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Hi y'all. Since I love you so much I thought I'd give away one of my latest fine art prints ::
"Boat Yard" :: 10"x13" Fine Art Print in Metallic Mounted on 2mm Styrene
NOTE :: Print will not arrive watermarked.
To enter :: Leave a comment below. I'm interested to know...
How long have you been following? How did you arrive here?
Comments will remain open until end of the day on Thursday and I'll pick a winner for Friday's post.
Have a good one!
xo
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I'll say it three times fast.
Because fast is how I would describe the last three years. Like - a single nano-second has gone by and BAM - you are three years old. I can hardly believe it.
This shot was taken at Mimi's last week. This mini-Gator was the new toy waiting to get used this visit - and he did a mighty fine job of breaking it in. Every morning, some of the very first words out of his mouth... "Mommy, I go ride the Gator outside??"
We were joined over the weekend by my brother and Liz and their two kiddies. My dad's sister had also flown in from Minnesota so we had a nice gathering yesterday for cake and ice cream.
Since we primarily celebrated with family yesterday - Clark and I decided to give Macho his "big gift" then...
A new bike. (Photos of it are still on my cards. Have tons of images to download today.)
He was so excited. He had just the kind of reaction every parent hopes for in these scenarios.
Seeing him put on that helmet and hop on like he's done it a million times before just sorta stunned me. He really is very natural at anything athletic. As he pedaled away down the driveway with the training wheels humming along behind him, I got really choked up.
HE'S RIDING A FRIGGIN' BIKE!
Next he'll be asking for money and staying out past his curfew. I'm just not ready for all this "aging."
My heart was screaming - He can't ride a bike!! He's just a baby!
No mamma.
No he's not.
He's not even a toddler.
He's a boy.
A self professed BIG boy.
I better get a grip on that quick.
My oh my.
You know what else I can say three times fast?
LOVE YOU. LOVE YOU. LOVE YOU.
Happy birthday Macho-man.
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Wanted to add another fine art print to my little "shop" of prints...
I'm thinking of opening a little etsy storefront for these... ya know - to get them a little more exposure.
Anyway - loved this one of the boatyard in Oxford, MD... the soft focus and bold colors... the refelction of the masts. I took this shot during the "golden hour" and I love the richness of the yellows and turquoises as a result.
I'm offering this one a little larger... 10x13 size print in two paper finishes... lustre and metallic.
Because, again, the colors are so bold - I thought offering a metallic option would be cool.
Just the right print for July and August days... A nice "slice of summer" to keep in your home all year long.
NOTE : Print will not come watermarked. :)
"Boat Yard" :: 10"x13" Fine Art Print in Lustre or Metallic
Size - 10x13
Unmounted / Lustre - $22
Unmounted / Metallic - $25
Mounted on 2mm Styrene / Lustre - $36
Mounted on 2mm Styrene / Metallic - $40
Shipping - $5.50 to the US
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By: Elizabeth Martin
(Warning right up front… this is kind of all over the place. But we get somewhere by the end. I think.)
I used to never think about the food I ate, but all that changed when I had my son. Jack is a healthy, happy little guy -- but he does have a good deal of allergies, and some of them happen to be food related. When he was still a baby, we discovered that he was allergic to: eggs, milk, peanuts, and a few different kinds of tree nuts. To put it mildly, this was a game changer for me. I went from being blissfully unaware of food content to having to look at every label and every ingredient of every piece of food I bought. (Take a wild guess at how many different types of food have milk and/or eggs as an ingredient or were processed in a plant that also handled nuts. If you said: “Damn near everything,” you’d be close.) Because I was still nursing him at the time, I had to be very focused on the food I was eating. And when he stopped nursing, the focus turned to his own diet and, by extension, the rest of the family. Basically, we’re like vegans that eat meat instead of peanuts.
[SIDE NOTE: I am not one of those crazy hipster moms that think food allergies are fun and trendy. I did, however, attend a food allergy “support group” on one occasion when I was still coming to grips with all of this. That was an eye-opener. Some children in attendance were allergic to pretty much everything but water and celery. That made me feel lucky. Other kids, however, were proudly hailed by their mothers as being allergic to things like nutmeg and cinnamon -- and nothing else. I’m not kidding. (I wanted to chokeslam those bitches.]
At first, I was very, very angry about all of this. I begrudged the parents who could go out to eat with their kids, get food at a drive thru, and not give a second thought about what other kids in the playgroup were eating. Sometimes I suffer momentary bouts of HDS (high drama syndrome -- that’s a technical term, usually accompanied by imaginary chokeslams).
Now, however, I think it was a blessing in disguise because I have become much more conscious of what my family eats. It was a natural progression for me to go from focusing solely on avoiding certain foods and ingredients to becoming interested in organic food and foods rich in essential vitamins and nutrients. Reading food labels for hours on end will do that to you. Bottom line, I have become a big believer that your body, health, and general wellbeing is very much linked to what you eat. (Okay, so in that sense, I guess you could say that I’m one of those crazy hipster moms.)
