Chasing Bluebirds

back to work

I am back to work, feeling the stress of a busy schedule again, ugh! we are finally getting our living room painted, it's more like a major restoration project and costing a small fortune. i am super excited and enjoy the progress. it is a bit of a mess though, kicking my OCD into top gear. since i had to work this weekend the kids went to the desert with their dad and cousins, here's a few shots sent to me: 

looks like everyone is having a great time! i have never been with them, working weekends is such a drag but i am sure i will get a chance someday. here's a photo of our living room in progress:
i love my house, really love it but it has a lot of quirks and nothing is a simple fix. the doors need to be replaced but the door guy says they weren't made correctly in the first place, the dimensions are off that hold the glass. so dilemma, do them right or keep with the design of the entire house? of course we need to to keep them the same but it's hard to tell a professional who knows what he is doing that. in other news:
i took a painting workshop and jumped right in, very fun and very inspiring. i found a local artist (who is also a yoga instructor, good move!) and she very kindly helped me get back in the groove. i am now back and ready to go! i splurged on some new paints from here and dug out all my old supplies. i had been wanting a new plein air easel/setup and splurged on that as well. everything is working as planned and i am so glad i spent a little more. i have had two cheapo plein air easels in the past that were wobbly and fell apart after a few years. at $100 each, really not so cheap when you add it up. i am hoping to get out to the wetlands asap and start on some of the paintings i have dreamed about for years now.

lots of walking around the park lately and happy my youngest is joining me now
i think that fitting into her older sisters running shoes might have something to do with it. :)

april 2012

its like i need to just put the date up there because time is flying by and my blogging is lagging, geez! right now i am: swimming twice a week, riding my bike almost every day down the river to the beach (in crazy wind with these recent storms) and feeling so much better! when i was younger i could do three or four hard workouts in a week and be down a size no problem. well at 44, i guess it takes more than a few workouts to see a real change but at least i have swung that weight gain pendulum swinging in the other direction a bit. so on my bike ride today (the river runs right through the wetlands) i was surprised to see this at the end of the trail

the most beautiful, lovely sign dedicated to the wetlands we have been desperately trying to save!!! on the other side is a sign about the san gabriel river channel describing it's route and characteristics, also very well done. in other news, lizzie has been taking tae kwon do (sometimes 5 days a week she loves it so much) and she just had her first belt testing yesterday. it was really cool and i enjoyed watching the other kids too, especially the tiny kids getting really high level belts. this was exactly what this kid needed!!

(poor olive wants in) unfortunately we had a loss of a family member this week but the flip side was lots of visiting with extended family bringing us all closer and reminding us how important family is, how fast time flies. jump stated me planning an east coast visit to finally see all those cousins on the east coast and scout out my favorite state: north carolina. happy spring everyone!!
hanging out with aunt heather

the big 40

happy birthday chris!

a little hazy blurry but a great early dinner and sunset watching on signal hill

summer + park

Acoustic Tidal Artwalk

i have posted about this event in the past, this is our second time hosting a craft table and it went off without a hitch again. i wanted to get rid of some of my leftovers from camp fire meetings, my garage is packed to the rafters with so much "stuff" so i repeated things i have done before. 

clothespin people/creatures was a really big hit (with the adults too)
friendship bracelets (didn't have a good photo of that table but it's the crowded one you see here)
and last.... the poo poo pops! i saw this here and thought i would try it. basically a take off of the seed bomb idea.
clay dirt (from my own backyard of crappy clay) + worm castings (the "poo") and water mixed with seeds (we used the natives we have collected for years: poppies and sundflowers)
mixed up and then put into paper cups with a popsicle stick
once dry, just pop it into the ground. this was a big hit but i was very surprised that not ONE kid wanted to mix the dirt/seeds by hand!! i didn't bring a spoon but after i realized no one would touch the dirt i found a stick to stir it up. i had planned for dirty hands so had buckets of fresh water to rinse and baby wipes for extra clean up. strange, huh?
some artwork on along the water. basically this is a showcase for local artists and musicians (there is a stage set up) and art is hung on huge posts along the waters edge. it's a magical event with the sun setting behind the artwork, music playing, kids running around and the fresh air coming off the ocean. the lagoon is a section of wetlands that is in the midst of being restored and the same people who have saved it are helping with los cerritos wetlands. everyone working together to save what little wetlands remains here

the bottlecap chain was my favorite i think
feather earrings and extensions are all the rage here right now

someday i hope i can have a booth of my own paintings... we'll see!

summer flies by

finally some r and r at the cabin!
special time with grandparents at the children's forest

we supersized our pool this year, my biggest dream is to have a REAL pool but for now this makes the heat waves manageable...
happy summer!!

garden prep

i have really let my garden plot go this winter, with my new job and more gym time on the schedule, it's been hard to get over there. i have even thought about letting it go...once again....but just like last year i am hanging on to it for another year. i realized i could get my camp fire kids to help, which was the reason i took the plot in the first place. how had i forgotten my original plan, to teach the kids and get them some hands on experience growing vegetables? so last monday, i invited my older group and a few other camp fire kids to help me get ready for spring planting. i am always looking for new ways to earn beads and looking through my vintage camp fire book, i found 8 beads we could earn together. 

we started out with a ton of weeds and harvested beets and fennel...
carrots found mixed in with weeds, kids LOVE to find them (note to self: throw carrot seeds randomly throughout the year to keep kids excited at weeding)
prepping the beds with manure
more weeding (there was a black widow spider in that shed back there, had to act calm and cool when i was really thinking, holy crap!!)
my beets had really gone to town over the winter and most were too gigantic to eat. we sent the good ones to the food bank
the crew at the end of the morning, lots of smiles and excitement for next months tomato planting... can't wait!!

i heart travel

my newest obsession is this travel blog, i have spent an hour or more on it and am going crazy with travel lust. oh to have the funds for some of these vacations! i especially like the italian villas on the coast, this site keeps me busy for hours.
 the style of these pointy topped houses is called "trulli" and is from the puglia region of italy (the heel of the boot). there are houses along the coast made of mostly rock (small rocks too, how do they do that?) unfortunately i can't post the pics from this site, but i will put a few on with links so you can see what i mean!!

one of my favorites: here

 

"secret" beach

so i learned a valuable lesson last week, when after several months of communication with a blogger i loved, i found out the hard way that you just can't predict how people will react. when someone has a blog that has picture after picture and post after post about the beach, their flickr pages littered with wonderful trips to the beach... you would think if you inquired where the beach they loved might be that they would just tell you... well you would be wrong. instead you would get a response about how what makes a beach attractive is unique to an individual (?????) and that this very special beach is their very special secret so you better "google" up a beach for yourself. ok, i live on the west coast, this person lives on the east coast. i am not hopping on a plane anytime soon and taking over their special beach... so i decided to go to a beach near me today and just relax a little.

 

 

wouldn't you know there are colored rocks here on the west coast too? amazing! emily loved the beach glass

the girls had fun making a color wheel with their rocks and since there is a "no collecting" rule here, we left our design for the tides to take back out
lots of people made nice comments about our rock collection and design, it was a fun winter day here after the rain, laguna canyon was green, skies were blue and the air surprisingly warm


and one more shot of a super cool pad with a super cool view
if anyone is curious, i was at LAGUNA BEACH today, probably the most gorgeous beach in southern california and public, so please enjoy. :)

cali weather

somehow (when we move far far away) i would LOVE to keep our house here in so cal... just to come back for the winters. this is the best time of year here, clean air, storms, rainbows and the beach just down the street. winter, the best time, yes!