Want to spice up your sex life again? As if you didn’t know by now, men are notorious for being visually stimulated. Why not give that man of yours something worth looking at?

You can find out about the hottest and kinkiest clothing from any grocery store magazine, but just because some model or celebrity wears it doesn’t mean it will do anything for your fella. You can slap on 12 inch heels and edible underwear, but if it’s not what you love to wear during sex, will it really make you feel sexy? Here are our favorite things to wear to really get our man’s motor running.

The Workout Look

Skinny sweatpants and a tight tee or tank top is about as down-home and casual as it gets. Men love the simplicity of this sporty look. Make the t-shirt loose fitting to flatter more curvaceous women. They can highlight their legs and hide most of the unwanted fats with the looseness of the tees. Men who are into sports love to see women wearing what they wore every day back in college or high school. It gives them pleasure to jump in to those sweats and tear that tee to pieces. This outfit will only cost you around $50. You can also add some spice with this outfit by wearing a simple necklace and ring.

Simple Sexiness

Uncomplicated, yet alluring dresses will do the trick more often than not. This type of dress never fails in grabbing your man’s attention straight to bed. The beads, spikes, and other glittery embellishments are not present here, thus making the simpler look the one most men want. This is the outfit that will let the curves do the talking. These dresses can be had for $50 to $150 online and in boutiques.

The Girl Next Door

Who said jeans and a white tank is out? Women wearing denim gets your man wanting you more. White tanks are a perfect match to any denim jeans you wear. They are casual and hot and even effortlessly look great on you. Tight jeans are still fashionably in but not to all sizes. The overall outfit ranges from $100-150 in your local department store.

The Power Look

Surprisingly, men still think that women wearing a pencil skirt and classic heels are sexy. Short skirts that bare just enough to let men’s imaginations run wild matched with a pair of pumps, will make it impossible for your man to look away. This corporate look depicts power and superiority that leaves most men drooling and wanting more out of you. This outfit articulates respect and control, yet still conveys hotness and flirtation. You can grab this outfit in $100-200 range.

Down to the Basics

Pretty panties always do the trick. Give yourself a treat while buying exotic undies. Make sure you don’t mention them to your man and leave the surprise hidden until the moment is right. The two of you are alone and your guy is seductively peeling your clothes off when he suddenly gets stunned with your sexy new undies. The look on his face will be priceless. Most guys love something in black or crimson, with a lace and silky smoothness. Its smooth surfaces give a better friction and it’s easy to remove. Any of these can be had for $20 and up!

Trying things in a different and more alluring way in hopes of capturing your guys attention will not only boost your self-confidence about your body’s worth, but it will add some fuel to your sexual fire. Start organizing your closet and learning what you may already own that will make your man crave you in a new way. Don’t stick to one style either. If you decide to go with the casual sweat pants and tee look on a Monday, put on that tight dress for Tuesday. Variety is the spice of life so experiment with different colors, fabrics, and designs to make you feel more sexy. Because when you feel good about yourself, your man will feel good. Real good!

By Katherine Sharma

Ever since Nancy Drew, I’ve liked female sleuths in mystery fiction, especially because they were once a relatively rare breed. Now women mystery-solvers–police detectives, medical examiners, journalists, psychiatrists and detecting psychics–proliferate in publishing.

In fact, the 2015 Edgar Award nominees included two good examples. Karin Slaughter, known for her Will Trent crime-solving bestsellers, was nominated for her first stand-alone effort, Coptown, about two disparate police women, one defying her privileged background by entering the force and one out to prove herself to a family with a police background. They become uneasy partners in 1974 Atlanta on the hunt for a serial killer targeting cops.

Another finalist for the 2015 Edgar, as well as the Mary Higgins Clark Award, was Invisible City, a debut work by Julia Dahl. Protagonist Rebekah Roberts, whose mother abandoned her as an infant to return to her Hasidic faith, moves to New York to pursue a journalism career, also putting her near Brooklyn’s Hasidic community, where her mother might still be livin. Covering the story of a murdered Hasidic woman, Rebekah ends up immersing herself in her mother’s secretive, unwelcoming world to get at the truth.

Of course, I put both books on my bookshelf, but, as I did so, I noticed titles featuring favorite female detectives of the past. I think they’re worth a visit from modern mystery fans. I mean, who doesn’t love Agatha Christie’s sharp-eyed old spinster Miss Marple? Join the village gossips in A Murder Is Announced, a deftly plotted piece of misdirection, to appreciate her. While you’re “across the pond,” drop in on Harriet Vane, the mystery novelist extraordinaire paired with dashing Lord Peter Wimsey in Dorothy Sayers’ Gaudy Night, sometimes called “the first feminist mystery novel.” And of course, re-read P.D. James’ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, where England’s mystery queen championed her first woman detective way back in the 1970s. To see the other 2015 Edgar Award nominees and winners, go to http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html

ABOUT  KATHERINE SHARMA

Katherine Sharma’s family roots are in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. But after her early childhood in Texas, she has moved around the country and lived in seven other states, from Virginia to Hawaii. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She has also traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia, and makes regular visits to family in India. After receiving her bachelor’s degree. in economics and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Katherine worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for more than 15 years. She then shifted into management and marketing roles for firms in industries ranging from outdoor recreation to insurance to direct marketing. Although Katherine still works as a marketing consultant, she is now focused on creative writing.

