five elements bags

Check out this bag! It's one in a series of five that I designed for emagineGreen. They're part of the 'It's Elemental' collection, and these bags in particular were inspired by the five elements: earth, air, space, water and fire. It's really fun to be branching out into product and pattern design. The best part? The five bags roll up into teeny things that fit nicely in a purse or glovebox, so you always have your reusable bag at the ready. All five fit in a little pouch.

So where can you get these stunning bags? From emagineGreen! Visit my sister's site to shop away, and take care of your holiday gift giving in one step. Plus, then you can say you know the cool person who designed the bags...


Here's the whole set of bags:



Update: go and check out simplemom's awesome reuseable bag giveaway! Wow - I really love those oilcloth bags by ShopWise - very cool.

Personalized Cards for Kids

Just in time for the holidays, gaiacreative is offering personalized cards for your little artist.

5x7 flat (not folding) cards and envelopes
Four styles - for girls and boys (birds, balloons, flowers, or whale). Please specify style when ordering.
Personalized with your child’s name
Recycled-content cards with recycled colorful envelope
Designed and printed in Colorado

All orders must be received by Monday, December 1. Cards will be shipped on Friday, December 12.

Available now on etsy as a set of 12 for $14, or contact me directly by leaving a comment to this post about larger quantities (ie set of 24 cards for $25, or set of 36 cards for $33.) Also, if you contact me directly, you have the option of adding your child's name and address to the back of the envelope - an additional $3 per set of 12.




whale


flowers


balloons


birds


envelope colors: grapesicle (top) for birds; orange fizz (below) for all others


grapesicle envelope (with bird design) showing optional name and address printed on back flap.

Shipping is $3 per set of cards; for multiple cards ordered for one shipping address, I will adjust shipping accordingly.

emagineGreen in Fast Company!

OK ... a little more about emagineGreen ...

emagineGreen is in the November issue of Fast Company, a popular business magazine! You can read that article here.

I've been working with emagineGreen for the last year as their designer. Here's a brief description of emagineGreen, directly from the website:
emagineGreen is a direct sales company dedicated to turning curiosity about what is happening in our environment into positive action. Our purpose is to simplify the ‘going green’ process for millions of people who want a healthier home and environment.

Our greenCoaches (my sis being one of them) offer in-home ecoParties where they share environmental education and ecoFriendly products to help people 'green' their lives. The greenCoach opportunity is open to anyone, and it's a great time to get in at the ground level ... Let me know if you want more info.

Oh, and our founder, Tonya, was just awarded 'the greenest of the green' by Arizona Republic. Check out this article to read a little more about the background of eG.

Time off

I'm logging off for a while (as if you hadn't already noticed!). There are so many other fun blogs to peruse - I know you won't miss me! Happy fall.

wallpaper + design

The September issue of Sunset magazine features an article by a friend of mine, Christiana Coop, who operates Ferm Living (a hip wallpaper company in San Fran). Check it out. The coolest of the cool are featured in Sunset, so congrats, Christiana! Plus, the wallpaper designs offered by Ferm are really hip.

a day in the life of me

on lobotoME's blog today. Find it here. And if you skim the post (it's a long one), be sure to read the gratitude quote at the bottom. It's good. Happy Wednesday!

five good minutes

In my post last week about six elements to health, I mention stress as a major player to manage. (Nothing new.) I mentioned just taking five minutes - just starting with that - to set aside on the cushion; a mini meditation, if you will.

This weekend I was reading an article in this month's Delicious Living about Five Minutes. According to the doctor and author of this book, a mere five minutes can actually be really valuable. Here are some specific 5-minute meditations to try. Think I'll intersperse these throughout my workdays this week.

amazingly generous giveaways

a couple of shameless plugs for two of my fave blogs...



Head on over to simplemom! Go here to see all of the goods you could win! The gifts are all in-line with simplemom's thoughts on a simple life: green and frugal living, productivity and organization, taking care of yourself, etc.

Simplemom has a lot of good little tidbits for us time-starved, overstretched mamas. I really liked her last series 'how to be disorganized and uproductive at home.' My favorite on that list was not taking care of yourself, which, as I know, will get you every time.




