Rocks in the Dryer

Media Explosion

Today has been a day full of media for our humble little family.  3 out 5 of us have can be found in a media hit today.  We are all basking in our short lived glory...

My 9 year old's hockey team was recognized for a tournament win in our local paper.  Yes the team looks like a large black blob, but we know the truth and are oh so proud.

Pup dog won almost top billing on Desire to Inspire today (Monday's Pets on Furniture Feature).  No credit to his own of course, other than looking cutie, I took the photo and submitted it on his behalf.  Not trying to steal the spotlight.....you can see the whole post here and find out how to submit a photo of your own four-legged lover.

 

And finally me.  I found out today a photo and quote from an interview actually were featured about yours truly in Publishers Weekly earlier this month.  The article is about Barefoot Books' upcoming 20th Anniversary and me, their trusty sidekick always putting my best barefoot forward.  

 

 

Well isn't it a simply lovely Monday.  What else will this week bring!

 

 

Halloween Preparedness :: Haunt them all with an e-card

My friends at Barefoot Books have a spooky new book out this year.  Perfectly timed for Halloween.  My boys are LOVING listening to the stories read on CD (they are really not all that spooky).  It's been a wonderful way to ring in the season. 

In celebration.  Barefoot is offering a fun e-card you can send to those you wish to trick this year . . and check out the book, Tales of Mystery & Magic while you are there, you can "Step Inside" (click the button), see the spread and hear some of the track ... whoooooooooooo!

 

Hanging with My Best Friend Jane

Just when I said I wouldn't be posting this week . . . look at me go.   I got to take part of something rather magical last night and I can't control myself.   I attended "An Evening with Jane Goodall" at Harvard University's Saunders Theater.  Lucky duck.

First of all if you have yet to attend an event at Saunders Theater (pronounced by Bostonians as "Saahn-ders"  not "Sand-ers" as you may want to say) you may want to add it to your list.  It is a magnificent place.  Clearly I was not lucky wicked smaaht enough to actually attend Harvard, but let it be known I will jump at any opportunity to attend an event there.  I have enjoyed many a marvelous shows inside its walls and last night did not fall short.

I was invited to attend the event through my work with Barefoot Books. Barefoot is supporter of Jane Goodall's organization Roots and Shoots (YEAH Barefoot!) and I, the lucky recipient of one of Barefoot's tickets. 

How wonderful to get the tiniest glimpse inside the work of this extraordinary woman.  It was hard, at least for me, to keep my mind clear, to just listen.  My inner dialog was reaching it's own tipping point; "have to do more, I want to be her, I want to hang out with her, work for her, If only I didn't have children..., why is my life so lame, can't believe I spent the whole day at IKEA, I hate myself, I am the source of global warming, I want to go study the chimpanzee's in Gombe, I like chimpanzee's as much as Jane, I even had a chimpanzee birthday party when I turned 7, She's so lucky, it's too late now, too many people want to study chimpanzee's .... bliddy bloddy on and on. 

Then Jane started talking about how the little things each of us do make a difference.  "Coffee" she said, you can make a difference with the coffee you drink.  Then I remembered.

There was a great article in Hiefer International's publication World Ark (I think I wanted to blog about it and never did) about the work Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is doing with Heifer and elsewhere (I know now directly with the Jane Goodall Institute) Promoting natural, organic coffee growing, ie: shade grown.  Teach, help, aid farmers to grow coffee in shade, to grow trees too.  Trees are good for coffee farming and you go ahead and guess the by product.  Habitat for chimps and and all of their forest friends.

I have a Keurig single serve coffee maker.  Keurig is a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters owns the patent on the "k cups", single serve coffee pod things.  I own the machine, I buy the coffee....Ahhhhhhhhhh, my work is done.

There were so many great little factoids {Did you know that a human can receive a blood transfusion from a chimp?  Our blood is that similar}, so much inspiration, humor, insight and of course; call to action.  There were so many books by and about Jane for sale and I wanted them ALL.  Problem was everyone there wanted them too and I couldn't commit to the line.  I plan to read her biography, grab a couple of the children's books and was rather intrigued by her stage companion, Prof. Richard Wrangham's new book:  Catching Fire: How cooking made us human. 

And to think I thought my week was already over-committed now I have 1000's of pages to read and 300,000 chimpanzees to save...

