WONDER-FULL

"Anything else I can do for you?"

This is my line.  I say it probably 100-200+ times a day.  Every call I answer I close it inevitably with this.  Today I got the best response ever!  She said, "Have a wonderful day!" all cheesy-like and started giggling... it was infectious!  I started giggling and gratefully thanked her.  How sweet, right?!  We're total strangers and I'm just working along and it was like a freaking blessing!  I'm totally feeling a wonder-full day too... This morning I stopped at the park before work (and after my early doctor's appointment, otherwise I would have still been in bed) and snapped some pictures.

Good morning my little town, my salty bay!  Hope you all have a wonderful day too!

♥-L

I SMELL DAFFODILS! I AM A WINNER!

YUM!

Yesterday on my walk back to work after my lunch break, I could smell this sweet, green smell... and I noticed a plot of tall, full daffodils!  SO CUTE!  I'm feeling extra inspired to find some more illustrations for my collage light switch plates... Last night in the studio (after a Mojito and a Mint Julep) I didn't have the coherence to do much work other than paste a few red glitter blobs and curl up on the floor until I could drive home.  Warning!  The drinks at Bayou on the Bay are FORMIDABLE, and DELICIOUS!

The EMPTY Mojito

PS!  This morning I found out that I was the winner of some PRECIOUS My Girl Thursday swag, via a give-away at Scissor Quirk!  You should DEFINITELY check out My Girl Thursday's etsy shop full of cuteness, for example this AMAZING APRON!

SEE WHERE THIS IMAGE LIVES!

I will be posting pictures in the future when my "MAJOR AWARD" comes in the mail!

♥-L

Recipe: The Family Type

This week my family celebrated these two lovebirds (above pictured) birthday.  It was the same day in fact, though a few years apart.  An email went out and we committed to honor Joe and Sylvia (known to me as Pop-Pop and Nana) by having a toast.  My cousin Brenda even took one of these delicious cocktails to the cemetery and sang happy birthday to the special couple and poured it out for them.  I had KC (my personal home bartender extraordinaire) fix me up his own version of an Old Fashioned, but I had to get the original recipe from my mom and as soon as we cook up some of that special simple syrup, IT'S ON!  As with any family tradition, the experts have their theories, but nothing quite compares to whatever "house rules" that you wean on.  With my love I submit this recipe to you:

"Joe AND Sylvia’s Old Fashioneds"

Simple Syrup with Orange & Lemon

2. cup sugar

2 c. water

Boil 10-15 minutes on med.

 Cut and seed 4 oranges and 4 lemons. I wedge the oranges and slice the lemons round.

Add to sugar water and cook 5 min. Turn off and cover till cool.

The Beverage

In bottom of Old Fashioned glass put 1 orange wedge, 1 lemon slice and 1 tsp simple syrup (sugar water)

Add dash of bitters and muddle.

Fill glass to top with ice cubes.

Add VO or Bourbon ¾ way to top of glass and finish off with a splash of soda water.

Add a cherry (and a scant tsp. cherry juice is optional).

ENJOY!

 

I promise the next of their recipes I post will be for Planter's Punch.  Here's to family! 
I'd like to know what YOUR favorite family recipes are!

♥-L

ELO Second Helping

Yesterday I had the good fortune of finding A New World Record at Everyday Music.  I had decided that I wanted to have vinyl copies of my favorite ELO albums and I was able to start with my ABSOLUTE favorite.

I picked "Tightrope" to share with you today because I think it's awesome... and I'm totally vibing with it right now.  Do you ever feel overwhelmed at the amazingness of life?  And then something happens that is in SUCH contrast to that awesomeness that you feel spun out and clambering to get back to that peak?  This is me right now.  It feels like there are forces pulling me back and forth across my epic happiness center when I'd rather just run circles in it's field of tall grass like a spazzy little girl open mouthed and squeee-ing!

I have to admit that I'm not 100% sure what Mr. Lynne is writing about in this song, but it resonates for me right now with that exact experience.  Frankly, I want to be on the tightrope full of hope but, like I said, it's tippy, and I feel like it's a struggle to stay in the zone of epic happiness and success.  There's people and things everywhere that don't believe your dreams and it can be hard to stay purposeful in the face of that adversity.  Like George Lopez for one, Kirstie Alley was TOTALLY HOT in her cute little sequined dance... but I digress.

