my sweet little girl has been making these little paper bunnies using her new wooden egg laying bunny as a pattern.

ocean beach, san francisco 2005 - balancing with the rhythm of the ocean

i've been trying to get settled with myself for quite some time now. days go by and i am losing track.

it is funny how life moves different than your expected. this is by no means a complaint. i love my life and my amazing husband and spunky daughter bring more joy to my days than i ever could have imagined. i love being in my hometown and being close to our family. but i cannot grasp how fast time is going. it sounds really cliche but seriously...way too fast. i feel like it is slipping away. so frightening.

i have several ideas that i have been trying to work through but timing is always a challenge for me. i was thinking about the structure of my day and how i am having trouble getting in a rhythm. i have been getting into bed early lately and getting to the gym before my sweets awake. so i feel like i am getting a good foundation going now but the rest has not fallen into place yet still having many non-starter days.

my dear friend and teacher marisa from creative thursday had a great post last week about time as a state of mind and life as yours to design. this is a great video that she created i hope that you check it out. it really resonated with me. i feel busy all the time but doing what exactly? marisa really helped me find some clarity, i am working on some reprogramming. i am choosing to "design my life" so that i make time to create what i want. thank you my friend! powerful insight again!

then yesterday sarah jane tweeted about simplicity hoping this will remind me to stay in the present.

lastly this morning i found a post from heather at shivaya naturals about serenity this was a really powerful post that spoke to me about embracing all of who you are and finding the finding the balance within without trying to mask or deny your challenges.

so i am starting a new week NOW!

designing my life

simply while remaining present

embracing who i am and finding the balance and serenity.

thank you for your inspiration today marisa, sarah jane and heather. it is so wonderful to find all of this insight just when you need it. be well. monday is a great day to start fresh!

sunshine and happiness.

{this moment}

a photo~an extraordinary moment~no words~pause~savor~remember...

great story about children in haiti and los angeles on npr this morning...

npr also reported on the the knitting graffiti

enchantedmama was looking for us to "think green" this week to celebrate the coming of spring. this was more challenging than you would think. we have had a beautiful winter here in western new york mostly because it has been relatively cold and the snow has remained on the ground so even on the overcast days there has been more reflected light then usual because of the snow. i am not typically a fan of winter, i have trouble without the light, this year i have felt much happier, i have just been embracing it and hoping that it continues. we still have snow even though it has been warmer here. we went ice skating today it was in the 40s and my little sweet pea has a pink little face, i feel so bad that i did not sunscreen today, so out of practice (she says it does not hurt but this was really unexpected in our area not so common as out west).

so here we go with many photos from the week. i never found a bud and i looked hard and long for the entire week. i did have some fun though, thanks kellen.

split peas and sunshine

on the day you were born by debra frasier

thoughts on being green

the creative family by amanda blake soule

made from scratch by jenna woginrich

animal, vegetable, miracle by barbara kingsolver

the backyard homestead by carleen madigan

the handmade home by amanda blake soule

sewing green by betz white

how to design your own clothes and make your own patters by claudia ein

living on earth by alicia bay laurel

the art of sewing-restyling your wardrobe by time-life books

ric rac love

green love

potential in green

my mama made this sweet cookie jar for my grandmother in 1971, my grandma loved roosters.

my grandmother gave this to my sweet girl when she gave up her house. so sweet.

she loved my girl and my girl loved her. missing her so much. so luck that she had the chance to know grandma.

green comes in all shapes...mostly man made these days.

looking for buds...

to the left too...

green on a tree...not what i was looking for!

feeling the joy...

nurture and wonder...

sunshine and happiness!

i've been waiting to share my blog until it is just so.

i still have so many things that i want to do and add and learn about how to lay this all out. also i have about 30 different things that i am working on...least of which what i want my main focus to be...maybe i should start there!

my husband was trying to help me sort out some of my technical challenges today and i realized that i already have over 100 posts. not to say that i procrastinate.

last summer i attended the squam art workshops and i have previously posted about this incredible experience. and took a class with the marvelous marisa from creative thursday. marisa suggested risks need to be taken, that if you wait for perfection you might just miss out. those are not her exact words but i hope that i have captured the meaning behind what she was saying. she is brilliant! so here i go.

