Fresher than Fresh needs a "kickstart"

We've featured Lindsay L. and her Fresher than Fresh Snow Cones on cre-a-tiv-i-ty in the past so my moral compass is telling me it's ok to pass along her newest link. Please help keep this unique gem going in Kansas City and watch a cute little video too!

FOUR FOODIES

I've added a new link in the Hallmarkers Who Blog list on the right. Four Foodies is a blog that will make your mouth water. Two Hallmarkers, a former Hallmarker, and a non-Hallmarker make up the Four Foodies. I'm placing a video of theirs in this post because I think it showcases the Kansas City farmers' market quite nicely. If you love food (who doesn't?!) check out the Four Foodies. They even include their recipes! Yum!

Take the Kids to KC

Last week, there was a great article on CNN.com about Kansas City being a perfect summer vacation destination for the whole family.

The article highlighted Hallmark's own Kaleidoscope, where kids can let their creativity shine through craft projects of all kinds, and the Hallmark Visitors Center, where you can learn the rich history of Hallmark and see how greeting cards are created.

Other highlights in the article include: Fritz's Railroad Restaurant, The College Basketball Experience, Science City, and Schlitterbahn Vacation Village.

You can read the full article here, or just come visit us in KC!

Oh, and because summer vacations always remind me of sending postcards back home to my friends, I found some cool vintage Kansas City postcards to share...Enjoy!











To browse more postcards, visit the Kansas City Public Library's Flickr Photostream.

Why I love my job #1086:

Because my boss cooks me breakfast.

TrendPlant ACTIVITIES

September 29th was our last TrendPlant meeting. So sad not to be meeting each month, but it was so great!

We had a potluck and everyone brought awesome fall food!!!







It was such an honor and great opportunity to be in the pilot TrendPlant group. I've learned so much more about researching. I'm going to bring my new findings back to my team so everyone can be inspired.

Day Trip :: Weston, MO

On Saturday, my boyfriend and I took a day trip to Weston, MO (about 25 miles north of Kansas City) for some fall bike riding and to visit this historic town we'd never visited. What we happened upon was far more amazing than you'd ever expect from this town of slightly more than 1,500.

Each year, the local pub, O'Malley & Sons and the local brewery, Weston Brewing Company host an Irish Fest. There are a lot of these types of festivals around KC. I'm no historian, but I'd imagine it's because of a large number of Irish immigrants or possibly because we simply have multiple microbreweries with good beer. Whatever the reason, this festival was a lot like the rest: live entertainment, little shops set up in tents with Celtic jewelry and art, food, and of course, frosty beer of multiple varieties.

As we walked around, we decided to duck into the pub, O'Malley & Sons, and see what it was like. Here is the unassuming exterior of the building:


We walked inside and saw nothing but restrooms with long lines to our right. But, in front of us, a line of people was moving up and down a long staircase. My thoughts: Cool. Must be a basement bar. So, we followed the line of people down a long flight of stairs....down a ramp.....through a small room with a few tables..... down some more stairs....through a tunnel (my thoughts: Ok, really?? A tunnel? Is this a dungeon? There better be something cool at the end... my ankle [which is not fully healed from a recent sports injury] is killing me...

Finally, we arrived at this:


My thoughts: I haven't seen anything like this anywhere in the U.S. [I'm pretty well-traveled, having been to 3/4 of the states]... I haven't seen anything like this since my friend Michelle and I went to Germany and happened upon a small pub under the street near our hostel! Here are a few quick stats:

-O'Malley & Sons is the most sought-out pub by Irish musicians traveling the U.S.
-The Weston Brewing Company was built in 1842, and the three cellars that made up the original brewery are now home to O'Malley & Sons Pub
-The lower cellar of O'Malley's is nearly 60 (yes, sixty feet underground (the lower cellar is where we sat and had a beer and listened to the Irish band, pictured above)!
-The ceilings in the lower cellar are 20 feet high.
-O'Malley's is Weston, MO's tallest building, 6 stories, all located underground.
-The brewery, Weston Brewing company brews 5 beers year-round, and also brews special seasonal beers, including my favorite from our visit, Dropkick Ale.

