Pomp and Circumstance--Celebrating Graduation Day

Good afternoon and Happy Tuesday! After enjoying the first 80-degree day on Saturday since mid-September, the weather has been a bit of a letdown. That's April for you. 

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of seeing the movie "Very Semi-Serious," which took us behind the scenes of the New Yorker cartoon. There were lots of laughs and an great mix of people who have been featured in the magazine for almost 90 years. There was a Q&A afterward, which was moderated by Calvin Trillin.

For colleges, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and preschools everywhere, graduation is just around the corner. Today, we'll show you how to celebrate your child's achievements (featuring ideas we found online) and show you some games from our shop. 

Before we get into our discussion, I have to feature this DIY graduation hat because it's funny and sadly, it reflects the inevitability of paying off those college loans. Photo courtesy of Celebrations.

First up, here's an idea called "Bright Future," courtesy of the folks at Frog Prince Paperie. Along with their free party printables, they used light bulbs to help decorate the table.

Celebrate your child's graduation with a table of tasty finger foods, cafeteria style! This table includes tater tots, cookies, sandwiches, labeled water bottles, and more. Decorations courtesy of Party City.

A popular graduation party theme is "Keys to Success." From Celebrations at Home, this decor is inspired by the store Anthropologie, and is ideal for the college graduate who is ready to enter the "real world." A "Keys to Success" table is set up where party guests can write notes to the graduate. Tutorial is available at the website.

From Maddycake Muse, here is a great idea for a med or nursing school graduation party. The decor features skeletons, x-rays, pill bottles with candy, and bandage containers with popcorn. Check out the "Red Cross Oreos" in front!

Finally, for preschool graduation parties, look to the alphabet for inspiration using building blocks and chalkboard. Again, this idea is courtesy of Celebrations.

It's now time to show you some of the graduation games we're featuring in our shop. First up, we have a game called "20 Questions," which features (you guessed it) twenty questions about the graduate. In the sample below, I used my high school colors of maroon and gray, along with a pirate mascot.

Second, for kids and adults alike, we offer a game called "How Many Words Can You Make From the Word GRADUATION?" We can include a picture of the graduate with all our games. All you need to do is send us a high-resolution JPEG file.

Next up, we have two games in one featuring celebrities In the first game, party guests will match each celebrities with the high school from which they graduated. The second game features a list of 20 famous people who were at the top (or near the top) of their class. Party guests will determine whether they were valedictorian or salutatorian. 

Fourth, we are offering another "two games in one" deal, which features a word search and college word scramble. In the sample below, I've featured a bulldog mascot.

Finally, our latest offering is a variation of our "Quote/Unquote" game. This one features pearls of wisdom about high school from 20 iconic movies.

For more information on ordering, please consult the "Graduation Games" section of the shop.

After a slow March, business has started to pick up a bit. Below is one of three movie-themed games I created for a customer last week.

We've also started to create our second BINGO game, and we may upload a new graduation game or two. Stay tuned for shop updates!

Have a PRINTASTIC Day!

Kathy

You Gotta Have Park!/Celebrating Earth Day

Good afternoon . . . sorry I've been MIA and for falling behind on blogging. We've been busy networking and creating new games for the shop, which I will talk about below. In addition, we've also been posting a lot of shop updates and fun facts over at our Facebook page.

National Parks Week begins tomorrow. During this week, you can celebrate the wildlife, culture, and history of our over 400 National Parks. Kids can become "junior rangers" and there will nature walks, talk-backs, and tours for all ages. There will also be artwork on display at several locations. For a list of events in your area, consult the event calendar.

Yellowstone National Park

The Yellowstone area in the territories of Montana and Wyoming was established as America's first National Park. The national parks movement was started in response to concerns regarding the destruction of Native American civilization, wildlife, and wilderness. Throughout the next several years, more national parks and monuments were established across the U.S. However, there was no single agency managing the federal park lands/ On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act to create a new federal bureau called the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS was formed as a bureau within the Department of the Interior, responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments. To keep with our theme of celebrating milestones, the National Parks Service will kick-off their centennial celebration this August.