And it's not too late to take part in Jenny's 'Get your yoga on' giveaway at lobotoME's brain fog blog! Jenny had one of those cool scenic yoga mats on our girlZ trip to Moab last weekend. Om shanti. Have a great weekend!

six elements to health

I was reading elephant magazine last night, a publication about 'the mindful life' out of Boulder, and read this:

There are six elements to health. In order of importance:

1. Thoughts
2. Breath
3. Hydration
4. Nutrition
5. Exercise
6. Sleep

The article is geared towards fitness, and most people are surprised to see that exercise is number 5 on that list. The author mentions that 90 percent of fitness is due to what you eat.

Last night I went to a vaccine talk by Dr. Roy Steinbock, a board-certified physician (pediatrician) in Boulder who takes a more holistic approach. I'll do a separate post with his suggestions regarding vaccinations, but what I want to mention about him here are (what I took away as) the top three things he stresses as vital for health:

1. Reduce stress
2. Proper nutrition
3. Find the middle path in all things (he has a Buddhist approach, with jives with me)

'Thoughts' (stress) and nutrition are high on his list too. Makes sense to me.

The woman who wrote the article in elephant, Ruth Hiller, suggests exploring your metabolic type to line up your nutrition correctly. She uses this book.

I did the short survey here and discovered I'm a 'mixed type.' To get more info, I need the guy's book, but overall, the results are pretty much what I already do ... a little of everything! (My only catch is I need to cut out some sugar...)



Read Ruth's entire article here.

So what am I taking away from all of this? For me, the most important things I can focus on (which do need improving in my life right now) are stress and nutrition. But for me, getting enough exercise allows me to feel invigorated and productive, which in turn affects how I eat and how I deal with stress. So I'd put that one up there really high too. This is nothing new! My plan:
1. Stress.
-Take stretch breaks at my desk and make them also breathing breaks. (Deep, full belly breathing).
-Attend sangha (Vipassana meditation group) 2x/month (more, if feasible!)
-Get back on the cushion. Start small. Five minutes a day. Don't I have five minutes somewhere?

2. Exercise
-commit every Sunday to writing out my exercise plans for the coming week. Schedule them. This is such a no brainer but I somehow still slack off on it. It's Friday, and I haven't worked out per se all week. And I'm feeling it. Argh. (But Ross and I are going for a bike ride in about 5 minutes!)

3. Nutrition
-again, a no brainer. Meal planning. Sundays. Need to get my tail into gear on this one. So far, I know that I want to plan on making two grain/bean salads per week - for dinners, then leftovers for lunch (ideal lunch food).

OK - all for now. Off on the bike!

101 things to do with zucchini

Ok, so that title is a little misleading - this post really isn't about that. But I did happen upon an amazing blog (does everyone already know about this one?) called 101 Cookbooks - exploring recipes one cookbook at a time. Mostly vegetarian. My quick perusal of it last night had me really excited about this new discovery. I googled the words 'healthy zucchini bread' to find a new recipe, and about 15th down on the list was this one, which I'm going to try out. (Will report back on the results.)

It must have been fate that I discover 101 Cookbooks yesterday evening, because immediately after I did that little search, I checked my email, and a fellow mom friend, Corrie, had email me the recipe for some chocolate zucchini cupcakes (which our tots had consumed eagerly the weekend prior; see chocolate-smeared faces, below). The cupcake recipe Corrie emailed me, as is turns out, is also from 101 Cookbooks.



I see myself spending a lot of time gleaning recipes from this site. We've been grilling a lot of tofu this summer (it's really quite good that way), and she has mentioned here 'Lemon Achiote Grilled Tofu.' I don't know what achiote is, but it sure sounds good, and I'm going to read all about it. She also has a wheat pizza dough recipe on there that she recommends for grilled pizza - another one to try ...

bagless

Last night Mirelle and I went to our local Vitamin Cottage (a small natural grocery chain based in Colorado). We hadn't been in a while, and in the time we've been away, the store's gone completely bagless. How cool is that? And they're the only Vitamin Cottage store in Colorado that is doing so. Can I just say how great it was to be shopping and notice that every other shopper had reuseable bags with them. (If a customer shows up without a bag, they can purchase a cloth bag for $1, or use a cardboard box, of which the store has plenty.) Hopefully it will be a trend that will spread, motivated by the city of San Francisco.

