All in Products & Gift Ideas

National Iced Tea Day

National Iced Tea Day

Barb Pellicer Paton
Food & Beverages, Holidays/National Days, Products & Gift Ideas

As an underaged drinker in college, I quickly learned why my friend’s drink choice when we snuck into bars was a Long Island Iced Tea. Here are the ingredients for a Long Island Iced Tea: vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, sweet and sour mix, cola and a lemon slice. If all of the prices for well drinks were the same - why wouldn’t she get the most alcohol for her money? The rationale is simultaneously gross and brilliant. However, it begs the question - why do they call it Long Island Ice Tea when iced tea isn’t even an ingredient?

National Creativity Day

National Creativity Day

Barb Pellicer Paton
Healthy Family, Holidays/National Days, Products & Gift Ideas

National Creativity Day has been celebrated on May 30th ever since 2018 and according to Nationaldaycalendar.com, Hal Croasmun and ScreenwritingU wanted this day to be recognized as a way to “celebrate the imaginative spirits everywhere and to encourage them to keep creating.” Maybe I’m not the only one, but I never knew this national day existed. Now that I know about it, I feel like more than ever, we should be embracing and celebrating creativity. Over the last few months our lives have been about creative work space and situations, creative parenting, creative remote learning, creative graduations. Where would we be during this COVID-19 era without creativity?

Timing is {Not} Everything

Timing is {Not} Everything

Barb Pellicer Paton
Healthy Family, Products & Gift Ideas, Politics & Religion

Remember the days when it was proper etiquette to write thank you notes by a certain date after an event? Or the days when there was an appropriate time frame to reach out to someone who lost a loved one? Thank goodness for Emily Post! She shaped our nation by having all the answers to these social norms. To this day, long after Mrs. Post’s guidelines were popularly practiced, we still continue to measure our social behaviors against them.

National Raisin Day

National Raisin Day

Barb Pellicer Paton
Food & Beverages, Healthy Family, Holidays/National Days, Products & Gift Ideas

Raisins. You either you love them or hate them. What I find interesting is that there are people who love grapes and wine but can’t stand raisins. It’s similar to those who will pour a cup of ketchup onto their fries but will get sick to their stomach if they see a tomato on their burger. I get it. It’s all about the texture and the look of the food items. Let’s face it, the site of a raisin is not the most attractive and the texture is…well…squishy.

Earth Day Rebound

Earth Day Rebound

Barb Pellicer Paton
Healthy Family, Holidays/National Days, Products & Gift Ideas

On Friday when I found out that our kids cannot physically go back to school for the remainder of the year, I thought, “It’s time to rebound.” I should clarify, that was not the first thought that came to mind. I did break down sobbing while driving home from picking up dinner that day. However, as I quietly ate dinner with my kids, I started to feel the “rebound” attitude rising up inside me. As one part of me grieved the loss of a school year, the other part of me wanted to take back some control over my life. I knew what I had to do. I decided to get the Earth Day thoughtful pinches ready for the teachers.

Social Distance Pinches

Social Distance Pinches

Barb Pellicer Paton
Healthy Family, Holidays/National Days, Products & Gift Ideas, Politics & Religion

Years ago I wrote a post entitled, “Happy Easy-ter” and it was about me doing the very minimum to prepare for that upcoming Easter holiday. In other words, I took the “easy” way out. I had to LOL because if I even had the energy to do 1/4 of what I thought was the easy celebration back then, I would be so lucky. This year, I took a MAJOR short cut on the Easter preparations!

"H" Pincher

"H" Pincher

Barb Pellicer Paton
Healthy Family, Products & Gift Ideas

Well, guess who’s back (again) pushing her agenda. I can’t help myself. I just know that somewhere out there a person is comparing themselves to someone who is amazing at showing thoughtfulness. This person is feeling inadequate about the way they show their thoughtfulness and wishes they were kicking butt too. I feel this way every single time I go on Pinterest. If only everyone knew that there are at least 10 styles (probably more) of thoughtfulness. Every person, no matter what, is thoughtful, we all just show it differently.

"C" Pincher

"C" Pincher

Barb Pellicer Paton
Products & Gift Ideas, Healthy Family

I’m just marching along; continuing to tell everyone about the 10 curated styles of thoughtfulness as if nothing else in the world is happening. You are invited to march along with me. Or if you just started to follow Thoughtful Pinch, no worries - I have covered 6 thoughtfulness styles so far. The ones that start with the letter “P” are professional and proper, “I” - influenced and insightful and “N” - numbers and names. I might as well go over the two styles that begin with the letter “C” because if you’re like me, I need a brain break from learning more about COVID-19 and reading all those helpful suggestions on how to use my massive amounts of “free” time.

"N" Pincher

"N" Pincher

Barb Pellicer Paton
Healthy Family, Products & Gift Ideas

With everything going on around us, it seems ridiculous for me to get back to work as a thoughtfulness curator today. I mean, it’s not fully recognized as a profession and I am not urgently needed. Especially because we’ve all witnessed whenever the nation is faced with adversity, true thoughtfulness emerges in the form of community and humanity. So there’s really nothing I need to do. People will collect their own thoughts during this time of uncertainty by consulting sources whether it’s news on TV, radio, podcasts, YouTube, social media, newspapers, church/priests, therapists and then the act of thoughtfulness will automatically surface. Ta Dah! Silver linings.

5 Years - Give Away #5

5 Years - Give Away #5

Barb Pellicer Paton
Products & Gift Ideas, Food & Beverages

I haven’t missed a Tuesday deadline in five years. On March 3, 2015, I posted my very first post for the blog. Happy 5th Blogiversary to Thoughtful Pinch! It all started with a gift idea of lottery tickets and I have been writing about thoughtfulness using food, beverages, health, holidays, national days, politics, religion, products, gift ideas, seasons, the Thoughtful Pinch App, travel and leisure ever since.

5 Years - Give Away #4

5 Years - Give Away #4

Barb Pellicer Paton
Products & Gift Ideas, Food & Beverages

I haven’t missed a Tuesday deadline in five years. On March 3, 2015, I posted my very first post for the blog. Happy 5th Blogiversary to Thoughtful Pinch! It all started with a gift idea of lottery tickets and I have been writing about thoughtfulness using food, beverages, health, holidays, national days, politics, religion, products, gift ideas, seasons, the Thoughtful Pinch App, travel and leisure ever since.

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