In keeping up with the topic of conservation and nature, millions of Americans will be celebrating Earth Day this coming Wednesday (April 22). Earth Day was founded in 1969 by then-senator Gaylord Nelson to teach Americans about environmental protection. The following year, over 20 million Americans participated in peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform. I was in second grade when this celebration took place and I still remember it fondly. This was the first time I learned about pollution and the effect it had on the environment and living things. With talk in recent years about sustainability and "green living," Earth Day has become the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by billions. Adults and kids celebrate this day by planting trees and wildflowers, making nature crafts, supporting local growers so you don't have to travel far (thus wasting gas), recycling the things you use, and donating unwanted household items, Remember, every day is Earth Day.

Today's Freebie Friday is an Earth Day vocabulary corssword puzzle geared toward kids and tweens. As usual, just right-click to download and print. This puzzle is for personal use only and not for resale. Answers will be published next week.

This week, we have also posted our first BINGO game at the shop, which consists of 30 cocktail-themed cards, along with a blank card, calling mat, and instructions. Below is a sample card. Unlike our other games, this one is available for instant download, but we can personalize it for your event by either hitting the "Request a Custom Order" button or sending us a convo on Etsy.

We've also introduced two new games in our "Quote, Unquote" series. These are trivia games in which party guests match quotes from well-known movies with their titles. The latest topics are high-school movies and sports movies, which you can find in the "Graduation Games" and "Sports and Hobbies" sections of our shop, repsectively.

Speaking of graduations, the Class of 2015 has started celebrating, and we will return next week with some party ideas. Family reunions are big during the summer, and this will also be a future topic of discussion. If you have any ideas for either parties or games, please either comment on our Facebook page or this blog or email us at printasticgames@gmail.com.

Next week's milestone birthdays include:

Happy 25th!

Matthew Underwood (4/23)

Happy 30th!

Steve Johnson (4/19)

Happy 60th!

Judy Davis (4/23)

Michael O'Keefe (4/24)

Happy 65th!

Peter Frampton (4/22)

Rob Hyman (4/24)

Happy 70th!

Doug Clifford (4/24)

Talia Shire (4/25)

Happy 75th!

Michael Parks (4/24)

Al Pacino (4/25)

Stu Cook (4/25)

Bjorn Ulvaeus (4/25)

Happy 80th!

Charles Grodin (4/21)

Still Going Strong!

Shirley MacLaine (81 on 4/24)

Hugh O'Brian (90 on April 4/19)

This weekend, we will be heading to the Tribeca Film Festival to see a documentary called "Very Semi-Serious," which is about the cartoons that appear in The New Yorker.

That's all for today. Have a PRINTASTIC weekend!

Kathy

Baseball Season Begins: A Brief History of Opening Day, Party Ideas, and Shop Updates

1950 Wheaties Ad Featuring
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope

Good afternoon and Happy Monday on a beautiful day in New York City! Yesterday, my husband and I took in the "Mad Men" exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. It was great seeing Don Draper's office up close and personal, along with the costumes and props used on the show. The exhibit will be shown until June 14. Our advice is to get there early because the lines are long. Seeing the exhibit coincided with last night's season premiere. The gang at SC&P have entered the '70s, the styles have changed drastically, and our characters are up to their old tricks. 

It's finally spring and with that, baseball season opened last night with the Cubs losing to the Cardinals, and all other teams begin playing today. Opening Day is one of the most anticipated days in the major league's 162-game schedule. From 1876-1989, baseball's first recognized franchise, the Cincinnati Reds, opened the first game of each season. Opening Day has also become an arena for U.S. Presidents to throw the ceremonial first pitch of the season. This tradition started when William Howard Taft attended the home opener in Washington, D.C. Since then, each sitting President has thrown out at least one ceremonial first ball, either for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series. Some celebrities have also participated in this ritual. 