Since I've been working with emagineGreen, I've felt inspired to explore what else I can do to continue along my ecoJourney (an emagineGreen keyword!). I've always been what I would call 'green' (back in the day, I spent many hours at my high school shuffling fermented recycle bins around). But, like with yoga, there's always more to learn, and a path to continue on.

My plan right now is to figured out a way to use less plastic - namely: produce bags, yogurt containers, mixed greens/salad containers and anything else that can't be recycled. The action I'm taking so far is this: I have some great little mesh produce bags that I'm using, and I reuse all of my bread bags for other things, until they're pretty worn out. Vitamin Cottage will recycle used bulk bags (they package all of their bulk items for you) if you take them back in. I wonder where I could take the plastic bread bags? My solution thus far to the yogurt container dilemma is to buy kefir (basically drinkable yogurt) that comes in reyclable bottles. But ideally I'd like to get back to making my own yogurt. And the salad? Just buying leaf lettuce, not mixed greens packaged in plastic. I realized that a lot of these things take a little more time. With convenience comes packaging. Often not recyclable.



If you haven't checked it out yet, Gorgeously Green is a good book. I have so many library books on my bedside table at the moment that I haven't gotten to it yet - just perused it briefly. This is a fun read to inspire more progress on your path to green (or more green)!

nalgene with a purpose

Repurpose your old nalgene (you know, the one you shouldn't be using anymore because of BPA leaching). How's that for a brilliant idea - a solar powered cap that fits nicely on the nalgene's top. I think the nalgene co. should start selling these at an über-discount, just to make up for all of the BPA they've put into the world.

two fantabulous summer recipes

Whew! Summer is getting hectic around these parts. Suddenly my work load is well, laden with stuff. All of which I'm very very grateful for, but yikes! I think I need another one of me.

I was very good and {mostly} didn't look at blogs last week. Well, maybe just a couple of peeks here and there. But it was helpful to take the week off from posting. I've created a new timesheet to log my client hours as I work, with columns for each client, and one called 'personal.' It'll be my own way of logging all of my hours spent at my desk, scoping out blogs not excluded. I think it'll be quite telling for me.

Summer's humming along at its typical blink-of-an-eye speed. We had some friends over for dinner last night, and thought I'd share some recipes for two things very summer. The zucchini is starting to come in at a mind-boggling pace, so this soup took care of last week's bounty.

chipotle honey butter (for corn)
from sunset magazine, july 2007
combine 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (chopped up), 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/3 cup mild-flavored honey, such as clover, 1 garlic clove, minced, and 1/2 tsp salt. (You could blend it all up in the blender, but I just mixed it by hand.) Sooo good, especially on the Colorado Olathe sweet corn that's appearing (and quickly disappearing at the markets!)

cream of zucchini soup with fresh basil - serve chilled this time of year!
from munson farms (near us, in Boulder County). Visit them by going here.
Melt 2 Tbs butter in a 4 qt saucepan over Med heat. Add 1/2 cup chopped green onions (including the green tops). Cook 5 mins 'til softened, stirring occasionally. Add 2 lbs chopped zucchini - about 5 medium (I used some yellow squash too, and it added nice flecks of color). Cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 3 cups chicken or veg broth, bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered, 20 mins. Add 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves. Allow to cool slightly.

Puree the soup in a blender, then stir in 1 1/2 cups half and half, salt and pepper. Serve chilled with a garnish of sour cream or plain yogurt and a basil leaf.

Ciao!

blogging hiatus

Need to check out of the blogosphere for a little while - I'm just maxed with work, and need to focus on that. I'm making a pact with myself not to visit any blogs this week either. (Going to be hard, but here goes.)

