Artist and Picture

"He is the artist and you are only the picture.  You can't see it.  So quietly submit to be painted."
-Leah Darrow quoting C.S. Lewis

Workout to Real Life

Now we all know that in a perfect world, when you are done working out (if the working out part even happens), you would have a cute outfit in your bag and you would shower, change, fix your hair, put make-up on and you would be fabulous before running your errands.  But how often does that happen?  Ain't nobody got time for that!   I took some pics of my adorable yoga instructor, Keleah, the other day to show you how to go from your workout to real life without anyone even knowing (except for maybe the smell of stale sweat).  Seriously...how cute is she?  

Start with a colorful or black legging and workout tank (coordinating headband is a bonus!!)

Add a long tunic, scarf and boots/or sandals (depending on the season), and VOILA!!  You have a cute outfit!

REMEMBER...LEGGINGS ARE NOT PANTS, SO BE SURE TO COVER UP YOUR UNMENTIONABLES WITH A LONG SHIRT, TUNIC OR DRESS, THANKYOUVERYMUCH!

De-clutter Your Life

I am partly preaching to myself here.  Clutter can cause more stress than the activities in our lives.  Have you ever just been sitting on your couch and looked around at your dis-organization and felt a tightening in your chest?  This happens to me often, and I have to spend a day getting my house in order.

I know I have mentioned this before, but I clean out my closet four times a year.  At the beginning and end of each season.  So that is actually one place in my house that stays organized.  I can't, after all, tell clients how to organize their closets, and not do it myself.

I was reading an article in Yoga Journal about how you can't really practice yoga in peace when you have piles of mail everywhere and a sink full of dirty dishes.  I took away some wisdom from this article and wanted to share it with my 2 readers ;)  "...I try to apply the 'one in, one out' rule:  If I bring something home, I have to get rid of something else.  And yet clutter still manages to sneak through.  When I'm trying to pare down my belongings, i ask the classic questions:  Is it beautiful?  Is it useful?  Is it deeply meaningful?  Have I enjoyed it in the past year?  Plus, I invoke a freeing gem from a friend:  'It's possible to accept the essence of a gift but let go of the object."

I love this statement!  I will be using this forever with clients.  I can't tell you how many times I have had people hold onto something that they never use/wear, because it was a gift from a loved one.  This make so much sense to be able to hold onto the love from the giver, but let go of the tangible gift.

Lent is a perfect time to get rid of things that separate us from God.  How about trying to get rid of one thing a day for the next 40 days?  Or how about each week during lent, tackle a different area of your house (pile of mail, kids closet, email inbox, bookshelf, etc).  Maybe even incorporate prayer while you are doing it and then give away the things you no longer need to those who do need them (almsgiving).  Simplify your life and see if you are able to breathe a little easier.

It's Make Your Own Skirt Day!!!!

Ok, not really.  But it was for me yesterday.  My dear friend sent me this link on how to make a sweater skirt.    I loved the idea and immediately found the sweater I was going to work with.  I also knew that I didn't have a good enough sewing machine, nor the time, desire or energy to make it the way she did.  So here is the lazy, impatient way to make your own skirt out of an old sweater!!!

Step 1:  Choose a sweater (and ignore the stain on the front).  I chose this tunic thing that I never loved on me.  It was clingy on the belly. I figured turning it into a skirt would solve that problem!

Step 2:  Cut right under the arms of the sweater (this will vary depending on the length of your sweater and how long/short you want your skirt).

 Step 3:  Here comes the "lazy, I'm not talented or creative" part.  Get you a roll of Stitch Witchery, or any other type of fusible bonding web you like.  Cut it to measure the length of one side of your skirt.  

Step 4:  Next, fold over the top edge of your fabric about 1.5" and then tuck under 1/4"and stick your Stitch Witchery under the fold.  

Step 5:  Follow ironing instructions for the Stitch Witchery...which I didn't do...oops...I didn't do the damp cloth part.  Your sweater fabric will want to roll, so you'll need to do this in sections.

Step 6:  Sport your new skirt!!!!  And remember the tights or leggings if your are making a mini.  "Modest is Hottest!"  I totally stole that saying from the blog I got the idea from...love it!

I'd love to know if any of you do this (sew or lazy version).  Send me pics if you do!  

How to Host a Clothing Swap

I don't know about ya'll, but I'm not much for New Years Resolutions.  I set myself up for failure, never seeming to go through with my supposed "plan."  However, our family has decided to tighten up the finances.  Get on a strict budget and see where we can cut back to really start saving.  We really want some land so we can have chickens and grow a garden (and have some horses if you ask Hadley).  In order to achieve this goal, we have to be radical and different.  We're going to be "weird" like Dave Ramsey says.

