If you didn’t win the sandcastle contest this summer, there’s time to practice.  Look at this video to see what can be built. Pretty impressive..

The largest sandcastle on record is shown here, using 1,000 tons of sand! Giant Sandcastle at Weymouth beach, Dorset, Britain. Photograph: Rex features

If your kids are already in school, flip through your summer photos and pull out a favorite. Send it out to friends and relatives to remind them of the fun you had this summer.

Put your photo on our folded photo card, like the one above. You can order it for a horizontal or vertical photograph. If you don’t want to glue on the pictures, we’ll do it for you. If you want the photograph printed right on the card, we can do that too. Just upload your photograph on our site.

Easier than building a sandcastle, that’s for sure.

The Cat and the Fiddle,

The Cow jump’d over the Moon,

The little dog laugh’d to see such Craft,

And the Dish ran away with the Spoon.

This simple rhyme goes back to the 1500’s when even then, parents taught their children poems and songs to introduce them to language. Nursery rhymes are important to young children because they learn culture, musical awareness, and memory when learning the rhymes.

Seen here is our Cow Jumping Over the Moon design that is so often used to announce a new baby to family and friends. As I always say, this and all our designs are available on all Letters from Lilly products.

I don’t include controversial topics in my blog for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is because I simply want to share some interesting details about Letters from Lilly designs. I want it to be fun to write and enjoyable to read.

And who would have guessed that flip flops would carry controversy? In the short time I researched flip flops, all I found was information that made me go “huh?”

First, there are families arguing about WHO really invented the flip flop. One says their ancestor was the genius responsible for bringing us the flip flop and another says their ancestor did it a decade earlier. Is it really possible that anyone other than a caveman invented them?

Second, because so many are made out of crude oil, they are snubbed by environmentalists. Geez, I’m glad that the companies are starting to make them from recycled tires. Am I?

Third, they are a safety concern. Now I do know that if I hit just a little bit of water on a slick floor, I will FLY across the floor. I know they don’t have an arch and give zero support. So yes, they can be dangerous, but so is hand-gliding and sitting in the sun.

Ugh, all this negative energy makes me tired, which is NOT what this blog is about. If you want to have environmentally friendly and safe flip flops, simply order ours on Letters from Lilly stationery.  Use them in the safety of your home.

Shown above is the sticker, which looks great on the back or front of your envelope. Lots of folks order them for birthday party or wedding favor bags. You also see our gatefold note to the left which is perfect for beach parties or any other occasion you are pulling together this summer.

Live on the edge, wear flip flops.

So if you decide to buy one of these, be sure to get the Letters from Lilly stationery to match! Shown here are our gift enclosure cards - great for birthday party gifts.  Our red golf cart is also a

popular design for Father’s Day gifts. Give your favorite golfer some note cards, whether he’s a big or small guy.

P.S. Just in case I need to say so, Letters from Lilly has absolutely nothing to do with any golf cart other than the one drawn on our papers. Any craziness you decide to partake in, is up to you and is your responsibility. I don’t own one and I’ve never ordered from the company that sells them. You are responsible for your actions… all you tigers out there.

P.P.S. Yes, I know I blogged about the golf cart last time, but we’ve had a lot of attention paid to it recently and when I came across the real thing, I just had to share!

The gliders add to the scenery as they slip through the gentle, but strong winds above, like eagles soaring overhead.

It’s a sight to see.

Before Torrey Pines was a golf course, it was Camp Callan; a military training center specializing in anti-aircraft artillery replacement. The history of the park and its military use began in January 1941 and continued through November 1945.

Letters from Lilly offers a fun golf cart that can be used on any of our stationery products. Customers like the correspondence cards to send messages to fellow golfers.

I’m happy to say that I have recently gone through my front hall closet, my own clothing and shoe closet, and my home office. Not only have I made space for the things I use, but I’ve taken a few trips to Goodwill so that others can use what I am not.

When I went through my home office, I had bags of paper that I wanted to get rid of, but wanted to shred for security reasons. Even though I shred as I go, getting rid of old files that I no longer need means more space for me. Rather then spending time shredding these papers, I took them to my local Goodwill where they shred a file box for under $10.00. Time saver and supporting a good cause.

If you are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin, here is a place where you can get a checklist by room for spring cleaning. One room at a time.

Two of my favorite tips from Organic House Cleaning:

*Use Cloth Rags-Don’t use the new “Disposable Wipes.” Such products are bleached, and are therefore toxins. Recycle old clothing, sheets and towels into rags.

*Recycle Paper and Plastic Bags-  Use the bags that you get from the grocery store to dispose of household garbage. Invest in cloth bags to use for groceries. Paper bags are the most environmentally friendly, however most cities have ordinances against using paper bags for weekly trash pick-ups. Minimize your use of plastic.

If you want to make your own organic cleaning supplies, click on this link to see how.

