Flame Mural

 I finished the flames! It was really fun, and I think my "customer" is pretty happy :)

Door Murals

I desperately needed a summer project now that I have all this free time on my hands, and my mom suggested that I paint murals on three of the doors in our house. So today I have been drawing scale drawings, pencil sketching on the doors, poking around in our paint supply, and testing color swatches. I will be doing flames on my brother's door, an owl in a tree on our bathroom door, and I haven't decided what I will be doing on my door yet (any ideas?). Hopefully I will be able to share some pics of the finished product soon :)

"No thoroughly occupied person was ever found really miserable."

- Walter Savage Landor

Sunset at Wilder Ranch

Caught a beautiful sunset at Wilder Ranch last night and just wanted to share some pics. We saw bunnies and all kinds of birds everywhere, and whales spouting too!

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 :)

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