All my mother ever wanted on Mother’s Day, she insisted, was a hand-made card from her children. In an extreme case of careful-what-you-wish-for, she now has a son doing nothing but making cards all year ‘round.

Maybe that’s no surprise. Because the unqualified enthusiasm with which my mother greeted my creative endeavours — even that less-promising phase with felt finger puppets when I was 8 — encouraged me to think that there just might be a wider audience out there. And now here we are, all these years later, shipping thousands of cards to stores across the US every month.

Which meant the heat was on to cook up Mother’s Day cards to express full filial gratitude. Balloonists, birds and lucky clovers: these cards are for you, Mom — and mothers the world over.

This year the Greeting Card Association had to sift through more than 1000 entries from 220 companies worldwide, so imagine our delight when our little pink pig found itself near the finish line in the birthday card category. (As for its final place on the podium, we will have to wait until the ceremony on May 19th.)

This card (see above) is one of our favorites, too. There is something about this pig’s cheeky smile that charms us anew every time we see it. And talk of pigs also allows us to trot out one of our favorite quotes — from Winston Churchill:

“I like pigs.
Dogs look up to us.
Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals.”

So here’s hoping that the Louie judges will be feeling as affectionate about the cloven-footed come May 19th.

So when the Society of Four Arts approached us to design an invitation for one of their luncheons, we leaped at the chance. It would celebrate Alex Hitz and his splendid new cookbook, “My Beverly Hills Kitchen” (see above).

The brief was to be bright and sunny and glamorous, so we decided upon colonnades of Palm trees to evoke the famed boulevards of Beverly Hills, and paired them with a playful art deco font called VIP (naturally).

A majestic pair of bronze peacocks (above) stood sentry at the gates to the Four Arts garden where the event was held last week.

A beautiful breeze found us inside the shade of the Pannill Pavilion (above) in the garden.

The theme of invitations carried through to place cards and menu card, the latter which was designed to be a bookmark and memento of the day. And yes, the food was as delicious as it reads. Bloody Mary aspic? Fiendishly tasty. (Alex chose these recipes personally from those in his new book.)

The prettiest of pale turquoise shades banded the plates (above, holding the fresh and delicious dessert) …

… and matched the gift bags that sat on the back of the gold chairs. Those 5 numbers? The Palm Beach zipcode of course.

Alex’s book is now available everywhere, and learn more about Alex from his own website, My Beverly Hills Kitchen.

The Society of the Four Arts has a wonderful program of lectures and exhibitions, see their schedule here. And any visitor to Palm Beach should not miss a stroll in their renowned sculpture garden.

Today, as we turn our calendar to the month of February, we naturally think of Valentines Day. There are many legends around this event, but one touches us particularly.

The story goes that, back in the days of 270 AD, the priest St. Valentine cut up pieces of parchment in the shape of hearts and circulated these to buck up the spirits of much-persecuted Christians.

Nearly 1800 years later, doesn’t receiving a little heart in the mail have much the same effect, reminding us of our faith in love and friendship? Without, we might add, risking any kind of martyrdom for the sender today. (St. Valentine was less lucky when the Romans caught up with him.)

Two hearts beat as one in this playful interpretation of a Venn diagram (above).

And we wouldn’t be able to call ourselves Palm Beach stationers without featuring at least a couple of flamingos (above) in our Valentine collection.

See all our Valentines cards here, and feel free to order a few now to arrive before the 14th — or find them at retailers across the country (and in Canada, too, where select Indigo stores will be stocking them).

Soon it will be time to gather up those holiday cards, unplug the Christmas lights and try to find a corner in your closet to put them all.

Perhaps you’re like us and save your Christmas cards, visions of revisiting them another time, with warm memories and warm cocoa to hand. Though more likely than not — and this is definitely like us — you never find that moment and instead have boxes and boxes of old holiday cards you don’t know what to do with. Help, dear reader, is at hand!

Arm yourself with a scissors, a hole-punch, some old ribbon (or get a bit fancy with velvet like we did, above) and transform your cards into gift tags for next year. Snip through Santas and angels and reindeer and suddenly you’ve created a fun new perspective on the same old card.

(This kind of craftiness has long been a big movement in the art world — though then it’s called ‘Appropriation’, and not ‘just reusing an old image’. So, go on, appropriate away!)

Here’s the finished result (above), and a few more we couldn’t resist trying once we got started (below). We’ve used our own J.Falkner holiday cards throughout.

We had so much fun with this project, it’s likely we’ll introduce these gift tags to our stores next holiday season. Just in case you don’t save your old cards after all ….

Whether you be in sun, or in snow, may your Christmas be full of good cheer and much warmth.

Yes, a decision has been made. Last week, Pantone announced their Color of the Year for 2013, and Emerald — “a lively, radiant, lush green” — is in. (Read all about it here.) Which means Orange, so 2012, is out.

Green does make an appealing color story (see this palette of images from Pantone, above), but please forgive us if we sniff a bit of a marketing strategy — Pantone bedding now available at jcpenney! Green nailpolish at Sephora! — rather than an authentic prediction. And now what is everyone to do with those orange kitchen appliances they bought just this year, when Tangerine Tango reigned as color supreme?

Fortunately, we have a much easier way to stay on-trend here at J.Falkner. Simply chose to send one of our emerald-hued birthday cards (below). We first featured these a few months ago, and here they are again, ready to join the new Color of the Year party.

Find them at stockists across the country, or online here.