A gift idea for a woman with a lazy $350000

Here’s a gift for the man who has everything from the woman with plenty of money. $350,000 to be exact.

If you’ve got that sort of money and are looking for a gift idea for your man, something that is absolutely special and which I can guarantee none of his friends will get for Christmas then here’s a gift idea for you.

It’s a car that flies.

Yes believe it or not it’s a car and it’s an aeroplane. It was designed by MIT graduates to be both.

It’s a street legal car, with a 100 horsepower four-cylinder motor. Drive it on the road when he wants. Up to 65 miles per hour, with the wings folded back.

But when it comes across one of those pesky traffic jams you can just extend the wings and fly over it. Well probably not actually, chances are it’s illegal to take off from an ordinary road. But it’s not illegal to take off from an airfield.

Folded up it can fit in your average garage, and he can drive it to the airfield.

To take off however you will need a sport pilot certificate.

It’s all high-tech stuff. Carbon fibre, titanium and aluminium. That sort of high-tech stuff. And it’s got room for 2, so you can take you with him when he flies.

I’m absolutely certain that very few if any of my readers will be buying their man a flying car this Christmas.

But when I saw it I just had to tell you about it.

I can’t afford it, chances are you can’t afford it, but it’s nice to know it’s out there, just in case you, or I, strike it rich.

But if you can afford it you can get it at Hammacher Schlemmer, just search there for the flying car. Read more

Is an Ottoman the perfect gift? (And what is an Ottoman?)

A friend of mine recently told me that he had purchased an Ottoman. He was extremely proud of it, hoping to show it off to me, however I have to admit that I really didn’t know what an Ottoman was. I try to keep up-to-date with modern trends however every now and then something throws me completely.

So I decided, without admitting my ignorance to him, that I should do some research and find out what an Ottoman was and why it appealed to him. And I thought, given that he was so pleased with it, that maybe an Ottoman might be an unusual gift idea for your man.

And of course although I try to keep up-to-date with modern trends it turns out that they have been around for a long time and aren’t recent at all.

An Ottoman is, in effect, a footstool. If you’re sprawled on the lounge watching the game at night an Ottoman is something for you to put your feet up on to help you relax. They’ve been around for centuries, so I was a little embarrassed at not having come across them before.

I have to confess that I’m one of those people who lie on the couch as much as sit on it, and like to put my feet up. I eventually end up putting my feet on the coffee table which doesn’t go down well with the family. Something that I can put my feet up on that is politically correct, in furniture terms, appeals to me hugely.

So after figuring out what they were, I looked around to see what they were like and why my friend was so pleased with his purchase.

I was delighted to find that Ottomans come in all shapes and sizes and styles to suit just about every taste in furniture. I found some wonderful Ottomans at Overstock.com, including some particularly artistic looking examples from Morocco.

Of course most Ottomans are styled to suit your average house and your average furniture. Many are leather covered and would look fine in your average living room. And plenty are also built so that the top can be lifted and all the space inside can be used as storage, making it useful as well as functional for putting feet on.

However it wasn’t those that appealed to me. What appealed to me were some of the more trendy and artistic Ottomans that would, in my view, suit the more artistic man with a slightly different and more trendy taste in furniture. Now of course your regular leather Ottoman may well be a fine gift for a man with leather furniture. In fact the ones that did appeal to me would probably look out of place in many homes. However I was so taken with the more trendy looking Ottomans that I’ve chosen to feature their images here.

So if your man is the type, like me, who ends up with his feet on the coffee table watching the game, an Ottoman might be a wonderful gift for him. It will give him somewhere politically correct to put his feet, and because that’s what it’s made for you can relax. Read more

MBT shoes are not your average shoe

So many men suffer from physical problems that in many instances are related to their feet and how they walk. In fact there is a whole profession, called prodiatry, that is simply based around helping people solve physical problems that can arise as a result of problems in the feet and ankles.

