Inspired.

It’s Holiday Card Time

It’s that time of the year again when you’ve got to decide whether or not to order holiday cards. Personally I get sad every year receiving fewer and fewer cards in the mail. There’s nothing quite like coming home to a full mailbox of holiday greetings and warm messages from friends letting me know how their year went. E-cards just don’t hold the same weight, literally and figuratively. Living in a time where e-mails are replaced by short tweets or Facebook messages, it’s often easy to forget how nice it can be do get a real card in the mail.

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DIY Baby Halloween

We recently showed you our favorite DIY paper masks for Halloween. But what if you have a newborn and don’t want to throw away money for a costume on year zero? Fortunately all you need to celebrate the holiday with your newborn is an old onesie, a scrap of fabric, and some. Check out Rachel Low’s costume templates to turn any onesie into a fun costume. You can even increase the pattern size with your printer and make a matching sweatshirt to wear out trick-or-treating.

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DIY Paper Halloween Costume

With 85% of textile waste going to landfills every year, Halloween can have a devastating effect on the environment. While it’s tons of fun to pick out a costume and dress up, any family can make a night of crafting DIY costumes, and avoid creating unnecessary waste. Look around for wornout clothes, old sweats, or too-small garments. Many of today’s costumes can be made by hand if you have a sewing machine. Or if you truly want to make something easy, consider making an easy paper mask to wear on top of a colorful outfit. Paper masks can be tons of fun for kids and adults to wear. There are lots of sites that offer outlines for you to print out. Just color them in, add some sequins and glitter and you’re ready to go.  For masquerade style, glue it onto a stick, or for easy-wear just add an elastic band.

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Unreal Candy, Just in time for Halloween

Can a candy bar really be considered healthy? Probably not. But everyone needs a treat now and then. And if you’re going to go down the candy aisle, bear in mind that there is a whole range of candy options from not-so-bad to pure chemical junk. You might as well go for something with minimal junk. Yet when it comes to getting a sugar fix, we don’t always have time to go to the health food store to pick up a favorite like chocolate-covered organic almonds. One company is trying to change all that: Unreal.

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Homemade Mother’s Day Gifts

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, the time of the year to honor the woman who gave us the most. Bamboo Wall Art makes a great Mother’s Day present. Just choose your favorite photo of you and mom and upload. Customize with a variety of sweet designs. In addition to bamboo’s wide-ranging green qualities, Paper Culture plants a tree with each order, so it’s a win win. Click here for details. But perhaps you want to go even more DIY and make something from scratch for mom. Here are some easy ideas that will be sure to put a smile on her face.

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Fantastic magical unbreakable drinking glasses for kids and grown-ups!

Recently, I was having dinner at my friends’ house. They love to cook and I love to eat, so it works out well. They opened the Chardonnay that I had brought and poured it into these cute little glasses. Suddenly, I had one of those Proustian madeleine moments. I vividly remembered sitting at a table at a sidewalk café in Paris drinking Pernod out of those same glasses. We were discussing the brooms the street sweepers use in Paris that look like a witch should be riding on them, except for the fact that they are made out of brightly-colored plastic. Have you seen those brooms? I have never understood why they didn’t change the design to be more like the conventional brooms you get in the U.S. when they started making them out of plastic. I wonder about this every time I see them. [read more]

Funny Fathers!

With Father’s Day right around the bend, this week’s posts will be dedicated to all the rad dads and soon-to-be-fathers out there. One of the things I remember fondly about my dad was his ability to make me laugh at all times. Even when times were tough! And I truly loved laughing with him. I found these videos of fathers and their families (many I’m sure you’ve already seen) and hope they bring a smile or belly laugh to you too:

The joy in all these videos is infectious. And I think it’s so sweet that the children and dads are laughing at the simplest things. I only wish we could have so much fun with our fathers every day!