What’s the Best Way to Say “Happy Valentine’s Day?”

Hmmm…The best way to say “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Ask around RedStamp HQ + you’ll get a dozen different answers. Personalized petite valentines delivered by mail to friends + family…greeting cards hand delivered to your sweetheart…personalized stickers artfully applied by art-loving-kids to scalloped card stock…virtual valentines you can post on facebook or twitter…

We embrace all kinds of stylish correspondence around here these days.  Which is why we think this decision making tool from Hunch is pretty cool. Check it out!

Valentine’s Day Cards – get personalized recommendations at Hunch.com

A Lovely DIY {Do-It-Yourself} Thank You Note

I absolutely love this card that Laura whipped up re-purposing various objects around the office + her home. So inspiring for Valentine’s Day + Every Day. Create on the front + write on the back for a very modern look.

Blank Notecard + Snow & Graham Desk Calendar + Decorative Sticker {Laura’s} + Gift Wrap + RedStamp Signature Envelope

Note Writing Idea :: Write the Note on the Back!

Just received a lovely handwritten note from Shayla, the founder + creative force behind the SERIOUSLY fabulous LiveSavvy headbands.  Love everything about the note! Including the clever way she wrote on the back + left the front  blank so I could really enjoy the design. I love the card so much, I tucked it into my inspiration board. So summery + fresh! Thanks Shayla. A note + gift in one.

A Perfect Way to Plus Up Your Tiniest Parties

There are many reasons Renee and I are good friends as well as co-workers. One of them? Her passion for celebrating anything + everything. From the recent purchase of her new car {a car-based happy hour at a classic drive-in restaurant} to welcoming the first day of summer {salsa, chips + margaritas on her gorgeous porch}, there is never a dull moment.

One of her party ideas I LOVE the most and had to share is sending out paper invitations to confirm small get-togethers. Such a creative use for those left-over big party invitations rattling around your drawers. Once the date has been picked, just pop a paper invitation in the mail along with a little note to let the recipient know how much you are looking forward to dinner/drinks/etc.

Love the idea, but don’t have the invitations? Fill-Ins are probably the easiest to dash off, but imprintable invitations work, too.

Here are three wonderful options from our Summer Sale. {Click here to see all boxed invitations on sale.} One box is all it takes to get started.

Lantern Party Fill-In Invitations, by Sugar Bean :: ON SALE $9.99 for a box of 8

Handcrafted Cranberry Layered Fill-In by Carrie Jones for RedStamp :: ON SALE , $12.99 for 6

parTAY Imprintable Invitations, by Prentiss Douthit :: ON SALE $9.99 for 10

A Poem Celebrating Handwriting

I found a mention of this poem on Twitter from @ftitrailblazer where she tweeted: “This reminded me that our handwriting says so much about us and it’s missing in the social media world.”

We couldn’t agree more.  This poem is perfect Sunday afternoon light reading and may inspire you to reach out and send someone a quick handwritten note.

{I have re-posted the full text of the poem below because NPR doesn’t have permalinks to their Writer’s Almanac articles and they roll off the homepage the next day.  Be sure to head over to the Writer’s Almanac for more information and to hear audio of Garrison Keilor reading the poem.}

