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Thursday Ten: Did You PhotoHunt YET? Edition

April 15, 2010 by 1 Comment

1. You probably know that TODAY is the deadline for the photoscavenger hunt to raise moohlah for fighting breast cancer and kicking it in the bootay. Have you entered yet? No? Why not? Read more about it HERE.

2. New music for the week: Um, stuff from Glee. Yeah. I’m unashamed of my love for this show. I am also not at all embarassed that I now have at least three different versions of “Hello” in iTunes – including Lionel Richie’s original. I love that song and remember vaguely the video from way back when – wasn’t he blind in that video? Or the girl was? Whatever, I was too busy singing along.

3. The Princess lost another tooth over spring break. These two teeth falling out have left her with that adorable gap in the front of her mouth. I love it. I wonder if her dentist will give me a discount at her cleaning in a few weeks – clearly she has less teeth for him to check.

4. Project Runway night TONIGHT. I’m kinda curious which of the two-tied-designers ends up going to Bryant Park (I hope it’s not Mila). Oh, the suspense. Also, I’m pretty pleased with the other two who are definitely heading to Fashion Week – I’ve been pretty impressed with them all season. While this season is better than last season, I think Lifetime still has a way to go until it’s up to par with what the show was on Bravo.

5. Today is tax day. Are your taxes all done? Were you pulling your hair out getting things wrapped up last night so you could get ’em in today?

6. Today was my first guitar lesson in two weeks (due to spring break and what not). Admittedly, I have hardly picked up my guitar in that span of time and was more than a little concerned how badly it would go today. BUT… it didn’t! In fact, it went pretty well and I somehow managed to have made some progress. Things were fine til Pumpkin decided to smack my (very surprised) guitar teacher on the butt on the way out of the studio. Whoops.

7. My guitar teacher also let me know it was about time to pick more songs I wanted to learn to play – so if you have any ideas (NOT Freebird), drop me a comment. The request line is now open.

8. It’s 80 degrees in Michigan today. The sun is shining. The flowers are blooming. The air outside smells like cow manure. Michigan spring in full effect.

9. I went to book club last night and we had a pretty decent discussion stemming from the reading of Irreplaceable* – mostly regarding the topic of organ donation which was a primary theme in this novel. Then we chose next month’s selection out of the jar, and, DANG. It sounds like not my cup of tea. A non-fiction book about the oppression of women. GRANTED – I know the topic is important, and it actually has excellent reviews on both Amazon and Good Reads – but heavy lifting is not why I’m in a book club. I’m more than a little “meh” about that selection.

10. And in what is my most exciting news of the week: I finally got a big girl camera. I’ve been drooling over the Canon DSLRs for a long time and finally took the leap and got one. I’m kind of excited. I love it and I think it needs a name so that I can pat my camera lovingly and murmur sweet nothings to it. And if you’re gonna murmur sweet nothings to your camera it should totally have a name.

*affiliate link like whoa

Filed Under: Books and Stuff, Do Good Feel Good, Photography, Thursday Ten Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Thursday Ten: Spring Break And Expecting Snow?! Edition

April 8, 2010 by 4 Comments

1. The kids are on spring break this week. It was beautiful Monday. Then it rained Tuesday. It rained yesterday. Today the skies are heavy with clouds, the air outside is cold and there’s a chance of snow in the forecast. Yuck. Also, it would have been a good idea to venture towards warmer weather over break.

2. Of course, as luck would have it – Spring Break happens to have fallen during an incredibly busy week for work. Crappy weather and being wicked busy? DOUBLE WHAMMY.

3. Yesterday, I baked a cheesecake – a turtle cheesecake. I’ve never made one before, but it involves peeling plastic wrappers off an entire bag of caramels so you can melt the caramel down to make a sauce to pour over the Oreo crust and then over the cheesecake before serving. I think actually making caramel from scratch would have been easier than unwrapping all those candies. And as I opened them, I kept flashing on the dialogue between Will and Skylar in Good Will Hunting. LOVE that movie.

Just as arbitrary as drinking coffee.

4. No guitar lesson this week which is probably a good thing because I haven’t even picked up my guitar this week to practice. I can tell when I haven’t practiced enough – the calluses on my fingertips are softer, almost like they used to be. Maybe I better write “PRACTICE GUITAR” on my to do list in big print, and then UNDERLINE IT. I like to write things on my to do list, because I like to cross things off my to do list (Like this: Eat breakfast).

