art journal

I've been browsing blogland lately and I keep lingering on art journal blogs like this one.  It just looks like such a creative and pretty way to express yourself.  I don't feel like there is as much pressure as there is if you were to paint a picture.  Paintings require a lot of mental preparation whereas art journaling is a lot more laid back and improvisational.  You get an idea of what you want to do and go with it.  I love that with mixed media art, you can incorporate everyday mundane things like masking tape.  It makes me feel like a little kid in art class.  It is pretty amazing really what you can do with things like construction paper, watercolors, glue, stamps, torn pieces of paper, ball point pens, and tape.  This is my first art journal page.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  I can't wait to do more!!

picnic

We had a lovely lovely lovely picnic today.  It was a little humid but not too hot.  Lazy daisy day.  There was a slip & slide involved (not pictured), yummy food, painting, and cloud gazing.  I began the day with wonder and excitement.  We had a busy slow moving morning (installing a washer/dryer & re-arranging the girls bedroom).  Then we went out for supplies.  All I wanted was to go to Michaels to get a metal ringed sketch book to use as an art journal.  I have a million notebooks that would have worked.  I even have a nice Moleskine journal.  But I wanted one that could expand if I did some mixed-media in it.  Anyway, I made the mistake of bringing the girls to the craft store with me.  I get plenty distracted on my own, let alone the girls asking for stickers and stamps and their own art journals.  We walked out of Michaels with 3 art journals, paint, watercolors, oil pastels, paintbrushes, scrapbook paper, stamps, stickers, and rhinestones.  Um.  Yeah.  Then we went to the grocery store to get picnicy food, picking up every sample they offered because by then it was nearly 3 and I'm pretty sure the girls ate real food, but I ate chips for breakfast.  So starving I frantically threw together this picnic for the front yard so we could eat.  I guess Pumpkin was hungry too, cause he wanted what we were having!  After our bellies were full we got lazy again and life got slow.  That's the best thing about picnics I think.  They seem to go on forever.  It reminds me of summertime when you were a kid and you had the whole summer to do nothing and everything.  We should picnic more often.  It's a nice change of pace.

slap chop

.....this is the exact kind of comic relief I've needed after the week I've had!  This is so funny.  I love it.  I think I need one.  Screw the Magic Bullet I've been wanting.....I need a Slap Chop!!  It would make a fine addition to the George Foreman Grill and the Popcorn Popper I found in the garage today (which I was actually excited about).

5 things

5 Things I am looking forward to: our free and clear lives in 13 years, our trip to colorado, having long hair, getting a letter from my pen-pal, making homemade salsa from our garden veggies

 5 Things I did yesterday: ate lots of strawberries, got a restraining order against my ex-husband, made french toast, took a nice relaxing bath, watched cartoons

5 Things I wish I could do: start over, pause time, work at a bakery and make the same kind of money i do now, open a successful etsy shop, repair things

5 Places I'd like to travel: norway, australia, italy, ireland, japan

5 Cute things I've found online lately:

 this adorable doggie named Kingsley over at the Rockstar Diaries blog

this cheerful orange dress from modcloth

this quirky bride and groom (found at oncewed)

bread

a ferris wheel to store things in a bedroom......genius.  (last 2 images found at weheartit)

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cookies!

mmmmmmm.....cookies.  I found these adorable cookies on the Glamour Damaged blog, and boy do they look yummy!  I could really go for those sugar cookies right about now.  The bee ones are just plain cute, but I'm sure the black frosting is ick.  I love the wax paper wings!  I can't wait to bake cookies again.  The timing isn't quite right though, with me trying to lose weight and all.  Not to mention the broken oven.  If I had a money tree in my backyard, I'd be quick to purchase one of these swell pink stoves from Bars & Booths.  How dreamy would it be to have all pink appliances in your kitchen?!  I'd be in heaven!!!

spring cleaning

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Yesterday we started a major cleaning project in our house.  Our goal is to have a reasonably clean slate of a house to come back to after we go to Colorado.  This gives us about a month and a half.  We have too much stuff.  Way too much stuff.  The ultimate goal is to get rid of as much crap as possible and only be left with quality items that we actually use and enjoy in our home.  This won't be easy.  Room by room we will be working hard every day.  Hopefully by the end of summer, or in the fall we will actually be able to move on to renovations that we so desperately need.  It will feel so good to finally feel like I can call my house a home.  When we get done we'll have a nice dinner party or something lovely like that.  Wish me luck!!

happy mother's day

 3 days late, i know.  that's what happens when you're a busy mother.  time flies right out the window.  that personal time you get for yourself has to be claimed desperately in 4 minute increments.  if you can manage to stay awake while they are asleep, this works nicely as well.  i hope all you mommys out there had a good mother's day.  i slept in, had breakfast in bed, went plant shopping with my mama, went out to eat, and to the movies.  i got construction paper cards and tissue paper flowers.  i'd like to say i didn't have to break up any fights or to tell them to calm down, but that would be untrue.  the day i'm free of that is the day i'll realize that all the sudden they're not little anymore, and i'll probably start to cry.

i recently saw this movie and i cried 3 times.  it is heartbreakingly honest.  you have to see it!

the perks of waking up at 5:30 am. to run.

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yeah that's right. i run at 5:30 am.  well not really.  i start running at 6.  i do however wake up before 5:30 am.  crazy.  i know.  it's dark outside.  and cold.  and really really quiet.  i'm not running away really, just sort of escaping for a bit.  waking up before the rest of the world does.  it's peaceful.  sam and i noticed this morning that the animals seem to be letting us get closer and closer to them.  it's like we're in a disney movie sometimes.  so far we've seen lots of birds and squirrels, a fox, a baby bunny, a crawdad the size of a lobster (ok maybe small crab is more realistic.  we poked it with a stick because we're 5), a black cat that jackie tried to bring home with her one day, an opossum, tons and tons of giant nasty worms (and lots of disgusting swarms of tiny clear insects), geese, and the most adorable beaver you've ever seen.  i run with weights. and i run up stairs.  i do 100 sit-ups.  it gets comical at times.  we really do look like a couple of dorks out there at the lake.  but we have so much fun it doesn't matter.  it's nice doing yoga while watching the sun rise.  it lifts your spirits and really sets the tone for the rest of the day.  i can't wait to get up in 5 hours and do it all again!

 

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2

Yesterday my boyfriend and I celebrated our two year anniversary......and I couldn't be happier!

apples for jam

Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook by Tessa Kiros


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved the simple recipes, and the author's childhood stories.  It was also fun that the recipes are color coded!

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