Happy Exits!

If you're anything like me, you have at least one spot in your home that bugs you. You know, it just doesn't feel right or maybe it seems a bit unfinished. Well, one of my so-called "waiting to be glorious" spots is the next to the front door. Every time I leave the house I think, "hmmm, not so great". So I decided to give it about 4 minutes thought yesterday - if it couldn't be helped quickly, it wasn't going to happen. You know McB was running around with the hammer, so speed was of the essence...

Anyway, I did a quick dig in the attic for some antique letters (they were in my living room up north for ages) and grabbed one of MG's "real" paintings (painted on proper canvas) and grouped them with a painting that my dad made me for Christmas a while back. Hammer, hammer, hammer and ta-da! It's bright, cheery and very colorful. Plus all the pieces remind me of what's most important every time I leave the house to tackle the world - imagination, creation, family, friends and love!

So pick a spot, any spot, that bothers you and give it about 4 minutes. It's just enough time to get things done without over-thinking it. I know that's the biggest challenge for some of you, so give it a try. You'll be amazed at what can happen! And if you change your mind in a weeks time, give it a change again. Nothing is final and it's just walls! Happy arranging!
-HAPPY GLORIOUS SPOTS-

Confessions of a Cluttered Desktop

Well, those of you that have had the pleasure (or pain) of seeing my computer desktop, know exactly what this post is all about... I have issues with severe creative "idea" clutter! Yup, every single time I spy something fun to make, buy or look at, I drag the photo to my desktop. As you can imagine, this creates a bit of a visual disaster. But to be perfectly honest, the shear overload of color actually makes me happy, not stressed (though others have reacted quite differently!). And I know exactly where everything is. Honest!! So I thought I'd share a tidbit of the hundreds of images plaguing my desktop - they're from the bottom right hand corner. I'd really love to give credit to the original creators but they are long lost due to excessive dragging... I'm sure you could look them up on either Etsy or Instructables. Hope you find a bit of happy inspiration like I did - the tree bed is super awesome, right?!

Happy Pez Day!

We have a brand new weekly holiday at our house. Yes, weekly. It's specially designed to combat "Manic Mondays" and so far it's been a huge success. Instead of grumbling into another week after a long weekend of events, we celebrate Pez Day. Silly I know, but lots of fun for very little money. There's something so simple and happy about the brightly colored dispensers. Each one is like a little slice of pop culture. And the candies taste just like childhood in a rectangle - you can't help but smile when you eat them.

So each week, we go on a field trip to find new Pez and both kids get to pick their very own. Trust me, the selection process is painstaking! And after they eat their 1 roll of candies (yeah, yeah... I know they come with 3 rolls, shhh...), we add the new Pez "friends" to our collection. I think we're up to over 80 dispensers last time I counted - thanks to a ton that I had from high school. I'm thinking the kids are going to have to have a "Pez" themed bedroom...

Anyway, I encourage you to start a silly holiday of your own. Why not, life is short?! Happy, happy Pez Day to you and yours!
-HAPPY NEW HOLIDAYS-

Yo happy TWO!

I can hardly believe it but McB turned two yesterday! It seems like not very long ago that I was blogging about going to the hospital to have him and thinking he was a girl... whoa was I wrong!! So we celebrated my little man with his one and only favorite show of all time - Yo Gabba Gabba (Buzie, you're probably cracking up right now at the irony!). For those of you who don't know about "having a party in your tummy", let me introduce you.

I baked my buns off so that we'd have 75 Yo Gabba Gabba brilliantly colored cupcakes with Muno, Brobee, Plex and Toodee toppers along with a very green Brobee cake for the celebration. Once again, Betty Crocker Gel Food Coloring saved the day, thanks Betty! And I tried a new type of fondant for the cake - homemade marshmallow fondant. It was really cheap to make and tasted way better than proper fondant. Definitely give it a try if you're making a cake any time soon.

A huge thanks to everyone that helped us celebrate and especially to Satoya and Jason for singing really, really loud. You guys are the bestest!! McB was a very happy birthday boy!!

Happy Ten Years!

Ten years married to my best friend - lucky, lucky me!!!

Lemon Balm Salt Scrub Tutorial

Thanks to my lovely friend Miss Angie, I've rediscovered the intense greatness of salt scrubs. They do wonders on legs like mine - aka. overused, mistreated, under-appreciated, shouldn't be shown the light of day kinda legs. Yup, they're in need of some help and love! So I figured that there must be an easy way to make my own steady supply of salt scrub that would be super cheap... and then I remembered the huge patch of lemon balm in my garden...

