At the Market : Golden Watermelon!

Okay. I am eating the most delicious melon right now (after yesterday's Findlay Market trip). After every sentence I am stopping, biting, dripping juice everywhere, and grabbing the towel to wipe my hands. Back to typing another sentence...but I just can't stay away. (Bite, drip.)

This Amish-country grown golden watermelon is sweet, thick, and refreshing. (Bite, slurp.)

I love knowing that the fruit I am eating was grown less than 30 miles away, ripened on the vine, and picked yesterday! (Bite, slurp, drip.)

A Modern Tea Party

It's a D Party!

My friend Jenn recently hosted a girls night at her house with all the sweetness of a tea party (read handmade invitations, homemade treats, and fresh flowers), but also with an updated theme and youthful twist. A D Party is Dips, Drinks, and Desserts!

Jenn made ALL of this food, and the invites herself. It was a grand and classy time.

Just Something Beautiful for Friday

Alright, I have a new infatuation. I know it is a long-term one because it has grown slowly over time, gaining strength. I am simply infatuated with the flower arrangements of Amy Merrick.

Her work is wild but purposeful. It somehow manages to be natural but fully saturated with color and style! How?!?! I quite literally swoon. She showcases the natural "stunning-ness" of the flowers. Take a look at her new website.

Have a most beautiful weekend!

Oh and a fun announcement is coming next week! Stay tuned...

Writing! For Adults?

GUEST POST ALERT!!! IT'S A GREAT DAY!

I am fortunate in having a creative family and creative friends. They challenge me to new ideas, as well as give freedom and grace to experiment, create, and mess up. Some adults may not have the freedom, motivation, or encouragement to be creative. Maybe structured lives, rigorous schedules, or social expectations squeeeeeeze it out? Unfortunate I say! Surely brain-stretching, expression, and innovation are just as relevant in adulthood as childhood?

So I asked one of my creative friends to share some encouragement in her area of expertise : writing. Amy Sheets is a 4th grade language arts teacher, as well as a MA, lecturer, and college professor off...Writing! Of course! Writing can be done anytime, by anyone (aka, no drawing skills required :), so it is the perfect course for building creative adulthood muscles.

Thanks for sharing this with us Amy!!!

_________________________________

My Red Umbrella by Carambatack

“One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places

and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it

lurches and tramps around.”

-Ann Lamott

Writing is a troublesome thing. It always sounds like a great—romantic, even—thing in which to take part. But then there’s the fact that at some point along the way of being a “writer,” one has to actually sit down and write at some point. For me, writing has been a fickle friend, but once I became a teacher of writing, I realized that I actually needed to be a writer. Otherwise, I would be like being a swim coach who seldom getsin the water. To do it well, I needed to dive in.

Retro Design - Car by Carambatack

But writing, once it gets going, can really be a wonderful activity. It can help you remember the details of a special moment. It can help to process difficult emotions or decisions. It can bring clarity to experiences from your past. It can also allow a complete divergence from reality. Writing even has a myriad of health benefits. Did you know that researchers have found that people who write about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding upsetting events have stronger immunity and visit their doctors half as often as those who write only about trivial events, let alone those who do not write regularly? The Journal of the American Medical Association showed that writing even reduces physical symptoms in patients with chronic illnesses.

In the past year I have challenged my students to think about the reasons we write. At first they looked at me like, “Uh…because you make us?” But once we started thinking

of reasons, they came up with some really beautiful ideas. One student said that you should write because maybe it will become a book you’ve always wanted to read.

Tree Print by Carambatack

Another said that it can be as exciting as being at bat with all the bases loaded (I don’t know that I ever got him to write about a topic other than baseball if you couldn’t guess).

I also worked to find the words of writers and teachers to add to our collection of reasons. One of my favorite quotes on this is from fellow writing teacher Ralph Fletcher, who says of keeping a writing notebook, “[It] can be a clearing in the forest of your life, a place where you can be alone and content as you play with outrage and wonder, details and gossip, language and dreams, plots and subplots, perceptions and small epiphanies.”

So, I challenge you to write today. Wonder at the world. Notice something about the world and the people around you. Allow yourself a “clearing in the forest of your life.”

And, just for a bonus quote:

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to

do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

~Sylvia Plath

---Amy Sheets

_________________________________

To contact Amy with questions or for writing sources, email makinghomehomemade@gmail. 

The Rest of the Story

Now that you've learned of the little orphans of Haiti, and seen some of the things I love about Haiti, I thought we could share a brief overview of rest of the trip! I'll give the full summary in an upcoming newsletter...let me know if you want to get it!

This was Mountain Walk Day..about 2 miles up, up, up in the hot Haitian sun. That little dot in the road on the left picture is a truck...just for some perspective. I could have sworn we were about to reach the Dominican Republic. See Husband's arm after about 5 minutes:

But it was all worth it when we reached the mountain top village. This is what awaited us:
Beautiful Haitians, fun and games, story telling, wound bandaging, and goofy songs.

