Laud-It

things that strike me as useful or interesting, especially to celebrate lovely people and important events

[laud-it]

Tree o’forks

A cutlery tree! What a fantastic idea!

An Arbor Day must.

[laud-it]

Even MORE wedding toast advice

Okay, this is the last post about toasts for a while, but the story is good and it has lots of fun videos, so let them either inspire you or be cautionary tales. We trust that you can tell the difference.

So go read this New York Times story and learn how to give a toast! You’re welcome.

[laud-it]

An awesome goodbye party

What a fabulous idea: this artist said goodbye to his 20s in Viking style.

Celebrating the end of an era with wonderful art and a lovely bonfire seems like a total blast. I love that this man approached a moment that seemed uncomfortable with joy and energy and a willingness to make fun of himself for thinking about the “death” of his 20s.

Here’s a link to a video of the ship being set ablaze. V cool!

Best of luck to Kyle in his 30s. I suspect he will do well.

[nevver]

Lee Crutchley

[laud-it]

"There is only now.” I like that.

[laud-it]

Another wedding speech template!

This one’s from Julie, via free people, and it’s a good one (I especially love the exhortation to dance. Yes! Dancing is awesome!)

One of the many lovely things about this speech is that, with a few tweaks, it can be applied to almost any speechification situation. Use it! Laud your friends and family! Spread joy and love and happiness!

with loving Laud,

Allison

allison at laud-it dot com

[laud-it]

Share a conversation, even if you don’t share a common language

That Winston Churchill quote that the United States and Britain are “two nations divided by a common language,” is both true and funny.

But that people are often divided by unshared languages is both true and not very funny.  My grandmother was not able to have any meaningful conversations with her grandparents because they only spoke Norwegian, and she only spoke English. That seems incredibly sad to me, given how important my many years and thousands of conversations with her were. I learned so much from her and it breaks my heart to realize how much she lost by not being able to understand her grandparents.

So I wonder if this in-ear instant translator will solve that problem for families struggling to understand one another. I have no idea whether this thing works or not, but I love love love the idea of helping people be happier and better together. And in real time! That seems amazing and so, so wonderful.

Go forth and share togetherness better, even if you don’t share a language!

In Laud,

Allison

allison at laud-it dot com

[drunkjcrew]

April Fools Day: A Meditation #drunkjcrew #AprilFoolsDay #StillShouldaHadtheParty @drunkjcrewuguys

[laud-it]

A gold leopard baseball party DOES sound fun.

[laud-it]

The gift of art

Give art! To yourself, to your mom next weekend, to your friend tomorrow. Give it just cuz! Art makes the world better.

Send it instead of a note:

Remind someone that they love oysters:

For your book-lovin’ buds:

Make someone think of cake:

For the alphabetacaninophile you run into at the dog run from time to time:

All images are from Jen Bekman’s 20X200.com.

Yay art! Yay artists! Thank you Trey Speegle, Mike Monteiro, Dylan Fareed, Michelle Vaughan, Jane Mount, Martha Rich, and William Wegman for adding to our lives.

[celebrationinspiration]

[laud-it]

Ok, this is pretty cool.

[laud-it]

just the ticket

I’m not completely sure what I would do with 100 vintage tickets, but using them would make whatever it was a bit more fun. Just looking at them makes me cheerful. There has to be some party application for these: attached to invites? used as food or drinks tickets? design inspiration of some type?

(via etsy)

[laud-it]

Funny present for the colorer in your life

Give someone the gift of recoloring his or her life. Well, five images from his or her life, anyway.

Amusing.

[vanityfair]

Kristen Stewart at Vanity Fair’s 2016 Coachella portrait studio.

[laud-it]

I like the greens. And the fact that you can see the photographer.

[laud-it]

Remembering loved ones

I’m looking forward to Allison Gilbert’s new book, Passed and Present (great title, btw)! I love, love, love keeping happy important memories alive, and I love the idea of celebrating those memories in small, daily ways (I write this as I look at a photo of my grandmother which hangs above my desk; Grandmother died in 2007, but I think of her every single day).

Check out Allison’s blog here. I’m thinking of how to arrange for a memory bash - what a lovely idea.

Lauditfully yours,

Allison

allison at laud-it dot com

ps, please keep an eye on those who have just lost life partners - it would be devastating for you to lose them as well

[laud-it]

Fill-in-the-blank wedding toast (for New Yorkers)

Funny. And, although snarky (delightfully so), this toast also hits all the correct speechifying bits and pieces. Well done! I’d like to go to that wedding. (via cupofjo, and ht nymag)

[laud-it]

Now

“What time is it?”

The answer that springs to this Hamilton-besotted author’s mind is “Showtime! Showtime!” but another, almost as good, answer is “now.”

So remind yourself of it! (ht swiss-miss)

Celebrate now and use now and love now.*

Lauditorially yours,

Allison

allison at laud-it dot com

*And also go see Hamilton if you can, and definitely listen to it either way.

[laud-it]

This is lovely advice

I resolve to do this today.  This is an easy, and happy, win for the to-do list.

(via swiss-miss)

yours in Lauditude,

Allison

ps, unrelated, but if you are reading this on March 17, 2016, this bald eagle cam is catching the hatching of an eaglet and it is super cool

[laud-it]

Celebrating the little things

Here at Laud-It Central, we got the windows cleaned a few days ago.  I’m not sure why it took so long to get around to doing it. It’s funny how some projects seem much more daunting than they really are.

A few days before:

A few days after:

Now, every time I look out the windows I get happy. All it took was an hour or so and $107 paid to two very nice windowashers, and my nine windows are beautiful.

May you find a small thing to celebrate today!

love n laudits,

Allison