For those of you with a knack for creativity and strong passions – April is a prime example of showing how CafePress shopkeepers use their designs not only as a form of self-expression, but as a way to acknowledge, educate and support these passions. April is Autism Awareness month, and CafePress has partnered with nonprofit organization Autism Speaks and some of our talented shopkeepers to support this cause.

During the entire month of April, CafePress will be donating a portion of all autism-related sales* to Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest science and advocacy organization for autism. Additionally, four of our shopkeepers shared their autism stories with us, exploring how autism goes deeper than just a cause to support for some, but also a way of life.

It’s rewarding to see how passionate our community of shopkeepers is about what they believe in and how their designs bring another level of awareness to their causes. Be sure to explore their stories and their shops, as well as CafePress’s autism awareness designs to learn more about autism and how you can help spread the word and give those with a voice an audience to be heard.

* An amount equal to 10% of the final purchase price for all products tagged with “autism” and sold through CafePress.com Marketplace during April 1, 2011 through April 30, 2011 will be donated to Autism Speaks (http://www.autismspeaks.org/).

Dorothy, we’re not in Egypt anymore!

Are you tired of wayward adolescent cobras going missing from your neighborhood zoo?

Are you concerned about what to do if a potentially ill-tempered and extremely venomous serpent shows up in your living room?

Do you suffer from Ophidiophobia, to the point that you can’t even enjoy Whitesnake’s 1982 classic “Here I Go Again” without breaking into a cold sweat?

Sure, they may have caught the Bronx Zoo escapee, but who knows if another will get out?

Have no fear, America!  CafePress is here to save the day with our newest product, the CAFEPRESS COBRA CATCHER!* (stick and string not included).

Because snakes travel in groups, and one never knows whether a rogue serpent will have a friend with him, you may want to buy two – or six!  And to make them affordable we’re offering 30% off***  Cobra Catchers* mugs with coupon code COBRA!

FAQ:

Q: Can I use the CafePress Cobra Catcher to trap other types of snakes?*
A: It really depends on the snake.  Since it says “Cobra” right on it, the more literate types of snakes (pythons are well-known for their poetry, after all) will immediately recognize that this isn’t meant for them, and won’t be fooled.  Your less educated snakes – the garters, the vipers – may indeed be trapped.

Q: What do I do once the cobra is inside the Cobra Catcher?
A: You may want to purchase the CafePress Cobra Catcher Containment Bag**

*Please note: it’s April Fool’s Day.  As you may have noted, the CafePress Cobra Catcher is actually just a mug flipped upside-down on a stick tied to a string, and is by no means a safe nor advisable way in which to attempt to catch a cobra or any other manner of reptile, venomous or not.  Extreme bodily injury or death may occur to those attempting to trap a cobra with the CafePress Cobra Catcher, or any other style of glassware.  In fact, none of our products should really be used to catch a cobra (but if you were going to try one, we’d probably use the gym bag**).  But please, leave the snake-wrangling to the professionals.  The CafePress Cobra Catcher is most suited for a warm cup of tea whilst you snuggle under a warm blankie and watch the telly thinking about April Fools Day jokes.

**Please don’t use the gym bag to catch cobras, really.  You might die.

***Save 30% off your order of any mug, excluding shipping charges, gift wrap charges and applicable sales tax. Applies only to regular mug, large mug, stackable mug set (4 mugs) and travel mug.  Excludes CafePress Groups purchases and bulk orders. Coupon code COBRA must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on April 1, 2011 at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on April 2, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Offer valid online only, cannot be combined with any other coupons or promotions and may change, be modified or canceled at anytime without notice. This promotion cannot be applied to past orders.

