Have a look at our new Romantic Gifts section.  It’s got everything you need from jewellery to books to notes of love.

We love The 2 Book.  If you believe life was meant to be shared, here are priceless stories, ideas, insights, questions and adventures that will touch your heart and lift your relationship to new heights.

We also love the With Love notes. Each box contains 30 individual (one for each day of the month) pop open notes of love that you can tuck into his lunch, under his pillow or in the pocket of his work pants.  Use your imagination and let him know how much you care.

Our Blokes Boxes are a perfect Valentine’s gift for your guy and will have them instantly wishing that the gift they got you was a) more expensive and b) bigger! Pizza Nite will have them creating their own pizza masterpiece in no time at all. Or how about the Chunky Hot Choc Box complete with decadent hot chocolate, mug and chocolate coated strawberries (to share of course!)?

Let’s face it – regardless of how long you may have been married, sometimes men need a little help in the “marriage” department. Stuff Every Husband Needs To Know is a great gift to give either your husband or husband to be and will guarantee that next Valentine’s Day will be even more perfect than this one!

Or to show just how much you really don’t mind how often he plays golf (despite anything said to the contrary in the past), try one of our Golf Gifts. From a Yoda Driver Cover to Novelty Golf Balls – he will be off to the golf club before you can say “I Love You”.

And the most important tip of all - know that a bloke will be happy with whatever gift you give them as long as there is beer or food involved as part of the gift giving process!

- The fabulous, useful and downright fun products we have in our store, new stuff, specials and deals;

- Amazing and equally useful cooking tips and information, many of which involved beer or barbeques, and in some cases, both;

- Information on your health and looking after yourself (some of which included barbeques, beer or both) and a comprehensive guide to health and resources for blokes;

- Tips of etiquette and how to behave under certain circumstances; and

- Fashion tips, faux pas and how tos.

So, that’s what we’ve given you.

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you want to read?

Are there any topics of interest?  More specifics in a certain area of your life?

What do you want?

This doesn’t mean that he has to visit a pink salon surrounded by chicks gaggling about issues with their boyfriends (in fact, there are many guy salons set up now complete with beer and all-sport televisions).  Instead you can just get him a manicure set and let him do it himself.

One of those handy little grooming packs is the way to go for a guy who’s trying to cut back and clean up – literally.  Seeing as we all have nails that grow and continuously trap random bits of dirt, you can be sure it’s going to get a pretty good workout.

To the rescue from Gifts For Blokes is this four piece manicure set consisting of nail clippers, file and nail cleaning tool, scissors and tweezers. 

At just $24.95, it’s a no brainer kind of present.  You’ll save him having to hunt around for a biro pen or paper scissors and you can rest assured of what won’t be lurking at the tip of that pencil.

And check out some free tips on men’s manicures here – you’ll be glad he did!

We’ve taken pity on the blokes and come up with some tried and true strategies to help them get over a hangover quickly.

Blokes make sure you read this!

1.  The top tip is to take lots of water to aid rehydration.  In fact, if you can remember to drink water before you go to bed after staggering home, it can actually help limit the effects of the morning hangover.

2.  Avoid painkillers.  They help in the short term but only stress your liver further.

3.  Sleep it off.  Sometimes that is the best answer.  Just remember that it won’t move the alcohol out of your system any faster so don’t jump in the car when you wake up.  Sleep just blots out the hangover; it doesn’t eliminate it.

4.  Try a sports drink.  These will help balance the electrolytes in your body.

5.  Eat a banana.  It helps soothe an upset stomach and contains magnesium and potassium which will both help ease headache and dehydration.

Remember that while a ‘hair of the dog’ sounds good and some blokes swear by it, all it will do is delay your recovery.  Should we talk about not getting into this situation in the first place? 

OK, I can hear you from here!

The only question is what toppings should you order?  What does your bloke like?

The good old Aussie pizza has stood the test of time but sometimes it’s worth trying something new, especially if you are making your own.

Here are some ideas for pizza toppings that your bloke might like to try. 

• Juicy prawns, baby spinach, red capsicum, sweet chilli sauce, a sprinkle of chilli, mozzarella and authentic tomato sauce.
• Meatlovers will love BBQ sauce, beef sausages, red onion, pastrami, shredded bacon, sliced tomato and mozzarella cheese.
• Mozzarella, olives, red onions, sliced mushrooms, capsicum, feta cheese and basil leaves.
• Diced tomato, basil, tuna in springwater, garlic and olives.
• Prawns, sundried tomatoes, feta cheese and rocket leaves.

Don’t forget to get your bloke a Scizza which is a specially designed pizza cutting scissor.  Very clever and it makes a lot less mess than the traditional roller cutter.