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
• 1 cup of kosher salt
• 1 & 1/4 cups of baby oil (I used "with Aloe")
• 1/2 cup very finely chopped herb of choice

Gently mix the salt and oil together in a bowl. Add the herbs and mix again. Spoon into a glass jar (I used a pasta sauce jar) and refrigerate. The longer the scrub sits the more the herbs will "saturate" the oil, so good! Most fresh herbs would be amazing - like lavender, rosemary, mint, sage or even basil. I'm thinking this is a really easy handmade gift for mother's day, Christmas, baby & bridal showers, teachers, thank yous, etc. And if you package some in a cool mason jar or baby food jar with a pretty ribbon you're all set. Oo, how fun would it be to have a set of baby food jars with different scrubs in them for a new mom? Now I'm getting excited! Happy scrubbing everyone!
PS - the photo of McB is my new favorite. I've never seen him sit still for that long! Thanks Jason for your patience & musical genius!

The Giving Garden

Everyone that's ever been to a plant swap put your hands up... now, why have you been holding out on me?! Honestly, why didn't I know about this super great thing sooner? For those of you that are in the dark like I was, here's the scoop...

There are gardening groups all over the country that meet and chat and swap. Now I know this may sound like it's for the old folks, but trust me it's not. If you like local food and farmer's markets, this is a must-do field trip. Promise! I went to my first one with a friend on Saturday. We drove in to the Henry Horton State Park and there was a gathering like I've never seen - tons of tables filled with hand-potted plants & veggies of all varieties. Plus bags (literally brown shopping bags) filled with homegrown seeds. And here's the best part, you don't pay for anything! Seriously, it's truly a swap. You go around visiting the tables, spy what you'd like and then the incredibly generous, knowledgeable gardener who dug them up, hands you the pot. That simple, just bring plants and receive plants. I made a huge batch of seed bombs to share, but was totally unprepared for the generosity of everyone. One lady put it best, she said in a thick southern accent, "why can't folks just be nice and share?" It really is that simple.

So I came home with a carload (again literally) full of flowers, seeds and veggies to add to my newly growing garden. And, unlike buying at a store, my garden is now filling up with tidbits of love from other people that like dirt as much as me. Oo and I'm so excited that I scored one of these!
- HAPPY GIVING GARDEN -

Some Serious Seed Bombing!

OH me, oh my, I had a ridiculously great time the other night!! To celebrate Earth Day I taught a "seed bomb making" workshop at Craft Social. If you know what this is, you can fully appreciate how much of a blast it was. If you don't, let me make your world a tad happier...

Do you ever feel a bit rebellious but you're not in the mood to get in any real trouble? Do you notice all the bare, ugly spots around town and want to make them prettier? Try "guerilla gardening" with seed bombs! All you need to do is follow the recipe below to make balls filled with seeds and all the good stuff that they need to start growing. Then you throw them wherever a little bit of happiness is needed and wildflowers will grow. You know, like empty lots, the side of the highway or maybe your backyard.

Just before midnight we drove all around town "bombing" away through the car windows, the sun roof and over fences (no private property was harmed I promise). It was wild, crazy and hilarious - I felt like I was in high school all over again! I can't wait to see what sprouts in approx 45 days and we're definitely having a seed bomb party in the very near future. Try it, I promise you'll like it!

SEED BOMB RECIPE:
This recipe is written in "parts" - determine what you "part" measures and mix away (mine was 1/4 cup)
• 2 parts all natural clumping kitty litter (Arm & Hammer Natural made with corn)
• 2 parts water
• 1 part compost and clay mix (I dug some clay out of the yard)
• 1/2 part wildflower seed
Mix together until moldable. Form into balls, about shooter marble size. Let dry for at least an hour. Happy guerilla gardening!!
-HAPPY TIMES, GREAT FRIENDS-

April So Far...

April has been BUSY! Lots of new things happening, some I can share now and others are percolating. I'll begin with the biggie... for those of you that don't know yet, as of July 1st I'll be looking for a new job. It's been a year and a half of crazy hard work with The Mission Chattanooga and now it's time to move on. Unfortunately it's 100% a case of funding, not lack of passion or results. Though I'm really sad that I won't be a staff member anymore, I'm very happy with what's been achieved in such a short time and feel privileged to have been a part of it. Lots of amazing design work was done and many lives were/and continue to be changed (including mine!). I'll still be involved as much as possible and Craft Social Workshop will hopefully continue to grow. But, now I'm on the hunt for the next step. I know it's not the ideal time to look for a job, but I also know that there must be a solution. Design work, etsy, ALL ideas welcome!

On a lighter note, I went to an amazing garden center the other day! Seriously, they had some insanely funky plants - see pic of "Carnivorous Monkey Bamboo Jug Plant" and "Red Hot Cats-tail". They also had those super comfy retro gliders. My porch is begging for one. Ok, maybe I'm just begging for one?! Thankfully I was distracted by the most amazing fairy gardens. Ugh, I've been wanting to make one forever!

