My Very Most Favorite

time of day is the quiet early morning hours when the world is just starting to open her eyes. 

She reaches her arms high in a great big stretch and with a wide yawn she breathes in all the possibility of a new day.  It was my pleasure to witness this very chain of events this morning. And as the sun peeked his head over the mountain I took this photo of my babies all cuddled up in bed with their daddy. Life is good in the morning.

2.for.Tuesday

one: Survey Says: Salsa. Soup + Salsa. I am exhausted. We were up until 3:30a.m. this morning bottling tomato soup + salsa. I love the soup, but am really wondering if it's worth all this trouble. This is the third week in a row we've done this. I don't think the salsa is worth it. I've still not found a bottled salsa recipe I love. Tonight we used recipe #2 for this year. I think we're going to have a salsa party when we're done with the tomato season. Everyone will have to fill out a survey about the each of the different salsas and hopefully we'll be able to pin down a recipe we like. Hopefully. I'm thinking a questionaire like this might just do the trick. This just might be the labels on a few jars that get delivered as invites. That would help me get rid of some... hmm.

two: Flashback. Remember when I first started posting 2.for.Tuesday clear back in November 2008 [wow]? It was entirely about great ideas I had seen and wanted to try. Some I even tried. I kind of miss that. I kind of miss letting the ebb + flow of the internet waves pull me where they would. It isn't very often anymore that I surf without a specific purpose in mind. Today I was reminded of how much I enjoyed creating a post with the sole purpose of sharing fun ideas with you. Elsie Marley recently shared a post called things on the internet: tutorial edition. Things like the homemade retro play stamps tutorial/photo by Teri at Giddy Giddy. It's all fun. Go see.

ps. It seems a few crazy Christmas cards are extremely past due... I'll get right on that.

pps. The label was made with Echo Park's Country Drive Elements 2

Super Saturday

Sorry about the absentee-ism lately. I was cut off from the internet for about a week and then I got to play catch-up. Here's the final step in that catch-up process... My last two JS projects for the month:

First up we have interactive place mats. It's The Girl's job to set the table for dinner and I've been thinking a lot about how to help her do a nice job correctly. I came to the conclusion that an interactive place mat was the way to go and started looking for linen place mats that I could embroider the elements of an informal place setting onto. I made a template/pattern for the embroidery and got to thinking, "why worry about embroidery when I have access to so many fabulous + fun patterned papers?" So for fun I started dropping papers onto the template. Loved these ones from the Early Bird Paper Pack by Cosmo Cricket. Perfect. I printed them 11 x 17 and had them laminated at Staples [have I told you about Staples? I'm going to have to do that. Remind me. Heidi Swapp is brilliant]. I love them. I love that they are wipe-able. I love that they want to set the table now because it's like a game. And I love that they are now learning how to do it correctly.

Isn't that the cutest card ever? I seriously keep looking at it and thinking, "Who can I send this too? What kind of party can we have so I can send this card to someone?" Around here we talk quite a lot about inviting various families from the area over for dinner so we can get to know them better. Lately the boys have been wishing for a party for no reason. A few years ago Sarah Neuberger from The Small Object made printable fill-in-the-blank invites that I flagged for my to-do list. When I saw Cosmo Cricket's The Boyfriend Elements tags I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. Love it when random things line up just so. I made a template and dropped them in. Easy Peasy.

I'm sure you'll see these projects again.

2.for.Tuesday

one: Evidence. I am getting the biggest kick out of Nisa Fiin's [of Splendid Fiins] new Evidence line. When I saw the first group I immediately thought I'd make a field journal for the boys to document their summer adventures. Lucky for me, I am a procrastinator, and while this project floated around in my head Nisa was busy making even more great stuff for the line. And I saw this tutorial for making little books. It's perfect. So here you go. A very cool book of field notes. I'm over at Mouse, Paper, Lovely with a photo filled how-to today. Come visit!

1. watermelon hands, 2. outside of the dugout tonight...., 3. red.3, 4. red.4, 5. red.5, 6. Untitled, 7. spinning summer records, 8. day 5 red boats santa cruz, 9. day 5 taffy, 10. Untitled, 11. red seasonal goodness, 12. poppytalk red: summer shoes, 13. cherries, 14. red1, 15. IMG_1986, 16. GreyLemon SummerColor Rainbow4, 17. rainbow.1, 18. friendships over the rainbow, 19. summer rainbow, 20. rainbow.4, 21. day 4 rainbow (ceiling lights), 22. beads, 23. Ferris wheel2, 24. rainbow, 25. hot air balloon, 26. Carnival, 27. balloons, 28. Summer Rainbow 2, 29. Making our own pot of gold, 30. 100 Colours, 31. IMG_9576, 32. hot air balloon - it's summer!, 33. rainbow weekend., 34. IMGP8931, 35. play-doh, 36. poppytalk rainbow: beaded

two: Color Week. How come I always miss it? It's on the someday list. I love looking at all the beautiful photos!

ps. The Splendid Fiins Evidence Paper Pack will be available next Monday at Jessica Sprague!

Make It Do

So the other day my kids had a lesson on the food guide pyramid complete with art project. Really. I had nothing to do with it. They sat down at the table - the two younglings on one side and the older "teacher" on the other - and they had a lesson. I was here, working on the computer, and listening [occasionally throwing a comment or two in].  It was decided by the teacher that they would do one food group every day this week. Today they did grains. What does this have to do with my established Make It Do series you might be asking...

