So, I finally finished it.

It took several days. I decided to pickle the old brass by painting on white and then methodically wiping off to show the detail better. This process took several hours and I spread it out over three days. As I was standing on a stool finishing the last part of the painting, the FedEx guy dropped the package of crystals at my front door. So exciting! I played around with how I would hang them over the next three days. I had to re-wire every one so they would all match. Man, that was time consuming! Thank goodness for jewelry pliers! Now all I have left is to get some more chain and splice the wires so that I can swag it over the dining room table. I'm having my first dinner party at that table this week!

Spiderman?

This is the way we sent Elijah to school today.

It's "book character" day.

Snow Falling...

Some photos from our brief jaunt in the snow. It's all melted now.

School's Out!

With all the shrieking and hollering this morning, it was obvious that there had been a desperate longing for a snow day. Hurray!

"There is something joyful about storms that interrupt your routine. Snow or freezing rain suddenly releases you from expectations, performance demands, and the tyranny of appointments and schedules. And unlike illness, it is largely a corporate rather than individual experience. One can almost hear a unified sigh rise from the nearby city and surrounding countryside where Nature has intervened to give respite to the weary humans slogging it out with in her purview. All those affected this way are united by a mutual excuse, and the heart is suddenly and unexpectedly giddy. There will be no apologies needed for not showing up to one commitment or the other. Everyone understands and shares in this singular justification, and the sudden alleviation of the pressure to produce makes the heart merry." from The Shack

I must've done something right!

Elijah said, "Mom, could we please have something healthy for snack?"

This is amazing! What kind of kids am I raising?

Finally!

I have new items in the shop. I'm so excited that I completed something because I've been playing catch-up ever since I caught the flu!

Falling Slowly

I was so glad this song from Once won the Oscar.

So Funny...

These commercials crack me up every time.

Eliq Art

My good friend Angel's artwork is featured on Juxtapoz.com. Yeay Angelique! I'm so proud of you!

Just in time for the Oscars

I finally saw Juno. Loved it.

I'm gonna watch some more Oscar nominated movies tonight.

Chandelier part II

I ordered some new crystals for my chandelier re-do. I think I'm going to intersperse some of these in with the pear shaped prisms already there. I can't wait 'til they get here!

New Music

I've been listening to the music of Nashville locals, Paper Route.

Did you see it?

There was a full lunar eclipse last night. If you missed it, here are some of my pictures.

What's for Dinner?

I have finally gotten back into the kitchen this week after being sick and lethargic. My mom brought chicken and dumplings last week but other than that we ate a lot of fast food and frozen pizza. Yuck.
Last night I made chicken fried steak and twice baked potatoes (yeah, I know, not that healthy) but tonight I'm really looking forward to making this family favorite:
Italian Three-bean Chili

Ingredients
1 medium red onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 15- to 16-ounce can great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen green soybeans
1 4-1/2-ounce can diced green chile peppers
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup sliced pitted ripe olives
2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro
Hot cooked rice, pasta, or couscous
Shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)

Directions
1. In a large saucepan cook and stir onion and garlic in hot oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender. Add tomato sauce, black beans, great Northern beans, diced tomatoes, soybeans, chile peppers, water, and vinegar. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in olives and cilantro. Simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Ladle into bowls over rice, pasta, or couscous; top with mozzarella cheese, if desired. Makes 6 servings.
(from Better Homes and Gardens.)

Domino is Eco- Friendly

I just got my March issue of Domino and I was excited to see that it was their "green" issue. I thought it might be hard for a consumer magazine to pull that off, but I really enjoyed looking at all the eco-friendly items they found and the articles were pretty good too. I'm not sure that my budget can withstand a total turn to living green but I am excited to look up some the new websites that were mentioned just to see if one day I might be able to afford something that will make my carbon footprint a little bit smaller...
like these cute eco-friendly low-fire clay and lead/cadmium free glazed coffee cups from Terra Keramik (which I absolutely love.)


Or these organic cloth napkins, which would help me cut down on all the paper ones we use. From Ortolan Organic.




We're considering switching out our lightbulbs to these LED's because they're not made with mercury like the current "green" bulbs are. I'm also thinking of getting a smart strip surge protecter to cut down on our computer's draining "vampire power."




And then there are all the natural beauty products out there that are appealing because they seem good for you (which somewhat justifies the need for beauty products) and the packaging is always simple, clean and screams "buy me!"
Check out Farmaesthetics, Burt's Bees, Aedes, Jurlique, and Acquarella Polish.
And last, there were tons of great places to find natural cleaning products. I already clean with vinegar and lemon juice, but I'm glad to find some good sources for laundry detergent, furniture polish, and other multipurpose cleaners.
For other cleaning tools, try Bioclean Home, 3R Living and Casabella.
GOoooo Green! (if you can afford to.)

Yeay for Stina

I've enjoyed browsing the ethereal watercolors of Stina Persson whose art work has been used for biggies such as Chloe', Absolut and Target.

A movie escape

We took the kids to see The Spiderwick Chronicles yesterday. We really needed to get out of the house. The movie was good (Kaleb had read all the books -so proud of him.) But by the time we got home, Elijah had a fever again. Will we ever get well? The light I thought I saw at the end of the tunnel is beginning to dim. Darn this flu!

I'm Impressed

This is an aeriel view of Martha's vegetable garden. Something to aspire to.

Wow.
(from Living)

Chandelier Re-do

I am s-l-o-w-l-y trying to fix up my dining room, and I think my next project is the chandelier. It came with the house and has a little charm, but something definitely needs to be done other than a good cleaning. My ideas are: paint it white or not (maybe a white wash), get new cystals, do colored crystals??, keep the old crystals but intersperse new/different ones, buy new chain to center it over the dining room table.




What do you like or not like from these three?
(Top photo:mine, bottom three: clippings from Veranda)

He lost his top tooth.

This is a huge milestone in the developement of my baby. Those two top teeth matter so much in the way they look. I remember when Kaleb lost his, and then all of a sudden he looked so different...but still just as cute, just...older. I'm happy but also sad.