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Monday, April 28, 2014

The Children's Peace Garden



This past weekend we took our first trip out to 
for the Kid's Bee Earth Day Festival.


We got up close and personal with baby goats.
Turns out they are a lot like puppies.
They want to play and snuggle and eat.


We also mastered the art of a "creative" butterfly mask.
The little girl in the background made it very clear to 
Ash that she didn't approve of his thinking out side the box,
BUT I totally dug his crazy mask.


We even got to dig into the earth in the great pursuit for earth worms.
We found none in the heat of the afternoon,
however we did find a millipede, a large part of a rib bone, and a small pool ball.



We even ran into some of our favorite friends,
and climbed and explored all the farm equipment for a while.


We learned about bee hives, and how we can help keep the bees healthy.


And then I learned that not only do I have one brave little boy,
but also the cutest dang bee keeper in town! 



After a stroll through the community gardens,
the hubs taught he boy how to use a magnifying glass to start a fire….


…and search for bugs in the plants.


We had the very best time and if you are local and never seen the 
Growing Gardens, I suggest that you go! 
Like them on Facebook to keep up with
their upcoming events
Like summer camps for kids,
plant sales, and cooking courses for the grown ups. 

I can't wait to hang out in the gardens more often! 
We will be hitting up their plant sale in the next few weekends as 
well as heading out in early May to help plant the 
raspberry and strawberry fields! 
Not to mention the magical 2 weeks of  summer camp 
that the boy get to spend their! 

Thursday, April 24, 2014

DIY: hanging succulent baskets


At this point I don't think that I need to 
tell anyone who reads here regularly that 
I am jumping up and down for spring! 

In this house,
spring = plants... 
it also equals yard sales.
Two of my favorite things.
About a month ago I found this amazing 
vintage tri-level basket hanger.
You know the kind that hangs in the kitchens of 
hipsters and grandmothers everywhere?
I've been dying for one, and when I 
saw this one for less that $1
I had to have it, even though there was no where
in my kitchen to hang it.

That's where this project came from.
A way to have lots of beautiful succulents 
on our tiny apartment balcony….
all wrapped up in an adorable hanging basket.
So here's a simple gardening DIY! 
Hope you enjoy!

What You Will Need:

Some sort of hanging basket
Coconut husk liners 
cactus soil
enough succulents for fill your baskets

Step 1:


First I fit my coconut liners into the baskets.
This took quite a bit of cutting and manipulating.
I used a total of 2 liners for this project.
The middle liner needed quite a bit cut off that I
used in the top tier.

Step 2:


Then I filled each basket about 2/3 full of soil.

Step 3:


I next arranged each of the succulents 
in their respective baskets while there were still in
their individual containers.

I had a pretty good idea of 
where each plant was going to go when 
I was purchasing them,
making sure to get a good variety 
of tall and short plants
as well as getting some with some hang to them.

Step 4:


After breaking down each root ball
to allow the plants to breath a bit,
I carefully arranged each
plant into its new home.

I made sure to give the succulents some space
so that as they grow they can fill in the baskets.

Step 5:


After everyone was in their new homes,
I gave them a heavy spray down
with a water bottle. 
Took a few steps back.
And fell in love! 


Enjoy!






Monday, April 21, 2014

My Baby's 6 Months Old!


Obviously not my big baby! 
He's almost 5, which is another mind blowing fact.

The younger, sweeter baby which I am referring to….
Sparkle & Stone.

It struck me the other day, 
after my very first Colorado market,
that all of this crazy snowballing dream was really 
coming to fruition.
All of my hard work and literal bloody stumps 
and endless chipped and broken nails
were for a reason.
Something was really happening here,
and people were actually liking it.

Thinking about the fact that it's only been 
6 months since our very first market makes my jaw hit the floor.
While it seems like just yesterday, it also feels 
like we've been doing this for so much longer.
 

But the point of all of this isn't to 
boast about how awesome the past 6 months have been.
(although they have been pretty fucking awesome!)
The real point of all of this is to recognize the 
real reason behind all of the success.

First and foremost,
I have to thank my husband.
Not only was his choice to shake up our family 
dynamic a huge catalyst for me finally 
getting off my ass and chasing down my dream,
but it was also a great use of his free time to be my 'do boy'.
This man has run the gamut for me.
I have had the craziest of request 
for construction work on table displays.
He has sat countless hours at markets by my side 
selling things to all kinds of crazy bitches.
And all the while with a giant smile on his face,
most likely cursing me through his teeth, 
but a smile on his face none the less.
If it were not for him,
I literally couldn't do this.

