Mint

From Publisher’s Weekly: De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay’s 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia’s conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah’s trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Available for purchase on Amazon.

{“Currently reading” is a place for me to share the books I’m reading and would recommend to someone else. If you’ve read this, or have a suggestion on what I should read next, do share! You can see other books I recommend here}.

images and descriptions from Oxfam

1. Art Supplies for Kids, $15
When you give the gift of art supplies to kids living in makeshift camps, you are feeding their creativity and improving their community. Working with displaced artists, trash around camps can be recycled to create—for example—paint pots from discarded plastic bottles. In other words, with your support, children can transform today’s refuse into a new vision for their future.

2. Blankets, $18
Nothing takes the chill off like a cozy blanket—especially for those who are driven from their homes because of a natural disaster. This gift of blankets for an entire family provides both warmth and comfort.

3. Support indigenous craftswomen, $90
This gift supports indigenous women who produce craftwork like baskets and pottery to earn their living. Your donation will help these artisans sell their crafts for an equitable price in a fair market.

4. Start a small business, $100
Help a farmer, a fisherman, a basket weaver, or other enterprising people start their own small businesses. Your support will provide the important resources that a small business owner needs to get started.

5. Train a midwife, $150
Help train a midwife working in rural communities to provide prenatal care and birthing support to pregnant women. It’s this simple: when you educate a woman, your gift grows. She’ll help keep women healthy and enable mothers to give their children the best possible start in life.

6. A school meal program for one child, $25
It’s hard to nourish the mind if the belly’s empty. This gift ensures that children in poor communities get a nutritious meal at school. And with proper fuel, there’s no stopping the potential of young minds.

7. Honey bees, $18
Your gift will help small-scale, rural farmers sell their Fair Trade honey. With your support, these farmers will learn how to make a decent living from the products they produce — honey, as well as coffee, grains, and cheese. What could be sweeter?

8. A couple of goats, $100
Many herders depend on their cattle, but cows need lots of water and grass. When drought kills cows, Oxfam restocks with more durable animals like goats—drought resistant and notorious for eating anything. With your help, this couple can play a starring role in tough times, producing milk and offspring.

9. A pack of seeds, $12
This gift is a unique investment in rural communities. Each pack is a reserve of native seeds that ensure that there are plenty for the next planting season and that traditional seed varieties are not lost. Protect native crops and feed the hungry with this fruitful gift.

Also see World Vision and Holiday Gifts That Give Back from the NY Times.

Have a favorite charity to share? Leave a comment & tell us all about it! And for those of you thinking about giving charitable gifts this year, don’t forget to check in with local non-profits, too.

I spotted Canadian artist “Paintbox‘s” work on the Etsy front page yesterday. His paintings are beautiful, and very affordable.

“…you find is that, especially with creative people… people really need long stretches of uninterrupted time to get something done. You cannot ask somebody to be creative in 15 minutes and really think about a problem. You might have a quick idea, but to be in deep thought about a problem and really consider a problem carefully, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time.”

Jason Fried believes the real problem is the “M&Ms,” managers and meetings, and he has a few solutions. Check it out.

via CNN, A Photo Editor, and Mary Rose Aviary

One of Mint’s newest sponsors, Kolo, is a company I wish I’d known about last year when my husband and I got married. For Christmas, we wanted to make little wedding albums for our families, but had a hard time finding the right combination of a simple, classic look combined with a good price and durability. Kolo photo albums, books, and boxes come in beautiful color schemes and a variety of sizes and shapes, and if you want printed pages rather than easy-load albums, they can do that too. You can start building your own album with myKolo, an easy to use application that allows you to create your album online and have it arrive ready for the coffee table (or for gift wrapping!).

Thanks Kolo! Sponsors help make Mint possible, and I am so grateful for their support. If you’re interested in advertising on Mint, please get in touch by emailing mintdesignblog at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to give you all the details.

You guys loved last year’s DIY Gift Guide, so I thought I’d officially make it a Mint tradition. Here are some of my favorite DIY ideas, so you can skip the malls entirely! Since DIY ideas never go out of stock, here is the 2009 DIY Gift Guide.

Fill this box with special memories, stories, and quotes. Too sweet! The perfect handmade holiday gift for your sweetheart.

Make caricatures for each family member! These DIY nesting dolls are an easy sewing/drawing project that anyone could do.

Using a white paint pen, a chalkboard from the craft store turns into an easy DIY project. It’s also perfect for lists (you could put magnets on the back and hang on the fridge) or as a frame for vintage postcards as shown.

This DIY tutorial links to a hot sauce recipe and provides printable jar labels, too.

This knitted fingerless glove tutorial gives you step by step patterns. I love the stripes!

Made from a water bottle and a sock, this DIY handlebar bag is the perfect bike accessory.

An old frame and a plain pegboard turn into this DIY pegboard garden tool organizer.

Kids love fish! And I love this DIY fish mobile because it’s adorable and the perfect answer for what to do with all those (free) paint chips.

A pair of felt rose barrettes are the perfect little girl accessory!

Wrap some blank journals and good novels in pretty papers with this bookmark & book cover tutorial.

Charles the Plushie is easily customizable, and the tutorial gives 4 cute patterns to work from.

Who doesn’t love caramel and fudge sauces? This is a great way to use fabric scraps, and the tutorial has printable hang tags, too.

Peanut butter puppers!

Recycle some old sweaters or failed felting projects to create these catnip cocktails.

One of my favorite DIY projects of the year! If you’re not handy with a saw, you can purchase pre-cut slices and use the provide templates to make these DIY coasters. It’s the perfect way to spruce up your coffee table before the guests arrive!

This Friday, the UNC art department will host its annual holiday sale! The sale runs from 9am to 10pm on Friday, December 10th at The Artery (136 E Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill, NC). There will be prints, ceramics, photographs, drawings, paintings, and more, created by UNC undergrad and graduate art students and teachers. All proceeds benefit the students and the art department. Here’s what I picked up last year!

print by Hanna Heasley