Epic Merchandise Blog

Being in a relationship is wonderful. No one wants to be alone – people are hardwired to be together. But being in a healthy relationship is far more important than simply being in a relationship. You should never settle for a relationship just because you are afraid to be alone. A toxic relationship is highly damaging to your mental health and to your self-esteem. Being on your own is far better than being in such a relationship.

Six signs of a healthy relationship:

1. Mutual Respect. Your partner should respect your opinions and your boundaries. He should never ridicule you for speaking your mind, for being yourself, or for refusing to join in an activity.

2. Open Communication. People in a healthy relationship speak honestly and openly about their feelings. They feel comfortable discussing issues and are not afraid of their partner’s reaction.

3. Freedom and Space. People in a healthy relationship are able to keep identities that are separate from the relationship. Each of them has her own hobbies and interests. One partner never tries to get the other to give up seeing her friends, or drop out of activities she loves.

4. Equality. A healthy relationship is one where both partners are equal. There are no major power struggles, and input from both partners has the same level of importance and influence.

5. Unconditional Support. A good partner supports you, accepts you as you are, and never tries to undermine you or hurt your self esteem. A healthy relationship is about being there for each other in good AND in bad. You must feel that you can be yourself and your partner will still love you. If you feel you need to pretend to be someone you’re not, or you’ll lose your partner’s love and support, you’re not in a healthy relationship.

6. Honesty and Trust. Do you trust your partner? Doe she trust you? Have you ever caught her lying to you? Has he ever shown signs of extreme jealousy when he saw you talking with another man? Extreme jealousy, lies and mistrust are signs of an unhealthy relationship.

Relationships are complicated. Even a great relationship can have ups and downs. Even the most supportive partner can sometimes hurt your feelings. But the signs above are a good start for monitoring your relationship and trying to identify problems. If there are major problems, the sooner you identify them, the better.

Photo credit: Anatoly Tiplyashin

Nothing adds character and charm to a baby’s nursery quite like personalized wall decor. Don’t leave those walls bare! Bare walls always seem cold and uninviting, in any room of the house, and especially so when it comes to your baby’s nursery.

Planning and decorating a baby’s nursery is a lot of fun. The crib, the bedding, the rocking chair, and fun accessories such as toy chests, toy bags and diaper stackers all give the parents-to-be a great opportunity to tap into their creative side and create a warm, welcoming, beautiful space for their new baby.

Once you’ve come up with a theme for your baby’s room, it’s always nice to add a personal touch, and personalized wall decor is one of the best ways to do that. A great way to make the room truly unique and welcoming is to add a personalized baby room sign, which includes the baby’s name, her birth date and a short, sweet message. A baby room sign is also a great option for anyone looking for a unique, one-of-a-kind gift for the new parents.

The typical sign comes in blue for baby boys, pink or purple for baby girls, and includes all the important information, such as the baby’s first, middle and last names, her birth date, and any message up to 15 characters you want to include at the bottom, such as “Sweet Dreams.” Other favorite messages are “We Love You,” “Sweet Baby,” or “Happiness.”

One of the added bonuses of personalized wall art is that it helps to introduce and reinforce letter recognition and basic reading skills from a very young age. Most parenting experts agree that exposing young children to letters and words is one of the best ways to start teaching them how to read.

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Epic Merchandise offers a large, affordable selection of engraved gifts. Epic Merchandise provides you with great service and high quality products at very competitive prices. Shop with us and you’ll see why you can depend on our service, and count on your savings.

While bringing a hostess gift to a casual get-together such as a brunch, or to a cocktail party, is optional, you should definitely bring a gift when attending a dinner party, even if it’s not very formal. A hostess gift need not be elaborate or expensive: the idea is to say “thank you” to the hostess for her efforts, so keep the gift simple and inexpensive. There’s no need to spend more than $25 on a hostess gift.

What to bring

Bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party is fine, especially when presented in a beautiful artist wine box. The host has no obligation of using your wine for dinner – he probably planned the menu and paired it with wine already – but a good bottle of wine is a nice gift that the host can use later on, so make sure you choose a bottle you think your host will enjoy.

Other nice gifts for your host are candles, soaps, picture frames, a set of herbs and spices, kitchen gadgets, artisan chocolates, or something for the next morning such as homemade muffins, a muffin mix or homemade jam.

If you have enough time before the event, go ahead and order a personalized, engraved gift. This type of gift is extremely thoughtful and unique, and is appropriate for any occasion.