In my mind, talk of grains led to thinking of sprouts. In fact, it keeps popping up. See, the other day I was at the neighbor's house getting a can of tomato sauce. While we talked she took out a jar of sprouts and proceeded to rinse them. Of course we started talking about sprouts... And for the past few days I've been reading Whole Living Magazine and there's a recipe with sprouted quinoa so they were already on my mind a bit. And then I remembered that Mom gave us a sprouter for Christmas last year. Awesome. So here I am. A sprouter [as of three days ago]!

Did you know there are pages and pages of information/research touting the benefits of sprouts? For example, did you know that there are 10 to 100 times more enzymes in germinated grains and beans than in raw fruits and vegetables? Sprouts abound with antioxidants, they are full of protein, chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. When a seed sprouts, stored food & enzymes needed for growth of the mature plant are mobilized. Protein, carbohydrate & fat is broken down (pre-digested) to free amino acids, simple sugars & soluble compounds. Vitamins, including A, B-complex (B-12), C, E & K, increase to meet the growth needs of a young plant. For example, B-complex in wheat increases 600 percent, vitamin E triples & vitamin C increases six-fold. Vitamin C in a 100 gram serving of peas goes from 0 to 69 mg. in 48 hours! Essential minerals - calcium, magnesium, iron & zinc are supplied in organic form, "chelated" for better assimilation.

So now I'm asking myself, "why haven't I been eating/feeding my kids sprouts all along?" I think I thought it was complicated. Apparently it isn't.

This is the sprouter I have. Three days ago I put in 1/4 c quinoa [that's quinoa - pronounced keen'wah - in the first photo] and filled it up with very warm water to soak for 3 hours [I set a timer because I knew I would forget]. When the beeper beeped, I emptied the water, put on the lid and sat it on  the counter. It's called the EasySprout and it's supposed to speed up the process. 24 hours later this is what they looked like [I put some in a jar so you could see them better + I love the photos you'll see in the link below. I wanted some of my own]. My kids love them. I want to try beans next. I love bean sprouts in stirfry.

Don't have a sprouter? Here's a great link to a very simple + kid friendly sprout project. All you need is a mason jar, breatheable fabric [like cheesecloth or a piece of a pair of old nylons], a mason jar ring and, of course, seeds. But not the kind you buy for the garden. Those typically have stuff on them.

In comparison the only real difference is time. With the jar you have to rinse the sprouts 1-2 times per day while the sprouter claims the airflow is such that it's not necessary to rinse at all. It also claims that my quinoa sprouts will be ready in 12-24 hrs, but Whole Living says quinoa takes 2 days in a jar. I suppose there is one more difference: You probably have everything you need to start sprouting in your house right now [wheat berries/lentils/black eyed peas/pinto beans, etc], but you would have to order a sprouter if you wanted one - there are endless options available.

What does one do with sprouts anyway?
•Add to tossed salads
•Use in coleslaw
•Try in wraps and roll-ups
•Stir-fry with other vegetables
•Blend with vegetable juices
•Stir into soups or stews when serving
•Top omelet or scrambled eggs
•Add to sushi [because, you know, we eat that all the time :)]
 
Enjoy!


ps. Want to know more? Here's a great link with tons of info about sprouting at home.

pss. the photo above shows the stage we ate them in. I read somewhere that the most nutritional stage is 1/4 roots. I'm not convinced that what I'm seeing is roots. I'm working on doing more research to see how to go about getting them into the bigger great on a sandwich stage. The sprouting at home link in the postscript is the place to learn it I think. Just a matter of time.

2.for.Tuesday

one: Nine Already? Cosmo Cricket has a new line out called Salt Air. It's pretty fun! Since *I* got a fish for his birthday I decided to use it to do a page about his birthday. Not that you can really tell it's about his birthday, but that's how I do things. That little ticket on the right is his party invite [we took a bunch of kids to see Rio at the dollar flick so it's a movie ticket - the template is in the box. You're welcome!] and of course, the fish. I made the line and the clips were extracted from a photo. And, yes, I'm obviously still the white paint lady. Maybe I will always be. I like it alot.

two: glitter. Thanks to my friend Cannwin.

ps. The Man doesn't think it really looks like glitter.  :(

pps. know where "cue the sparkle" comes from? I'll make you a customized sparkle element of your choice if you can guess right! After I wrote that *I* said I had to change the color of the glitter. He thought the green glitter was for him since it's his favorite color.

ppps. If necessary, I may limit the number of elements and do a random drawing to choose a few winners. I don't forsee that happening, but you never know.

Girl Friday

Yesterday my friend Cannwin posted a list. And you all know how much I love lists. Then I got an e-mail from BPC [Big Picture Classes] with a great "I" list. And the boys are currently working a list. Hmm. I think the universe is telling me it's time for another list :). Like I need an excuse. Here goes:

I was not going to post today.

I am going to the dentist.

I think I should take better care of my teeth so I don't have to make special trips to fix problems.

I wonder if that protective mouthwash really works...

I wish I could snap my fingers and have everything fly to it's place [like Mary Poppins].

I save everything. It's annoying. And counterproductive to my organizing wishes.

I always sit things down on the nearest surface and forget about them.

I can't imagine living in a clutter free home.

I believe it's possible

I promise to make more of an effort.

      

photos credits: Better Homes & Gardens and Martha Stewart Living

I love the look of a clutter free home.

I do.