‘All the people in the street walk as fast as their feet can take them, I just roll through town’

Once the busy photography season comes to an end .. once the weddings are all edited.. once the portrait orders are all complete.. once the holiday insanity is over .. I get to stop, to relax, to breathe, to be .. do I dare say it.. bored. It’s wonderful!!

I like to take a sabbatical of sorts for the month of January. To visit friends and family, make crafty projects, watch movies without a laptop on my lap and take bubble baths long enough to make my fingers prune.

and take a slow walk around my neighborhood in the fog…..

and taking the time to create something simply because I think my 2 1/2 yr old train obsessed nephew might like it.

Life is good.


Blog title lyric from ‘Breakdown’ by Jack Johnson .. listen to it here.

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‘I lost my mind long ago, down that yellow brick road’

I do not know where this kids comes up with this stuff …

Blog title lyric from ‘Yellow brick road’ by Angus & Julia Stone .. listen to it here

Extreme Makeover Home Edition SERIES Finale!!

Make sure to watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition tonight at 8/7c on ABC for their SERIES finale.  After 9 years and 200 builds the show is coming to an end with their biggest and most intense build ever!  They traveled to Joplin, MO and in 7 days they built 7 homes for 7 families affected by the devastating tornado that swept through May 22nd, 2011.  This is not one to miss!!   I for one, will be curled up on my couch under a blanket watching the show with my family.

I’m sad to see the show come to an end ..  Over the last few seasons I was able to volunteer on several builds, making some new friends, some hilarious memories and acquiring the most amazing boyfriend out of the deal. (We met on set when the show came out to the East Coast last summer)  I’d say I made out pretty lucky!

To celebrate the end of the show I wanted to post a few photos from my experiences.  Below are some of my favorite behind the scenes moments, a handful of images that I created for the families, some of the awesome crew and a few images from the build in Joplin.

I owe the show for introducing me to Tony!

Joplin, MO .. taken around town during the build

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‘Control yourself, take only what you need from it’

I’m definitely not the greenest person out there but I try to do what I can to think of the earth and not be wasteful.  I recycle (fanatically as Tony might tell you), I reuse and repurpose items whenever I can and I try REALLY hard to not use disposable items like plastic bags .. which is what this post is about.

I’ve been using reusable canvas grocery bags for years but every time I went to the store I still ended up bring home plastic bags from the produce department.  Broccoli, lemons, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, asparagus, onions.. before you know it there are 6 plastic bags in your cart.  Bags that just get thrown away and then clog up our landfills for hundreds if not thousands of years.  I’ve been saying for awhile that I wanted some sort of reusable bags for my produce.  Something I could bring with me to the store and use over and over again.  So today I made them!

And here’s how…..

I wanted something REALLY lightweight because I didn’t want it to add weight to the produce that needed to be weighed by the cashier.  I was looking for a really thin cotton but all I could find was cheesecloth.  It was a little more challenging since it has a wider weave but definitely usable.  I’ve never been a fan of stark white things so I decided to tea-stain the material first to give it a more off-white natural look.

All you have to do is boil water and basically make a huge pot of tea.  I tried sleepytime tea first (because I don’t like it and didn’t want to waste the good stuff) but then then ended up adding 3 of the yummy Chai tea bags to it because it was the only thing that would make the tea dark enough.  Then I threw in a blueberry tea bag too just for good measure.
Once it’s dark enough and cools a little I put all the cheesecloth in.. I just left it as it was in the package because I didn’t want it to get all tangled up.  I poured some white vinegar in the mix to.  I’m not exactly sure if it helps the color stick or not but it just seemed like something my grandma would do.Once it set for about 20-30 minutes I took it out and rinsed it and hung it up to dry.  None of this is necessary for the bags but I just wanted to turn the material off-white.I cut the bags the size I wanted, folded the material in half and sewed up the sides, folding over and sewing a hem at the top as well so I could later thread a drawstring through.  

I left a few of the bags with just the cheesecloth to hold lighter items like herbs and kale but I found some vintage material that I sewed to most of them to reinforce the bottom for heavier items like sweet potatoes and other vegetables.  Plus I just liked how it looked.

For those I had to sew the fabric to the cheesecloth first before sewing the bag together.  Just remember if you are doing anything like that the fabric goes on the inside when sewing the bag because you turn it right side out when you are done.. See above right photo and you can see the fabric bottom is on the inside.

I just used embroidery floss that I had on hand for the drawstring and tied an old button to the end just to help find the end of the drawstring easily.  Voila!!  my new produce bags!!

Blog title lyric from ‘Kids’ by MGMT .. watch the video here

‘You make me happy, when skies are grey’

We’ve been talking about keeping Davey overnight for some time now and on Wed. Tony and I decided to take the plunge and just go for it.

So we made all the necessary preparations.

1st we toddler proofed the apartment .. which just meant we locked up the liquor and put away our fencing swords

2nd we loaded up on Vitamin C and Echinacea … because everyone knows that kids spread diseases

We were ready!!

 

As it turns out, kids are awesome!

here’s why:

- They are great to gossip with over a cup of coffee .. or tea in this case

(and he did  .. and it wasn’t)

- They are absolutely great at household chores.. Swiffer even makes it super easy to remove the middle part of the handle making it perfect for shorter heights.. coincidence? I don’t think so!

- They clean up all your messes without question

-When it’s too cold to go outside they will take out your recycling

- They bring you your slippers when your feet are cold

-They give great backrubs

-They will read you a bedtime story (that they pick out all on their own)

-And in the morning they will make you delicious pancakes

Best overnight guest ever!!

Blog title lyric from ‘You are my sunshine’   .. I chose the version performed by Johnny Cash and June Carter .. listen to it here

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