5. I’ve been reading a lot lately. Last week, I polished off The Art of Racing in the Rain, which I adored so much. This week, I have started digging in to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society*. Admittedly, this is not normally a kind of book I enjoy, but I am liking it so far. I haven’t slammed the cover shut and thrown it across the room yet and I’m a third of the way through, so that’s a good sign.

6. New music of the week? Jack Johnson’s new single You And Your Heart*, which actually sounds like classic Jack, though I’ve read that his new album coming out soon is going to be more “rock-flavored”. Meh. I’m a lil bit nervous about that. I like beachy-acoustic Jack. Will I like rock Jack? I dunno. But, this single isn’t really a departure from the sound I expect from him. And I like it.

7. Apparently tomorrow is “NAME YOURSELF DAY”. If you were gonna choose YOUR name, what would you pick? Would you stick with the name that you were given or would you choose something totally different?

8. Have you joined our Photo Scavenger Hunt yet? Raising money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer – so if you have bewbs, or know of someone who does – you should probably enter and maybe win some awesome prizes -some of which will be given randomly and THAT MEANS, even if your every shot is photo-bombed by your thumb, you could still win things. Cool, right?

9. We took the kids to see “How to Train Your Dragon” last weekend – and they loved it. I don’t normally like stuff like that – dragons and whatnot, but it was pretty cute. Not cute? The cost of admission and snacks to take a whole family to a movie. Oy.

10. So, the iPad. Did you get one? Do you want one? Despite being a total Apple fan girl, I’m holding off for now. Perhaps it’s because I’m currently crushing on a Canon DSLR, and that is where my next big gadget expenditure will be. Don’t get me wrong, if someone handed me an iPad today and said, “Here! Take it! It’s YOURS!”, I’d take it and be happy. But I don’t want to spend my money on one just yet.

*Yes, affiliate links. I’m saving up to buy a pony.

Filed Under: Books and Stuff, Do Good Feel Good, Mom Shtuff, music, Photography, Thursday Ten Tagged With: , , , ,

Thursday Ten: It’s Iced Latte Weather Edition

April 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. Awwww yeah. After guitar lesson every week, Pumpkin and I hit the Starbucks drivethru. You see, I bribe her with chocolate milk if she can hang tight during my lesson. She sits in the practice room with me and my teacher and sometimes gets a little bored (totally understandable). Today, instead of my usual cappuccino I got an iced latte because – WHOA – this weather definitely called for it.

2. Still working on “Falling Slowly” in guitar – every time I hear it, I get kind of giddy – it’s one of my favorites (and the top most played song in my iTunes).

3. And with warmer weather comes… SKINNED KNEES. Pumpkin just wiped out wearing shorts for the first time in 2010. Guess I’d better stock up on bandaids.

4. HEY, Have you read about the PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT yet? Definitely a fun way to raise money for a great cause.

5. This season of American Idol? It’s really boring. I said that last week too. Though, I did love the acoustic version of Chris Brown’s “Forever” this week.

6. Song of the week? Someone posted an audio of “La Mar” by The Beautiful Girls which is really got a mellow Jack Johnson-y flavor to it. I love Jack Johnson, so yeah, I’m loving this one too – and look at that beautiful ocean.

7. That video reminds me that I really want to learn to surf. Know what bothers me most about the thought of surfing? Getting water up my nose. And I’m sure that would happen – maybe even more than once.

8. The iPeriod app for the iPhone is pretty freakin’ accurate. Which is fabulous. *Sob* Can someone give me some Cheetos, please?

9. Do you ever get on a food kick? I made french bread the other day and since have been wanting these fabulous oven roasted turkey sandwiches on slices of warm french bread with just a smidge of spicy mustard. And I just want sandwiches. Lots of them. (Sigh. See number 8).

