Life behind Black Greeting Cards

Yes, if we did have a Black Vogue what an amazing contribution to our black cuture it would be. It could still happen, we have a black president, or more homely a black family in the white house, who ever thought that would happen apart from Martin Luther King “I Had a Dream”.

Well when the time does come for us to see Black Vogue in our local newsagents, we will look no further than African Vogue Photographer & founder – MARIO EPANYA, and give him thanks for a talent that captures the essence of black people with a lens.

Read the interview with this talented Photographer here..

View more of these great images at dredecarlo …

Erykah Badu is a beautiful black queen and a great singer. Many recognise her because of the African head wraps she wears. I have collected from around the web a sample of those beautiful images. I love the wraps, each wearer has their own style, and its that individualism that makes head wraps special and unique.

If you see any more images of Eryah’s African head dresses, please share..

Thanks to these folks for have great images of Erykah Badu

image 1 – people.com

image 2 – thankgodimnatural.wordpress.com – (great blog name)

images 3 – 5 - last.fm

One year today I wrote about my girlie ice skater greeting card design. Also in that post (which you can read here) I mentioned that “I don’t see any black ice skaters on TV”. Now 1 year on I am watching Yannick Bonheur and Vanessa James, 1st black due ice skating couple competiting in the Winter Olympics, thanks to youtube.

image from theblacksite.com

Watch it with your children, it will encourage them to see sports as a careers, while also seeing people who reflect their identity. I will say this when I watched it and they were flying fly and doing fast, twirly routines I was nervous for them. When he throw her in the air, i kept saying to myself don’t drop, don’t drop. An you know what she landed perfectly it was skillful, artistic and beautiful.

More postive images of us on the big screen, small screen and youtube screen is what i hope to continue to see.

Watch and enjoy..

While working on a range of children’s birthday cards, and pondering whether to add an age onto the designs or in look into the personalised route, it dawned on me that cards for the under 3′s are not brought for the birthday child – not really. I can hear all you saying ‘No that’s not true, the birthday card I buy, is always for the birthday boy or girl’. I don’t doubt that you have good intensions, when looking to purchase that special birthday card.

However we are over looking a few things like: have we forgotten that under 3 year olds cannot open envelopes properly or neatly, unless tearing the envelope and birthday card, while eating a little bit of the envelope is acceptable? Isn’t this the reason why we knowingly give the birthday card to the parent instead of the ‘Birthday Child’?

Not convinced ok, then what about the image on the front on the card. We know the routine, when it comes to buying cards, so there’s no need to lie. We ladies can spend hours looking for that perfect greeting card, but when it comes to a birthday card that has to have a 1, 2 or age 3 on it, it has to convey that extra bit of cuteness we all love. We as the buyers have to be able to go ‘arrrrr’ before the birthday card gets short listed. After we have looked through the 5 – 10 which were lucky enough to get short listed the cutest birthday card is chosen. Then after all that when we take this cutest birthday card to the birthday household, we carefully hand it to the parent of the ‘Birthday Child’. We stand there with baited breath as the parent opens the envelope and looks at the card image. While looking on, we are thinking ‘will they think it’s cute enough to give it an ‘arrrr’ and show it off to those around or will it get a ‘that’s nice’, quickly moving on to the next cards’.

For blood pressure’s sake, we’ll let the card get its arrrr and is shared with those around. Having that acceptance we bashfully say, oh it was nothing really, then like clock work the parent shows the birthday card to the ‘Birthday Child’. Evidently the birthday child is sitting on the floor surrounded by great looking presents, but having a great time with the wrapping paper and an empty box.

Now are you thinking more on the lines of who we really buy the birthday cards for?

No, o.k this is the last one. You have brought the cutest birthday card ever and what do you do. You sit down at the table with pen in hand and write a lot of special sentimental words. Now who is going to read those special words, for as we already know under 3 year olds cannot read as fluently, as you wrote those 6 lined verse, which you drafted 3 times before committing it to the greeting card.

There you have it, we are not buying these cards for the one who’s birthday it is, even though we start out with them in mind, instead we are really buying for the parent of the birthday child. Now looking at the greeting card industry should we continue to have titles like ” Happy Birthday, 1 today’ or should we start seeing this title ‘To the parents of the Birthday Girl or boy aged 1 today’. Food for thought.

Question: Would you purchase a birthday card with the title beginning with ‘ To the parents of the ‘,

I would love your comments on this; I look forward to reading your views.

Have a Great Day

Janet

If you are a regular to my blog and website, you will see that the website looks a little different in terms of the composition but the overall look of images and links look the same. If you are new stick with me anyway I finished updating my website, which took me 2 solid weeks to do. To look at it you wouldn’t think I did anything but that’s just the surface, the pretty things you see. As long the clicks take you to where it should then all seems good. All the hard work I did was behind the scenes.

By the 2nd week it had turned into a challenge because it was getting less and less motivating for me. After the initial hard work I then had to cut and paste every page details into my new website layout, I thought I would not have to do this but I was wrong. When I finished I was so thankful that I pushed myself to complete it.

When I uploaded my work, happiness and being proud filled me. When you work for yourself you don’t have the privilege of co-workers or bosses pushing you and motivating you on, that job is all down to one person. I had overcome a challenge, which I never planned for.

That night I sat down wrote my thankfulness and what I had achieved in the day, into my gratitude diary, which I started in December 2009. My goal was to have a deeper level of understanding of my feelings and how my actions affected me. I did not want a diary that merely recorded the days actual events but how the day’s events effected me on a emotional level. Since doing it, it has inspired me in more ways than one.

It got me thinking about you the readers, are you really thankful. We hustle and bustle every day, working hard to pay those bills, to put food on the table but have you ever thought ‘what if I didn’t have what I have’. I constantly share with my maker how thankful I am because I know there are others who are less fortunate than myself. In my diary I have written ‘I am thankful for having a roof over my family’s heads, and I am blessed to be able to put food on the table and clothes and our backs’, Now this is something we use and do everyday without actually acknowledging it, but we would acknowledge if we woke up without these privileges. Yes I called the privileges, because those without a roof over their heads are thankful for being alive, or being able to find somewhere warm to sleep.

Here’s something you could do, it’s simple but very effective:
Stop what you are doing and sit down, and look around the room at all your items of furniture, gadgets etc.. Think about the food you have brought, the car you drive, then imagine you and your family without them.

What would be better to do?

Be thankful for what you have now, and say it loud and proud or Pray in silence when it’s gone, and you want them back.

Don’t wait till your backs against the wall, to appreciate what you have in your life.