Sweet Product Find: The Munchie Mug

I love this! I must get one.

Introducing the Munchie Mug for infants and toddlers:

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Children love
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Garden update

My garden is bursting with flavor. I am growing corn for the first time, pumpkins, peppers (sweet and hot), beans, cucumbers, and lots and lots of tomatoes. I have been making home made pizza sauce, pasta sauce and salsa daily. I love summer.

Here are some pictures from my garden.
Corn


Bean tower



Harvest time




Garden friend

Book Review: The Sun in Me

$12.99

Special Offer Price $10.99

The Sun In Me

Poems About the Planet

"A wide-ranging poetry collection covers sea, sun, sky, and earth illuminated by stunning illustrations."—Kirkus Review

From the rainforests of Africa to the mountains of Japan, Judith Nicholls brings together a diverse collection of poems from many cultures that celebrate the beauty and fragility of our Earth. Beth Krommes's illustrations of colorful landscapes, animals and people beautifully complement each poem, creating an heirloom-quality gift book that will delight children of all ages.

hello friend

I swear dragon flies are modern day fairies. This one let me get so close I thought she was going to talk to me.

Christmas in July

Every summer I wait for my local greenhouse Claussen's to have their famous all you can carry sale. This year did not disappoint. For $50 I was allowed to load up a double decker cart with as much as I could. The plants were layered on top of each other in my car in order to fit them all. I was like a kid in a candy shop.

Here is my car packed with goodness.

I was giddy beyond belief.

So I decided to create a new garden around my once empty brick patio. I wanted to make a garden patio out of it.

I am happy with the results.

The rest of the flowers went to fill in the front yard garden I created this spring and a small one on the side of my house. I was also able to fill many pots for the brick patio and my deck. It was the perfect thing to do on our first day of sunshine in a week.

Go local

I have been on a mission to become a localvore. If you are wondering what that is, a localvore is is a person who eats only locally-grown and produced food. I am fortunate to live in a state that has a leading part in this movement. On top of of all of the local farmers, crafters etc in VT we are also lucky to have many locally owned restaurants and stores who support this effort by selling and using their products. With the oil issue being what it is now is the time to be looking inside your own state and finding what products you can buy locally instead of products that were shipped from across the country or from other countries.

Taking on this challenge hasn't been too hard. In the summer and winter I get all of my vegetables from a local CSA Farm Share and buy as much as I can locally of other products as well. My Eggs, maple syrup, butter, cheese, veggies, fruits, salad dressing and flour all come from VT. There are some things I have had to slide on. For instance I can't yet give up avocados or bananas. This movement has taught me though to shift my eating habits quite a bit. I have become more of a seasonal eater. Since I get all of my veggies from my local CSA I eat what I get from them. This means no salads in the winter because there isn't any lettuce. The summer months are filled with salads, tomatoes, squash, beans, carrots peas and greens. The winter months are filled with carrots, potatoes, fall squash, spinach and root vegetables. All foods they store all winter. I am able to get VT apples all winter too because Champlain Orchards does winter storage as well. On top of this I grow a small garden in my back yard. This year I have 6 monster tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, peas, beans, squash, corn, cucumbers and pumpkins.

Again this means shifting my fruit intake. I no longer buy apples from Argentina and New Zealand (where most are from in the grocery stores), I am trying to wean off of bananas, and I do still give in to grapes but only when they are from CA and not Mexico. I was giddy with joy when I went to the store yesterday to find organic local plumbs grown by Champlain Orchards where I also get my apples.

It is maddening to me how much of our food is produced outside of the US. Most of the big chain food stores do not list on their tags where the food is from but the local food coop that I shop at does. It is scary. VT is taking major leaps ahead in becoming a bit more self sufficient. It takes some adjustment in your diet but it is so worth it.

To learn more go HERE, HERE

Our rescue dog journey

This is the journey we took to rescue a puppy from TN. He was left in a box with 10 other puppies on someone's front lawn in TN. There are so many dogs and mostly puppies on death row in the south due to over population. Never in a million years did we think we would do this but once we saw his picture and learned more about rescue we knew this was for us.

