The Children's Peace Garden

This past weekend we took our first trip out to 

Growing Garden's and The Children's Peace Garden

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! 

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!

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…

www.laurendefilippo.com

...and while you are perusing the inter webs…

click the "SHOP" button above to head over to 

Sparkle & Stone 

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! 

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!

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!

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!