Eco Tuesday

I figured it was time to revive my "Eco Tuesday" feature idea. I love hunting down some earth friendly items and would love to share them here once a week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
I loved this Batik Lap Quilt from camillewanders Probably because I love both batik fabrics and quilts so much. The artist describes it as....

Pieces of batiked hemp, organic cotton, and bamboo made into a perfect little napping quilt. Or reading quilt. Snuggle on the couch quilt. Sit on the front porch swing quilt. What, I'm not sleeping I'm resting my eyes quilt.


I'm particularly intrigued by recycled blow glass. We have a lot of glass blowers in my area and I love to watch them work. It's something I've always thought I'd like to try myself....one day, after I take up heli-skiing!

Blown Recycled Bottle Glass Bowl from wolfartglass

This incredibly unique "green seaglass" colored bowl was blown from 100% recycled Topo Chico glass bottles. The artist melts down small batches of broken bottles in order to gather onto a blowpipe for off-hand glassblowing. Recycled bottle glass has unique characteristics when blown, and Topo Chico bottles make an wonderfully bubbly yet clear green glass.

Enjoy!

Ever Want to Go Curl Up in Someone Else's Blog?

Well, I do.....daily! I try to read a few blogs each day and there are always a few posts that I wish I could just step into, have a look around, enjoy a good cup of coffee or glass of wine....ahhhh! I love all the blogs I follow (see the left column), but I wanted to share a couple of recent posts that made me feel great. I won't copy pictures here from the blogs, so go visit them & have a gander.

My first stop is wonderbug: adventures in the blogosphere. I'm especially drawn to the sofa in the vintage kitchen gems and natural pantry staples, ahoy! post. I can see myself here with a good book. Cozy, yet watching the world go by.

Next I'd visit iHanna's blog. With a title like Create & Live Happy: art, craft & inspiration in everyday life, how could you not want to hang out with her? I especially love the Filling a paper with colours is calming post. It makes me happy. I want to go hang out with her, create, get my hands nice & dirty. I wonder if she'd make me her Pad Thai??

After that I'm going to take a nice hot bath, put on a lovely sundress, and gather my best girlfriends to visit Pepper Design Blog. Spicing it Up for the Home and Hostess...indeed! Just look at the fabulous table setting in Part 2: A {Vintage Nesting} Baby Shower. I hope I'm not too full from my Pad Thai! Guess I'll just have some desserts and latte!

Thanks you all for giving me some brightness on this rather cold & rainy day!

101 Things To Do This Summer

I'm starting to plan our summer vacation and had to share this list I stumbled across. So many great ideas! Enjoy! 101 Things To Do This Summer

Inspiration Board: A Boy's Ski Themed Bedroom

It's time to revamp my boys bedroom. They are now almost eight & five and both love skiing, especially in the terrain park. So I figured this spring would be a good time to start tackling this project. Here are my inspiration boards (to start)....

Bottom Row: (L-R): Armada skis, Photo of Tom Wallisch from Newschoolers.com

Photos: Sheets, Chair & Shelf from Target, Fillsta Table Lamp from Ikea,
Ski Areas Typographic graphic art mixed media collage by nativevermont, Aspen Trail Map.

Window to My Tuesday Brain

I'm sure you are all waiting with baited breath to hear what I'm thinking. What is baited breath anyway and does it involve eating bait? If so, do we really want any part of it? Well, here it is, my Tuesday stream of thoughts.

Losing weight sucks.....The PROCESS of losing weight sucks....the actual weight loss part rocks. I want to eat a bag of cookies for breakfast because I am a grown-up and I can do stuff like that. I've lost 10lbs since the end of January and have a girls weekend in early April.....so no cookie breakfast. BOO!

I'm procrastinating

Sad it's Spring / Happy it's Spring - What the heck kind of March is this? There was no coming in like a lion! Oh sun & green sprouts you are powerful. You might just make me forget that I'm sad about ski season ending. But if you ruin my ski trip next weekend we will have to to talk.

Ugh...I'm turning another year older!

I'm procrastinating

I watched my son in his way baggy hoodie today (because hey, that's how they wear them, Mom) and was reminded he'll be EIGHT in three weeks. How did he get to be eight? Yet he still lets me snuggle him from time to time and as I rub his back I'm reminded how little he is.....still.

Where are those cookies?

The sun is shining, I have a to-do list, I "should" go exercise. Hmmmm....what what Pandora station to choose today?

Have I mentioned I'm procrastinating?

I Can Hear the Birds Singing!

