How I Paid it Forward, Nov-April

Every day, my life is enriched by the work of creative people. I read blogs and try recipes someone shared online. I wake up to pretty art prints on the wall. It's easy for me to take these things for granted - so I've committed to financially supporting the creative community whose work I enjoy! As promised, I'm back to report some of the ways I chose to Pay it Forward in the past months to support the blogs, businesses and artists that make my life better.

First up, Sweet Fine Day. Sweet Fine Day is a blog written by Jenna Park about living in New York, parenting an interracial family, and running Whimsy & Spice with her baker husband Mark. The blog has become one of my daily reads, and I treated myself to an order of Chocolate Orange Cardamom shortbread to show my support. Jenna is also the founder and photographer of The Mixed Race Project.

Remember Compliment Wrap? Tisha had a goal to raise $1,000 AUD to start her handmade gift wrapping line. I made a financial pledge when she was only about 50% funded, and guess what! She met her goal and then some. Way to go, Tisha!

Finally, back in November, I became a paying member of Postcardly. This service lets you use email to send postcards. I always have good intentions to send N's grandparents and great-grandparents family photos, but in reality there are too many steps to do this regularly.

Postcardly makes it easy. I type a message that will go on the back of the postcard and attach a photo. They print and send! The old me would have taken advantage of their 'send 3 postcards free' promo and called it a day, but I'm really rooting for these guys. If you try them out through the links above and become a customer, I'll earn some free cards, too. Sweet.

Want to join me in paying it forward? Read more about the Pay it Forward project here. Then leave a comment or drop me a line (giftedmailbox[at]gmail.com) and tell me what you did! I'd love to hear what you did (and maybe even brag about you next month!).

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{Top 2 images by Jenna Park via Whimsy & Spice}

Sassy Universal Labels | Free Printable Friday

Aunt Peaches designed these free printable labels with bold stripes of color that stretch all the way across the page. What a smart thing to do - this means you can print onto any ol' sheet of labels; they don't have to be the same kind as she used. Love it!

In the spirit of paying it forward, give Peaches a little shout-out if you print her labels! I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing from you.

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{Image via Aunt Peaches}

To Give a Present

So maybe after my last post you need a little motivation to Pay it Forward. Or perhaps you haven't gotten your daily dose of cute claymation videos in yet (what? you haven't??). Either way, check out this animation by Kirsten Lepore for the kids' show Yo Gabba Gabba.

Yo Gabba Gabba - To Give A Present from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Delightful. I should show this to N to start the conversation about how it's better to give than receive. Many thanks to our friend E for sending this to me!

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{Top image via Colossal}

Pay it Forward

Before I began my job, I thought I understood the movement to support small businesses.

But then I started working at Common Thread Studio, a small sewing studio in our neighboring town. And all of a sudden I "got" the importance of supporting small businesses. I saw firsthand all that my boss had put on the line to get her dream business off the ground - time, money, her reputation, livelihood. And I finally understood that purchases made at the shop directly allowed her to pay for basic living expenses and provide excellent service to customers.

It also meant that I could support my family while continuing to write The Gifted Blog, and our guest instructors earned side income to support their work as artists and designers. In short, the money coming into the store directly improved the chances that the creative people working there could continue benefiting the community through their work.

Right around the time I started my job, I read a post on Craftypod that I've been mulling over ever since. Sister Diane writes:

Every cool blog post, every podcast, every video that you enjoy for free online comes to you because another human being chose to put their time and energy into making it. A few of these folks got paid for their efforts, but the vast majority were doing it for free.

This excellent post goes on to explain that all this great content is only sustainable if the people making it are rewarded. She says it so much better than I can: read on here.

So what does this all mean for me and you?

I'm starting a monthly series called Pay it Forward, very much inspired by Sister Diane's work on Craftypod. Will you join me? Each month anyone who wants to participate will ask these two questions:

1) Who adds value to my creative life? 
2) Knowing it takes hard work to produce creative inspiration, how can I pay it forward to sustain them?

I will choose one or more blogs, businesses, or artists to support and report back to you at the end of the month. I'd like to focus on supporting people financially. But paying it forward can also look like words of support, helping to spread the word about a favorite business, or other non-monetary means of sustaining someone else's work.

I want to hear from you! If you pay it forward to sustain someone's creative work, leave a comment, email me at giftedmailbox[at]gmail.com, or give me the link to where you've blogged about it.

Pay it Forward Idea #1: Blogs with Businesses
Do you enjoy any blogs that are attached to businesses? Maybe the blogger has a little online shop. Maybe they are putting out a book. Or maybe they sell cool downloadable tutorials on their site. Buy something to support their work! Treat yourself or get a gift for Mother's Day and feel good about giving back to a blogger you love.

I'll be back next week to share who I supported this month. What other ideas do you have for paying it forward?

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Imaginary Tweets: Good Habits Edition

My dad sent me this: Noguchi-style lamp from bike parts.

Out of a slump and into spring. Love the first verse she quotes.

Darn good food writing.

Silk soymilk beats Rice Dream any day. (Especially once I realized rice milk is like sad horchata.)

Thanks again for the quinoa tips! We've added it to the rice cooker, G made these, and I made a rough approximation of this. On a roll.

I must learn to floss daily! What's the best way you know to form good habits?

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{Image by Trevor Tondro for the New York Times}

IOU Pants | Wrap Story

What to do when the gift you ordered still hasn't come and your husband's birthday arrives?

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade...or maybe some paper pants. IOU khakis, honey!

More info on the reusable gift box here.