i feel so fortunate that i have found so many wonderful creative women that i visit everyday and learn from and that i am inspired by everyday. i really want to share them with others that are in my life and share what i am learning that might be useful.

many of the blogs that i love have come to me from amanda blake soule - soulemama. she is also how i originally discovered squam. one of the blogs that i visit everyday (thanks to amanda) is juniper moon farm i was also lucky enough to meet susan gibbs (and amanda) at the squam art fair. susan is a shepherd and her farm had the first yarn and fiber csa. she had a post the other day about confronting your fears. she confronted her fear of dyeing some precious roving. let me say it is so incredibly beautiful i am so glad that she conquered that fear. she asked what we were fearing and my response was to put my blog out there. she was also looking for a date of commitment to conquer your fear. i chose march 1st 2010! i am a little late. technical difficulties today but coming very close anyhow.

i still would like to add all of the other wonderful woman that inspire me. i hope to figure this out soon. until then i will share a few here because i must. many of them i also met last year at squam and they really inspire me. i hope that you enjoy them as much as i do.

lizzy house

nelkin designs

enchantedmama

lavender and limes

shivaya naturals

thanks for visiting.

sunshine and happiness to you today.

my mother sent me this beautiful apron yesterday that belonged to her great aunt.

isn't it beautiful?

she also sent our favorite cutout cookies...yummmmmmmmmmm

she made these scrumptious coconut cookies with chocolate buttercream frosting. that is real "butter"cream this is a new recipe. we are really enjoying it!

we had plenty of sugar in the house then my mother-in-law stopped by with a box of chocolate for us. what to do? have a piece, plenty of dark chocolate in here for me. don't you love their chocolatier?

hope that you are enjoying the holiday as much as i am.

most everyday i have npr on all day in the kitchen. it makes me stop and listen or become overwhelmed with emotion and either joy, fire, inspiration, so many emotions. i just have a hard time understanding how everyone is not listening to this everyday!!!

i feel like i need to tell people about it, they must not know if they are not listening, how could they be depriving themselves of such inspiration and knowledge.

so everyday that i am listening i hear at least one story on npr and think "wow i would love to share that, that would be great to post on a blog".

so i just went to the npr site to find a few stories from today to link to and i found this picture of fred astaire and ginger rogers. i have to tell you every since i can remember i have had a huge crush on fred astaire. not much to look at you think. well i don't know, i just did and still do. ginger rogers was great too.

so i went to npr and came across this nice story about irving berlin and the song "cheek to cheek" that he wrote for "top hat". it just made me smile and brought me back to all those late nights watching fred and ginger on pbs. just makes me feel all warm and happy inside. hope it works for you too. here is a link to cheek to cheek.

here are a few links to my favorite npr shows. i will be giving you suggestions every so often of stories to listen to. hopefully you will take them wisely.

i of course listen to morning edition and all things considered in the morning and afternoon respectively, but there are so many jems in between.

diane rheem she always has the most current topics and incredible guests and she does not let people get away with alot of what you would hear on some other talk shows, she is the queen.

fresh air with terry gross i don't hear fresh air much any more because it is on at bed/reading time. she has great guests and asks the questions that you would ask.

this american life how can you not love ira glass. i am sorry but he is brilliant. someone shared a link the other day with ira glass talking about creativity vs reality. this is perfect.

wait wait...don't tell me is always required listening. it makes me laugh out loud every time.

this will be the last one for now.

the splendid table we found this on late one night when we were painting the kitchen over the summer. so many wonderful little things to learn on this show.

so many of these shows if not all are available on for podcast. hope that you will try some out. warning...you may fall in love.

enjoy!

another beautiful day to start the week. this really fits how my mood today. i feel that I am finally moving forward. a fresh start.



today I will send off my registration for squam. I knew that it was going to be difficult to decide which classes to take but the choice was made more challenging by the fact there were so many great sessions to choose from. in the end I chose to go when the wonderful women that I met last year would be there.

Sent from my iPhone

why is't that night time seems to be when i feel most creative? i'd think the sunshine and the light that i love so much would bring more inspiration to me...i am guessing it's because i'm not feeling the pressure of the time constraints and family obligations (which i love).

maybe it's just the wine and lack of sleep because i'm now on the late night create spiral. hoping good things are coming out of it.

Sent from my iPhone