I thought a nice long weekend would be perfect for sprouting garbanzo beans. It’s the first time I’ve ever done this.  It’s very easy and super nutritious.

First you rinse about a 1/2 – 1 cup worth of beans very well. Place in big jar and cover with 2-3 cups of water (they will expand quite a bit, so make sure there is plenty of water). You can use some cheese cloth and a rubber band to cover and allow them to soak overnight on your kitchen counter. The next day, rinse, drain and place jar, with cheese cloth lid, in a bowl so that the jar is tilting upside down. This will allow any water to drain out.  Rinse and drain 2-3 times per day.  After 2-3 days, you will have some sprouted beans.

At this point you can eat them, toss them in your salad or make some falafels.  I didn’t particularly like the taste of them alone, so I whipped them into sprouted hummus. It was so tasty this way.

This is a fun project to do with the kids because you can watch the little sprouts grow daily.  This web page has a nice list of other things that can be sprouted too.

No related posts.

Sadly, the creative color challenge it at its final week.  Purple is and was the challenge for the week and for me.  I was totally into a purple craze through high school and college. Purple was my color and everyone knew it. Then I starting feeling stronger vibes for other colors during the last ten years. When I saw the color for this week, I was a little freaked.  Rarely do I use purple in my paintings.  But, after looking for my purple inspiration, I started feeling my purple passion from within.  It’s still there–it’s just been hiding.

I am really surprised at how much I enjoyed this color and how much I love this painting. I was reminded of how much I adore this color. Such a lovely reminder. I will definitely be pulling out the purple hues more often. In this challenge we were allowed to use purple and any of the other colors from the previous weeks.

And here is my weekly purple flickr inspiration.  Click on the image to see photo credits.

Related posts:

1. summer & the sea
2. new art
3. finished pieces

Just playing with my new phone and retro camera app.  Too fun and a bit overwhelming. The whole thing could get me in a lot of trouble time-wise, but so so fun.

No related posts.

I made this harvest basket for Rhythm of the Home, a beautiful website with wonderful sense of seasonal play, warmth, connection and celebration. There are lots of nurturing, loving and mindful activities to enjoy.

Click here to see the full tutorial.

Happy September!

No related posts.

I’ve spent the entire day adding fabric scraps, pieces, patterns and the like to my shop. Ahhhh, it feels good to let go. I still have a box that I’d like to send to Iraqi Bundles of Love and I still have a big load of fabric in my collection, including lots of vintage linens, and lots more scrap. How does a girl acquire so much stuff!  (I know,don’t answer)

Figuring out the shipping was the hardest part. If an order has multiple items, the price of shipping can go up quickly because of the weight of the fabric, and such.  So I tried to keep shipping as reasonable as I could, hopefully not having to pay extra on my end, or you on your end.  So, if the shipping was way more than it needed to be, I will gladly refund the excess.

Also, international order are welcome, but expect shipping to be $11 or higher.  Just shoot me an email if you are interested and I’ll give you a special quote.

Thanks for letting me share my goods. I hope they get some good use by people I know love to craft and sew as much as me.

No related posts.

I had the day off from work and spent the day with a friend.

We went to the farmer’s market…

enjoyed the scenery…

had some lovely tomatoes in our lunch…

and played with my friend’s new kitty who has no name. Any suggestions?

Then I came home and had fun manipulating my photos.

Hope you had a lovely day too.

No related posts.

We are finally enjoying some rainstorms in Az. It has been a long, dry and very hot summer. I have been waiting and waiting for the monsoons, and they are finally here. My favorite part is the beautiful accumulation of lovely poofy clouds.

I am still working on photographing my de-stashed fabric.  Soon, soon I will share all my goodies.

**************

And lastly, I am announcing the winner of An Awesome Book:

The winner is Susan who said, “I’ve had my eye on this book for a while now. I think my 3-year old is ready for it!”

Thank you to everyone who entered and to Dallas Clayton for such a fun interview & giveaway.

**************

No related posts.

I really am having so much fun with the color challenge, I will be sad when it is all over. Gosh, I hope this isn’t the last week! We are nearing the end of August aren’t we?

There was also a theme thrown in this time: sea.  So ocean scenery for this piece. Kinda goes with my mermaid from last week and the mermaid in my bathroom.

Also, I couldn’t do a color challenge without also making an inspiring flickr mosaic first. Click on image for photo credits.

No related posts.

I am in full force clean up mode around here. I’m doing so well too. Usually when I clean up my craft room, I really don’t end up throwing anything away. I just sorta reshuffle it into new places. This time I am looking at each piece of paper, fabric with new eyes.  I’ve had some of my fabric for ages now and am having a hard time remembering why I bought it in the first place. Some of it, my vintage linens for example, I just have way too much of.

I have 2 huge bags going to goodwill, 2 huge piles of trash and a table full of fabric I’d like to send to a good home. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it, but I may put it all for sale in my etsy shop (or my old one) and just see what happens.  I have loads of large vintage linen pieces, around 35 x 48 inches big–more than shown in the picture. Plus, big pieces of random fabric and scrap bundles too.  I’m hoping to have everything in my shop sometime next week, once I figure out how to ship it as cheaply as possible so everyone can get a really good deal. Sound good?

No related posts.

I am super excited to share this really fun book with you. It’s about dreaming big, and you know I love that!  My kids  and I have read it a hundred times, so we came up with some silly & fun questions together.  Mostly they are about dreams and bedtime and reading.  All good stuff.

Big thank you to Dallas for sharing a little bit about himself and his dreams. You can watch a short video about the children’s literacy foundation that he set up around the book here, and read An Awesome Book online for free. Also check out  the mural he was commissioned to make on a children’s clothing store this month. It’s pretty rad.

No related posts.