10. Warmer weather means it’s shorts weather. I hate shorts. I wonder when I stopped loving shorts – because I remember being so excited when the weather broke, the sun came out and I could uncover my knees, but now? Bleh. Shorts? Yuck. Last summer, I decided to skip the whole shorts hooey and wear summery dresses – it was a nice alternative, but not necessarily very practical. So, capris it is.T

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good, Mom Shtuff, music, Thursday Ten Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Weekly Winners – Into the Great Outdoors

March 28, 2010 by 10 Comments

Be sure to check out a few of my favorite shots this week, taken yesterday in Saugatuck, Michigan — and then a bit closer to home.  I love the WEEKLY WINNERS – so be sure to drop by, give Lotus some love, and visit the other participants as well.

And then be sure to scroll down to the post below this for BIG NEWS about a photo scavenger hunt to raise moohlah for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

I wanted to go to the beach. We found the woods instead.

Do you know how much I love ice skating? A LOT.

Lake Michigan - Some days you just need to see some water.

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good, Photography Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Announcing: A Photo Scavenger Hunt!

March 28, 2010 by 6 Comments

And now, some big news!

As some of y’all know – I’ll be walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer this summer. In addition to the awesome group that let me be on their team last year, I’ll be joined this year by one of my favorite peeps, Kat. We’re pretty dedicated to the cause and fundraising for it – but we wanted to make it fun.

THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN.

We’re doing a photo scavenger hunt.  To enter, a minimum donation of $10 can be made either via our paypal (bloggersforbewbs AT gmail), or directly to our Avon Walk Pages (My linkie is here, and Kat’s is here). All funds will ONLY be used for our Avon Walk fundraising and we’re happy to send receipts if you’d like.

Kat and I have brainstormed a list of NINE words to give you some creative direction – we didn’t make them TOO specific – we wanted you to still have freedom to take shots you love.

Compile your nine shots into a 3×3 matrix (I used Picnik – I have mad love for Picnik – it just makes this easy).

Upload to our FLICKR group by the APRIL 15 deadline (gotta do something to make tax day fun, right?).

And then? THERE WILL BE PRIZES. We’ve got gifties from BioElements skincare, Eden Fantasys, an original piece of jewelry from the Bead Girl, (JUST ADDED) several awesome gifts from Vera Bradley (including a watch, a tote and some other goodies!) — and a few other things are in the works (Kat and I will be updating our blogs with more information). We’ll award prizes to the best overall mosaic and the best individual picture within a mosaic.

Any remaining prizes will be given at random! (WHEE! Which means HEY, even if you take every shot with a cell phone with spaghetti sauce smeared on the lens, YOU CAN STILL WIN!).

The NINE words we have selected are:

COMFORT
LOVE
PINK
FRIENDSHIP
CHALLENGE
JOY
DETERMINATION
HOPE
PEACE

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good, Photography Tagged With: , , , ,

Thursday Ten: New Strings Edition

March 25, 2010 by 3 Comments

1. My guitar has new strings. I was lazy and I just had the music store put them on – it took them four days and the cost? Excessive for strings (my teacher’s eyes bugged out real big when I showed her the receipt). Yes, lesson learned – I’ll do it myself next time. But wow, my strings DO sound great.

2. Began working on two songs today – Jack Johnson’s “Sittin’ Waitin’ Wishing” (for its use of bar, major, minor, and seventh chords) and “Falling Slowly” because it’s one of my favorite songs of all time. I was one of the few who wasn’t totally enamored by the movie “Once” – but I sure do love this song.

3. Did y’all watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on Sunday night? What did you think? I was STUNNED. I guess not entirely surprised – but yeah, stunned. Expect more from me about this topic. The next episode airs on Friday night. Watch it, and we’ll talk about it next week. {Also, I really hope the lunch ladies/cooks at my daughter’s school aren’t that cranky!}

4. Thank you so much to everyone who gave me feedback about The Princess and things I could do moving forward in absence of a gifted program in her school. Good news – we do have an appointment with her principal to sit down and talk about how we can keep her challenged in third grade and beyond — as well as pairing her with a teacher who doesn’t mind doing the extra work to keep her loving education.

5. That wasn’t the ONLY parent-teacher conference for the week. Oh yeah. Yesterday was my first conference with Pumpkin’s new preschool and I was pleasantly surprised. I think what surprised me most was how social my daughter is – not to the extent where the teacher says she’s a chatterbox – but that she’s friendly with all the kids. The teacher said, “You’d never know she hasn’t been here since September. She just found her place here.” Awesome.

