One thing I love is getting off the beaten path, heading off to places untraversed and unseen by none but a few eyes. To get the opportunity to see the unique and remarkable in nature and to think about how much is possible in this world. This picture is of the sand dunes in Death Valley National Park, walked just after sunrise. Across the whole expanse, there were just a few human footprints, far outnumbered by the animal prints. The sand was soft on top but firm underneath. The mountains in the background looked like I could walk to them, though I knew they were far away. My shadow stretched out far across the sand all the way to the base of the next dune as I left only my own footprints behind me, walking out into the untouched sand, trusting in what would come next.

What’s one thing you love? Email us a photo and caption of what you love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish your photo you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store!

Photo copyright Love is the Key® 2012

So while we aren’t ready to show them to you quite yet, we do want to start giving you some sneak peeks at our new line of fine sterling silver, 14 carat white gold, and 14 carat yellow gold key necklace pendants. If you haven’t already, head over to Twitter and follow us or over to Facebook and like us. We’ll be releasing exclusive before-they-launch photos just for our Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Come see what all the LOVE is about!

Oh, and this is just the beginning. Before you know it, we’ll have bracelets and earrings and rings and new t-shirts and SO much LOVE you won’t know what to do with yourself! So stay tuned in to Love is the Key® and don’t miss out on putting a little love in everything that you do!

Photo copyright Love is the Key® 2012

Yesterday, I walked down a street in my neighborhood that I hadn’t explored before. I was a little bit bored with my standard walks. I love them, of course, but I just felt the need to see something new, to explore. Maybe it’s the warming weather, the flowers opening up everywhere, and the feeling that winter is over and I can come out of my shell again. On my walk, I passed by a house with the door that you see above. I’m not sure, but it looks like it was hand painted, maybe by the owner of the house herself. The colors and intricate designs transported me from my neighborhood to Morocco or Turkey or another exciting place that I’ve never been before. Suddenly I felt like I was in a whole new world!

And staring at the door, I wondered what it would be like to walk through that door every day to go to my house. Does the owner let herself get transported every time she comes home? Is this a reminder to let your imagination free, to enjoy each passing moment of the day? Does opening this door to step into her home remind her to open her heart to love?

My own door is just a normal door, but I don’t think that that should stop me from letting myself use it in the same way. Every time we step through a door, we are stepping into a new opportunity. I think this is a metaphor for when we open the door to a new opportunity and also every time we open an actual door. If we let ourselves, we can use that door to open ourselves to love, opportunity, and happiness. I think I’m ready to walk through the door. Are you?

What’s one of your Keys to Love? Email us your key to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish your key, you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! Share your Key to Love with the world!

Photos copyright Love is the Key® 2012

One thing I love is those little things that remind me to open my eyes, stop for a moment, and breathe. I saw this on my afternoon walk yesterday. It was one of a series of little phrases that had been written onto the sidewalk, like “Where are you going?”. I’m not sure who wrote them or why they were written. But I know they had an effect on me. So I stopped. I reflected. And it changed my walk completely in such a wonderful way.

What’s one thing you love? Email us a photo and caption of what you love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish your photo you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

Photo copyright Love is the Key® 2012

Well, we’re only a few days away to the BIG day! In case you haven’t been paying attention, we mean Mother’s Day! As you might have picked up, Mother’s Day is one of our favorite holidays. And we hope it’s one of your favorite, too. One thing that the holidays can bring, though, is stress. How do you celebrate? Well, we’ve listed a few pointers and tips to keep you sane and make sure that this Mother’s Day is the most special one yet!

How do you celebrate Mother’s Day?

Whether it’s breakfast in bed to start the day, an afternoon of cleaning the house for Mom, making a special dinner, or heading out to that great restaurant she’s always wanted to try, the options for Mother’s Day seem nearly endless. Here’s how to help choose your method of celebration:

Breakfast in Bed

Who’s it for?

• The laid-back mom whose favorite moments are surrounded by family, in her robe, with a hot cup of coffee. Hint: Don’t forget that eating in bed is a bit harder and messier than eating at a table so make sure to bring a tablecloth to put under the tray and choose foods that won’t get too messy (think: omelet)!

Cleaning the House

Who’s it for?

• The keep-it-clean mom who superhumanly makes the house look like it’s always spick-and-span. Hint: That takes a LOT of work, and she’ll appreciate starting off one week with a clean house that somebody else took care of!

Cooking that Special Dinner

Who’s it for?

