whimsical necklaces

Some jewelry that I just fell in love with last week from Mixko's Etsy shop...

 I LOVE rainy days. Who could be glum on a rainy day with this necklace? Seriously! 

What a great way to always carry them with me.

 

This necklace would make a great Young Women's Values necklace: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue.

 

This one just makes me smile...

 

Halloween Costumes for Grown-Ups

Pregnant Mommy costume from Make It and Love It blog - too cute and too funny!

And here's what she made for her husband so you can see what's in his belly...

I don't know what self-respecting grown man would wear this - but I'd love to see it! haha! From  CostumePop.comhttp://costumepop.com/adult-costumes/how-to-make-a-sheep-costume/...

This one is not only creepy, but so realistic that they had to label what was fake and what was real in the photo. Definitely points for creativity and hard work. From CurtisTucker.comhttp://www.curtistucker.com/labels/Photo.html...

Another creative costume from Instructables.comhttp://www.instructables.com/image/FKA1YH7G1QW9W1Y/How-to-make-a-Mount-Rushmore-Costume.jpg!

We can't leave little Fifi out of the fun! From DoggieStylish.comhttp://www.doggiestylish.com/store/2009/10/how-to-make-a-dog-fish-costume-for-halloween/...

If you're dog goes missing by the end of the night, check this guy's house. haha

I don't know of a cat on this planet that would let you do this to them. But if you can find one that would, definitely go with this costume!

I'm still working on what I'm going to wear, but I hope these pics got your creative juices flowing! Happy Halloween!

Wookiee Cookies

There are three brothers that stay the evenings with us for night care while their mom works the swing shift and I often take them to the library to do homework and read books.

This is what one of the boys checked out from the library tonight:

It's my new favorite cookbook, Wookiee Cookies!
Tonight we made R2D2 Treats. It's a banana covered in melted white chocolate chips, then rolled in crushed nuts and Kit Kat bars for the side legs. SO YUMMY!

summer love

I am in love. I mean, other than with JP, of course. :) I have fallen in L-O-V-E with this song. I know it's the happy-go-lucky-bubblegum-summertime-love type of song. But it's so....just wonderful. *dreamy look and deep sigh* Summertime is the best and summer romances are wonderful. JP and I fell in love in the summer (of course, So Cal is like a perpetual summer) but it was so creamy-dreamy!

Plus, this music video reminds me SO MUCH of the beach fires we would have with our church singles ward - 100+ single, young, beautiful people just having fun at the beach with fireworks and good music. :)

Baby Yoga!

So, I did yoga with the babies this week! For those who don't know, I am a licensed co-provider in a child care and I also started a preschool for the older toddlers and children. Anyway, Claudia picked up this book at a conference we went to a few weekends ago about doing yoga with children. It's called, "My Daddy is a Pretzel" and it goes through a cute little story and shows you how to show the children to get into some yoga poses.

I was so caught up in doing the yoga with them that I forgot to take pictures - but trust me when I tell you it was ADORABLE! They LOVED it!

They were pretty good at the poses, too! I was seriously impressed with some of the 2-year-olds being able to balance and hold poses so well. Downward Dog and Lion's Pose were the favorites, followed by Bridge and Airplane. You should check out this book and let me know of any other great ones for children!

Guitar Blues

I am LOVING my guitar class!! Learning to play the guitar is one of my dreams and it fits so nicely into the degree I'm working towards (Early Childhood Education) since I can play songs for the children that I enrolled in a guitar class this semester. We're several weeks into the class and I've learned so much! I'm actually starting to sound a little bit like I know what I'm doing! I'm learning the classical guitar style so it's mostly all finger-picking (as opposed to using a pick) and we play both the melody and the bass parts with our right hand simultaneously - fingers play melody + thumb strumming bass. It's really cool!

My guitar looks like this one and sounds so rich and full. I love it!

So one of the first songs I learned was a blues piece called the Blues 4-Beat Lick. I've played it for the children in our child care and preschool and they just love to dance around to it. I've also played a few of the classical pieces at the end of lunch and beginning of nap time. It's so peaceful and beautiful that it really helps calm them down and lull them to sleep.