6. Last week I had lots of extra fun social stuff planned – including dinner out with a former coworker/friend and my good friend. TWO NIGHTS OUT. That also means two meals I got to eat that weren’t cooked by yours truly. You can see, I’m sure, why I am mourning last week a lil bit, right? Tonight I’ll be cooking Cuban black beans and rice which means that I fully anticipate getting to hear from my children what a rotten cook I am. It’s inspiring, really.

7. I caved in to the inexplicable urge I had to buy matching dresses for my daughters so they can dress alike for fun spring pictures on the beach. Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking either but I think it will be cute. I also think they’ll hate me for this in ten years.

8. In just over 70 days, I’ll be walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer – I’m VERY excited. I’m also hoping that it doesn’t rain. Rain would be bad.

9. American Idol this week… So… They could choose from Billboard Top 100s and they all chose crap songs? What was THAT all about? You have all that amazing music at your disposal and whut? Not impressed. At this point, I have no favorites – but several people who annoy me severely (Didi, I’m talkin’ to you).

10. According to the preschool’s calendar, Saturday is Photography Day. I plan to celebrate by taking some pictures (DUH). MAAAAAAAAAYBE I should celebrate by asking the Photography Elves to leave a new camera for me. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were really Photography Elves?

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good, Mom Shtuff, music, Photography, Thursday Ten Tagged With: , , , ,

Thursday Ten: I’m Not Wearing a Coat Edition

March 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1. It’s 50 degrees here. Marinate on that. Fifty. Five-zero. The snow has melted and the lawns are visible. They’re brown, but visible. I went on my first outdoor run of 2010 today. A slow meandering jog, more likely – but wow, felt good. Here’s hoping this is the change for the year (but I fully anticipate at least one more spell of crappy weather).

2. I love to dance – so it’s really no surprise that when Amy Krouse Rosenthal of The Beckoning of Lovely published this YouTube video, I decided I had to learn the dance. And yes, I’m filming the process, including the hilarious moments when I bump into furniture and trip over my own feet.

3. Music downloaded this week? “All This Beauty” by the Weepies – which is the song in the above video. Love it – it’s cute and bouncy and just feels like spring.

4. Guitar lessons went well this week – still working on Ingrid Michaelson’s “The Chain”, as well as Train’s “Marry Me”. Ingrid’s song is easy and I needed that, because the Train song would be perfect if I could just make my fingers move fast enough (I’ve got a ways to go).

5. Our first official book club meeting was last night – and it was … interesting. It seems I was the only one to like the book, Still Alice (why YES, that’s an affiliate link, baby!). The discussion questions in the back were sort of… weak, but the book itself? I really enjoyed the book. I’m curious how next month goes – the book choice was mine (more on that to come in the next few weeks, mmkay?) – and if there’s a huge difference again on who enjoys it and who doesn’t, then… perhaps this will be more of a social thing versus a shared taste in reading materials thing.

6. Those green flowers I bought at Costco the other day are fading to white, one petal at a time and the water in the vase is this amazing emerald green color. It’s kind of a fun process to watch, the dye draining back into the water. Then again, maybe I’m easily amused.

7. Corey Haim. Dead. Y’know, while I don’t necessarily mourn for celebs, I have to say it always blows me away when one passes – and the news is filled with clips from the span of a career. I vividly remember going to see the movie “Lucas” in the theater. It was one of the first movies my mom allowed me to see on my own – she dropped me and a friend off at at the theater to see it (after buying our tickets). I loved that movie. And it’s one of those movies that I had forgotten about until the news of him OD’ing broke. {However, I never forget the movie “The Lost Boys”. I loved that movie then, I love that movie still.}

8. I have just under 90 days until the marathon and a half walk for breast cancer. I am SO excited. I have so much to do yet – but I’m pretty excited. I have to say, even if it is more cumbersome, I’ll be wearing a backpack this year instead of a fanny pack. I broke down and bought one last year, but felt absolutely ridiculous wearing it – PLUS, I want to be able to keep flip flops on hand for when I’m done for the day and want my nasty walking shoes OFF.

9. This week feels like it’s been 100 years long. Things with work and extra projects have kept me from being bored – and I’ve kind of totally over extended myself with extra curriculars too (book club, a lunch with old friends, appointments). I love not being bored, I love being busy… but I’m kind of ready to kick back with a pretty pink drink and a book and put my feet up.