Thankfully, lately, I find a lot of things to smile about- little birdies that alight on my windowsill at work, sunlight in the evenings, a sweet date with KC, the sound of my mom's voice in the messages she leaves on my phone and honoring my grandparents' birthday with my family (I'll post more about that later).

SO HERE'S TO STAYING ON THE TIGHTROPE.  CHEERS TO US ALL!  I'll throw you down a line if you need to get back up here, and I think the buddy system is the best way to help us stick together.  HOPEWORK: listen next to SO FINE from A New World Record... and you will feel recharged and energized!

Big ♥-L

Success! UPDATE

Turns out, two more poked their heads out today! Yay!

SUCCESS!

The long trench I dug for the flowering sweet peas!

A close up of the bed.  I can't wait!

The first of the bulbs I planted in February to peek out of the dirt!

Pretty veggies in the sink!

Pretty veggie prep!  That old fashioned Kiss soda is delicious!

And last, SUPER CUTE NAILS!  I'm really excited about this combo after much experimentation!!!

Hope ya'll are feeling mighty fine and fill me in, what are you getting successful on!?
♥ L

You Shine A Little Love On My Liii-Hii-Hii-Hiiife.

     (This post is dedicated to Diana)

This song is soo good!  You just listened to it I'm SURE!  And couldn't help but feel totally awesome!  That's how I feel these days about ELO.  And today I'm feeling particularly that way what with the beautiful sunshine and the breeze... and I'm headed out to do some gardening.  BUT I wanted to stop and share some of the awesome things I'm grateful for from this last week.  I had a wonderful visit with my family this week-end, and I had some peaceful alone-time in the house and cleaned all kinds of things that also cleaned themselves out of the corners of my "worry list" which helped me feel both relieved and accomplished!  Imagine that!  I had wonderful times this week with my friends with all the Tetris and the Shakedown.  I've witnessed some really beautiful things like a "SUUUPER-MOOOON!!!" (I have no other intonation but all caps excl.points for that) and a sunny day with cats.  Who doesn't love a sunny day with cats?!  My nieces will support me on that one and I had SO much fun with them last night!  So I'm sharing really quickly before I head out to the yard to weed along my fence where I'll be planting some flowering sweet peas.  Squeeee!  Even that is a wonderful thought!  And I feel especially blessed and grateful considering. 
And I want that my sharing is a kind of hope, that everyone else finds something to feel this way about.  All over the world.

XOXO.

Birdies in front of the Feed and Seed

The Shakedown St. Patrick's Night

If you were here, you know where I'm sitting...

Pretty flowers from A Lot Of Flowers

More of those!

My first time at Pure Bliss after an awesome dinner with the fam at the Magnolia Street Bistro.  My mouth is STILL watering when I think about it!

♥ SUNNY DAY WITH CATS!!! ♥

-L

PS I'm really looking forward to seeing KC tonight after his trip.  ♥

THE LOVE TREE STRIKES AGAIN!

 

Only this time it's THE LUCK TREE!!!  And we need it globally!  I'm wishing for a cascade effect of luck to wash out all over from this wee local epicenter!!!

Good luck and much love!

♥ L

ALSO! PRETTY THINGS!

I wanted to share some things I spied...

Look!  It's still Winter!



NOT!  It's totally Spring!



DOUBLE CAT ON THE BED! [photo credit KC]



ALL THE WAY!  (I think you know what this means! ♥cute!)  [photo credit KC]



From my garden!

I only picked these three from my yard to show you because most of the rest of the pictures have cat turds in them... alas my apple tree is the neighborhood litterbox.  I took the pictures real quick-like and didn't see the bombs until it was tooo late!  But I did put them on my flickr... don't ask me why.  I guess lack of good judgement is what comes to mind, and also an affinity for poo jokes.

Hope you come across some lovelies in your day!  And by lovelies I mean pretty things!  Not lovely poos!  Although.... ;-)

♥ L

*UPDATE!  Photos of kittenz credited to KC.  It turns out I was NOT the one who spied the double cat actual but I DID spy the photos on the camera... sooooo photo credit is given where photo credit is due!  XOXO to the KC.

