Valentine's Day Ecards

Good Tuesday fair folks! How was your weekend? I had a fairly eventful one, spending Friday evening killing and cooking 6 live crabs (I was so proud of myself for not getting too squeamish about it and for cooking a pretty bomb chili crab) and then spending the weekend itself chilling and celebrating the New Year with my favorite munchkins of all time- aka the niece and nephew.

Now that CNY has come and gone, I am already looking toward the next Hallmark holiday that we can celebrate... Valentine's Day!

Despite getting my heart broken before and despite being completely single, I am still a deep romantic at heart. However, even the romantic in me has to practice my gag reflex at the over usage of traditional sticky- sweet holiday romantic expression. "I wurve you"... "Be Mine"... "Let's grow old together"...

Enter Valentine's Day Ecards from someecards. Acerbic, true and so very hilarious, who wouldn't want to receive the sweet-ish sentiment of " I want to grow old and disgusting with you."

  

 And there's plenty more to choose from! Enjoy!

Holiday Cheer: Letters to Santa

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to tag along with my brother's family as they took their kids to the City of Mission Viejo's annual holiday fair where Santa made an appearance, on a fire engine no less. The excitement on my darling little nephew's face was just so precious.

I don't remember any of these Santa shenanigans from my childhood because I didn't grow up believing in Santa. To me, he was just another character that came about during the Christmas season, like Rudolph, or Frosty the Snowman. I was never told specifically that Santa wasn't real (or maybe I was? I don't remember) nor was I told that he was. If I am not wrong, this was a conscious decision on the part of Mama T.

When I tell some people this, they feel sad for me, thinking that I missed out on some kind of magical tradition, or right of passage that every child goes through. On the contrary, I don't feel like I missed out on anything. I mean I still grew up loving Christmas and I still enjoyed the magic of the season... just maybe in a more adult realistic way I guess.

But then again, one could counter-argue and say you don't know what you've missed.

Either way, whether you still believe in Santa, used to believe in Santa or never believed in him, you can still get in the holiday mood by writing your letter to Jolly Ole St. Nicholas- real or imagined.

Download these free templates from Martha Steward and get cracking on your wish list and mail it to the North Pole... or leave it lying around for one of his "helpers" to find! ;)

Letter to Santa from a Boy 
Letter to Santa from a Girl
Letter to Santa from an Adult 

Thanksgiving Printables

With Thanksgiving a little more than a week away, don't we all have things to be THANKFUL for?

Back in college, my coach would randomly pull out her "10 things I'm thankful for" notepad and pass it around. She would have our team fill them out individually and then we would share one item on our list with everyone. I always found I was thankful for things like "Wednesday morning off from practice." You can see my priorities were a little different back then.

Either way, taking the time out of our busy collegiate athletes schedules to be mindful of what we were thankful for always proved invaluable (and it got us out of 15 minutes of practice :D). Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to do the same and why not do it in style.

The good folks over at Silverbox Creative Studio created these beautiful Thanksgiving printables that can be downloaded and cut into strips. Strips can not only be used to jot down what we are thankful for, but can also be used as napkin rings, tags for branches of trees or even a thanksgiving paper chain.

Enjoy and Happy Wednesday!

Kind Over Matter

Hey hey hey! Guess who's back??

After a whirlwind month and a half of constant travel, I am finally back at home, sleeping in my own bed, eating some home-cooked food and getting back into my single gal routine.

While I had a lot of fun on each and every one of my trips, it sure is good to be home.

Anyway, since I've been gone so long, there has been a lot of blogging material that has backed up and I promise I will share all the juicy tidbits with you. However, it takes time to write my blog posts. So for the time being, I hope you will settle for this delightful freebie Compliments Poster from the awesome folks over at Kind Over Matter.

All you have to do is download and print these freebie posters on blank paper, cut along the dashed lines and hang the poster up around your neighborhood!


How utterly lovely is that? Go on folks, share the love!

Mother's Day Ecards

If you've yet to flag Mother's Day (it's about a week away) on your Blackberry, desk top calender or personal planner, then think of today's post as the gentle reminder! That is, that it's time to go out and find the perfect gift for the woman that gave you life!

If, like me, you don't live in the same state or country as your mom, you have a couple of days to get that snail mail card in the mail, or to go online and order a bouquet for mom.

Or, you can skip the post office and online shopping all together and just send her one of these free electronic cards!

For the Top mom. You know she's the best, and Mother's Day is the perfect time to make sure mom knows it too! This delicate watercolor ecard gives you enough space to list all the reasons your mom is top dog!

From Punch Bowl.

For the Artsy Mom. Choose from one of her favorite art works or just send her a simple "I love you" courtesy of Louise Bourgeois.

From MoMA.

For the Mom who has it all. She still has her good looks and health, and more importantly, she has you as her kid- enough said.

From Hipster Cards.

For the Animal Loving Mom. She's your mama bear!

From The Nature Conservancy.

For the Mom that doesn't mind favoritism (or a good laugh).

From Someecards.

Just Made My Day

After a particularly gruesome work week, chancing upon the Just Made My Day website was like entering an oasis of relief.

Just Made My Day is an online forum where people can go and tell stories about the nice things that people have done for them. Postings range from "My mom just made my day by picking me up early from school" (This would have totally made my day too) to "My girlfriend just made my day by being the most beautiful person both inside and out" (The single independent lady in me gagged a little, cliche much?).

I love the concept of Just Made My Day and despite my cynical self just aching to rear her ugly head, I did feel a much needed calming sense of kindness wash over me.

Details:

Just Made My Day

Tasting Table

Photo Credit: Tasting Table and Whole Planet Foundation

I subscribe to a multitude of daily foodie-type electronic newsletters to keep me updated on the latest trends in the food and wine industry (and also so coming up with content for the Blue Lifestyle minute is that much easier).

One such newsletter is the Tasting Table, a daily email on food and drink culture. Tasting Table offers a national version that covers general food trends, and a city specific version that highlights the latest food culture in your particular city.

This morning's national newsletter was regarding the Whole Foods Market Whole Planet Foundation. Whole Planet Foundation is an organization that supports microlenders in 18 countries, empowering nearly 300,000 impoverished people by allowing them to create or develop their own sources of income.

In the spirit of giving back, the good people at Tasting Table are teaming up with Whole Foods and are donating $2 to the Whole Planet Foundation for every new subscriber who joins the table through their Prosperity Champaign Page by March 31st. Since I am already a loyal subscriber of Tasting Table, I thought I would help them out by inviting you guys to subscribe and raise money for the foundation. It doesn't cost you a penny and in return you will support a good cause and get daily emails on food culture!

Details:

Tasting Table

Valentine's Day Garland

I wish I were more crafty.

Mama T says I can blame my swimming career for this lack of skills. According to her (courtesy of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers), talent/natural ability can only get you so far, instead 10, 000 hours of practice is required to hone (Insert Chosen Ability) skills. In my case, I was so busy focusing on my swimming that I missed out on those 10,000 hours needed to develop rock star crafting skills.

Anyway, just because I ain't no Martha does not mean that I can't try (or blog about it for that matter). Whitney over at Whisker Graphics recently posted a free template to create your own Valentine's day garland. Not only do I adore the simple and sweet graphics of the garland, but I also love that to create said garland requires minimal crafty skills. I think the garlands would look darling tapped across a mirror, in front of your fridge or in the archways of your home.

So go ahead all you fellow non-crafty goddesses, make yourself some Valentine's day garlands because it's never too late to start clocking in those 10,000 hours!

Photo Credits: Whisker Graphics