Gifts to avoid

Avoid bringing anything that would distract the hostess and send her searching for something to contain the gift. Flowers, for example, would force the hostess to search for a vase and fill it with water. It’s OK to bring a small potted plant or a flower arrangement already in a vase.

Avoid bringing food for the meal itself, unless the hostess has asked you to do so. The assumption is the hostess had planned the meal, and any extra dish would create an uncomfortable situation for her and force her to accommodate a dish she wasn’t planing on serving.

Photo credit: Hans Voorn

A great picnic requires very little effort. The entire idea, after all, is effortless dining in a casual setting. But successful picnics, just like any other event, do require some advance preparation: finding the right spot, selecting foods that are appropriate – and yummy – to eat cold, and packing and serving the food in a way that makes it look appetizing.

These six tried and tested tips will help you make sure your next picnic is relaxing and fun:

1. While a traditional picnic basket is romantic and pretty, you also need a good-size cooler to keep food fresh and keep it from spoiling. I used to resist using a plastic cooler because “they’re ugly,” but one needs to be practical too: if you don’t use a cooler, your choice of foods is extremely limited. A great way to combine aesthetics with practicality is to buy an insulated picnic cooler which also includes service for two or four.

2. Remember that serving food on real china and silver, and using cloth tablecloth and napkins, feels so much better than using plastic and nylon. At the end of the picnic, when you get back home, just toss the tablecloth in the washer and the dishes in the dishwasher. Avoiding disposable items is also a great way to help the environment.

3. A blanket on the grass sounds great, but finding a shaded corner with a picnic table and benches is far more comfortable than sitting on the ground.

4. If it rains on the day of your picnic, consider having it indoors. Having a picnic indoors is a lot of fun, especially for children.

5. Keep the food fresh, delicious and very simple: instead of cooking, stop by your local deli or supermarket, and buy fresh bread, cold cuts, cheese, boiled eggs, a tray of fresh cut veggies and fruit, lemonade and a bottle of good wine.

6. Don’t forget to bring insect repellent and sunscreen for everyone, and remind your guests to dress in layers and bring a hat.

When I think about a picnic, the first word that comes to mind is “effortless.” Hopefully, these tips will help you accomplish just that.

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Epic Merchandise offers a large, affordable selection of engraved gifts. Epic Merchandise provides you with great service and high quality products at very competitive prices. Shop with us and you’ll see why you can depend on our service, and count on your savings.

Like many stores online, when you “check out” you see an area to enter a coupon code. We sometimes get a phone call or email asking for a coupon code. Our philosophy on coupons follows.

Our goal is to provide everyday pricing that is competitive and value priced. Unlike many stores, we do not post pricing, and then tell you to enter a coupon to get a discount. Nor do we say an item is on sale, when it is not. Some stores have items that are always on sale, which we think is just plain deceptive, as their “sale price” is their regular price. We just price it as best we can from the start, making it straight forward for our customers.

From time to time, we do offer discounts and coupons. When we do so, we post them here in our blog, or we email our customers who have signed up for these notices or have purchased gifts from us in the past. We just do not do so that often.

So when do we offer these? We do so when we are offered discounts by our vendors, to test interest in new products, and to thank past customers for their loyalty. We usually offer something before Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and before the Christmas holiday season gets into full swing. Other times during the year vary, and coupons usually are tied to specific products.

We all like to save money and get the best deal possible. We know that and appreciate that desire. We continue to invite you to compare our gifts and shipping charges, and we hope you agree that you’ll find that every day is a good value.

We’re all feeling it. High gas prices are costing our families plenty. And those gas prices are adding to our costs of food, transportation to work, and shopping.

But have you considered that even though shipping prices are getting a bit higher too, they may save still us money?

When you order online, you’re saving the cost of driving your car to and from downtown or the shopping mall. You’re saving time too. Time that could be spent with your family, your friends, or a nice long bubble bath.

According to a study done by AAA and published in March in 2007, the average cost to drive a car one mile was 52.2 cents. And that was a year ago! But let’s use those “cheaper” gas prices of 2007. That means, it would cost you $10.44 LAST year to make a round trip 10 miles each way to your favorite mall. Now add your time, and remember that maybe you found what you wanted, and maybe you didn’t.

Shopping online is still a great value. You get great gift choices that you often can’t find locally, can order what you want, and can shop 24 hours a day from the convenience of your home or office.

So next time you shop online, know that you just might be saving more than you’re spending!