Cardstore.Com Is My New Go To Printer For Personalized Cards, Invites, and More

Mother's Day is approaching and this is really a beautiful, personalized way to say I love you to Mom, Grandma and any woman in your life that has made an impact.

I love when you can personalize cards but more importantly, as an amateur, professional photographer, I love being able to share my pictures with friends and family.

As you all know, Goddess just celebrated her 5th birthday and while I loved doing craft thank you's for the kids in our lives, I really wanted to do something special for all the adults who showed their love to Goddess.

I chose the style (3 pictures, because how could I pick only one????), I placed my order for the amount I needed (No minumum order! Get whatever you need. Need 1 card? No problem)! When I saw the box 2 days after placing my order I was shocked. The turn around was so fast. The card itself is amazing! Nice, thick cardstock, that holds its shape and stands up almost like a frame. No bending in the middle. I love getting cards and placing them around the house (on shelves or the top of the TV) but they end up bending in the center within 2 days, eventually laying flat on the table until I decide if they are keepers.

Color Carnival Friday

This week's Color Carnival is a hard pick for me. I have so many fun pictures that I took with this theme in mind.



i

Playing Catch-Up After Playing Hooky With The Kids

I am not a big believer in standardized education. Kids do not need to be in a structured, school setting to learn in my eyes. This means many things (which we will undoubtedly get into along the way), but it also means is that I have absolutely no problem springing the kids from school, for what has become our yearly ritual of going to the zoo.

My Little Ground Hogs (more pictures to come)

Yesterday, Goddess just told me "you can give away all our Little People."
Me: Huh, you don't want them anymore?"
Her: No Handsome and I don't play with them, you can give them to someone else."

*Sob* this makes me so sad. I loved watching them play with their Little People. We have hundreds and they were a big part of their pretend play. So sad!!!!

I loved watching them create these villages with the Strawberry Shortcake house and the Little People. My kids are getting big! Wahhhh.

This picture from 2007 actually hurts my heart!

Mr. Magoo Returns on DVD After a 30 Year Vacation with Kung Fu Magoo

As a child of the 60's I was a big Magoo fan. Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carole was by far my favorite holiday movie for many years.  When I was approached to review a new Magoo movie with Disney stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse I was excited. Would Magoo be relevant? Would kids of today watch it?

What I Can Tell You: I put the DVD in and explained to Goddess that we were going to watch a movie called "Kung Fu Magoo". She thought the title was funny. So do I! I told her that when I was little I loved Mr. Magoo. She loves hearing my "when I was a little girl stories."

We sat down on the couch with a blanket and pressed play. She loved it. Magoo is still cute and funny in a sad sort of way. Magoo and his "nephew" fight against evil and Magoo avoid danger by the skin of his teeth.

I was surprised and happy that Goddess liked it. She is not familiar with Dylan and Cole although I believe this will be a reason a lot of tweens might like it.

Husband And Wife by Leah Stewart

What I Can Tell You: I read this book from cover to cover in 2 nights and loved every minute of it. It is so well written. The characters, storyline and general feel of the book are perfect!  I will love the main character Sarah. Sarah's world is rocked to the core and she STILL has to do her mother duties. Totally believable story that shows just how strong woman can be and how strong they HAVE to be.

I will be searching for more books by Leah Stewart, she is a fantastic writer who keeps the story moving and doesn't beef it up with filler (I never felt like I had to read ahead to pass over irrelevent storyline). If you are like me, you will not be able to put this book down.

Husband and Wife hits the shelves on May 4th.

Melba Snacks Food From My Past Get A Make Over

When Mom Central asked for bloggers interested in reviewing Melba Toast I raised my virtual hand. I remember Melba Toast from when I was a kid. Whenever my parents went on a diet, and it happened often, they would eat Melba Toast. 

I received two boxes in the mail, a Sea Salt flavor and Spicy 3 Pepper to try. I took them with me to my morning, coffee meeting and asked my girlfriends to try them. They both liked them however, I was more fond of the Sea Salt one. The big test was my 5 year old. She asked to try one and took the tiniest nibble. While I waited for a face she swallowed the nibble and went back for more giving me the proverbial that has become her signature "I like it" stance.

When my parents ate them, they usually threw some tuna or egg salad on theirs. This was over 35 years ago though, things are a little different thanks to Chef Kyle Shadix. Check out some of these awesome recipes, including a dessert made with Melba Toast. 

The End Of the Line - Where Have All The Fish Gone

What I Can Tell You:

My husband and I are big documentary watchers so I was excited to watch one that I had not seen yet. The END of the Line, Where Have All The Fish Gone is narrated by Ted Dansen and shows us the devastating effects "over fishing" has on our oceans. I had no idea of the declining fish population around the world. One speaker talks of how they dredge the ocean over 6 times a year and compared it to a farmer. If a farmer plowed over 6 times a year, how much crop would he actually get?