Here are some fun facts about Opening Day: 

• Throughout his career, Ted Williams had at least one hit each Opening Day. 
• In 1940, Cleveland ace Bob Feller pitched the only Opening Day no-hitter in Major League history.
• On his first swing of the 1974 season, Hank Aaron hit his 714th career home run, which tied Babe Ruth's record.
• In 1907, there was a major snowstorm during the opening game between the Giants and the Phillies. When the Giants started losing, unruly fans threw snowballs at the umpires.
• The biggest Opening Day margin came in 1955, when the Washington Senators beat the New York Yankees, 19 to 1.
• In 1999, the first Opening Day game played outside the U.S. or Canada took place in Monterrey, Mexico, when the Padres faced the Rockies.

Does a team's performance on Opening Day determine the rest of the season? Probably not. The record for the most Opening Day wins is nine, by the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Brown, and the New York Mets. For a chart of Opening Day results for the National League and American League, consult The Baseball Almanac.

For Las Vegas odds and predictions, please check Bovada Sportsbook.

Baseball Party Idea of the Day: Celebrations at Home hits it out of the ballpark with this baseball-themed baby shower. The food labels and old-fashioned jars of candy gives the party a vintage feel. Ticket-style invitations were sent to the guests. The decor also features a baseball base for pennant labels, a scoreboard centerpiece for the dessert table, and centerpiece "diamonds." No baseball-themed party would be complete without traditional ballpark foods such as popcorn, peanuts, Cracker Jacks, Big League Chew, hot dogs, and nachos.

It's now time to introduce our new baseball-themed games from the shop. First up, we have a baseball trivia game, where party guests test their knowledge of the National Pastime. The sample features the text on a stadium photograph. The title is on a black background, and I used an orange border.

Baseball has a long tradition of colorful nicknames. In this matching game, party guests will correctly identify the player with his nickname. The sample features a red, white, and blue vintage background and a silhouette of a batter. I used a typewriter-style font for the text.

Our next game is a word search called "Perfect Pitch," which features 74 Cy Young Award winners. The sample features a baseball mitt within the grid, used a blue border with a black background. I found a baseball-style font for the title.

Finally, here is a crossword featuring terms used in the game. The sample shown below is for a Father's Day BBQ, and it's on an oak background (similar to the wood used for baseball bats) with a red border.

We can customize all games with your choice of color, font and wording to fit sports-themed parties (e.g., bar/bat mitzvah, birthdays, and showers), bachelor parties, and Father's Day. A great idea would be to use team colors! These game and more can be found in the "Sports and Hobbies" section of the shop.

,

Have a PRINTASTIC day!

Kathy

Celebrating Easter, Passover, and Other April Happenings

Good afternoon on a beautiful, sunny, and WARM day in NYC! Unfortunately, it may be the last one for a while because it looks like rain all next week. It figures that I'm on vacation from the job, too. Today's blog post is extra long since the shop will closed all weekend (although you may still place orders).

This weekend, we celebrate the annual holidays of Passover and Easter. These holidays do not fall on a fixed date but vary according to astrological and historical occurrences. Although the traditions for each holiday are different, they both symbolize rebirth and freedom.

Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) is a holiday that commemorates the liberation of Jews as slaves from the Pharaoh in Egypt. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals—along with Sukkot and Shavuot—during which the entire population of the kingdom of Judah made a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.  Passover commences on the 15th day of Nisan. This year, it will begin at sundown tomorrow night. Traditionally, the holiday is observed for eight days although Reform and Reconstructionist Jews observe it for only seven. To celebrate Passover, Jews participate in a ritual called a seder (which means "order" or "arrangement" in Hebrew). The Seder is a retelling of the story of liberation and revolves around the following themes

1. Slavery and Freedom: Under Pharaoh, the slaves worked from sunrise to sundown. On the 15th day of Nissan, the slaves were freed after the ten plagues were released in Egypt. Participants recall slavery by eating matzo (unleavened bread), maror (bitter herbs), and charoset (a paste made of apples, walnuts, and wine, which represents the mortar the slaves used to cement bricks). To celebrate the freedom of the slaves, they eat the matzo, sit in a reclining position, and dip vegetables (karpas) in salt water.

