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Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Winner!!!!! and LMM at GroopDealz


The winner of the 
Wood you Be Mine necklace
is
#24

True Random Number Generator  24Powered by RANDOM.ORG


Brooke Anna @ Mommy Does... said...

I like the chevy cars!
mommydoesblog(at)yahoo(dot)com


Please contact me with your shipping info
and tell me if you would like the pink or green.
Thanks to everyone for entering.

Also, head on over to Groopdealz before it's too late.
is having an awesome deal on her mustache necklace.

Kiwi Lime Shrimp

About a week ago
the library volunteer brought in some recipe books
for the moms to look at.

I spied a dish I thought looked delectable.
I didn't have a chance to write it down
because I was chasing Monster and entertaining Roly Poly.
However, the ingredients were easy enough to remember, 
and I knew the changes I wanted to make 
(eg no jalapenos because I don't do spicy).
Also, I rarely accurately measure for dinner, 
so no measurements needed.

This is how the meal turned out.

Looks DELICIOUS, right?

Okay, so here's what it includes.

Shrimp: 
about 20 shrimp sauteed in oil.
I used Wild Tree garlic and lemon grape seed oils
(about 1/2 tbl each)

I also added about 1/2 tbl minced garlic.

Kiwi Topping:
4 Kiwis chopped
about 1/8 c. Cilantro finely chopped
Juice of 1 small lime
Mix all of this together and serve on top of the shrimp.

For a side dish I made a simple cold lentil salad.

Prepare lentils according to directions on pkg.
*remember not to add salt to boiling water because it will toughen the lentils
Let cool in fridge.
Add the juice of 1/2 lemon.
Add 2 garlic cloves minced

mix and serve.

This simple salad was surprisingly good.

Lentils are also EXTREMELY good for you.

This is a GREAT, low calorie meal.
Plus it is really fresh and summery for the months to come.



{Spring Fling} Day #12

We are coming near an end of our fabulous event.
We are on Day 12 of 14.

Today you need to stop by and visit
Puddle Jumper Creations
for these adorable flour sac hand towels


and for this hand painted window sill sitter visit 




Also, come back around 5pm this evening for the announcement of the winner of my Spring Fling Giveaway item.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

{Spring Fling} Day #11

I cannot believe that we have been at this for 11 days already.
There has been some seriously amazing stuff out there.
CONGRATULATIONS
to the ladies who have already won.

Today's items are equally exciting as the previous ones.

First, from B Inspired Mama a $30 gift certificate


Then, from Dew This, you have a chance to win some cute decorative tiles

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

{Spring Fling} Day #10

SORRY THIS IS POSTING SO LATE! 
I thought that I had post dated it.
OOPS!

YAY! For this super fun event.
Thanks to everyone who visited yesterday and entered my giveaway.
There is still time to enter.

However there are more new giveaways for today.

Please visit
BoyGirlBoy Inspired for this cute necklace

and Ashley from Ashley Creation has this cute fabric bow for one lucky gal

Spring Table Vignette

I love little vignettes and center pieces.
I also LOVE Spring.

Put these together and you come up with something very pretty.

Let me take you through the metamorphosis of 
this years Spring vignette.

I started with this.
Table Runner: Target, Tray: Made by my Daddy in high school wood shop, Thrifted cloche filled w/reused Easter grass & wooden eggs, .99 Store Candle holder, 
Silk carnations, Vintage thimble from my Grandma.
Here's a closer look of the decor part.



It was satisfactory for several days, but I just knew that the magazines weren't exactly decor.

So I added some things.
Added: Vintage Carnival glass candy dish (Great Grandmother's), floral vase-?, Party Lite Tea Lite holder filled with mint styrofoam balls.


This was much better. However, the addition of this little bunny made of ash (a gift from my grandmother)was a further improvement.



However, I still felt like it needed a little extra 
in the front left corner. 
Something for the bunny to sit on.
That's when I remembered that I had a green egg tray
that I previously purchased from Joann's
sitting on my kitchen buffet.
I grabbed it.




MUCHMUCH better!!!

Satisfaction!
Visit thecsiproject.com

Monday, March 28, 2011

T-Shirt Refashion

Last week I purchased this simple gray Tee at Forever 21 for $2.