The other day I had all the windows in my house open. After I my cleaning & rocking out to '80s music binge I settled down on the sofa for a few minutes rest. It was at that time I realized the birds were going crazy singing. It has been so long since I've heard that I almost forgot what it sounds like!

Then today I was perusing my Etsy favorites and realized (among other things) I have quite an obsession with birds. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites below! To view larger, click on the image. Links to the individual items are below.

Featuring:

Top (L-R) - Between Bird Print by hadleyhutton, Feather Earrings by wildspirits, Bird 1 by bcode
1st Middle - Orange Chickadee and Cherry Blossoms by karingrow
2nd Middle - sweet little mod bird lariat by Lana0Crystal, Custom Wooden Star House Tree by Urastarhouse
Bottom Row (L-R) - Songbird 3 by Animal House Art, Bird's-Eye View Pillow by NestleAndSoar , Lemon by jenskelley

Great Etsy Finds in Green

I love tooling around on Etsy with a theme in mind. Here are a few of my favorites of the color of the season. Enjoy!

Featuring:

Top Row (L-R) - Pologne Bird print by matteart, Fiestaware China Necklace by TheBrokenPlate, Lucky Shamrock Round by TheDaintyGardenia
Middle - Borneo Tree Embroidery Pillow Cover by Kainkain
Bottom Row (L-R) - Drilled Sea Glass from Puerto Rico by akkricket, C r o w d e d P a r a d i s e by mingtaphotography, Lime wedge necklace by lulubugjewelry

Think Spring!

As an avid skier, I'm never one to rush the end of winter. In fact, I've been a bit disappointed we haven't received our usual dumps of March snow (I'm still convinced it is coming). But after about five days of wonderful sunshine and the green (well, brown) patches beating out the white on my lawn it is very hard to not feel the pangs of Spring!

So for today I'll relish in it and I've gone searching for a few items that make me feel all happy inside thinking of playing outside in the garden, opening my windows and letting the fresh air inside, the smell of soil......AHHHHH!

Check out this adorable garden hose. My husband would be totally embarrased by it, but I imagine me in a little garden just my own! From Country Living Magazine...



Or how about these darling buds in glass bottles? From Southern Living Magazine....



How about this great wall decal from Contemporary Dreams on Etsy.



I'm really loving these lavender sachets from The Lavender Road on Etsy. Wouldn't they be a nice addition to YOUR Easter basket?



Oh....and I am totally digging these! I'd love a set for Mother's Day for myself! From SchwidleShop on Etsy.



And wouldn't I look lovely relaxing in my garden with this cute jacket? It comes in yellow too! From Lisa Samartino Atelier on Etsy.



Alright, I better get started on some Spring cleaning! Have a good day all!

Shhhh....Silent Auction? Please Yell Your Ideas!!!

My son's annual school fundraiser has come around again and I am coordinating all the class projects. Each class produces an item to be auctioned off at the Silent Auction. I have a running list of ideas (which I will happily compile & share here at a later date), but I'd adore some more ideas! The projects should be things that kids from Kindergarten through 5th grade could produce with the assistance of a parent volunteer or two. A few ideas I've seen before are...

Decoupage fun class photo as well as group and individual candids onto a small chest or memory box. Can paint the item with sayings from each student, or use favorite cartoon characters, animals, fairies, etc.

Hand-painted serving items like decanters, glasses, serving tray, tableclothes and matching napkins.

Painted outdoor canvas or Adirondack chairs, dog house, or garden bench.

Hand-painted/decoupaged furniture – buy unfinished chests, bookcases, small tables, child’s rocking chair. Class paints item in a theme (i.e., fish, sports) and signs in some way (i.e., each fish has the child’s name or decoupage a photo of the child on the fish).

Decorate and fill an LLBean canvas bag. Decorate with hand or footprints of children, have each child sign their name (in pencil, you go over in black fabric paint), then fill the bag with summer (or winter) fun stuff, videos, backpack, etc.

Please share with me your ideas or any great links you may have! Thanks!

I think I have a blog addiction!

I've been away from my blog for quite a while. To try to get back here I decided to start perusing through the blogs I follow for some ispiration. Guess what??? I follow 300 blogs!!! What was I thinking? How could I possibly read 300 blogs? So of course I had to start culling that list to my favorite favorites! So far I've gotten it down to 144 and I'm not finished yet. If I can get the list to somewhere around 120 I figure I might actually get to visit each blog once a month, right?

When I get better prepared I'll share with all of you some of my favorites. But in the meantime, tell me yours! I love checking out new blogs (obviously). What inspires you?

Hope you are all having a good day & week!

so happy new year!

a little late!

I promise I'll revive my blog!