New little additions...

So I have this friend, her name is Micaela Anderson. She is a completely fabulous, seriously nice person. She's as genuine as they come, a complete gem. ANYWAY, if you go to yourphotosbyme.blogspot.com, you can find more of her work. She's a mom and a nurse and a self-taught photographer. She helped with our wedding and has done some of our little family. She recently edited some photos she took while we were down in AZ. I have been having a blast ever since! Isn't this gigantic 16 by 20 the sweetest thing ever??
more...
And one of my very most favorites...

My friend, Tara, gave me this bamboo thingie a while back, and we just LOVE it. You can always keep it chalked full of your most recent photos...

This one above is showing the letters that I just decopaged with my good friend Kenzie. She just had her first girl yesterday, named her Gracie too. We have parallel lives in so many ways, so I wasn't surprised at all when we discovered that we both wanted to name our first girl Grac(i)ee. So I thought it only fitting to purchase some of these letters she'd requested for myself as well so that we could decorate them together. It was a fun time together. Tedious, but fun. My mother-in-law has started her own vinyl business, and she is fantastic! She is one of the most creative minds in all the land...this little saying for Gracee's door is only a sliver of what ticks in that brain of hers.

Last but not least, I thought I'd include these slightly out-dated pics of our flower gardens in their prime. They are looking much sadder now because I have been 'too busy' with my other projects (refer to the photos above for reference) to nurture my flowers and produce!

It's also pretty hot. One step at a time. I think I'll get better at being committed to my garden each year...we'll see. I really do love it. But I love a lot of things, that's usually my problem. =)

Livin' off the land...

For me, life's sweetest joys have always been the simple ones; getting a good deal, relaxing after a hard day's work, being sore from a good workout, harvesting food that I have grown, or cloth diapering--even with its challenges.
We began cloth diapers as soon as our 5 month supply of generously-gifted diapers ran out, and as you can see, we had a bit of a rough start. Russ has reiterated his feelings about these little cloth creations. It is no secret that if it were entirely up to him, we'd be using disposables.


When I was out of town for 3 weeks, I used disposables. It was a nice break but it reminded me of why I have been enjoying the cloth diaper world. It is for the same reason that I love to get up at dawn and go for an invigorating run. It is for the same reason I love to work and sweat out in the yard all day. It is for the same reason I LOVED working out in the wilderness with troubled teens and learning from nature--All of these give some sort of feeling that I am living off the land. I usually rinse the diaper covers out by hand and hang them out to dry. When I need a fresh one, I'll go and get one off of the line out back. It reminds me of when I lived in Vanuatu and we would just go grab some island cabbage out of our garden in the back when we needed it. Last night I just grabbed a huge thing of broccoli out of our garden for dinner and once again had that invigorating 'livin off the land' rush and remembered I wanted to do this post today. Sometimes, for me, convenience is only second to feeling like I REALLY experienced something. Go ahead, call me crazy. Many do.