We worked with a local rescue organization called Golden Hugs Rescue who pays a pull fee to get the dogs out of the shelter and into foster care in order to be adopted. They then have a special transport team truck the adopted dogs up North a few times a month.

We left for NH on Friday night. We stayed at my sisters house because she lives close to where our pick up location was. On Saturday we headed to the location at 1:00. The truck was supposed to be there around 1:30 but there was an accident on the highway so it didn't arrive until 3:00. My parents met us there so we at least got to visit with them while we waited. When we got to our pick up location there were about 50 other families waiting to meet their new pets. It was amazing to see so many people waiting and wondering just as we were. Finally the truck arrived. This big truck pulled up with barking dogs who had been driving since TN. The scene was amazing. Our first meeting with Winston (now Zimo) was everything we hoped. He is adjusting well and settling into his new home. He is a doll and it feels great to have saved him.

Zimo slept all the way home from NH. He was amazing. After spending the night in the truck from TN he quietly took another 3 hour drive back to VT. Once home he had some play time in the back yard and a tour of the house but it was late so we had to get the kids to bed. He immediately got into his crate and has had no problems using it since. Amazingly enough he slept through the night. We had him in the crate in our room and we heard not a peep until 4:30 this morning. We took him outside and then back in his crate when we then slept until 7:00. The boys were delighted to see hit loves to play ball. He seems to know some basic commands fairly well. He sits pretty well on command and fetches and drops the ball. He has clearly decided I am his Alpha Mama and follows me everywhere I go. We are exhausted but so happy.

Last night was amazing. I went with my friend Kyler to see the Sex and the City Movie downtown. I was a late bloomer to the show. We have never had cable that gives us HBO so the year I was pregnant with sal 2004-2005 we Netflixed the entire run of the show. Start to finish. I loved it. Needless to say I was excited to see the movie. Now this isn't any kind of Oscar nod movie or anything but it isn't trying to be. It was a perfect slice of escapism that I needed in my life at that moment.

Being home with my kids full time I seldom get a break. I was giddy all day yesterday knowing I was going to be picked up at 6:00. JB was coming home from work early so I had dinner ready for 5:30 and I was out the door at 6:00. I put on a cute summer dress and jumped in the car with a smile on my face knowing I would be free of dishes, dinner clean up and all bed time routines.

The movie was what I expected. Predictable but fun. The fashions were fabulous and I laughed a lot. It was light and refreshing with themes of forgiveness and friendship thrown in.

I came home with a skip in my step. JB and I enjoyed a beer on the deck while enjoying the cooler evening air. I felt free for a moment and it was delightful.

Kyler and I made plans to see Mama Mia when it comes out. I am already counting down the days.

It is hot hot hot in VT today and I have popsicles on the mind.

I just found a great source for BPA free popsicle molds. I am going to order me up some.

Save money by making your own and save your kid from all the artificial colorings and flavorings they put in store bought. But make sure you get the BPA free ones.

Meet Zimo

Zimo will soon be the newest addition to our family. We rescued him from TN. He will soon be making the long trip to the North East and we pick him up next Saturday. He is a 3 month old lab mix. We are in love and can't wait to meet him. His given name is Winston but the kids made up Zimo and so it will be.

These pictures were taken by the shelter in TN where he is now. It has been a long hard search for us to find the right dog. It feels really good to be helping this little guy out.

Vacation Review

I am back from vacation. We went to Ogunquit Maine for the week. It was so nice to get away but even better to come home. Taking a break and going away is such good perspective. I realize that despite living so far from the ocean I absolutely love where I live. Ogunquit was nice but a bit too upscale for my liking. They make going to the beach a very exclusive thing. Our cottage was in walking distance to one of the beaches in town if you didn't have two kids, blankets, a cooler and beach toys in tow. Given that walking wasn't an option to us we were stuck driving. Parking at the Ogunquit beaches sucks! All lots were $15 a day or there was one that was $4.00 an hour. What? That is insane. Other beaches I have been too on the Maine/NH seacoast were not like this at all. I found it all to be a bit exclusive. Luckily we ended up finding York Beach which was the next town over and we loved it. It was much more our speed. The parking situation was meters right up against the beach and it only cost $1.00 an hour. Now that was more like it.