An organized space makes it easier for your children to concentrate and do their homework. Less clutter makes a more enjoyable space for your whole family. You might not get your home as organized as Lilly’s dollhouse, but she doesn’t keep files and clothes in there so she has an unfair advantage. Use Letters from Lilly stationery with the dollhouse design for your little girl’s thank you notes or gift enclosures (shown above) for birthday parties she attends.

I miss the rumpled corners of correspondence,
the ink blots and crossouts that show
someone lives on the other end, a person
whose hands make errors, leave traces. I miss fine stationery,

its raised elegant
lettering prominent on creamy shades of ivory
or pearl grey. I even miss hasty notes
dashed off on notebook paper, edges
ragged as their scribbled messages-
can’t much write now-thinking of you.
When letters come now, they are formatted
by some distant computer, addressed
to Occupant or To the family living at-
meager greetings at best,
salutations made by committee.
Among the glossy catalogs
and one time only offers
the bills and invoices,
letters arrive so rarely now that I drop
all other mail to the floor when
an envelope arrives and the handwriting is actual handwriting,

the return address somewhere I can locate on any map.
So seldom is it that letters come
That I stop everything else
to identify the scrawl that has come this far-
the twist and the whirl of the letters,
the loops of the numerals. I open
those envelopes first, forgetting
the claim of any other mail,
hoping for news I could not read
in any other way but this.
“Elegy for the Personal Letter” by Allison Joseph, from My Father’s
Kites. © Steel Toe Books, 2010

Take time to look out your window, plant some flowers, send a note to a friend. Send a note using a pen and stationery. It’s ok if you make a mistake and have to cross out, that’s the luxury of a handwritten note.

Below see our fold over note with the window box. A perfect example of stationery that can be used to correspond to a friend.

One is a stellar, white orchid donning seven perfect blossoms down it’s stem. The other is a yellow and red beauty that looks as perfect as the day it was delivered to me. See it in the picture below?

Both of them were gifts during Christmas. My secret is this; I’m afraid of them. Yes, I can hardly look at them. I have to steal glances of their perfection because if I even look at them, they will die.

I have a friend in San Francisco (who will remain nameless, but you know who you are) who has given me fabulous orchids and I’d tend to them, but not often, knowing that they like to be left on their own.  I did invest in the special food for them. I kept track of when they might need the food or a tiny bit of water. They always died. She’d come to visit and I’d have lots of pots of green leaves, no flowers. I visit her and see her lush, amazing orchids with friendly blossoms dripping down their stems.

Why can’t I make an orchid bloom again? And with this being true, why are these two still living? I think because I do nothing to them. I have never fed them. I have never watered them. I have never even touched them. I only look at them when I am walking past them and even then, I walk quickly.

This weekend I’m going to San Francisco to see this friend. She’s taking me to The San Francisco Orchid Society’s Pacific Orchid Exposition. I’m very excited. I’m going to stare at all the orchids. I’m going to take pictures and dare them to die on the spot. I’m going to try to learn something about these fragile, mysterious flowers that are so gentle and beautiful.

Do you see how the yellow and red orchid, in the photograph, has a Christmas ribbon woven though it as part of the arrangement design? If I play my cards right, it will still be alive this summer, Christmas ribbon and all because I’m afraid to touch it!

The orchid I can really look at is the one on our papers. The potted orchid is shown above on our invitation and is great for a spring occasion you are planning in the near future.

One of my favorite traditions for her birthday used to be to go Wildflour Bakery and pick out a fancy cake that she would share with friends to celebrate her special day. Talk about customer service, we’d get the royal treatment from Sue, the owner and baker at Wildflour. She’d sit down with us like Lilly was planning her wedding, year after year.

We’d pour over bridal magazines and fancy cake catalogs and Lilly would look at every last cake until the best jumped out at her. It was usually something to do with Barbie, fairies, or a special princess.

I always liked the small gatherings of girls and boys that would help us celebrate the magical day.

Shown below is a Sleeping Beauty cake from one of Lilly’s birthdays.

Tomorrow we’re making sleepover cupcakes, in addition to a cake in the shape of a heart.

It will be a special day. Every day is special, but having my little girl turn into a teenager, magically overnight, will be…emotional and dramatic. I can be as emotional and dramatic as any teenager.

The bakery design is one of our newest designs.  One of our customers wanted a design on her stationery to include with her own baked goods. Do you want a particular design? Let us know. (After I recover from tomorrow).

The history of the baby buggy goes way back 300 years. Even back then, every mother enjoyed a stroll in the sunshine with her baby, but it wasn’t always as easy as it is today.

It is said that William Kent, a garden engineer, invented the first baby buggy for the third Duke of Devonshire. It even had springs so the baby could ride in comfort while pulled by a goat!

The buggy used to be large and cumbersome. It wasn’t until a daughter complained to her father about lugging her stroller from America to England that a collapsible one was invented.

Our baby buggy is one of the original designs of Letters from Lilly and used for expected little boys and girls alike. It’s wonderful for the baby showers when you don’t know what to expect! Available on all our stationery products.

P.S. Yes, this photograph is Lilly, at 5 months.