2. Four Cups of Wine: The four cups of wine represent the four expressions of deliverance followed by the almighty in Exodus: "I will bring out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," and I will take." 

3. Seder Plate: This is a special plate that contains six symbolic foods used during the seder. Below is a typical Seder plate with the arrangements of each of the six items. In addition to maror, charoset, and karpas, we also place chazeret (lettuce whose roots are bitter-tasting), a roasted shank bone, which symbolizes the lamb that was offered in sacrifice and eaten at the first seder, and a hard-boiled egg, which was also a festival sacrifice offered at the temple in Jerusalem and was also eaten at the first seder.

4. Focus on the children: A big part of the seder is the retelling of the story of Exodus to one's child. It's a long night, so efforts are made to arouse the interest and curiosity of the children. This is why the youngest child at the seder asks the Mah Nishtanah ("Why is this night different from all other nights?" Among Sepahardic Jews are asked by the assembled company rather than the individual child.

In the coming weeks before Passover, Jews get rid of chametz (bread products) and change the dishes. This is symbolic of spring cleaning. The thing many Jews miss about Passover is not being able to eat leavened products for eight days. Over the past several years, cooks have found ways to create delicious recipes using unleavened products. For Passover recipes and ideas, please consult either a Jewish cookbook or any food-centric website (e.g., Allrecipes, Epicurious, or the Food Network).

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For Christians, Easter is a deeply religious holiday.. It marks the end of the 40-day period of Lent, which commences on Ash Wednesday. The holiday is celebrated on the Sunday following the paschal full moon (the first full moon that occurs after the first day of spring). This year, Easter falls on April 5th. Christians from around the world will attend church in their finest outfits, and in New York, one has the opportunity to witness the annual Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival. At the same time, Easter is one of the most commercial events of the year--there are displays of chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, marshmallow Peeps, and Easter baskets almost everywhere you go. Colorful eggs are also an Easter tradition.

Some people say that Easter is derived from Eostre, a pagan goddess of spring and fertility. Eostre supposedly found a bird that was so cold she turned it into a bunny. but the rabbit still laid eggs as a bird. This may be one of the reasons that bunnies and chicks are connected with the holiday. 

Dyeing of Easter eggs may be related to Mary Magdalene, the first person to see Jesus after resurrection. She was holding a plain egg and the egg began to turn red as Jesus was rising from the dead, and it turned bright red when he started speaking. During the period of Lent, Christians give up dietary items such as meat, eggs, and milk and spend their time praying, meditating, and making personal sacrifices.. In Europe, eating eggs on Easter was one of the joys of the holiday. The eggs were often prevented in colorful baskets that resembled birds' nests, which is another reference to Eostre.

The tradition of chocolate on Easter started in 19th century France and Germany. These traditions soon spread throughout the rest of the continent. The immigrants brought these traditions to the United States. In order to receive their chocolate, children were told to make hats or baskets so the Easter Bunny could leave them there (just like Santa Claus leaves gifts under the tree). Chocolate is a common modern-day sacrifice during Lent, and many are happy to eat it at the end of the period.

Lamb is a traditional Easter meal because Jesus's last supper was the Passover seder. It was most likely that he ate lamb. Ham is also a big part of table at Easter because salted pork lasted all winter and be ready to eat before other fresh meat was available.

Because Easter is a serious holy day, Christians divert these lighthearted symbols of Easter-egg hunts, rabbits, and chickens to the children, who may not be ready to deal with the issues of life and death. 

