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

Want to buy him a cigar gift but don’t know anything about cigars?

I’ve written about cigar gifts before. Whilst not being a cigar smoker myself I can quite understand the attraction. The aroma of a good cigar is wonderful, and I love it.

However not so many girls are cigar smokers, so you might be a little like me. You’d like to buy him some cigars as a gift however you really know very little about them.

If that’s the case then you may find it interesting to learn a little more about cigars, and you may appreciate a little more exactly why he loves them.

When I first started considering cigars as a men’s gift idea I spent some time looking at various cigar websites. I was stunned to find how many different types of cigars there were. I was also amazed to find out more about the history of cigars, how they are made and where they come from.

I had no idea that cigars have been around for centuries. The American Indians were even smoking tobacco leaves rolled up before Christopher Columbus came to America. In fact it was Columbus who brought the tobacco to Europe.

A lot of what I learned about cigars and their history comes from Famous Smoke Shop’s Complete Guide to Cigars. There you can learn about the different aspects of cigars. For instance you can start to appreciate why there are different colors sizes and shapes. You can also learn about the different names given to different cigars, and what each of these names mean.

There is also a whole range of important aspects to cigar etiquette, none of which I understood. There are important customs and rituals in cigar smoking. There are also accessories such as humidors and cigar cutters which have specific functions. Often, if you’re buying him a gift of cigars you can include various accessories with the cigars if he doesn’t have them already. You can find out in Famous Smoke Shop’s Complete Guide to Cigars what those accessories are and what they do.

Of course if you know exactly which cigars he likes you could just buy those for him for his gift. However why not be more adventurous. Find out more about the different types of cigars and give him some cigars that he might not have tried before. You may well find that those cigars become his favorite. Read more

Plenty of men love Barack Obama, and plenty of men hate him. Barack Obama is just like that, he engenders strong emotions in many of us. But whether your man loves Barack Obama or not chances are he’ll love a good laugh at Barack Obama’s expense.

Because men love to laugh. A good gag is always worthwhile and a good gag gift is usually a heap of fun.

And it’s not just your man who gets to laugh at a good Barack Obama gag gift, because every time his friends come round they get to laugh at the Barack Obama gag gift as well.

I found some fantastic Barack Obama funny gifts at Prank Place, one of my favorite websites for any gift that will get a man laughing.

I have to say that my favorite is the Barack Obama toilet paper. He can have a laugh every time he is sitting on the toilet.

(And if he loves to laugh at George Bush as well then it is also possible to get George Bush toilet paper.)

But it’s not just Barack Obama toilet paper, there’s a wide range of Barack Obama men’s gag gifts available and you can shop till you drop. There’s plenty of choices to get your man laughing at Barack Obama the next time you have a special occasion like his birthday coming up.

Maybe he’ll get a laugh at the Barack Obama million-dollar stimulus banknotes, or perhaps the “hope is not a form of protection” Barack Obama condoms. Or maybe you could just get him a US Treasury stimulus check and give him 1 billion dollars for his birthday.

I’ve put up a few photos that may get you laughing as you browse. Read more

Whether it’s a gag gift or a kitsch gift he may well love it.

A few years ago my family got what I considered to be a reasonably kitsch Christmas gift. It’s a silver Christmas tree, about a foot high, which plays Jingle Bells Rock and rocks back and forth to the sound of your voice.

I hated it when we got it, however all these years later we still have it and I love it. Every Christmas the kids bring the rocking Christmas Tree out and off it goes with Jingle Bells Rock, rocking in time to the tune.

It’s almost like Christmas really isn’t Christmas without that kitsch rocking Christmas Tree. So I thought I’d see what other kitsch, or gag, Christmas gifts you could find for your man. After all, if you buy him a kitsch gift he, (and you), may well end up taking it to heart just as I have.

First of all let’s define kitsch. Here’s a definition that I got from Dictionary.com. Kitsch is “something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste”.

That seems to sum it up pretty well, and that was exactly how I felt about that rocking Christmas tree. Funny how kitsch becomes loved.

I’ve had the same thing happen before. I’m not a big fan of garden gnomes. For my birthday one year, many years ago, my wife decided, because I hated them, to buy me a garden gnome for my birthday gift. To me the garden gnome is about as kitsch as it gets. Yet all these years later we still have it, and it sits proudly by our front door.

Of course there is often very little difference between a gag gift and a kitsch gift, it’s all up to how you see it. A kitsch gift can be a great gag gift as well

Okay so let’s have a look for some gag or kitsch Christmas gifts that may well appeal to him, and if he has kids will certainly appeal to them. I know my kids absolutely love the rocking Christmas tree.

The first thing I came up with was a similar sort of thing to our Christmas tree. It’s a musical rocking Santa that sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” while rocking backwards and forwards in a rocking chair. However although, to me, it qualifies as kitsch it is in fact a limited edition gift.

Only just over 300 of these musical Santa’s are being produced and each one is hand-painted including the wood grain on the rocking chair.

Mind you it’s still a kitsch gift to me, limited edition or not, but of course all these things are in the eye of the beholder and it may be that your man will absolutely love it. Or maybe, like me, he’ll hate it to begin with and after a little while he’ll love it as I do.

Much cheaper is a farting Santa. You can find the farting Santa at Prank Place, one of my favorite shops for retro, gag and kitsch gifts.

And I was surprised to find that there were even entire stores totally devoted to kitsch gifts. 3 of them that I found were notoriouskitsch.co.uk, kitschshop.com and kitsch.co.uk.

So if you’re a little stumped for a great Christmas idea for your man this year consider gag or kitsch. If I’m anything to go by he might find in a few years that it’s one of his most treasured gifts that has to come out every Christmas or it’s not really Christmas. Read more