Here are just a couple of my favorites (visit them for links to more fabulous places to check out in the blogosphere)...

lobotoME
angry chicken
Small Notebook
The Artful Parent

weekend away

While Mirelle was gettin' some pool time with cousins and hanging with my parents,



We were out in the backcountry doing this.



It was so nice to get away and unplug for a few days! We spent two nights in the Maroon Bells Wilderness near Snowmass Lake. I'm still trying to catch up on work, so will post more later this week.

step to the right

of your left hemisphere.

If you haven't heard Jill Bolte Taylor's story yet, I highly recommend carving out 20 mins. Sit back, and be amazed.

She was also featured on NPR, and a short excerpt from her book can be found here.



Listening to this last night with Ross was a good reminder of the importance of regularly engaging my brain's right hemisphere. My meditation practice (very very sparse these days) is an excellent way to do that, even just a little time each day. I'm convinced on the power of meditation - after a four day retreat a few years back, I remember coming back to my life and being so absorbed in whatever I was doing; it was challenging to try to step back into the rapid multitasking pace of my 'normal' life.

crayon aprons and such

Here's Mirelle sporting my old crayon apron I dug up at my parents' house a few months back. I love idea of making some of these as gifts for all of Mirelle's friends (now turning two). Ha! Very small chance that will happen, but I already found a good design on Skip to My Lou's blog. That one's not so much an apron, but a crayon roll. Super cute. Maybe someday I'll get the material and stay up late one night (or get up early one day, more likely) and crank some of these out. Could also just get this on etsy...


I'm also feeling really inspired by Artful Parent's blog to create a little art space for Mirelle. Oh, and hosting an art group!?! Maybe when I'm not working fulltime. Here are her suggestions for the top 10 art supplies for toddlers. I need to search around on craigslist for a good little art table.


We had a fun, busy weekend! Kept Mirelle up 'til 11 on the 4th. She's been making up for it ever since. The garden is growing, and growing, and I'm adding mileage to my long runs (still aiming for either the full or half marathon in September). We're heading out of town later this week for a few nights of backpacking while Mirelle hangs with my folks. She's going to be happy as a clam with them. And we are way, way, waaaay overdue for a backpacking trip. Do I even remember what to pack? (We went on a mini last summer with Mirelle - 1 mile in. I thought it was great, actually, but I was only carrying in Mirelle on my back ... Ross had everything else...!)

I'm hoping to post one more time this week before we head out. Putting together a little cheat sheet for my fridge of my 'go-to' recipes. (Inspired by angry chicken.) I'll post that if I get it done.

Gosh I love summer.

how to...

get a lot of good things in your toddler at once:

Make these veggie burgers, then add a bit of melted cheese to the top. Worked for us!

1/2 c nuts or seeds
1/2 c cooked beans
1/2 c cooked rice
1/4 c shredded zucchini
1/4 c shredded carrot
1/4 c diced onion
1-2 cloves garlic (optional for the wee ones)
2 tsp spices of your choice
1/2 t sea salt
juice of half a lime

1. place nuts in food processor and process to a powder.
2. add remaining ingredients and pulse several times until mixture is well mixed and just starting to stick together.
3. Shape into patties about 3/4" thick. Grill or cook on skillet with olive oil.

We did black beans, pumpkin seeds, and if I had had it, a little cumin would have been good. I'll add a little chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (chopped up) to our burgers next time (not to Mirelle's though - too spicy.)

An Indian variation could use brown lentils and cashews, plus curry powder. Garnish with yogurt, cilantro, mint.

Thai option could have 1-2 t red or green curry paste and 1/4 c unsweetened shredded coconut.

Lots of options! (From this month's Vitamin Cottage newsletter.)

Now, off to 'gymnastics' with Mirelle. More like tumbling for tots. She's good for about the first 30 minutes - then starts to burn out. Gorgeous cool, overcast, post-rainy morning here today. Did something spontaneous yesterday ... hit the Boulder Farmer's Market for dinner instead of going to the grocery store. One point for me! Hehe. Happy Thursday!

rabbit, rabbit

We remembered this morning when we woke up to say 'rabbit rabbit' before anything else. (Well, Ross remembered, and I followed suit.) Guess it's supposed to provide good luck or something - here's the debrief from wikipedia. Speaking of rabbits, our former indoor cat (now an outdoor hunter) is leaving a lot of dismembered rabbits and mice in the backyard. Argh. Then he comes inside. Yuck. What to do?

