What's Up Buttercup?

Goodness it's been a while. It seems I stay in touch with so many of you more often on Instagram and Facebook these days but oh how I've missed the blog. I look back at the 2009-2010 era and how much of our world of communication was through blogs and blog comments. How things have changed.

Life has changed a lot since that time. We now have a teenager in the house, who is busy running to sporting, church and social events, doing math we don't understand and writing essays in a class called Language Arts that we used to call English class. I spend a lot of my time driving her to activities and events, spending long hours at track meets and golf tournaments - and working and studying, while waiting to pick her up from activities, in parking lots around town. I try to make that time really productive since there are a lot of small clusters of time spent that way. It's amazing what I can get done with my phone and a notebook.

We now live in a house on a large lot that requires upkeep...no more depending on the apartment manager to take care of issues and tend all the landscaping. Keeping things in good order, watered and clean takes up an amazing amount of time, but it usually is a labor of love when you see how nice the house looks afterwards.

We live in a state I never expected to live in. New Mexico. It's strange to adjust to being closer to states like Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado when I've been so used to being on the left coast most of my adult life. Living closer to "the middle" always throws me. And just like living in any other state, city or town, there are things we love and things we don't always love so much about our new state. But we try to see the best and contribute our best and enjoy every good thing. Sunsets are definitely one of those. This image is from our street. It's dreamy sunsets here just about every night.

Creatively most of my focus has been spent on the house. Reimaging and redecorating, repairing and reorganizing as we go along, trying to learn who we are in the house and how it will best work for us. It's interesting how after three years you can go back and wonder why you ever did things the way you did in the beginning and to see how much some things just haven't worked for the family. I took over our never utilized family room for my office and have absolutely loved having the open space, a big work area/counter and lots of storage for supplies and tools. Plus it has a lot of windows facing out the front of our house, so there is lots of natural light and nature to watch outside.

We have settled into a wonderful social circle here in New Mexico and that is probably the thing I am most grateful for. When you don't have family support nearby, having a strong network of friends who are family is priceless. We have been so blessed and I hope we are blessing others and helping and supporting as well as we are receiving. I'm looking forward to doing more blogging. I have a long list of things to talk about with you.

Pretty Gifts For Family And Friends

I decided to make up some toiletries/catchall bags again this holiday season. I happened upon some very pretty vinyl fabrics while out buying notions for Kiddo's school Egypt project that she completed a few weeks ago. Couldn't pass them up, so I have catchall bags for sale this holiday season.

They are so perfect for makeup bags, corralling electronics cords, organizing all the little lotions, lip balms, etc. in one's purse and storing childrens tiny toy pieces. There are so many uses and they make the best gifts for coworkers, family and friends.

Here are the three colors I went with and the bags come in three different sizes: Coin Purse, ($6) Medium  ($12) and Large ($14). Here is a shot that better illustrates the three sizes.

I have a good supply in stock but they are going quickly now that folks are getting more serious about getting their holiday shopping done. This season is going to fly right by, isn't it?! I can't believe it's already December 6. If you're interested in giving some kc accessories catchall toiletries bags for this holiday season, email me at kalanicut @ hotmail dot com or message me on instagram at kalanicutblog.

Pinecone Garland Class

Gosh it's been a couple of weeks since I posted, but boy have a lot of things been going on. I've been working my small businesses with a lot of focus and little by little it has been paying off. I'll share more about that momentarily. Also we've had a plumbing emergency that required our septic tank to be emptied the afternoon before Thanksgiving and then we still had a main line sewer problem that couldn't be addressed until the morning after Thanksgiving. That made for a very eventful holiday weekend but thanks goodness the plumbers we talked to over the phone gave us some tips so that we could make it through Thanksgiving without too much misery!

We've also had some health issues coming into play the past month which had been time consuming to deal with but thankfully not too worrisome -- and I'm glad we got them taken care of and we're moving forward.

On Saturday I taught what I hope is my first class at Spur Line Supply Co. in Albuquerque's up-an-coming Sawmill District. It was such a fun day and I loved meeting everyone who registered for the class. This community table setting was such a perfect place to hold a class. It's right in the store retail space so you have all the fabulous energy of the shop around you, yet it's quiet enough to be able to interact as a class without a problem.

After a warm welcome (seriously how much do I love these people for registering to come attend the class and support things I love to do!), and some brief instructions everyone started creating. The great thing about these garlands is that they doesn't require a lot of concentration once you have the hang of it, so you really can chat and enjoy yourself without worry that you'll somehow wreck your garland. It was fun to see what ribbon everyone chose, and how they decided to put their garland together. Every one was a little different and unique to the artist who created it.

It was also a great class for me to teach because it didn't require a lot of constant helping or a long process of instructions that needed to be followed. So I could also enjoy getting to know everyone, helping in little ways and not feeling too stretched with everyone needing constant assistance.

I love trying to incorporate other small businesses into any activity I do where it is doable because I really do believe that "a rising tide lifts all ships." If I can improve my events by bringing in other cool businesses and products and we can help promote each other for the event, that gets me excited. That's one of the reasons I was so interested in working with Spur Line Supply Co. and bringing in Bristol Doughnut Co., the doughnut/coffee shop within Spur Line  --- who can resist an amazing doughnut and warm beverage. So I included that in the price of the ticket and it was great to work with Sara and team at Bristol -- and of course I brought a few doughnuts home for the family too.

I also got a great referral for a shop that would be a great spot for my Live Love ABQ designs from a lovely woman who joined the class as a walk-in. Never know what great serendipitous things can happen when you get together with people you don't know. This is why I love networking. There are kind. helpful people everywhere.

Spur Line is such a gorgeous environment and it was fun to see all the holiday shoppers coming into the shop on Saturday morning. I was really happy that the attendees who came to the class were all first timers at the shop and they were able to do some Christmas shopping too. I have to go back soon and do some gift hunting, because that place really does have something for everyone. I'm hoping I can come up with some other fun class ideas for Spur Line's community and community table.

Come deck the halls with Live Love ABQ at Spur Line Supply Co.

 for our Pinecone Garland Workshop.

Saturday December 2, 2017
10:00 am to noon
Spur Line Supply Co.
800 20th Street NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102

Cost: 25.00 - includes instruction, materials, amazing treat & warm beverage.

Create a beautiful six-foot long garland that is perfect for hanging across a mantle, doorway or window to welcome all the holiday spirit. Mix, mingle and enjoy a delicious treat and warm beverage too. Make this December one to remember when you spend a festive morning with us at Spur Line and create a holiday decoration you can enjoy for years to come. Bring your emailed receipt as ticket. If you forget, no worries, we'll have a list.

