There are so many charities and causes that are worth our attention and donations. And, they all become more visible at this time of year. Or, are we simply paying more attention?
The Share Your Soles Foundation is one that I learned about as I literally ran into Mona Purdy, its founder and Executive Director. I was leaving a meeting in downtown Chicago when I saw her and an assistant roll out huge bins from their trucks. The brightly labeled barrels were being delivered to collect new or gently used shoes at this particular drop site.
I’m new to Chicago, so had [...]

I just bought the cutest paper placements by Cake Vintage over the weekend.  I got them as a hostess gift, but I really want to keep them for myself. The placemats come in a large pad of 50 pages (just like the construction paper pads) featuring the hand-drawn illustration of a classic (vintage!) place setting. I love their fun tongue-in-cheek elegance: feel like you totally belong to the born-with-a-silver- spoon-in-your-mouth set while serving mac ‘n cheese. I’m told that kids love drawing on these too, so this is actually a great gift idea for the whole family. The pad of [...]

With cyberbullying and sexting now a growing problem is schools (and tragically, a confirmed second sexting related suicide), LG Electronics has just launched a public service announcement campaign called “Give it a Ponder”.
“The webisodes feature a beardless James Lipton (Inside the Actors Studio) who encourages teens to Give It A Ponder while caught up in the excitement of certain situations such as sexting, or texting a hurtful rumor… At the heart of the campaign is the iconic symbol of the Ponder Beard…”

Excellent, because most kids are not aware of the consequences of spreading harmful rumors and/or of sending sexually explicit [...]

Are you like this too? Holiday windows are always a surefire way to get me in the holiday spirit. Sometimes, I still see these displays as I did when I was a child, eyes as wide as saucers, mesmerized by the astonishing visual buffet.
I’m in awe of the amazing talent of the creative directors that build these dreamy, fantastical montages and of their elves that execute their vision  for every passerby’s delight…
So, I was researching this season’s holiday windows from the NYC chi-chi retailers (because they have the biggest budgets and because they need to outdo themselves every year, you [...]