So what's in store for July? We're in full-on summer. A few things happening around here:

1. Ross and I are in the second month of our new budget/spending plan. We've done away with credit cards (which we would pay off each month, but paying with a credit card didn't help with the budgeting). Now, we have a set amount in a checking account to be used solely for groceries, gas, and any extras (everything from haircuts to new shoes to date nights to home improvement). We're using a debit card to track that money. Last month we went over by about $400 we're thinking, but the budget's pretty tight, so we may adjust a bit. We'll see how it works. It's definitely been effective in reducing any impulse buying. Oh, and did I mention we've been eating a lot of beans? (see #2)


2. Eating beans, grains, and fresh greens from the garden. Greens are so easy to grow (you just need a little strip of space), and you can keep harvesting them all summer. My favorite are beet greens - I have one row that I thinned (so we can have some beets) - the other row is lush with greens that I'll just continue to harvest (then they grow back). Cool weather greens like bok choy go to seed quickly in the high heat, so they're not ideal. Last night we had crispy kolhrabi greens, yellow eye beans, and butternut squash tortellini (a splurge). Those beans are sooo delicious - creamy like baked potatoes. Mirelle gobbles them up.

3. Finding new ways to reduce our carbon footprint when we hit the road this month and next. This month's Body + Soul magazine has some great tips. A couple of my favorites:
1. Rent a hybrid. We're hoping to head north to Jackson WY and Yellowstone in August. I wonder if renting a hybrid would save us on gas (and definitely wear and tear on our car...?)
2. Pack lightly. A lighter car requires less gas.
3. Park in the shade. Thanks to my dad, I'm already a shade junkie when it comes to parking spots.
4. Camp (not on the B+S list). We'll be pitching a tent. I guess if we splurged, we could look for an eco-friendly hotel here.


Other goals of mine:
4. Make the time to do more spontaneous stuff!
5. Do one crafty project each month. On my list:
-large canvas
-paint old school lockers currently residing in the garage (see how cool these could look inside? BTW, that's someone else's really cool nursery. Photo found on ohdeedoh.)
-budget for and purchase unfinished adirondack chair and toy chest (stain chair, paint chest)

OK, that's it for now.

<< Just re-read post, and it's kinda funny that I wrote 'make the time to do more spontaneous stuff.' Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron? ha ha. >>

Way, way past bedtime

We had a really full weekend - saw lots of friends and family, ate lots of yummy food, sampled some delicious wines, and generally just said 'yes' to summer. Mirelle stayed up way past her bedtime Friday, Saturday and Sunday just to make it all happen. And we forgoed Sunday's nap too. We celebrated Sophia's second birthday Friday night, and welcomed Jay and Mimi to Boulder. We clinked wine glasses and bidded for silent auction items Saturday night in Denver at my cousin Eric's gala for his non-profit organization, while Mirelle ran around in the grass with Olivia, the 4-year-old of the hosts. Sunday we visited new second cousin Brayden (9 days old) and Great Grandma (almost 89 years old) in Colorado Springs, then had dinner with friends visiting from Albuquerque. Mirelle romped, frolicked, got dirty, sifted rocks, slipped in the grass, got grass stains on her PJs, ate drive-by dinners (ie put a forkful of food in her mouth as she motors by), and mimicked the wanderings of McKenna, our friends' little girl exactly 1 year older than Mirelle to the day.

Ross sent me this link to this great little article about discipline/permission and letting kids be kids. I particularly like this part:

So breathe deeply and pray for gentleness, patience and the ability to forgo perfect control or perfect behavior at every turn. Guide, and then let them run and tumble, and go by themselves, and sometimes fail. Let the little ones get wet and get dirty, let the teens borrow the car and go without you. They grow anyway, hindered or unhindered by us.