Leaving my hometown also makes me realize how crappy the food is in most other places. Being a vegetarian is hard in America. Most of the restaurants cater towards seafood and steak of course so it was pizza for us when we decided to dine out. We found a breakfast spot called The Egg & I in Ogunquit that supposedly had been voted the best breakfast in Southern Maine. I beg to differ. I had an omelet with cheddar cheese, mushrooms and spinach and a side of home fries. I guess I am spoiled because where I come from you can actually get fresh ingredients in your food. The mushrooms in this omelet were from a can, the spinach was soggy like frozen spinach and the home fries were prepackaged frozen home fries. It was nasty. Honestly it was no better than eating at Denny's or a place like that.

At times I wished we had just stayed in our beautiful state and just rented a place on the lake. Where enjoying the water is more accessible and the food is real. We did have a good time though. We took the kids to Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth NH. Oh and if you are ever in Portsmouth you MUST eat at The Friendly Toast. Amazing. Truly amazing. I finally found a restaurant that cooks real food! Great vegetarian options too. We also took the kids to York Wild Kingdom. Kind of a cheesy place but the kids loved it. It was fun to be able to do things with the kids they don't normally do. Arcades, ice cream - most limits were off that week. We all came home with belly aches and 3 extra pounds for me (boo-hoo). I crave fresh vegetables and fruits. Thank goodness it is farm pick up day for us at our CSA Farmshare.

Coming home was wonderful. My yard and garden exploded while we were gone. I have monster tomato plants, small peppers growing, peas and beans reaching for the sky, salad mix begging to be picked and strawberries and blueberries growing plump and juicy. I spent the next day mowing, weeding and harvesting. It was delightful. It was nice getting away but it was wonderful coming home.

Introducing

Smashing Darling is now home to Subsixstudios products. I opened up my shop with them yesterday and I have been nothing but pleased with their website and the selection of indie designers they sell. While you are checking out my new shop you can also sign up for RSS feed or email notifications of when I add new items. I just added two new reusable market totes and look for new earrings and other jewelry in July.

After the storm

IMG_0009_1.JPG
Originally uploaded by John & Kacey

We had crazy storms yesterday which included a tornado watch. Tornado watch in VT? It was a bit scary. By early evening the storms had come to a calm point and the sun was setting before the next one came through. This was taken outside out front window.

VT - heaven on earth

VT - heaven on earth
Originally uploaded by John & Kacey

This is why I love Vermont so much. Taken from the top of Mt Philo.

Garden Updates

Oh how I have been enjoying this season. Each day I crave digging in the dirt, transforming my yard, and growing fresh organic veggies for my family. Gardening cleanses my soul. There is nothing better than going out to my herb garden while I am cooking and picking some fresh herbs to add to the meal. Here are some photos to show how it is going so far. I am trying many new things this year.

I decided to try my hand at two raised beds this year. I put them in a different spot away from my other gardens to see how they do. The one on the left has tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, radishes and squash. The bed on the right is my baby lettuce bed. I plant baby lettuce seeds alternating sides every two weeks.

The structure on the left has peas, the one on the left has beans. There are two strawberry plants, chives and several garlic plants. In the very front row will grow corn and sunflowers.
My garden fort is growing. I can't wait until this is covered with lovely flowering vines.

This was my latest project. The front of this garden section is filled with chives, basil, lemon balm, Italian parsley, cilantro and lavender. Behind the herbs is a new edible flower garden I just planted yesterday. Behind that is two rows of pumpkins, one row of corn and two cucumber plants.


Happy gardening.

What's in a name?

This weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to a family gathering for my mother's Italian side. The Grasso/Locicero family. My great grandparents moved to NH from Sicily when they were in their late teens. My great grandmother was a Locicero and my great grandfather a Grasso. I was too young to remember my great grandfather but I have many memories of visits to my grandma Grasso's house as we called her. Her first name was Vincenza. I was too young to really absorb and realize how much I had around me at the time. Instead as a young child I was easily annoyed that I could not understand her broken English and every time she pinched my cheeks I wanted to scream. The many large meals we had at her house though were unforgettable.

