This year, each day has made me oh-so-grateful for my family and friends, and I’ve had my eyes and ears open for ways to show my appreciation and give back. This Sunday, ankle injury permitting, I will be riding in the Napa Valley Tour De Cure, raising money to support diabetes research—and avoiding a Cinco de Mayo bar crawl. I'm riding for each of my friends who live with this disease each day - and especially proud to be on Team Brauer!

Faced with needing to raise a minimum of $500 for the charity ride, Andrew and I decided to combine powers and come up with a line of greeting cards to celebrate some very special people in our lives - our mothers.

Whether you were a

slurpee drinker,

mudslinger,

beanie baby collector,

or klutz...

we hope these cards will remind you (and your mom) of simpler times when a

note in your lunch box was embarrassing,

but having a Game Boy made up for it.

Each card is $10. All proceeds will go towards our Tour de Cure fundraising. For pre-Mother's Day delivery, please place your order by Friday, May 3. E-mail ashling(at)lotusandash.com with: (1) Your desired quantity/design (game boy, slurpee, beanie baby, band-aid, lunch, or laundry) (2) Your delivery address and we can take it from there…

Already got your momma a card? Support the cause with a bespoke card.

Poster prints of the bike design are available upon request. All proceeds will go to Tour de Cure as well!

thank you and a very happy (early) mother's day.

* if you'd like to donate without purchasing a card, visit the Team Brauer website *

COOKING...

WHICH IS A LOT LIKE

MAKING A WEBSITE.

(And other lessons from the L&A San Francisco front line)

HOW?

All the pieces come disassembled
There are instructions, but they are confusing. Always confusing.
You may think you're following the instructions, but then you attach the wrong side to the wrong wooden dowel, or you add in the tumeric too soon, or your website works in safari, but not IE...

moral of the story: you will mess up. So, you better get good at covering up your mistakes.

BUT, going back and editing your mistakes can be long, tedious, and perhaps even impossible.
In the end, when it all comes together, it will LOOK great (though it might not stand/taste/SEO so great). And it is definitely worth all the blood, sweat, and tears.

Indeed, L&A has been busy furnishing | coding | cooking with an 88% success rate! (The 12% is mostly the cooking... and a slightly off center ikea shelf).

LESSONS LEARNED: