rich girl

I have a friend who has taught me this truth lately. (Katy you know I'm talkin' bout you.)

Education would also fall into this category. I guess you could also buy stocks, and they could pay off and make you richer, but I'm talking about real riches here. 

Here's what I want you to do: take a minute and remember a trip you took with your family as a kid. Think about the actual travel part. Think about the destination, and the food you had, and the funny things that happened.

What is that memory worth to you?

We talked about just flying to our destination for our summer trip. But, you know, I think there is something to be said about road trippin' with your kids. The misery. The smell. The togetherness. It's a hellofa long haul eh? Memories people. Memories. 

We are road trippin' today. We are driving cross country in the family wagon. We are taking treats. We are taking movies. We are not taking the dog. Although that was, at one point, an irrational thought.

We have quite a few trips planned for the rest of the year. Big trips and little trips. Trips with kids and without.  

I am so excited to see where all of these journeys take us.  I feel rich.

**** If you are looking to enrich your own life, there is still room for you if you'd like to come to Morocco with Mindy and I in October.****

let's build a wall

I have a friend named Kimberly who lives on a farm. She has chickens and sheep and white farm furniture and a really great airstream trailer and, well, just go look.  She inspires me.

Anyway a week or so ago she sent me an email about a project her mother Barb is working on in Uganda.

Barb is building an orphanage. A home for children who's parents are gone.  A safe place for these babies. She made and sold banana bread to fund this project. She is an amazing person. The buildings of the orphanage compound are finished!

But the thing is, Barb has to have a security wall around the orphanage before children can live there safely. And so until the wall is built, the children remain homeless. My heart aches for these little people.

This wall is a big wall. It has to be. It is almost complete but there is still one side that needs to be finished.

Barb needs our help to pay to complete this wall.  My answer is yes. Yes! I will help. What an easy way to make a difference! What a great way to help the people of Uganda directly. Like I said before, my heart tells me that we must not remain blind to the struggles of these people. If you are going to put up emotional walls, they should be this type!

My mother likes to say~ what goes around comes around. And I believe it.  This wall will go around this orphanage compound. It will keep these children safe from those that might harm them. It will allow them to grow up and become good productive people.

What say you?  Will you chip in?  No amount is too small.

Add this button to your own site!

<center><a href="http://www3.indiegogo.com/homeofangelsorphanage" target="_blank"><img alt="homeofangels" src="http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx83/suaviloquy/buildawall200.jpg"/></a></center>

well here we are again

Oh for heaven's sakes where has the time gone?

Here's the dealio.  I can't keep up. And I don't want to. And I don't have to, because I have been smart enough not to commit to having sponsors. Sometimes to do something right. Like every 10 years or so.

Summer is just too, hummm, (busy? no. scheduled? no. hot? no, not in Carlsbad.) lazy. Summer is too lazy to blog. 

I could give a bunch of lame excuses like we are getting all new flooring and traveling for almost four weeks and I'm focusing on sticking to my workouts.  All these things would be true, but really, I just need to slow down a bit.

I think I will give myself permisson to take a Summer break. Not that I won't be around. If I have a stroke of genius you know I'll be posting it all over the internet. But if I don't, and I want to go to the pool, then I won't be here.

Until after Labor Day.

BUT, you can still connect with me on Instagram. You can find me under Secondsister. I love The Gram! Do you have the app on your phone? It's available for iPhone and Droid.  Get it. You won't be sorry. 

And I leave you with a gift. Because that's how I roll.  

A little gift, to make life with your kids this Summer just a wee bit more organized. 

These job charts are 12X16 inches. I had mine printed out and laminated at Kinkos. It cost me $8.  I laminated so we could use dry erase markers instead of printing a new chart each week. But you could do that too. Whatever! It's Summer! No worries!

My boy earns extra money around the house by doing extra chores. I made these tickets so we can keep track of how many extra chores he has done. Heaven forbid we forget. He has important things to save up for, like gum and legos.

Silly boy. Happy Summer!

I'm going to be sending out my freebies through my email list from now on. Sign up and you can download the charts and tickets and get those kids of yours doing their chores!

tower 21

Okay so still no workshop photos. I'm going to need a little leeway on that one.  This time of year is hella busy.

Someone needs to inform new moms that the end of the school year is akin to Christmas in activities to attend. This realization took me by storm.

So if you are a new mom, you have been informed by yours truly. Prepare.

But like Christmas, it's all good and exciting.  We bought new swimsuits, the boys got their short hair cuts, we are making Summer job charts and gathering books for the kid to read over the next few months least his brain atrophy.

Living near the beach during the Summer is a dream come true for me.  It never gets old. Never. We have a few trips planned, but for the most part, this Summer you will find us at the beach. To the south of life guard tower 21. Big umbrella. Cooler full of Coke Zero and strawberries.

Feel free to join us.

the jubilee and other some such stuff

I think Queen Elizabeth is just absolutely charming.

Now I don't know her personally. But I like her M.O.. She's classy like. And she's been at it for sixty years.

I can barely keep my kids in check long enough to pay for groceries, let alone rule over a country for sixty years.

She's classy and evidently made of steel.

Her diamond jubilee starts this weekend. I'm not one to watch these sorts of events, but I wish her the best of luck. The world needs more female role models that look like a well dressed grandma.

I also wanted to mention that it's Summer. I mean like officially. The Boy still has a few days left in school, but there's no doubt that Summer has arrived. I've decided to spend the next two weeks going to the pool everyday in an attempt to teach the babies to doggy paddle.

This hard work is my plan to better the chances of not having to get off my lazy butt every other minute later this Summer.

Here's hoping you have a great weekend. I'm still working on getting a post together about the workshops. One can't rush these things. Maybe Monday.

Maybe.

Cheers!

words with friends

The first thing that happened was the kite got away.

The dads ran after it. But alas, it was gone. What's the saying? There is nothing quite like a crisis to bring people together. 

But it turns out, we didn't really need a crisis. We clicked. Just. Like. That.

The story goes something like this:

I meet Katy online about a month ago. We chatted via Facebook, then email and then texts. Katy was coming with her family to San Diego for the weekend and so we invited them to dinner at our house. But then, the Sugar Daddy had to travel, so I asked if we could just meet up for dinner a day earlier.  

Long story short. We ended up meeting them at the Hotel Del. And staying in their villa with them overnight. 

Just to be clear, Ben and I don't do this sort of thing. It isn't like us. We are rather timid, cautious people. But I think maybe, it was meant to be.  I think maybe there was no way we could not be friends with Katy and Paul and their two kids.

We put the littles to bed and stayed up talking and laughing.

Paul and his brother invented a little game you might have heard of called Words With Friends. It was fascinating to hear the story of how they created the game and the risks they took to make their dream come true.  

Our kids played so well together. I loved seeing them have so much fun with new friends.

Thom was in heaven hanging out with a family that understands his game obsession. He had just started playing Words With Friends with his cousin a few weeks ago.  

I often wonder what my life would be like without the internet. I love that I can make new friends anywhere in the world. I love that if I am having a good day or a bad day I can simply pick up my phone or sit at my computer and tell a friend about it. 

Because, after all, having words with friends and family is what life is all about.

Connection.

This Katy girl is already the type of friend you can go make-up less and braless around. She could walk in my house, and open my fridge, and get herself a coke, and kick off her shoes, and plop down on my couch, and tell me a story, and it would be as if she and I had been friends since childhood.

Is it rare to find a new friend like that? I think so, but the internet helps.

Thanks Katy and Paul!

I'm working on pictures from the workshops. Hopefully I will have them up later this week.

lofty goals

I was feeling sorry for myself the other day.  

I was looking at my friends photos taken at Surtex and the National Stationary show and feeling very sorry for myself that I wasn't there, participating. Oh poor forlorn me. Nobody likes me, my art.

And just generally feeling like my art career is super slow going and lifeless.

So I said to myself,  "Self, this is it. You are setting a goal. You are going to Surtex next year."

And then I immediately got scared because I'd set such a lofty goal. And my go to thought is always, I can't do it, I'm not good enough.

But, you know, what the hell.  What do I have to lose? 

So now I've plastered my goal up on the world wide web for all to see, which is more than setting it in stone, because people will know if I fall short. How embarrassing.

But I think very helpful nonetheless. For instance, the fear of embarrassment will motivate me and also, if you happen to be an agent or a creative director of a company who likes my art, you might just call me up and say, let's make this happen. That would be nice.

Anyway, here's to goals and living stagnant free.

a modern vintage tea party birthday

It was a tea party as sophisticated as a tea party for toddlers can be.

She is three. Already. What happened? Where did my baby girl go?

We decided to forgo a birthday cake in lieu of petit fours.  

And lots of other goodies.

Of course.

The guests were as sweet as the cake.

Each little girl received an apron made from a hankie with treats in the pocket.

Daddy lit the candle.

Frankie "helped" blow it out.

Yummy gooey cakes! 

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl. 

marrakesh by design

Ania in Morocco for a while

Last Saturday I went to meet up with Maryam Montague who owns Peacock Pavilions where we are hosting Casbah Creative. She has a new book out, called Marrakesh by Design, and she is currently in the states on her book tour.

If you are the kind of person who likes interior design, I highly recommend her book. It's gorgeous and full of fascinating tidbits about Moroccan style design.

Anyway, I loved meeting Maryam. She is a delightful and intriguing person. My visit with her made me so excited for our trip in October that I can hardly stand it.  The Casbah Creative retreat is almost full. We have two spots left. If you are interested in joining us, please click on the retreat tab under the header and look thorough the brochure. If you have more questions, feel free to email me.

Here are some of the photos from Maryam's book to give you an idea of where the retreat will be.

little paper purse and shoe

Friday! Friday! Friday! I have always loved Fridays. Even as a kid. The promise of the weekend is almost better than the weekend itself.

And it's Mother's Day weekend. We have a very full couple of days planned. We decided to take the kids out to Palm Springs to enjoy some heat and play in the fancy pool at the hotel.  We don't want to live in the blazing heat, but we like to visit for a couple days every now and then.

I want to share an idea for a really super quick and easy last minute Mother's day gift.

I first made these super cute paper high heel shoes for a church party. I was given the pattern and we made like 70 of them.  I think they make a perfect gift for a mom, and paired with my pattern for a little paper purse, they are just too cute.

Supplies needed:

12X12 sheet 80lb craft paper (paper printed on both sides is best)
Scissors
Hot glue
Embellishments (buttons, ribbon, cabochons, die cuts, etc.)

Trace template onto paper and cut out. Fold on dotted lines. Glue together. Embellish. Fill with goodies.

I think it is cute to use coordinating papers for the purse and the shoe if you are giving them as a set.

You can download the template for the shoe here.

You can download the template for the purse here.