Starting a conversation is difficult for most people. Here’s some key pointers to get your next conversation smoothly underway:

1) Smile. We know it’s simple, but Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People recommended smiling because of its power.

When a stranger approaches us, our minds use nonverbal signals like facial expressions to analyze if the person is a threat. A smile communicates you are a friendly and safe person to talk to.

2) Ask open-ended questions. If you don’t already know what an open-ended question is, it’s a question that elicits a response beyond yes or no. It puts bait on the ground for any shy creature to devour. Open-ended questions are a great way to start a conversation and get the person talking without you having to say much. Close-ended questions on the other hand, can be answered with a yes or no, and kill a conversation quicker than it began.

You can ask good open-ended questions by thinking about the room your conversational partner has for a response. Begin your questions with “What” and you’ll have the person talking with little effort. Examples include: “What brings you to this event?” “What’s the meaning behind that necklace?” and “What do you like about this party so far?”

3) Be funny. Don’t become a comedian, but a little humor is magic to any conversation. Humor quickly builds rapport with people. It connects people together.

Humor is very objective, but it helps to know that most humor in conversations is not funny. Notice what you and other people laugh at to see most stuff isn’t even funny. How can this be?We laugh in conversation mostly due to a release of tension. Humor isn’t an emotion, but a release of emotion. Look at what you joke over, learn from it, then replicate it.

4) Make people comfortable. Your smile, open-ended questions, and humor will make people comfortable, but use this fourth tip to put all three pieces of advice on steroids. Going into a start of a conversation with the intent to make people comfortable brings with you a sense of friendliness people pick up on. It’s hard to describe, but do what you can to release people’s discomfort.

If a person seems irritated when you approach them, there’s no point ignoring it. Use it as a conversation starter. Comment on it and ask if there’s something you can do for the person.

Here’s one simple example: “Hey. I noticed you were annoyed about the store being sold out of chicken. I was after some as well. What’s some good substitutes?” Merely addressing the issue can make it vanish instead of having the problem simmer throughout the conversation because you failed to face it at the beginning.

If you begin with a smile, ask an open-ended question, say something funny, and make people comfortable, you’ll be surprised at the effect your social skills will have on people. It will seem like magic.

Have you ever wondered how the diamond engagement ring came to be the most popular stone for couples? And where this trend came from? 

For centuries, a diamond engagement ring has been the ultimate symbol of everlasting love and commitment, and it’s unmatched strength and beauty has made it the most popular choice. However, when did this “marriage” of love and diamonds begin?

The Romans are believed to be the first to wear an engagement ring on the third finger of the left hand. There are a few theories as to the reasons for this choice of finger, including one that suggests it is because there is a vein from the heart that extends down to this finger, and hence, this finger leads straight to the heart. The tradition of using a diamond in an engagement ring is believed to have originated in 1477, when the Archduke Maximillian of Austria presented a diamond engagement ring to Mary of Burgundy.

It was after this proposal that the use of diamonds in engagement rings became a popular trend among the rich and famous. However, it wasn’t until 1870 and the discovery of several diamond mines in South Africa that diamonds became more available and affordable to the general public. As supply increased, declining costs allowed many members of the public to invest in a diamond engagement ring and sales flourished. It was in the 1930s that the diamond trend really took off, even though many were suffering the effects of the Great Depression. Even though rubies, red in color, signified love, diamonds became synonymous with eternity.

Since then, a diamond engagement ring has been the standard. In 1947 De Beers launched its famous slogan, “A Diamond is Forever,” which stimulated even more saleswith the implied durability of a diamond going hand-in-hand with the idea that marriage is forever. By 1965, 80 percent of all new brides in the United States wore one. In 1992, the average cost of a diamond engagement ring was $1,500, but today, the average cost is closer to $5,000. As demand for a diamond’s sparkle and beauty has increased, the diamond has become the universal symbol of a man’s commitment to the woman he loves.

THE WOMAN

Edie Falco grew up in a very supporting and artistic household. Her father was in advertising and was a jazz drummer on the side. Her uncle was a novelist, playwright and poet and an English professor at Virginia Tech. But her biggest influence into the world of performance came from her mother, an actress who Edie often performed with in community theatre.

