green.

isn't this green polka dot purse adorable? as soon as i saw it, i immediately thought of my mom. she loves green. so i bought it for her. along with the t-shirt, which says "my white t is green." it's made of 100% organic cotton. earth day is right around the corner (april 22). so i thought this purse and the t-shirt would be a cute way to show my appreciation to my mom for all that she did for me last week. oh, and the purse is reversible. so two for the price of one. who can beat that??

happiness.

i'm a frequent visitor to the Real Simple website. they have a plethora of resources, advice, reviews, tips, etc. to make every life situation "real simple" - ha! i encourage you to browse through the site if you have a minute or two. (side note: i really would LOVE a job as a web editor for this publication. it's so up my alley.)

anyhow, i subscribe to their rss feed for daily thoughts, and similar to my affirmation cards, these thoughts provide me with little bits of inspiration, and often times motivation. today's thought is about happiness (see below).

so after reading this, i had a "ah ha" moment. and i realized that the key to my own happiness doesn't have to do with the actual events that occur in my life. obviously, i don't have a lot of control over those things. but my happiness has to do with how i approach each instance, whether it be good or bad. it's connected more to my emotional outlook life. now that's some food for thought for this rainy friday afternoon...

goddess of illumination.

this morning i picked this affirmation card: goddess of illumination. i am flexible and can adapt to the challenges of our modern age.


the card says:

"use this gift when information overload, constant change, and other aspects of the rapid pace of modern life threaten to overwhelm you. modern 'conveniences' have eliminated the cushion of time necessary to properly absorb and consider information and concepts. to achieve true knowledge and wisdom, you must take time each day for quiet reflection."

boy, my first day back to work was all about rapid pace. it was so busy, i barely had time to take my advil nevermind eat my lunch. i think i should have stay home one more day. my ribs and back have been used to the recline mode. so sitting up right in my office chair was not pleasant by any means.

i think i need to take time tonight for some "quiet reflection." no tv. no computer. no phone.

ouch! and my couch.

here's where i've been camped out for the past four days. i fell down my stairs over the weekend and bruised my ribs. not fun!

advil every 4-6 hours, per the doctor's orders, and lots of TLC from my mom has helped me through it all. i've been forced into pure relaxation, which has been nice, despite the pain. i've literally just been lying on my couch surfing the web, reading my favorite blogs, (one being my cousin's blog, Thistle Downs wool design - p.s. she makes amazing felted handbags that you have to check out! my favorite one is called gammy), and watching lots of daytime television. i forgot how many cool talk shows on are during the day.

tonight, i'm going rest up some more and prepare myself for my first day back at work this week. i have a lot of catching up to do.

96 years.

i just called my granny to wish her a happy birthday. she turned 96 years old today.


every time i visit with her, i am in awe of how amazing she looks for her age. despite a little bit of dementia, she is still pretty with it...and funny as ever (maybe that's why she was born on april fool's day - ha!). take a look at this video i took of her last weekend.



can you believe she was born two weeks before the Titantic sunk? pretty amazing this woman. i wonder if i will live to 96? there's this series on abc tonight, live to 150, can you do it? i'm planning on watching it just out of curiousity. i can't say that i want to live to 150. but i wonder what it would be like...

clam bake.

my sister and i gave ourselves the best pedicures last night (another way that i celebrated spring this weekend). we both opted for the essie color called, clam bake. it's a beautiful reddish orange that looks good on your toes with or without a tan.


we were total girly-girls and also gave ourselves facials and watched the best movie of all time, dirty dancing. :-) my sister and i both agreed that it was so much different to watch it now that we're older. there are so many issues the movie touches upon that we never really absorbed when we were younger. social status. infidelity. womanhood. abortion. father/daughter relationships. just to name a few. but putting that aside, it still has some of the best love scenes of all time. and the music is unforgettable. and i'd like to know who doesn't get goosebumps at the end of the movie when "baby" is lifted in the air by "johnny"???

anyhow, another lovely weekend spent with my sister. i was sad to see her leave tonight. but i'm hoping to get back up to burly-town in a few weeks. in the mean time, i will continue to celebrate the change in season by admiring my white tulips and freshly painted toes!