What is particularly interesting about the tool is that the bottom blade has a spatula like finish to it so that it slides under the pizza and the blades cut through the pie without touching tabletops or cooking platters.

So, anyone for pizza?

What were our top selling gifts this Christmas?  Here is the list.  Was your bloke lucky enough to be given something from this list of goodies? 

1.  Bamboozlers – puzzles to keep him occupied on holidays.

2.  Rubiks Notepad Cube – this was a clever gift for those hard to buy for men.

3.  Doctor Who Tardis Floating Pen – a great Kris Kringle choice.

4.  Scruble Cube – scrabble and Rubik’s cube blended together to create a real challenge.

5.  Swing Tennis – a family favourite.  It gets Dad up and playing with the kids.

6.  Stig Soap on a Rope – who doesn’t love Stig?

7.  Emergency Back Up Flask Set – this is clever, funny and useful too.

8.  Nautical Beanies – not that we need them right now unless your bloke is in the northern hemisphere; these beanies were a smash hit.

9.  Plaited Leather Bracelet – for the cool blokes.

10.  The Bloke’s Box – BBQ Essentials – now this one we DO need now.  I hope there are lots of blokes and their families enjoying a great BBQ this holidays.

So there you have it.  Some surprises, some regulars, some smash hits.  No matter what your bloke was given this year, I hope he loved it.

You could get yourself coordinated with our latest Bonus Buy - a “My car is my wife life” or the “Golf is my wife life“ T-shirt for the discounted price of $24.95, and receive a matching greeting card for nix.

You could then get yourself a matching stubby holder, now on sale at $7.95, so you’re completely coordinated.

If you’re taking a break while the kids are on holidays and they are boring you with their “I’m bored” statements, a set of Bendominos – dominos with a twist – should take the edge off and keep everyone occupied.

The alternative would be to don some Star Wars Fold-up Headphones in either Darth Vadar or Stormtrooper style, and drown out all that background noise.  These are now on special at $46.99!

Or our Red Lenticular Clock, where the numbers appear to move around as you move around the room, will keep you and the kids otherwise amused, and allow you to give some definite time frames on activities.  The bright red will also brighten up the room and put some smiles on faces.  It is now reduced from $84.95 to $76.95

Want more? You can view all our current specials at www.giftsforblokes.com.au/specials.html.

Remember also to sign up for the Bonus Buys Alerts!

In the spirit of poking some gentle holiday fun at the blokes we love, have a look at this clip.  I would guess that even if your man isn’t a chef, he couldn’t possibly be this bad.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you have finished laughing at his antics, we’d better remind you that most of our favourite or famous chefs are men.  I wonder how that ever happened?

Neckwear for men can be traced back to Chinese warriors around 200 B.C who wore knotted scarves around their neck.  However the ties in which we are more familiar are only fairly young in comparison.

Neckties descend directly from the cravat, which were worn by the Croatian mercenaries in French service in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).  The name cravat is a combination of the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates.

The garment started a trend within Europe and by the late 17th century, men were wearing cravats tied in place by strings and tied in a bow.   Made from tufts and bows of ribbon, lace, and linen with almost 100 recognisable knots, they were a fashion statement within themselves.

By the end of the 19th century the “modern” tie emerged as the winner in the style stakes and has been in vogue ever since.  From the beginning of the 20th century, we have seen the rise and fall of the height of ties as well as the increase and decrease in the width.

Prior to the World War II, ties were worn shorter than they are today.  Around 1944, ties started to become wider (up to 13cm) and more extravagant in design.  The typical length at this time was around 120 cm.  The wearing of ties started to decrease in the 60s and 70s however after the resurgence in the 80s, they remain as popular as ever.

Gifts For Blokes carries a range of ties which are vibrant and fresh.  They are definitely a great way to dress up a suit, whether for a day at the races, a wedding, a gala evening or just to give the everyday work suit a fresh, stylish new look.  And from the long history of the tie, we can tell that they won’t be going out of style anytime soon.

The year seems to have slid by faster than you can say “Gifts For Blokes” but boy did we have plenty of blokey fun along the way.  We introduced plenty of new gifts and even had a competition or two.  And this year we promise you all this and more!

Cooking for blokes was one particular favourite topic of ours.  From cooking classes to cooking vegetables, pub grub to barbecuing the sausages – it was enough to make our mouths water over and over again.  We also managed to throw in our favourite subject – cooking with beer!

We even brought up seemingly unmanly topics like spring cleaning, romance and even weddings (yes you heard us correctly!).  Talk about broadening our horizons!

While the staff at Gifts For Blokes are busy researching some great new topics to share with you in 2012, we thought we would take a moment to wish all of our readers and shoppers, a wonderful and prosperous new year and beyond.