Anyway, there's an update on working towards my dreams. :)

Dreams

I lived in LA once. I was single then. There was a group of other young, single adults that got together on a regular basis. Some of them formed a group to help each other reach their dreams. I forget the name of the group - Dream Team or the Dreamers or something like that. But they figured that with the 50+ members in the group there was bound to be someone else there that could help you reach at least one of your goals.

There's this great Jack Johnson song that goes...

A dreams a dream
And all this livings so much harder than it seems
But girl don't let your dreams be dreams
You know this livings not so hard as it seems
Don't let your dreams be dreams

here are my dreams, in no particular order...

• get barrelled surfing
• make the short surf film Watermark that I wrote
• get my children's books published
• play the guitar well
• play the piano well

• go sailing for my first time
• sail down the coast to Mexico
• go on an open-ocean sailing voyage
• sail around the world
• have children

• become fluent in another language
• be able to do a pull-up
• run a marathon
• create a frame-worthy painting
• sew an article of clothing at least once a month

• become good at cross-stepping on a longboard
• hang 10 longboarding
• bust the fins out shortboarding
• windsurf on a regular basis
• do yoga every day

 I'm currently working on several of these dreams. But any help and inspiration from others is welcome and greatly appreciated. I think I'll post them in the sidebar and ceremoniously cross them off as I achieve each one.

What are your dreams? What can I do for you? What can we help achieve together?

Hello, again

jour·ney/ˈdʒɜrni/ Show Spelled

–noun

1. a traveling from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time; trip

2. a distance, course, or area traveled or suitable for traveling

3. a period of travel

4. passage or progress from one stage to another

I've been away for a while. I was physically away, in another country; then I was mentally away, lost somewhere inside my mind. But I'm slowly coming back to myself. I feel as though I've traveled a long road only to find myself back where I started. As T.S. Elliot said,

"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Well, I'm not done exploring but I am rediscovering who I am and what I want from life. I'm ready for a fresh start. I have no expectations, only hope. Hope of reaching each new day just happy to be alive and sharing it with those I love. I hope to share each new discovery with you along the way...

 (a little inspiration from this etsy shop...)

On Vacation

I haven't posted on this blog in MANY MONTHS and I'm sorry about that. We've just been super busy with lots of things changing in our lives. So, this blog is "on vacation" until further notice. :)

Chocolate Candy Hearts

Love is in the air...and in your chocolate! Making these little chocolate hearts is sooooo easy and will look impressive when personalized for that special someone (or yourself!) :)

Skill Level: beginner

Supplies:

• candy heart mold ($1.99 from Michael's)
• 1 bag pink chocolate melts
• 1 bag red chocolate melts (or buy white chocolate and separate into 2 bowls and die them with food coloring)
• Ziploc bag, sandwich size
• 1 toothpick
• paper printed with letters to trace

Put a handful of 1 color of chocolate melts into the sandwich ziploc bag (leave bag open and unzipped) and place on a plate in the microwave for 30 second intervals until melted. Squeeze all the chocolate into one corner of the bag, then zip the bag shut. Cut off a tiny bit of the corner of the bag and - voila! You have a decorator bag! Best to cut off just a teeny-tiny part of the bag, then cut of a little more and a little more until you reach the size you want for decorating.

Draw any design you wish with the chocolate into the little molds. I used a toothpick to perfect my hearts. The stripes were painted with chocolate by using a small art paintbrush (use a new one!). To make the letters, print out a piece of paper with letters in the font and size you want. Then place the paper BACKWARDS under your mold and trace the letters with chocolate. When the candy heart is done, the letters will be facing the correct way. :)

Let your designs set and dry in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Then start filling in the rest of the heart mold with a contrasting color, as seen below. *Notice my "C" is backwards*

**IMPORTANT NOTE**

If the chocolate in your decorator bag is getting to firm, pop it back in the microwave for a few seconds. BUT, if the chocolate is really hot when you fill in the rest of your mold, the hot chocolate will melt your design and it won't set up the way you want. The chocolate in the bag should be just warm enough to flow smoothly.