Ode on My Mother’s Handwriting

by Barbara Hamby

Her a’s are like small rolls warm from the oven, yeasty,
fragrant, one identical to the other, molded
by a master baker, serious about her craft, but comical, too,
smudge of flour on her sharp nose, laughing
with her workers, urging them to eat, eat, eat, but demanding
the most gorgeous cakes in Christendom.
Her b’s are upright as soldiers trained by harsh sergeants,
whose invective seems cruel in the bower of one’s
own country but becomes hot gruel and a wool coat
during January on the steppes outside Moscow.
Would that every infant could nestle in the warm crook
of her c’s, taste the sweet milk of her d’s, hear
the satiny coos of her nonsense whisperings, making
the three-pronged razor of her E easier to take,
the bad girl, I’m ashamed of you, disappointed, hateful,
shame, shame, shame, the blistering fury
of her f feel less like the sharpened rapier of a paid assassin,
left only with the desire to be good, to be ushered
again into the glittering palace of her good graces,
for her g’s are great and fail not, their mercy
is everlasting. The house of her h is a plain building. It has no
pediments or Palladian windows but brick walls,
sturdy and indestructible. Oh, the mighty storms that rage
cannot tear down these thick walls or alter
their sturdy heart. But her windows are small—she does not
like to look out, shuts her eyes, for the world
is cold while her fire is warm. She is a household god,
jumped up on Jesus, Jeremiah, Job, all the Old
Testament scallywags and their raving pomaded televangelist
progeny, yet her k’s know how to kick up their heels,
laugh at you and with you, which up a Christmas Dickens
would envy, kiss your eyelids as you drift off to sleep,
though no one can know the loneliness of her l, a forlorn
obelisk in the desert, hard and bitterly cold
in the heat of the sun. Other m’s are soft and round,
but not hers—the answer to every supplication
is, “N-O spells no,” which, in a way, is comforting,
because you know where you stand,
where your please, pretty please begins, and how far those p’s
must climb before meeting her most serene
and imperial q’s-regular, rigid, redoubtable. For the dark wind
of her s’s can be like the desert simoom, hot and dry.
You could die of thirst, your throat taut as a tent pole holding up
your bones and their tatters of flesh, but for her hurricane
of words, blowing roofs off houses, lavishing water on an arid world,
unleashing slaps, hugs, prayers on the long, ungainly hours
that separate us like the spaces between her lines, the waves
of her u’s, slice of her v’s, vivisecting each moment
with the x-ray of her ecclesiastical gaze. What is her x, a kiss
or a rebuke? Both—her lips sweet as the nectar
bees suck from flowers, cruel as their sting. So why
am I still her acolyte, her disciple, her most obstreperous
slave? Because in the curve of her zed is my Zen master,
my beginning and my end. How I have felt the five
fingers of her one hand; seen her hair, once chestnut, turn white
as a seraph’s wings; heard her high, naked voice combust
with love’s bitter perfume; sat down at her Puritan
table and feasted on her wild blue eyes, like rustling
cornflowers in the dark, mutinous grass of the past.

“Ode on My Mother’s Handwriting” by Barbara Hamby, from Babel. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004. (buy now)

One Thought Note #1 :: Break A Leg!

Sarah Jessica Parker’s Rules for a Chic + Gracious Life

This month’s Harper’s Bazaar cover story is about the ever-fabulous Sarah Jessica Parker.  We’ve always loved her style + grace so we were thrilled to discover her “tips for a chic and gracious life” spelled out for us on page 380.  A few of our very favorites ::

• Try, for every 20 emails you send, to write a letter, and old-fashioned letter, and post it.  Remember how it felt to receive an actual letter or postcard in the mail?
• Use your local library.  So few people do anymore.  And if you are a parent, introduce your children to their neighborhood library.  It will give them a real sense of independence to have their own library card and enjoy borrowing books.
• Walk more.  It simply feels great. And for those who have an “allergy” to working out, it’s a great way to get the blood moving.  If you are feeling extra adventurous, try putting some speed into that walk.

Coldplay’s 10 Rules

Last night, before Coldplay won three Grammys, 60 Minutes had a fascinating feature that took a look inside the band’s creative process.  During one segment, Chris Martin gave Steve Kroft a tour of their Camden recording studio. Martin explained that it’s their enthusiasm, more than anything else, that drives their success.  He also briefly went over a list of 10 rules they follow during the process of making an album.

Upon taking a closer look at the segment on our DVR, we were able to fully transcribe the list.  Needless to say, we’re inspired ::  inspired by their passion for what they do, their dedication to hard work, and their commitment to quality in producing the best experience possible for their fans.

