Dirty clothes should be scary.
Especially to a young woman getting a fresh start in the world.
That’s why when Becky Blades wrote a good-bye letter to her college-bound daughter, she began with cheap laundry scare tactics. It was all a ploy to get her daughter’s attention and to slip in last-minute motherly advice.
In Do Your Laundry Or You’ll Die Alone: Advice Your Mom Would Give if She Thought You Were Listening Blades speaks for the mother in all of us.
With warmth, wit, and a hint of motherly sass, Blades blends bite-sized morsels of coming-of-age common sense with tiny essays on topics like forgiveness and phone etiquette. All beautifully illustrated with her celebrated mixed-media art.
The perfect gift for the new graduate, from mother to daughter or from friend to friend, Do Your Laundry Or You’ll Die Alone is wise counsel for women of all ages, reminding us to trust our instincts and to show our dreams who’s boss.
Do Your Laundry Or You’ll Die Alone has become a classic, topping bestseller lists at graduation and holiday gifting seasons since the launch of the first edition in 2014. Updated with a sunny new cover design in 2021, its counsel stands the test of time.
But Blades knows she did not think of everything, and that advice is best when it’s personal. That’s why she left pages at the end to add those just-right words to create a keepsake.
Here’s what the experts and moms are saying:
“So much humor and heart is inside this small package! A must-buy for the teen to young adult women in your life to help them on their independent ways.”
Mary Dell Harrington, Grown and Flown
“Simply wonderful. I gave this cute book to my daughter the day she left for college on the other side of the country, little did she know I had already read the book and starred the pieces of advice that were special to me and wanted her to especially remember. When my daughter came upon my notes next to Blades’ stellar advice, she called me crying.”
Stay@homeMommy
“What a delightful book! I bought this for my daughter for graduation and wound up buying several for all her friends. This weekend, they sat in the kitchen for hours reading sections out loud and laughing and talking. It’s witty, deep and very amusing. Even the art is thought-provoking.”
Mindy Mixt
“What a delightful book! I bought this for my daughter for graduation and wound up buying several for all her friends. This weekend, they sat in the kitchen for hours reading sections out loud and laughing and talking. It’s witty, deep and very amusing. Even the art is thought-provoking.”
Amazon Reviewer
About the author
Becky Blades is a writer, artist, business strategist, and philosopher of creative, adventurous living.
She has written for Oprah.com, The Huffington Post, Grown & Flown, Live Happy, Scary Mommy, McSweeney’s, and others. Since selling her award-winning public relations firm, she has worked as a creative consultant and mentor, and as a civic advocate for the arts and entrepreneurship.
Becky’s mixed media artwork is in private collections from San Francisco to New York to Paris. It is represented by The Eva Reynolds Gallery, in the Kansas City area, and the FOR Fine Art Gallery in Whitefish, Montana.
Becky earned her Bachelor of Journalism degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Among Becky’s unfinished creations are two lovingly launched daughters, Taylor Kay Phillips and Tess Phillips. She lives in Kansas City with her husband, Cary Phillips, and her Maytag front-load washing machine.
Her new book, Start More Than You Can Finish, Becky celebrates the art of beginning, and redefines the rules of the creative process.
One Mom Says
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For media inquiries, please contact Michelle Triant, 510-504-0431, michelle_triant@chroniclebooks.com.
MEDIA
For media inquiries, please contact Michelle Triant, 510-504-0431, michelle_triant@chroniclebooks.com.
