fresh picked whimsy

My favorite, favorite thing right now...

I feel like I should have known about this a looooooooooooong time ago.  But, I just discovered it on Monday (thank you, Jody!!!!).  It's a website called Pandora and it's crazy cool.  It's Internet radio and it's free.  You tell the website a favorite artist or song and it will put together a play list or a "station" as they call it, based on that particular artist's style or song style.  Then, it will play the play list from your computer as long as you want to listen.  You can create up to 100 "stations" and they will save them for you.  You have got to try it!  You know how some days you're in a slow, mellow mood and other days, you're super upbeat and fast paced?  Pandora creates a soundtrack for your mood!  My music tastes are all over the place...I love country, top 40, classic rock, mellow folk rock.  I've heard so many great new artists and songs this week that I never knew existed.  And if you love a song, you can quick link over to itunes from Pandora to purchase it.  I just had to share with you all my new favorite thing!  xo

My own little world

Two weeks ago I got a huge commission by a client to create 77 of my little village houses.  You might remember them from this past holiday season and my winter banner: 

My sweet client, Dee, has asked me to create 11 different themed villages (for holidays & seasons).  This first village is "Summer" and she requested that they be painted with lime greens and hot pinks and the rest she left up to me...glitter, buttons, whimsy, whimsy and more whimsy.  So...here they are all ready to be shipped out today and on their way to Texas.  My goal is to complete one village every two weeks, and I will share them with you as I complete them.  They are so much fun to make!

 

 

 

 

 

Ninety-five years young

Yesterday we celebrated my grandfather's 95th birthday with a small-ish surprise party.  Just family, his friends from church and two of the priests from our parish.  It was a wonderful time.  He was very surprised and emotional. 

We held it at Eddie's Corner Cafe...a sweet, nostalgic restaurant where my grandparents used to eat on a regular basis.  They got to know the owner, Eddie Mode over the years.  He has a wall of photographs of some of his regular customers.  My grandparents' photo is front and center.  Later in the day today, my grandfather said "I feel like my wife was here with me today" as he lovingly gazed up at their photo.  I'm sure she was. 

My good friend, Jane Summitt, created these incredible balloon hats for the kids and one very special one for my grandfather.  He got a big kick out of it...so did everyone else.  They were a very big hit.

Here's my grandfather as a young man...look at all that hair!!!!

and my grandparent's wedding picture from 1938...

He has lived an incredible life.  He's so proud of his age.  It's the first thing he will tell you when he meets you.  He will say, "Hi, I'm Al Mercuri...i'm going to be 95."  We told him that after today, he can tell people that he's going to be 96!

Go green and save some green

To celebrate Earth Day today, I'm running a one day "save some green" special on my "You are my whole world" print in my Etsy shop.  It is regularly priced at $18.  Today you can get it for $10.  I hope you're having a very green day today!

Memories in my mailbox

Last Friday I received the nicest surprise.  My Aunt Mary had been doing some spring cleaning and found an old newspaper clipping that she thought I would enjoy another copy of.  Fourteen years ago, when K was 9 months old, the Indianapolis Star (our main city newspaper) was running a parent/child lookalike contest.  If you had always been told that your child looked like you or you resembled your parent, the Star was encouraging you to send in a snapshot.  Mark's mom had read about it in the paper and thought that Mark and K were perfect for this contest.  So, I, being the procrastinator that I am, scrambled to send in a photo of them together on the deadline day.  Honestly, I had forgotten all about it, until i received a phone call several weeks later from an editor at the paper.  She told me that there were several hundred entries and that they had all been displayed on the wall in the employee cafeteria at the Star.  Employees were asked to vote on their pick for best lookalike parent/child duo and when the votes were counted, Mark and K won hands down.  We knew in advance that there was no prize involved, but they did ask us to go downtown to the Star and have their picture taken by a Star professional photographer.  They told us that their picture would appear in an upcoming edition of the paper, along with several other lookalike winners.  We were thrilled and having their picture taken by the photog was prize enough for us.  About two weeks later, we were stunned when we opened the Sunday paper to find their sweet, larger-than-life portrait splashed across a two page spread.  Wow! 

