Chasing Bluebirds

wanderlust

on a strange house search...










so i am dreaming of crazy modern mountain homes and hard core beach houses. obsessed is all i can say. :)

a special ceremony

so my brother is getting married and we were so excited to be invited to the bride's traditional vietnamese wedding ceremony... my teeny family (parents, chris, girls) were just blown away by all the colors and rituals. it was really quite sweet, much more interesting than a traditional american style wedding (which comes next month, wedding part 2) the girls loved it and bragged to everyone that this was their first ever wedding! i know my brother's new wife to be gets shy about her family's culture (she and her siblings are very "american" now) but i think learning about cultures that differ from your own is intriguing and special. chris and i both felt privileged to be included, lucky to be gaining such a large extended family to share the future with. here are a few snapshots i caught with my camera... iphone of course, it was hard to be sneaky with the camera when we didnt know what was really going on, i was mesmerized! stay tuned for the traditional "american style" wedding coming up next month, we will be fancied up and photographed to the hilt and hoping for cooler weather!

close encounters of the family kind

i had to use that title again (i had it on my facebook status and really liked it) i could use it for our entire vacation so far actually, close close close. we are road tripping each day, seeing the local sights of colorado, wyoming and southern south dakota and have settled in to a pretty good routine. i have always enjoyed reading books on families who take a year off and travel the world together, what an awesome gift you could give your kids. i am not willing to sell my house and do that just yet, but i really admire those who can manage it. the girls are finally able to entertain themselves and work together on projects without constant help, it makes the sight seeing so much easier. all this togetherness has its ups and downs, mostly ups which include lots of lovely conversations with the girls. lizzie is growing up so fast, she has wonderful ideas and thoughts, so chatty and fun. being the baby of the bunch, her neediness and whining can get on nerves and its nice to see her maturing and joining in on conversations in a productive way. of course she still has her moments (like pooping out halfway around the tower) this is devils tower in wyoming, it is the first national monument and a sacred area to the indians who lived here. it was also used in the movie "close encounters of the third kind" which we are dying to see now. i recommend it as a nice day trip visit, it is relatively close to mt. rushmore. we really enjoyed coming over the rolling hills to see it off in the distance (the surrounding farm land is gorgeous right now as well). we took the short hike around it (liz made it about halfway) and enjoyed it from all angles. i'll leave you with some prairie views on our way back to colorado being the bookaholic that i am, i always choose a book to read to give my trip a "theme" and this trip i brought the third olive farm book (i had read the first third but couldnt get into it, moving on to the twilight books). it was a perfect choice and i have enjoyed moments of quiet reading, traveling to the south of france each day. carol drinkwater is a fantastic writer, very sensuous and lyrical, i cannot get enough! lucky for me she has two new books out making that FIVE olive farm books (i also have the companion photo book which is glorious all by itself) so i get to continue my journey with her when i get back home. we have one more day here and then its a two day drive back to so cal, back to house cleaning and work...back to school starting and camp fire meetings... energized, refreshed and ready to go!

black hills adventure

this trip: black hills tour (southern south dakota), mt rushmore visit, custer state park and devils tower (wyoming). i would highly recommend this part of the country to families, lots of beautiful scenery and kid friendly sights. my only complaint is the food (expensive and BAD for the most part) we did best when we made sandwiches from our cooler and stayed away from restaurants. the best place on our trip was a super grungy mexican place in wyoming, just off the highway that was EXCELLENT and cheap. here is some of the tour: this is custer state park and mt rushmore, i will post more photos and add devils tower later...more adventure today. we are off to estes park (we once had BIG plans to move there and a visit is always in order when we are in town). stay tuned!

topanga hike

met up with my buddy maryann for a nice 4 hour hike, yikes! cant believe i made it, but i did!

this would make a lovely plein air painting, have to keep this one in mind when and if i get some free time to paint. so many fantastic paintings i want to do! i wanted to mention i made some vegan chocolate chip cookie sandwiches last weekend from this book and at first i wasnt sure if i liked them but they are really growing on me! i hope to make some more and i would like to try other recipes from the book. it has some strange ingredients but i am used to that kind of cooking. hopefully i can get some baked up for the rummage sale coming up! it would be nice to have a vegan choice on the table. today was a fun day but i know i will be sore tomorrow. gotta keep it up though.

official rainbow chaser

this rainbow arcs beautifully across our house and ends... at my neighbors house

new clips, cut and ring

new clips and haircut (home job, dont look too close at the ends) and a daily reminder, found here

crazy sexy cancer

loving this movie, it supports my love for raw food eating (not that i am that GREAT at it, but i totally BELIEVE in it) and all its benefits. what i really love about the whole "raw food lifestyle" is that it is based on cancer treatment research. originally founded as a diet to treat cancer, raw food eating has come full circle with the link between over processed food and poor health something most people agree with today. food can be medicine and surely many of our health problems stem from poor diets. something like that anyway!

check it out!

yosemite fairy houses

i am obsessed with the little travelers, the movies and the website, i just love everything about this little family. my girls have even mentioned how well the two sisters get along and we have used them as an example when there is disagreements. emily or lizzie will say, "remember how the little travelers get along? we need to get along too" love it! 

on the blog there are many fun parenting ideas including the building of fairy houses. i made a fairy house for emily's 3rd birthday, it was a pixie theme and i remember how fun these are to make. i like how they are made from only nature and there is no limit to the creativity. our camping neighbor joined in and we spent days collecting feathers and rocks, dried flowers and sticks in preparation for making some fairy houses in the little meadow near our campsite.  we also rented this fairy movie from netflix and the girls watched it a few times, it was very sweet. i recommend it, very simple and quiet.

the girls got into my paints a bit, making a few painted sticks for the houses, emily made a sign on an egg carton this was so fun and i am sure a kid or two will stumble onto these cool houses and think they are neat (not to mention a few fairies)

blurry eyed mish mash

i had enough "down time" to last a lifetime, but found a really great movie:

i am a movie freak, addict or whatever you may call it... just like my book reading, i love movies too. i used to be really fanatical about music, not as much now, slowing down i guess. this movie "once" just felt perfect to me on so many levels. no typical hollywood actors or storyline, just normal looking and acting people. the story was sweet and simple with fantastic music, just lovely. something to savor when you have a few quiet hours to yourself. i have to mention that jen felt mouse brought me the most amazing present made up of all the senses but sight... a cool cd, tea, chocolate, a rubber toy with a bumpy back, fig candle... thanks so much jen. so creative, so wonderful and sweet! totally unexpected as usual. xoxoxoxo

next we have my newest project, last week (of course the timing was horrid) i got the call that my long awaited community garden plot was available... could i come to the orientation pronto? well i stumbled through it one eyed and yes i got my plot! here is a before shot:

can you say WEEDS?? emily actually pulled up a few carrots while we were weeding, talk about a shocked kid (in a good way). here are a few favorite garden designs:

here is kelly bananaberry's super snazzy plot:

expect great things!