Live Love ABQ was founded by lifestyle blogger Kalani Cropper. For more than eight years on her blog kalanicut, Kalani has shared creative inspiration for peaceful, happy, stylish living. She writes about designing a welcoming home, developing personal style and fashioning a beautiful soul.

Can't wait to spend this fun morning with you. Register now, space is limited.

It's High Time I Bought A Ticket To Alt Summit

I have wanted to go to Alt Summit since the first year it was held. I wavered that year when I should've just jumped at the chance and then it took off and getting a ticket has felt next to impossible since then either due to timing, finances or how fast it now sells out.

image via Alt Summit

I knew tickets were going on sale last week and I had talked to my super encouraging sister about going but got home from vacation to a busy week and forgot about it. Then the morning the tickets went on sale, my sister texted me the reminder she'd received and said "You should go!" Something inside me said "You should do this" and another part of me was thinking, "You have spent a lot of money investing in yourself and your businesses the past month, you cannot afford to do this." While driving all over town running errands I quickly pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall and started texting my sister back with my waffling thoughts. Her comment was "Pray about it," ....duh....

So I did and the feeling "You should do this" did not go away. I looked at my bank account and even though there was less there than I would like there to be (due to all my personal & family investments - aka business investments) I could wrangle the cost of the ticket. I felt this feeling that this was another investment that was worth it and would pay off long term. I had heard that with so many people wanting to buy tickets the site had crashed in past years due to sheer overwhelming interest and I knew it sold out quickly, so I was half expecting that either the site would be down or it would already be sold out.

I was pleasantly wrong on both accounts. The website was easy, even on my phone. I got right on and after a few seconds of nerves before hitting "purchase ticket" I was done in just a couple of minutes and had a ticket in hand. Within minutes a text went out that it was 75% sold out and in less than an hour all the tickets were gone. I have felt nothing but happiness that I went for it...okay I have felt a little "Wow, I spent a big chunk of change on that ticket for an event happening next year" but I have no qualms that I won't get my money's worth from this event and a chance to go to back to SoCal any time is one I'll take.

It turned out perfectly that I spent last Friday morning with my friend and artist Jackie Leishman (check out her art!) and her family. They were in town driving cross-country and Kiddo and I, her mom and kids took the tram up Sandia Peak and hiked around the back side of the mountains and Jackie and I sneaked in some nice chats. I knew she had been to Alt Summit 2017 so it was great to get the lowdown from her. She gave me some good insights into how to prepared and how much preparation you really should do before you attend. Invaluable info and I'll definitely want to chat with her again in the coming months to get her valuable guidance more fully.

Buying this ticket gave me a feeling that this indeed is going to be a big year for me career-wise and personally. I know at Alt Summit I am going to meet some blogging friends I have known only online for many years now. That will be fun. It also inspired me to make some valuable investments in myself as I prepare. I'll be totally honest and say that buying some fun clothes for the event would not be awful now would it?! Even though it's still a long way out, I am looking forward to preparing for and attending Alt Summit 2018 next February in Palm Springs.

Saying Goodbye To May: Patio Outdoor Space Ready

May is pretty much my favorite month of the year and I am always sad to see it end. With Mother's Day, my birthday and Memorial Day weekend it's pretty much a month long party. Not complaining!
I have so many beautiful cards on my mantle along with fresh flowers and potted plants that have come my way the past couple of weeks. It just makes everything feel so festive.

I have been working hard on outdoor living spaces as I have talked about repeatedly here. I am happy to report that for the past several night we have been out on our front patio, with the solar lanterns lit playing games and having fun. Every day it seems I add something new. First it was a couple of tea lights in jars, then I broke open a big box of wicker lanterns like these on the table above.

Story about those wicker lanterns. In December 2011 (!!!!), we had just gotten engaged and I was in full-blown, excited wedding planning dream land. I found these wicker lanterns at TJMaxx and ended up driving all over the Los Angeles metro area buying them out of every store so that I had enough to use them on the long tables for our wedding. You can see my original blog post full of enthusiasm about having found them here. Well fast forward 6 1/2 years (oh my gosh....) and we never had our big wedding thanks to a little detour called Afghanistan.....and these lanterns, along with anything else I purchased for our wedding have been languishing in storage ever since.

I didn't have the heart to get rid of them, thought perhaps someday we might actually have a vow ceremony/reception of some kind that we could share with family and friends. So in boxes they have sat. Finally I brought one box out and opened it. Along with six lanterns I found a couple hundred really cute paper napkins I had purchased for a pre-wedding picnic or rehearsal dinner or something. Wow. Anyway I put three of these lanterns out on the coffee table on the front porch and they look so fun and festive and create such a lovely light in the evenings...and I feel a little sad that they are going to get used and get ruined without every having served their true purpose but whatever. I have to get over that...

I started making a small buffet table for the back deck with two towers of four cinder blocks and a pretty wood top that I built. I spent part of Friday night at Home Depot with my building plans, trying to figure out the best materials to use and pushing one of those gigantic pull carts that was so heavy I had to totally lean my entire body into it to get it to move. Then I packed everything into my little VW Golf (crazy amount of cargo space, even fit 6' wood plants and 10 cinderblocks with room to spare!).

I have been working on this table since Friday night and hoped to have it done Saturday but it's definitely a work in progress and I should have it done by Wednesday. I have the top done, just need to even out the edges on each side and then stain it and polyurethane it for outdoor use. It's a bar height and will fit our new little portable barbecue grill and leave room for serving food too. You can see the example of the table I'm building here. I'm not doing the sides, just one long 6' length. I figured we can add the sides later if we feel we need them but I think the three-sided table is more than we need and doesn't fit out space all that well. We have a fairly narrow patio but it's very long so a long table along one wall makes great sense for us. I'll share more details when I have a finished product to show you. Excited about it! Really makes my soul so happy to have a creative project.

We also got our temporary, but large and fabulous, bi-fold door/sawhorse dining table out of the shed last night. Hooray! throw a giant tablecloth over that and we have a table to eat at outside. I made a makeshift grilling table out of a 3x3 stack of cinderblocks to hold the little portable grill I picked up at Ace Hardware on Friday. I was looking for a different grill which they have on line but apparently don't carry in the stores.

While they didn't have the one I wanted, they had this little grill on sale for $12.99 and how could I beat that?! Some day we plan on having a nice big grill in the back - and are so lucky to already have a gas line from the house out to the patio -- but until we decide what we want and how we'll configure it all, this little grill will work just fine. I probably should've bought two or three and we could've had an awesome little grilling station for $36. I might still do that. That would get us through some fun entertaining and they are so small and easy to deal with. I like the idea of having three of these on a long table and cooking up all kinds of fun things that way.

