May is exciting because....

I can shop the farmers market


~eggs purchased today from the farmer's market

to find one near you check out~
http://www.localharvest.org/

green smoothie Wednesday

Our green smoothie today-interesting combo but still very good, at least I thought so and so did my youngest-surprisingly! My oldest on other hand drank hers while closing her nose (this is shocking because it is my oldest that totally eats almost everything, veggies and all, while my youngest prefers barbecue chicken with a side of chocolate). Really I think its all about the texture-and the context,"ooh a smoothie is a cool juice like drink", the youngest thinks while the oldest says to herself, "wow this seems like a blended salad, I'll eat my salads whole, thank you very much."
Our smoothie included watercress, frozen peaches, an old apple (I bet you can tell I have lots of old apples around), a small piece of ginger, coconut oil, lemon juice, a splash of water, ice cubes, and a big squeeze of agave nectar. I loved how the ginger gave this smoothie some pizazz.

~in the blender


~let's drink!


(this afternoon I wanted to get some stretching in, so I decided to go to yoga. Stretching my goodness, I was sweating buckets in that class. Some of those positions were super tough, but you do what you can do, and drinking a green smoothie can only help :)

big purse, small stuff

Do you carry a large bag or purse? Well I do. I love big bags, in fact my husband likes to ask me from time to time "what in the world do you carry in there?" Lets see-my wallet, various papers, pens, pencils, broken crayons, magazines, loose receipts, old sticky cough drops, maxis, crumpled tissues, plastic spoons, restaurant napkins, okay-I think you get the picture. Yes I have an affinity for big bags, but not so much for the bottomless pit syndrome that these bags create. Reaching down in my bag, "okay I think I have a pen" I say to myself, gotta write my grocery list (on the back of an old receipt of course), but instead I pull up a used straw, "how did that get in there?"
In the attempt to be more organized I decide to make myself a small pouch. I wanted this pouch to hold my travel sized lotion, lip gloss, and lip balm. I got the pattern for this small make-up bag from the book Sew Pretty Homestyle (which I checked out from the library-the pattern is on page 95). This was my first time sewing in a zipper (and yes I found that part a bit tricky) in fact I had to go back and do a little hand stitching to get the zipper just so-but still I'm pleased with my little bag. Another challenge I found in this pattern is that seam allowances are not included so they must be added in.
Perhaps these small attempts at organization will lead to bigger attempts-one can hope, can't she?

~layers


~little make-up case


~some of my stuff, contained, yay!


see you here tomorrow for green smoothie Wednesday!
wishing you a good evening friends.

seven things

Libby of My Krafty Kreations was so kind to give me a Kreativ blogger award. As part of receiving the award the recipient will list seven facts about herself,

Well here I go~

*As a child I wasn't a picky kid when it came to food, I ate my veggies.

*Also when I was young, me and my Grandmother loved looking at game shows and sitcoms together. Some of our favorites included Three's Company, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy.

*I don't know how to swim.

*I always have loved literature, reading, anything artistic-math, um-not so much. I guess I'm more of a right-brain thinker.

*I'm left-handed, so yes I'm in my right brain, at least most of the time.

*I wore braces for at least five years, wow!

*In college I majored in Biology, which wasn't totally practical but very interesting.

*I absolutely love gardening (I think you may know this) but I have a far out dream of having a small farm with a kind of restaurant set-up. Cooking meals with produce grown on the farm (serving either breakfast or lunch-or both-for the restaurant) along with having some chickens and bee hives.

*I met one of my dearest friends through a blog.

*Sometimes I think I'm in love with the idea of crafting, more than the crafting itself, as evidenced by the number of ufo's I have in my closet.

*At any given time I have at least 10-15 books by my bedside. Currently I'm reading Born to Run and re-reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Hey I think I listed more than seven things, that was fun! Thanks Libby for this chance to share, and I pass this on to anyone who wants to share some interesting things about themselves.

green smoothie Wednesday

Each Wednesday I think I'm gonna share with you my green smoothie (just in time for these warmer days of spring and summer). Today's smoothie consisted of watercress, strawberries, an old apple-peeled, unsweetened herbal brewed tea-that was left over from yesterday, a generous squeeze of lemon, and finally some agave nectar~

~ingredients
watercress was the new thing in the smoothie today, it's a bit peppery, reminds me of arugula.

~lovely lemon

~blended


Cheers!

run, girl, run

I've been contemplating about whether to post about this or not, but I'm going to go ahead and post about "the run" (or more like the run-walk-run). You see around the beginning of April I was shopping at our local food co-op (I'm usually in there at least two or three times a week) and most of the time after I finish checking out I go check the bulletin board at the front of the store. Usually on the board there are flyers for local events, classes, things for sell and so forth. On this particular day a flyer caught my eye, it was a flyer concerning a 5K walk/run. In my head I said to myself "if this race is on a Sunday, I'm game!" (we attend church on Saturday). I took a registration form home and realized that the date for the walk/run was on April 25th-a Sunday, decision made.
In the weeks preceding the race, I started working out more-using the gym membership that I already had, but now putting it to more use. Not all the workouts were enjoyable of course, but the after workout feeling made the workouts seem well worth it (and I do like sweating, it makes me feel like I'm doing something :) I also found this program to be a helpful reference.
The weeks flew by and finally race day approached, which was this past Sunday. More that eight hundred people from our city woke up early to participate in this race (the race benefited a local business that employs people with disabilities).
When I arrived at the racing venue, I placed on my number and got a chip to put on my running shoes. I got out to the starting line, went to the back of the crowd and finally took off when the guy yelled "go!" through his megaphone.
I started off with a slow jog, but then about 1/2 mile into it my calves cramped up (note to self, running on a treadmill is not the same as running on pavement, thanks). I stopped jogging and just began walking-for about a mile and a half. The walking helped out my calves and for the last leg of the race I was able to jog it out to the finish line. I was glad to finish, my body was glad also.
Really what possessed me to do this? I think it's because I need goals-especially in the area of exercise. For most of my life I had periods in which I'm active, and then I fall into the abyss of non-activity-it's a cycle, active, not active, active, not active-around and around. I'm going to be completely honest here and say that really I'm far from my ideal weight and I've struggled with this for most of my life. Genetics, having children, moving from state to state, along with other life stressors, I can try to blame-but excuses, are exactly what they are-excuses.
Now that the race is over, I wonder if I'll keep up my workouts, will I be just as motivated as I was before the race? I think so, a friend of mine gave me this verse when I told her about the race- "I can do everything by the power of Christ. He gives me strength." Philippians 4:13 NIRV. So true. When it boils down to it, its not about the race, or really about the weight, its about being responsible with my health-being a proper steward of it.

spring~full force

~one of my garden helpers


~peas in a cup, staked with chopsticks

~a chive flower soon to emerge


~dandelion seeds

~redbud in full bloom

a little planting, a lot of blooming, and a bit of sneezing-that's whats been going on around here lately.

hope you all are enjoying Spring in your neck of the woods (except for the sneezing part that is :)