So my big cutback is to not spend family money on myself for clothing this year.  I know...crazy.  My sister says I'm aiming too high and I should maybe just shoot for doing this for a month.  But I need to be radical.  And oops...I just told you all about it, so I guess it's for real now and I have to stick to it.  I do have the rule for myself that I can spend money given to me for Christmas or Birthday...trust me...I'll be holding onto that money for when I REALLY want something.

This fall, I hosted a clothing swap, and I really think that doing another one of these in the spring will help me with my goal.  I usually find myself only wanting/needing a few items to freshen up my wardrobe each season, and if I'm smart, I can do this for little to no money.

Here are the steps to take if you'd like to host a clothing swap yourselves:

1)  Send invitation:  I sent an email inviting friends to clean out their closets and bring them over earlier in the day, or the day before for me to organize.  Be sure to invite people of all shapes and sizes so you have plenty of options.  And if people are self conscious about their size, encourage them to clean out their accessories drawer and shoes.  Make all feel welcome!!!

2)  Set a time that works for you:  Once organized, I set a time.  I did a few hour span (like 5-7:30 pm). People could come and go as they pleased.  However, the "early birds got the worms."

3)  Set Rules:  I set rules, like if you brought ten items, you went home with ten items.  But by the end of the night, I wanted people to take as much as they wanted!   Also encourage folks to bring things that are not dated, stained, or ripped.  You are looking for good closet items that may just not fit anymore, or you are tired of wearing.  Also, decide if you are going to just do one season, or all types of clothes.  We decided to stick to fall clothes, but some brought spring.  Either way is fine.  Just decide and tell your guests.

4)  Decide on a place to donate items:  Make sure nobody there is too attached to their items and will freely let it go!   I had a few items left over when all was said and done.  I took the name brand stuff to a consignment shop (where I have a store credit waiting for me....whoop, whoop!), and we donated the rest of the items to our church.

Once I got all of the clothes, I got to organizing.  I didn't have hanging racks, so I just made piles on my furniture.  One couch for Smalls, one for mediums, one for larges.  My dining room table housed accessories and shoes and some wine and cheese :)  I planned it last minute, so I only had 6 participants.  But all had a great time and went home with clean closets and a few new items each.  Here are some pics of what I came away with.  I even got some spring things that will be new to me when the weather warms up!  Also, (not pictured) scored a pair of peep toe black heels, a scarf and a handful of jewelry.

 Two blazers.  One fitted one for spring and a gray H&M boyfriend blazer.

 Two spring tops.

 Brand new Anthropologie sweater!  This was my favorite find.  I wore it to Christmas eve mass with a black pencil skirt and gray textured tights and gray heels.  Have also worn to dinner with friends with skinny jeans and boots.  LOVE THIS SWEATER!!!

Few more spring items.  JCrew t-shirt, pink pants (perfect length on me...shocker!) and a mint green and white diagonal striped skirt!

 Crop sweater

 Cozy Sweater with toggle buttons.

Basic cardigan.

Have you ever hosted a clothing swap?  If so, I'd love to hear about it.  If you are local and want to be invited to my spring one, let me know and I'll include you for sure!  

Christmas with food allergies

Wow, I'm just going to say that Christmas time (or any holiday in general) is really hard on us mamas with kids with food allergies.  The gluten free part has become second nature since Hadley has been GF for several years now.  This is our first year having eliminated gluten, yeast, dairy, egg yolks and limited sugar.  I decided before all the parties and madness started, I wasn't going to allow all the candy and junk that turns my daughter into a different person.  But I also wasn't going to allow her to be sad about it and feel left out.  Our days of making cookies this year were totally different than years past.  Before, I would've stocked up on butter, flour, sugar, more butter, more sugar, and lots of milk chocolate.  This year, it was nuts, dates, dried fruit, GF flour and agave.  I doubted how this day of baking would turn out, but I've got to say...not bad.  And the best part?  We have all been snacking on the healthier desserts instead of wolfing down a whole pan of fudge in an evening.  I feel so much better than I usually do this time of year, and can actually button my jeans.  So here are some of the treats we made this year.

We made these grain free sugar cookies today.  We put red and green sprinkles on them and left some out for Santa.  Mama loved these...we'll see if santa likes healthy sugar cookies ;)

These were my favorite.  I grew up making pecan sandies with my mom.  She always made them in a ball and rolled them in powdered sugar after they cooled a little.  I didn't miss it a bit.  In fact, I liked this version better!  Shhhh...don't tell my mama.  Oh, and Alex even liked these, and he usually turns his nose up at my GF treats.

