Strollerderby : flickr

Kitchenista: Muffin Tin Monday

Adrienne Martini — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Lunches for the pre-school set can get pretty monotonous, especially if you're the one who is making them day in and day out. How many different ways are there to make cheese chunks and grapes interesting?

If Bento boxes are beyond what you're willing to tackle, the muffin tin is the best way out. And if you're a joiner, one mom is declaring every Monday as "Muffin Tin Monday" and would like you to do the same. There's even a flickr group.

It's genius, I tell you. Not only is it a handy way to keep everyone interested in lunch, it also lets you blow your kids' minds when you use the tin to make actual muffins.

Photo credit: Katy at Sycamore Stirrings

California Streamin': I Can't Get Enough of These Wedding Photos

Erin White — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:19:00 GMT

From the looks of things it's been one fabulous party after another in California since marriage became a civil right for all nearly two weeks ago. I've watched videos,read first-person accounts, poured over photos, and generally enjoyed watching the Golden State gays act like they invented the idea of same-sex marriage. (I'm not bitter, just jealous of all the fun their having. We were so very serious about things here in Massachusetts.)

So if you are half the voyeur I am, I've got the Flickr photostream for you:

The Bilerico Project has nearly 500 pics taken in the first two days of legal marriage, many of couples and their children, some of a few minor celebrities, and a couple of spectacular cakes. The best part is that all the photos (many of them taken by press and professional photographers) are free and available for download by anyone who want to use them. The beaming and teary faces of these couples and their families will (hopefully) be a powerful force in what promises to be a tough fight to keep marriage legal for all Californians. At the very least, they'll be a powerful force in keeping you from getting your work done.

FlickR Pictures Taken Without Permission: Babble Apology Not Accepted.

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:57:00 GMT

In case you haven't heard yet, Babble was accused of lifting kid pictures from FlickR and using them for several articles over the past few months. The call-to-action went out and the blogosphere responded. Sweet Juniper, one of the all-time best-written and most-beloved parent blogging sites headed up the campaign (he found a picture of his daughter used without permission on Babble's front page earlier this month).

Posting pictures of my children on the Internet makes me jumpy and nervous (which is why I do not use FlickR) and someone using these pictures without my permission gives me hives. So I'm sympathetic to those folks who found their kids pictured on Babble. If I didn't write for Babble, didn't believe that it was an honest mistake on the part of a photo assistant somewhere in an office building in New York, I'd have joined right in (I have plenty of Mommy Lioness wrath to share). But I believe it was an error. I do not believe it was a terrible abuse of power on behalf of a heartless corporation.

People like me love David and Goliath stories (especially when we get to be David). It is our duty as parents to defend and fight and insure that our beautiful little people aren't used and abused. But what I want to know is this... Will these parents accept Babble's apology? Even though every single picture has been taken down.. even though FlickR abuse isn't new to Web 2.0. If you read the comments on SJ's flickR page, it seems the answer is a resounding 'No!"

It may be fun to imagine Babble is a faceless corporation full of insensitive louts who like to steal pictures from your personal family album. But I'll tell you, Babble is parents like me.. like you... writing and sharing our stories and wanting to make parenting a less lonely, much more amusing job.

Babble has now put safe-guards in place to make sure this sort of thing never happens again... But clearly, that's just not good enough.

Crafty: Moo Gives You Stickers From Your Flickr

Patti — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:58:00 GMT

First they came along with Moo Cards, and I haven't ordered any yet, because I'm really just that lazy. Then they came along with Moo Notecards, and I keep meaning to get around to that.

Now Moo, a company devoted to the art of helping you do interesting things with the photos you've uploaded into your Flickr stream, has made me an offer I'm going to find it difficult to refuse: the chance to make a book of stickers from my personal photo collection. Can you imagine the possibilities here? Scrapbooking, collages, decorating letters to Grandma, embellishing wrapped presents...and of course what my kids will end up doing with the high-quality vinyl stickers, which is slapping them in the middle of their foreheads and running around with a picture of Daddy on waterskis up there instead of a Chiquita Banana label.

Now, seriously: what the f*** is my Flickr login?

Moo NoteCards: Customized With Your Flickr Stream

Patti — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:02:00 GMT

We didn't do birth announcements. We have yet to get it together to send out holiday cards in all these years. It is seriously a wonder that we manage thank-you notes. And I am so far too lazy to upload any of our digital photographs to Flickr. But I think it's time to get my act together and kill all those birds with one beautifully printed stone, because Moo, the folks who brought you the adorable Moo MiniCard business cards, have now launched NoteCards, high-quality prints of your favorite Flickr pictures that you can pop into an envelope and mail out.

They're the same beautiful stock on which the MiniCards are printed, which, if you haven't seen those, you'll just have to trust me—they're impressive. And while the NoteCards might seem pricey (16 for $24.99, with envelopes) compared to a pack of pre-printed notes from the card aisle at Target, they're cheaper and more personal than anything you could order from a stationer.

Now, if I could only remember my Flickr login and get started uploading pictures right now, sending out cards for Holiday 2007 might just be within the realm of possibility.