And in many cases one of the major recommendations podiatrists make is that people with various physical problems change their shoes or use specific types of insoles to improve the way their body interacts with their feet when they walk.

Studies have clearly shown that various physical problems can be a direct result of the type of shoe worn as well as how the individual walks. One of the most significant physical ailments in our society is back pain, and studies have shown that back pain can in some cases be caused by the type of shoes worn and the way the wearer walks as a result.

If you’ve never heard of the MBT shoe you may be surprised to learn that there is a range of shoes specifically designed to improve your posture, increase the activity of your muscles and help reduce back pain and foot pain. MBT shoes are not your ordinary shoe. And if you see an MBT shoe it immediately strikes you how different they are.

The first thing you notice is that they have a curved sole rather than a flat sole. There is a lot of research which has gone into the MBT shoe, and much of it has shown that using a shoe with a curved sole, which allows the foot to roll as you walk, is beneficial for a wide range of physical problems.

Studies have demonstrated that walking with a shoe with a curved solve such as the MBT shoe will improve the walking posture resulting in less loading on the back, thereby aiding in improved overall posture and reduced back pain for some people. And it’s not just back pain. There is evidence to show an improvement in posture related health problems such as osteoarthritis, stress fractures, tendinitis and more, including low back pain from wearing MBT shoes.

As well as an improvement in posture the MBT shoe also stimulates the muscles of the buttocks, stomach and back to work harder strengthening those muscles and helping maintain improved posture. Stress on the joints of the ankle, the knee and the hip is reduced.

As the news gets out about MBT shoes they are now being worn by a much wider cross-section of the population, and in particular by active and sporting men and those with specific problems such as back pain.

However the bad news is that MBT shoes are not cheap. Normally, for a pair of men’s MBT shoes, you expect to pay over $200, sometimes well over that and approaching $300. So I’m delighted to say that I’ve found a website with men’s MBT shoes on sale right now. That’s as of 7th of July 2010, I don’t know how long the sale will last.

It is not a 10 percent off sale either. There are men’s MBT shoes available there that have been reduced from $250 to $99. The men’s MBT Karani is down from $270 to $99. That’s a serious saving. And with free shipping.

So if your man would benefit from a pair of shoes that will help him improve his muscle strength and posture, a pair of mens MBT shoes will be a fine gift for him. And if you’re quick you won’t need to pay $250 plus, $100 will do it. Find them at http://www.footwearetc.com for as long as the sale lasts and surprise him with a wonderful gift. No need to tell him you didn’t pay $260 for them.

To conclude I’ll quote from one of the customers who bought some MBT shoes, you can see the customer comments on the website:

“I herniated a disc in Sept and was in tremendous pain. After chiropractic and orthopedic visits improved the condition, I wanted shoes that cushioned my walk. MBT’s did that. They are very comfortable, they do improve my posture and relieve the strain on my back. I was skeptical, but I am now a believer.”

Another customer said “I may never own another brand of shoe again.” Read more

You find so many so called “unique” mens gifts, but how unique are they?

I recently came across a wonderful website by an Israeli artist. She alerted me to her site by a comment on this site and I went to visit and have a look.

Her name is Nava Steinmetz and she produces “miniatures”. I have to confess that I didn’t quite know what a miniature was so I had a look at her website to find out and was very pleasantly surprised. On her site she describes the miniatures she produces as “a scene of reduced size reproduced in 3 dimensions by placing objects, figures, etc in front of a painted background”.

These miniatures are custom-made for individual customers tailored to the profession of the person for whom the miniature is made.

If you look at the examples on her website you can see extraordinary detail, right down to books with titles on them, and even computer screensavers. You can even see posters on the wall down to the finest detail. I’ve put some images here for you to see what I mean.

Basically what she is doing is recreating an office of any professional person in complete detail. If you look at the image above it’s actually a complete recreation of the actual office of the pharmacy owned by the gift recipient.

It seems that she will make miniatures on order for anyone, according to the order. I assume she works from a photo of the office that she is reproducing.

