Holidays

We're just one month into 2009, but already the holidays have just been sneaking up on me too fast. Lunar New Year came and went with barely any comment from me, even though its MY year, the year of the Ox! Sigh... I once had this ambition to design holiday-specific items for my Etsy shop -- you know, so as to do some seasonal marketing -- but my tendency to procrastinate has foiled my best laid plans... So, needless to say, with only 2 weeks until February 14, there is NO new Valentine's Day card design for sale in my shop... Umm, but I still have ONE left from last year if anyone wants to snatch that one up....

Not to worry, there are more holidays afoot. Did you know that in S. Korea, Valentine's Day is for girls to give gifts to boys, but there's a separate holiday for boys to show their affection to girls? Like Japan, S. Korea celebrates White Day on March 14th. So I still have time to design a White Day card. Or perhaps I can procrastinate a little longer and design something for Black Day. That's on April 14, and it's a uniquely Korean holiday for single people to get together and commiserate over bowls of jjajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce).


But back to Valentine's Day. Oh, ok, I admit I'm not really one of those super romantic people that gets excited over lacy paper hearts and flying cherubs wielding arrows... but, this is for a good cause. For the next 2 weeks, Fred Flare will be selling an assortment of unique and handmade valentines created by Fred Flare designers and customers. 100% of the sales proceeds is going to benefit the Elder Craftsmen, a non-profit organization that enriches the lives of lonely senior citizens through crafts. This group just sounds awesome to me because it was on my grandma's lap that I first learned the joy and reward of making things by hand, and it's something I never had the chance to thank her for. Sooo, go check it out and pay $4 to get a blind assortment of valentine art via snail mail to share with your sweetie(s)! Remember to enter "love" as the coupon code to get free shipping. Read more about the project here and browse the Flickr group pool here.


This year, I donated a few of my "Love, Found" cards to Fred Flare's Snail Mail Valentine's for Charity effort. It's one of the featured cards on their product page!

And here are some of my favorites from other contributors.

The paper cut-out kitty and bunny are from Marin in Omaha, Nebraska.

And the corny-cute salad and dressing saying "Lettuce be together" is from Claudia in Evanston, Illinois.