Rare Bird Finds

50% off Everything at My Favorite Mirror

 

My Favorite Mirror is having a 50% off sale off off EVERYTHING in their store until 9/7/09 so hurry over there for mousepads, coasters, keychains, pocket mirrors and more with amazing images done by indie artists. 

Rare Bird Finds News - Please Read

Hello Birdie Friends!

With a heavy heart, I must sadly announce that Sharla will no longer be a regular contributor for Rare Bird Finds.  Sharla and I made our first Rare Bird Finds post in March of 2006, and it's been a fun ride!  I always looked forward to seeing what finds she discovered and cursing her name for helping to empty out my wallet :)  All of us will greatly miss Sharla's eye for the beautiful and the unusual, but more so, her warm spirit and enthusiasm.  However, she is moving on her journey to take care of her two beautiful toddlers and tending to her jewelry shop (which you really must visit, if you haven't!)

But this isn't the end of Rare Bird Finds!

We will be taking a break in July to clear our heads and come up with some fresh ideas.  If you're signed up for our email digest, you will get an email letting you know when our posts have returned - so please sign up, if you haven't already (the subscription box is on the left column).  But if not, be sure to return Monday, August 3, ok?!

To all of you have been faithful readers these past few years, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  Every day when we post, we post knowing that you're looking forward to our finds.  This blog wouldn't be possible without you.  You keep us motivated, and we love your emails and comments - so keep them coming!

Warmly,

Mei-Lynn

Call for Fresh Ideas!

As a reader of Rare Bird Finds, we welcome any ideas you may offer to help improve our blog.  We're open to suggestions!  Just leave us a comment below or if you prefer, you can email us at rarebirdfinds@yahoo.com.

Call for Writers!

We're looking to add more regular contributors.  If you feel you can spot shopping finds that are a good match for our blog, send us an email along with a sample of 3 - 5 finds with blurbs.  Show us what you got!  Also, send along a bio about yourself (please include if you're a shop owner or if you have your own blog), what category you'd like to post in, and why you think you'd be a good pick! 

NaniBird

One of our readers pointed us to this cute site where you can download and print these cute little birds to make your own.  Love it!  FREE ;)

Paperback Swap - Update

Paperback Swap is the coolest - you can swap books (not just paperbacks) with people across the United States and the most it'll cost you is the cost of shipping.  Basically, you post books you're willing to swap and if someone requests one of your books, you mail it to the person.  In return, when you request someone else's book, they pay the shipping to mail it to you.  I can't wait to try it! 

UPDATE:  I posted about Paperback Swap more than six months ago, and now that I've used it, I can't stop raving about this free site.  I got a bunch of friends hooked on it, too, and they all love it.  I've swapped so many books and have never had any problems.  I'm bumping this up for readers who may have missed my original post about it because this is one of those good things that's worth spreading the word about.  Just post 10 books to start that you're willing to swap, and you get two credits automatically - that's two free books!

Food Gawker

I'm one of those people who could watch Food Network all day.  I love seeing new recipes and dreaming about whipping up delightful dishes.  If you love learning new recipes, you have to check out the site Food Gawker.  It randomly picks recipes from across the web and rotates new recipes throughout the day.  Be ready to drool!

Fonts for Peas

Have you ever wanted a chance to have a free font of your own handwriting? Would you like for it to be available for other fun people to download? Then check out Kevin and Amanda over at Fonts for Peas!

Follow her guidelines for submission and if she likes it, you're in and it's FREE!

Dig 'n' Swap

I was really excited to learn about Dig 'N' Swap: it's basically like raiding your friends' giveaway piles - only on a much, much bigger scale. Upload pics of the clothes and accessories you want to trade, browse through other people's stuff on the site, and then bid on what you want using actual money OR your own used items. It's a cheap, fun, environmentally-friendly way to update your wardrobe. Love it!!

Free Rice

The Free Rice website is such a neat idea - you play a trivia game in a variety of subjects and for every right answer, the site donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program to stop hunger. Beware - game is addicting! Many thanks to Meghan for the tip! 

Win Daily and Weekly Prizes!

Rare Bird Finds has partnered with T-Mobile to offer SIXTEEN amazing prizes exclusively for Rare Bird Finds readers, including $100 gift cards to Crate & Barrel and T-mobile!  WOOHOO! All you have to do to enter is respond to the question posed below and enter your contact info.  Then you're automatically entered for a chance to be randomly picked for daily prizes and weekly prizes.  Contest runs for two weeks starting TODAY! 

Don't be greedy - tell your friends!

T-Mobile is hosting this giveaway to draw awareness to the T-Mobile Ultimate Home giveaway - where you get a chance to win a home!  Learn more about the T-Mobile Ultimate Home giveaway.