Under their photo, it reads:  LIKE DAD, LIKE DAUGHTER:  When Mark McDonough of Carmel gets up close and personal with K, his 9-month-old daughter, it's clear that the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

The Star was kind enough to give us this black and white proof print.  I had it framed for Mark for Father's Day that year. 

It's funny, it's been hanging in our play room for years and years and I pass it all the time without much thought.  Aunt Mary's sweet letter brought back a really fun memory.  Thanks, Aunt Mary...love you!

Going in circles...

Spring is about new beginnings and this spring, our little big town is embarking on a big one.  It's the phasing out of intersections with stoplights in exchange for giant roundabouts.  Roundabouts have been popping up all over our city and this weekend was the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the first two giant double roundabouts along our main artery in the center of town.  They have been under construction for almost a year now and their creation has been the source of much controversy and traffic headaches.  We walked with our neighbors to the big event...

There were prize giveaways, balloons, free hotdogs and snacks, and the orchestra was playing...we even got interviewed by our local tv station!  The kids loved that!  Our neighborhood took a hit during construction as we were one of the alternate routes while main roads were closed.  We are hoping the year long invasion of heavy traffic and speeding commuters will disappear and be replaced with the sleepy, quiet of our not so long ago past... We definitely were not going to miss the party!

We continued with our neighborhood celebration by roasting peeps over a small bonfire in the backyard as the sun was setting.  Mmmmmmm...

 

Before too long, Carmel may be known as the dizziest city in America!

Right now I'm loving...

ttv photography...

Lily of the Valley by MayaLee, available in her Etsy shop here

Cupcake Sprinkles by ScarletBeautiful2, available in her Etsy shop here

By the Sea 7 by StephaniePriester, available in her Etsy shop here

What is it?  TTV stands for Through The Viewfinder.  It's the art of taking photographs with one camera through the lens of another camera.  It produces that dreamy vintage look that I'm crazy about.  I am going to experiment with this over the summer.  I can't wait!

This pooch... 

I know, you know I love her to bits.  She has really slowed down lately...struggling to go up the stairs and breaking my heart when she attempts to jump up on my bed, but doesn't quite make it and falls backwards.  She is my fourth child, my shadow, constant companion.  She waits by the door for me when I leave (even when everyone else is home) and is overjoyed when I come home.  I heart this sweet face.

K's closet door...

She loves to collage...has been doing it for years.  She devours magazines with her scissors; clipping anything inspirational and fun and funky typography.  She worked on this collage for months and months. 

My new dotty coffee mug that I found at CVS! for $1.99!!!!!! It instantly puts me in a good mood in the morning.

This necklace by inbloomdesigns. 

Available in their Etsy shop here.  I am CAH-RAZY bout it.  On my wish list 4 sure.

This yella purse by Mareri. 

Available in her Etsy shop here.  It's so me. Drool.

This song, "You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson and Jason Mraz.  Listen to it here.  I loved it the very first time I heard it.  It fits Mark and I to a T.  We might not have any money, honey, but we're rich in love.  I first heard it on Mati Rose's blog (who, by the way shares my last name, but is of no relation).  I dare you not to love it, too.

Happy Friday, friends!  Get out there and enjoy the sunshine!

Today I'm feeling...

Actually, i feel this every day.  And, actually, luck has nothing to do with it.  I am blessed with the love of my amazing husband and wonderful family.  I wish the same for all of you, too.  xo

A first for us

Last weekend, Anne and I had a booth promoting our book at the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children Conference at the Indianapolis Convention Center.  We've never exhibited before and didn't know really what to expect.  We spent quite a bit of time putting together our booth and our promotional materials.  

The conference didn't really meet our expectations...book sales were really low and attendance wasn't what the promoters had promised, but it was a learning experience.  I worked really hard on the appearance of our booth, which we had lots of compliments about.  We both felt really good about it.  These "blooming heart" potted flowers were the hit of the show.  I would have made a fortune if I had been selling them to all the teachers who attended. 

