Make Me Some Granola Bars, Please

I love alisa burke's blog, and I'm subscribed to her, enjoying her inspiration on a daily basis.

However, I really want to make these granola bars (without nuts so I can send them in my son's lunch despite the no nut classroom). I don't want to forget them, so I'm putting them here.

Plus, I realize I need to post here more often. I have a million things starred in my googlereader. Things that I love and covet and am inspired by. And I'm not posting any of them here, which is what I am supposed to be doing. Maybe I have too much inspiration and get overwhelmed with it all. But I think I am starting again, because it is a good thing to do to see all these wonderful things and share them with the world.

Backyard Living

Wow. Backyard tent, found at Design Inspiration Planet Stencil Library. This one is stenciled. That's pretty awesome although I would probably never do that. But seriously. AWE. SOME.

This would be great for a backyard wedding, or any party, or an afternoon reading poetry and lounging around, or a play house for the kids, or a romantic brunch... or a romantic night *wink wink*. So many possible options.

Maya*made has a simpler, more temporary tutorial for a summer pavilion for a similar feeling with smaller commitment and expense and trouble. I loves me some maya.

Here's a site to buy your own tent... if the thought of constructing your own intimidates you.

Found Via The Haystack Needle and Frolic.

What I Want Is a Magical Tee Pee Tent

Living etc.
photo by Regression by Claire L. Evans

Have seen some wonderful tee pee play tents via The Haystack Needle.

My son hates to sleep in a bed. He always ends up sleeping on the floor. We laid out some mats and sleeping bags, and he still ends up in front of the door. Lately, we brought his sister's play house into the room, and set up a half of the play house with sleeping bags and comforters and pillows... one for each of them. But I still dream of a wonderful tee pee retreat for him... posssibly one for her too, although I don't know if she's sleep in one.

Then I started searching and realized, those buggers are expensive. I don't see me buying a 300$ play tent in the near future. I also found some instruction in how to make your own, pages of instructions. Ai ai ai. I am not a seamstress.

Then I found this Camp Creek blog entry, years old. A no sew tee pee made of bamboo and an old duvet cover. That's my kind of project! Give them some love... project based learning from a homeschooling perspective. I see authentic art lessons, too... worth more exploration. Did I ever tell you that I was a project based, art integrating progressive High School teacher?

Modern Pirate Frock FANTABULOUS PHOTOSHOOT!

Oh, well, see, I loved these pictures and this dress so much I was going to post about them anyway before I found out they were a giveaway. I love the fantasy world, make believe, story book setting. The dress is fantabulous.

How fun would it be to set up a pirate background and have a kid photo shoot in costume? Well, she talks about a green screen, and that just ain't gonna happen for me. I'm the kinda gal who makes things out of paint and cardboard and newspapers. Computers mean I spend a week pulling my hair out trying to figure the some'in some'in out.

Still, I like the idea of a photo shoot. I have some giant cats... a leopard and a black panther... we could start with that. And goodness, our back yard looks like a jungle anyway. Now I need some explorer outfits. If I won this Modern Pirate Frock we could start there. One down, one to go.

Modern Pirate Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Cupcakes!

Red Velvet with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting and mini M&Ms. Balloon candles.

Happy 2nd Birthday Baby Girl.

Frantic Mama's shortcut? Duncan Hines cake mix. Had to get an interview written! Couldn't bake cupcakes from scratch. But I did make the frosting. 2 packages 8oz cream cheese and half a cup of butter (both room temp), 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 6 drops red food coloring. whip whip whip whip the fluff into it. The girl loves M&Ms so I used those to decorate.

She loved most of all everyone singing happy birthday to her. And her rockstar toy guitar.

Pink and Orange Celebration

How adorable is this birthday party that I found over at Inchmark? I love these colors and the polka dot theme is simple and festive. This party is for a three year old girl, but I think it could be adapted for any celebration, from a baby shower to a casual, fun wedding. Fine, a wedding might be a bit more elaborate, but it's all about the ideas.

And frankly, I think contemporary weddings are way too big and over processed. A nice little home made wedding like you might have seen a couple of centuries ago... a celebration and acknowledgment of the union of two people in a community... that's a wedding, not some princess fantasy. Okay, enough of my philosopoophizing. :)

I haven't mentioned this before, perhaps because I have so little time for crafting, but I love Crafty Crow. She collects such wonderful ideas for kids projects. Learning and crafts and arts and reading and holidays. So many wonderful ideas. I am a total lurker on her site. Today though she's giving away a gorgeous book, An Awesome Book! by Dallas Clayton, and I can never resist books. Especially ones with great illustrations. Plus my boy adores monsters of all types. Probably because he's part monster himself.

What? Don't look at me like that. He didn't get it from MY side. ahem.