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Here are some other observances taking place in April:

National Humor Month: Laugh long and hard during National Humor month! We honor those comedians who make us laugh as well as our relatives who always have a joke. National Humor Month is designed to boost public awareness on how laughter can boost morale and improve the quality of one's life. The National Humor Month website contains resources, ways to have fun at work, and a gallery of smileys. This event was founded in 1976 by comedian Larry White.  He started this event because April is usually bleak with rainy weather and taxes are due on the 15th.

Autism Awareness Month: Nearly 25 years ago, April was declared Autism Awareness Month by the National Autism Association to promote inclusion and independence for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is celebrated through declarations by politicians, online events, local events through organizations, and partner opportunities. The puzzle ribbon is one of the most recognizable symbols of the autism community and many show support by wearing it during this month.

Jazz Appreciation Month: For twelve years, April has been declared Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) by the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, along with several other organizations, a number of programs will be held this month to promote jazz, including concerts, lectures, and exhibitions. April was chosen to recognize several jazz greats born in April--Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Gerry Mulligan, and Tito Puente. Check with your local cultural institutions to learn how you can celebrate jazz in your community! 

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Next week's milestone birthdays:

Happy 30th!

Ben McKee (4/7)

Barkhad (4/10)

Happy 40th!

Juicy J (4/5)

Happy 50th!
Frank Black (4/6)
Bill Bellamy (4/6)
Paulina Porizkova (4/9)
Tim "Herb" Alexander (4/10)

Happy 80th!

Bobby Bare (4/7)

Still Going Strong!

Wayne Rogers (82 on 4/7)

Shecky Greene (89 on 4/8)

Hugh Hefner (89 on 4/9)

Jim Fowler (85 on 4/9)

Max von Sydow (86 on 4/10)

Liz Sheridan (86 on 4/10)

Joel Grey (83 on 4/11)

We'll be back next week to talk about the rest of our baby shower games, graduation games, and new listings, along with the usual party ideas, fun facts, and trivia.

Have a PRINTASTIC weekend and happy holidays!

Kathy

Celebrating the Parents-to-Be: Conclusion

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend. Yesterday afternoon, we heard an excellent interview between Matt Zoller Seitz (editor in chief of the excellent Roger Ebert website and TV critic for New York magazine) and the one-and-only Matthew Wiener, "Mad Men" creator extraordinaire. The topic of discussion was the rise of advertising in NYC and it also brought perspective on Jews coming into their own post-World War II. The event took place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

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Today, we conclude our baby shower discussion with a few more ideas I found online, along with some more games from the shop.

As I mentioned last week, throwing male-only or co-ed baby showers is a growing trend. If the weather is warm, a popular idea for co-ed baby shower is a "Baby-Q" Bash. From Pizzazzerie, here are bottles of soda from the "Pop Shoppe." The colors were inspired by the expectant baby's navy, brown, and white nursery. For party favors, boxes of s'mores with heating instructions were given to the guests.

From The Cake Blog, I love this idea for a "Milkaholic Sip & See" shower. The decorations were done in the simple, minimalist style that I like. As you can see, the table featured lots of milk and cookies and cow prints, which tied in with the theme so well.

From the blog Once Cool Pick, guests got to take home "Badass Brownie" mixes in these cute tubes. 

Are you the type of parents who want to find out until the big day whether the new arrival will be a boy or a girl? There are a lot of parents who want to be surprised, and this adorable "What Will it Bee" shower is perfect.  love these onesie cookies with a cute little bee on each.  Courtesy of The Cake Blog.

How many of you love sock monkeys? Sock monkeys date date back to the Victorian era and are a popular shower theme. Here is a retro-themed shower hosted by the owner of Posh Paperie, which features the monkeys in little Radio Flyer red wagons. How retro is this?

It's now time to present more games from the shop:

This new listing is the traditional predictions and advice cards. In the first sample, I've used a variation on the "Cute as a Button" theme. Sample #2 features a colorful circus tent background and a cute baby elephant.

Next, we have a game called "The Great Hospital Scramble." This is a take on the popular JUMBLE game. Party guests unscramble items from a typical baby registry. They will then unscramble the letters in circles to reveal words of advice for the new parent.

