Faves for the home

We bought our house a year ago and have re-painted, re-floored and decorated it the way we want it. To be honest, it was a very run down almost brand new home that smelled like cigarettes and dog pee from a mile away so for sanitary reasons, everything had to go. It has been a lot of hard work and my husband's woodworking skills have come in very handy although I am still bummed he hasn't finished putting up all the molding.

I have made all the curtains, painted floor cloths, hung my paintings and put up awesome wall stencils all over but the one thing I haven't gotten to yet is the couch. It has no pillows! What is a comfortable couch without pillows?! Well to fix the problem I have decided to make my second weight loss reward a pillow and I have found a few beauties to choose from. I would love some comments and suggestions. Also, make sure you visit the great shops they come from.

A day to celebrate

When a very special little girl turns 3, that deserves a special celebration. My daughter has been talking about boats for months now so we decides to take her out in a canoe today and found a wonderful peaceful pond where only canoes were allowed. It wasn't long before we started spotting turtles on logs in the water and the dragonflies were camping out on the side of the canoe. My little Cecilia was in heaven! In one particular area, there were at least 25 turtles working on their tan on top of logs and tree stumps sticking up in the water. What an unexpected sight. Five hours and two major sugar highs later, she is now sleeping with a smile on her face. It's been a good day!

Had to share....

There are so many talented artisans on Etsy it is difficult to pick out a few favorites but if I have to, this French bombshell would be my pick! The lovely Sadine, dressed in her cowboy hat and hand embellished shirts and aprons, exudes what I think of when I think French country style. She has a great blog that inspires me on a daily basis and I keep wondering why she hasn't become the hottest seller on Etsy yet. Make sure you visit her lovely store and treat yourself to one of her lovely creations.

Morning magic

Early this morning, my hubby grabbed the camera with a smile on his face and took off with our dog in the car. An hour later he returned, still smiling. He had been driving around on the roads around our house and snapped some great photos that I simply had to share. We can see the White Mountains of New Hampshire from up the hill and today they were floating on clouds. Enjoy!

Getting dirty....

There are few things as fulfilling as planting a seed and watching it grow into a glorious flower or something you can munch on. Getting to that point is usually not all that care free though. Last summer was filled with great intentions but the bugs, weeds and a crying infant got the best of me and the only two things that grew well were carrots and basil. Not that they didn't taste great but my taste buds are craving more of a variety this year.

It all starts with a lot of prep work and we like to do everything organic, which means every little bit of compostable food was carried down a narrow path through four feet of snow all winter long to our homemade compost mansion. The result is some wonderful smelly black gold that I just finished mixing into the soil this week. We also added inches of shrimp and manure compost. Doesn't that sound lovely?

A few years back I found an amazing seed catalog that I would loose myself in for hours. It was from a heirloom seed company named Seed Savers Exchange. They also have an online store that you can visit. Tigger Melon, Himalayan Blue Poppies, Bunny Tail Grass and Brown Berry Tomato are a few of the seeds I planted in the past few weeks and some of them are already showing their green heads. The next few months will be very exciting me and my almost three year old daughter who put most of the seeds in the ground.

Lucite love..

Oh my, was I wrong. For some reason I didn't want to work with anything but glass, but now that I have had the pleasure of working with lucite I am stepping out of the box. These beads are the loveliest I have seen in awhile and I sat up until 2AM last night creating some new earrings with the beads I purchased the other day. Here are some of the new designs I will be listing in the next few days.

Gluttonous maximous...oops it's gluteous maximus!

Okay, it's that time of year when we start looking really closely at our bulges. The ones that are not where they should be. Year after year, something has come up that has been an excuse not to make that extra effort to take the pounds off and so here I am, ready to scream at the thought of fitting into a bikini. Time for some serious action or I will not be hanging out on the beach or wearing a skirt this summer. Every week my hubby and I say " we have got to do something about our health, lets start a new diet and go for walks every day". Two minutes later this is usually followed by "hey you feel like brownies after supper?!"

I love our house but it has no space for a good workout...or so I thought until I realized that our Netflix subscription actually includes exercise videos online. Most of the videos are not exactly what I would call top quality but hey, there's a few kickboxing and pilates ones on there. The computer is set up so that I can angle it for a great view from our relatively large kitchen and I have been sweating it like crazy for the past few nights as the kiddos are falling asleep. Combined with long speed walks with a one year old on my back and a tree year old in a stroller this should do the trick!

Here's the plan to make me stick to it. For every inch I loose off my waist, I am treating myself to one of my favorite items from some really cool Etsy shops and I am featuring them here on my blog too. My first inch reward will be from the awesome shop Xenotees and I am already salivating over this item. Isn't the print just the best?! Hopefully, I will be posting my next reward pretty soon.