Anyway, that's April so far... I'm exhausted, time to go to bed!
-HOPING FOR HAPPY SOLUTIONS-

Color in Motion!

Have I mentioned that I love Chattanooga lately? If not, I love Chattanooga! It's truly a great little city, with tons of fun things happening all the time. Most are cheap or free, yay! Meaning they work really well with my current "we're going to have a blast for pennies" theme.

So MG and I went to a totally free kids class last Saturday at the Hunter Museum of American Art - she had a blast. It was called "Art in Motion" and they held it right in the middle of the museum. Pretty brave on their part if you ask me! The curator discussed "Phenomena Royal Violet Visitation" by Paul Jenkins with the kids and then an amazing creative movement teacher helped them make up a dance about the painting. I loved how they let the kids figure it out for themselves instead of giving them the "proper" answers. So cool! And of course I was excited that the artwork was super big and colorful... talk about a simple explanation of a great piece!!
-HAPPY MOVING ART-

Spring Sewing!

Ahhh Spring is in full swing and I LOVE 80 degree weather! Plus all the other springish bonuses - lime green trees, fuschia flowers, sitting on the porch and digging in dirt. You know, all the good stuff! Last night I even made pasta with a sage brown butter using goodies from my garden. And everyone ate it, success!

Anyway, I always try to stick to knitting when it's chilly cause it seems like torture to think of wearing a sundress while you're freezing. But at the first sign of flip-flop weather summer sewing is a go. So yesterday I sewed a ton of burlap bags for the Craft Social "seed bomb" workshop next week. Briar had fun playing with all the "itchy bits" - aka. scrap burlap. And I didn't have fun cleaning them up later!

But the most fun I've had in a while was something that's been on my craft "to do" list forever... last night I finally upcycled a thrift store skirt and tshirt into a sundress (70% off = $1.30 total). It was a bit of trial and error, but a super easy way to make a cheap, cute dress. I cut off the bottom of the skirt to create the sash, re-hemmed the skirt, attached it to the shirt, then sewed & attached the sash using a seam in the front and the skirt loops in the back. The skirt even has pockets as a bonus, yay! Really very easy, you can do it! Next time I think it'll be an even quicker process... Thanks Toya for the company and tech support! Summer here we come!!
-HAPPY SPRING SUN-

Shopping in PJ's!

Oo, oo, oo NO MORE STORAGE UNIT!! I feel 10 pounds lighter and $96 a month richer! I'm telling you, those places are wonderful when needed and miserable when you're trying to break-up with them. M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. So now that we've finally gone our separate ways, I've been digging through old boxes and happily finding all kinds of goodies. The best part is that it feels like decorating for free. Or maybe great thrift store shopping in my pajama pants - we all can dream! Anyway, thought I'd share a tiny snapshot of what I found. As well as an insanely cool turquoise sewing machine that I desperately tried to justify buying today. It really would have been great friends with my red machine...

-HAPPY COLORFUL BUNGALOW-

Sugarberry Bathroom!

Sorry for the quick post, but I have to share some new excitement! Our tiny bungalow has 1 bathroom...yes, one. So the fact that it's been painted high gloss "kettle" black since we bought it has seriously hurt my heart. I love black, just not in that way. Anyway, today I took the plunge and FINALLY committed to a new color - "sugarberry" by Behr. It's pink, but as un-pink as a pink could be. Lots of gray and a tiny hint of lilac in it. Let's just say that even Tim likes it, hooray! Plus the name is just fun to say. Thanks Mystical Rose for the great tip!
I've also included a photo of something new that's coming soon... Happy weekend!
-HAPPY NEW BATHROOM-

Happy Surprise Mail!

I LOVE MAIL... not bills from the electric company (they don't count) but real mail. Like letters, postcards and unexpected packages. I even like those freebie coupon books because they contain deals that I swear are made just for me! So you can imagine how happy my heart was today when I found a box on my doorstep from my great friend and old design client, Julie. She is A-mazing and absolutely wonderful to us. MG is thrilled with the cutest pair of crocheted cupcakes (I need to make some more, fun!) and the note on McB's gift is still cracking me up! Oh how true it is! Thank you Julie for making our hearts happy - we love you!
-HAPPY DELIVERIES-

Cupcakes & a Tornado!

WHOA we had a super serious storm yesterday!! I love a good bit of thunder and lightening but this was a Wizard of Oz-like tornado. Trust me when I say, I was a tad freaked out! It left our neighborhood all jumbled up with power lines, fallen trees and very sadly a bunch of crushed homes (both of the bungalows behind us are a mess). So today we are feeling very grateful to have a home in one piece and no one hurt. And thank you to Miss Annie for the insanely yummy dark chocolate with pistachio buttercream cupcakes! Did you ever think of opening a bakery? Well, yes you did indeed!

-THANKFULLY HAPPY-