Where I've been...

Let me be very clear that the picture below is from this blog (Made with Love and Glue). She's got a ton of ideas on quick and easy Teacher Appreciation gifts and this one is my favorite. I'll be making some on Sunday.
...and the word on my computer status? Not even looked at yet. But in other news, our home computer has been infected with a virus and is on lock-down. So I haven't had a computer all week! Thank goodness I can check email on my phone.
Today my Logan turns double digits so we will be spending the whole day tomorrow celebrating his 10th birthday. I hope I'll be able to share some pictures next week.
What else? We had a small bout of a throwing up/going out bug that went through the house. Needless to say, I've done a lot of laundry this week.
Oh, and to make everything even more exciting, I decided that the mosaic backsplash that I've been working on for 3 weeks for our kitchen isn't going to work. I just don't like it. Since it will be permanently attached to my kitchen walls, it's pretty important that I love it. I may spend a few hours tonite seeing if I can get some of the stained glass to pop off so I can re-use it.

Other than that, everything is great:) I am quickly borrowing my husband's work computer but I must go now. I hope everyone has a blessed weekend and I hope I can read some of your blogs soon!:)

xo,
Chrissie

Winner

My husband just got done trying to explain to me that I have lost the hard drive on my laptop (which coincendentally is the computer I house alllllll my photos on and blog from). I have no idea right now if and when I will get to get back on it.
So I'm blogging from the home computer to let y'all know the winner of the hope plaque:

Congrats Sun-Kissed Scholar! Please email me your snail mail info and I'll send it out.
Thanks to everyone who played the Favorites Party. Feel free to still join along. I really enjoyed coming to visit everyone.

I hope I'll be back soon! I hope everyone had a blessed weekend.
xo,
Chrissie

Favorites Party

Happy Friday!
It's time for a little sharing...I can't wait to hear about some of your favorite stuff. I'm especially hoping some of y'all will share some of your favorite books, because I am in desperate want of a good read right now.
Well, here's my current faves right now:


This artist:
I love it all. Her etsy shop rocks.
My Favorite Lunch:
I lay all this out on the counter every afternoon and have some sort of combination of it all.
100 % whole wheat pita, hummus, taboule salad, chickpea salad, pesto, and kalamta olives. My very favorite...the crumbled goat cheese. I could put it on top of anything! It's how I eat a lot of the veggies that I don't love.

My favorite workout- Zumba:

I'm not a treadmill type of person...I get bored too easily. But dancing, for an hour? It gets your heartrate up and it really is so much fun.

My favorite new show...real life stuff and it's funny.

Parenthood

My Favorite Sweets:

The Immaculate Baking Company: Cookies with a Cause

I started buying these in an attempt to make our sweet treats a little more concious. Little did I know that this natural cookie company is also a huge supporter of American Folk Art. I will never buy another cookie again. (well, that is probably not true...but I do love these!;)

Did I mention I was doing a giveaway today? After you link up below leave me a comment to enter. This is a wooden plaque I made with the word "hope". I'll pick a winner on Sunday night.

Ok, now share!!! (Please don't forget to link to your "favorites" post, not your normal blog link. Thanks!

Face Painting, or, How to Make a 4 year old Happy

Ava, like a lot of other four year old girls, is infatuated with fairies and princesses.
Her BFF and her have spent countless hours the last few months playing pretend princess and fairy.

The other day I remembered I had a pretty cool book on how to draw them.

Ava suggested face painting...and you would have thought I had told them they could have hot fudge sundaes for dinner:)

I used regular old acrylic paint (non-toxic) and they were tickled pink! (By the way, I consider myself to be a pretty good painter, but face painting is a whole different story! I'm going to have to use much smaller brushes next time. Fortunately, they are not art critics. ;)

Also, if you decide to do it with your kids, and you take them outside for a few pictures, you may want to clean up first...

...or a certain younger sibling may help himself. Not that I would let that happen or anything.

I'm linking up to Simply Feather's "Paint with Me Thursdays." This weeks theme was toys.

DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE "MY FAVORITES" LINK UP PARTY. THERE MAY BE A GIVEAWAY TOO...HINT HINT

Will you come?

Spring is in the air and there is a palpable inspirational energy in the air. Will you come over to my little ol' blog on Friday and share your favorites?

Your favorite new book, a recipe, your favorite shampoo, chocolate, music or t.v. show...anything that you love? Perhaps you can show pictures and provide some links to those faves of yours.

I would love to see what's inspiring all of you right now. I'll have a linky-link so we can all visit each other.

I hope you'll come!:)

Mosaic Butterflies

Well, dang it, I thought I would get much better photos of these butterflies.
There are three of them. My almost 18 year old customer asked for purple, yellow, and pinks...

I used stained glass and tile (why oh why can't I get this picture to come in right?)

Oh well. I still need to add wire antennae...and then they'll be done. They really are much prettier in person...

The flowers are gorgeous too. I hope my neighbor doesn't mind me using her front walk for photo shoots ;)

Did you have a nice weekend?

I'm pooped! Does anyone else ever look forward to Monday mornings when everyone goes to school/work? I love the weekends, but they are still a lot of work! :)

Some thoughts on food...

I haven't actually seen the movie Food Inc. (although I plan to soon). I watched an Oprah show where they spoke about the film and showed some clips from the film. It was enough to make me start really thinking about our food intake.

Have you ever considered that most of what we put in our bodies isn't really food?

The preservatives, the food colorings, the additives, the sugar and high fructose corn syrup...the food that we all feed to our kids and ourselves.

It's no wonder that most of us suffer from daily ailments: allergies, headaches, bad periods, depression and anxiety, stomach aches. We aren't eating REAL FOOD!

How is it that I'll be 35 this year and I've been eating "fake food" almost my whole life?Let me quickly add that I am by no means an expert. I am the guiltiest of guilty. I thought we were doing pretty good because we don't keep soda in the house. I only buy 100% whole wheat bread. We drink 2% milk...BUT- we have a long ways to go.

We have started with our small garden. We decided on The Easy-Care Bag Garden. You simply set out purchased bags of topsoil, cut open the bags, and plant the seeds and seedlings right in the topsoil. By the second year, it should be fully functional as a food garden with 15 vegetables and 5 herbs producing steadily from early summer to late fall. Our garden right now should yield:

• carrots


• cucumbers


• spinach


• sugar snap peas


• 3 types of tomatoes


• blueberries


• strawberries


• a papaya tree


• basil


• thyme


• oregano


• rosemary


• sage
  
  A couple of other things we've done...replaced our milk with organic, bought the kids some all natural cereals (try the fruit-o's, they are good!), and introduced two more servings of vegetables a day.

Also, check out this book too. It'll get you thinking...I promise.

I'll be back soon with some art and sewing to show you.

I've been busy and I can't wait to share!:)