I couldn't let Memorial Day Weekend pass without a barbecue so that was my big goal for the weekend. I kept the menu easy and light. Burgers with cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion. Here's a link to my hamburger recipe I've been refining for a few years now. I think I've found my groove with the spices in these and they always taste good. I picked up some already cut up pineapple, a big watermelon and chips today and we were in business!

We ate dinner just as the sun was setting with our cafe string lights on, wicker lanterns on the table and a delicious, simple summer feast. We had a great time and after the meal we played with Kiddo's plethora of glow-in-the-dark bracelets, necklaces and other trinkets she's been stashing in a drawer. Nights here in Albuquerque are so perfect for outdoor time. Little to no wind, no bugs, perfect temps so you don't need a sweater. It's just lovely being outside on summer nights here! I hope we'll start eating outside every night we can throughout the summer.

Now that we have everything set up, it should be a cinch to enjoy our outdoor areas as much as we can throughout the summer. Looking forward to having friends over and swimming the summer away. Speaking of which, the pool is up and running as of today --- with just one little challenge. Our heaterless pool is still a little cold. Water temps at 63 degrees. We need some hot sunny days!....or I need to finally order that solar pool heating blanket I kept looking at last year that is supposed to heat pool water up by a good 17 degrees. That would work.

I am so happy we're set for summer finally. Being able to go outside to read, have a cup of tea, relax, take a nap or eat a meal is the best and it just makes our home feel tons bigger when you add these outside rooms where one can go. Hooray for summer. Here are a few more things I am thinking about building for the backyard this summer.

Sectional seating
Dining Table
Outdoor Rugs
Two by Four Bench
Simple Concrete Planters

Seeing Our Positive Accomplishments: Home Decor

I have been feeling discouraged with the progress (or lack of progress) on making our home look lovely. I am highly motivated to have a home that is comfortable and welcoming and we have been struggling. That means I really struggle because having this feels so vital to my soul. While ruminating about this over the past couple of days, it came to me that things are getting prettier around here, I just haven't let myself see that.

Last week I finally FINALLY got a plant and pot that I bought last summer out on the front porch of our house. You may remember I had planned to make a wood plant stand to put the pot it. Well just didn't have time for that. So here we are 10 months later and I found this wonderful stick table I bought 18 months ago and put the pot and plant on top of that and suddenly I have a front porch look that I like. It goes well with the basket I bought last winter for the door that I can update for holidays and seasons with a cute little sign on the front and rotating flowers or plants inside.

I happened to pick up these patriotic fan decorations at Target last week and they were sitting on my desk and I thought, hey I know what I can put in that basket for the summer. Since the front door is well protected and shaded they should be fine there for the entire summer. If not I have another set I can replace them with. The doormat I bought last fall some time and I love it and it all works and speaks my style. Needed that! Okay, progress is happening!

Even if the house hasn't been painted a color I actually like and I'm a little unthrilled with the turquoise front door (some days I like it, but I would love to get rid of that middle section with all the scrolly stuff!) I can still be happy with things done the best they can for now. Wanting everything done right this second isn't really very realistic and why make myself miserable. It may not be magazine worthy but it's the best it's ever been and I can be happy with that for now.

Before I updated the front door basket I took a small whisk broom and swept down the entire door. Then I used a really great squirt bottle that has a good strong sprayer on it and squirted down the front door really well with just plain water, getting into all those nooks and crannies. It was like a mini-power wash for the door. I dried it off and wow did it look a million times better without all the silt and dirt deposits on every edge!

That entire front door update was not that hard and in fact took just a little over 30 minutes. The Man had stacked some small boxes of wood near that door which was making it look a little messy and they had been there for a while. Making those go away was just three simple trips to move those boxes where they needed to be.  None of this was as overwhelming as it feels sometimes.

Next I realized that I'd made some valuable improvements on our "curb appeal" by hanging the silk lanterns together in a tree, adding the new chairs and a little "As-is" IKEA table I picked up just before we left California that has been waiting for a home. Now when people come up to our home they don't see dry ground, scraggly juniper trees and sagebrush. Hopefully they see a welcoming patio! Plans are to add an outdoor table here shortly with some chairs for outside meals, newspaper or magazine reading, journal writing and early morning tea. Can't wait.

On the back patio we still have work to do, but just adding my pretty white and terra cotta pots of vegetable and herbs has cheered up that space quite a bit! Progress!

It sure helped to turn my attitude and perspective around when I started really seeing the good things that are happening around here instead of feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by the mass entirety of the project. Life really is constantly about baby steps and when we get overwhelmed and discouraged it's usually because we're looking beyond the mark a bit and forgetting those baby steps that are what really get us to our goals, hopes and dreams. So today I am going to again take baby steps towards my home and life goals. Recognizing my small successes has been a major source of encouragement to keep taking small steps forward!

Setting Aside Time For Study

Recently I've been putting a significant and regular effort on making time to study. I've been studying internet business, real estate and parenting. I am pushing myself to be more of a student and it's been a little more of a concerted effort than just reading articles occasionally. I find that it has really been valuable use of my time. As I think about lifelong learning I think regular study is something that can greatly benefit us.

This is me studying in bed last weekend

Some days the articles are things that interest me and other days the topics are just things I really have to know to continue down a path ahead of me. Some days I can devote a couple of hours to study and other days it may be 15 -30 minutes. One day last week I needed to read an article about creating SKU numbers. Super fun, right?! But I knuckled under and got it done in less than 30 minutes while I was waiting for The Man who was in a doctor's appointment.

I was able to wrap my head around the topic and figure out a system that would work best for my online store in a short amount of time. I have a small pile of business articles I've printed out that I can carry in my bag to study when I'm waiting somewhere. Some days I'm studying in the car, some or on the patio at the golf course. Other days I'm grabbing a few spare minutes while I eat lunch or in bed before I go to sleep.

I keep a stack of magazine articles tabbed and a few books available that I can power through when I have time. I have a pretty challenging business book that I am studying right now,  every day when possible. I can only get through about five pages or so in a study session based on the new concepts I am trying to digest and usually getting a little tired or overloaded. The font size is tiny and two pages of material is a lot of information. But I try to keep at it frequently so that I can get through it. As soon as I can finish this book I can move forward into some new learning and tasks that I am anxious to get to, so there is a sense of urgency on my part. This has been a good and difficult challenge for me to work on.

I was reading some of my family history about my paternal ancestors who were ranchers in the Intermountain West. Although most did not have a formal education, they were lifelong learners and avid readers. While I have had the benefit of a lot of education that is not the same as being a lifelong learner and engaged student. It's never too late to learn a new skill or open up a new world to ourselves through study. While I'm doing this, I thought it would be a great time to throw some encouragement for study out into the world. 

