I am so sick of using a Sharpie to label all my kids clothes. I’m forever either losing the pen or stupidly buying blue clothes with blue labels (I’m looking at YOU Old Navy) — then where do I write?

About 2 years ago I looked online for those iron-on labels like we had when we were kids. My mom had this seemingly endless roll of them that lasted through my whole childhood. What I ended up with was some cute but ultimately really hard to affix labels.

This time around I got much luckier… I found Lovable Labels. They’re based in Canada and have really cute stuff.

Those are IRON-ON labels! Cute. Bright Colors. And some sort of vinyl-y rubbery material. You peel them off a sheet like a sticker, iron them on for just a few seconds and let it cool. You don’t need to put anything on top because each sticker comes with its own layer of protective paper. After it cools, peel that off and you’re done. Yay!

I had them printed with our last name and phone number. The phone number is there in case one of the kids gets lost (or worse, and we just won’t talk about that any more).

I can’t say how long they’ll last long-term, but certainly longer than a Sharpie. The company is in Canada and I’m in the US and I had no troubles ordering. They forgot to ship all the labels I ordered but quickly shipped the rest and were very nice about it. They have other cute products that I haven’t tried — like luggage tags, shoe labels (clever idea), and regular label stickers. Check them out and let me know what you think!

After all the complaining I’ve done lately, I think I need to say something nice about somebody…

I searched high and low, and looky here, I found someone right in my inbox. I ordered some great products from Visibone (insanely-great web-geekery) and here’s the email I got:

Dear Plain Jane Mom,

I can’t describe what a thrill it is to get your business. My fondest wish is to make useful stuff — and for actual people to actually use it. You’re probably a complete stranger and somehow I’ve convinced you to give it a try. And you’re actually paying me?! Almost too much to take, but I’ll bear up. I’d love to know how it all turns out.

Below you’ll find all the details of your order, including a link where you can check status.

We ship most orders on the next business day after we receive your payment. Some orders we have to ship in multiple packages, so if you don’t get everything, the rest is almost certainly on its way. I insist you tell me if you don’t get everything in perfect condition.

I hope you find the stuff I’ve made an oasis of usefulness. But more, I hope you’ll imagine how it could be better. So, quite literally:

If this is not the most useful paper for web designers in the world, I want you to tell me what is. Or could be.

– Bob Stein, stein@visibone.com, 1-207-725-2799, www.visibone.com

Well wow, I love it. Great product, nice folks. This is the way it should be. If you’re a geeky web designer type, check them out immediately!