I purchased it knowing that I wanted to do something fun with it.

The other night when I sat down to start playing around with the top,
I remembered the lace collar I had left over from my

So I got it out.

Cut it in half. 

Then I played around with it, pinning it and designing until I came up with something I liked.

Finally, I knew what I wanted to do.

I chose a contrasting yellow thread to add an extra pop
and sat down to sew.

This is what I ended up with.
Close ups of flower and contrasting thread


For some reason I feel like this photo shows how short I really am.


I am quite pleased with this refashion.

One thing that I especially love is that when the tee gets old, 
as it inevitably will,
I will be able to once again salvage the lace.

It's so awesome when things can be reused over and over.



Visit thecsiproject.com

Sunday, March 27, 2011

{Spring Fling} Wood You Be Mine Necklace Giveaway

Welcome to all of you visiting from Wildflowers and Whimsy.

I am more than thrilled to have you as a guest over here in my little corner of blogland.




Let me just briefly introduce myself to you.


I am Jayna (pronounced J-na) Rae.
I live in California's High Desert with the love of my life
and our two gorgeous kidlets.


I am a "temporarily retired" English teacher turned stay-at-home MOM.
I love my job!!!
I get to snuggle and play, craft and bake, swing and slide,
and most importantly I get to fulfill the role that God created me to fulfill as a wife and mom.


Okay, so that's the briefest of brief about moi.


On to today's giveaway.
Woot! Woot!


Today I am giving away one of these super flirty and springy 
Wood You Be Mine necklaces from my ETSY shop
RockNRegalia





My shop is aimed at providing rockin' items 
for moms and their boys,
although I often create items for my shop 
for those daughters who rock too.




THERE'S MORE . . .
Yes, I am also offering a 15% discount code to my shop for all of you lovely ladies.


WILD1


Now, that I have you all excited,
 here is how you can enter to win.


I am giving you five chances:


1. Follow RockNRegalia (Mandatory)
2. Visit my shop and let me know what you like
3. Heart my ETSY shop
4. Follow Wildflowers and Whimsy 
5. Purchase an item from my shop (worth 2 entries, just leave two comments)


Good luck to all of you ladies. Don't forget to head on over to enter Jamie's Giveaway at 
Two Plus Jilly



Also, check back tomorrow for giveaways from
Boy Girl Boy Inspired and Ashley Creation



{Spring Fling} Day #8

Well, we have been at this for an entire week now, 
and it has been TREMENDOUS fun!!!

Let's get right to it.

Today's Spring Fling Giveaways are super cute for any little girl.

Just check out this dress from our wonderful event hostess


and this favorite from a Jennuine Life
(You may have seen it on Project Toddler Runway)

Go enter and give some love.

Serious on Sunday

I want to take some time out this Sunday morning to share with you some important information.

I forewarn you that this is long, but important.

This information relates to my TRUST post from a few weeks back.

At that time my family (not my household though)
became faced with some crucial and staggering issues 
regarding a members severe addictions.

Yes, this is going to become quite personal very quickly.
This is a disclaimer.

I understand that various forms of addiction exist in households,
and as bloggers we need to be aware that the computer can be an addiction.

However, the addiction of this family member is not to the computer,
 but to something more dangerous. 
He is addicted to more than one powerful narcotic.

On the evening that this information was revealed to me, 
and some other family members by those who were already privy to the information,
the addict had caused an accident where he was thrown 
from the vehicle and turned over one parked car while landing atop another.

DRUGS ARE DANGEROUS!!!
ADDICTION IS DANGEROUS!!!

These are quite serious issues.

Luckily, only the addict/driver was involved.
By God's grace he is alive and virtually uninjured, 
despite early worries from the doctors.

What saddens my heart is that people knew about the problem.
People knew for a very long time.
They were "trying" to do something, 
but in cases like this there is no try; 
there is do and don't.
This is a life and death situation.

Moreover, there is a young child involved in the family dynamic.
A child who was allowed to stay home with the person,
and who was allowed to be in the car with the person.
The claim is he would never "use" in her presence, 
unfortunately there is no way to trust this to be true because drugs are 
POWERFUL!!!

