America the Beautiful - Animated eCards for July 4th

We have added two new cards to our selection for U.S. independence day. The first card, "Liberty" features Ginger, a golden Labrador, who unwittingly creates quite the piece of art out of sand on the beach. Despite a funny twist, it ends on a touching note.



Both cards are set to two very different renditions of "America the Beautiful". The second card by the same title as the song includes a wonderful jazzy swing rendition to get you right in a big Apple sort of mood. This card is an adaption of the card "Celestial" released last year for New Year, updated to capture just a few of the things that must have inspired the title "America the Beautiful".



In addition to these two new cards there are a number of other cards that were created for July 4th celebrations, below are a few. The card "Hope" is an uplifting alternative for those looking for a message of peace that is still highly suitable for celebrating July 4th and features one of my favorite musical pieces by composer Respighi.

Ojolie Animated eCard Contest for Father's Day

For the coming Father's Day this Sunday, we have 3 FREE memberships to give away! So YOU, too, can send our animated ecards to your family and friends.

If you would like a chance to win one, please comment below about the ecards that you like (and why). For a 2nd entry, blog about this contest, with a link back to this post (don't forget to tell me that you did so). Be sure to tell all your friends about this fun contest as well!

I will announce the winners (via random drawing) on Saturday, the 20th. I am sorry that the contest lasts only for such a short time. Next time, there will be more time for the future contests.

We have a number of other suitable cards for Father's Day, here are just a few to get you started:



If you like our ecards, you can subscribe to our new ecard announcement via email. You can also follow us on Twitter.

Gone Sailing - Father's Day Animated eCard

Our newest card, "Gone Sailing", created with Father's Day in mind, is a rich journey illustrated in watercolor for the sailing enthusiast as well as anyone who enjoys summer, the big open seas, or just relaxing on a beach with a cold drink. It can be used for many other occasions, such as birthdays, summer greetings, anniversaries, well you get the point - almost anything.

Gone Sailing



We have a number of other suitable cards for Father's Day, here are just a few to get you started:



As I write this I am myself about to take off for a short journey, to the mountains instead of the sea, to photograph a very different kind of body of water - a high altitude meteor lake. I hope to get back to writing about it in my blog as soon as I get back to celebrate Father's Day at the Tu household. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful Father's Day however you decide to celebrate those great men in your life.

Happy Father's Day!

Frederikke

Monkey Business

Last night I found some embroidery I had made and decided to sew up a little dress. Maybe it is because I don’t have a daughter, but in any case, this morning my older son, Emil, quickly seized the dress for his brother’s stuffed monkey (maybe it is because he doesn’t have a little sister he can torture instead). He looked so cute but I am sure he will hate me when he is a teenager for sharing this photo. I wish I could share another recent photo I snapped of Emil in the little boys room and Esben sitting by the door while they play cards. He usually just stands outside holding his nose while they continue talking incessantly - when they are together they never seem to run out of things to talk about. In fact Tim and I are lucky if we can get a word in around the dinner table ...

Art Class

On Sunday’s I teach an art class to Emil, Esben and three of my friends’ kids, Karina, Rachel and Lauren. There is a big age span from 5-12 years, so finding suitable assignments isn’t always easy. The older kids are able to learn a bit of technique, while I want the younger kids to just draw or paint whatever they are inspired to do. Last week we made sculptures from aluminum foil, a great way to get them into sculpting without all the mess of clay – and with five kids and a distracted art teacher that has to be a consideration. While the kids get into it, we mommies sit around and commiserate to a glass of wine. We are all European women married to Taiwanese men. We would probably commiserate even if we were married to European men … Tim wisely goes and spends time with his second wife, his computer:-)

Watercolor Paper

I have set up my painting studio in the brightest corner of our home with linen curtains filtering the light. A little while back I was in a real bind because I could not find the paper I use for watercolor painting anywhere here.

I use Windsor & Newton Hot Press, 300 lb sheets, because the ultra fine smooth surface is best suited for scanning the images I use in the flash animated ecards. Tim frantically called a long list of stores, but each store said the distributor had stopped carrying the paper. Finally he convinced an employee at the distributor to go and dig around in the stock room. Low and behold he found 200 sheets! Yeah, we bought it all, and stuffed it under our bed. I would have been better to have all the money we paid for it stuffed into the mattress, but hey, at least the paper should last a few years I hope …

I refuse to be practical

Yesterday I finally got around to sewing an apron (after ruining several shirts while cooking). I admit it turned out slightly fanciful – Tim’s exact words were "myyyyy, it is sooooo girly", but hey, who says aprons have to be purely practical – with this apron I might actually get in the right mood to cook more often and look pretty darn cute doing it :) Since I didn’t have a pattern available I just started with a two square pieces of fabric, that were stitched together to make the front and back of the apron. I then rutched the top hem and the waist to give the apron some shape.

The result is a fully reversible apron - hey that IS practical come to think of it - the other side being made entirely from the blue fabric used for the contrasting edges and strings on the "front" of the apron. Tim took some snaps as the sun was quickly setting this evening – the pictures don’t reveal how hot and humid it actually was.


I had used the same blue fabric a little while back to make a hem for our mosquito net and had a little left for use on the apron. After we bought our poster bed, I realized it was impossible to find a net that was the right size, so I made one from silk chiffon. But the chiffon is so light that without a heavier weight hem, it flutters too easily with every tiny breeze.


While the net might be purely cosmetic in some places, here it is a must. So now we can lie in our little cocoon, looking at the world veiled in silk chiffon and imagine the university right next door did not start building a huge ugly monster of a concrete building, obscuring the beautiful view of the cow farm we originally had from our balcony. The alternative was that the city would seize the land using eminent domain to build a highway. We are very happy we merely have to put up with a little temporary construction for the building instead. On weekends the kids still come into our bed, not so much for a cuddle anymore as they are too busy reading comics.