Yep It's Free:::Teacher Thank You Card

For parents, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Back to school time. You've enjoyed having the kiddies around, but summer boredom set in a couple weeks ago and you're ready (and ready for them) to get back into the school year routine. For teachers, it's also the most wonderful time of the year because for the first time in three months, you're getting a pay check! (Side note: as the child of two teachers I learned this the hard way as school shopping was usually done in June and August was full of lots of "left overs" for dinner.) So, back to you parents. Why not take a minute and write a little thank you note to your child's/children's teacher/teachers (you can print as many as you need, so go crazy!) and let them know how excited you are for the upcoming year. I promise you, these little encouragements go a long way when working in such an underappreciated career. The cards fit easily into an A-2 size or 5 Bar envelope. The pdf file includes trim lines so you're pretty much out of excuses for not spreading the love. Happy Writing! To download (for free!) click here. Your download will start immediately.

Modish Monthly Meetup:::September Goals

The longer I'm doing this thing called Paper Mango the more I realize flexibility is maybe like theeeeee most important thing for me to have. Personally and in business things are always changing, circumstances are changing, things that I can not control are changing and so, I must change as well. Not an easy task for a girl who loves routine. But I'm learning. So maybe I didn't meet all of my goals to a "T" but, man, August was a good month for me. I had a slew of custom orders come in (and go out!), the icing is just about ready to be put on the cake for the new www.papermangodesign.com, I didn't design 10 distinct holiday cards, but I changed direction and decided to create holiday suites so I really designed quite a bit more than originally planned. So my goals were met, just not exactly how I had planned to meet them. The Winter Art Fair is taking a back seat I'm afraid. Still haven't heard any thing from them, and I've been getting good response from some online advertising so I think I'm going to put my eggs in that basket for now and move on to the next basket when things are a bit more manageable. The one thing that was really a bust was the business cards. I had them designed, then saw this cool idea on the Make It blog and decided that might be a cool way for me to make business cards and recycle paper scraps. Well, haven't gotten around to deciding on that one, which is why it's back on the list for September. Speaking of September, yay it's September! That means here in Phoenix we *might* get out of the triple digits which have been haunting us since May. So, here's to 90 degree weather, productivity and flexibility. Hope your August was stellar and that September is full of new and exciting things for you!

Sustainability:::pamper

Sustainability is posting a bit later than usual today because instead of being a diligent blogger this weekend, I was off camping with my husband and niece and nephew in the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, AZ. And as much as I enjoy a weekend full of dirt, sun, smoke, sleepless nights and out houses I could sure use a good soak in a bath and massage right now. But since I still have mountains of smokey laundry to attend to I thought I'd live vicariously through all of these luscious, sustainable, pamper products.

Enjoy!

1. Doodle Bugs Fun Fabrics - Luxury Bamboo Sleep Mask

I really love these 50% bamboo 50% organic cotton sleep masks from Doodle Bug. The design is adorable and the oversize mask and adjustable straps mean you'll get a custom fit and a light-free rest.

2. Good 4 You - Salve-ation

This all purpose healing salve is perfect for dry skin, chapped lips, beautification, cuts, and more. Organic extra virgin olive oil (Lucini hand picked olives from Italy) infused with calendula flowers, milky oat tops, burdock root, marshmallow root, German chamomile flowers & violets; local beeswax, organic raw unrefined shea butter, organic coconut oil, mango butter, bee pollen, royal jelly and the essential oil of organic lavender. And on top of all that many of the ingredients are organically grown and locally harvested.

3. Sudstress - Lavender-Patchoulie Mineral Bath Soak

Oh I want this right now. Made with Dead Sea salts (renown for their skin healing properties) and essential oils I can imagine a bath in this would leave your skin feeling baby soft and smelling wonderful.

4. Orglamix - Midnight Sun Eye Color Collection

These beautiful eye shadows are made with 100% pure minerals and without any synthetic dyes, chemicals or petroleum based ingredients like most of the make-up options out there. I love that their color collections are totally affordable and take the guess work out of the morning make-up routine. This combo would be great for daily wear for a simple girl (like myself) but check out their hundreds of colors and combos and you'll find something to dress up your eyes for every occasion.

Happy Shopping!