Do you have something you've always wanted to study or some new challenges that you might steer through more easily with the help of some study on your part? It really only takes a few minutes a day or even a week to make lifelong learning a part of our lives. Study is a good challenge to keep our minds sharp and to continue learning and keeping up with latest trends, science, technology and life skills. I'm hoping I'll make some significant progress on my business book this coming week and then I'll be lining up some new topics of study to follow up on after that. Learning is a good thing.

Energizing The House

After listening to this podcast by Chris Loves Julia on a rainy, cold, gray day I was all energized to re-energize the house. They were referencing this article from House Beautiful. I seem to forget that I have so much control over how my home feels and I can do a lot to make it MORE lovely.

So I took some of their suggestions and pulled our my white sage and lavender smudging bowl and lit it up and walked all around the house letting the smoke wander into every corner of the rooms, closets and garage. It may sound strange and I certainly don't have any idea what the mixture of scents and powers of the universe are at work, but it made the house feel calmer, clearer and more energetic.

Another thing mentioned in this article, I learned when I lived in Denmark. The Danes often open up their windows for 10-30 minutes in the mornings, no matter the time of year, to let in fresh air. Because it's such a humid climate it definitely helps to air out the home but I think it helps just about anywhere. I like to do this in the mornings to refresh the house.

Then I took another suggestion and got a spray bottle and added a little water and some orange oil and shook it up and took it around the house spraying into every room. The scent of orange oil is also supposed to help raise the energy in a space. It does smell wonderful and between the sage and the orange oil the house smelled lovely.

A few other things I want to do is to get more Himalayan Salt Lamps going in the house. They are also supposed to help raise the energy and clear away negative energy in the home. We have a few somewhere and I know I've seen them but I'm going to need to go hunt them down.

We also have Oreck air purifiers in our home and turning them on helps clean the air and gives air in the house a very soft, sweet feeling. It's easier to breath and it does feel like a lot of irritants and dust are gone after they've been turned on for 20-30 minutes. This is something I should have done before I smudged and sprayed the house with orange oil. Doing it after would pretty much negate the effects of both. A good thing to remember, Oreck first then smudge and orange oil!

I have also neglected lighting candles and turning on our twinkle lights. But when I think about it, there's a reason. As Spring has come to fruition, we have already been getting more light in the house and Spring just brings more energy to the home and world. This past week has been rainy, cold, gray and we even had snow on Friday! So with all the dark coldness we are yearning for that light and warmth we've been enjoying the past weeks.

Here's a laugh for you. Some time after Christmas we did a deep clean on our two-sided fireplace. In the living room we have a big open fireplace with a movable screen. On the dining room side is it glass doors that are actually bolted closed, so you can enjoy the fire but can't access the fireplace from that side. Giving it a deep cleaning had not happened since we moved in although it had been cleaned or ashes, etc. multiple times.  The glass on the back side of our two-sided fireplace was covered in black soot.

The Man got the bug to clean out all the ashes and after he did that I vacuumed it all out and then crawled into the fireplace to clean the back glass that faces our dining room. It was a lot of work, and really hard to work in that tight space in crazy angles. I scrubbed that thing down for a long time, over and over again, before it finally started to look clean.

Well since that happened neither The Man nor I have even wanted to light a fire because we don't ever want to clean that fireplace again. We have to break that spell and light a fire or we might was well just tear down that fireplace! Maybe tonight I'll see if we can get one going just to break the spell. We have to do it sometime. I do just dread the idea of that glass getting wrecked again...but seriously we cleaned the fireplace so we could enjoy it. We should be enjoying it.

We've already had temperatures in the 80s this spring so for us to have full winter weather the last week of April is a bit of a shock. We were trying to get the pool open for heaven's sakes. Kiddo has already been swimming at friends' houses who heat their pools. (We don't have a heater on our pool so our pool season is a little shorter than if we did have a heater.) But snow, seriously?! Wow.

But I've heard others north of us are having a cold spell too so maybe this post is perfectly timed for all of us who are so ready for Spring/Summer weather. If the sun is neglecting you, there are lots of other ways to increase the energy of your home environment. I just plugged in the twinkle lights over our kitchen windows and I'm going to light some candles next. Hope you're staying warm this week if you, like us, are having a cold spell.

A Quick Introduction to Live Love ABQ

I haven't been here much the past two weeks and that is because I've been wrapping up a huge project that I first dreamed up two years ago and have been working hard on for the past several months. Over the past two weeks I've been pushing very hard to complete setting up an online store and yesterday I was able to launch it which was very exciting. I'd like to introduce you to LIVE LOVE ABQ!

The idea behind LIVE LOVE ABQ hatched not long after I moved to Albuquerque, aka ABQ or The Duke City. Not long after I arrived it became clear that due to a variety of factors, Albuquerque had a bit of an image problem, that there were some ABQ residents that felt pretty "meh" about the city and that there were a lot of really amazing things about Albuquerque that just weren't getting the recognition they deserved from locals or beyond.

I remember specifically one conversation with a friend who has lived here for many years now. I mentioned this absolutely beautiful place I had visited that has been here in ABQ since the 1930s. She had never heard of it. It was at that point the idea of  "Living" the city and "Loving" the city came to me.

Living the city to me means enjoying all the fantastic things there are to do, see and experience. It's so easy to get into a routine and just stay in that routine....work, school, local grocery store, same restaurants, fast food chains all in the same neighborhood(s). But living the city to it's fullest means checking out new restaurants, theaters, shops, sights and events. Really taking advantage of all the cool things there are to do in the city. There is no reason to be bored. There are always things to do and online calendars, newspapers and television stations that promote all of these events to locals.

Albuquerque is very unique in it's history, ancient sights, arts community, large number of museums, culture, culinary depth and energy behind large and small business development. I want to help promote all of that and I think a reminder to LIVE the city does just that.

The city also has it share of problems as any city does. LOVE the city to me means we all take part in having responsibility for what happens here and why. We can do so much to help build the community in our own ways if that is as simple as getting to know our neighbors and participating in neighborhood watch programs. We can participate in town meetings, with volunteer organizations or serve on city or civic councils. We can all do something! We can love our cities to a better place! And we can also speak positively about our cities and help build they image of our cities by accentuating the positive instead of focusing on the negative.

So that is where LIVE LOVE ABQ came from and I have had so much fun creating products to promote those ideas including tote bags, mugs, home decor, and more. The goal for now is to create small, handmade items in small batches - so they feel special and unique. Hopefully as things go along I will also add some large run items like sweatshirts, hats and tees. It's been a fun labor of love for my new city that also really feeds my creative and entrepreneurial spirit.