• The do-it-yourself mom who mends clothes, tends the garden, and loves the smell of home cooking floating through the house. Hint: Roast cornish hens taste like a French chef cooked them BUT they are really easy! Stuff each hen with a quartered lemon and a couple of sprigs of rosemary then brush with a bit of olive oil. Put about 24 cloves of garlic around them in the roasting pan. Roast for 25 minutes at 450 degrees then pour a basting mixture of chicken stock and white wine over the hens. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until the juices from the hen run clear (about 25-35 minutes). Baste every 5-7 minutes. Remove hens and pour the juices and basting liquid into a saucepan. Heat on medium-low heat while stirring until the liquid reduces to a nice, thick sauce. Cut the hens in half and serve with a drizzle of the sauce and a few of the scrumptious roast garlic. You’ll be the hero-chef!

Visiting that Special Restaurant

Who’s it for?

• The tradition-oriented mom who loves creating a unique and continuous history. This is also a good option for the mom who is a secret (or not-so-secret) gourmand, always looking for a reason to head to that amazing new restaurant that just opened up. If you live out in the suburbs, this can also be a great opportunity to head into the city and experience some of the hustle and bustle of the urban life. Hint: Even if you have younger kids, this can be a great time to give them a first experience at a nicer restaurant. Restaurants know that Mother’s Day often involves family outings and are thus prepared and welcoming of children. So see how your kids do in a more adult space. They just might surprise you by behaving well and happily trying some new food. Well, that sounds like it would be the best Mother’s Day present ever!

In the end, what is important is that you create a day that is memorable and tailored to what the mom or moms in your life want and will enjoy. The old adage that “it’s the thought that counts” really is true. Celebrate motherhood, tell Mom that you love her and are proud of her, and you’ll find that everything else will fall into place for a perfect day!

What are you planning for Mother’s Day? Tell us in the comments below!

Email us your own poem about your mother or another love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish it you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

Last week, we talked about the history of mothers day. Today, we want to talk about why we think it’s important to celebrate Mother’s Day, whether you celebrate it with gifts, a special dinner, an outing to a special place, or a heartfelt moment of personal thanks.

What does Mother’s Day mean to mothers?

It’s tough to argue that the hardest job is something other than being a mother. There is no time off and no ability to “leave the office early” to get away. Mothers are mothers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. And what a mother does is so much more than just pick up kids from soccer practice or make dinner or plan birthday parties. Mothers are constantly interacting with their children, and each interaction is a moment that helps the child grow into a successful adult. That’s a lot of pressure!

What the holiday of Mother’s Day does for mothers is two primary things. First, it is a day of acknowledgment. Husbands, children, friends, and everyone else have the opportunity to stop for a moment and give thanks to mothers who work so hard to provide a loving and good home. We’ve all been in a job or had a responsibility before that’s required a lot of work and stress but maybe doesn’t get big recognition. Well, that’s how a lot of mothers feel a lot of the time. Being told, through the special gestures of Mother’s Day, that all that hard work is appreciated means the world to mothers.

Second, Mother’s Day allows for the tables to be turned a bit, for mothers to get mothered by their husbands and children. That’s why bringing the mother breakfast in bed is such a common gesture for Mother’s Day: it tells mothers “Today, you get to receive what you usually give.” The mother gets to decide what to eat for dinner or where to eat it; the mother receives the jewelry or new clothes or handmade objects. Far from being a boring day for mothers where they don’t know what to do, this day is an important pressure release valve, so to speak, that can help rejuvenate mothers to continue giving it their all throughout the rest of the year.

What does Mother’s Day mean to the rest of us?

Mother’s Day is an opportunity to create a closer bond with mothers-whether its your own mother, the mother of your children, or any hard-working mother you know. And as important as mothers are, we all know that it takes a village to raise a good kid into a successful adult. By participating in your own Mother’s Day rituals, you help create that community and network that strengthens everyone surrounding you. You create memories that will continue on and you teach your children how important it is to give honor and recognition where it is deserved.

Mother’s Day also gives everyone a chance to experience a few of the trials of being a mother. Waking up early to make a complicated breakfast isn’t easy! Running errands, preparing a household for the week, and juggling a family’s various requests and needs is difficult. Even one day of taking over some of those responsibilities can help raise awareness about the challenges of being a mother, and can remind all of us that we should all try to pitch in more to help. Yes, it’s kind of like that famous phrase to walk in another man’s shoes except this time it’s to walk in a mother’s shoes.

So let’s all start thinking about how to walk in a mother’s shoes this Mother’s Day, and let us all share in the wonderful process of being a mother and creating a loving family! What does Mother’s Day mean to you? Tell us in the comments below!

Email us your own poem about your mother or another love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish it you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

One thing I love is watching the flowers thriving, bright and vibrant, on my afternoon walk on a warm spring day.