I Will Start Planning for their Big Kid Bedroom Now

I think this is the cutest boy/girl bedroom I am in love with it. It's in the February Domino and the whole house is pretty darn craveable. Who knew Mark Ruffalo was married to a bohemian Jewelry designer named Sunshine.

I'd love to have G and Ivy have something like this. Infact, the beds are by Jenny Lind, which is the exact crib I got for them. One of the cheapest on the market, and really one of my favorites anywhere. I loved the white painted spool spindle style. Retro and simple with a little detail.

I've also been loving the white walls I'm seeing lately. White with pops of color.

I would have a hard time not painting the walls blue or lavender or coral or something, but I do still love the look.

Gosh, Domino is my favorite.

Rothko

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1969, John and Mary Pappajohn, Des Moines, Iowa



So after an amusing interaction with my son, my self and my painting, I decided to show the boy some Rothko paintings. Now I just can't stop staring at it. I get drawn right in.

It makes my mind go off in flight.

More, here

Tiny City

From Sparklerama on etsy. How cute is this? I found it via Melissa Loves on a post about things she would love to give to a child. But I have to say, I would want it for myself.

I have loved miniatures since I was a child. I used to make my own little clay dolls out of plasticene. When I was a teenager, I graduated to Sculpey.

I also love boxes. Little boxes, little assemblages. I love squares and grids, something that I have decided comes from growing up in the city, walking around with streets and apartment buildings. I imagine all those little rooms in those big buildings. All those little lives in that big city.

I imagine walking around a big city, with a little tiny city in my pocket.

Oh yes. That pleases me.

Fun With Play Clay

Ho Ho Ho.

This looks like a photo from the 70's but I took it this morning, underexposed, and then played with contrast and brightness and turned it black and white. I kind of like the grainy look. Those are the play-clay snow men we made, and the Christmas tree, too. And behind them is a photo of my Grandmother. She died when I was born. I like the picture, though.

Okay, the kids didn't make the snowmen, I did. Because I didn't know if the solid balls of clay would ever dry, or dry without cracking, or even stick together if they did dry. So these snowmen are hollow. I made a hollow tube around my finger and just pinched and squooshed the tube into snowman shape. The tree is also hollow. I made the cone and then squooshed and stretched it into a kind of seussical shape. We'll see if they dry correctly. Maybe we'll paint them. Or maybe not.

Play Clay Recipe
1 cup Flour
1/2 cup salt
1 TB oil
1 TB cream of tartar
1 Cup water

Stir over medium heat until of good consistency. Add dough and food coloring to zip top sandwich bags. Mash and mix in the bags. Store in bags in refrigerator.


As an added plus, the kids thought it tasted awful, so none of that pesky eating the play clay nonsense. Yay for home made!

DIY Dreams

This is a lovely diy wedding, found on stylemepretty. I love the setting. If only I could find a grove of aspens. I love the informal feel of people just wandering along the path, gathering around in a meadow. Very pretty and touching. I also love that it is so family and child oriented. Games! How clever and important for a party with many children. Great idea.

And to go along with the family focus, the clothes line with all the photos. Old and new family photos. I really like that for myself, particularly since this wedding that is yet to be planned or have a date set is, in part, for our children and our families. I guess all weddings are, but our wedding would have actual little people running about, not the abstract concept of future children. And no one will then feel compelled to ask us, "so, when you having kids?" heheh.

I plan on doing a LOT of my wedding DIY. This is one of the reasons I started this to plan and research ideas and maybe even use to keep track of projects. Because I don't want to have crazy stressed out time before this wedding, whenever it happens. And that's pretty hard to do if you're DIY everything.

Witness my current plans of DIY, and my rationalization on why I can do it (or can find a family member and/or friend to do it for me.)

Invites. I am an artist and writer and setting up a whole system for printing currently.

Vows. Both S and I are poets (shhh, don't tell anyone.)

Table settings. I have read Martha Stewart for 20 years, and besides, I will simplify the whole thing because I like simple. and small. and heartfelt.

Favors. I am an artist and would probably do something to reflect that.

Flowers. I've done wedding bouquets before, and because I would go for something kind of wildflowery/handtied looking. And because my mom is a horticulturist and I could pass this off to her to do.

Music. I do not have the skills for this, but S's best friend is a musician and DJ, and my sister and her fiancee are musicians, and I would probably like an Ipod playlist, although we don't have an Ipod yet. This will take some work. I might put S in charge. He might be able to find friends to play for free, actually. Hmm.

Photography. My dad and my uncle are both professional photographers and I am an avid amateur. Would it be weird if the bride ran around snapping digital shots during the wedding?

Decor. Artist, amateur decorator, wannabe stylist and martha afficionado, that's me.

