behind the scenes

May 16, 20113 Comments

So much is going on “behind the scenes” around here.

I want to tell you about it, but a lot of it is not my news to share.

Let’s just say good things are happening and life is about to get pretty crazy.

And, that starts with a visit from Ryan’s parents this week.

Two sleeps and they will be here.

The kids are excited.

We will go on a fun adventure while they are here, and I hope to get some good photos and blog posts up just like I did during our Colorado visit.

And, Thursday looks like a perfect day for playing in a treehouse…maybe adding a rope ladder, a bucket pulley, and some other fun stuff!

I went back to the quotable cards website. I love a good quote on a card. If you know me, you know that I have frames filled with quotes around our house instead of photos (although, I do want to add some photos as well).

I like this one…

CardsandBooks/quotable/700179.jpg
home is…always looking cool even if behind the scenes things are a little crazy!

May 9, 2011Leave a comment

Is my new favorite online tool.

I’m not really sure what it is a tool for, but it’s fun.

And, now they have an iPhone app.

You can read about it here on the Pinterest Blog.

Do you pin?

If so, let me know your username in a comment below and I will start following your pins!

You can find my boards here.

home is…more cool technology.

may flowers

May 6, 20114 Comments

I love flowers.

Maybe it comes from growing up with the beautiful gardens that my mom tended to.

Maybe it was the daisy wallpaper in my room (and the many other flower motifs throughout the years of redesigning my room as a child…my mom was always up for a change).

If you were to tour my home you would find flowers in each of the rooms except for my husbands office and the little guys room.

Not necessarily fresh flowers, but some kind of flower.

And with the exception of baby girls room, which is all-flower-all-the-time, it is just a hint here and there.

I was thrilled when Emily at jones design company said she was going to share some of her flower making tutorials this past week. She is one of my favorite creative blogging mommas and she lives here in the Pacific Northwest!

Have you visited her website?! If not, you should.

I plan on trying all the tutorials over the next few weeks…some of you may even receive some gifts with my handiwork on them!

Speaking of handiwork…

I got my craft on a few weeks ago on a Friday night. I used a wreath that I made last fall (the ruffle wreath tutorial from jones design company) and added…you guessed it…flowers.

I made the flowers the same way I made them for the hair clips I made for a baby shower gift for a little girl that was recently born.

On another flower note…

The neighbors dogwood is blooming.

There is a stand of trees that I drive by on a multiple times a day basis. It has dogwoods throughout underneath towering douglas firs. It’s like a little enchanted forest. I love it.

I always think I am going to stop and take some photos before the dogwoods lose the flowers, but every year I forget. Maybe this will be the year I stop and take some photos.

home is…stopping to smell, create, photograph, and love the flowers.

technology is cool

May 4, 20112 Comments

So, my last two posts were written from my iPhone.

From my bed.

After I remembered that I hadn’t written a blog post for the day.

Technology is pretty cool.

I like writing blog posts.

I don’t want to back down from the challenge.

I am doing this challenge for me.

I know I won’t disappoint any of you if I miss a day here and there.

I also know that I won’t disappoint myself.

But, I’m not backing down from the challenge.

I am more than 33% done.

The good news is that there are some days that I have posted more than once…and in my mind, those extra posts make up for a missed day here and there.

It’s no big deal.

Moving on…

There’s lots going on in our lives.

Some of it I can’t write about on my blog…yet.

But I will.

When the time is right.

For now, we are doing things around the house.

A little spring cleaning.

Getting ready for a visit from Ryan’s parents and a getaway to the Oregon Coast.

The end of the school year is approaching.

The little guy is almost done with his first year of preschool!

He’s gonna be in the pre-k class next year.

Baby girl is starting to use her words.

She is really good at “NO!”

Summer plans are being made.

The yard is being prepped for playing outside…lots!

It’s gonna be in the 70’s and sunny today, so I am going to hit publish and get ready to go outside.

The little guy is sick, but I think some vitamin D and playing in the warm air will do him some good.

home is…hitting publish.

delicious ambiguity

April 18, 20111 Comment

I love these simple cards from Quotable Cards.

CardsandBooks/quotable/700200.jpg

I remember the first time I saw one of these in a card shop on The Hill on Boulder.

Over the years I have sent Quotable Cards to family, given them to friends, and kept some for myself.

I have some stuffed in drawers, magnets in random places, and a calendar in my desk.

