my best life :: crafting a better world for me & my family

today i...

today i... discovered the first zucchini in my garden, just as i was starting to lose hope. today it's about the size of my finger. i can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow::

today i... went to the grocery and didn't use a single plastic bag::

today i... harvested the first broccoli from my garden. it was a small delicious miracle, which i steamed and seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic sea salt::

today i... grilled honey mustard pork chops with apricots::

 

today i... chose water instead of dr. pepper (twice)::

today i... mowed the lawn, watered the garden, carried the recycle bin to the curb, hugged and kissed my kiddos...

today was good :)

studio calico july sneak peeks

can you believe that studio calico is two years old? here is what we have in store for you this month::

since we're celebrating, how about some sneak peeks? i am really excited about my layouts this month, because i think they are a perfect snapshot of my life right now. and life is good ::

 

the july kit and add-ons will be available tomorrow at Noon EST for subscribers and at Midnight EST for non-subscribers. celebrate with us :)

farmer's market saturday

this post was intended for yesterday, but when i sat down to blog, something completely different came out. i'm okay with that.

and what i wrote yesterday wasn't an entire departure from what i had wanted to say all along. but the more i wrote, the more i realized that those thoughts deserved a post of their own. 

so back to the farmer's market. as i mentioned yesterday, i want to eat fresh and enjoy the bounty of nature as much as possible. besides growing my own vegetables and herbs, i can't think of a better way to do this than by supporting local farmers. noah and i visited the farmer's market several times last summer, and the three of us have already gone a few times this spring. this saturday was the best trip yet. the local produce and fresh flower bouquets are starting to appear :)

here is what we brought home this weekend::

the zinnia bouquets are one of my favorite things about the farmer's market. they make my home happy all week long :)

i also picked up some asparagus, red and yellow new potatoes, garlic, green onions, cut parsley, and mixed salad greens. oh... and some local cheese... garden herb havarti this time. we like to try a new flavor every week :)

several of these items made an appearance at the saturday night dinner that nadiya and i shared on the front porch while noah ate burgers down the street. in fact... noah was gone all afternoon and most of the evening, so nadiya and i hung out in the kitchen together. 

on the menu:: lemon thyme chicken with new potatoes, asparagus, and salad with homemade lemon balsamic vinaigrette. I used fresh lemon thyme from my herb garden for the chicken and i also tossed a bit of basil and cilantro into the dressing.

before::

after::

did i forget to mention the homemade lemonade? nadiya juiced the lemons like a pro. it was a delightfully sun-shiney (and surprisingly simple) lemony meal.

i think i could get used to this :)

since yellow seems to be the theme of the day, here is a closer look at the second canvas i created for my living room::

i posted a sneak peek of it last month, but i have been saving the full reveal until the Story Time alphabet stamps were available for purchase at Studio Calico. They have already sold out for now, but if you didn't get a chance to purchase them, they will be available in the shop on July 28. 

a few more details::

i think the floor plan just might be my favorite part :)

living a life inspired

yes. i totally lifted my title from donna downey. i read a single post on her blog yesterday. it wasn't even her most recent post, but somehow i ended up there, and what she said put into words exactly what i have been thinking about a lot lately.

please go read her post for yourself, but here are a few of my thoughts...

first, donna says that choosing to live inspired is about more than paints and colors... it's about looking at situations more creatively and seeking to find the positive. i love that she says "choosing to live inspired" because i truly believe that it is a choice. it's so easy to stumble through life failing to notice the details that make it worth living. it can be so difficult to find the silver lining of a cloud that threatens to burst open at any moment. i know. i lived that.

i choose to not live that way any more. 

this reminds me of something that pastor jason said in his message yesterday. he said that people spend too much time regretting the past or worrying about the future, when they should be living in the present. 

being present. that is what it means to live an inspired life. appreciating the moments that make up our days. 

i hope donna doesn't mind that i quote her here, but i don't feel like it can be said any better. her words are that perfect::

"creativity lies in the tiny moments when we decide to do something differently and try new things... stretching outside of our comfort zones on all levels and accepting the things we cannot change."

so perfect... for reasons i won't share right now. but in my heart, i know. 

life is a series of tiny moments. a series of colliding, reverberating, extraordinary moments. moments that can slip by in the blink of an eye, if you're not careful. moments that can change your life forever, if you let them. 

moments that may not be what you wished them to be, but more perfect than you could have imagined. not because they lived up to your expectations, but because you accepted them as something you couldn't change... because you accepted them as something that could change you.

about a month ago, i found myself overwhelmed by fear. i was afraid of the future. i was afraid of the past. i was afraid of the effect the past would have on my future. quite simply... i was afraid of everything. during my moment of greatest weakness, a friend gave me a gift that i truly believe changed my life forever. such an innocent gesture, but it helped me to recognize the positive in a situation that i couldn't change. 

his gift stretched me in ways i never thought possible. six plants and a bag of seeds... momentous change... new growth::

i created this layout for studio calico's june gallery. the journaling says::

to you a pepper... to me a promise... to keep learning, to appreciate what i have, to seek happiness every day, to eat fresh whenever possible, to encourage my children to enjoy the wonder of nature.

this is living a life inspired :)

may showers

i know they say "april showers bring may flowers" but i must tell you... may has been a month of showers. baby showers. three in eight days, to be exact :)

saturday was cara's, sunday was my cousin adrienne's, and today is my friend lara's (who also happens to be noah's kindergarten teacher).

cara works with us at studio calico. (if you are a subscriber, there is a pretty good chance that some of your kits have been "packed with love by cara."

