Chillin'

We're still here, just taking a week off of blogging.

See you all next week!

Photo Editing

If you've been a member of Picnik, the online photo editing site (free & member options), you probably know that they are shutting down (or did they shut down already?). I loved Picnik and the fun edits they offered and was very sad at this announcement. Then I found PicMonkey. It looks like it's still a work in progress, but I've been able to do some fun editing!

Some are more obvious than others.

black & white with effect "erased" on dandelion & weeds + watermark

cropped, sharpened and added "Dusk" effect + watermark

cropped and softened + watermark

Go ahead and give it a try! You know you want to . . .

I've Got the Bone

Weeds

It seems we let the garden go a bit over the winter. The Lizard King got busy this weekend . . .

. . . yeah, there were a few weeds.

Have you started your garden?

Burst of Reading

I am a lover of books. I often wish there were more hours in the day so that I could spend more time reading. Princess asked me, a couple of weeks ago, if I thought she was weird because she doesn't like to read.  I assured her that I didn't think she was weird. There are all different kinds of people in the world; some love to read and some don't. It's all good!

Of course, Princess reads all the time, just not books.

Yesterday she picked up a book, a graphic novel to be specific, and read it. Today she is reading again. So yes, we are having a sudden burst of book reading.

Are you and your kids reading anything good?

Seder

We had a grain free Passover Seder . . . with notzah balls. Those are matzah balls made with almond meal instead of matzah meal. They are actually quite good!

Brisket in the crock pot . . . smells so yummy!

Getting the table ready - - candles, seder plate and matzah notzah plate. I really should make a new one, shouldn't I? ;)

And notzah made with almond meal.

This Shabbat candleholder belonged to my grandmother. It's old and not at all modern looking, but I love it.

For our Haggadah, the book you read from at the seder that tells the story of the Jews in Egypt, I took pieces from a humanistic children's Haggadah and a Unitarian Universalist Haggadah and put them together to make one that worked for us. I think I still want to make some changes, so it is a work in progress, but it worked well for us.

And what's a holiday without a little crafting?! Princess made a sleeve for the afikomen. During the seder a piece of the notzah is broken in half and hidden for the children to find. It is needed to finish the seder, so in order to get it back, the children get a prize in exchange. We put our afikomen in the lovely sleeve. Useful and beautiful! Princess was thrilled with her prize - - an Avatar the Last Airbender Wii game.

How did you celebrate this past weekend?

First Cache

On Sunday, we all (including the royal dog) headed out to find our first geocache! Geocaching is something we've been planning on doing for a while now, we were just waiting for some better weather. Sunday was the perfect day. In fact, it was so warm that after we found our first cache, we walked back to the house so that Princess could change clothes.

There's a handy little app that we loaded onto my iPhone that guides you to the cache. Very cool!

The first container was small and it took us a while to find it! We left a ladybug treasure in it and Princess signed the log book.

After changing clothes, we headed out to find cache number 2. This one we found more quickly and left the flower (shown in the first photo).

We all really enjoyed this adventure and will definitely be doing it again. The Lizard King and Princess are already planning where to place a cache of our own for others to find. So much fun!!!

On Saturday

It was sunny and Princess and I went outside to play.

We are very much looking forward to more Spring days!

Girly Playdate

Most often Princess has playdates with her best friend, Blue-Eyed Boy. They have the best times together, incorporating common interests (like Pokemon, Lego NinJago and Star Wars) into their play. While they are the best of friends, playdates with girly friends, while different, are so much fun, too!

Happy Friday!! Wishing you all a playfully fun weekend . . .

Keeping Things Tidy

We live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. You may have heard that it rains here? We have two dogs, going in and out, getting wet and muddy. We always have a towel hanging on the door knob . . . or falling off the door knob.

I came up with a solution. A towel hook! It works perfectly and the towel isn't constantly being knocked off all the time.

I like simple solutions!

Fig

The painting continues. The Lizard King got back to it this weekend, painting the designated accent walls in the living room a lovely shade of fig. He also finished up the non-green kitchen walls with the main color choice, taupe. I love taupe. I love how it changes color throughout the day.

Taupe is on the left, fig on the right. I love how the accent wall turned out.

And I love the accent color around the fireplace . . . but now I don't like the tile. Fortunately, I have an awesome husband and it's only 10 tiles. We found a tile we all love, that works beautifully with the fig color.

Next up, taupe throughout the remainder of the first floor and white ceilings. Then we move upstairs. Oh . . . and the best news it that the colors we picked, fig & taupe, match our bedding perfectly! Woohoo!!