With an ambitious taste for challenging roles, Falco began her career with memorable film work in Hal Hartley’s The Unbelievable Truth in 1989 and Trust in 1991. She co-starred in Nick Gomez’s gritty crime drama Laws of Gravity in 1992 and had a small speaking role in Woody Allen’s 1994 film, Bullets Over Broadway.

In 1997, Falco began earning kudos for her performance as Officer Diane Whittlesey on the HBO prison drama Oz; and she stayed with the show for two years. In 1999, she landed her star-making role as Mafia wife Carmela Soprano in the acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos. She was awarded an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for her work on the show in 1999. Edie has won four Emmys, two Golden Globes and five Screen Actors Guild Awards in her career. Falco is the second actor to have won Emmys for lead acting in both a Drama and a Comedy series (the first actor to do so was Carroll O’Connor).

In 2009, she signed a deal with Showtime to star in the new drama Nurse Jackie. The show premiered in June 2009. After 7 seasons, Nurse Jackie is coming to an end this Sunday (June 28th). Falco admits that Nurse Jackie will be a tough act to follow. As the show’s central figure, she had a lot of sway for the first time in her career over how things were run. She would have been happy to continue with the show, if the decision had been up to her.

“We created a work environment on this show that is unrivaled in my life for the kindness and respect that we had,” she says. “It was not by accident. It worked for us, and it was magical.”

HER CAUSE

While still single, Edie had the overwhelming urge to raise children, so she decided to adopt and raise two wonderful kids. She is very passionate about children and donates to AmberWatch, a site that raises awareness for missing children.

Animals are also incredibly important to her, as she is a huge supporter of PETA and Animal Haven—an animal adoption site.

Her Broadway background keeps her involved in the world of the performing arts and she is a regular contributor to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

By Katherine Sharma

I’m sure you’ve noticed that self-help books are frequently best sellers. Just a glance at The New York Times’ current nonfiction best sellers finds 10% Happier by Dan Harris (how the co-anchor of Nightline used meditation to improve his life) and Thrive by Arianna Huffington (personal well-being as a measure of success, along with money and power).

I’ve read my share of self-help books, but I’ve thrown out (and forgotten) more career, health, relationship, and spiritual guides than I’ve kept. So I began to wonder which entries in the self-help genre have stood the test of time and may merit a permanent place on my bookshelf — and maybe yours. There are lots of recommendations out there, but when I combine them all together, I come up with two winners per pundits, popular acclaim and my own experience: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Harvard MBA Stephen Covey, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by super-salesman Dale Carnegie, published in the 1930s and still going strong.

Other consistently championed books are The Power of Now by philosopher Eckhart Tolle, Man’s Search for Meaning by concentration-camp survivor Viktor Frankl, Awaken the Giant Within by motivational guru Anthony Robbins, The Road Less Traveled by psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, bringing the “law of attraction” of earlier writers to new audiences. So if you find yourself troubled by basic questions — who am I, what do I really want, and how do I get from where I am now to where I want to be — check out these books. For more top-rated self-help guides, consider other picks by sources as varied as Amazon, Reader’s Digest, and Elle magazine.

ABOUT  KATHERINE SHARMA

Katherine Sharma’s family roots are in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. But after her early childhood in Texas, she has moved around the country and lived in seven other states, from Virginia to Hawaii. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She has also traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia, and makes regular visits to family in India. After receiving her bachelor’s degree. in economics and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Katherine worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for more than 15 years. She then shifted into management and marketing roles for firms in industries ranging from outdoor recreation to insurance to direct marketing. Although Katherine still works as a marketing consultant, she is now focused on creative writing.

Today, although it is impossible to say that there is gender equality, there are certainly less strict gender roles than there were fifty years ago. Women have more freedom (to a certain extent, and only in certain places, mind you) and more is expected from them relationship-wise. Back then, one could argue that it was the woman’s role to wait around for a man to approach her. Today, both sexes have the power to make the first move. However, making the first move is easier said than done. Sometimes, you’re pretty sure he’s into you, so for the most part, your fear is a little misplaced. Other times, however, it’s a complete shot in the dark, in which case you might just give up on the idea of asking him out or saying the first “I love you” altogether. But a good relationship does not remain static!

What would Amelia Earhart do? Besides being one of the earliest supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment, and a member of the National Woman’s Party (basically, a feminist in her own right, so you can just imagine what’d she say about women making the first move), she set a record for the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Her trip was reportedly fourteen hours long, and she faced harsh weather conditions and mechanical problems- but she never gave up! It just goes to show that no matter what lies in the way, or what consequences may await, sometimes you have to take that leap of faith to reap the benefits. In fact, Earhart did say herself, “The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

By Brianna Porter

(From Never Liked It Anyway, the number one destination for all things break-ups and bounce-back! It’s the place to buy, sell and tell all things ex! Sell your breakup baggage, tell your story and join the community of rock stars bouncing back better than ever! )