Also new from the shop is a game called "Name that Nursery Rhyme Character!" In this party game, guests need to guess the identity of 20 nursery rhyme characters based on hints given. This is another great game for a book-themed baby shower.

On Wednesday, I'll present the rest of the baby shower games that we offer. We will also start working on Bingo games for the shop next week.

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Women's History Month Fun Fact of the Day: Women's History Month comes to an end tomorrow. Did you know that until 1978, a woman could be fired from a job if she became pregnant?That year, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed. Since then, U.S. employers with 15 or more employees are legally bound to provide the same insurance, wages, and additional support to a pregnant woman that would be given to any employee with medical leave or disability.

In other news:

The Dan Feyer dynasty continued as he took home the ACPT trophy for the sixth year in a row. He beat rival Tylar Hinman by a mere half- (some say quarter- ) second. Read all about it here.

Congrats to Kentucky, Wisconsin, Duke, and Michigan State for reaching the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament! The games will take place on April 4th and 6th at Indianapolis. Check out The Bleacher Report for lineups and predictions.

I've just received breaking news that Gene Saks, the Tony-winning director of "Mame" and several Neil Simon plays, has passed away at age 93. Saks started his career as an actor and his professional relationship with Simon began in 1967. Married to the late Bea Arthur for 30 years, they adopted two sons. He also had one daughter with his second wife, who survives him, along with three grandchildren. Here's a video of Mr. Saks directing the movie version of "The Odd Couple." May he rest in peace.



Wednesday's blog topic will be Easter and Passover. The shop will be closed from this Friday through Easter Sunday. We will reopen on Monday, April 6 at 6:00 a.m. EDT.

Have a PRINTASTIC day!

Kathy

Weekend Edition: A Brief Introduction to Crossword Puzzles

Happy Friday! I hope you all have great plans for the weekend and that the weather cooperates. I'm taking a break from baby shower celebrations to give readers a brief introduction to crossword puzzles.

This weekend, hundreds of solvers from across the U.S. and around the world will gather in Stamford, CT for the 38th Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT). This event was started in 1978 by Will Shortz, a former editor at Games magazine who is the current New York Times crossword editor. The first tournament had only 149 contestants and the winner was Nancy Schuster (one of my former bosses, who lived in Queens at the time), but the tournament became larger each year and eventually outgrew its home at the Stamford Marriott. Ten years ago, an in-depth look at Mr. Shortz, the New York Times puzzle, and the ACPT was captured in a movie called "Wordplay." After the movie premiered, the tournament got so big it was moved to the larger Brooklyn Marriott in 2008. During the tournament, contestants score points for accuracy and speed. Winners are awarded prizes in 21 categories (including skill level, age, and geography). The winner takes home $5,000. For the last 10 years, two competitors have dominated the ACPT: Tyler Hinman, who took first place from 2005 to 2009, and Dan Feyer, the current five-time champion.

I decided to give it a shot and compete in the tournament when it moved to Brooklyn. I had enjoyed solving crosswords since I was in college, when my roommate lent me her copies of Games. Then I started solving the puzzles in New York Magazine, then I attempted to solve the Puzzles in the Times. I even worked briefly for a company that published crossword magazines. Although the pay was really not enough to make a living, the job was a lot of fun. The first year I competed at ACPT, I performed dismally and decided to work on my puzzle-solving skills to prevent further embarrassment. I skipped the tournament for two years and attempted again in 2011. I competed each year until 2014. Although I never finished in the top half, my standing improved each year. However, there were grumblings that the Brooklyn Marriott was too expensive and the staff was unfriendly. I did enjoy walking around Brooklyn Heights on breaks, however, and there were many restaurant options. After taking a survey of the puzzle community, a decision was made to move the tournament back to Stamford. Sadly, there were too many logistics involved that kept me from attending this year. Good luck to all who are competing! 

