born to fly

Camera strap anyone???

I am on the hunt for a cool and swanky camera strap. Plus, I am SO tired of neck burn from the black nylon strap that I currently have. Know what I mean??? I have found some pretty ones on etsy...

Here is where you come in...

do you have one? can you recommend one?

Thanks friends! I am SO ready for a little bit of spring!

xoxo

CS

Hello lovely...

Some eye candy for you this morning (aka "girl porn"). Yes, inappropriate I know!!!

 Sigh...

   Cover my eyes now...

   This is almost painful...

Perfection.

Find more beautiful eye candy here.

Enjoy!

xoxo

CS

Lightbulb moment...

Last night I took an online photoshop workshop from this amazing photographer and instructor extraordinaire:

Jodi of MCP actions.

Wow. Lightbulb on. Curves. I GET it!

I participated in Jodi's All About Curves workshop. For those of you who have a degree in "self taught" graphic design, I SO highly recommend it!

**Have I mentioned my other "degrees"? I have a bachelor's degree in character building experiences. A master's degree in humbling moments and am currently working on my PH D specializing in choosing the rough road.**

Ok, off to squeeze in the 2 min. shower, watch the two littlest sweet pea's basketball tournament, my tennis team practice (aka therapy), rush home to mail out some orders, rush back out to afternoon carpool, sweet pea's tennis practice, other sweet pea's science club...and oh yes, my husband's friend is in town and will be staying with us tonight so in between eating bon bon's today, I need to clean the house (aka shove everything in closets and drawers!)

Whew!

xoxo

CS

these hands are small I know...

Everday moments with the sweetest peas:

This is what the sweetest peas can often be found doing...

 

what mama calls, "creating" and what dada calls, "ack!!! the mess!!!"

  

Play-doh...one of life's greatest inventions...or not...

I've come to believe that play-doh is a love affair with really no in between...

either you are a fan and your kitchen carpet probably has at least one dried up piece of it smooshed somewhere...

or it is just plain banned from your house all together.

Well as you guessed, we are "play-doh friendly" 'round here. (Well that is between the hours when dada leaves for work and when he returns home...ha!) 

What I love most about it is being able to watch the creativity process happen through the minds of a 6 and 8 year old.

Building, squishing, shaping, cutting, molding, starting over...hmmm...sounds like there might be a few life lessons for all of us in there.

With play-doh you can do no wrong...well ok...

I guess you can leave it out all night to dry...and you could be one of those people who mixes all the different colors together (I'm shuddering right now)...

but really...you create, you try, you change, you alter, you improvise...and then the best part...

the clean up process which those "other people" complain about...

you take a big lump of your play-doh and press it into all those other little pieces that have gotten lost, fallen by the wayside, been forgotten about...

and you bring them all back together as a whole...and pack them away...

to start all over another day.

"Hands"

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all ok
And not to worry because worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these
I will not be made useless
I won't be idled with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
for light does the darkness most fear
My hands are small, I know,
but they're not yours they are my own
but they're not yours they are my own
and I am never broken
Poverty stole your golden shoes
but it didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
but i knew it wasn't ever after
We will fight, not out of spite
for someone must stand up for what's right
cause where there's a man who has no voice
there ours shall go singing
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees and I will pray
I will get down on my knees and I will pray
I will get down on my knees and I will pray
My hands are small, I know,
but they're not yours they are my own
but they're not yours they are my own
and I am never broken
My hands are small, i know,
but they're not yours they are my own
but they're not yours they are my own
and I am never broken
We are never broken
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
God's hands
We are God's hands
God's hands
We are God's hands.

-Jewel

xoxo

CS 

valentine's day update...

I realize it's AFTER valentine's day already, but with one husband, three kids, one cat, one business, etc. LIFE just needs to take over some days...

So, some belated updates as to what valentine's day looked like in our home this year...

 

Yummy cupcakes we baked to share with neighborhood friends.

 

Along with the cupcakes we had an improptu dance party with the soundtrack from Mamma Mia playing in the background.

 

The front and back of the valentine's we made for sweetest pea #3's kindergarden party...these were inspired by this talented gal and this post. Check out the simple yet amazingly cool valentine's she created with her little one as well.

 

 

Sweet Pea's "mailbox" for collecting all her classroom valentines.

The wooden tags on top of the box are from this etsy shop.

 

   

Date night at Morton's steakhouse with two of our good friends. It was SO nice to get out for a night and be an "adult." :)

   

Mama was even treated to roses from her favorite florist.

Hoping the love was flowing around your home as well!

xoxo

CS

love.

 "Come live with me and be my love, and we will some new pleasures prove, of golden sands, and crystal beaches, with silken lines and silver hooks..."
--John Dunne

 

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach..."
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

 "Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one."
--John Keats

 

"My heart is ever at your service."
--William Shakespeare

L'amour is in the air...can you feel it?

I wrapped up the above Valentines to send to my three goddaughters in Seattle. Thank you to all of you who have been patient with my reopening of my main shop website. It's been awfully nice to have time to create...just for me...just for the love of it...

xoxo

CS

Overheard...

Sweetest Pea #3 snuggling up with daddy before bed...

"Dada, remember last year for Valentine's Day you brought home flowers and that chocolate that you gave to mama...and the flowers and that chocolate that you gave to me?"

"You should do that again this year."

 

 

-I don't make this stuff up friends...I just report it. :)

Love that girl.

Watch out world.

“love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it”

-Maya Angelou

xoxo

CS

Courage is...

Take all my vicious words
And turn them into something good

Take all my preconceptions
And let the truth be understood

Take all my prized possessions
Leave only what I need

Take all my pieces of doubt
And let me be what's underneath

Courage is when you're afraid,
But you keep on moving anyway

Courage is when you're in pain,
But you keep on living anyway

We all have excuses why
Living in fear something in us dies
Like a bird with broken wings
It's not how high he flies,
But the song he sings

Courage is when you're afraid,
But you keep on moving anyway

Courage is when you're in pain,
But you keep on living anyway,
You keep on living anyway

It's not how many times you've been knocked down
It's how many times you get back up

Courage is when you've lost your way,
But you find your strength anyway

Courage is when you're afraid
Courage is when it all seems grey
Courage is when you make a change,
And you keep on living anyway

You keep on moving anyway
You keep on giving anyway
You keep on loving anyway

 

-The Strange Familiar

"Courage Is" Lyrics

I don't think I could say it any better than the above.

Practicing courage, one babystep at a time.

xoxo

CS

 

• Courage Is... by The Strange Familiar

More The Strange Familiar music on iLike

Etsy love...

Dang...another morning lost to etsy meanderings!

Some of my latest faves:

Peace tones white Mexican embroidered dress from AidaCoronado.

Valentine notecards from Tina Seamonster for a few friends of mine who are completely obsessed with the Twilight series like I am. Edward...sigh...I digresss...

Valentine Cupcake Kit from Layer Cake Shop for use in the Sweet Pea's classroom parties.

Valentine Mailing Labels from Julie Collings.

Vintage shipping tags from Brandywine.

Oh yeah...it was a productive morning friends...a productive morning.

:)

xoxo

CS