I have an obsession.

Confession: I love stationery. Give me cards of all sizes and shapes. I buy them. I make them. I try to send them, but should send more cards to more people since there are few pick me ups better than getting a handwritten card from someone you love. Every once in awhile I take out all of my cards and reorganize them and in the process remember what I have and admire the colors and designs.

Here are some of my favorites from today's reorganization.

I made these and you can tell I was experimenting with the scalloped circle punch. I tried to use only scrap paper to decorate the plain cardstock cards. I even used the sleeve for a coffee cup because of the great texture and lovely brown color.

These cards are a take off on the old Polaroid photos. The card itself looks like a Polaroid and the envelopes are a great light grey/putty color and have the Polaroid silhouette. Fun and funky subjects make these cards unique. I found them at Acme Gift in Aggieville (Manhattan, KS).

This set is packaged so lovely. The theme is typesetting and the letter and number fonts are beautiful to view. The envelopes are just as awesome at the postcard style cards. Also a find from Acme Gift in Aggieville (Manhattan, KS).

These adorable business card sized cards are all about luck with a lucky symbol embossed in gold on the top of each. The four leaf clover is my favorite, ok - maybe it is the wishbone.

Too cute!

My dear friend Susan gave me this lovely clutch for Christmas. I love, love, love everything about it! The rosette, the fabric, and the size are all perfect. I think she found this in Texas. Can you tell I think she has be best taste? Thank you, Susan!

Beautiful. Good for you. Good for the planet.

I love soap - add in the fact these soaps are organic, packaged beautifully, and smell heavenly and it is a slam dunk.

These beautiful soaps from LEAP Organics are so wonderful that you will not even want to gift wrap them. The illustrations are works of art and the packaging is recyclable, recycled and made from renewable materials. It's really a win-win.

They were featured on Daily Grommet - one of my new favorite websites. If you love unique gifts and fun finds, Daily Grommet serves them up in your e-mail daily. They offer a video to demo the product or to talk about the features. I love hearing the story behind the stuff.

Citrus - my favorite!

My dear friend brought me tons and tons of lemons before Christmas. Her uncle grew these in his backyard - not in Kansas, of course! I have said this before, but we are so very lucky to have such generous friends.

Nothing takes the edge off winter like freshly-made lemonade. We used the recipe below with a very simple simple syrup, lemon juice and water. We had so many lemons that we froze some lemon juice for future baking and lemonade making. We also gave some away to the FACS teacher for her lemon poppyseed bread.

Perfect Lemonade Recipe
from: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_lemonade/

Ingredients
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Method
1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

Serves 6.

Remembering Chicago

My yearly winter break ritual includes organizing my backlog of photos and scrapbooking projects. Some of my favorite pictures of the year came from our Chicago trip. We found some farmer's markets and ate amazing food. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.


Quartino features Italian pizza and small plates, affordable wine and really great atmosphere. I love eating at sidewalk cafes in the city.



This mural of bread was along the sidewalk when we were walking between Farmer's Markets on Saturday. Loved the vibrant image!

These small urban gardens were fun to see along our walk. I had just read a great book about gardening in small spaces and loved to see this example.

Look at these lovely heirloom tomatoes! Seeing them in December makes me long for fresh tomatoes.

Love the colors and shapes on this table.

I wanted the Cambell's Soup box, and the squash looked good, too.

This Kansas girl loves sunflowers. The markets were full of these beauties last July.

Love the cart that held the sunflowers and the bucket of glads in the front.

This is my favorite photo of the day. It had rained that morning and the flowers still had some raindrops. It was worth it to brave the mud at the largest market to see some great displays.

We love Chicago and cannot wait to go back! You can bet we will hit the Farmer's Markets again.

A giving heart

My parents are really amazing people. There are two examples of their kindness and generosity have helped people this winter that I hold dear.


My mom likes to buy gloves on discount. She usually finds them for around $1 in a giant bin at the grocery store. She carries them in her car and looks for kids who need gloves and passes them out. I think about how cold it can be in Kansas during the winter and what a small comfort it is to have some protection from the elements.


My dad is the luckiest guy I know. He wins virtually every raffle he enters. Right before Christmas this year, he won a turkey as part of a raffle the high school marching band was holding. He of course won. When they tried to give him the turkey, he gave it back to the school administration and said that he was sure there was a family that could use it this holiday. He told me this story with a mischievous smile, like he was letting me in on a secret plan.


I get a little teary thinking about these little things my parents do to help others. Small and unassuming, but big those they help.


If you are looking for a great read on altruism, try In a Heartbeat: Sharing the power of cheerful giving by Leigh Anne Tuohy. I love this quote from the book.

Do small things with great love.

- Leigh Anne Tuohy

Decorum

We found this lovely book at an estate sale this fall. Decorum: A practical treatise on etiquette and dress is digitized and available through Harvard. The book includes 1877 and 1879 dates of publication.

It is full of gems - advice on social interactions of all kinds, dress, letter writing, courtship and marriage, and attire in the late 1800's.

On Wall Flowers at Balls:
The master of the house should see that all the ladies dance; he should take notice, particularly of those who seem to serve as drapery to the walls of the ball-room, (or wall-flowers, as the familiar expression is) and should see that they are invited to dance. But he must do it wholly unperceived, in order not to wound the self-esteem of the unfortunate ladies.

On Love at First Sight:
No doubt these is such a thing as love at first sight, but love alone is a very uncertain foundation upon which to base marriage. There should be through acquaintanceship and a certain knowledge of harmony of tastes and temperaments before matrimony is ventured upon.

On Trifling with a Man's Feelings:
Some young ladies pride themselves upon the conquests which they make and would not scruple to sacrifice the happiness of an estimable person to their reprehensible vanity. Let this be far from you. If you see clearly that you have become an object of especial regard to a gentleman, and do not wish to encourage his addresses, treat him honorably and humanely, as you hope to be used with generosity by the person who may engage your own heart.

On Breaking an Engagement:
...Still breaking an engagement is always a serious and distressing thing, and ought not to be contemplated without absolute and just reasons...It is generally best to break an engagement by letter. By this means one can express himself or herself more clearly, and give the true reasons for his or her course much better than in a personal interview. The letter breaking the engagement should be accompanied by everything in the way of portraits, letters or gifts which have been received during the engagement.

What is the ruling on a text message break up?

This is such a fun look at the view of etiquette and dress for "the best American society" in the 1800's.