I hope we'll have a chance to work with collaborators to use our tote bags for event swag or wedding guest gift bags. I think a lot of the decor items are great for a home office or workplace for anyone doing business in ABQ! Any of the products would be a fun gift for anyone moving to ABQ or for anyone going off to college or moving from ABQ to remember all that's great about life here.

There are so many applications to helping promote our city and share all that is great about it. I'm excited for the opportunities! Now it's full speed ahead to continue with marketing, networking, product fulfillment and more product design. I seriously have a list of about 100 things I'd like to create as we move forward!

You can find the shop at www.liveloveabq.online -- not .com -- but .online. If you have a moment, I'd love you to check out the shop and let me know what you think. Thank you as always for all your generous support now and over the years here at kalanicut. I adore my readers and treasure the relationships we've built over the years!

Busy Pursuits

Hi friends! I hope this finds you well. It's been a busy week. I have been working so hard the past few weeks to get two business projects off the ground. Both have required a learning curve that at first didn't seem too daunting and in reality have been pretty challenging. I've been book studying, doing research on the internet, taking a lot of notes and doing quite a bit of work on web sites and creative projects. Whew.

Here's a little glimpse of what I've been working on. I'll go live with a little online store to promote loving the Albuquerque life in the next few days. It's been a lot of work between product development, business set up and marketing. Happily I am getting good interest from the community and I hope that the enthusiasm will continue when the shop opens. Fingers crossed.

There are several other irons on the fire right now which I consider a real blessing, but I am scrambling to keep up. It's been a heads down, working day and night kind of week. The best part is that all of it is fun and interesting to me. If only there weren't daily chores and tasks to keep up with. Today I also organized an Easter Egg Hunt for Saturday night. Happily we're having it at a local park so there's no getting the house ready for a crowd. I just need to get a basket of plastic eggs filled and make a treat to share. The plan is that each family will bring 24 filled plastic eggs for each child they bring. Then we'll just hide all the eggs around the park and turn the kids loose. Should be a lot of fun.

We invited a lot of families so it will be interesting to see what kind of crowd turnout we have. Might be huge, might be small, might be somewhere in the middle. No matter what it will be fun to have an egg hunt with the kids and then have time to sit and hang out with friends while the kids run around together and play.

I am trying to be careful about sleeping and resting enough. Workouts have slipped this week, which isn't great. It's been a yoga pants, barely brushed hair couple of days that are starting to run one into each other. Dinners have been a quick and hurried afterthought but thankfully we are eating well still. Tuesday I was feeling sick after going to a meeting and appointments earlier in the day. I slept for a while in the late afternoon and slept in again the next morning. But I'm getting things done and hopefully a little crazy time right now will pay off in the coming weeks and months. Some days, weeks and months are like this and I'm feeling grateful for the work and opportunities. It's been a interesting road to get here. I am excited to get the shop open and start seeing the fruits of goals and efforts I started two years ago.

How are things going in your world? It seems like we often have cyclical periods in the month where even though we're having different experiences we sometimes flow in the same levels of ups and downs. Hope things are well for you!

DIY: Five Dollar Bandana Scarf

In Denmark during the chillier months scarves are a must and during the times I have lived there I had a few that I really loved. I remember one that was purple that was extra long and I could wrap it around and around my neck. Comfy and cozy.

Fast forward a few years, my awesome friend Sally, who is super creative, gave me a great scarf that was made out of cotton bandanas sewn together. They weren't just any cotton bandanas but super cute floral and polkadot ones in blue, lavender and white. I have worn this scarf a lot and have often looked for bandanas I really loved that I could make a scarf or two out of. I have looked and looked and never found quite the right thing. Some days I would look online and then never finish the order.

Finally last Friday I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby to pick  up a couple of needed items and I happened to be in the same aisle where all the bandanas were and found some that I loved. Perfect colors. So I grabbed five and happily they were on sale for 77 cents each - so I got five for $3.85 plus tax. Great deal for a scarf!

I brought them home and cut off all the tags and then just sewed them together along each edge. I could've made it an infinity scarf if i'd sewn the last two ends together but I like the flexibility of a rectangle scarf -- even makes a good picnic blanket if you need it to. Now I have a super cute, extra-long teal, gray and white scarf for spring. It will be a great pick me up for winter wear too paired with all the dark colors one often wears in the colder months.

Great scarf for a great price. I'm excited to make more of these for myself and they do make fantastic gifts. Would be great for holiday gift giving or birthdays throughout the year. A real savings too when you compare the cost to buying a scarf. A nice 100% cotton scarf usually costs between fifteen and fifty dollars.

Big Like #5: All These Uses For The Simple Binder Clip

More office supply love this week and a little secret we came up with that has saved us big money and some serious frustration. We buy Binder Clips in a office size box from the office supply store and use them not only in the office but on every item in the kitchen that we might use a Chip Clip on.
And guess what, they last forever unlike their cheap plastic kitchen cousins.

We keep a box of them in the kitchen next to the fridge where we can easily grab one to close up on bag of cereal, chips, chocolate chips, nuts, freezer waffles...you name it, if it could use a chip clip we are sticking a simple black binder clip on it. Then when we're done with them we just toss them back in that box in the kitchen drawer and they get used indefinitely.

For the cost and extended life we're saving a ton not buying plastic kitchen clips. You can find them in all sorts of fun colors and sizes tailored just to your needs and preferences and buy them in varying lot sizes so you get just what you need or a few years supply for not much more than that. I also use them sometimes to hold together small art projects I am working on. They work great as clamps while gluing things together or to hold things together while you make adjustments so that everything is evenly spaced. You can also loop one over a magnet hook to organize papers on a fridge or magnet board. You can even use them to clip and display art. They can be great for holding open coloring book pages that might frustrate children to keep flat. I've used one for a bookmark before too.

We keep a few in the car too and we seem to find uses for them all the time. You can use them to clip a blanket up over a window if the sun is blazing down on sleeping kiddos (keeping in mind driver visibility issues of course!) You could clip needed items to the visors or use them to clip a blanket around a kiddo to keep them covered and warm in the car. (Use your creativity here there are a few ways I can see this working.)

They would probably be a great addition to a 72-hour kit in a variety of sizes. You could use them to create a shelter if you had some rope and a tarp or to create a water catcher by clipping up the edges of a jacket or tarp or plastic bag. You could use them to create a temporary outdoor shower with some fabric or tarp. So along with the clips, you should definitely get a tarp it sounds like! Ha. You could also use them to construct a survival oven if you had some foil or something metal. You can also use them to hold a spoon on the side of a pot by clipping one to the edge and sliding the spoon handle through the clip prongs. They could also be useful in a myriad of ways in the garden.

