The song “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt or Madonna offers a cute twist on what women want for holiday gifts. Here are the lyrics.

Convertibles, yachts, condos and Tiffany’s are out of reach for most men, but Sabrina Fischer, owner of the Sassy Peacock in Erie, offers some great advice to all the guys who visit her stores this week (and her own hubby)!

• First off, do not wait until Christmas Eve to purchase a gift. It will stress you out and limit your options.
• Ask her for ideas. She will be thrilled, and you will probably get a list with pictures. You can also ask her mother or a close friend.
• Gift certificates/gift cards are always nice along with at least one item that you personally selected. Choose services that she would not buy for herself: cleaning services, spa services or salon services. Splurge on a spa day for her and a close friend.
• Plan a trip for the two of you. Get a travel agent to help! A weekend excursion would be a nice treat for both of you.
• Diamonds are a girls best friend or any other precious gemstone. Great deals abound this week.
• Don’t buy her a gadget that you think will help her — especially if it’s one you really want. That is unless she asked for it.
• Do not buy a piece of exercise equipment — unless she asked for it.

Hurry Santa baby, time’s ticking away!

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

If you always wanted to learn how to make beach glass jewelry — here’s your chance!

Classes are available October 6 and 7 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Class is limited to 11 people and pre-registration and pre-payment is required.

You’ll learn how to drill beach glass and wire-wrap your pieces. The class is open to students 14 years of age or older. It does include working with power tools.

Class price is $50 per person and includes instruction, all materials and access to drilling equipment. Beach glass is provided, but you can bring your own. For more information about this, or other programs, please call the Tom Ridge Environmental Center (TREC) at (814)-833-7424. The park office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. The park is open daily from sunrise to sunset for hiking and other environmentally-related activities.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Timesand House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.

At goerie.com, take a peek at the terrific hair show put on by Erie’s Toni & Guy Academy. Rob Frank Photography captured more than 70 photos.

The hairstyles show off all the trendy colors and fun styles with curls, sweeping bangs, updos and much more. Soft curls are back and so are the tight curls. If you want to see the dramatic styles, skip to photo numbers 37.

Enjoy the hair show — and congratulations to Erie’s Toni & Guy Academy and director Dianna Noe, our Her Times beauty writer.

I never thought of carrots as a beauty treatment, but they are gaining popularity. Here’s a link to Saffron Rouge, a beauty supplier that sells carrot moisturizers and creams. One cream retails for $64 and contains carrot, marigold, castor oil, corn germ oil, citronella grass oil, lemon balm oil, shea butter, carotene (Provitamin A), Vitamin C and E.

Carrot oil is also good for hair. It repairs split ends and more.  One more thing to try — it reduces fluid retention. All good news from the carrot folks. Get ready everybunny – another natural thing to try.

We’ve heard about olive oil, coconut oil and other natural oils as moisturizers. Add this one and let us know what you think. I like them all, but I’m not keen on the odors.

It’s not your mother’s camo.

These images from Glamour.com reveal some colorful patterns that add a nice, light look to spring fashion. Glamour.com and most sites say dresses are IN — big time, and color and color-blocking is everywhere. Short suits are back — suits that pair a pair of shorts with a nice jacket. Been a while since we’ve seen those. Novel necklines are everywhere — not just the V-neck, scoop or spaghetti strap — and it’s all flattering.

Like camo, other colorful patterns are popping up — it has that 80s flavor — and it looks good.

If you don’t own something orange, now is the time to get it — and I mean reddish-orange, not peach. Tangerine is the Pantone color of the year, and it is hot — in dresses, jackets and more.

Metallic is still rocking the runway and we can all wear it. Check out HerTimes.com on Sunday for a wardrobe makeover that Sassy Peacock did for Denise Powell, an active mother of three. Bright lime-green print and a little metallic dress up a simple skirt or slacks. Wait until you see her!

We’ll be telling you about more styles at HerTimes.com in the next few months. In fact, send me photos of you wearing your favorite spring styles. You could be featured in the April issue of Her Times. Send to pam.parker@timesnews.com

Check out Her Times in today’s Sunday Times-News. The theme is sparkle, and the great team of cheerleaders from CheerVibe showed us what fun it is to catch the spirit of competitive cheerleading. Read their story here.