The kids absolutely loved this version of gingerbread people.  I actually didn't have tiny gingerbread cookie cutters, so I just rolled them into balls and served them in little mini-muffin paper cups.  These have such a wonderful ginger flavor, and they were fabulous!  I packed these in a sandwich baggie for the park, and they are a great little snack.  We have also made many of the other larabar recipes on this site, and are quite in love with them.

These blondies were da bomb dot com.  For reals.  One problem.  They had brown sugar in them, and made my daughter cra cra.  I really wanted to try to substitute the sugar for agave, but they were already so gooey, that I don't think it will work.  I loved these so much, and they were Eli's fav.  And I promise, you can't taste the chick peas...pinky promise.

These pillow cookies were a hit with the kids, but not my favorite.  I substituted the whole wheat flour for my GF flour mix I keep mixed up in my pantry.  I also didn't roll the cookies in the sugar/cinnamon mixture since I was avoiding sugar.  Instead, I added cinnamon to the dough, and it turned out tasting like a snickerdoodle.  If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit smitten by Chocolate Covered Katie.  She doesn't know it, but she's my new bestie, and has made my daughter very happy.

By the way, I had the nerve to serve all of these healthy cookies for dessert at bunko last Tuesday night.   Unless my friends are great liars, they loved them!  If anyone is interested at all in recipes, I'll share with you all what I served for dinner that night too.  Ya'll just let me know.

And last, but certainly not least, I made these lemon cranberry coconut muffins for breakfast on Christmas morning.  Hadley thought these were so pretty that she had to have one for dessert tonight.  She chose that over a cookie.  Eli had one too, and both of them gobbled them up.  So I guess they are good.  We usually cook a really big brunch on Christmas morning, and I thought it might be nice to mix it up for my girl as she is probably getting tired of egg whites and sausage.

Merry Christmas ya'll!  Enjoy celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ with your loved ones!

The Immaculate Conception

I had intentions of posting this on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  But it's still advent, and very appropriate for during the time of waiting for our Savior.  Enjoy.

Fetal Cells and Mary

By Sherry Boas - Posted on February 8, 2012

I’m not a theologian. I’m just a mom who has thoughts in the middle of the night. I can’t be the only mom who had the thought I had after reading a LifeSiteNews article about a recent finding that a baby in utero leaves healing cells in the mother’s body that can benefit the health of her liver, heart and brain for the rest of her life. Apparently, they’ve all been right about embryonic stem cells. They’ve just been wrong about the effective mode of delivering those cells: it requires an openness to life to really do the body good.

But the health benefits of pregnancy, although beautiful and fascinating to explore, were not the thoughts that kept me up in the middle of the night pondering the greatness of our God. The thought was this: “Wow! That means Jesus’ cells remained inside of Mary for the rest of her life! Jesus’ sacred body was hidden inside her immaculate one, not only for nine months. It remains so for all eternity.”

According to a recently-published book Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?  by science writer Jena Pincott, during pregnancy, the baby’s cells enter the mother and the mother’s cells enter the baby’s. Could this help explain the beauty and validity of the doctrines about Mary held so dear by Catholics?

If this study is true, and if it applies to the miraculous birth of God incarnate, the cells of God were not just contained within the womb of Mary, destined to emerge entirely intact from her body on that first Christmas. They were distributed and embedded throughout her body for the rest of her life. Would that explain why God could not leave Mary’s body to decay within the earth? The Assumption of Mary teaches that Mary was taken up to Heaven, body and soul, immediately after her earthly life was complete. Could the fact that Mary’s body had the incarnate God still within in it at least partly account for God’s decision to move Mary’s body straight from its pure existence on Earth into the glory of Heaven?

Another Doctrine we Catholics hold dear about our Blessed Mother is that she was conceived without sin. The Immaculate Conception takes on a whole new relevance when we consider that Jesus’ cells were going to intermingle with hers for eternity and her cells were going to intermingle with His. God is all-holy. He cannot be intermingled with sin. If God is going to leave his very cells inside a human being forever, would it not need to be an all-holy place? An immaculate place?

The reverse is also true. With cells sneaking across the placenta in both directions, you can see why Mary would have had to be conceived without sin. Jesus could not have been born with a single sinful cell in His body. He is, after all, God.

There are moments in history when science and faith intersect in such a stirring way, insomniacs don’t stand a chance once they begin to ponder it all — even it if is one o-clock in the morning and there is a  house full of kids who are going to wear you out the next day. If Mary could have known the science behind what was about to take place in her body on a cellular level, sleep might have eluded her as well.