So very versatile, so inexpensive and so great to have on hand when you need one. From the tiniest size to the largest size there is a good use for every one and having a pretty collection of them on hand can make life a little simpler and happier.

Pin Test #26: Baked Fries & Sweet Potato Fries

We had a few leftover burgers in the fridge last week that I decided they would make a good dinner on Thursday. But we were short on a lot of things we often eat with burgers. We didn't have a wide assortment of fresh veggies and fruit which I usually serve with burger meals. We had a few carrots and just a little lettuce and no tomatoes for the burgers. So I was looking for something different I could whip up to round out the meal.

I had potatoes and sweet potatoes so I thought it might be a good night to try a baked fries recipe using both. So I tried Miminalist Baker's Crispy Baked Garlic Matchstick Fries and Gimme Some Oven's Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Fries.

Now it seems like often I do something to screw up these Pin Test recipes so I can't always say it was the recipe. This time, Kiddo made the sweet potato fries and I'm not totally sure what happened but they got a little too much cayenne in them, so no one ate them. I think we need to try this recipe again with a little more adult supervision. The Man loves a good sweet potato fry so we'll definitely try this one again soon and I'll try to gauge the cayenne situation a little better.

The crispy baked garlic fries were good. I would say I need to work on my cooking methods for both. I think maybe I overcooked them. While they weren't photo-worthy they did taste good! I think these could've used a little more oil on the pan because they stuck to the pan. I think I need to work on my garlic tossing of these when they are done too. But they were yummy and every one of them got eaten up. The Man had two servings and Kiddo and I split the rest. Despite my failing in the artistic creation, they were yummy and we'll try them again soon.

It's very challenging to make a recipe for the first time and try to figure out all the subtle and not so subtle nuances. Both these recipes have made it into my personal cookbook and I'll pull them out and try them again soon. I recommend them both, you might just want to be judicious about cayenne in the sweet potato recipe. I'm not sure what happened there, I guess I'll have a better idea as we continue to experiment with these.

Here are the links to both recipes:
Crispy Baked Garlic Matchstick Fries
Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

Here are a few other Pin Test recipes you might want to check out.
Crack Broccoli - A family favorite we eat almost weekly!
Mongolian Beef Ramen
Slow Cooker Recipes

It's been rainy and cool here in the desert. It feels like northern Europe, which I love a little dose of. It's been more drizzly than rainy and I have so many memories of days like this in England and Scandinavia. I good scarf around the neck and good rain jacket layered over something warm seem to be just the ticket on days like this. It's nice to have a little break from the usual desert weather. I need to drink tea, sit by a window and read a book or something to celebrate it.

If I were in northern Europe I'd ride my bike somewhere cozy or light some candles. Ooh, it is a perfect cozy day...this is where Hygge comes in...you know that Danish lifestyle trend that suddenly everyone is talking about. I met Hygge in 1988 and she's been a friend these long years. Candles, tea, good company. Done.

Revisit & Update: Paper Butterflies For The Window

Last month when I took down the Valentine's decorations from our dining room windows, Kiddo asked me not to take down our sparkly, glittery, big silver snowflakes yet. Since it was still winter I obliged. But now that it's quite warm outside it seemed high time to put up something new. We have an Easter garland up and we continually keep up a garland of pinecones from our yard and a string of twinkle lights then I've just been rotating in and out the seasonal garlands.

Here is a little before photo. This is one of the best spaces in our home and it is so hard to photograph. I frequently want to share it or capture it in photos and I have yet to get a photo of the dining room windows that I really like. The backlighting is a challenge.

The snowflakes hang independently from the ceiling from five clips across that window space. I like them because they can last us from post-Halloween right through to Spring. I wanted to come up with something to hang from those clips that might carry us from spring through summer and then I remembered the paper butterflies I made a few years ago. Here's a link to that post, which was Pin Test #13. The link to the original tutorial I based those butterflies off us no longer works and it seems that the website no longer exists. So I found a similar tutorial that can be found here.

In the original tutorial they used brightly colored magazine pages, which is what I used the first time I made these. In the tutorial I am linking to now it's more structured towards a kids craft so they use tissue paper and pipe cleaners. I think you really can upscale or downscale these as much as you want. I photographed these outside hanging from a favorite tree as I might for a party so that the light would be better. I do love having a few decorations blowing in the breeze for a party, big or small.

I initially was going to use magazine pages again and in fact pulled a bunch and started making a butterfly but I realized I wanted bigger butterflies and maybe something a little sturdier and more classic looking. So I grabbed a pack of 12x12 inch scrapbook paper I had in nice spring colors and started pulling sheets that would work together.

If I could do one thing differently I think I would made the bottom half of the butterflies smaller. I started with a 12x12 square for the top and then cut down the bottoms to 10x10. Looking back at the others I had made before I like that the bottoms are smaller in  scale than the ones I made this week. Maybe they would be better if I went 8x8 or 9x9.

Whipping these up didn't take much time at all. I easily whipped up six in about 30 minutes. I stapled each folded section in the middle to hold it together and then bound the top half and bottom half of the body together with white and silver cord, leaving enough to tie them to the ceiling and have them hang down to similar lengths as our snowflakes, not too far above our garlands.

So now we'll have some pretty butterflies fluttering around our dining room instead of sparkly snowflakes. These butterflies would make great party decorations for a baby shower or girl's birthday party and would be really sweet hanging from tree branches for a garden party. Depending on the kind of paper you use these are one-sided or two-sided. Because I used one-sided scrapbook paper mine are only pretty from the front but no one really sees them from the back in that window. If I was going to hang them where they would be twirling more or blowing in the breeze I would probably use tissue paper, two-sided scrapbook paper - something that looks pretty from all sides.

These are a fun craft to do with kids too and using pipe cleaners is an easy way to get butterfly antennae too. Making them from giant sheets of newspaper or butcher paper could be really interesting. Or you could create simple painted sheets of paper, any size with paints or watercolors and then make butterflies from them. There are so many ways to make these that using a little creativity they can be personalized in size, color, shape and materials. If you try these, let me know. I'd love to see a photo and hear how you made them your own!

Things We Can And Can't Deal With

The other day I was going through a temporary but frequently repeated experience that I really was not enjoying. Because it was an experience that I have to go through somewhat frequently, the thought came to me, I cannot live the rest of my life like this. I can't deal with this forever!

When we are in the midst of unpleasant experiences it does feel like they are taking over our entire lives and that we will break to pieces if you have to live like that all the time. But this thought came to me that completely changed how I was feeling and my thinking. I realized that this unpleasant experience never lasts more than two hours often it is only 30 minutes or so. So that's not nearly my entire life or an entire day. It's a pretty short time and I get through it every time. On a bad day it's not even 1/12 of my 24 hour day.

