figuring Out The Matrix For Diamonds

After this 5 part series you should be well equipped to make the perfect purchase.

Part 1 – Price How Much Do I Spend?

When someone says that price is not the issue it almost always is. With diamond buying price and budget are key factors. The old rule is that you are supposed to spend two months’ salary on an engagement ring. While this may be a helpful guideline, I think a better guideline is that you only should spend what you are comfortable spending. If you overspend because you think you have to, you will hold some resentment about this. Remember this is supposed to be a pleasing, special occasion. Don’t turn it into something you may harbor animosity about.

The other thing to remember is that size is not everything when it comes to diamonds (we will talk about this more in coming parts). But I will tell you that I think you should not get anything less than a carat in weight. A medium quality carat diamond solitaire can be had for $2,500. If you can’t scrape together that much money for the ring you should debate if you are ready for marriage.

Coming soon: Multiple styles for an engagement ring.