If you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or just about any other national holiday in the month of December, chances are that you’ve got a wallet stuffed with gift cards. They’re as useful as currency, but unfortunately consumers tend not to spend them as carefully as their own cash, sometimes missing out on good deals or forgetting about the gift cards entirely in all the hustle and bustle life can bring. This article is aimed to help all of you post-holiday shoppers get the most bang for your gift card buck and ring in the new year with high style.

Many American families have been hit by hard financial times in recent years, and being fashionable in these times can be tough. Welcome to the “Recessionista Era,” where fashionable young women are using entrepreneurial skills and killer instincts to not only purchase high style items on the cheap, but start their own designer lines as well.

Boots have always been a staple for the fall and winter wardrobe, but this season they are back with a vengeance, making their style statement more prevalent than ever. While for the past few seasons we’ve seen the surge of the Ugg brand’s pull-on suede and wool numbers, this trend is slowly fading, and rougher, edgier styles have hit top priority in the market.

When hearing the word Kikini, one may think of a tropical island paradise and if so, then you already have something in common with its founders. While Kikini may not offer poolside drinks and island breezes, it does fill a niche in the market of online dating; it is a site created for college singles only, ages 18 to 24.

When walking around NOVA’s Woodbridge campus, you may come across a bevy of stylish students, at times dressed head to toe in the latest trends, sometimes painfully so. But if you keep looking, you’re likely to come across Heather Kirkpatrick, a NOVA sophomore and fresh face in the ever-changing fashion industry, walking the halls or helping students as part of her job with the Student Ambassadors.

Coco Chanel once famously quoted, “Before leaving the house, a lady should stop, look in the mirror and remove one piece of jewelry.” For the 2010 fall season, designers took this mantra to heart, paring down not only accessories, but entire collections.

While the weather is still beach-worthy, autumn is slowly creeping in, and students are trickling back into the busy schedule of classes, clubs, sports and social life. But even with this busy schedule, we can all take quick and easy steps to buy or use items from our closets to push the envelope and showcase the new season’s trends.