Then I started thinking about what fills the other 22-24 hours of the day that aren't affected by this situation. I started counting the blessings I do have in those hours and the things I gladly deal with -- that I love and are deeply meaningful. I thought about the day before when I got to spend a leisurely afternoon alone with The Man and how peaceful and relaxing and restorative it was to just be with him, enjoy the outdoors and relax. It was like medicine for my soul! I CAN deal with that and want more and more of those moments.

I thought about the wonderful, sweet, bonding moments I've had hanging out with The Bug the last week and how nice it is to snuggle up to watch a movie, read books and be still together...or to talk lots and laugh and workout together. Sweet, sweet moments, especially when it feels like she is suddenly growing up faster than ever. I CAN deal with more of those moments with her, many, many more.

I thought about sipping my favorite hot cocoa and nibbling toast. In a few weeks it's going to be way too hot to sip cocoa and I will miss the comfort and coziness of those quiet times and needing to warm up. I would gladly take more of that cozy, warm, chocolate-ness. I CAN deal with making the absolute most out of those moments.

I thought about how much I am enjoying workouts and hours at the gym and how motivated I am for progress with my fitness and the recovery of my foot. It's painful, but I'm enjoying pushing through and reaching for goals. That's another thing I CAN deal with in my life right now.

I have a lot of projects that I'm working on and am excited about right now. I am deeply interested in them, enjoying progress and I CAN deal with that. Inspiration and motivation to create are such a big part of who I am and what get me really excited. More good things in my life.

I am really passionate about getting our back patio furnished for entertaining and family enjoyment this summer. That's another thing I don't mind dealing with one bit. Inspiration boards, checking lots of online resources and budgeting out options in my free time is another project I CAN deal with in my life right now and that I am having fun with.

So, while in those few moments of misery when I thought I just can't take this anymore, it struck me that I need to not think in those short periods that the unpleasantness is my entire life! I realized I have so much more in my life that I CAN take, that I do love and that is wonderful and delicious to my soul. That realization really helped me to turn around my attitude about the small, unpleasant moments of life. They truly are just a bit of time and we do get through them over and over again. But they aren't our entire life and we don't have to let them feel like they own our entire life or our happiness.

When I started seeing things in this new light, suddenly being in the midst of an unpleasant experience didn't matter so much because I knew it would end and it would end soon. I saw that I have all those other lovely things to be excited about. Now, the next time I have to endure an unpleasant experience, I hope I'll be able to remember that it will be just for a short time and it isn't my entire life. It's a few minutes of a day with many more minutes still available to enjoy with loved ones and doing things I love.

So next time I'll remember I can deal with those unpleasant experiences and they don't have to color so much of my world and I'll try to focus on all the great things about life, about my life. Good life lesson that will serve me well.

Keeping Our Talents Out From Under The Bushel

This is more of a cautionary tale than anything, lessons I am learning from pulling a talent out from under a bushel. Music has always been a part of my life, but once I left home I decided I was not going to sing in a church choir anymore. I just didn't like doing it and had done it from 12-18 years old. Much like a prison sentence, I felt I'd paid my debt to choir society and I wanted to be freed from life in choir prison. I continued to sing to the radio, with my family and sometimes with friends but I retired from any real kind of performing unless it was Christmas carols or camp songs.

Teaching kiddo to sing and have music in her life was important to me, so in our home music has been a priority, including getting her involved in band this year. Which, I'll confess has not gone that well - the band part of that. When we moved to Albuquerque people in our new church congregation would hear me sing during the congregational hymns and the pressure started turning on about why I wasn't in the choir. Then the ward music director asked if I wouldn't sing in choir if I would be willing to perform with a small group in services sometime. I would rather do that than go to choir every week, even though we have an amazing choir at our church,  -- it was a one-time commitment, so I agreed...still not really feeling excited about it.

So it's come my time to perform and I'm singing a bass part which as an alto is a challenge! We are singing a fairly challenging piece and I am singing in the bass clef which is very hard to do when you are used to singing the top lines of the sheet music. It has not been easy. I realize I have a much harder time reading notes, I've forgotten the count of some notes and I have forgotten many of the music terms, in Italian of course. Being able to construct the sounds of the notes in my head is a challenge too. My voice muscles are not as fit as they once were, it's a challenge for me to stay on key to hold long notes, my throat gets tired faster and I just don't have a lot of vocal stamina. After practicing on my own for an hour and then with the group for an hour last night my throat felt like someone had worked it over with sandpaper and my voice sounded laryngitis-y.

Then there is the whole process of knowing all the words and intonations, while at the same time reading the notes in the bass clef, holding them for the right amount of time, breathing in the right places, getting louder and softer at the right times. It's a LOT to manage, but even more so when you're rusty at all of it. I definitely feel out of my element with all this at this point in my life, especially since I am performing with professionally trained musicians. Ack!

Thankfully, at home we have a professional size keyboard we bought second hand a few years ago that I can use to practice. Thankfully I can still read and find the notes on the keyboard. Thankfully it's coming back little by little. But boy do I have a lot of practicing to do before Sunday. Facing this challenge has gotten me more in the musical groove and I think I would like to stay a little more fit and familiar in the music realm. I should play the piano a little bit now and then as well and finally commit to learn to play my ukulele well. I actually enjoy doing all these things when I can do them on my own terms.

I need to start thinking about my talents and ensuring that there aren't others rusting away under a bushel as well. There are definitely some you can pick up and put down more easily than others. But it's true you'll lose them if you don't use them enough. This experience is a good reminder for me even though it's a little painful.

Climate, Altitude And Baking

Moving from humid sea level to the desert at 6,200+ in elevation is a pretty big change for the the body. Your hair, skin, lung capacity and pretty much every other function are affected by it. It's a serious change in how you bathe, wash your hair, treat your skin...your entire appearance. It also seems to have an effect on baking recipes. Every time I have made cookies since we moved the dough is always too dry. So I'm having to do some investigation to figure out how to solve that.

Other challenges include learning the best way to use our stoves. We have a double wall oven and I'll tell ya, it was a delight to be able to crank them both up, put in four pans of cookies and be done baking within 20 minutes rather than putting in pan after pan to bake. I don't know what is more energy wasteful/efficient, to turn them both on for a few minutes or have one on for twice as long. Something to ask some energy efficiency specialist about...or google it. Ha.

I don't like the idea of adding more fats or eggs to the recipes to combat this dryness issue. It makes sense that the flour and all the other ingredients are not going to have as much moisture in them when things are SO dry here. Adding an egg is a challenge, because you probably don't need an entire whole egg and you can't put in half an egg really. Adding more butter doesn't excite me either because it seems like the cookies will just end up flatter and more greasy looking. I guess I could go with applesauce or something along those lines. Maybe what I need to do is just add less flour. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

I realized yesterday that for some reason, on some stressful or busy days I just have to bake for a little while. I don't know why and I haven't noticed it when living in other homes. But here, I somehow get stress relief/zen calming from pulling out the KitchenAid mixer and throwing ingredients together and into the oven.