What are some other ways to let our little ones be a little more unhindered? What about ourselves? (This is definitely a challenge for me - I usually like to keep things pretty orderly and on schedule, both for Mirelle and for me.) Time to say yes to spontaneity and things not always looking tidy!

green girls' night + sangria

Last night I hosted one of my sister's first emagineGreen workshops - we had sangria (really good recipe here), chatted about all things eco, from local CSAs (community supported agriculture), to composting, to our eco addictions (which ranged from Chlorox wipes to paper towels to boiling too much water in our teapots for just one cup of tea). It was a fun evening, and thanks to all my ecoPals for coming!

This weekend I'm aiming to support the little Louisville Farmer's Market again, hopefully hit some garage sales (looking for a little backyard playhouse for Mirelle), do a long run, and chill. We're also heading to a wine tasting/silent auction tomorrow night to support my cousin's nonprofit, revision international.

I also wanted to post a photo of the finished Adirondack dumpster-diving chair, now completely refabed and coated in a orange stain.



And one more crafty-related project. Ross bought this really ugly citronella candle, so I covered it with some iota paper yesterday before the Workshop. That's about as crafty as I have time for these days. Better, no?

JPG for Mimi!

Mimi, this is for you to download - just click on the image (it will open in a new screen), and drag that larger image to your desktop.

(A rather roundabout way to get a file that keeps becoming corrupt via email ...)

Off for a long weekend

We're headed to Glenwood this weekend - it's the annual Strawberry Days festival, so we'll take Mirelle to her first parade, eat strawberries and ice cream in the park, and spend some QT with the fam. Have a great weekend - see you next week!

see how the garden grows...

Mid-June, and the garden is growing! I think it's past that tender 'will it make it?' stage, but now we have to hope the little flying beetle bug dudes don't chomp all of the greenery. Last summer they had a hey day with the kale and chard. Seems like they're taking a liking to the baby bok choy that is looking so tender and sweet at the moment. I'm wondering if I should just harvest it (early) before the bugs get to it. And soap spray helps, too.

Tonight's my sister's first emagineGreen workshop, and I'm going to show up in this tee I designed (also sold by emagineGreen, via my sister). Next Thursday, the workshop's at my house, so if you're in Denver, c'mon over!


I'm also going to talk up the lobotoME pads that emagineGreen sells at both of these workshops - I love using the FeedME pad for meal planning. Meals around here of late have involved a)some sort of bean, b) a grain or pasta and c)a veggie of some sort. I'm really into bean/grain salads - vinegar, olive oil, herbs, maybe some feta cheese. The key to beans is this: eat a small quantity of beans at any given time, but eat beans more often. (At least I think.)

Last week...

I was a negligent blogger. I was maxed preparing for the Aspen Writers' Foundation's Aspen Summer Words coming up June 22-26. Working on numerous things, one being this Get Lit ad campaign for a concert with PremaSoul and DJRekha(part of the Literary Festival). I'll be up there for some of the Festival, and am planning on checking this out.

Premasoul comes on first, which I think I can swing, at 8 pm. (They fuse Indian melodies and mantras with jazz, blues, and R & B.) DJ Rehka, who I'd really like to see (profiled by NPR, here), is on at 10 pm, and well, my mommy self might not be able to swing that. We shall see!

Sneaky sneaky

Some ideas for sneaking veggies into your tot's food (from Delcious Living) If they're not down with it as is...

avocado: puree 1/2 avocado with 2 cups smoothie
cauliflower: cook 1 cup florets, drain. Puree with a bit of water or milk 'til smooth. Mash in equal parts with potatoes; whisk 1/2 cup into 2 eggs before scrambling, or whisk 1/2 cup into 1 cup cheese sauce
pumpkin: blend 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree with 1 cup pasta sauce; or whisk 1/4 cup into 1 cup warm cheese sauce
spinach: puree 1/4 cup frozen, thawed, chopped spinach with 2 cups chocolate shake or 1 cup pasta sauce before cooking; or mix 1/2 cup into brownie or muffin batter before baking

Wheeeee ! !