In the Studio 3/12/11

Cozy inside the studio, I posted up last Friday and got to work on some items I'll be eventually putting in an etsy shop, and selling on Artwalk (I hope!).  After the intense recent remodel I feel more at home and at peace in the space.  MMmmmmm.  I burnt a little incense and piled up the records on auto-play and turned on all the lamps and the x-mas lights so it was warm, and I had only as much light as I needed.  I'm really grateful for the personal space.  Working in a call center is in some ways a constant suck on my mind when it needs some quiet... it's hard to be found.  And it's hard to find a balance even when I come home and I'm with my lover and often his friends... the cats though, cause me no nevermind.

So this is my escape pod!  I spent a pleasant quiety Saturday there unwinding from the work and from the news... processing it in peace.  And Elizabeth left some PBR there so I put it out on the fire escape to get cold... which was nice enough.

Here are some pics!

I wanna know, where do ya'll go to find peace of mind?  ♥

Love,

L

Hold On To Your Butts

 The weather today is indecisive.  Sun?  clouds?  Can't make up it's mind.  I took a nap on the couch at work and woke up with the sleep on my head hair all mussed and static-electric bushing out from my scarf.  It was coooozy.  I spent part of the napping time thinking about (r)evolution, and I remembered the love tree in my neighborhood.  The first day it showed up it was full of love tabs and now it's down to three.  People are in need right now, for sure.  So in related news... today is the first day of a predicted wave of consciousness that is going to affect people in who knows what kind of ways!  Theoretically we're all stepping up the stairs (or staring up the steps heh heh) towards a greater unity.  That sounds kind of hokey to some people but these are DEFINITELY unique times.  Our connectivity is increasing so rapidly, interwebs say what?!  And people are getting out their work boots all over the world in order to take care of business that needs doing!  In this process, we're all going to need more love... and I'm extremely grateful for people who are offering it up in their own creative ways to their communities.  Thanks infinitely.
And ♥♥♥♥♥ back at ya!

What things do ya'll see out on the streets that inspire YOU about the future?

♥- L

Cute Nails!

I've been real inspired these days to do better in caring for my nails...  I've been using Revlon's Calcium Gel Nail Hardener to toughen up my paper thin nails, and recently splurged on an assortment of cheap nailpolish from e.l.f.

Kelsey's post over at Artichoke Designs got me hip to stripes!  (Thanks Kelsey!)

Who's a pretty girl?!  I'm a pretty girl.  You know it!

Are ya'll inspired too?  Lemme see!

<3 L

Artwalk 3/4/11

Artwalk 3/4/11 1 a photo by Crazy Lisa on Flickr.

Last night was Artwalk. I missed Elizabeth very much but I had lots of visitors... and tried to compensate for her free poems by creating my own "found poems" from the torn pages of a novel (turned sketchbook).

It was soo nice to be in the studio after my remodeling job last weekend. I finally splurged and bought the other giant wire rack at Costco that I needed to really organize all my stuff.  And I moved the blue bookcase over to the opposite wall for a nice library. It feels so open and free.

I'm happeeee.  <3

I Am My Own Julie Andrews!

And it's EXHAUSTING!

I sooo wanted to blog about all the action and all the changes in my life right now... but I've just spent so much time working on them (and plain old working) that item "Blog" took a great deep swan dive off of my "to-do" list.

Oh well!  Moving on!  I seriously (with some INTENSE help from my girlfriend over at The Naughty Renter) began EXORCISING THE DEMONS OF MY HOME!  It all started with a trip to IKEA... and I can't say that "it ended with" because it hasn't ended yet... but it has included; scrubbing the scum off of the floor underneath the refrigerator, two trips to the Goodwill (and one pile yet to go!), a smoking exploded vacuum cleaner replaced by new awesome vacuum cleaner with retractable cord <3, a come-to-jesus in the art studio, thoroughly scouring the oven, and yard work that has been waiting for me since FALL!  WHOAAA!  I have done well to keep on top of the relentless horse that is general tidiness around the house.  Also I bought a new camera so that I can take some decent pictures for this here blog baby of mine that aren't directly from my phone.  Huzzah!

So while being totally time consuming, these curtains-turned-playclothes projects of mine are EXTREMELY satisfying!  WEEEeeeee!  Again, I forgot to take before photos, but I have since taken many after photos and as soon as I charge up my battery in my new phone I will be off to take more and will post them to my flickr.

How is the great Spring Clean of 2011 finding you?!

XOXO,
-L



PS: I couldn't resist tossing this in!