The New York Times puzzle is the standard by which others are measured. Did you know that the Times didn't publish their first puzzle until 1942? Before then, the paper had called crossword puzzles "a futile waste of time." The first puzzle was published 102 years ago in the Sunday New York World, and it was created by a Liverpudlian named Arthur Wynne. The first puzzle (see picture on the right) was quite different than the puzzles we see today. Crosswords became a craze in the 1920s after Simon and Schuster published the first crossword puzzle book.  Margaret Farrar was the first Times puzzle editor and held that position until 1968. Farrar instituted the idea that the Monday puzzle should be the easiest, and the level of difficulty would increase each day. Although the Sunday puzzle is the biggest, it's the Saturday puzzle that's usually harder to solve. Farrar also introduced the theme puzzle and established many of the rules for modern crossword construction.

The creation of crosswords is called cruciverbalism. Top constructors (e.g., Brendan Emmett Quigley, Merle Reagle, Matt Gaffney, Ben Tausig, Liz Gorski, Patrick Berry, David Steinberg (probably the youngest constructor on the scene), and Patrick Merrill) make it look so easy. However, crossword construction takes practice, patience, persistence, and a good knowledge of trivia. Some of the constructors still create puzzles the old-fashioned way (on graph paper), but software such as Crossword Compiler cuts down the time it takes to create a puzzle, and is the preferred format for puzzle submissions. If you're interested in crossword construction and submitting puzzles for publication, check out the website Cruciverb for tips and guidelines.

Her are a few of my favorite crossword blogs:

Rex Parker Does the New York Times Crossword Puzzle: Michael Sharp, a Binghamton University English professor, writes one of the world's most popular puzzle blogs. Sharp writes daily commentary about the themes and clues found in the Times puzzle. He likes to link musical videos where applicable.

Diary of a Crossword Fiend: Amy Reynaldo, a top-10 finisher at the ACPT, reviews and writes about puzzles that appear in both print and online, including the NY Times, LA Times, the AV Club, Jonesin', and Crossword Nation, Although she solves and writes about at least three puzzles daily, she has a team of crossword experts who contribute to the blog.

Wordplay (the official NY Times Crossword blog): Deb Amlen's excellent and humorous commentary on the daily puzzles, along with insights on puzzle construction and solving, is well worth reading. Occasionally, Will Shortz pops in with a note or two. Also included is a comprehensive list of crossword resources, including books, online puzzles, databases, and other blogs.

For a comic take on the Times puzzle, read Across and Down by SVA cartooning student Hayley Gold. I love her refreshing take on crosswordese (those obscure words in a puzzle that you don't see anywhere else). She will also make custom comics based on your favorite puzzles.

One of the reasons I started Printastic Party Games was because I loved solving crossword puzzles and wanted to incorporate them in a fun way. As opposed to traditional newspaper puzzles, which contain "filler" words, I create freeform/vocabulary puzzles, which contain only the fun facts about the guest of honor. Samples of crosswords I created for customers appear in the picture below. For more information on ordering, please check out the "Custom Crosswords" section of the shop. I'll create crosswords for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, engagements, graduations, bar/bat mitzvahs, Sweet 16s, retirement, etc.

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Now for our regular features:

Freebie Friday: Because our shop is closed next weekend, I am offering two Freebie Friday games today. Both are word searches; one is for Easter and the other for Passover. Use the puzzles for the Seder table or your Easter baskets! As usual, our free printables are for personal use only.

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Women's History Month Fun Fact of the Day: Before the invention of the airplane, journalist Nellie Bly traveled around the world in just 72 days. Bly was well known for her exposé on brutality and neglect mental institutions. She faked amnesia to gain access to the facilities, Her book, Ten Days in a Mad-House, brought her fame. A movie based on this book will be released later this year.

