Vacation Home Rentals

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Feb 7

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Shopping for the holidays has come to be regarded by many as such a chore, rather than as an enjoyable giving experience. Keeping up with lists of present ideas for friends, family, and co-workers, as well as remembering where to get these presents, is what often makes the process so complicated. Idea Mapping is an alternative to traditional lists for managing holiday shopping that can make this process much simpler. With an Idea Map, you can make use of inherent visual associations to remember every present on their list, from the knit scarf for Mom, to the Waffle Maker for Carmen. Thus, Idea Mapping offers a creative and efficient way to manage and organize the entire holiday shopping process.

What is Idea Mapping?

Ideal Mapping is a means of organizing information using an Idea Map, which is a “colorful, single-page visual that captures [a person’s] thinking in key words and images.” Idea Mapping is widely believed to be a more effective means of conceptualizing information than traditional outlining, because it uses a spatial, rather than linear, approach to help define the information. When using an Idea Map, both hemispheres of the brain are engaged, allowing the brain to process information in a manner consistent with its natural functioning. The result is the ability to “plan, organize, communicate, remember, innovate, and learn” information quickly and efficiently.

Constructing a Holiday Shopping Idea Map

A shopper wants to get through her shopping list as quickly and efficiently as possible without forgetting anyone or anything on the list. She decides to use an Idea Map to organize the lists, and begins constructing the map by representing the main purpose of the map, her holiday shopping, in the center of the map. Next, she divides her map into the main categories of people she will shopping for, and attaches these categories to the central image via “branches”. She then proceeds to list each of the people she intends to shop for on “child branches”. Attached to these “child branches”, on “twigs”, are the presents she plans to buy each person and the stores where she plans to buy them. She completes her map by adding visuals and color associations, such as color-coding the stores, in order to make the map more visually stimulating and easy to recall. The example Map diagram illustrates what her Idea Map would look like when finished.

Idea Maps and Managing Holiday Shopping

As the attached example shows, the shopper was able to organize everything she needed to remember when shopping for presents in a clear, non-linear format. This snapshot document contains the equivalent of what might have been several pages of hard to read information, allowing her to quickly and efficiently access and conceptualize her shopping needs. In addition, the colors and visual associations, such as the colors associated with each store, give the shopper several points of reference, simplifying the process even further. With Idea Mapping, the shopper has, now turned her holiday shopping from a chore into a fun and enjoyable experience.

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Dec 31

Biscuit Pup

The festive season is such an exciting but expensive time, especially for those of us with children. With children being bombarded by advertising on TV and the printed media, it is no easy task to sort the wheat from the chaff and to spend our hard earned money wisely.

Many of the UK’s leading toy shops are members of the British Toy Retailers Association, representing over 150 companies responsible for selling over 90% of the toys sold in the UK. It is an independent body based on 50 years experience and it acts as the retailer’s voice and spokesman to take into account what customers are requesting, what children find exciting and keeping an eye on the latest trend in new products. Each year, after the major toy fairs where all the latest products are shown to the toy trade for the first time, they print a list of what they found to be exciting and what they forsee as the top selling toys the following Christmas.

In days long gone the highest of high-tech was a Triang electric train set. Nowadays there are truly incredible toys such as life-sized puppy dogs that respond to your every word, dolls that drink, sleep, eat, cry and even pee !! and a complete host of electronic toys which range from voice changing masks to games consoles to strange little gadgets that detect weird mutants floating around the ether.

Let’s take a look at three toys from this year’s British Toy Retailers Association award winners and we just have to begin with that loveable puppy. It’s made by FurReal and named “Biscuit – My Lovin’ Pup“. It certainly isn’t cheap at £119.95, but this amazing life-sized Golden Retriever puppy obeys your spoken commands. He sits, lays down, gives you his paw and has umpteen sensors that know when you’re touching him so that he can make little puppy yelps and barks whilst wagging his tail. Leave him undisturbed for a few minutes and he nods off and begins to snore.

It’s time to move from cute and lovable to high-tech, sci-fi and completely weird. The Catcha Beast is a hand held electronic toy that detects invisible beings that inhabit the air that we live and breathe. Once found, the monster has to be wound into the machine. It’s pretty to explain, so I’d advise that click the link and watch the video of the toy being used. The Catcha Beast retails at £17.95.

Let’s finish with something priced midway between the two earlier toys. Elmo Live is a much loved character from Sesame Street and costs £59.95. He’s another amazing creation with the ability to sit on a chair telling stories whilst crossing and uncrossing his legs or waving is arms around as he sings a song. He isn’t voice controlled like Biscuit the dog, but he has a number of actions as you squeeze his foot, tummy, back or nose.

So there we have it. Three of the toys voted as the best of the year by the toy industry. Check out our top toy website for a selection of other fine gifts.