when she was at the office on friday, she mentioned that when my schedule slowed down a little bit she would be so happy if i would create a canvas for her nursery. i asked her to show me her bedding online, so i could get a feel for the room. little did she know that i would show up to her shower on saturday with a perfectly color-coordinated canvas for baby girl's wall. (i stopped by target and picked up some flannel receiving blankets to use as a color reference. you can see her bedding here.)

after i left the office (but before i headed to target) i went to a friend's house and snipped a bouquet of fresh roses which i arranged in a vintage green vase that i picked up at the antique mall. (there were two identical vases. why, oh why didn't i buy the second one for myself? i'm hoping it will still be there next time i go back.)

as i explained to cara, the design of the canvas i created for her was almost identical to the one i created for my living room, but the colors and each of the vintage papers were carefully chosen for her. my favorite part of her canvas was this poem, which came from an old spelling primer:: 

i also loved the flowers, which cam from a 1968 field guide to wildflowers::

here is the whole canvas (and the bouquet of roses)::

and finally... cara and me::

 

doesn't she look beautiful? speaking of beautiful... the shower was at the charming home of a sweet friend, miss betty. betty is a retired elementary school principle and being in her home is like stepping into a fairy tale. the beauty of it all was almost magical and no details were spared to make cara's day enchanting :)

embellishment swap part 2

yay! my second set of goodies from the studio calico embellishment swap arrived from ireland on monday. let me tell you... they were totally worth the wait! learning to knit and/or crochet is near the top of my life to-do list, so you can imagine my excitement when i pulled these out of a cute little kraft mailer ::

thanks so much, elisa! i look forward to creating something fabulous with them :)

embellishment swap

finally ready to share some of my studio calico embellishment swap goodies! i am still waiting to receive the set sent by elisa in ireland, but here is the fun little collection sent by annie in california ::

i think that the polaroid set is my favorite :) i don't even have a polaroid camera, but i think that the polaroid frame and hand-drawn camera that she created are just too cute to resist. thanks, annie for sharing your creativity with me!

i was waiting for elisa to receive the package i sent before i posted photos of the items i created, but she got them, so now i can share. i decided to make a set of tags that could be hung as an inspiration wire (wire and clips included) or used as individual tags on layouts and projects. i used a variety of vintage paper, mostly from the same sources that i used for my living room canvases (i was working on the projects simultaneously). the illustrations of the little girls came from a 1937 arithmetic primer. i loved the orange and yellow color combo paired with the green prima tags that i diverted from the landfill. (i love it that the idea for these tags came to me while i was busying myself with the mindless task of upwrapping hundreds of canvas tags... inspiration is everywhere, right?) i forgot to photograph the ones i made for annie, but here are a few photos of the tags i sent to elisa ::

aren't those girlies precious? aside from the vintage paper and yo-yos, which were lovingly (and slightly begrudgingly) cut from a piece of my favorite upcycled fabric, all of the other bits and pieces came from old studio calico kits. 

i had almost as much fun wrapping the packages as i did creating the tags. a while ago i purchased a bag full of old sugar and salt bags at the antique mall, and i finally had the perfect reason to use two of them. i wrapped the tags in vintage sheet music, tucked them into the bags, tied them up with ribbon, and finished them off with a felt flower (pattern by heather bailey) :: 

 

i will be making more of these flowers very soon :)

a reason to smile

because everybody needs one::

 

my crafty project

the sun is setting on national scrapbook day, and although i can't say that i created any layouts, i did use my scrapbook supplies to make two canvases for my living room redecoration project :)

in the last couple of years i have cultivated a love and appreciation for vintage paper and cottage style. the thought of taking something old and making it into something new inspires me. when i look at what was last week an empty wall with a lonely chair and see how i have transformed it into a cozy little space that expresses my style perfectly, i smile. a little bit vinatge, a little bit mod::

disclaimer:: the lighting in my house is horrible and it's a dreary day outside. it looks much better in person :)

some close-ups::

the new:: the chair, the pillow, and the candles, and the picture frame came from pier one. the lamp is from target. the books on the table are vintage vavoom, and the gentle art of domesticity.

the old:: the bird prints, table, and afghan came from off broadway, one of my favorite little antique stores. the vintage paper comes from a 1962 children's dictionary, a 1918 spelling primer, an 1881 accounting book, a 1937 arithmetic primer, a 1942 book of sheet music, and a 1968 field guide to wildflowers. did i mention that i love vintage paper?

these are the first canvases i have created with a collage of vintage papers as the background. they are carefully selected for a variety of reasons. instead of using photos to express my feelings, as i would on a scrapbook layout, i choose papers that speak to me. on these particular pieces, my favorites are the "unfinished symphony" sheet music... because i feel like so much about my life remains unwritten... and this poem... 

     the world's a very happy place

       where every child should dance and sing

     and always have a smiling face

       and never sulk at anything

... because i really want to believe that happiness could be so simple.

happy national scrapbook day

first, let's take care of some business. if you are participating in my studio calico national scrapbook day challenge, please post your before and after photos in the studio calico gallery and link your entry in the comments of this post. 

if you would like to see a list of all the studio calico nsd challenges, look here. you can participate in as many challenges as you want, and if you can figure out a way to combine them for more chances to win, go for it!

as promised, here is a little progress report on my nsd-self challenge. i decided to makeover my living room for two reasons:: a more inspiring environment for myself and a cozy little home for my fabulous new chair. i have been working really hard this week, and i am thrilled with the transformation so far. i have a couple of finishing touches to add throughout the day, but here is a little peek at what you can expect to see::