There’s much more sparkling this month. Jeans, food, drinks, makeup, hair, sparkling snow on cross country skis, CrossFit and much more! Catch up on all of it at Her Times.

By now, you’ve probably heard that J.C. Penney is getting rid of sales. It’s permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40 percent. That means the sales, coupons and all the other hooey will disappear. I’m all for it, and as a fan of their Worthington, Liz Claiborne and other collections, what’s not to love?

On Feb. 1, the new pricing rolls out and the first and the third Fridays of each month will have further pricing reductions. As a proud J.C. Penney cardholder since college, I am elated. I remember the catalog — it was like a bible for mail shoppers long before the Internet came along. Now, I can just shop without having to spend time organizing coupons.  Next week is the first Friday of the month — so look out shoppers.

I read recently that snakeskin shoes were out, and naturally I just bought a few pair of fake snakeskin last year. But snakes were in the news yesterday in regard to beauty treatments. If you missed the wacky report, I caught it on GMA, and you can see it right here.

The newscast discussed a snake venom facial — a technique that Sonya Dakar uses to take the muscle paralysis idea of Botox to a whole new level to make women feel and look younger. It is not really snake venom, but it duplicates the effects of a snake bite and women swear by it. The GMA report also discussed using human placenta in facials and body creams, but I’d heard of that a long time ago, and I’ve tried some of those creams. In fact, I’ve tried a lot of things in the name of beauty for Her Times at the Erie Times News.

And there is good news for us gals who live in the frosty temperatures like right here in northwestern Pa. Celebs are paying big money to stand inside an ice chamber — at a subzero temp for about three minutes. Hmm it’s 15 degrees outside right now. Who needs a chamber? I’m going outside to shovel for a few minutes. I feel younger already!

This week’s freebie:

I have three pairs of tickets to the Erie Bayhawks game Jan. 28. Email me at pam.parker@timesnews.com to enter a drawing.

Have a great weekend!

Teens know all about powder lifters. I’m sharing this Facebook post and awesome photo from BeautyStat Community Shares & Reviews because I learned about powder lifters from my pal, Kerry Conklin, at Charisma Salon in downtown Erie. Kerry does my nails with CND, which are purple right now in honor of National Prevent Domestic Abuse month, and because I am great buds with Rick Liebel of SafeNet.
Kerry told me all about the new powders that are some kind of wonderful when you put them in your hair — root lifters to infinity and they can be dry shampoos. I’m in. Are you? I’m looking for someone to try this out (free of course) for an article for Her Times. Or I’ll do it myself, but I shouldn’t have all the fun! Send me an email to pam.parker@timesnews.com. You could get a free powder lifter!

If you’re like me, this time of year, it’s tough to get hair to have that healthy, swingy, bouncy look that shines like in the Pantene commercial. Once summer fades and I don’t get out in the sun, that shine disappears. Dianna Noe, columnist for Her Tiimes suggested a good conditioner to get that shine. I loved Clinique hair products, but don’t you know they stopped making them, so I switched to over-the counter Pantene and John Frieda Sheer Blonde, a suggestion from my daughter.
I still didn’t get the shine I wanted. The best thing I discovered for shine isn’t in a conditioner. It’s a spritz after the hair spray. I’m a fan of TRESemme No Frizz Ultra Light Shine Spray (see below for a free bottle!). It’s only about $4 and I buy it at the grocery store. I also like hot oil treatments, also about $4 from Alberto Culver, which apparently is associated with brands Noxzema. Tresemme, St. Ives, Nexxus and more. Who knew!?
Anyway, I’ve tried a lot of sprays and even pinned my hopes on an olive oil organic spray, but it matted my hair down with an unflattering gloss.
If you’d like to try a bottle of Tresemme Shine Spray free, e-mail me at pam.parker@timesnews.com with “Free shine” as the subject line. I’ll pull a name from the entries and give away my fave 4.25 oz bottle of shine spray Friday, Oct 21, for pickup at the Erie Times News. If this works out, I’ll enlist some help from our friends at salons to make Fridays free beauty treat day on this blog. It’s nice to test out some great stuff before we buy an entire bottle. Then, we can share info on what works and what doesn’t.
Shine on everyone.