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Next week's celebrity milestone birthdays:

Happy 30th! 
Jessica Szohr (3/31)
Leona Lewis (4/3)

Happy 40th! 
Pedro Pascal (4/2)

Happy 50th!
Piers Morgan (3/31)
Robert Downey Jr. (4/4)

Happy 60th!
Brendan Gleeson (3/29)
Angus Young (3/31)

Happy 65th!
Robbie Coltrane (3/30)
Ed Marinaro (3/31)
Billy Currie (4/1)
Curtis Stone (bassist, not the chef) (3/3)
Christine Lahti (4/4)

Happy 70th!
Linda Hunt (4/2)

Happy 80th!
Herb Alpert (3/31)

Still Going Strong!
John McLaughlin (88 on 3/29)
Peter Marshall (89 on 3/30)
William Daniels (88 on 3/31)
Richard Chamberlain (81 on 3/31)
Shirley Jones (81 on 3/31)
Debbie Reynolds (83 on 4/1)
Jim Brown (81 on 4/1)
Don Hastings (81 on 4/1)
Doris Day (92 on 4/3)

Click here for a complete list of celebrity birthdays.

Next week, we'll conclude our discussion of baby showers. Topics will also include April Fool's Day, along with the holidays of Easter and Passover.

Have a PRINTASTIC weekend!

Kathy

Celebrating the Parents-to-Be, Part II

Good afternoon . . . this cold weather just won't let up! At least it's not too bad today, but we're even supposed to get more snow this weekend. Sigh. 

Today, we'll continue to look at baby showers and feature some cute decor and food ideas that I found online. 

Let's start off with this adorable fruit salad shaped like a cradle. It looks easy to prepare and makes a great healthy dessert! I was unable to find the source of the photo. 

From the blog for Invitesbaby.com, here's a cute take on the safari theme. 

The storybook-themed shower is a popular one. I love the shabby chic decor by graphic designer Lindsy E. Archer. For the food, she set up easels based on classic children's books (for example, red velvet cake balls for Little Red Riding Hood, ham sandwiches for Green Eggs and Ham, and chocolate-covered strawberries for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Spaceships and Laser Beams always has great products and ideas! In this photo, they feature a "precious cargo" theme for a baby boy. Propeller cake pops are stored in a wooden crate, A "baggage claim" with s'mores is also featured.

Are the parents-to-be expecting twins? The "pea-in-the-pod" theme is one that can be used in a variety of ways. You can use either candy or gumballs for these adorable party favors. Cutest Baby Shower Ideas shows you how.

Finally, from Whipperberry, this is a very creative and original idea called the "Little Bug Shower," which features vintage VW Beetles. Although this party was styled for a baby girl, you can change the colors for a boy or make them neutral if you are not going to reveal the gender. My favorite is the use of a bicycle wheel, where guests wrote their wishes for baby on decorated tags and placed them in the spokes of the wheel. 

It's time to feature some more baby shower games from our shop. Our first game is called "Author, Author!" Party guests will unscramble titles of children's books and then match them with their authors. This is the perfect game for a book-themed shower.

Next up, we have "The Baby Name Race" game. In this game, party guests will fill in a baby boy's (or girl's) name for each letter of the alphabet against the clock. In the sample below, I've used a car theme complete with a checkered border. The customer will receive two 5 x 7 cards on 11 x 8-1/2 inch paper and is customized to fit your party theme!

The last featured game for today is a traditional word search featuring items found in a baby registry. As an option, we can include a hidden message. Once again, the customer receives two 5 x 7 cards on 11 x 8-1/2 inch paper and has a choice of color, wording, or font.

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Women's History Month Fun Fact of the Day: More American women work in the education, health services, and social assistance industries than in any other industry. These three industries employ nearly one-third of all female workers (Source: U.S. Census). . . . Also, Happy 73rd birthday and a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin! 

We would also like to wish happy 81st to Gloria Steinem! The founder of Ms. Magazine, she is one of the leaders and spokespersons for the feminist movement of the late '60s and early '70s.

Celebrating Milestones: We reached 100 "likes" on our Facebook page yesterday. Thank you for all your support, and for my husband Matthew for helping to promote the shop! 

Have a PRINTASTIC Day!

Kathy