A Few of My Favorite Things..... go ahead just start singing it. I am.

Okay, I'm a fan of a lot of stuff.  Puppies, clean sheets, black olives, coupons.  But I have a couple things that are my favs.


1. KIDS ARTWORK!  It's the only artwork I own.  Not entirely true but it's a statement I use broadly.  I'm that person that has a rotating gallery of frames that showcase my kids' artwork.  In all seriousness, I love their art and I believe showing it off is good for everybody's self-esteem.


2.  BLANK NOTECARDS .  You can use those bad boys for any occasion.  Birthday? yes.  Graduation?  yep.  Congratulations on the new job?  you betcha.  Sorry to hear about the wart?  Absolutely!

3.  RUBBER CEMENT.  I'm almost positive I have mentioned this somewhere on this here little ol' blog but I'm too busy to research that.  It is the best bonding agent for paper and it's super fun to peel away. It just is.  

4.  HAND WRITTEN, SENT IN THE MAIL, THANK YOU NOTES.  While I spend a good amount of time on the computer with email, Facebook, Pinterest blah de blah blah, I still LOVE getting snail mail.  So, making my children write thank you notes is pretty much the reason for which I live.  I'm a task master for this.  It will make them better adults, I'm sure of it.

Elvis is a year older.  He's got some thank you notes to write!  I picked a piece of his artwork that makes me smile and made copies of it.  Slapped the copies on some blank notecards I had around the house with trusty rubber cement and we are 1/3 of the way there.

Experience has made me wiser.  I know that little people find this task, well, tedious!  So I try to ease their pain by taking care of the sentence structuring.  It's way more fun to fill in the interesting parts.  It makes the task quicker, less painful and something they aren't turned off to for life.

Elvis completed four thank you's in 15 minutes.  He's proud of his accomplishment.  The gift givers will be psyched to receive the thank you and I am proud of his work.

I know you can buy something similar at almost any big box store these days.  Don't bother.  Make your own from original artwork and about 5 minutes on the computer.  You can customize the inside to fit your child's personality.


Okay I'll get off my Emily Post soapbox.  Rock on people.

Pushing my buttons, so to speak

I've been trying to work some creativity into my daily life lately.  I easily fold 2 baskets of laundry a day, make a bunch of beds, contemplate 3 meals and 2 different snacks, push around a bunch of papers and waste at least an hour on Facebook daily.  I forget that taking the time to be creative is truly a psychological outlet for me.  Hence, the altar.

These little cuties are bracelets I've been making.  I have a button machine dedicated to making silly swimming buttons.  The kids decorate their swim backpacks with them and I've made a little money selling them at swim meets.  When I saw the bracelet concept in the button supply catalog (yep, there's a catalog of those kinds of things)  I couldn't resist trying it.  Super FUN!

I went throught some other catalogs I had around the house.  You probably have the same bunch, Garnet Hill, Pottery Barn, West Elm.  I found patterns that were appealing and got busy.  They are really cute and add a little punch to any outfit.  You know me and bracelets and the people who wear them.


Lookie there, money saved on therapy.

Vivir la vida al maximo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I have created this altar for a friend.  She proves to be an inspiration to me time and time again.  It has been a pleasure to try an art form that is outside of my heritage but definitely follows my

 "use what you have" philosophy.   It's my hope she loves it.

The theme revolves around tequila.  Tequila is one of the things that brings us together.  The vintage bottle in the middle is filled with the lovely gold goodness inspired by tequila, note the worm crawling out of the bottle.  The sides of the altar are wallpapered with "One Free Drink" tickets.  The skeletons represent our friends with sharp dress and angel wings.  It's a fun and different way to thank them for just being them.

Live life to the fullest!  Every day.  Seriously, every day!