In Italy it is tradition to pass down family names to the children. When they came to America though most of this tradition stopped. My great grandparents carried it on. They gave birth to Salvatore (my grandfather), Mary, Camile and Rosario. It was this generation however who chose more American names for their kids. I am assuming in order to have them become more "Americanized".

When I married I did something I never thought I would do and I took my husbands last name. When I was younger I used to wish my mother had hyphenated our last names so I could have used her maiden name as well as my father's. I found it unfair that the women marries and gives up her name. The one identifier of her past. I have been thinking of switching my name back for years now. I mean no disrespect to my husband and his family. I only wish to hold on to mine as well.

Some people move their maiden name to be their middle name. This is an option for me but I don't want to lose my middle name either. I think the only thing to do is to have several names as I have given my children. So I believe I will add my mother's maiden name of Grasso to my middle name and then add my maiden name of Freel and maybe hyphenate it with my current last name. I'm sure it will confuse people but I don't really care. I have never been one to do anything normal anyway.

Happy Birthday to me!

birthday apple tree

Today is my birthday! Hooray hooray! So far I am having a rockin' time. Here's why:

• David Cook won American Idol last night!

• I got this awesome new table cloth and cloth napkins I wanted from Crate & Barrel from my sister in law

• My kids made my day this morning just being all cute and excited about it being my birthday.
  

• My husband got me the new Madonna CD. It freakin' rocks.

• I had a soy latte and amazing muffin with my youngest son at my favorite local coffee shop this morning.

• Then I bought an apple tree with the gift card to Gardener's Supply my in laws got me. I have always wanted an apple tree. I am psyched.

All this and it is only 10:51am. My husband says he has a surprise for tonight. I can't wait to see what it is.

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy birthday little

This week we celebrated my youngest son's 3rd birthday but two days before would have been my oldest child's 8th birthday. We lost her due to a miscarriage. Ironically she died the exact same day my oldest son was born. My husband and I have always made a flower bouquet from our garden on that day but from this year on we are choosing to celebrate what would have been her birthday instead. So this year on that day we chose to buy a plant and add it to our garden in celebration of her. She left us too early but her memory lives on. I honor her and treat her as if she was my child. She was my first experience with pregnancy and losing her was devastating. It happened very early in our relationship and it was because of her that my husband and I bonded so strongly and stuck together. We married later that year and gave birth to our first son exactly two years later.

Her name is "little" and will always be little. Thank you little for coming into our lives. Even though your time with us was short we love you just as much as if you were with us today.

Happy 8th birthday.

We love you so much.

xoxo

I was interviewed for a small piece that was done in our local paper on Moms and social networking sites. Read the story here.

Today you are three!

Then . . .

Now . . .



Dear Sal,

Today is your birthday. Today you are three. You have done so many wonderful things this year. You learned to ride a trike, climbed higher at the park, perfected your alphabet, learned to count in Spanish, drew fabulous pictures, and painted with lots of globs and colors. You are such a helpful, kind and polite child. You value your friendships and wake up each day with a wide eyed new view of the world. I have so thoroughly enjoyed watching you grow and learn this year. You have been a wonderful teacher for me. I thank you for showing me how to stop and notice the birds in the trees, the songs they sing, a simple lady bug on a leaf, and how hiding in the same spot over and over again during hide and seek can still be fun.

I wish for you so much in your next year as a three year old. After being home with me full time you will venture off to preschool this coming fall. It will be a big step for both of us and I know we will be ready. With a tear in my eye and happiness in my heart I will hold your hand as we begin this adventure together.