This Wrap Story is part of a series documenting every present I’ve wrapped since the launch of The Gifted Blog. Click here to see them all!

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Free Printable Floral Tags | Free Printable Friday

Ah, so pretty! Today I'd like to point you toward the Packagery blog for these springtime gift tags. I can see these adorning a gift wrapped in green tissue or tied around the neck of a bottle of sparkling lemonade. You can also check out the Packagery Etsy shop for more gift wrapping inspiration.

Via Poppytalk.

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In Which I Print a Printable | Wrap Story

You want to know something funny? The free printable posts I write are some of the most popular on my blog. Hundreds of people stumble onto The Gifted Blog looking for them. I love featuring free printables because it's fun to make cool gift wrapping accessible to lots of people at no cost.

But do you know what we don't own?

That's right. A printer!

So even though I don't usually document cards that we send, I thought I'd add this one to the Wrap Story series because I actually used a printable. G has a printing allowance through his school, so all our printing is done on campus. He kindly printed this money envelope for me. (Hopefully he didn't run into a professor he's trying to impress while retrieving it from the library printer!)

I used the envelope to carry on a tradition of G's grandpa's that he no longer keeps up. Growing up, G and his two sisters would look forward to receiving the same amount of dollars as the age they were turning from Grandma and Grandpa every year. (I thought this was always in dollar coins, but later learned that the tradition started with two dollar bills!)

We sent our nephew a little spending money for his 2nd birthday, and the envelope worked perfectly to hold his coins. I had fun making a boy-appropriate card for him, too. We'll see if this tradition sticks! It would be a fun one to continue.

This Wrap Story is part of a series documenting every present I’ve wrapped since the launch of The Gifted Blog. Click here to see them all!

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My Funny Valentine

I did something I've never done before this past Valentine's. I hinted - heavily - at what I wanted as a gift. 

As I mentioned (at the end of this post), G and I don't have any traditions for getting each other gifts for V-Day. We've kind of played it by ear, and each year has looked different.

So what changed that I became a gift-hinting spouse? Two things. One, I really wanted it. I know material things can't bring lasting joy, but this Etsy item was calling my name. Two, G didn't get me anything for Christmas. And to be honest, I was bummed. I was stressed over figuring out our first Christmas at home (we usually fly out to be with family), and the first trimester of pregnancy was leaving me bloated, nauseated, and feeling sorry for myself.

So I asked. And lo and behold...I received.

Thank you, G, for indulging my request for this beautiful Sora Designs necklace. It is lovely. I enjoy wearing something that is so well-made, and knowing that your purchase is supporting a jewelry maker's dream! (And I get to tell customers at work it's from a "Valentine's admirer"; hee hee.)

If the gift wrapping looks familiar, G used the silk furoshiki I received from LuLu Wraps to wrap the necklace. (We'd eaten the chocolates inside maybe a day earlier. Didn't take long for it to be re-used!) Thank you again, honey!

What about you - are you a gift-hinter? Or do you know someone who is? I think there's an art to doing it well that I haven't yet mastered.

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Practicing Art | Why We Make

I write The Gifted Blog because I love to create. I've been reflecting on what it means to be a Christian and to love making things. I hope this series will be a jumping-off point for thoughtful discussion among us, no matter your spiritual background. For the whole series, click here.

The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow.  - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

I found the quote above on my friend's blog. To be honest, I'm not terribly good at practicing. When I make something, I badly want it to turn out the FIRST TIME. How can it be that practicing an art, well or even badly, helps my soul to grow?

Well, I do know this: expecting instantaneous perfection is dangerous. When I forget there is only One who is perfect, I start to think I can be perfect, too. I stay in safe waters where I know I can excel instead of jumping into the deep end where I might flounder around. I don't extend myself beyond what I know I can do.

But I want to be someone who grows. Someone who's getting better with time, not plateauing. It's not in my nature to want to practice things I might fail at. God give me the courage to practice, well or badly, in my creative life as well as in the rest of life.

You can read B's original post about practicing art here, and learn more about the painting above here.

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{Images of Harvest Moon in progress by Cathy McMurray}

We're Expecting!

Our friends in real life know, but I was holding off on making a blog announcement because I didn't have a good photo. (Hey, I have a visually-oriented audience!) We are 20 weeks in - right at the halfway mark - and found out Thursday that this little one is a BOY. Yay!!

(See the hand? Technology is so cool.) I can't believe I'm going to be the mom of two boys. The girls in my generation outnumber the boys 2 to 1 (and if you just count my mom's side, it's 7:1), so I'm still feeling surprised!

G and I got out for a nice lunch date last week (we've been trying to be more diligent about getting time alone), thanks to our very kind friend E, who offered to babysit. We trekked out to Hollywood from Pasadena and enjoyed some yummy sandwiches and salads at Food Lab.

I tried a prosciutto and fig sandwich, but the kale salad was the highlight for me. I tried to analyze all the flavors to recreate it later. After lunch we took a long walk and came across this:

Ah ha ha ha. Can you tell parking spots are a valuable commodity here? There are so many other thoughts I could share, but I'll just leave you with a list for now. (Had anyone noticed how food-centered the Imaginary Tweets were getting?)

Things I have craved and eaten:

Miso soup
Pho
Sushi

Chocolate cake in a mug

Chocolate cake in a mug a la mode

Salt & vinegar chips

A gyro

Avocado halves with lemon and salt

In-n-Out

Rotisserie chicken (though - grocery fail! - the one I bought was unsalted)

Root beer floats
A chili dog

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