The intention was to show teachers an easy way to incorporate "complimenting and using kind words" into their classrooms.  I made 6 of these displays.  They were super easy to make, just a bit time consuming.  The hearts and leaves are made from foam core, which I painted and cut out (the time consuming part) and they are attached to a painted garden stake.  There's florist's foam at the bottom of the pot which the stake is in, surrounded by newspaper and topped with a thin layer of popcorn for asthetics.  We actually had someone come by and scoop up a handful of popcorn and eat it!  Ewwww!  Everyone wanted to know if the popcorn was real.  People took pictures of them and wanted to know how they were made.  We will be posting the directions on our website, too.

We had a giveaway, so that we could collect some contact information from the attendees.  Isn't this coffee cup planter adorable???  I hated to give it away.

To get people to come into our booth, we created a compliment card, which we handed out to everyone who walked by. 

We told people to fill it out, give it to someone special and watch it make their day.  People really liked it.  We are going to take them to our school visits to give to the teachers to use with their students.  We will also have it on our website very soon available as a free download.  They really work!...Anne and I have started using them when we are together.  We gave one to a waitress at a restaurant a few weeks ago.  Our message said something like.."thanks for the terrific service and bottomless Diet Coke refills".  We put it in the credit card folder when she came to take our bill.  She came running back to our table after she opened it and was positively giddy.  She had shown it to her manager and he was faxing a copy of it to the restaurant chain's headquarters.  She just kept thanking us.  We did it again at the convention center, where we parked at the loading docks to unload our booth supplies.  There was a parking lot attendant who was super nice and allowed us to park for longer than the allotted time in the lot.  We gave him a compliment card on our way out of the lot.  He was a bit hesitant when we handed it to him at first because he didn't know what it was, but then he read it and just beamed and thanked us.  See what a little compliment can do for a person?  Give it a try!  It will make your day, too!

Overall, people had nothing but nice things to say about our book.  It is such a joy to be connected to and represent this book.  The feedback that we get from people, that the message of the book is so needed in today's society, for people of all ages, is really wonderful.  I feel very blessed that Anne chose me to illustrate her beautiful words.

Our STAYcation...

Thanks for being patient with me as I "unplugged" from blogging, twittering and facebook while we enjoyed our Spring Break with the kiddos.  Once again, we watched half of Carmel migrate south to the Gulf of Mexico...although my kids would have you think that we were the ONLY family left in Indiana.  We choose to head south for our family vacation every summer.  So, typically we spend our Spring Break dog watching and mail retrieving for our neighbors.  This year was no exception.  Mother Nature wasn't so kind to us at the beginning of our break, even sticking her tongue out at us with some springtime snow showers.  That was hard to take, I'll admit.  But, we're finishing up our Break with sunny skies and warmer breezes.  We may even hit 60 for our egg hunt tomorrow after church.  Yay!

Honestly, I have just loved having the kids home and taking a break from our routine.  Spring Break for me, means a vacation from the every day hustle of homework, after school activities, sports practices and my alarm clock.  My "school days" begin at 5:45 a.m. to wake up K, make 4 breakfasts, pack 4 lunches and get everyone out the door on time.  This week we stayed up late and had some more one-on-one time with our pillows.  That was fabulous.

We did some letterboxing this week.  We even introduced K's BFFs to it.  Read all about our family letterboxing hobby here. We ventured to a local park for one...

and G loved the one we found at a local train station...that was cool!

We went and had lunch with Mark at work, watched lots of movies like Hancock, Get Smart and Ghost Town, played games like Othello and Pass the Pigs and spent quality time with cousins.

We also had fun dying Easter eggs.  My grandfather LOVED dying the eggs.  We couldn't stop him...he was on a roll.  The kids were good sports when they realized that Poppop had dyed half of the 18 eggs I had hard boiled.  They got a kick out of his enjoyment, though.  It was really sweet. 

As I write this, the smell of the chocolate chip pound cake I'm baking for Easter brunch is wafting through the air, my ipod is singing to me, my kids are happily playing outside and my mommy batteries have been recharged.  I can even see the first day of summer vaction on our horizon....we only have 7 weeks of school left!  I hope you've had a great week and that you have a sunny, blessed Easter.