This is a good one for how life is treating our family right now…

home is…delicious ambiguity.

less than 2 miles away…

April 16, 20111 Comment

…there is a Whole Foods with a plethora of gluten free products.

Not to mention the Trader Joe’s.

home is…living in the ‘burbs.

turns out she has both

April 15, 20118 Comments

This is a follow up to the {milestones} post from almost a month ago.

As I mentioned in that post, we had baby girl tested for food sensitivities to see if that may be what causes her eczema. The doctor thought that she may have a wheat (gluten) or dairy sensitivity.

Turns out she has both.

Specifically, a high whole wheat sensitivity, but her gluten sensitivity is pretty high as well. As for the dairy, milk was the highest followed by cheddar cheese.

The good news is that she does not currently drink milk. She never did. By that I mean she never drank cows milk. She was breast fed until she was 14 months old, but would never take a bottle of milk. So, we don’t need to cut that out of her diet.

I will have to start to cut out wheat and cut down on her dairy from cows (it looked like she will be okay with goats milk products).

My aunt and uncle, who we visited in Vail, have cut dairy and gluten out of their family’s diet and they are a wealth of knowledge, but it all seems daunting to me.

Does anybody have any experience with this? Do you know of any good resources for me?

I am just hoping that I can give my children the best upbringing possible and that includes their diet. If I can help baby girl feel better by changing her (and our whole family’s) eating habits then I am all for it!

home is…making changes for all of us even if it is just needed by one of us.

{comfort food} garlic chicken soup

April 7, 20115 Comments

So, now that I am beginning to feel like I am back in the land of the living I thought I would cook a batch of garlic chicken soup to really kick this walking pneumonia’s butt!

I researched recipes online and came across this one here:

DR. IRWIN ZIMENT’S PRESCRIPTION GARLIC CHICKEN SOUP FOR COLDS & COUGHS

28 ounces of chicken broth

1 bulb garlic (about 15 cloves)

5 sprigs parsley, minced

6 sprigs cilantro, minced

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon minced mint leaves

1 teaspoon minced basil leaves

1 teaspoon curry powder

Peel the garlic cloves and place them with the other ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes. Inhale the fumes of the soup during preparation. Drink the soup, one cup at the beginning of each meal, until it’s finished. (The soup can be strained after simmering if one doesn’t care to eat the herbs.) Add chile pepper flakes or vegetables to taste.

I am not exactly sure who Irwin Ziment is, but I came across this book that he co-wrote about Herbal Medicine, too.

At any rate, I am going to alter the recipe a bit because I don’t have all the ingredients (specifically the fresh parsley, cilantro, mint and basil). I will use dried herbs, add some onion, celery and carrots, and double the amount of garlic.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

And, here are some fun facts about garlic found on the same website as the recipe:

• There is an ancient Telugu proverb that says: Garlic is as good as ten mothers. (Telugu is one of the languages of India.)

• A 17th century writer summed it up with this statement: “Our doctor is a clove of garlic.”

• In 1858, Louis Pasteur noted that bacteria died when they were doused with garlic.

• At the turn of the century, garlic was the drug of choice for tuberculosis.

• Albert Schweitzer used garlic to treat cholera and typhus.

• During World War II, British physicians treated battle wounds with garlic.

• Several studies say that garlic is packed with chemical compounds that can boost the immune system.

• Garlic is said to have a soothing effect on the respiratory system.

• The average clove contains five calories, vitamins B1, 2 and 3 and vitamin C, plus the minerals calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, zinc and germanium.

Last, but not least, I have a funny/interesting story to tell about garlic and a hotel room from my days in hospitality design…I’ll save that for another blog post someday.

home is…homemade garlic chicken soup to cure a cold (or walking pneumonia).

motivational quote for the day

April 4, 20111 Comment

“Purity of heart is blooming the same colors in the middle of the wilderness when no one sees you.”

-Vanna Bonta

early spring in the pacific northwest

March 25, 20115 Comments

I love it here in the Pacific Northwest.

Sure, winters are wet and grey, but it makes spring that much more welcome once it gets here.

It’s here. For now.

{at least it was on Wednesday when I wrote this post}

I know we will still have our share of rain until June, but I don’t have to be worried about late April (or even May) snow like in Colorado. And, I am not celebrating the first week of spring with a snowstorm like our family in New York.

I saw my first hummingbird as I was washing dishes and looking out my kitchen window Wednesday night. When we return from our trip to Colorado I will put our hummingbird feeders out so we can watch them until October!