We had the privilege of viewing the mass grave from the Jan. 2010 earthquake...the government says that 200,000 people are buried under the gravel, marked by wooden crosses painted black.

Let's see what else was there...
Playground building, bathroom painting, gate painting...

River fording...

Aggressive US vs. Haiti basketball action (the red and white blur is Husband)...

Sleeping in bunks and riding around in the back of a pick up truck...

Group bonding time...

And I'll leave you with this, my favorite part of Haiti : sweet children in tough situations to love on.

 

Come to Haiti with us next year!

Husband Knows Best

It is August 1st, and that means it's our anniversary; we have been married for two whole happy years! It is strange how things seem to go so fast, and yet I feel like I've always been married to Ceej. You can see our first family portrait here.

This year Husband surprised me with a bed and breakfast stay in Columbus, complete with a trip to Cosi (science-y stuff geared towards kids, but right up my alley). The pics didn't turn out (iPhone in the darkness), so you'll just have to trust me that it was great! Imagine Husband lifting a car, animatronic dinosaurs, champagne pear flavored ice cream, dinner outside during a huge thunderstorm, and the best double chocolate cookie man has ever made.  It was the perfect celebration of our quirky preferences as a couple.

Did you know that the 2nd anniversary is the cotton anniversary? Functional!

I would choose this for my 2nd anniversary cotton gift :

Turkish Cotton Towels from TurkishTowel

30 Days : Check!

Have you every looked at 30 pictures of your head all at once? Neither had I...

BOOM! 30 Lisa Heads!

Not gonna lie, it's a little creepy.

But this is the result of my 30 Days : 30 Dos experiment...which I loved! I feel more confident in working with my hair, and I have a repertoire of styles under my belt for multiple occasions. Do you have any favorites? Any "lisa-don't-do-that-again"s?

You can find links to the individual hair styles here.

Here are some links to ladies who have either tried one of the dos, or who are doing a hair experiment of their own! Check them out!

Kristen at :  stellarmade.blogspot.com
Kelley at : dailysips.blogspot.com

Little Ones

Task : Pick one single word to describe our Haiti trip. Answer : Orphans.

In one square mile around the guest house where we stayed, there are 150 orphans living. I don't know if that is typical for a square mile in Haiti, but it implies a massive orphan population.

I wish you could feel their sweaty, cushy cheeks as they lean in for kisses.  I wish you could hear 30 small orphans singing a Kreyol welcome song, shouting Good Morning in broken English, and rushing to you in a wave for no other reason then to hold your hand, receive a hug, to play. I wish you could see them beaming and laughing in the 105 degree heat, in a concrete room, in unwashed clothing.

Oh they are so precious. Little souls with no family to protect them or hug them. Many of them struggled to survive alone in the street before being found by a willing Momi(House Mother) or Pastor.

We had the privilege of meeting 30 orphans in Gonaives, Haiti between the ages of 4 and 12. They are scraping by. They maybe eat one meal a day, sleep on the roof of a concrete house with no railing, and can't go to school, but they still take their shoes off before going inside. They still sling their arms around each other while listening to a Bible story. They still wait in line for food and listen to their Papi.

I'm writing a newsletter report of our trip that will tell the whole story of the discovery of these struggling orphans among other parts of our trip. If you want to receive it, shoot me an email at makinghomehomemade@gmail.com. 

We're going to try to do something for them. It is so so so tangible and attainable. Stay tuned for more. Of course, no pressure at all, but if you think you might want to help, please let me know...it's going to be all kinds of fun and meaningful!

You can see some scenery pics of Haiti here!

If you are here, You know why

All right people. Voting begins for the most delightful brownie recipe. We will be making whichever recipe gets the most votes at an upcoming social event...so choose wisely!

Vote to the right. The letters coordinate with the following photos :

A. Better Than Crack Brownies

howsweeteats.com

B. Creme de Mente Brownies

cookingbymary.wordpress.com

cookingbymary.wordpress.com

C. Black Cocoa Brownies with Coconut and Rum

janessweets.blogspot.com

Vote away!

Fried Plantains and Other Haitian Delights

(Play this song as you read this post :)

WE ARE BACK. And now we can tell you the most fundamental reason we took last week off.

We went back to Haiti! Beautiful, lovely, distraught Haiti. I'm once again in an internal battle on our return...what can I possibly leave out?! how can I begin to describe it? how do I write it all?

Before I get too overwhelmed, I'm just going to start. This post is about the beauty of Haiti. There will be others following that have more about our activities!

Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere. The streets reek with trash fires and smog; the stores are ten foot portable shacks; the national highway is pocketed with car-sized potholes. The rivers look like giant cappuccino spills in which people bathe, defecate, and wash clothes. Children lug jugs of water from the village well to their homes made of broken cement and relief-effort tarps. Even the well-off in Haiti don't have air conditioning or washing machines. Oh and it's 100 degrees every day.

And yet it is so beautiful!

