Your Guide to Shopping St. Charles for Women

Editors Note: This is the final column in a three-part series that offers suggestions for shopping locally in St. Charles. The first article suggested. The second column suggested unique ideas for . This column offers suggestions for the women on your list.

Gifts for the green fashionista

This lady knows she's going to save the world one recycled soda can at a time & look beautiful doing it. This winter make sure she stays warm while installing LED Christmas lights by buying her a pair of environmentally friendly mittens.

Finishing Touches by Charlotte sells mittens and texting gloves made from recycled sweaters by the owner's niece. The gloves have a cozy lining to eliminate the scratchy sweater feeling, and a vintage button set accents the base, adding a sparkly touch, no stylista could resist. As a bonus, pair the gloves with a wool cap, crocheted by a lady who lives in St. Louis County.

COST:  Texting gloves - $12.50, mittens - $20, hats - $16.

Gifts for the sparkly lady

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but why limit yourself to only one friend? Gentlemen, if it glitters, sparkles or shines, your lady wants to be friends. Jewelry is always an easy gift option...to a point. If you've reached the threshold where it's becoming a thoughtless gift, consider this alternative. A jewelry box or stand. It will show your lady you care about all her friends in her jewelry collection.

Finishing Touches & Jansen's Clocks & Gifts has two types of jewelry storage to select. At Finishing Touches, a trendy manequin with spinning hooks can keep even the heaviest necklaces organized.

At Jansen's Clocks, a music box provides a more traditional, yet sweet option. The boxes come in several sizes. The songs vary from hymns, classical and folk music. They can be changed upon request, and a personal photo can slide over the box's front image.

COST: Trendy model - $24.95, music boxes - $20.

Gifts for the crafty bee

Everyone loves this woman because she sews the best quilts and blankets. She has a room dedicated to her hobbies, and she always has several crafty projects in the works.

Help her with her crafty bug this holiday season by visiting Patches Etc, a quilt and button shoppe, located in downtown Main Street for the past 32 years. This fabric and sewing store is any seamstress and craft lady's dream. Fabrics of all colors and styles fill brown shelves that run floor to ceiling. Patterns spin on wire racks, and an entire back corner of the store is dedicated to buttons.

After a few minutes of browsing, I was drawn to the adorable sewing accessories: pin cushions and tape measures. These items are not the average products you'll find at the chain sewing stores. The pin cushions were chickens and flowers. The tape measures had crochet covers that look like lady bugs, chicken heads and ladybugs.

COST: Chicken pincushion - $4, flower pin cushion - $8.50, decorative tape measure - $10.

Gifts for the reading lady

This lady loves curling up on cold winter nights with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. She has her special mug and a book shelf filled with dog-eared favorites. The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a book you can add to her library this holiday season. It will become a favorite within one reading, according to critics.  

Vicki Erwin, owner of Main Street Books, said the 2009 novel is one of her best-selling books for women this holiday season. That's no surprise, as it is ranked the no. 1 book on the Los Angeles Times Best Selling List. The Help follows two African American maids and a white, recent college grad who live in Jackson, MS in the early 1960s. The women cross lines in this novel and challenge the way all mothers, daughters and friends in the southern town view each other. Dreamworks has made the book into a major motion picture, which will release in August 2011.

If you're looking for an unusual gift a reader will still enjoy, you can buy a jigsaw puzzle book at the downtown St. Charles bookstore.  No, this is not a children's books. At first glance, this gift looks like a book – Alice in Wonderland or a Jane Austen book, to be specific. At second glance, the puzzle's box open like a book, it sits on the shelf like a book. Once it's opened, you'll find 500 puzzle pieces instead of pages. The finished puzzle features images from Wonderland or quotes from Jane Austen's books.

COST: The Help, hardback - $24.95, puzzle box -  $14.95

Gifts for the lady in charge

This final gift suggestion will help you show your appreciation for the ladies in your life who aren't related to you: a miniature clock. Alison Riggs, co-owner of the family owned Jansen's Clocks, said the small clocks are one of the most popular items the store sells. They make good gifts for co-workers or a boss, she explained.

The variety is the appeal. One clock is nestled between a silver hair dryer and scissors – a great gift your favorite hair styling lady to set on her work table. Another clock was nestled in a crystal apple with a gold leaf, a good choice for your children's teacher.

COST: $20 to $40, depending on the size and quality.