camera bag

After chatting with my friend Anne about her very cool scrap booking class and what she has learned I was discussing photoshop actions with Greg, much more his language than Anne and mines’ anyhow, he showed me camera bag which allows you to do some pretty cool stuff to photos, all for only $19, a much nicer investment than photoshop, which my computer is too slow to run anyhow. I’ve had the app on my phone, but am now having fun using it for some real pictures – below are a couple of examples.

using the lolo filter

using the instant filter

Now I think these are pretty good pictures to start with (Greg was the photographer), but made to look even better with the filters- what do you think?

this little girl went to the market

Today was market day (not like I only have one a week – I wish!) and Pfeiffer helped me gather the bags and we were ready to go.
But wait, what does every sensible girl where to the market? Plastic princess heels of course! Now she can walk amazingly well in these little numbers, but no Mom does not let her go out of the house in them…..

rolly-pollies

I had intentions of getting out of the house today, but sometimes it is nice to spend the day at home. The girls built castles, had a snow board ramp on the pillows, built a fort and once it warmed up outside we did a little gardening. Well more like me weeding and picking up the leaves & the girls playing in the water table, making stone soup and hunting for rolly-pollie bugs.

i won!

A few weeks ago I entered this picture into a photo contest on facebook for

MINI & MAXIMUS

And I WON this

I’ve never won a contest before but at the ripe age of 33 there is a first time for everything! Now i’ve had plenty of triumphs in the pool, but it is fun to be recognized for something more creative. I have been getting into photography as my latest hobby so this was a good little ego boost to keep me shooting!

It is a little ironic as felines are not my most favorite of creatures (allergies!), but Pfeiffer really does love the kitties, so it will be great on the bulletin board in her room. The poster is currently flattening out under some books.

tasty treat

Now most of you know I LOVE chocolate. Today I broke one of our own rules and took the girls to the Sweet and Saucy Shop on our way home from picking Charlotte up at school. As part of budget 2010 I decided that we would forgo purchasing after school snacks and opt for homemade snacks, with the exception of special occasions and when we have a coupon. After making this rule Charlotte promptly found a coupon for Baskin Robbins and we were there the next day. Since that treat we have been very good, so today I decided we would break the rule and head to the Sweet and Saucy Shop.

Now this is my favorite place for treats as they are moist and fresh, but not too sweet.

Charlotte got a chocolate peanut butter cake lollipop and Pfeiffer opted for a chocolate mini cupcake, now normally I dive right in to my treat the second it reaches my hand, but today I decided to save mine for naptime. This proved to be a good choice as I was actually able to sit outside and relax for a few minutes with my yummy brownie and coffee. (Don’t you just love the Orla Kiely for Target mug!)

I do love brownies so and make the Baker’s One Bowl brownies at home which are fantastic, nice and chewy and and not too cake-y. I prefer mine no nuts and find that I need to cook a bit longer than the suggested time.

sometimes it’s easy being green

My friend Laura over at Crooked Moon Mama is what I’d like to call a real Green Goddess. She has inspired me in more ways than one, but the latest is drinking our greens. She did a post yesterday about her green smoothies that she makes for her family every morning. Now I am not quite that adventurous yet, but I have tried to start working in some green juice in the morning and surprisingly the girls really like it. I was the kid who literally did not eat anything green until I was late into my teens, so I am very proud when my kids are more adventurous and healthful than I was. I made 2 versions today as the girls asked for seconds, first up was an apple/orange/blood red orange/ and kale juice. Second was carrot/swiss chard and orange juice. Both were tasty, but if you like your juice sweet add an apple to pretty much anything to sweeten it up.  This is obviously a healthy way to start the day, but also helps us get through some of our veggie CSA box.

Now on to some other green things. With Earth Day coming up next month I thought I would set myself some green goals to start working towards, and if I put them here there is certainly a better chance I’ll do them. Now I am not putting myself up on some green pedestal, we did purchase the XL vehicle last year (although it will hopefully have a specific purpose at some point) and I am certainly not the greenest person I or you know. That being said many of the small changes I’ve made have been at the encouragement of friends, so here is your encouragement from me:

5 green things I’ve done:
1. Compost – it is so easy to save all of the coffee ground, fruit/veggie clippings from the kitchen, layer them in the compost with yard clippings and I am super excited to put the compost to use later this month when I plant some veggies. If you live in Long Beach it is super easy to get one going. Info here Also I have a counter top compost pail from Crate and Barrel
2. Out with the juice box – although you can recycle juice boxes, they don’t really do that in our kids schools, so I have started sending C with a re-useable container for her drinks at school. Just think of all those juice boxes sitting in the dump somewhere!
3. CSA deliveries – Community Supported Agriculture… we get a veggie box from Tanaka Farms, a fruit box from Farmer Steve and meat deliveries from J&J Ranch. It is pretty cool to have met some of the people who are growing and tending to your food. These are farms/ranches that generally do organic practices and going local is the latest trend!
4. Wash and re-use ziploc bags – now I do feel a bit like my Grandmother doing this one, but it really is easy to wash and dry them to re-use. We use a lot to store our above mentioned veggies, so this helps on cost savings too.
5. Organic & Natural cleaners – easy!

My list of 5 goals to become more green:
1. More consistently use cloth napkins.
2. Figure out the front sprinkler system to get it on an every other day or less cycle (this may be more of a Greg goal – I hope he buys in to this one).
3. Put the compost to use in a back yard garden – my attempt last year was not at all successful, hoping for a better crop this year!
4. Use the bike – this needs to be more of a weekend goal, but we can bike to dance class, the market, friends houses etc on Saturdays and Sundays – this should be easy with the dryer weather coming.
5. Figure out ways to make, buy local or handmade gifts. This is one I think will be fun, but takes some preparation, certainly not as easy as running to Target on the way to a party, but more thoughtful.

pre-school to classical

Image courtesy of firepile via flickr

On the way out of pre-school today we happened upon a cellist and a violinist performing for a small group of seniors at the J. We got to enjoy about 20 minutes of their music and Charlotte the music lover was quite entranced. Pfeiffer was most interested in clapping after each number, but I think she enjoyed it too. It was a nice break from the chaos of the pick-up and helped me turn my mood around. For some reason I woke up anxious and it was so nice to have some beautiful music to listen to.

Opossums are not my friends

These opossums will have bad Karma because Buddhas are watching them!

I love my succulent and rock garden – we planted it about a year and a half ago and it is finally to the point where it has really grown in and is flourishing. Now for some reason after that first really big rainstorm we had about a month ago the opossums have been digging in there and I am furious! Opossums have always been on the list of creatures I don’t really care for – one of my first very vivid memories from childhood is waking up early and going out to the living room at our house in Ojai only to look out the window to see a Opossum hanging upside down from the tree right outside the window. YUCK! Please if you have any idea how to discourage these little rodents from ruining my garden please share your thoughts.

Wallpaper

My friend Jennifer is a design contributor on the DIY website Charles & Hudson and she just did a little write up on our wallpaper + wallpapered headboard here. Go check it out and leave a comment on there of what you think! I may try to do some more little features on some of the things we like in our home – check back for those.

copycat

Yesterday Charlotte said “Pfeiffer stop copying me!” As a younger sister myself I know the copying will continue for many years to come – I try to explain that Pfeiffer loves her big sis so much that she wants to be just like her. This logic doesn’t really help, but I know their sisterly bond will be tight forever. On Saturday mornings Charlotte has ballet & tap class, so Pfeiffer always dons her ballet (she pronounces the 2 ll’s more like a y – evoking more of a Spanish accent) outfit as well. Gotta love the cute, cheap leotard from H & M!