Here they are – Coldplay’s 10 Rules, just as they hang in their recording studio ::

OKKEY RULES

1. ALBUMS MUST BE NO LONGER THAN 42 MINUTES, OR 9 TRACKS.

2. PRODUCTION MUST BE AMAZING, RICH, BUT WITH SPACE, NOT OVERLAYERED. LESS TRACKS, MORE QUALITY.  GROOVE AND SWING Drum/rhythm are the most crucial thing to concentrate on; diff. between bittersweet and science of silence

3. COMPUTERS ARE INSTRUMENTS, NOT RECORDING AIDS.

4. IMAGERY MUST BE CLASSIC. COLOURFUL AND DIFFERENT.  COME BACK IN GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOUR

5.  MAKE SURE VIDEOS AND PICTURE ARE GREAT BEFORE SETTING RELEASE DATE.  And highly original

6.  ALWAYS KEEP MYSTERY.  Not many interviews

7.  GROOVE AND SWING.  RHYTHMS AND SOUNDS MUST ALWAYS BE AS ORIGINAL AS POSSIBLE.  Once jon has melody, twist it and weird it sonically

8.  Promo/review copies to be on VINYL.  Stops copying problem, sounds and looks better.

9.  Jaqueline Sabrido, ns p c c, face forward

10.  Think about what to do with charity account.  Set up something small but really enabling and constructive.  Ref; j oliver fifteen

More information on a couple of references in the list:

• Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Foundation
• The ever-inspiring Jacqueline Saburdio.  (You may know her from her moving appearance on Oprah.)

25 Ideas on How to Write Facebook’s 25 Random Things About Me {+ Valentine’s Day extra credit}

Okay, we admit it.  We’ve been staying up a bit too late reading everybody’s latest Facebook obsession ::  25 Random Things About Me {and we aren’t the only ones – check out today’s New York Times article}. Granted, we might not have spoken with our said FB Friend since high school, so why are we so intrigued by insanely random incidentals about them?  Who knows.  But we do know that if they’re well written, we’re even more enthralled.

Here are a few things we would love to know about you {and if you combine these questions with an extra dry martini, you’ll have THE list that everyone is talking about} ::

1.  What would you eat for your last supper?

2.  Your favorite purchase in the last 6 months?

3.  Your biggest pet peeve?

4.  Your best celebrity run-in?

5.  Your most embarrasing moment in the last two years?

6.   Your very first job?

7.  Your dream job?

8.  Your biggest regret {everybody has at least one! don’t believe those who don’t…}

9.  Your biggest success

10.  The very first cassette tape you purchased

11.  The last iTunes song you downloaded

12.  What did you do on your very first date? With who?

13.  The best vacation spot?

14.  One book that should be required reading in every school?

15.  The last time you were caught in a lie?

16.  Who would play you in a movie?

17.  Name the top three people {alive or dead} who you’d have over for dinner

18.  Who’s the funniest person you know? Why?

19.  Where was your first kiss?

20.  Your favorite game show

21.  Your top celebrity crush

22.  When is the last time you rode a rollercoaster?

23.  Who’s the most random person you’ve connected with on Facebook?

24.  Your last run-in with the police?

25.  The song you’d have played at your funeral…

Extra Credit :: 25 Random Reasons I’m Totally Into You

If you’re feeling the urge to get a little sappy, save it for the perfect Valentine ::  25 Random Reasons I’m Totally Into You. C’mon, write it about someone you’re crushing on – and you could even sign it from a secret admirer.  I mean, really, if you have the time to write about yourself, can’t you spare a few more minutes to honor your love?!

Here are a few perfect cards with plenty of blank space to fill with your list of 25 ::

I Love You More Than Me Greeting Card by Oplus D

Snowflake Love Die-Cut Card by Egg Press

Little Princess Card by Wiley Valentine

Just Dance…

Time for a Dance Break at RedStamp.com! {No, not really. But I guarantee this ingenious, viral video spot from T-mobile will put you in a good mood.  It was filmed 4 days ago in London’s Liverpool Street station} ::

[via SwissMiss]