What’s one thing you love? Email us a photo and caption of what you love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish your photo you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

Photos copyright Love is the Key® 2012

Can you remember a time before Mother’s Day? Probably not! Unless you were born before 1870, that is. In that year, Julia Ward Howe made the first announcement of Mother’s Day. The day she wanted to create, though, was less about honoring the mothers of the world as it was a peace rally. Mother’s Day didn’t really become popular or anything like what it is now until a few decades later, in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to mark a day each year to honor her own mother and all other mothers in America. Only six years later, the day was made an official holiday by President Woodrow Wilson, and the rest is history!

Or is it? This history makes it sound like nobody honored mothers until very recently, and only in America. The tradition of spending a day dedicated to mothers is much older than even the United States of America. During the Middle Ages, most of Europe celebrated what was called Laetere Sunday, or Mothering Day, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. For this holiday, people returned to their mother church (or the church where they were baptized) with their mothers and other family members.

Even this old tradition isn’t the oldest you can find. The Ancient Romans celebrated a holiday called Hilaria. This day occurred on the vernal equinox every year. This celebration was dedicated to Cybele, the mother of the Roman gods. Hilaria can be translated as “The Day of Joy”, and it sounds like it was a joyous occasion with a procession, games, and both public and private festivities.

But really no matter where you look, you’ll find just about every culture doing something like this to celebrate and honor mothers. We think this is because it’s just impossible to not understand why being a mother is so important and also so challenging.

So keep this rich and long history in mind as Mother’s Day approaches. Participate in this wonderful tradition by honoring your own mother, the mother of your children, and anyone you know who has been a mother!

Email us your own poem about your mother or another love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish it you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

In our “News of Love” feature, we focus on one of the many positive news stories that tend to get overlooked in the overwhelming coverage of the negative. So let’s see how much LOVE is being shared out there! And don’t forget about our MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

Do you remember that museum exhibition we told you about a few weeks ago that was in Boston? Well, it has now left Boston and found a new home in Malibu at the Getty Villa! The exhibition lasts until July 9, 2012, so if you either live or are going to visit the Los Angeles area before then, we highly recommend that you see this exhibit.

Featuring 150 rarely-seen statues and artworks, this study of Aphrodite and the ancient representations of love is a unique and provoking look at how we view and understand the idea of love. As we wrote in our first review of the exhibit:

Walking through this collection, it is impossible to not be overwhelmed by how contemporary the Greeks’ and Romans’ understanding of love is, and thus how universal those emotions really are.

And seeing this exhibit at the Getty Villa is sure to be a remarkable experience. Note that the Getty Villa is different from the Getty Museum. The Getty Villa is a small museum located just off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. This is the ‘original’ Getty, where the museum began. After the new and very impressive Getty Museum was built, the Getty Villa was re-opened to showcase the museum’s collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. Tickets to the museum are free (though parking is $15/vehicle). But you MUST make reservations beforehand because the museum is limited-access. This might sound annoying, but it’s actually a great thing for when you visit the museum, because you will know that it won’t be overcrowded and that you will have the time and space to fully enjoy the exhibits.

So get out there and see some ancient love! Then head over to one of the great restaurants in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Hmm, sounds like a perfect day to us!

Have you seen News of Love in your neighborhood? Email us the story to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish it you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)

Photo copyright © Museum of Fine Arts Boston 2011

We’ve all said “I love you” in our own languages countless times in our lives. So much that sometimes these words feel like they don’t mean as much because they sound too ordinary. By saying and hearing it in a different language, sometimes the meaning can return just because the sounds are different, kind of like hearing it for the first time! And sometimes saying it in a different language can help those of us who have trouble saying it in our own language, allowing us to share feelings even when we’re nervous. So here are some of what we think are the most beautiful ways to say “I love you” from around the world, and now go tell your mother (and everyone else you love) that you love them in ten different ways! What’s your favorite way? Tell us in the comments below!

Albanian: Te dua!

Basque: Maite zaitut!

Estonian: Mina armastan sind!

French: Je t’aime!

Greek: S’ayapo!

Hawaiian: Aloha wau ia ‘oe!

Italian: Ti amo!

Latvian: Es tevi milu!

Swahili: Nakupenda!

Turkish: Seni seviyorum!

Email us your own poem about your mother or another love to loveisthekeyblog@gmail.com, and if we publish it you will receive 25% off your next order at the Love is the Key® Online Store! And don’t forget to use the MOM25 discount code for 25% off your Mother’s Day gifts and gifts for yourself! (Discount code expires Sunday, May 13 2012.)