Happy Birthday my little guy.
I love you so much.
xoxo

What a weekend

Saturday we had our family and friends birthday celebration for Sal. He turns 3 on Wednesday the 14th. My parents came up for the celebration and lots of our friends joined us as well. Sunday was Mothers Day and I had an amazing time. I was treated to a delicious cheddar, mushroom and spinach omelet, some flowers and awesome handmade cards. I sat outside sipping some coffee while JB cooked and I just knew it would be a great day. I was like a kid in a candy store when JB offered to borrow our neighbors truck and pick up my 1/2 yard of soil/compost for my new raised beds. I was out there shoveling soil all day and it felt great. I filled my new raised beds and had extra to add to my herb garden spot and still have extra that for now is just piled in the back of my garden. I planted my vine flowers for the garden fort and built an extension trellis on my deck to grow vines for a privacy wall. We ended the day with a family game of bocce ball and a BBQ. It was a great weekend. Here are some pictures:

Sal about to dig into this home made cake I made him. Double layer super moist vegan chocolate cake with home made butter cream frosting (non vegan)

Some of our good friends who came over on Saturday to help us celebrate.

We took my parents out for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Italian of course.

My Mother's Day flowers.

My Mother's Day breakfast. Cheddar, mushroom & spinach omlette, soysauges, decaf coffee in what was my Papa's coffee cup when he was alive.

Garden bug

I have been officially hit by the garden bug. I have waited through the long cold winter to dig my hands in the earth. We finally had some nice weather a few weeks ago and I started on some projects I had on my list.

First up was to put up the structures. I have given up my main garden space to create a children's garden. This year I will be planting my vegetables in two raised beds. Here you can see on the far right is our bean tee pee, next to it is a structure that will hold our peas and to the far left is going to be a garden fort. I found the materials for the garden fort behind my shed and put it together last week. I really wanted to create these structures so they become a natural play space for the kids. If all goes well and the plants grow as they should we will have here three different forts for the kids to play in.

Second project on my list was the entrance way into our backyard. This is where my backyard insanity starts to show a bit because last year I ripped up all the grass and put down gravel. This year I decided to dig up all the gravel and try to grow grass again. This is how it looks after I shoveled up all the gravel and made about 7 wheelbarrow trips to my neighbors house to dump it off. I put the stepping stones back in place and I will attempt to grow grass again. I think I have a problem

Third project was to create a small front yard garden. My front yard grass sucks and I have been wanting to create a garden space in the attempt to eventually have the front yard become less and less grass (I think Americans are too obsessed with lawns anyway). This first picture shows what it looks like after I cut out the design, ripped up all the grass and put down some mulch.

This second picture shows it after new top soil has been put down and a few perennials have been planted. It's a start at least.

So that is what I have been doing lately. I hope I have inspired some future yard projects.

Happy Earth Day!

Spring is trying really hard to come to Vermont. Something bigger than us all is holding her back though. I started raking out my garden beds last week when we finally had a few warm days which melted the rest of our snow. A lot of the leaves are still wet, heavy and in some spots a bit frozen to the ground still. Despite these condintions the plants are trying so hard to come up and I am trying to get them uncovered as fast I can. I live for spring. I think I live in the wrong place though.

Since I can't really do much in the garden yet I have been busy planning what new things I am going to do this year. I am going to give up what was my main vegetable garden to make it more of a children's garden. I plan on having a bean tepee, pea structure, sunflowers and strawberries. I am going to try out these raised garden beds from Gardeners Supply for my main vegetables, and I also plan on creating two smaller beds for salad mix.



In addition to this I have been obsessed with creating a garden fort for the kids. I just found this at one of my favorite companies Magic Cabin. I am debating whether or not I should get the kit or try to build a structure myself. Has anyone done this before? If so let me know what materials you used for the structure.

Two weekends ago we went to Visit family in one part of VT and it looked like this.

Last weekend we went to visit friends in another part of VT and we did things like this

It has felt so good to finally get out and do some visiting. Both places are far from our busy little town. It was nice to be out in the country again. The greatest thing about VT is you don't have to drive to far to be in a small town far from it all. I used to live in towns like this when I first moved to VT in the early 90's. I moved to the "big city" when I was 21 because I craved music and nightlife. Now many many years later I am starting to want to go back to the basics. Both choices have their pros and cons. For now we are enjoying where we are at and given the fact that the economy isn't the greatest we will choose to stay put for the time being.

In the meantime I will still dream about the day I can buy a big old farm house like this one below. I took this on our drive last weekend to visit our friends.

Spring Brooch

Check out this gorgeous spring brooch in my new Oddments section.
An assortment of lovely things I find and make available to you.