Meowy Christmas

Just in time for holiday card mailings -- this Christmas cat stamp from our family store's winter holiday collection.

The brother & sister kittens we adopted over the summer -- bringing the grand total to 3, including an ever-sleepy senior cat  -- inspired our 15-year-old artist in residence.

As always, half the design proceeds go to Save the Children.

Food on the Table

This personalized placemat is a kids-helping-kids twofer: The design is teen-created and benefits Save the Children, while the placemats themselves are made in the USA by "sustainably employed" single moms -- helping them feed their kids & break the poverty cycle. Type color on the name (and family name, for that matter) can be switched out in a click, so it's easy to customize one for each family member.

Go Daddy

This cool Fender guitar drawing by our 13-year-old is a great fit for Father's Day gifts that benefit Save the Children, including a personalized mug, greeting card & baby T. See much more at Karate Kat Graphics.

Book it!

By customer request, personalized bookplates are the latest addition to our family shop, Karate Kat Graphics, which uses kids' artwork to help kids in extreme poverty through Save the Children. Choose from a variety of critters (the ladybug design shown, a dragonfly, bird, butterfly & an ocean scene) or go with flowers or a purple-hued rainbow. A sheet of 20 adhesive bookplates sets you back about 5 bucks.

Lemon-Aid

It's still solidly hot chocolate weather here in the Midwest, but before long we'll have flowers, and sun, and kids' lemonade stands. The drinks always taste a bit better at stands giving all or part of their proceeds to charity. I'm counting on some that benefit the Red Cross this year or other organizations helping Haiti. And it's likely that at least one local kid-preneur will again set up an Alex's Lemonade Stand to help kids with cancer.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation started in 2000, when then 4-year-old cancer patient Alexandra Scott set up a lemonade stand to help "her doctors" find a cure for cancer. Despite failing health, she repeated the practice for four years and ultimately turned it into a nationwide lemonade-stand campaign. Alex lost her battle with cancer in August 2004, but only after raising more than $1 million through her campaign. And the organization she inspired has now raised more than $30 million for childhood cancer research, treatment, and family support -- nearly half of that through lemonade stands led by kids of all incomes & ages. How sweet that is.