Paintings at UGallery

I am totally digging this site called UGallery.com that features original paintings and photographs.  It's a great way to start collecting art for your bare walls.  Plus, who knows, maybe one day one of these art students may go on to be the next hot young thing to hit the art scene.  $100 to $2,000 at UGallery.com

Get Crafty, Save the Environment and Win Prizes!

Hey you! There's a crafty contest where you can use your creative energy to help save the environment! The contest will help bring awareness to 350.org’s goalof reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million to stave off drastic climatic and planetary repercussions.

The Creativity 350 contest is actually two contests in one: A 350-themed craft contest and a 350-themed T-shirt design contest. For the craft contest, participants are invited to craft any project that creatively expresses the importance of the number 350, using any crafting technique. For the T-shirt contest, entrants may create an original T-shirt design that creatively expresses the importance of the number 350.

Entries will be accepted from July 15 to August 15, 2008. Then the public will vote for their favorites from August 16 - August 31, 2008. Valuable craft- and green-themed prizes will be awarded to the two winners. There's a bunch of super cool prizes you can win. The winning T-shirt design will also be utilized by 350.org on t-shirts that will help the organization raise money and create awareness of its mission.

Co-founded by environmentalist and educator Bill McKibben, 350.org centers itself around the number 350 to provide focus on a clear, concise goal for reducing global warming factors: "350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth."

DVD and CD Swap

So, yesterday I posted about the Paperback Swap where you can swap out books you don't want with other people to get different books.  Welllllll...I just discovered the same folks who do the Paperback Swap also do a DVD Swap and CD Swap!  Imagine!  Happy swapping!

Paperback Swap

Paperback Swap is the coolest - you can swap books (not just paperbacks) with people across the United States and the most it'll cost you is the cost of shipping.  Basically, you post books you're willing to swap and if someone requests one of your books, you mail it to the person.  In return, when you request someone else's book, they pay the shipping to mail it to you.  I can't wait to try it! 

Send a Group E-Card Free!

Ah, this is the coolest - an online greeting card site that lets multiple people sign the same card.  Yep, a group e-card!  Best of all - it's free!  Many thanks to reader Angela for the tip!

Retail Me Not - Coupon Codes

Shopping online can be even sweeter when you have a coupon code.  One of my favorite coupon code sites is Retail Me Not.   Features more than 13,000 mainstream shops and available coupon codes.  What I love is that it also gives the success rate so you know if a coupon is going to work or not.  Seriously, if you're going to spend money anyway at Amazon or Victoria's Secret, you might as well save some moolah or get a free gift, right?  Thank you, Karen, for first showing me this site!

"Won't You Wear a Sweater?" Day - March 20

Tomorrow, March 20, is "Won't You Wear a Sweater?" Day in memory of Mister Rogers (it would've been his 80th birthday).  It's also part of a weeklong celebration for Pittsburgh, PA's 250th anniversary. 

"We're asking everyone (including members of the media) everywhere (from Pittsburgh to Paris) to wear their favorite sweater on that day," said Mr. McFeely (aka David Newell) the public relations director for the non-profit Family Communications, Inc. founded by Mr. Rogers. "It doesn't have to have a zipper down the front like the one Mister Rogers wore on the program, it just has to be special to you."

If you were a Mr. Rogers' fan (like me!) then don't forget to wear your sweater tomorrow!

For more information, visit http://www.fci.org/NeighborDays/sweater.asp.

Historical Library of Congress Photos now on Flickr

 

Super cool: Flickr partnered with the Library of Congress to bring 3,000 historic photos into the public domain through a program called The Commons. I totally love looking at old photos, and if you do, too, then it's worth checking out this pilot program.  They hope this pilot program gets adopted by other cultural institutions around the world - how cool would that be? 

The two collections from the Library of Congress are: 1) The Bain Collection of news photos 2) American Memory: Color Photographs from the Great Depression.

If you're a Flickr member, be sure to enrich this program by adding your own tags to these photos!

DIY - Image Transfers

Feeling like getting your crafty groove on?  I just discovered this neat-o site that features links to various how-to's dealing with image transfers.  Learn how to transfer an image from your ink jet to fabric, make super cool Polaroid transfer, transfer images to Polymer Clay and more!

Jack Cards - Reminder Service

Gosh, sometimes my schedule is so busy I forget about important things like a friend's birthday or an anniversary.  The site Jack Cards is a big help for folks like me - you enter in all your important dates and pick cards for each one, and a couple of weeks before each event, Jack Cards will send you the card.  It's a great reminder service AND it saves you time.  More than 1,000 great cards to choose from! Cards start at $1.50.

Hacking a More Tasteful MySpace

The MySpace layout often leaves much to be desired, and so this hack by Mike Industries for creating a "more tasteful" MySpace is quite nifty and easy to follow since it provides all the instructions you need as well as templates.  Many thanks to Nicole from Pink Loves Brown whose MySpace page is super pretty - check it out!