Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins and Shell-potted Succulents

Happy Mother's Day! I have a great recipe and a fun craft/gardening project to share today. 

I made mini gluten-free and paleo lemon poppy seed muffins with berries on the side for my mom for breakfast this morning. They were delicious! I got the recipe from Elana's Pantry (she has a lot of yummy gluten-free and paleo recipes, and I haven't been disappointed with a recipe yet). Here's the link: http://www.elanaspantry.com/lemon-poppy-seed-muffins/ 

I made this trio of shell-potted succulents as a Mother's Day present. They were really simple, and I love the way they turned out.
Materials
- succulents
- shells
- potting soil
- a cork
- hot glue
When selecting your shells try to find large ones with a big hole you can plant your succulent in. As far as succulents go, the smaller the better so that they can easily fit. Before you plant your succulent, slice a thin circle of cork, and use a hot glue gun to attach it to your shell so that it balances on its own. Then just plant your succulent in the shell as if the shell were a pot. Succulents need bright sunlight and infrequent waterings.

Appreciate

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

-Confucius

Yesterday morning started out bad, but then I walked into my room and found it filled with sunlight, and saw my foster kitten looking out the window at the roses. It was so beautiful and perfect, a reminder to appreciate the things we have, like sunshine, kittens, and roses :) And it turned out that I had a wonderful day, wandering around Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park with my best friends in the world. 

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”

- Frederick Keonig

Paper Bead Bracelets

These are some paper bead bracelets that I made to sell at a craft fair. They were really fun and fairly easy to make, so I thought I would share some pictures and instuctions. To make the beads you will need magazines with colorful pages, a straight-edge paper cutter (you could use a ruler and scissors, but a paper cutter makes it easier), toothpicks, and glue. To make the beads into a bracelet you also need stretchy string and seed beads. Here's a link to the instructions that I used: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Paper-Beads/
I love these bracelets because they're easy to make, and they're environmentally friendly because they use magazines that would usually just get thrown away and turn them into beauiful jewelry. Hope you have fun making some :)

Change

Changing, Growing, Living...

Easter Eggs

I just wanted to share a few of my favorite techniques that
we used to dye our Easter eggs this year.
Hope you find it interesting :)

For this one (and the red one in the top pic) we
added oil to the egg dye. This creates the spots.

Drew spirals on with a clear crayon before dyeing.

I wasn't sure how this one would turn out, but I decided to try it,
and I really like the results. Before dyeing, I wrapped strips of
masking tape randomly around the egg. Then I dyed it, and
took off the masking tape after it dried.

Video of Karma and Chi

Chi is three weeks old now. I think this is the most fun age with kittens; the time when they're just starting to explore their world. He's climbing out of the box, walking, following everything with his curious blue eyes, and, of course, trying to wrestle with his mom. Here's a video of him attacking her... she's so patient :)

Earth Hour

Last night we took part in Earth Hour, and enjoyed a couple games by candlelight. The point of Earth Hour is to raise awareness about climate change, and to help the environment by turning off your lights for an hour. It was started by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007, and last year more than 5,200 cities in 135 different countries turned off their lights for Earth Hour. You can read more about it here: http://www.earthhour.org/page/about/about-earth-hour