Yesterday I was busy and getting a lot done but had a lot more I needed to get done and in the middle of the afternoon I just stopped everything and whipped up some Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies. I didn't even feel like eating one. A little weird. Happily it all came together pretty fast with the help of the mixer, four cookie sheets and the double ovens. I better not tell my family how this works or they'll be causing me stress just to get me to make more treats. Haha.

I've been making a lot of traction with home organization and some business projects the past couple of weekends and I feel like the progress is energizing me towards more progress. With the long move, my broken foot and The Man's health challenges it feels like we have fallen so far behind in getting settled again. It's been two years since I first left L.A. and it still doesn't feel like our home is settled here.

Our life outside of the house is quite settled but not inside the house. I should take some comfort that so many friends say they have boxes they haven't unpacked since they moved several years ago or that they have moved and still have rooms that aren't set up and ready to do. I had a roommate who was literally set up the day after she moved in to an apartment we shared, even with art all over her walls and everything in its place and I am still shocked and in awe about that. Obviously this house isn't a dorm room with one wall and a twin bed or a small apartment to decorate but still, she amazed me and I wonder how fast she can pull a house together?!

While it snowed on Sunday, although it didn't stick to the ground, I am happy to report we've been wind free for the most part the past two days. It was windy for a while in the middle of the night, the house was rocking and there was a lot of noise for a while but it didn't last and today is calm. That is a happy thing! I was talking to a doctor on Friday and she was saying how much she hates the wind too and that it's even worse when you get out into the smaller towns and open roads from here in the big city. I don't even want to think about that. I'm grateful the winds have been pretty calm this week. (Falling on my knees with my hands in the position of thankful praising).

I'm hoping to make more progress on my office organization this week around the edges of all the other work and responsibilities. I've made huge strides and I need to pull it all together the rest of the way so it can be highly productive work space. Yesterday while I was working at my desk the dog and Kiddo were in here. I turned around to see she was in the process of emptying out an entire cupboard shelf so that she could hide inside it. She was playing hide and seek with the dog. No messing with my office organization please.

The areas I already organized seem to be functioning well and staying tidy which makes me ever so happy. There is little that makes me happier than tidy storage spaces that stay tidy! (Twirling around in a circle like a glee-filled six year old.)

One of my biggest challenges is papers that need to be filed. I still haven't quite figured out the best way for us to keep track of that stuff in this house. Should we have one giant filing cabinet in The Man's office? Should I have a mini-file in my office? Should I fit it in a drawer or just buy a rollable 2-drawer system. Can't figure out what's going to make me happy on that note. Maybe because it just feels impossible for paper filing and the word happy to ever peacefully co-exist?! The thing we seem to have the most of right now are insurance paperwork and bills. So much fun to deal with in every way. Diving into paperwork organization is definitely a big part of this week.

My next endeavor for the office is figuring out how to make it feels like my space. I have a few pretty things on the window ledges but I basically only have the far wall that could support any art or decor. Every other wall is covered with a washer, dryer, second fridge/freezer and a lot of oak cabinetry. Thankfully I have two beautiful windows overlooking the yard. But so far I'm just not seeing how this space is going to get pretty and excite and inspire me.

Even if I painted the cabinetry (ugh) and got new countertops in here I'm not really sure that it would do much good. I really need to get inspired about this space clearly! The spacing is odd, the room is small and when I'm sitting at my desk everything is behind me so the only spaces that are really visible are the windows which I would like to keep as clear as possible. Time to do some more brainstorming. I think this might be one of those situation where I have to bring in a friend for some advice. A fresh set of eyes might be just the thing. It's sad that you can get so sort of jaded in your own house that you cease to be able to have the vision you might have for other spaces.

I find that looking at design books and magazines often gives me ideas that I could implement in our home. I should go back and look at all the design books I got for Christmas. I am sure things there would inspire me. I have quite a few other design books that it might be time to go look at again for a fresh perspective on what often feels a like a stale environment because I am here every day. Fresh inspiration, come to Mama!

Happy Valentine's Day To You!

I hope you are having a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones. My goal is to get some frosted sugar cookies made today, which is a total tradition in my family. Other than that I think it's going to be a very low key Valentine's Day for us. The Man has the flu as of yesterday afternoon, so I don't even think I will make a special dinner which is also usual tradition. That's a little sad but we are (maybe I should just say "I am") tired this week so it's probably okay. Maybe I'll order a pizza or something fun for The Bug and me. I loaded up on enough ginger ale and 7-up last night for the entire family just in case the flu afflicts us all...again - (we were some of the first to get it in December l-o-n-g before it really started going around the past few weeks).

Yesterday morning, having just arrived back from three days in California, I realized I'd given absolutely zero thought to classroom valentines. Sigh. So as soon as The Bug got home we got working on those and didn't get done until 10 p.m. She made a super cute Fox Valentine's Box for her desk, from a plan I found on Pinterest.

She worked on it for quite a while and it turned out so cute. While she was doing that I worked on her class valentines, because I knew we'd be up all night otherwise. I made a quick template in PicMonkey (thanks for saving me PicMonkey!) and then printed them all out and cut them with a paper cutter and started coloring.This is not homework, so I didn't feel too bad about helping her out! Here's is the card template I created in the beginning to get this project going.

Then we had to run to the store to pick up Extra Gum to add to these. This began a string of frustrating events. First, we wanted the small rectangle packs of gum and all we could find were the larger, almost square boxes which really didn't fit my card...ergh. But we went with it. Then we got home and I realized I had not double checked The Bug's count and we were literally one gum pack short. Super frustrating but at this point I was so tired that I didn't even really get upset.

So once we double and triple checked we really needed one more valentine card with gum pack we got in the car again and headed back down the hill to our neighborhood 7-11 and got more gum -- which cost us twice as much as it had in the multi-pack. So on the way home we had a good conversation about how careless mistakes cost in time, effort, energy and money. Good math and preparedness lessons tonight!

All weekend in California, I was missing my little family and thinking so fondly of home. Then I came home to vomiting and valentines and a part of me wanted to jump right back on a plane for the coast -- sunshine, friends, a clean, quiet hotel room, brand new rental car and solitude -- I won't lie. I think to perk up this Valentine's Day I will go buy some flowers and make some pretty cookies and do something to make it special somehow. Keeping The Bug and me healthy will be gift enough I think! But I sure do hope everyone else is having a fantastic day!