It's summer! We're charting out our plans for the summer - hoping to relish each gorgeous day and drink it all in! Ross rigged up the kiddie swing for Mirelle - not only with the existing rope provided by the manufacturer - but with the addition of about 5 additional feet of climbing rope. That thing catches some air.

A few ways we're celebrating summer:
:: we've now officially made our back patio our dining room for the next four months.
:: regular saturday visits to the farmer's market.
:: meadow music at chautauqua mtn park (kiddie music, dining al fresco)
:: 4-pass loop backpacking trip in the plans for early July
:: a week off in August (to Jackson WY area, perhaps?)

Yipee! Je t'aime l'été!

Everything you need to know

about the democratic race in 8 minutes...

click here to watch. It's a good summary!

Happy birthday today to Mary and Katherine! I'm still working on catching up from being away last week, so will post more later this week.

One more quick post...

Just found Mighty Girl's blog, and while glancing at it ever-so-briefly, I happened upon this post about having a postpartum body. I thought it was good, and just a little reality check about life after having a baby. I think it was around 9-12 months before I really felt like my old self. But I have to admit, after having a child, I was pretty tuned in to the fact that my body rocks, and a few little extra rolls here and there are tiddly winks compared to all of the amazing stuff it can do.

That just reminded me of a great body song I heard a few years back by Lisa Hunter. Here's an Oprah link on that same subject.

Headed out

I'll be logging off for a couple of days - I'm headed to Scottsdale for meetings and conference with emagineGreen. Just wrapped up the first version of their website, amongst other things. My sister will be joining me on Friday as a start to her training as a greenCoach for emagineGreen, and I'm looking forward to hosting a workshop for her! If you live in the Denver area, I'll invite you. It's lots of fun.


I've also been working away on projects for the Aspen Writers' Foundation's Summer Words Festival. Planning on checking out some of the speakers later in June.

So, sayonara, until next week!

Tender Shoots

The garden is starting to look more like a garden. Little teeny plants are sprouting up, and, well, I didn't mark the rows, so I have no idea what's growing where. I'm a bit of a disheveled gardener. I planted some flowers, too - sunflowers, zinnias and cosmos, and some sweet peas thrown in for good measure - and they're all scattered together so we'll see what springs up.


I'm also growing a climbing plant from seed that I can't think of the name of - oh, wisteria. The garden center has an 8-year-old wisteria plant growing over the trellis that covers the outdoor plants - it's an amazing thing. Purple flowers, windy branches and root ... we'll see what this little guy does. I planted three seeds in this pot, and they're all coming up. Not sure at what point I should plant it in the garden, or where ... We'll need to build a trellis!


The other thing growing around here is Mirelle's hair. And she's looking more like a little girl than ever.

So I'm outside watering the garden tonight at 9pm, thinking about how much work and water it takes to nourish these little seedlings into beautiful plants by the end of the summer. The summer provides that kind of opportunity: to nurture tender shoots into something great. Seeds become vegetables that I'll cook up into some yummy meal, and colorful flowers that will make their way to vases on the breakfast table and my desk. But that warm summer evening air brings with it optimism of the adventures to be had: plans to keep adding mileage to work up to a half marathon or marathon this fall, mornings to get out on the bike to work up to a hilly ride, and days to explore new places and fun things happening in the evenings. Oh, and some camping, too. Time to trade our little backpacking tent in for something a bit more spacious!


Oh, and one more thing. I've been googling for 'specialty/gourmet dried beans' for ever and ever, and never came up with anything. Angry Chicken's blog posted this morning about a source for these types of beans ... yahoo! I'm looking forward to trying some of these crazy varieties over at Rancho Gordo. And I would agree with her - the packaging is way cool. photo from angry chicken.

Maddy's shoes

We watched our friends Jess and Justin's little girl Maddy tonight while they went to the Death Cab for Cutie concert at Red Rocks. Maddy had on the most amazing little girl shoes so I had to look them up.

See Kai Run - check them out. So cute. Here are some of my favorites:





Aaah, I want a pair, too!



Oh, and while you're there, get good ideas for your next baby's name! They can be named after a beautiful pair of shoes, right?