I want to embrace the letter "s"

I'm pretty sure this title won't end up on anybody's google search.

I am a school teacher- I live & love the alphabet- write it, read it, sing it. But that letter "s." Oh how it gives me trouble when I'm on crafts. (my sister says crafts are like my drug- which I will be making a shirt that says exactly that- I'm on crafts, haha!)

Lately, thanks to some friends of friends and co-workers, Hermanas has been busy with orders. Yay! Lots of sewn letters I've been a-making and they keep getting better. Until..."s" shows up. I spend triple time trying to figure it out. I am going for a whimsical look, but it just does not work out. So after the first yuck, I tried another approach. Just me, the fabric and the machine. A few turns here and there and we got it. The 2nd picture shows what I ended up with, much better than the first. So I guess I found somewhat of a solution until I get an order for a Jessica or Melissa. With that new approach I have embraced the "s."

I want to give props to my main man...

My man deserves props. He works hard (sometimes too hard), plays hard (sometimes too hard, haha) and most of all gives me support like no one else. He will see something I've made and take time to tell me how much he likes it or he'll tell me that he is proud of me. He supports all 25 of my new hobbies and even encourages them too. He goes with my new vegetable of the week, and gives me my six second  hug and lets the hug last longer too.

There is nothing like a compliment. It can turn your day around, and lucky for me, he loves to give them out! So cheers to my awesome hubby who makes me feel awesome too! I can feel the love in the small moments we share and I hope this makes him feel some of that today!

I want to renew...

Re-new. Make new. Take something, or yourself, through a transformation where what you end with still has the structure of the original, but looks unrecognizable. Here is my try at renewing some worn out furniture. As we worked in the backyard this weekend we took a long look at these chairs. What do we do with them? They were looking like trash but we didn't want them to be trash. Something had to be done.

So, wa-la! After sanding, staining, tightening, and polying, oh and sewing new pillows....here the chairs are renewed and refreshed. They are now ready for cook outs and hang outs all summer long!

I want to support local farms...

Holy moly! Check out these vegetables! Looks like I know what we're having for dinner this week! A local business is now the local pick up for local farm goods. You put our order in on Thursday and it's there waiting for you Saturday morning. There is not a year long commitment and you can buy just week to week- it is awesome! This lettuce is bigger than my head and puts the lettuce we grew in the backyard to shame!! I am in love with this beautiful produce and so excited about how easy they have made it for us. Everyone wins! Yay farms, yay vegetables! I'm not sure I've ever been this excited about salads!

I want my garden to grow..

Check out the garden and the new scarecrow I added. Haha, We'll see if it scares the birds away from my basil. Now we wait for the veggies to arrive. With all the rain we've had, the plants are happy, now all they need is some sun.

I want to find treasure...

Well, I really did not find treasure per se, but I did find one heck of a deal. The past two weekends someone in our neighborhood has had a yard sale. As we walk our dog, we walk on by to see if there is anything worth stopping. Which I now have come up with a strategy when it comes to a yard sale. First take a quick glimpse. Step two- walk through once, seeing what catches your eye. Then the final step- take another walk through, slowly. Slowly is important because you see things you didn't see the first time. My second time around last weekend landed us a Nikon camera. During the slow round I also found this cute little basket to hold my paints, Hubs found a skiiing bib and a side table for our patio. We also scored a nice back-packing back pack. Cheers for the deals and for neighbors who have cool stuff to get rid of!

I want to make lunch green...

So we are pretty green here at our house. We only use cloth napkins and we use rags instead of paper towels, etc, etc. I would say that we try really hard and make a sincere effort in keeping our planet as awesome as it is. I want my great grandkids, great grandkids, great grandkids, to have every bit of natural beauty that we have today.

With this green conscience, I have noticed that while at home we do great, but at work we tend to slip quite often. Little by little we get better as we figure out new ways of doing things. I finally got my husband to start taking his lunch daily and even bought him a semi-manly lunch box. But now, due to some free time today, we have a case for the silverware, a napkin, and a resuable sandwich bag! The sandwich bag needs some tweeking, probably use oilcloth, but other than that, I'm pretty pleased with the green lunch I made today! Another high five to the sewing machine! -which I'm going to have to name her after all this recognition I'm giving her!