So what have we decided to do? Actually… nothing all that extreme or drastic, really. We eat in shifts at our house right now anyway, which -- for this purpose at least -- works to our advantage. Basically, my husband and I eat what we normally do for breakfast and lunch, but we’ve replaced our dinner with a “green” smoothie. As a result, we now “eat” (drink) more fruits and vegetables in a week then we used to have in a whole month.
So… after all that meandering backstory, here comes the main thrust of this post: I just have to sing the praises of my brand new Vitamix!
We’ve been drinking these green smoothies for a while, using our regular kitchen blender, but we recently bought a Vitamix to make the process easier. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Vitamix -- I never had before I saw one at my friend’s house last year -- but they are amazing! Take a blender, and then add the motor of a lawn mower. These things are fierce!
(This part coming up sounds like a shameless infomercial plug, but it is true…)
The Vitamix is so versatile and powerful that it can replace the following appliances in your home: the blender, the food processor, the bread-maker, and even the ice-cream maker.
So this has become dinner for my husband and me:
Here is a list of the ingredients for one drink:
A handful of pineapple;
Three strawberries;
A handful of blueberries;
One banana;
Half an apple;
One carrot;
Half an avocado (not pictured, but usually included);
Two teaspoons of wheat germ; and
Lots and lots of at least two of the following greens: watercress, kale, collard greens, and/or spinach.
Because freshness is key to all of this, I make about two or three trips to the grocery store every week. Of course, my frequent trips to Giant could also be a product of my complete inability to make a decent grocery list, but let’s blame it on something else. In any event, my daughter actually cheers when I pull into the grocery store parking lot… so at least we all enjoy the experience. (I’d cheer, too, if I got to cruise around in the car cart.)
I did buy a book to help me out with coming up with recipes when we first started all of this, but to be honest, I haven’t used it much. It was great for telling me all the vitamins and nutrients that could be found in specific fruits and vegetables, but after that I kind of just took it from there. I keep the basic things that I have listed above and then sometimes add a few things that look good to me in the store. I am sure some of you are thinking, “You have got to be kidding. You eat the same thing every night?” Well, yeah. My husband and I are boring, and variety is not necessarily the spice of life for us. If you are thinking of trying this and feel that you may need a little more variety… buy a recipe book!
But no matter what you end up deciding to include, never, EVER forget to throw in a banana. For real. Be advised: the term “green smoothie” is simply a euphemism for “hey-this-looks-like-a-tall-glass-of-baby-poop.” But as long as you include a banana in the mix, all you taste is the banana. I’m totally serious.
Perhaps best of all, clean-up with the Vitamix is wonderful -- it's beyond easy. With my blender, I always ended up taking it completely apart and washing every piece by hand. This became tedious after the first night. With the Vitamix, all I do is rinse the container out, fill it up halfway with warm water, add two drops of liquid soap, put it back on the base, and turn it on for thirty seconds. Then I rinse again. That’s it.
Besides green smoothies I have also made whole wheat bread in my Vitamix. It was so easy and ended up great. I can’t wait to use my new “toy” to its fullest potential.
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Time is short. Blog posts must be written. Content for blog must be created.
I say again... time is short. Baby was up all night last night and I'm dozing as I type.
What to do?
Quick Page.
Found this quick page at O Scraps! by one of my FAVORITE digital designers Liz at Paislee Press...
And with that I made this...
Some journaling a single pic, title and date... and I was done...
in 15 min.
Bada bing.
:)
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Hi folks!
Took myself a little three day weekend. My buddy T was in town and I needed to show him some Eastern Shore love. Beach, crabs, beer (just what I needed after my week of RAW... more on that later...) Yesterday I spent in the car traveling up to my hometown in western PA where I'll be all week.
How was your weekend?
Anyway - It's AUGUST! Can you believe it? Was it not, like, Memorial Day 5 minutes ago? Seriously.
Now it seems summer is approaching it's twilight... I thought I'd better get on sharing some things I'm loving right now...
ENJOY!
1. Polka Dotted Toes...
2. Bruno Mars latest album :: Doo Wops and Hooligans
3. One Kings Lane :: this place is like a high-end HomeGoods sale delivered to your inbox every day. It's free and they have great daily deals on lots of home decor items. If you sign up (and I hope you do!) do me a favor and enter my email address (katiepegher (at) gmail (dot) com) as the person who referred you! xo
4. Rue La La :: This is basically the same thing as OKL - but it's for fashion. Mammas been getting into some trouble pulling the proverbial trigger over here... The sales are just too good. Again - should you decide to sign up - please tell em I sent ya. :)
5. EOS lip balm spheres. A Wal-Mart check out line find. 95% organic and I'm totally hooked. :)
6. Paint schemes from Better Homes & Gardens... Especially these ones...
7. TOMS sunglasses... The latest concept from the TOMS brand. Still the ONE for ONE goodness and in classic styles. Got my eye on these...
8. This dress from Target :: Mossimo Double Layer Tank Dress / Grey/Pebble... I'm wearing it with a large leather belt and some high heeled gladiator style sandals. :)
What are you loving right now??
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