Once all the molds are filled in, tap the tray on the counter several times (I would drop it onto the counter from about 4 inches up) to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Otherwise these bubbles can ruin the look of your design.

Place the tray in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes while the chocolate sets.

Here's my mold straight out of the fridge! :)

Tutorial: Cake Pops!

Cakes pops are simply a fantastically delicious treat! So chocolatey-crisp on the outside and warmly rich and soft and yummy on the inside. Mmmmm!

Bakerella, a wonderously fabulous site for all things yummy done with taste and style, made these little pops famous. Thank you, Bakerella! Dipped in pink or red chocolate make these an excellent Valentine's Day treat for family, friends or schoolmates!

Skill Level: moderate beginner

Supplies:

1 cake mix (I used triple chocolate)

1 container cream cheese frosting, 16 oz.

1 package chocolate melts

wax paper

candy sticks

Bake the cake, as directed on the box, in a 9x13 pan. Let cool on wire rack or wax paper.

After cake has cooled, crumbled by hand into a large mixing bowl.

Spoon several large dollups of cream cheese frosting into the bowl and mix by hand. You probably won't use the entire can. I used almost all of the frosting and the mixture was a little too soft.

Roll the mixture into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls and place on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Refridgerate for a few hours or place in freezer for 15 to 60 minutes to firm up.

When the cake balls have cooled, it's time to melt the chocolate coating. This is where experience could be helpful. I've never melted chocolate for coating or dipping before, but it worked out okay. Chocolate can be tricky and won't coat smoothly or shiny if overheated. But no matter how the chocolate coating turns out, it'll be delicious!

A double boiler is recommended for melting the chocolate, but microwaving in in a dish at 15 to 30 second intervals will work as well.

Any leftover chocolate can be stored for future use. I stored mine in these convenient little Gerber plastic food containers.

Take the cake balls out of the freezer and let them sit for a few minutes. Stick a candy stick into a ball, only going about halfway into the ball. If one side of the ball is flat from sitting on the sheet, insert the stick on that side.

Again, I don't know the "professional" way to coat with chocolate, so I employed the "dip and twist" method. :) Rotate the stick so the cake ball in evenly coated and continue to twist as you pull the ball straight up and out from the chocolate. Hopefully this will leave a cute little swirl on top.

Place the sticks in styrofoam to let the chocolate dry.

I didn't have any styrofoam on hand, so I rigged up this beautiful drying rack using a wire rack held up by four small dishes and slit small holes in cardboard to hold the sticks securely. :)

Pretty cool swirls, eh? :)

Yummy!!

Dana from MADE makes the cutest felt hair clips I've seen! If you haven't yet, go check out her site and her new shop. She has lots of great photo tutorials and makes just the cutest clothes for her little girl and boy!

The accent stitching is what makes them so gosh darn cute! What a great way to dress up for Valentine's Day.

Valentine Paper Hearts Decorations

I love Target's dollar bins! They had packs of all these patterned paper which I turned into paper heart decorations for Valentine's Day!

I made LARGE hearts for the fireplace mantle.

and little hearts from the leftover paper.

When I was done I had all these little heart "windows" in the paper so I cut a border around them and made these to go on the wall along the stairs.

Tutorial: Easy Heart Garland

Using the hearts I made from Post-it Notes, here is my first Valentine's decoration!

It hangs in the front window, swaying happily in the air conditioning draft, greeting friends that stop by.

Skill Level: easy beginner

Supplies:

paper hearts (great using felt hearts, too!)

thread in white or contrasting color

sewing machine or needle

To begin, gather up all your hearts. I used about 80 to make my garland.

Plan out the color order of your hearts, then lay out each color group of hearts in order. This will make the sewing go faster. Leaving about 6-8" of a thread tail insert the needle in the top center of your first heart. Stitch down the center of the heart.

Stitch an additional 2 stitches after you've reached the end of the first heart, then line up the 2nd heart and continue down.

Continue stitching each heart in your color order until you've used up all your hearts. Leave a thread tail of 6-8 inches at the end of the garland. Using the thread tails on each end, tie a knot close to the heart to secure each end.

Hang your garland in the window, over a doorway or draped along a mantle. You're done!