Keep E-Posted!

This new eco-friendly, green-era is for procrastinators! Thanks to online stationery companies, you can wait till the last minute to choose your invitations, birth announcements and holiday cards, and sleep soundly at night for saving the rain forests. Oh, printing and mailing are so stone-age, anyway!

Nevertheless, it is impossible to keep it traditional, tasteful, chic and online all at the same time, right? You think nothing can replace the thick card stock, the embossed logo, the beautifully lined envelopes... Well, think again.  Go online and see for yourself the stunning designs and start contributing your share to carbon offset. Even though, I love decorating our mantel with our friends' and families' holiday cards, I hope we receive more cards in our inboxes this year.


Paperless Post 

Paperless Post has hundreds of fine stationery designs with envelopes, liners and logos. You need to buy e-stamps and e-coins to use towards your invitation design and emailing. First 25 stamps are free, then 20 stamps are $4.00. Coins are optional to use for customization. It is add free all the way. They also monitor RSVPs for you.








Pingg Design

Aside the usual birthday and holiday cards, Pingg has quite interesting categories like "Pet Adoption and Birthdays" and "Charity and Fundraiser". 
The basic "pingg" is free including emailing, addressbook and rsvp management. For an additional $10, pingg plus offers ad-free designs with e-envelopes. And if you insist rain forests will survive your desperate need for postal experience, Pingg also prints and sends your cards for you.





 



Nursery Notice

Nursery notice only provides designs for birth announcements. You can either upload a list of recipient emails or buy your Nursery Notice on CD to have a lasting copy. The basic Nursery Notice costs just $34 and the link will stay available online for one month.

Biona Organic Treats

Do you also feel guilty when you give your tot sweets, candies and chocolates? Just in time for Halloween, I saw these sweet treats by Biona Organics on ocado.com. It still is sugar, organic or not, but certainly cuts my guilt by half! Here are few of my tot's favorites: Pineapple Chews,  Jelly Bears and Fruit Lollies.

London Children’s Film Festival

London Children’s Film Festival presents exciting mix of films, animated features, workshops, events and hands-on film fun for kids. The Festival is mainly based at the Barbican Centre plus in 12 different locations throughout London.  All children must be accompanied to all events. Suitable for ages 3+, but check each film's and activity's recommended age range. 30 Oct - 7 Nov 2010  Barbican Centre  Silk Street London   EC2Y 8DS   Film dates and themes: sat 30 oct: be brave sun 31 oct : be scared tue 2 nov sat 6 nov: be musical sun 7 nov: be animated Ticket Office: 0845 120 7500 Buy Tickets

Finders keepers? Not anymore!

I personally love labelling. I labeled everything even before I had a child. It all started with one or two innocent stickers in the kitchen, in the name of being more organised, but I unleashed the labelzilla when I bought the label maker. Soon followed all our tot's toys, clothes and now that she started nursery, there is no end to it. The good thing is, I moved on from my black and white, Arial-font label maker to a whole new world of colorful designs and fun icons. It is a lengthy but exciting project to sit down with your little ones picking colors and icons for their stickers. Have fun! 

This Week's Sales

Two of my favorite online merino/cashmere stores have sales this week. Enjoy browsing and shopping.

At Cambridge Baby, 30% is off Stripy Knitted Hats in Pure Merino Wool this week. Use code Newsletter4* when checking out.

 And at Merino Kids UK, 20% is off all pink items during the month of October. I know it sounds a bit unfair to boys, but it is to support Breast Cancer Research.

Puky Balance Bike

This was love at first sight. I'm not sure if it was just the bright color or the size, but ever since our little girl laid eyes on this bike at one of her friend's house, she has not stopped talking about it. She was only 1.5 years old at the time but even then her feet could reach the floor, and she's not particularly tall for her age.

This is a real upgrade from the trike, which is a lot more difficult to navigate while pushing the pedals.  Puky is like the bike version of Mini Micro T-Bar Scooter, which is also a great investment by the way.

As far as built is concerned, these bikes are well made, sturdy and safe.  Well, they are made in Germany, like most of the good cars! My only curiosity is what they were thinking when they came up with the name. ;-)

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

This muffin is one of our fixed Sunday morning routines along with hazelnut french press coffee for us and babyccino for our tot. Don't be scared by the long ingredients list, it is actually very quick to make. Easy way to get oats into your tot's system, in fact you can increase the oat amount and/or add wheat germ and wheat bran as long as you keep the liquid vs. dry ingredients ratio the same.