I want to brighten a room...

A welcoming cozy kind of house is where I want to live. I like for my house to say, "Come on in, mi casa es su casa, stay awhile." I also want it to reflect little pieces of who we are as a family and what is important to us. That's a lot for a house! And a lot to think about when selecting pieces. As we also know I tend to get bored easy and need to change things up like moving furniture or getting a new lamp. Recently I have vowed to do-it-yourself and buy used, so changes do not come easy, but they do come cheap:) Anyway, our bedroom needed some color to add some excitement. So here it is......fresh pillows made by me. This great feeling of satisfaction surely beats the uneasy guilt I get when spending $50 on pillows! Yay for funky fabric and the sewing machine!

I want to celebrate mamasitas......

Everybody needs a mom and if you are lucky enough, you will get a good one. It's too bad I didn't acknowledge this until I was basically out of my teens! With all the craziness I put my mom through during those years, I probably won't ever be able to make it up to her, but I sure am trying.Lucky enough we don't talk too much about my rebelliuos days and my mom still loves me.

A good mom can be described as so many things, having so many magic powers, and such giant hearts. My mom and my mother in law are always surprising me. I love that I can and I do look to learn from them. And they, although they may just be incredibly good liars, show absolute interest in whatever is going on in my life and they try to help in both small and big ways.

I love the feeling of appreciation I have for them. No Brunch, dinner, or gift basket can say it all, but hopefully, little by little they will know.

I want to be a part of something awesome....

Girls on the Run is so much fun (what we say at the end of each practice). And pretty awesome too I might add. After 12 weeks, today was the big race, the 5k that finishes off the season. Each race day I stress a little- do they all have a ride, will they show up, will they be on time, will they eat breakfast, etc, etc  etc.  Both seasons this year I had at least one girl show up at exactly the start time of the race and both times someone in our group needed medical attention! No worries, both were fine, and I found a very quick way to get my heart rate up.

Today was great- I had my own little buddy and as we ran, she as all smiles. Towards the finish we grabbed hands as we crossed the finish line- which was enough to melt my heart. The program teaches confidence and being proud of who they are. Today I was able to see it on their faces, and that felt good. Confidence a girl has can make the difference in making a smart decision over a bad one. Hopefully, they will continue to build onto the confidence that we sparked today.

I want to make people smile...

Being a school teacher can be pretty darn frustrating. I love the kids no matter how many different ways I have to teach the same thing. I am not about test scores, I am about making them proud of who they are and how they can make this world a better place. I don't see data and numbers when I look at their faces, I see smiles and their need to be loved. I figure, if I can make them smile once a day, with whatever is going on in their lives, then maybe by the end of the year, all those smiles added up, they had a great day!

I want to sleep well...

As I said before, I am not a big "sleeper." I don't take naps and I enjoy waking up before everyone else does. But sometimes it gets a little ridiculous and I'm up at 4:00 in the morning on a Saturday cleaning the house. This happened this Saturday. By 9:00 I had cleaned the house, except for where hubs was sleeping, done laundry, walked the dog, went to home depot, the farmer's market and Target! That is a whole day worth of activities for most!! Honestly I think it's my constant going, doing and thinking about going and doing that brings this on, but it is torture just laying in the bed forcing myself to be tired. I can't go back to sleep!

With this problem I end up becoming extremely curious and envious when I see other people sleeping. My mom for example, although she'll get up at odd hours as well, can sleep anywhere- she has even fallen asleep in the dentist chair! On a plane, both parents are out even before take off. I am even amazed when my husband is still sleeping soundly until 8:30 on a weekend!

My most envious sleeper, of course, is my dog. Nobody can sleep like her. If only I could get her to do and go to the places I am always thinking about while I am at work! This is her right now- lights on, television on, hubs and I talking, and if we don't get up for awhile, she will be snoring before long. Oh to sleep like my puppy...