Looking for that one stop shop for the adults on your Christmas list this year? Novica literally has a little bit of everything and it is all unique. From clothing to the most gorgeous piece of art you will be able to find. Novica works in association with the National Geographic including artist from all over the world in their fascinating shop.

We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.

At the deepest essence of our philosophy, we want to create a bridge between you and the many talented artisans across the globe.

We want you to know about who you’re buying from. We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it.

In the spirit of the Internet, let us bring you together.

NOVICA. The World is Your Market.

I had the opportunity to shop around the Novica website myself and settled on two articles of clothing. Go figure. I chose Cotton Yoga Pants and a Cotton Sundress, both in Ebony. Even though my items came from a different country I received them in under 3 weeks. They were beautifully wrapped and could have been given as a gift just as they had come.

I absolutely adore the yoga pants. They are over the top comfortable. The cotton is so rich, soft and flexible. All of my favorite lounging pants are made of cotton, but these are just that much more comfortable. I can wear these to the grocery store or out to pick up my son from school without one strange look. I wear them to bed, on the boat, to work out, you name it.

Again, the dress is made of that perfect cotton. This dress was my go to dress this summer when it came to throwing something over my bathing suit on a trip to the beach. The dress is not very form fitting, yet there is still something of more of a simple elegance to it. So perfect for a summer or warm fall day.

Each product you click on will also share a brief artist description with you. I think it is too cool to be able to “meet” who handmade and designed your item. So take a look around! There are many ways to search for what you are looking for. I’m headed back there to look at the Holiday Decor and ornaments.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign and received products necessary to facilitate my review.

I’ve been using Adobe Photo Shop for around 2 years now. I started with PSE-Photo Shop Elements and am now using CS4 Adobe Creative Suite 4. There are so many fun ways to edit your photos ranging from simple to crazy and I’m going to share a few of my favorite tips with you.

1. Get rid of that pimple (or other blotchiness on the face)! This is a pretty simple one, but one worth going over. There are two ways I like to do this depending on the size of the pimple, food smear, etc. The first way is with the Spot Healing Brush. I use this for one or two little spots that need repairing. You can adjust the brush size and it will do the rest for you by using proximity match. Now if I’m doing a photo session where a child is supposed to remain clean and they end up with food or dirt all over their face I will use a soft brush to eliminate anything that doesn’t belong. I simply match the color of the skin with my dropper tool closest to where the food appears and then go over with a soft brush at 10-15% opacity. I also use this method with dark under eye circles. See the image below, I took out dark circles and couple small blemishes, but it still remains natural looking.

2. Remove an unwanted object. The easiest and quickest way is by using your Spot Healing Brush, Clone Brush or in some instances your Soft Brush you can remove most unwanted objects. In some cases where the object is larger or in an awkward spot you may have to use a copy and paste method. When you choose your Spot Healing you simply paint over the unwanted area and let Photo Shop work for you or if you choose your clone brush you right click on the area you want a particular area to look like and then you paint over the said area. You have the ability to choose the opacity and brush size depending on what you’re cloning out. If you look at the image below you will see in the top left corner where there is a house peeking above the trees that I cloned out.

3. Turn your photos into your personal style. What might make one photographer stand out among another is their style. Some of this is done right out of the camera and some of it is in the processing. Someone might prefer a more vintage feel and another might prefer their images a little brighter. With Photo Shop Elements you can make your style stand out by trying different black and white techniques, adjusting the brightness, contrast and more.

4. Bump up those curves. I prefer to change my brightness in most cases by using curves instead of the brightening slider. In Photoshop Elements you can achieve this by going to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Color Curves. From there I raise my midtone curves. See the image below for a photo brightened with curves instead of brightness.

5. Brighten your eyes and teeth. This is something you don’t want to get too carried away with by risking an unnatural look. For the eyes I find it easiest to select the eye area with your quick selection brush and then to brighten and contrast that area just a smidge. After reaching the desired look I apply a gaussian blur while the eyes are still selected to make it all blend together. For the teeth you can choose your dodge tool at a very light opacity, about 10 and brush over them once. Personally, I rarely touch the teeth, but you can see in the image below how I adjusted the eyes.

These are just a few of many many ways to adjust and enhance your very own images. I encourage you to use the free trial Adobe offers because I promise you will be hooked after a few short days.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Adobe blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.