Thursday 9 July features a very helpful Sun in Cancer sextile Saturn in Virgo aspect for those seeking housewarming, birthday, wedding or baby gifts that have a house- or family-related theme.

If you’ve got time to hit the shops (bricks-and-mortar or online), you could find reasonably priced (both Saturn and Virgo like a bargain) gifts for your home or family (both of which are ruled by Cancer).

Ideally you’ll be looking for gifts that can be useful (Saturn and Virgo again) and lasts for the long-term. Durability is key to Saturn-themed gifts. Saturn is the classic, the antique or the quietly understated type of item. It is not say, a lava lamp or a BBQ apron with rubber breasts. Virgo likes items that DO things. They would not shy away from say, a good Mixmaster, a storage unit, or even a security alarm. (Virgos are kinda pessimistic about others’ intentions.)

Cancerians are sentimental and treasure what they’ve been given so if you managed to find a family-related, long-lasting classic item at a bargain price, well you are truly shopping by the stars!

In one of the coolest, yet potentially-fraught-with-danger services out there, Paypal has created a fun thingy called Do Stuff for Money.

It struck me as a great way to give someone birthday gift money, by doing a favour or job of your choice.

You simply post your offer to your friend via email or on Facebook (where it’s obviously public so nothing rude, thanks) plus the task (wash my car, kiss me – whatever you want) and the amount you’d pay for it with Paypal.

It’s – potentially – an inoffensive way to give someone birthday, moving-out-of-home, 21st, Christmas, wedding or just “mad” money in general as a gift, without making them feel bad about accepting it.

If you’re a clever shopper (ahem, like me!), you’ll be looking for gift-buying opportunities all year long.

No? Don’t think you can afford to? Think again.

I was surfing around and saw some groovy laptop bags  the other day and noticed they were drastically reduced because they were deemed a ”discontinued colour”.

So it got me testing out magic phrases like ”discontinued”, “discontinued colour”, “end of stock”, “end of season” or “end of line” plus “sale” into Google to see what came up. 

I have my brother’s birthday coming up so I won’t mention what category I added to the search box, but it came up with a range of fantastic gift ideas for shirts (oh, damn) that are at excellent bargain-hunting prices.

Voila! You can save up to 90% on items that the online retailers are busting to shed their warehouses of.

And I know HE doesn’t care if the colour is now considered end-of-season.

Oh boy! I want to work for Oprah Winfrey!

As part of the celebrations for her 55th birthday, the undisputed queen of TV talkshow programs has taken her employees and their families to a popular Spanish tourist attraction in Barcelona, (keep in mind that the Oprah show is filmed in Chicago, USA) where they’ll spend three nights before going on a 10-day Mediterranean cruise around Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta.

She has – count ‘em – 1,700 employees so with all of them taking at least two other people (spouse/partner and an incredibly lucky child), that’s already 5,100 people she’s taking on holidays. In 2005, she took all of them on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.

Apart from the fact she’s a gazillionaire and can afford it, why, from an astrological point of view is Oprah so generous?

Oprah has her Ascendant and Moon in Sagittarius. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion (hence her weight issues), generosity (well, hello!), and optimism. She lives life with gusto and her enthusiasm is palpable. Her Jupiter in Gemini (communication, talking, presenting) is in her 6th house of work and health. She is one mighty generous employer and they love her for it. She has her Sun (your basic personality), Mercury (what you think about) and Venus (what you love) in Aquarius (friends and group activities) in her 2nd house of income. She loves what she can do with money, thinks about what she can do with money (did you ever see the episode where every audience member got a new car?) and makes money from just being herself.  And the trips overseas? Sagittarius rules travel.

There are a lot of people – my sister is one of them – who’s prepared to give a birthday gift, but doesn’t like the commercialism of Christmas gift-giving.

In 2004, Kirsten paid for a pig in a Third World country for Dad as his Christmas gift (yes he is an Aquarius, but since he has a few planets in Capricorn, he’ll never be as hippie-ish as she’d wish). So while he wasn’t particularly thrilled that he’d bought Babe for someone else, if you want your gifts to DO something for people (regardless of your Sun sign), there are heaps of options, with Oxfam being one of the best-known organisations for helping to support people in developing countries.

Another I recently discovered is Goodshop.com. At this fantastic US website, which lists more than 1,000 stores, up to 30% of your gift purchase will go to your favorite cause. It lists stores specialising in arts, crafts and hobbies through to travel and everything in between. 

You simply select your chosen charity (I entered the Salvation Army as an experiment) and selected the Gifts & Flowers category. There you’ll find all the websites listed with their donation amounts, with the highest in that category (6-10%) belonging to gift retailer Uncommon Goods. In the Computer Hardware & Electronics section (hey, techie gifts appeal to many Aquarians!), buying toner from 123 Inkjets will create a 14% donation of your purchase price.

It really is the gift that keeps on giving.

The latest personalized gifts survey results are in! A new survey by It’s In The Stars on personalized gifts has found the following:

* The top 5 most popular gift occasions on which to give a personalized gift are birthdays, christenings, new babies, anniversaries and Mothers Day

* Jewellery, day of birth and art items are the 3 most popular types of personalized gifts

* The top 3 ways to personalize a gift are by name, day of birth and photography

* Most personalized gifts are given to partners, friends and children

* About 40% of personalized gifts are bought online with Gen Xers the most likely to buy from personalized gift websites

* Most people spend $50 or less on personalized gifts – Baby Boomers spend the most

* Over 60% have given two or more personalized gifts in the last year

* Most people would wait up to 7 days to get something personalized AND delivered to them or the recipient

* Gen Ys are the most likely to make use of a gift wrapping service and to give a gift certificate so the recipient could select their own personalized gift

* Cancerians and Taureans tie as the best gift-givers, voted as the Sun signs known for giving gifts that delight the recipient

For more details visit http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com/verve/_resources/personalized-gifts-survey-findings.pdf

Is there a tougher time of the year to be born than Christmas-time? I know four people born within a couple of days of Christmas Day. My friends Philip and Rod on the 24th, my favourite old flatmate, Lisa on the day itself, and my cousin Ian on the 27th.