I was also pleasantly surprised by her prices. Looking at the examples it would seem to me that many hours of meticulous and painstaking work must go into producing just one of these miniatures, and I was expecting prices in the many hundreds of dollars. However those that I looked at were priced at $140.

I consider $140 for a personally handmade gift such as this to be exceedingly cheap. It is very rare to be able to buy unique handmade gifts of this quality by an artist with this sort of ability at anywhere near this price.

It is certainly a unique gift idea for a man who has everything. Maybe he is a lawyer or a businessman who can afford to buy anything he wants. Maybe you’re totally stuck for a unique gift idea for him. However I’m willing to bet that he doesn’t have a miniature like this.

It’s a fascinating website which you can find at The Miniature. Note that that address should bring up the website in English, though the main website is in Israeli script, and if you encounter this version then look for the small button at the top right to change the site to English.

So many products nowadays are mass produced, normally in China, down to a price and down to a standard. You think you’ve found a unique gift idea for your man and if you dig a little deeper you’ll find it in dozens of other stores online, and sometimes, annoyingly, at much cheaper prices. Read more

If a barking dog is keeping him (and you) awake it night here’s what you buy him.

I know exactly what it’s like. I used to have a barking dog living right beside me and I spent countless hours awake. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done to get rid of that bark.

So if your man, and you, are being kept awake by a barking dog then a great gift for him is a barking dog deterrent.

Here’s a great gift idea for a man who’s being kept awake at night by barking dogs. An ultrasonic dog bark deterrent.

It looks like a birdhouse, so it’s not unsightly, and it keeps dog from barking anywhere nearby.

How? It detects any local barking by dogs and emits an ultrasonic sound that humans can’t hear but dogs can. The dogs don’t like the sound.

So every time the dog barks he or she is hit by this dog noise, and after a while the dog starts to realize that “every time I bark I get this nasty noise, so maybe I should keep quiet to avoid the noise”.

It works. It keeps his evenings and night times, and for that matter his day times, quiet. Ahh, for some peace and quiet.

So if you’ve been struggling for a gift for your man and he, and you, are going nuts from barking dogs, give him an ultrasonic dog barking deterrent.

The neighbours will be touched by your kind gift to the local birds. 

Get it from Hammacher Schlemmer, the best online mens gifts store in my view. When you get to their site just search “dog bark” there and you’ll see that you have a couple of choices to deter barking dogs, indoors and outdoors.

After all, what better gift can you give to your man than peace and quiet. Read more

Does your man love looking good? How about a gift for him that makes him look good?

I’ve written before about belt buckles, I love belts, and shoes. Maybe it’s a leather fetish.

But I do love the look of a great belt with a great belt buckle. I mention that because today I was looking at a website that features some hot belts and buckles, and like it.

You can get all sorts of belt buckles now. In the dark days of the past a belt buckle just held the 2 ends of your belt together, but now a belt buckle is a work of art in itself, and some of them look great.

And as well as looking great some buckles are also functional. I recently reviewed a belt buckle, for example, that was a golf tool as well.

Here’s and example of a buckle that’s useful as well as looks good. It’s the first photo I’ve included.

Not only is it a great Red Sox buckle it’s also useful, because it doubles as a bottle opener.

And for the man who loves his beer, what is he going to do if he’s in need of a bottle opener and doesn’t have one?

Whip off the belt and there’s his opener right there on the end of the belt. Now that’s a way to impress his friends!

I just love some of the belt buckles that they have, I think it’s about the biggest range of buckles that I’ve ever seen, but it’s not just the range, but the quality of the designs that I love too.

So many that I’ve never seen before.

But of course there’s not just the belt buckles that they sell, there’s belts as well. But one other thing caught my eye.

Along with belts, buckles and men’s wallets, caps and sunglasses there’s more.

I have also written about men’s jewelry before as well, including men’s wedding rings. Men of course don’t wear jewelry way as often as women, but men do wear jewelry, and there’s some great men’s jewelry around. Read more