The vernal equinox marks the first official day of spring, which happened to be yesterday. In San Francisco, the weather was beautiful for a Sunday. Today, not so much. Rain has taken over parts of the California coast and the Pacific Northwest. Similarly, parts of New England are getting a heaping helping of snow and rain, and even Arizona is getting tinkled on. Either nature is preparing for all of those gorgeous flowers, trees and foliage to bloom, or its playing a trick on us and laughing at how much we can take. Either way, bad weather gives you a good reason to don that cute trench or winter coat, some vibrant, colorful rain boots and matching umbrellas and go to town on the town.

Here are some interesting tidbits of springalicious info: In Latin, the word equinox derives from the words aequus, meaning “equal” and nox, “night.” This means yesterday technically had an equal amount of day and night, as the center of the sun passed directly over the Earth’s equator. Now begins the longer days of light as we get closer and closer to summer (I can already smell the bbq! YUM).

With this wonky weather, who knows what nature really has in store for the moment. I hope I won’t have to swim to work this week. But I’m certainly looking forward to those blossoming trees and flowers…and maybe some field frolicking when the time comes.

With St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in a few hours (it’s 5 o’clock already in Ireland), it’s time to get out your crock pots and beer steins. This is one of my favorite holidays, since it revolves around eating and drinking and getting pinched by complete strangers (unless you wear a green shirt or something, of course). Regardless of whether you’re full-blooded Irish, part Irish or Irish for the Day, it’s a great time.

For those of us who didn’t major in Irish History, the holiday celebrates the life of, oddly enough, St. Patrick. (He died on March 17, 461). Fun fact #1: The original color associated with St. Patrick’s Day was blue, but it evolved to green in the 17^th century. Fun Fact #2: Lore has it the St. Patrick used the shamrock (with its three leaves) to explain the “holy trinity” to the Irish people. Fun Fact #3: I’m having corned beef & Guinness tonight, while reading some Seamus Heaney poems and listening to the Irish Rovers sing The Unicorn. Aye, if it’s a nice night, I might even sit outdoors on me Paddy O’ Furniture.

As Charlie Sheen hits the talk-show circuit & Twittersphere delivering his unique definition of “damage control,” the rest of the world is having a field day. Not to mention our design community, which is having fun too – with many fans supporting Charlie with fun designs (and others questioning him).

But say what you want, Charlie Sheen certainly is a confident and strong-willed person. Hopefully the story will turn out well for everyone involved.

In the meantime, stand-up comedians from the Las Vegas Strip to your nearest water cooler are loving all the fresh material. Perhaps the most humorous thing I’ve heard was from actor John Stamos. After Charlie Sheen blasted him while discussing rumors that Stamos was on a short list to replace Charlie in Two And A Half Men, Stamos tweeted: “contrary to the rumors, i am not replacing Charlie sheen on two and half men. however, martin sheen has asked me to be his son.”

It’s amazing how much you can say in 140 characters or less.

Bands like Radiohead don’t come along very often. Part sheer musical talent, part innovative leaders in creating new genres, Radiohead – and lead singer Thom Yorke in particular – definitely have that freedom of creative expression thing down.

Off of their new album, The King of Limbs, their latest music video for the song “Lotus Flower” features Yorke dancing in a room by himself. And I use the word dancing very loosely here. His movements automatically make me think of a variety of birds having seizures. Then his facial expressions remind me that he is in fact human but maybe very confused as to where he is. Other highlights of the video include Yorke losing his balance when trying to find a good place to sit down at 3:05, and driving an out-of-control lawnmower around 4:25.

Not only has this music video gone a buzz on the waves of YouTube and video websites galore, but also many parody songs have followed. One such amazing video features him dancing to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” which I’ve included here.

You’re welcome.

Whatever the bands or singers you love, music is a huge form of expressing who you are. Thom Yorke is a great artist for having the guts to dance like this. I know Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes would agree.

Congratulations to IBM’s supercomputer, Watson, for winning the Jeopardy showdown. The specially-created hunk of metal, silicon and old parts from the Star Trek Enterprise easily defeated the show’s all-time top two human contestants.

