I Scream, You Scream: Free Ice Cream!!

Do you live near a Ben & Jerry’s?

{Click the picture above or click here to find the closest B&J’s.}

Cause if you do, hop on over today, it’s

 FREE CONE DAY!!

All day today, April 12, from noon-8pm.

What color will your mustache be?

Painting Mason Jars

Hey there! A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to be featured on the amazing blog: Tatertots and Jello!

In case you missed my post over there, I wanted to be sure to share it with you here, as it’s such a cute and easy project…
painting mason jars!

Cooking with Kids {ways to include them in meal prep}

Howdy friends! Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve chatted…probably cause it has been!  I spent an extended weekend in the Sierras for some much needed R&R vacation time {read: time away from my painting insanity} with my family.

And then last night I attended this amazing cooking class with Shane {& Chantal} Valentine, author of The Baby Cuisine Cookbook: Internationally Inspired Organic Recipes for Babies 6-18 months and fellow blogger: Alina’s Cucina.

In addition to sharing some wonderful recipes, chopping advice, and frying pan suggestions, Shane provided inspiration for including children in all aspects of meal prep: from shopping/washing/cooking to family/community meals.  I left with that old cliché in my head:

“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” 

 

My Lunch Date with Benjamin

Shhhh, please don’t tell my husband….but I had a little lunch date today with my friend, Benjamin. But don’t worry, my husband isn’t jealous in the slightest… he just starts to think thinks I’m crazy any time I pay a visit to Benny Moore’s place of business.  Ben and I, we go waaaaay back….and know each other better than, well, than I actually wish we did.

And, to make matters worse, I am a maximizer. You see, the 3,400 or so color choices Ben offers me aren’t even enough…I gotta go out and create my OWN custom shade.  Sheesh, I can be a pain at times.

Ok, well anyways, I made a slight detour on our way home today to stop and pick up this:

Just let me explain… the walls above my board and batten are currently Benjamin Moore Nimbus Gray. 

It’s a beautiful color…about as perfect a gray/blue as I can imagine.

Ruffled Camera Strap

One of the time consuming great things about blogging is getting so many creative ideas from other bloggers.  I’ve had this “Gathered Camera Strap Tutorial” saved in my favorites for a while now and am thrilled to say that I finally made it…and it came out SO Key-Ute!

Green Eggs and Ham {recipe} Two Ways- Accidentally!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 

Well, actually, that should most likely read:
“Happy Belated St. Patrick’s Day!”
by the time you are reading it.  But really folks, you can make this dish any day of the year it’s so yummy.

Restoration Hardware Inspired Island: The Details

Hi All!
As promised, I am here to give you a few a LOT more details on my Restoration Hardware inspired island that I first posted here.

Click here to see more tons of pictures of the island… and read on to learn all about how I built the island!

{Update since building island...with the extra wood from this project, I built a fireplace mantel after painting my brick white {all while my husband was out of town!!}

Positive Discipline Incentive Jars

A little post for the moms {and dads} out there!

I want to share with you our family’s positive discipline approach and how it’s working for us.  I got this idea from a friend who saw it on one of the Nanny shows!  She told me about it a while ago, but honestly I kept holding off until I found just the right jars…I didn’t wanna sacrifice cuteness just for good behavior.  Smile!

Ok, so here are the jars (I got the jars from Ikea and used chalkboard paint for the labels:

Aren’t they cute?!  I painted them with chalkboard paint to give me a place to write each child’s name on them. I’ll post the tutorial soon!

Here are the details….

Restoration Hardware {Inspired} Island

Hi Friends!

I am so super excited to share the finished pictures of my new kitchen island with you! 
It turned out just like even better than I envisioned it, I couldn’t be happier! I’m going to do this in two posts. This first post will simply be a show and tell…and then I’ll do another post with all the steps we took to build it.

Ok, so we’ll start with a finished picture and then I’ll tell you a little about it and give you lots more views!

Here is my kitchen before the island:

Snow and an Island

Hello friends!

Sorry, I’ve been MIA this week….here in CA we have this crazy phenomenon called Ski Week! Unlike the rest of the country that seems to be buried in snow, we’re snow deprived and need to take a week off just to get out and experience winter.  Since they’re telling us to go….

It snowed for a week straight, so we headed up on the first dry day…and what a gorgeous day it was!

Pretty good pic from the driver’s seat, huh?