I wrote about Kickstarter this past August. It’s a crowdfunding vehicle that matches creative projects/dreams with the individuals – people like you and me – who are willing to fund them. You can find all sorts of fascinating projects on Kickstarter; lots of film makers, musicians, writers and artists of all kinds have projects listed. I’m backing four of them at this moment and wanted to give a shout out to this particular one: Lumi Co.. because I’m quite certain that they will be revolutionizing the textile industry.
Indeed, take a look at Lumi Co. This brand new start up company [...]

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 [...]

CAUTION: There is grave danger that the Looklet website will become addictive and suck all your time. Handle with a timer set at 30 minutes and lots of self-discipline.

I LOVE this new site! Looklet is “styling studio” where you and I can mix & match fashion styles to create all sorts of looks. I get to fantasize about what I’d wear if I were 6 feet tall and a size 0, or still in my 20’s and foolish again, or if about what I’d wear if I needed to attend a movie premiere. Ahhh, the fantasy. Meanwhile, I’m still [...]

Khelly and Jerry have a dream. It’s called the DO Tank! You know, instead of Think Tank, just thinking about it, actually do it! The DO Tank! will be a mentorship organization that will help to fund the dreams of small businesses or value-rich projects.
What does this have to do with the winning-an-8000-sq-ft-with-interior-pool-house contest? Well, in leading by example, Khelly and Jerry who could not sell their house in this crappy market in order to fund DO Tank! got very creative and decided to raffle it off. And so, the 200 Story Home Art Contest was launched. Everything that Khelly [...]

I’m married to a lawyer. When people ask what kind of lawyer, he answers “a good one”. I say “a nice one”. Which is probably why he is no longer really practicing as a lawyer. You can’t be a nice lawyer for long without it coming back to bite you in the derriere and that just gets really aggravating. But I’m only mentioning all this because, as a corporate attorney, he’s always, constantly had clients looking for funding. I’ve heard all the ugly financing stories, the rapacious VCs, etc. And the small companies, or individuals whose projects could really change [...]

Dearest Readers,
Thanks so much for sticking with me. The last 6 weeks have been consumed by a cross-state move of home and business that has taken all my attention. The family is now – sloooowly – recovering and getting settled in our new ‘hood of Chicago’s North Shore. We chose to self-relocate to this destination, following a four year Q & A exercise that involved Excel spreadsheets (with weighted averages on each considered city’s quality of life and cost of living attributes), on-site reconnaissance tours and loads of reading, including Richard Florida’s instrumental “Who’s Your City” book:
Where we [...]

What a cool idea for our times… The Uniform Project, started in May 2009 by Sheena Matheiken, is one where she pledges to wear ONE dress for one whole year as an exercise (and creative challenge!) in sustainable fashion. She styles the dress in a barely recognizable manner every day, reinventing it with an impressive trunk-ful of vintage and otherwise donated accessories and jewelry.

I know wait, every morning, with bated breath, to see what quirky concoction Sheena has devised. All are delightful and all based on the uniform dress designed by Eliza Starbuck.
The mastermind behind the uniform dress is my [...]

Wow! I love this woman. Sarah, thank you for being a voice for so many of us who just get to roll our eyes when we see the ridiculous commercials aimed at women. For example:

Sarah’s got a very effective form of soft feminism that mocks the female stereotypes portrayed by advertisers, in a compelling and just perfectly right humorous manner. OK, oftentimes LOL hilarious. Here’s one of her “Target Women” clips that covers pretty much every cliché about women: can’t be single, has to be saved by a man, wants to be married…

Or this one about the trials and tribulations [...]

A meaningful and powerful song and beautifully executed video. Thanks to Robin Rice for sharing it on Facebook where I found it!

Oh, and here are the lyrics.

Nicole Clark (Wong) dreamed of being an entrepreneur for a long time. Bifurcations with jobs as a pastry chef, a photographer’s assistant, a magazine fact checker, a gallery receptionist, a stylist assistant were only training for the building of her Cake Topper business.
For all the humor and cuteness exuded by her figurines, Nicole takes her work very seriously, spending many hours reproducing her clients – with great detail and accuracy -  as 5 inch tall characters.
Made of polymer clay, these His & Hers (or his & his or hers & hers) cake toppers will last forever. And probably longer than [...]

Need to defrost on these last winter days? Here’s an idea. Host a party and whip out The Sexy Slang game. Adults only, please. Sexy slang is a combination of charades and drawings (think Pictionary). Team players get to pick from 500 (sometimes PG-13, sometimes super kinky) sexy words and phrases and then race each other to act out or draw the mature-audience-only terms.
I remember playing the Dirty Minds game eons ago. That was fun. But playing Sexy Slang with friends the other night confirmed that Sexy Slang is the advanced, 21st century evolution of adult party games. It’s [...]

The Belly Project website/blog celebrates women’s bellies, that midsection that is the cause of so much vainly grief but that can also manufacture miracles. This is inspiring, to realize that my own belly is looking just fine, rife with its beautiful baby-making history.
Launched by Dr. Karen Rayne, a sex educator who blogs about adolescent sexuality and by Christy Tashjian, a midwife, this blog invites women to anonymously submit photos of their bellies, each titled only with its reproductive history:
31 years old, 1 pregnancy (1 baby), 38 years old, 1 pregnancy (1 miscarriage), 44 years old, 0 pregnancies, 0 babies, 29 [...]