Newton Staging Gig: Boys Bedroom Reveal

It's done.  Went by yesterday to deliver the final pieces of bedding and take a quick snap shot.  All involved parties are pleased with the results.

The important distinction between staging and decorating is that when staging the #1 goal is to make the home and its rooms palatable to many tastes, clean, fresh and translatable. Getting the home ready to sell quickly and for a great price while keeping the spending low is the objective. 

This room was fun and easy in that we really got to start from scratch.  We stole the bed from the older brother's room (next on the list to stage) and spray painted it with Krylon Regal Blue.  The rug too was borrowed from said brother's room.  Our plan was to get a new rug from FLOR, but we ran through our budget rather swiftly so we were pleased to re-purpose a rug in the house.

The Alphabet cards and existing window coverings were the starting point.  We used one set each of the ABC's and 123's to span two walls.  The parents are both scientists so with all of the millions of flashcard options out there - these were a no brain-er (sorry, bad yet unavoidable pun).

Needed bureau and storage.  Straight to IKEA to score a LACK bookshelf in red and MALM bureau in white.

My favorite part is the bedding (and it was the biggest splurge, there needs to be 1 right?):

I am exercising all of my restraint to not get it for my own boys.  City Stripe jersey sheets from Garnet Hill, Red duvet from Company Store and cozy lime green blanket and matching toss pillow from Target.  Perfect.  Finally a few accessories:  (lamp also from Ikea, Bean Bag Chair from Target, and some framed art)

The print is from Barefoot Books (they used make frame-able artist prints from their book artwork, though currently out of stock) the frame is from Frame USA.

Wall color is Benjamin Moore, Bleaker Beige.

So if this were a staging TV show, as my kids thought it was, the total for staging this room would be $773.   On TV they never take into account the time and labor of the worker people, it's the cost of materials and supplies.   Not bad for what I think is a super duper cute and easy to implement room.

What would a re-do be with out a before photo?  I am ashamed of the quality of this photo and promise to do a better job at my before photography in the future - that is surely what makes for some good fun.  This one is all blurry, taken on a phone. . . . .

you get the drift, job well done and I'm off to submit my resume to "Designed to Sell".

What Colors Go Well With Camouflage?

A new photo arrived from Iraq.  The soldiers who I donated Barefoot Books to for the United Through Reading:  Lightening Readers Project were apparently unsatisfied with the first photo they returned to me.  It was lacking pomp and circumstance . . . or so they thought.  They decided to gather in formation with strikers (they told me this I am not up to date on my military vehicles) in the back. Well done I should think:

 
The photo made me weak in the knees and even conjured emotion from DH who's prompt response was:  "You have to send them more!".  It's all I want to do - send them more, this has become my favorite past time. It brought us such joy to see the vibrant colors of the books we donated against the drab sand and camouflage. I hope the youth and whimsical color brightened their day, it is an obvious contrast to their daily existence.

I have grown to love my connection and communication with Capt. Roedl though now I am faced the the reality of his situation, and oh how I empathize with his wife and family.   I have not heard from him in two weeks.  I know tensions and activity have mounted in Iraq over the past few weeks and I wait with baited breath for our next communication.

Godspeed to them one and all.

Today's Giveaway: Barefoot Books

This is a great one friends!  A collection of "healthy living" titles for kids from Barefoot Books! 

Kids Kitchen (yummy recipes kids can actually make), Yoga Pretzels (a card deck full of yoga poses - it's a total family favorite at our house), My Daddy is a Pretzel (super cute story book that works yoga poses into the story)

 
All three are yours for the winning!  Simply leave a comment on this post for your chance to win.  Commenting closes Sunday 1/24/2010.  One winner will be randomly drawn (US shipping only pa-lease!).  Good Luck . . . and if you don't win?  These three titles are on sale at the Barefoot Books Website til the end of the month.

Happy Healthy New Year!

Snow Day Activity

It's rather simple really . . . buy books on sale from my favorite little affiliate, it's all I am doing today!

Thankful for . . . . Big Fat Discounts!

Stay away from the mall . . .  I repeat . . . . stay away from the mall!  Need to shop this weekend just do yourself a favor and do it online.  Here's one spot with a "Festive" discount.  Barefoot Books 20% off and free shipping for orders over $35   - go ahead and get those teacher gifts at very least.

 

Don't forget to enter special offer code word "FESTIVE" at check out!  Happy clicking.