Good Morning Silver Lining-ers!

Well good morning. If you follow me of Facebook and you are neurotic about checking all your social media as soon as you wake up, then you know that I went on a rant at 5:30am about not sleeping and being generally pissed with the universe. As if dreaming about teeth crumbling out of my mouth and trying to repair them with super glue wasn't bad enough... then the icing on the cake of being forced awake by a hot stream of piss on my back. Mind you this was his third accident of the night. 

With no dry spot left for me to go back to sleep I decided that I MUST turn my day around. So I grabbed the dog and my first cup of coffee and headed straight or the intercostal. Do you know how long it's been since I actually watched the sunrise? Like start to finish. Every spectrum of red, purple, and orange filled the sky. Well it tried to fill the sky. That bitch 'the universe' was waving her middle fingers at me with her cloud cover. 

But you know what? Who cares. I found my silver lining. Sunrise. Check. First cup of coffee alone in peace an quite. Check. One on one time with my explorer dog. Check. 

Mean while its now 7am. I am ready for my incredibly long day of being stranded at home with a nutty almost 4 yr old. But you know what? At least half the laundry is already done...since I was up all night washing sheets.  See what I did there? Looking for the positive. 

Silver lining bitches. 

Coffee Talks

"Adventures with LuLu!" - Jess

"No one wants to have an eyes closed party with me. 

I just want to nap." - Erin

What's new at Sparkle & Stone

I am just so excited about some of the lovely things 

popping up in my 

Sparkle & Stone Shop.

I have just added some raw gemstone necklaces 

to the collection. $25 free shipping.

Follow me on instagram for 

flash sales on new items!

Also, Don't forget about the Harrison Bracelet!

(read here for more details)

Details are coming very soon for exactly where to purchase

the Harrison Bracelet

along with the Hope From Harrison t-shirts!

DIY: Craspedia a.k.a Billy Balls

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there! 

Today, In honor of hating flower arrangements that shrivel up and die,

a little DIY that will last forever.

This one is really so easy that a little boy could make it all 

by himself (with some hot glue assistance) for his mommy!

Here's What You'll Need:

A hot glue gun

sticks

pom poms or felt balls

We collected our sticks on a little adventure around the block.

Once you have all your materials,

simply glue the balls to the sticks.

Yup, It's really that simple.

I pulled out one of my vintage bottles and filled the bottom with gold glass.

Then arranged the Pom Pom Craspedia 

and plopped them down on my favorite little nook of the house.

Random Acts of Gratitude

I have been talking about this project for some time now.  Trying to get feed back from those near and dear to me.  Sometimes I think that there is a fine line between creativity and insanity.  So I must pause to thanks those that talk me off the crazy person ledge sometimes and give me the feed back I need to be creative and inspirational.

Over the past few months I have come to notice just how inconsiderate people can be sometimes.  I gets my blood boiling thinking about how little regard people really have for one and other these days.  I think about my great grandmother who would talk to anyone.  In line and the store she would strike up conversations, she made friends with waitresses at restaurants, and she would often remind passers by to smile.  These days I am seeing the beauty of interaction with strangers in a whole new light.  Through my child, the chatter box.  This kid.  My boy says "Hello!" to everyone he passes.  Almost completely without exception.  He's a good kid.  A kind hearted boy.  He's silly too.  

All of these things combined with his love of putting stickers in creative places made me think of an idea.  He and I would create little "Acts of Gratitude".  Notes, do dads, found objects with a message, simple notes.  Then like ninja's we would randomly place them where every we went.

Today we launched our first two.  

The first one we left tucked on a shelf at Wal-Mart.

The epicenter of where people need to be reminded of how to treat each other.

This little wedge of rubber lemon reads:

"Hey You! Pick Me!

Put a Smile on your face, and pass it on!"

The second one we left on the window sill at Howley's.

It seemed like the perfect little spot, 

camouflaged among all the magazines and fliers.

It reads:

"A gift for you! yes...you!

Life is too sweet to let the sour stuff get in the way."

I have left the Turquoise Violets 

web address on the back to see if anyone responds.

I really think that it would amazing 

(and restore a little of my hope for humanity)

if someone contacted the blog saying that they found one of these

Random Acts of Gratitude.

Be on the look out!

Be Grateful

& 

Inspire

Joys of Parenting: I love you, but I don't have to like you.

This morning I walked in on the boy about to chuck a skate board at my cowering dog.

Is it any wonder why she's starting a new regime of Prozac?

Honestly, I am not sure how I have remained Prozac free till this point!

Anyway back to the cowering dog....

In an instant I was scared for her safety,

mortified in thinking that my son might be a serial killer, 

(because I have seen every episode of Dexter, and isn't this how it all started)

and I was screaming "STOP" at the top of my lungs.

All of those emotions were wrapped up in a general feeling of WTF is going on here.

Needless to say, a time-out was in order, which was pre-ceeded by one of the boys current hobbies:

"The Balls to The Wall, I am going to Fuck Your Day UP, Mega Tantrum"

While lengthy, that is actually the official name.  This tantrum will have you pacing the kitchen wondering why people have children.  You will start thinking of all your kid-free friends, jealous of what they are doing on the sunny Friday morning.  Because what ever it is, it's got to be better than this.

After I had taken my punches and scratches, and warngled him back into his room for a "big time-out"came the onslaught of "I hate you"'s and "I want a new mom"'s.  Really kid?  What have I done wrong here? 

 I have learned that the best way for me to cope with this is to stand directly on the other side of the wall, well out of sight, and then just give him the old double bird.  That's right folks, I flick my kid off when he's not watching.  And it helps.

I then pro-ceeded to deep clean my kitchen and mop the entire house.  If you live under the Trumble roof, you know that the more vigorously I am cleaning, the more pissed I am.  There is a direct correlation.  This is when I think of all you non-breeders again.  Your damn happy hours and adult conversations. 

One 20 minute temper tantrums, and One clean house later, it all changed. 

One stinking Facebook Status turned my day around.

It dropped into my lap like a gift from above...

A sign of hope.

Word that a fellow Mommy of an almost 4 year old boy understands.  It's like she's sending me smoke signals.  It either translates: 

It's O.K!

I want to kick his ass.

or

We will be O.K!

This too shall pass.

I am not sure, I was never to good with smoke signals, or morris code for that matter, but I am pretty sure it was the latter.  Either way, I knew I wasn't alone.  Her little dude was giving her a run for her money.  And whether she realized it or not this meant that we were in it together.  She gave me hope.  We could do this. We could get passed the whole WWF dog situation.  We could start fresh with our day.  And I'll be damned if we didn't turn that B around.  

In the end I realized two things,

1.  I will always love you little boy, but I don't always have to like you.

2.  No matter how pissed you make me, you always know how to turn that around.

And hey, the silver lining, my kitchen is spotless!

Coffee Talks

"Shenanigans while he sleeps" - Jess

"I just love how beautiful and insane my little town library is." - Erin