The second person, 
my original baby, Ash.
This kid is a champ.
I will leave out all of the bribes and threats 
that I've delved out to this kid over the past 6 months,
and say this….
All those long hours and shit eating grins,
the boy has done 'em too.
Not many kids could pull it off like he can either.
Trust me I've seen it.
He's become quite the salesman,
and loves nothing more than being my 
"assistant" on market days.
You can tell by the crazed look in his eyes
in the picture above that sugar is involved.
Lots of sugar.

Lastly, You guys.
All my Bitches.
(I mean that in the least threatening kind of way.)
The people that love me and support me 
are really the reason that 
all of the time and work has become a success.
I have met some really amazing people in the past few months.
You guys are the inspiration and the drive.
There isn't a single market that goes by that I don't 
leave with a new friend/customer.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I can't thank you all enough for all of this.

While I am throwing out thank you's,
I also have to give a great big shout out to 
a new friend/customer, Lauren Defilippo.
Lauren is also new to CO,
descending from NYC.
As soon as I learned this about her,
found out she was a photographer,
and realized how totally awesome she was,
I knew we had to be friends.
Lauren was at the Denver HaHo,
photographing the event and was so kind to share these 
images that she captured of our booth.
Thank you so much Lauren for capturing something that I 
never have time to, and for being totally RAD!

Check out her website…

...and while you are perusing the inter webs…
click the "SHOP" button above to head over to 





Saturday, April 19, 2014

DIY: Up-cycled Easter Flowers


After all the eggs are hard boiled and ready to by 
dyed for Easter, what do you do with all the left over
egg cartons?

Well if you are me, you actually have a stash 
of egg cartons ready to be up cycled into something crafty.

While perusing Pinterest
I found thins great DIY from Homemade Serenity!
Now here's a lady that's on my 
"this could be useful for crafting" hoarding wave length.


Instead of following her explicit directions to make a 
wreath, the boy and I decided 
to make a little something pretty 
for his sweet little neighbor girl friend, Lily.


I am just loving seeing all the detail that he took the time
to put into these cute flowers.
It was also really cute listening to him talk about
how important it is to give girls flowers.
My little gentleman in training! 



Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Jackie + Eric's Library Wedding



Jackie + Eric's love story is one of my favorite kinds.
These two have loved each other from first sight.
I just so happens that there "first sight" glance
happened all of 17 years ago. 

Their beautiful wedding took place
at the Spanish River Library in Boca Raton, FL.
They were surrounded with love 
from their beautiful kids, family, and friends 
that have watched their love blossom over the years.



Their red and turquoise color scheme mixed 
with vintage flare and stacks of books 
made of for an exciting yet classic wedding.








You couldn't ask for a couple more in love.
From the way that they cared about each other before the wedding
to the way that Eric looked at Jackie, it was evident 
that these two are and forever will be madly in love! 




Here's to a lifetime of happiness!















Friday, April 11, 2014

Couscous Primavera Recipe



Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked couscous
1 6oz package of Athenos Feta
1/4 cup EVOO
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
5 sweet peppers
2 large carrots
4 radishes
handful of fresh parsley
handful of fresh thyme
salt and peper to taste

Step 1
Cook the couscous as the package directs.
When it's cooked toss in a large bowl with the feta.
Put in the refrigerator to cool.

Step 2
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the
oil, vinegar, parsley, and thyme.
Pour over the cooled cheese and couscous mixture.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 3
Run all your veggies through a food processor,
or finely chop, and toss into the cold salad.
Let it sit for a few hours in the fridge so that all the flavors 
can get to know each other.
Serve over spinach or all by itself! 
Enjoy!



Monday, April 7, 2014

Everything's Popping Up Spring!

(click on the picture above to be taken to my 
spring inspired treasury list on easy!)

Being a FL Girl, I never really understood why people got 
so dang excited about spring.
To me it was just always that non-season in-between 
hot and hotter.  

Since surviving the back half of my first 
Colorado winter…I get it.
There is a lot of excitement that surrounds 
the first leaves coming onto the trees,
new blooms of bulbs and flowers, 
the birds chirp chirping away,
and the return on the "short sleeve".

So in honor of things starting to look a little more like spring 
around here I put together a little list of all the 
things I'm crushing on for spring! 

Enjoy!