However, proving that computers are not always right, Watson did have a few hiccups. Like in the category of “U.S. Cities,” answering (or is it questioning?) with the response “Toronto.” I guess they didn’t preload Yahoo! Maps into its software …

Still, it looks like it’s only a matter of time until computers start doing the thinking for us. I just hope my jetpack doesn’t erroneously take me to Canada.

Talk about a great day at the… can you call a dog show an office? The Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show, which brings together more than 2,500 award-winning canines to compete for the coveted champion title of Best in Show, was held this past Monday and Tuesday. And yesterday, one special dog was crowned with that woof-derful title of Best in Show.

Her name is Grand Champion Foxcliffe Hickory Wind, “Hickory” for short (and to her friends). Hickory is the first Scottish deerhound to win the coveted title. When she’s not traveling on the road showing, most of her days are spent on a quiet 50-acre farm in Virginia where she can chase furry little animals and frolick in the fields. Playing on a farm, eating, sleeping and getting love and attention all day from admirers? A dog’s life sounds like the life for me.

Other breeds that made it into the winner’s circle included a bearded collie named Mister Baggins (maybe related to Frodo or Bilbo?), Jayne, a very cute and rolly Chinese Shar-Pei, and a black cocker spaniel named Beckham.

Whatever the breed, dogs are pretty awesome, and make fun, loyal friends. So go out for a walk with your best four-legged bud. And don’t forget the dog bowl.

When it comes to CafePress, we love riding the latest tech wave to help our shopkeepers and give our fans something to like. And so it goes, with our newest web-worthy offering: our CafePress widget!

The CafePress widget is a unique tool and gives you an interactive experience with the millions of diverse designs on CafePress.

You can create your own with a few simple clicks of the mouse. Shopkeepers and affiliates can use the widget to promote your products and your shop, and it’s a great marketing tool to share your designs with friends, supporters, and the world-wide-web (affiliates, all you have to do is enter your CJ PID and all sales are credited to you, just like the usual). Type in your shop ID, and you can randomly select various products to feature, and anyone who clicks your widget will be directed to your shop.

For our amazing fans out there, from Edward Cullen fanatics to yoga enthusiasts, simply type in your favorite tag (like, Edward Cullen, or yoga), and products will pop up, just like that. Choose the perfect size and color widget, and create your code. Then you can utilize the widget on your own shop, webpage or your blog by cutting and pasting the created code.

I have a freakish love for giraffes, so after cooing over all of the cute giraffe t-shirts on CafePress, I went ahead and made a giraffe widget. I typed in “giraffes” into the tag field, and after some snazzalicious styling, this is what I got!

You can scroll back and forth to see more of your favorite gifts using the arrows at the bottom. For me this means more squeals of delight with every click of the arrow. Try out your very own CafePress widget and keep us posted on the results!

Happy 255^th to Mozart. Yes, you still rock me Amadeus. Which is sort of odd, since Wolfgang hasn’t had a chartbusting #1-with-a-bullet Top-40 hit in more than two centuries (and no gangster rap music videos to speak of). But I still love the man and his music.

In fact Mozart is now on my heavy rotation list – along with more “current” composers like Lil’ Wayne (it’s hard to believe those two have ever been on the same planet, let alone the same iPod). It’s just that there’s always a time and a place for some good chamber music, and Mozart was the best-of-the-best. Which is why Beethoven, Chopin and other great composers were among his groupies. I think Beethoven even opened for Mozart once at London’s Hammersmith Apollo? Can’t remember if it was him or The Clash? Maybe it was a triple bill?

Anyway, as classical music fans know, Mozart was born in Salzburg on this day in 1756 and quickly became a musical child prodigy. He wowed the Austrian court and European royalty while touring from Vienna to Paris and everywhere in-between. With a greatest hits list from symphonies and choral music to operas, Mozart set the stage for classical music.

Consider this post a requiem for the man and his masterpiece, Requiem. Happy birthday, Wolfie. You take the cake.