My quick snapshots don't do this hidden gem justice. I am sure that I will soon return: the 25 mile drive is worth it to feel like you are in a different time and place... And, we spent the whole day at the pub -- there are many more attractions in Weston to visit, including antique stores, winter candle-lit home tours, shopping, a winery, and several bed and breakfasts. I'll be back!

P.S. As if having an awesome environment and tasty beer is not enough, Weston Brewing Company has some nicely designed labels on their beers, too:

The Freshest

Here's a quicky from us. But a longy (is that an expression?) from Design Sponge.

Here!

It's an interview with KC's own Fresher than Fresh Sno-Cone's. It's new to me today because i hadn't been back to Design Sponge in a while, but it was posted last Thursday. So if you frequent, you may have already seen it. It's a good interview and it's great she is getting some widespread recognition.

Happy Monday.
Yum.

-Josh

Green :: Food Composting

The first things that come to mind when I hear the word "recycling" are newspapers, plastic bottles, and soda cans. But I usually don't think about recycling food scraps.

Food is actually the second heaviest waste stream in our landfills. And the cafeteria within Hallmark (The Crown Room) feeds a few thousand people each day, you can imagine that there will be food waste. So, we're doing something about it!

Here is how it works: Each year, Hallmark’s kitchen workers scrap the food, paper and bones off dishes into a sink with a grinder. It comes out on the other end as 130 tons of kitchen waste, which is ground into compost. The result: organic compost free of pesticides and herbicides, which feeds a local rain garden of native Missouri plants.

Click on this video link to watch a recent news spot by NBC Action News (KC NBC affiliate) on Hallmark's Food Composting initiative (there is a 15 second advertisement, and then the story will start).

Johnson Co., Kansas

A Forbes Magazine article published at the end of June 2008 ranks Johnson County, Kansas #3 on the list of America's Best Places to Raise a Family.

"Home to Kansas City suburbs Overland Park and Olathe, Johnson County ranks third on our list because of its affordability and accessibility. Family-friendly perks include an average commute of 20 minutes, 5,000 acres of parkland and over 4,000 recreational programs annually."

I'm a proud Johnson County resident, and can attest to the livability of my city, Merriam, KS. I'm an outdoorsy farm girl from Iowa, so I am thrilled with the hundreds of miles of biking and running trails, lakes, and open space in Johnson County. I'm currently renting a brand new, spacious, three-bedroom/two-bathroom townhome for $975/month, and my daily commute to Hallmark is only 10 miles (15 minutes).

I also enjoy numerous social hangouts, including KC favorites like Tanner's, Barley's Brewhaus, and The Beach Bar and Grill, which is right next to Shawnee Mission Beach Volleyball Club. And what girl doesn't love to shop! Here are a couple of the places I frequent: Oak Park Mall and Town Center Plaza.

Finally, though I don't have children yet, but I have friends who do, and they have found excellent schools for their children in Johnson County. Click here to learn more on Johnson County schools.

My new fave blog.

Ya know, I was chatting over an afternoon snack today with my friend Laura, discussing blogs. I still have some feelings of blog-design inadequacy, but then I realized, there are probably a million blogs out there, and not all of them can be more hip & more designerly that the others surrounding it on the www.

I got to thinking, do financial analysts blog about the latest interest rates on high yield savings accounts? Do mechanics blog about the latest hybrid fix-it techniques? Or, do paleontologists blog about how long-term physical changes of global geography, paleogeography, and climate paleoclimate have affected the evolution of life? If they do, I doubt that their blogs are filled with the latest hot eye candy... and I will bet that their blog header is just as plain as mine is. In fact, I'll bet that the authors on these blogs just simply don't give a rip about how their interface looks. It's content that matters, right?

We are our own worst critic: I surround myself with design, art, architecture, photography, illustration, and all things creative every day. Herein lies the reason I am having blog inadequacies... so, I decided to explore new blogs, outside of my everyday world.

Today, I explored the world of food blogs. Here is my new favorite: http://lunchstudio.blogspot.com/ Yum!






Oh, and by the way, I did find a pretty neat paleontologists blog, if you're into that sort of thing...