Do not be fooled.
People are controlled by drugs, 
they do not control the drugs.

Finally, this directly affects my household.
I have been invited over and visited with my children
while the use was going on.
My concern that there may be a problem was known, 
but in a selfish move the owner of the home hid this from me.
They wanted to see my children for the holidays,
as long as I didn't know it was safe, right?

Secrets are BAD!
Secrets HURT!
Most importantly,
Secrets can be DANGEROUS!

My son is active.
He can climb anything.
He can find anything.
And, NO! I do not want him finding or seeing drugs.
I do not want him near residual residue.

I am ANGRY!
I am HURT!
Most importantly my heart has been crushed by someone
 who I love to the ends of the earth.

I understand protecting a child,
because I want to protect mine, but do not protect your children 
at the expense of other peoples.

So I sit and remain strong.
I continue my research about the drugs,
especially how they relate and may effect 
a rare heart disease that my family carries.

I have handed over tons of information regarding treatment.
GOOD FREE TREATMENT does exist!
This was an amazing find,
one I should've remembered from Air1.

Teenchallenge has an AMAZING program that is free.
It is a Christian center, as most free programs are.
Another free program is run by the Salvation Army.

Finally, I have found another wonderful charity via Crowdtap
that helps aide in cost of rehabilitation and recovery.

In order to find this information, and much more,
including interventionist and paid recovery,
I pretty much ignored my family for three and a half days.

None of this information has been put to use by my family,
which is why My husband and I have currently limited all contact to phone calls
and visits with only specific people in my home only.

We cannot endanger our children.
We are heartbroken for the child involved,
but we cannot participate in enabling this to continue.

The person is clean for now,
but it has only been a few weeks.
Without professional help 
this decision is statistically NOT going to stick.

If you know someone who is using PLEASE help them.
You cannot protect them.
You cannot protect other people from them,
all you are doing is hurting yourself and those very people 
who you are trying to protect.

I ask also that you pray for this situation.
I know that God is good.
I know that he has helped me to make the  hardest decision of my life.
I know that if I continue to trust then things will change,
not that I know exactly what or how.

This event and revelation has completely shifted the dynamic of my household and family.
My view of tolerance is altered.

If you would like further information based on specific addictions 
or other places to find help,
you can contact me and I will share what I have found,
though I am by no means an expert.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

{Spring Fling} Day #7

It is that time again.
What time?

SPRING FLING GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Here are today's goods.

This tote from Bethany at SWEET BEE BUZZING


Then there is this FUN FILLED basket of goodies from 
Melanie at Lucky 7 Designs

Introducing Copy Cat Corner . . .

I would love to take a minute today to introduce to you my 
 IRL gal pal  
Jenna from Copy Cat Corner


She is AMAZING!!!

This is us just before a No Doubt concert in Chula Vista.
See those awesome shirts she had made for us.

I LOVELOVELOVE her like no other.
I was so broken hearted when she moved back to San Diego.

In fact, she is part of the reason I started to blog.
She posted one day on Facebook that she needed more friends who blogged, so she could read their postings.

About a week later I started my family blog, 
which is set to private.
Then about a month after that I started this here adventure.

Okay, so Jenna is super cute.

The first thing she ever made me was this fun cake for my birthday.
Cutest Lollipop cake EVER!
She throws fun parties,
like this graduation party for me,
Courtesy of The Cake Shop, Apple Valley

At my party.
It was green and brown with lots of fun!
or the Apple theme party she threw when she moved to 
Apple Valley.
This party had all apple themed food and we played Apples to Apples.
It was bunches of fun.

She is a recent mommy to this GORGEOUS little gal!



Isn't she P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!!

Roly Poly has dibs on her.

Most importantly, her blog is off to an amazing start.

Just look at these projects that she has already shared.

Tree Mural

Branch Wall Hanging

Recipe for Fried Rice

So show a new gal some love and visit her.

I am guest posting over there today.
I will be showing some of the fun ways that I use 
flowers and bows in my hair.
They are sort of a staple in my accessory repertoire.
Here's a glimpse.