All of them say that by sharing their birthday with an important celebration like Christmas, that they a) used to get only one present from each person (“this is for your birthday AND Christmas”), b) that their friends were never around to spend the day with them, c) that their birthday party was scheduled earlier in December or moved to January and d) that it felt like an anti-climax.

Capricorns tend to feel a little negative about life, and those born in the first 10 days of Capricorn, get it worst than most! Think about it – they have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day taking up precedence over their birthdays.

Perhaps not surprisingly – although it’s not especially fair – thanks to it falling at the finance-draining time of Christmas, people certainly don’t spend twice as much on their one combination gift. And I don’t even want to get into how parents explain Santa only brings one present when he HAS to know it’s their birthday, as well!

Ian’s mum (my aunt), gets around this by permanently celebrating his birthday on 17 December so he has at least had half a chance of people remembering and being able to attend his birthday parties.

I wondered what the other “challenging” days of the year might be to have a birthday.

My guess is it’s also difficult to have a birthday falling on 31 December (everyone’s too busy celebrating to remember), 1 January (too hungover to remember), 14 February (busy celebrating Valentines Day), the 2nd Sunday of any year (sharing it with Mothers Day), around the June long weekend (everyone’s away), 4 July (it  could be overlooked in the US), 31 October (your birthday isn’t the only scary thing going on) and especially in Melbourne, Australia on the first Tuesday in any year – they’re all too busy celebrating the Melbourne Cup.

On what other days are people all too likely to forget or downplay it’s your birthday because it coincides with something else?

Well, now I’ve seen everything! I knew that websites existed to help you raise money for charities, to pay off your credit cards and to fund special interest trips so you can say, “this one time, at band camp…” but here’s one which also blatantly lets you raise money for birthday presents! Yours – or someone else’s!

Fundable is basically a gift wish list – but instead of listing various items you’d like to receive for your birthday, it’s money. Not sure how well that would go down with some people but Mum, in case you’re reading, my favourite colour is green and a size 100 or larger.

One of my favourite actresses, Natalie Portman, must have really enjoyed 16th century dress-ups after being in The Other Boleyn Girl, as she has just bought herself a baronial-style mansion in LA.

Going for a reasonable-for-LA $US3.25 million, I was intrigued to notice that it was kind of olde-worlde (can’t you just see Eric Bana chasing her down the corridors wearing his Henry VIII costume).

Natalie’s a Gemini, turning 28 on 9 June.

She has Venus in Cancer. And as Venus rules your decorating taste, a typical Cancerian Venus likes to pull up the drawbridge and close the curtains against the hordes. They want a homey-home and one in which they can bring up a sea of children and to have their family over (they’re not big into partying). They also like homes with history – or, at least, look faux historic. (Built in the 1930s, it’s still standing. which makes it truly ancient for LA.) The only thing that was missing for a typical Gemini bookworm is rows upon rows of bookshelves.

You also look at the Moon sign for what you need in life. Natalie has Moon in Virgo which rules work and health so she’ll love having that huge kitchen to cook her vegetarian dishes in and store her endless supply of vitamins. For all its drama, the house is actually kind of modest, which suits anyone with a Virgo Moon just fine. They actually don’t like being prima donna-ish and are irked by show-offs. The same goes for their homes.

Her new home is rather close to that of Leo Sean Penn, who she’s supposed to be secretly seeing. Sean has Moon in Cancer and Venus in Virgo which complements Natalie’s planets nicely. If they’re really a couple, he’ll love hanging out there, too.

And when Natalie’s Saturn return occurs in December 2009, I think she’ll be spending a LOT of time there, away from pesky paparazzi who may be chasing her and Sean…

If you enjoy spending at least some of your weekend shopping for gifts, this weekend is probably not the best for it.

It features a New Moon in Taurus, which in itself is OK – Taureans love their possessions – but which is going to get activated by the Mercury square Neptune aspect (in force until Sunday morning), and then be followed up by a crushingly brutal Mars square Pluto combination lasting until early Monday.

So what this points to is a “need” (the Moon is what you need) around money, finances, posessions etc. You may “need” to go shopping for a birthday gift. 

Mercury (thoughts, communication) squares Neptune (glamour, illusion, escapism) suggests that you could be severely deluded if you think that antique in the market stall is real, the bag on eBay is a genuine Prada, the gizmo actually does what it suggests etc. Lies, fantasies, wishful thinking, confusion are all typical of a Saturday afternoon at the shops – and then of course, there’s this aspect.

Then the real kicker is Mars (aggression, anger, energy, drive) square Pluto (hidden secrets, power, control, taboo). You could be boxed into a very uncomfortable corner, made to agree to something not in your favour or bullied in a thoroughly unpleasant confrontation.

Since shop assistants aren’t allowed to carry on like this, your weekend could go like this: You want to go shopping for something/anything, so you buy something useless, flimsy, or unreliable, and then you get into a big fight about your spending habits which you’ve been trying to avoid or they finally discover your credit card statement. Or something similar.

This might be one weekend not to go shopping…