Guest book. So many options for creativity here, I can think this up. I can do most anything on paper, owing to my lifetime of arts and crafts and writing.

Hair and makeup. I would do my own hair and makeup because I like a natural look, but my sister is also a professional hair stylist and makeup artist. I'm not talking to her right now, but I have plenty of time to work on that. ;)

Officiant. My bestfriend and I both registered to be officiants at the same time. I haven't finished the process, but I think she has. And if she hasn't there's plenty of time for that.

Bar. I, S and my sister are or have been professional bartenders over the course of the past 20 or so years. I think we got this... although we wouldn't work during it, obviously. Thinking more we stock our own bar, create a specialty punch/drink, and then hire a friend to tend bar.

And my possible DIY plans

Dinner. I have dreams of having a Spanish style fiesta with Paella and tapas and simple good food that I could plan all myself with my mom... but I am not that crazy and will probably have to hire someone to do this (or whatever we plan).

Cake/cupcakes. I still think about doing this. Plain cupcakes aren't as difficult as a big white tiered wedding cake which I think is unnecessary, or I have a flourless chocolate cake recipe that can be made ahead and frozen, and served with whipped cream and icecream and berries. Yumm. I want that now.

Apps. See "Dinner." How hard would it be to set out olives and manchego and nice crusty bread? Or make some tortas and slice up some chorizo. Doesn't that sound like a good pre party snack?

Glasses This is probably dreaming, but I'd like to scour yardsales and fleamarkets or even Ikea and pick up plain glass tumblers and vintage juice glasses and use those for everything from water to wine to whiskey.

Plates and Utensils. Also probably dreaming. Same yardsale/thrifting and using mismatched vintage place settings. The biggest problem with this would be cleanup and storage.


The things I wouldn't do myself?

Dress. Seamstress, I am not, but I will get a simple, inexpensive dress and possibly add some embellishments like a ribbon or a shrug. I'm not a princess and don't want to pretend that I am.

Tables and chairs are looking pretty much NOT diy Unless we do a picnic on the beach or in a field, in which case I would like to thrift up some blankets for "seating"

Venue. I just don't know where it will be and we first have to move, which will probably define the location. And the date, actually. I could find a park somewhere, but it would take much research, especially since we still have a move to make, and that will define location. Without knowing the location, it's kind of hard to define most of the plans. Hence perhaps my longing for a grove of aspens.

Bartending This could just be self serve, but a nice touch would be someone behind a bar.

Food serving Well, there probably won't be formal servers, but someone to set things out and care for the dishes. Probably the same person as set up and clean up, actually.

Set up and Clean up the day of. I don't want to do this. But if pressed, I'll probably make my mom do this. Sorry mom. :)

Possibly day of coordinator. This is a new thought. If I do everything myself, why not hire someone to organize and set up everything for the big day so I can actually have a party rather than HOST. Seriously, I don't want to do anything the day of.

Am I crazy? Just a little? Remember also that we're talking TINY wedding here. Not big. Luckily, we have small families, spread far and many of them won't or can't travel much. It does depend on where it is, though. If we do it in NY that's a different guest list than if we do it in Florida which is a different guest list than if we do it goodness knows where we end up moving.

Shhh

Don't tell anyone. I'm starting a wedding blog.

It's just to keep track of the beautiful ideas I've been finding lately. I'm not even technically engaged... or rather, I've been "engaged" for the last five years without the slightest step towards setting a date or making any plans or wearing a ring or actually even calling myself engaged. I suppose we might be considered common law, anyway.

Things are different when you have been living together and have kids together. Especially when you aren't interested in the regular old rigamarole of conventional weddings that cost a bazilliongillion dollars. I'm sorry, even if I had the money, I don't know how I would feel RIGHT spending it all on all the little things that just don't matter.

So I'm going to start planning and sorting through the options before I even get a ring. By the way, I'm thinking of telling him to get me a nice fake. I don't want him to spend our money on a real diamond. He said it's coming, and I'm afraid he's going to waste it on that, instead of getting me a new computer set up. Shows where my priorities lie.

So here I am, starting this little secret blog. Cheap wedding. DIY. Toss out the conventions (or at least those I don't care about) Think Small. Think celebration. What makes a wedding touching for me? These are the things I will be looking at, at least until I start making my decisions on what, where, when, how. I suppose I've already got the who and why.

So in my first post, I'd like to show this wedding. A couple with kids, like me and S. A couple not interested in the fancy stuff, but a lovely, touching wedding all the same. They did it in two parts. The actual ceremony which was tiny, and a "wedding walk" the next day with a few more people. Hmmm. Ideas. And how about that kick ass photography?
And while I'm at it... a PICNIC wedding! Outstanding.