Look at these children!

The clear water beaches are just one beautiful part of the Haitian terrain. There are rice patties and mountains and rivers...all lined with mango and avacado trees.

 The favorite Haitian meal is chicken with beans-and-rice, all doused with some sort of tomato sauce. These are the remains of one of my meals, supplemented by a huge, fresh avocado bought at the street market by our friend and guide Papitass. If you've been reading long, you know how I feel about avocados, and this one was everything good and more.

A typical Haitian market is crowded booths with shades strung up too low for most Americans to walk under. Meat is slaughtered there every morning; fish are brought in from the ocean side, and hundreds of vendors sit in the heat, awaiting a sale. Maybe I was the only one to find beauty in this, but it was so saturated with culture!

And Haitians love to dance! A ton of my time was spent with these two ladies trying to teach us to move like Haitians. We learned the song above from them too.

So. Haiti = Lovely. For so many reasons. There's a lot more to come...consider this a preview.

;)

You can check out my favorite photos from last year here.

A Family Portrait

Hello lovelies,

Just a heads up that next week we are taking a blog break...a blog-cation. As with everything in life, it is important to step back from time to time so that you can jump in again, rigorously and refreshed. We have some other reasons too that we will share with you when the week is done!

But as a teaser, we have some new stuff that is really exciting (/colorful). Some guest posts are also in the works that you will totally love!

So I leave you with our summer 2011 family portrait :

That's how we roll/pose. Also, we will never ever take a family portrait in our bathing suits again.

For some reads in our absence, check out How to Dry Oregano or The Theory of Cost Per Wear Shopping on our blog, or check out some of these others : PinkHolidaze, Color Collective

Until next week, shalom.

30Dos : Day 30!

IT. IS. DAY. 30!!!!!!

I thought about many things for a finale...a hair cut. a dye. bleached tips. After all though, this has been an experiment for doing what you can with what you have. Therefore, I leave you with my final, standard-hair, hair do:

My friends, I have a lot to tell you about this whole experiment. For now though, I will stick to standard post format, and you will have to wait to hear me pontificate! :)

I literally teased my whole head, right down to neck. I made a messy bun out of the middle third chunk of my hair horizontally (yes really). Then I pined back the top in sections, but held back a few small chunks for braids.  The bottom section I wound upward and pinned underneath the pony tail. The great thing about this do...it can be messy and still work! 

Time investment : 12min.

Product investment : Hair band, bobbies, teasing brush

Money investment : $0.15

Words of ... mine :)

Hmmm. After all of this, I would say : Try to ENJOY taking care of yourself. Your body, mind, and spirit are all bound up and can sometimes affect each other.

30Dos : Day 29

DAY 29!??!!

More braids!!

I keep trying to pull the multiple braid thing off. Maybe oval-shaped heads aren't supposed to wear lots of braids. I will say this is the closest I have come. It is a little bit more modern looking than my first tries.

Does it look like exterior brains to anyone else?

For this do, I horizontally sectioned my hair into two; a top half and a bottom half. I ignored the bottom half while I equally divided the top half vertically. I loosely french braided each half from my forehead back to the middle, where I continued the braid off of my head. Then I repeated with the bottom section for a total of 4 braids, all leaving my head and falling together in the very back. (At this point Husband saw me, and I could see the doubt about this do in his eyes:)  So after the braids were done, I took the left side braids and brought them around to the right side, tucked them into the other side's braid, and pinned them, hiding the ends. Same with the left side braids but to the right.

Braids braids everywhere.

Time investment : 10min.
Product investment : Rubber bands, bobbies
Money investment : $.05

Words of wisdom : I've had orphans on the brain this week :
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. ~ Proverbs 31:8-9

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. ~ Luke 13:13-14

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. ~ Psalm 68:5

30Dos : Day 28

Today is a side fishtail braid. There is something about fishtail braids that I am drawn to...perhaps it's deviance from the traditional braid, perhaps the chaotic intricacy, or the slight resemblance to a spine...
Who knows exactly.

I had to reteach myself how to do it. I used these picture instructions.

Time investment : 8 min. (Fishtails take a little longer that regular braids).
Product investment : Rubber band
Money investment : $.02

You can see my other fishtail braid style here.

Words of wisdom :

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving. - Dale Carnegie

30Dos : Day 27

So the thing with experimenting is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Today the thing I was attempting did not work, but during the experiment, I discovered this look. Day 27 is a lot softer and more flowing than my usual preference, but I ended up liking it.

AND IT'S EASY. So I suppose it is my style after all.

 

To make this do : pull your hair to your favorite side of your head (everyone has one right?) and separate into two chunks. Tie a double knot with those two chunks. Pin any hair sticking out of the knots back into the flow of your hair.

Time investment : 15min (because of straightening)
Product investment : Bobbies, straightener
Money investment : $.15

Words of wisdom about choosing your admirees and heroes carefully :

Brothers, join in imitating me (Paul), and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. ~ Philippians 3:17