Words To Live By

I am strong. 

I am focused.

I am capable of greatness despite weariness and pain.

I am determined and I am grateful.

I have been bruised but not beaten.

I have been battered but not broken.

The person in the mirror is my biggest competition but she is also my greatest creation.

I must mold her into something STRONGER.

Something BETTER.

Something that is HUNGRY for life.

For winning.

For victory.

My eye is on the prize.

Source

Happy Weekend!

Cool Shade

I'm not sure if you call this a lamp shade, but it does cover a light.

Check out this awesome handmade hanging lamp I found on Etsy

 that is made from upcycled National Geographic magazines.

All pictures from Naturally Heartfelt .

Close up

Further away

Light on!

Pretty RAD, right!

I think it kind of looks like fish scales, especially when it's turned off.

I'm not sure I would keep it turned on for very long due to the fact that it is made out of paper,

but I'm sure it would look awesome hanging in someone's house.

Think of it as a conversation piece.

This Pretty Much Sums It Up

Yep!

Todd's 43

We celebrated Todd's birthday with homemade pesto and fettucine noodles, homegrown squash and lemon honeydew.  Desert was banana split!  Perfection I tell you.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the goodness because my big camera is in the camera hospital (it has an ouchy).  I went to grab the little point-and-shoot, battery was dead.  Hopefully we can get the problem rectified shortly.

I'm off to bed now...it's been a long day!

E-waste Sculptures

Sean Avery is an Australian sculpture and author.   He uses repurposed and discarded e-waste to make amazing art.  The sculptures are primarily made from used CD's and computer parts. 

All pictures from

Sean E. Avery

Hummingbird

Hanging Garden

Koala

Opossum

Rat

Pretty awesome, right!

Yipee It's The Weekend

We made it to another well deserved weekend.
I don't have any particularly interesting plans,
unless of course you count cleaning the house as interesting

I might be able to talk Todd into going to town if I throw in words like
"Lowe's" and "Home Depot"
but really even if I do get him to take me to town,

 I don't have anything I need to do.
(The fact that we would be going to town just means

that I wouldn't be cleaning...

therefore...I like town).

Random pic from earlier this week.

A bouquet that I threw together with bits and pieces from other arrangements.

Colorful isn't it.

What are your plans this weekend?

 

On a side note - I have no idea why my blog keeps highlighting words and making the text blue. It is really starting to irritate me, and I apologize. I will look in to seeing what is wrong.

Fabulous Fourth

How was your 4th of July?

Todd and I had a great day.

Alexxa had to work, Austin wanted to sleep...so we took off kayaking.

We ended up at Loon Lake.

It's our absolute favorite place to kayak.

Todd carried the kayak equipment down.

I got our picnic ready.

After lunch we put the puppies in their life vests. 

 Loki's thrilled...

Can you tell?

Todd and I showing off our snazzy hats.

We had beautiful skies.

Perfect weather.

Great company.

Todd and I decided to pull off and let the dogs run and relax a little bit, 

but we were swarmed by a ton of dragonflies.  

They are hard to see, but there were tons!

Todd taking a little nap in the kayak.

Did you notice Thor photobombing the picture?

He wanted his picture taken, so I obliged.

After about four hours on the lake we decided it was time to head back.  

The wind had picked up and the waves were about a foot tall. 

Not big for normal boats, but when you are in a kayak it makes for an interesting trip back.

We made it back to shore after about 45 minutes of paddling

 and with about 3 inches of water in the boat.

FUN TIMES!

After we got home, we decided we were too exhausted to cook, so we went to a local restaurant.

Happy, hungry and tired Todd.

My dinner - ribs, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.

 Todd's dinner - steak and veggies.

We finished dinner around 8 and were in bed by 8:30 PM.

We aren't party animals normally, but we really aren't when we have to 

get up and go to work the next morning.

No fireworks for us.

So what did you do for the 4th?