Music to Create To - Imogen Heap :: Ellipse

The time has come, my friends. The long awaited, much anticipated album "Ellipse" from Imogen Heap has arrived. And since Monday when I got my pre-release mp3 album it hasn't stopped playing in my car, on my iPod or iMac depending on where I am physically. Not that this is actually possible, but if I had to use one word to describe this album musically it would be "stacatto" (a music term meaning "short detached notes"). Every song is filled with these short bits of melody and layered ambient noise and sound. Even the more sweeping and legato (opposite of stacatto) songs seem like they are created by knitting together small pieces of sound and space to create the illusion of continual sound. What's amazing is that there isn't a feeling of it being choppy or detached or unrelated. It all works together and it's beautiful. Lyrically it's a masterpiece as well. Some songs like "Canvas" I'm still processing. Wondering if there is one interpretation or if I'm supposed to discover my own. Others like "Bad Body Double" are hilarious, straight forward slices of everyday life put to melody, rhythm and rhyme. Truthfully, I could go on and on about this album. I love it. It was well worth the four year wait and I'm hoping and praying that her tour comes within a 5 hour drive of Phoenix. But I'll leave you with her website www.imogenheap.com where you can purchase the album and a little teaser with her first video for the song "Canvas". Enjoy!

New at Paper Mango:::More Holiday Cheer

New in the Paper Mango Etsy store are these two fabulous Holiday suites! The "Snow Flurries" design is available in a No. 10 size card and gift tags and "Bubbly" is available in a 5x7 or A-2 card and gift tags. All cards are available for purchase in a set of ten or singly. And if you're one of the cool kids, make sure to take advantage of our free shipping for order of three sets or more! Click here to see more of "Snow Flurries" and here for "Bubbly"

Happy Shopping!

Sustainability:::fashion

Before I get on with this week's sustainable picks I'd like to say thanks to all of you who have been so encouraging of this series. It's definitely been the most fun, natural and peaceful endeavor I've set out on since I started the Paper Mango blog a little over a year ago. With that in mind, I'm adding a bit more structure to the series to keep it going on the straight and narrow. From now on you'll see post titles like today's with different genre's of sustainable products taking the spotlight. Upcoming posts will feature - :::pamper, :::home, :::food, you get the picture. Have a genre you'd like to see featured? Leave a comment and I'll get to work! Now on to some honestly hot sustainable clothes!

1. Zelaya - Pebbles Top

This adorable top is made from organic cotton and features a scoop neck and raw edges. The "pebbles" are crafted from remnant fabric and then sewn on. How clever!

2. Flytrap - Feather Tee

You can throw this 100% organic cotton tee on with your rattiest jeans and gardening clogs, if you want to, but it will be equally at home with a pretty cotton skirt and leather sandals. It is "honest-to-goodness" preshrunk which will help to avoid those dryer surprises when your boyfriend/husband/roommate/brother does the laundry!

3. Infusion - Eco Toes

These adorable shoes are in limited edition so go snag them fast! Made with golden yellow organic cotton, lined with up-cycled linen so they are sustainable & stylish. The straps are secured with velcro and topped with a natural wooden button. The sole is a rugged natural hemp canvas. My tootsies could seriously slip into these right now.

4. Econica - Cranberry Coat

A beautiful, soft spring (or middle of winter here in PHX) coat in light cranberry. The outer shell is made with thick and plushy organic cotton fleece and lined with "LILLIES" print cotton jersey.

Happy shopping!

Music to Create To - thecurrent.org

A few months ago the wonderfully talented Laura of laurabrownart.com introduced me to a local Minneapolis radio station called The Current. Since then I think I've listened to their live internet stream every day. For hours on end. The Current is a sponsored public radio station (think NPR) and therefore isn't trying to please advertisers with a top 40 music line up. Let's just take a look at the artists recently played in red in the screen shot above, shall we? Imogen (we're on a first name basis), Common (only has a first name), The Dandy Warhols and a couple of other artists I'm not super familiar with, but their songs were rocking. The DJs are fabulous (I swear Mark Wheat is Murray from Flight of the Conchords), they have awesome live in studio performances and I always get jealous hearing of all the killer shows coming to Minneapolis. If you work on a computer all day like I do, you should definitely start streaming thecurrent.org. Now.

Happy listening!