This is an eye opening movie. I was completely unaware of the how consumer consumption and corporations have aided in the decline of many fish populations and how these declines affect the health of the ocean itself. Could we possibly have an ocean without fish by 2048? Scary thought!

Because of cost I do not eat a lot of fish. However, before you take a bite, see if the fish  planning to buy or eat is caught or farmed in a way that is sustainable.

The End of the Line is not suggesting you give up eating fish, they merely want to educate the public to the crises we are inevitably heading toward.

AAARRRHHHHHHGGGGG!!!

Why?

I understand and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, yet sometimes I just don't get it.

On April 7th I posted an item on Ebay stating "pick up only" since it is a huge, heavy piece of furniture.

On the 10th and 13th I received bids on the item. Hooray for me.

On the 14th, bidder #1 asked to be removed from the bidding because they didn't realize this was a pick up only item.

I was unable to remove and asked if they could remove themselves. They couldn't or didn't. 

The item ended and since I knew #1 wouldn't be coming to get it. I sent messages to bidder #2 saying; 

"The person who bid after you didn't realize the item was pick up only. If you want the item before I relist, please let me know." (I wrote it this way because I wanted to hopefully make the sale but also because I wanted to let them know IT IS PICK UP ONLY!)

No response but I received a payment of $180.00. Awesome. So they MUST understand that it is pick up only so I send a response. When will you be picking up? Nothing! I look them up and see that they live in CALIFORNIA. Ummm..I live in NY. 

I head over to PayPal sending back the money that I COULD SO USE stating, "This item is pick up only. If you intend to pick up, please resend the money."

Today, I receive this message!

Hi I havent your item, it has been one week and nothing please e-mail me ??????????

ARRGHHHHHGGG...really, seriously!????? WTF! 

So, now I have AGAIN sent a message through EBAY because that is the only info I have on them, lets see what happens.

My First I Heart Faces Challenge

I have been following I Heart Faces for some time now but never felt up to the challenges. This week the challenge is "Smiles".

This is one of my favorite Goddess portraits.  She is the actress and my perfect muse.

Meme Combination - Blue and Mellow Yellow Monday

In an effort to keep my updates down I try to combine memes whenever possible.

These little buds looked like little cups trying to grab as much sun light as possible.

I found this shoe on my nature walk and decided to use it as a prop in Waaaaaayyyyy to many pictures.

Avatar Lives Up To The Hype

There has been so much talk about Avatar over the past few months and on my blog, yet, I saw it for the first time last night thanks to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Well, if you have seen the movie, I probably won't say anything that you don't already know, but please go ahead and leave your comment telling me what you loved about Avatar.

After we put the kids to bed we sat down with our review copy and got ready for a long night (the movie is almost 3 hours long). You don't even realize how long the movie is because it moves so quickly and there is no down time.

From the moment it starts you are transported to Pandora. The visual effects of Avatar are amazing. The brilliant color, the imagery, the soundtrack all make for an award winning movie.

What I Can Tell You: The movie is amazing. If you haven't seen it. See it! If you have, well, you know, watch it again. I will.  I appreciated the whole save a tree, save a civilization story. WOW, the visuals amazing!!! Stunning clarity. Pure genius. There story moves quickly but you never feel lost. I loved everything about it including the really cool "Halo" guns and crazy robotic suits. I cannot wait to sit with my kids to watch this when they are old enough.  

Parents, while I personally think it is a beautiful piece of work, I cannot show my kids yet. There are three curses in the movie (bitch was one of them).

Avatar is worth the hype. You will not be disappointed. 

Self Portrait Sunday - April 25, 2010

Here are the reasons for playing: Come on, admit it, you look through your photo albums or computer folders and see very few photos of yourself. Maybe it is because, like me, you are usually behind the camera. Or maybe, it's because you never feel you look good in photos so you tell everyone, "don't take any of me."

Well, take it...in the future you will wonder why you thought you didn't look good! You look good, be proud and show your smiling face!

Here is my face in reflection. I was at the Botanical Gardens this week and Lauri thought this would be a great Self Portrait Sunday picture. Since I didn't have a chance to download yesterdays picks, I thought so too.


Hope to see your smiling face.

Camera Critters - My Ducks

They are not really mine but since they visit my stream every day for the past week I will refer to them as such.

We where thrilled to have the ducks use our stream, the kids love watching them and now know these are Mallard Ducks and which is the male and female. Wildlife in my own back yard is always fun.