oh my, I won my first award...

Thank you so much to the Green Mama blog What award is it? The Arte Y Pico award! This award recognizes a blog’s creativity and overall contribution to the blogger community. I am so honored that Green Mamma has been recognized, and above all, I am happy to be out here, blogging away, saying my piece, and learning so much from other bloggers and readers.

I in turn would like to honor the following for their contribution to the blog community:

Journey Mama

Walk Slowly, Live Wildly

Dig This Chick Blue Yonder Slightly Crunchy

Once you’ve been selected, please follow these guidelines and pay it forward:

1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language. 2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog by so everyone can view it. 3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award. 4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the “Arte y pico“blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award. 5) Please post these rules!

flea market finds

In the midst of my grumpiness (read last post)...I did manage to sneak away this afternoon to my all time favorite flea market. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this place. The way it smells, the items...My heart begins to swell and I feel like I am at my grandmothers house, or a little girl again, or with my dad. Everything reminds me of something. I walk into booths and can feel stories swirl around me. I wonder, who use to look in this mirror, what woman cooked in these old crockery pots, i bet the house that these embroidered pillowcases were in, was so cozy and warm. One booth in particular grabbed me. I felt my eyes begin to tear. This booth was overflowing with cowboy boots and hats, handmade wooden tool boxes, super old tools, old mexican blankets, and two paintings. I could almost picture the old man out in his shed working on stuff, tinkering. His whole life lay in the booth being sold. Suddenly I wanted to know him, I wanted to see his old, strong, wrinkled hands. I wanted my dad to get to be an old, wrinkled man.
I bet the man who made these things, never thought they would be enjoyed by my family.
What a small world we live in.












































The cubby shelf I was super excited about. I squeezed some lemon into a couple tablespoons of olive oil and shined it up.
Great for pollywog's toys and other items.
The other two wooden boxes are handmade, one with a leather strap- maybe used as tool boxes?... Made a perfect spice rack. The old milk jug and cloth napkin were super cheap and very summery... The cubby was 35.00 , the boxes $3 and $4, the cloth napkin $1 and the milk jug (there were tons) $2.50

are bunnies grumpy?

What a grump bunny I have been lately. I can't seem to get myself out of the "grump funk."
I don't know why. I really don't have any good reasons, i guess.
I wake up feeling good, and then slowly I'm up to my knees in irritable.
Pollywog is at a stage right now that is sometimes tiring. I try to do fun, age appropriate crafts, but her attention span is still small. We read, we build with blocks, we dance, we play outside- watching the birds and filling the birdhouse with seed (this is her all time favorite thing to do)-


but she will at no point let me out of her sight. While I am trying to cook, or fold laundry, or go to the bathroom, she is below me arms waving begging to be held. Most of the day she is just plain cranky too. She is perfectly content to lay in my arms snuggling and nursing. She is cutting teeth and I tell myself this is just a phase. If I happen to sneak into the other room she is quickly looking for me, "mama, mama" and I cannot resist her sweet, little voice and she always runs to me arms outstretched like she hasn't seen me for days... gosh, when you think about it I guess its not all bad...I am actually pretty lucky...so I am officially done being grumpy...for now.

Being a mother to a teenage boy

Means...

- discovering new odors and searching for the culprits (usually armpits, shoes, or hidden foods in room)
- never running out of laundry
- finding wet towels on the floor
- hearing words like, "kill", "blood", "fight" etc more than you care too
- learning new lingo
- falling into the toilet b/c the lid has been left up
- large supplies of cereal
- finding wadded up band aids around the house, usually the kitchen, gross (trashcan is too far apparently)
- never ending supply of chips, cereal, 2 liters, and three helpings at dinner
- observing constant eye rolling
- hearing yourself sound like your parent
- having to let go
- secret tears about letting go
- never having to carry in your groceries
- having someone always looking out for you
- big, rough hugs
- rolling down the windows and rockin' out together to tunes
- laying awake in bed at night worrying
- empathy for their insecurities
- being a constant cheerleader, annoying, a prayer warrior, mess hall cook and chauffeur
- pride
- having a best friend for life

Our Container Garden

We used a mixture recommended in
Square Foot gardening.
We were unable to find the vermiculite, however we did find a great airy, organic, coffee compost that we mixed with peat moss and some sand. It is a great mix.
To feed the plants (which we haven't yet) we have liquid fish emulsion.
We won't be using any chemicals on anything. We hope to can some things, and add some more plants later in the season.
So far we have:
























tomatoes (some heirloom),
two types of lettuces
(both heirloom),
a grape plant,
several basil, oregano, cilantro, several parsley, 4 peppers,
radishes, beets, carrots, sunflowers, wildflowers, and several bird-house gords.
The heriloom seeds are from Baker Creek Heirloom
Seeds.

(the wildflowers are not pictured)