10. I’m told that National Chocolate Caramel Day is coming up. Seriously. It’s a thing. What is YOUR favorite chocolate-caramel treat? Looking for ideas, as I WILL be celebrating accordingly.

Filed Under: Books and Stuff, Do Good Feel Good, music, Thursday Ten Tagged With: , , ,

Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo, or Whatever It Is That Fairy Godmothers are Saying These Days

January 26, 2010 by 2 Comments

Last week on Twitter, a woman I follow posted a tweet about helping underprivileged girls who need dresses for prom by donating your old bridesmaid dresses. I sent @HouseOfJules a reply and she filled me in on The Cinderella Project.

This organization gets prom-caliber dresses to girls who can’t afford it, and frankly, I’m NEVER gonna wear that dress again (And honestly, I think there’s something implanted in a bride’s brain that makes her TELL her bridesmaids, “SURE. You can wear that again!” In reality, there’s no way you’ll ever wear that again — how many of your life’s occasions call for that many yards of satin?).

Jules has written a pretty thorough blogpost about this project on her blog (here’s the link), but the jist is this:

  • Go digging in your closet and find your dress(es)
  • Take ’em to get drycleaned*. Jules says that some cleaners are nice and will comp you if they know it’s for a charity. My dry-cleaner was NOT nice, but I only paid about $13, so I can totally live with that.
  • Send the dress to Jules (FIRST, email her at CASAJULES at the gmailio for specifics)

That’s It.

That’s all. Easy, right? And it frees up some closet space for the other stuff you’ve been wanting to buy.

As for me? I picked my dress up from the cleaners this morning – yards of periwinkle blue satin that, no, I never did wear again. Tomorrow, I’ll package it up and send it, and smile about how easy it was and my extra closet space.

*If you can’t afford the drycleaning, let Jules know. The organization would rather have your dress and have the challenge of getting it cleaned than not have it at all.

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Accessorizing For A Good Cause

November 24, 2009 by Leave a Comment

AVON_MARIMEKKO_TOTE

My life has been affected by cancer – through my grandfather’s survival of stomach cancer in the 80s, to my cousin kicking rhabdomyosarcoma in the butt ten years ago, to my grandmother’s colon cancer, which combined with her advanced age, killed her two years ago. Though there are so many amazing causes to recognize and donate time and money to, there are two that I’m devoted to — charities that fund cancer research and charities for cystic fibrosis.

When I got the opportunity last year to participate in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer I was thrilled about the experience – I was nervous about fundraising, yes – but I couldn’t wait to be involved. The experience was amazing, to say the least. It’s pretty much 48 hours of walking alongside and in honor of those who have fought breast cancer – some have won their battles, some were not so lucky and some were still in the treatment stages. I was surrounded by amazingly strong women for those two days – I was in awe of their courage, their strength, and their devotion to ensuring that we get to a point someday where NO ONE ever has to receive a breast cancer diagnosis.

It’s funny, Avon contacted me to review this bag  (pictured above) just days after I cemented the decision to take part in the walk for a second year in a row.  I immediately said, “COUNT ME IN!” I received this tote in the mail and love it – it’s a sturdy canvas Marimekko-designed bag, with bright colors that are definitely going to brighten my dreary winter days. It has a zipper closure on the top and 100% of the net profits will be donated to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade.  This means that by gifting someone with this adorable bag this holiday season, $6.24 of the $10 sell price will go to an amazing cause. I love a win-win — you win points for giving someone a pretty handy bag, and more money goes towards beating cancer.

And that makes me very happy.

The bag is actually bigger than it appeared to me on the web page – while it’s not big enough for use for an overnight bag, it is just the perfect thing to store books and crayons and other materials in for a long trip, perhaps. I can see taking this along on class trips with The Princess’s class (along with a sack lunch and a big bottle of ibuprofen, perhaps?). This could also come in handy on a quick jaunt to the library, to bring our new books home. Cute, sturdy, and beneficial to one of my favorite causes. I love it.

To learn more about the Avon Walk, click HERE. This year’s motto is “In It To End It” – how awesome is that?!

To see more Avon Pink Ribbon Products, click HERE.

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good
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