Entirely Apropos: WaCkY WeDnEsdAy Giveaway! They Are Vintage, Th...

Entirely Apropos: WaCkY WeDnEsdAy Giveaway! They Are Vintage, Th...: "Welcome to the WaCkY WeDneSdaY Giveaway They are vintage and purple ... they remind me of spring! These ..."

"Food" for thought......

I have been fascinated with food, nutrition, and the impact that they have on our health since I was a teen. It was started by my family and my curiosity grew into my early twenties when I became a vegetarian and practiced that eating style on and off until my mid-thirties. While I have been a meat-eater for many years now I still base my diet heavily in vegetables. I try to read and learn constantly about nutrition and just found some information in the October edition of Fitness magazine. I want to share it with you.
One of my interests has been organics. This started before anything "organic" ever appeared in a grocery store. Having grown vegetables "organically" for many years I always felt like it was not neccesary to buy all of our veggies and fruits organic. Some of our produce is bug resistant and prolific all on its own, so it did not make sense to me that commercial growers would spend money on using these chemicals when it was not needed.
Here is a list of produce that you just don't need to buy organic......(save your money for edibles like the list of produce that DOES need to be organic, plus eggs, milk and meat which are concentrated animal products!)
"Clean" produce: (from cleanest to riskiest) Onions (duh!), Avocado, Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Mangoes, Sweet Peas, Asparagus, Kiwi, Cabbage, Eggplant, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Grapefruit, Sweet potato, Honeydew melon
"Dirty" produce: (from dirtiest to cleanest) Celery, Peaches, Strawberries, Apples, Blueberries, Nectarines, Bell Peppers (you can't grow these guys without LOTS of fertilizer), Spinach, Kale, Cherries, Potatoes, Imported Grapes
This is by no means extensive and if you are interested I am sure there is lots more info out there.
Have an inspired day!
Toni

My Card for Two Happy Stampers Color Challenge

Well I am up late with a cold. You know that feeling....can't breathe through your nose no matter what you do.....blah!

So I am taking the opportunity to sit up and post my Two Happy Stampers Color Challenge card. The challenge was to use these colors in a card:

I had to swap out the green as I have not purchased the Pear Pizzaz, but I enjoyed the color combo anyway. I used Stampin' Up Tea Party Designer Paper for the Pretty In Pink and utilized both ink and cardstock for the Chocolate Chip. I would not have thought to use the Cherry Cobbler cardstock, but I think it was a great addition to the color palette. Ironically, I had just recieved my Cherry Cobbler card stock last week so I got to use it sooner that I probably would have!

The bird and birdcage stamps are from Unity's March 2010 Adventures in Happiness and the inside and outside sentments are from Papertrey Ink. I love to use Papertrey sentiments!

Enjoy and have an inspired day!

Toni

Hummers and other (emotionally) guzzling vehicles....

As I had recently posted about the constant entertainment streaming outside my studio window, I had to share this newspaper column that was written by Ramon Presson and was published in this weeks Willliamson Herald.

The editorial is quite amusing and, as most humor, it holds more than a thread of truth!

See it here. Enjoy!

Have an inspired day!

Toni

clean & simple Challenge Card ......

One of my goals for this year was to participate in more card sketch challenges in order to push my card creation to a more sophisticated level.....LOL! I don't know if that is what I have accomplished but I have participated in the Mojo Monday sketch a few times (sometimes I even get the cards done and don't get them posted - imagine that). Today I am posting my card to play in the current clean and simple blog sketch. I really like the clean style that their sketches inspire and would like to participate again. Here is my card....

A wonderful Sunday!....

You just never know what life will bring....Saturday afternoon our friend and neighbor came over to ask us if we would like to attend the Titan's football game on Sunday. We were hesistant as our annual True Blood Season Finale Party was the next day and plus I was supposed to work at Heart and Hands in the afternoon for a few hours, but it just sounded like fun. I found someone to work for me and worked hard the rest of the day to have everything done for the party.

Wow, it was worth it! We sat in a fantastic suite, the food and drinks were great! The day was one of those TOP TEN days of the year with crystal blue skies, not too hot and a light breeze! Perfect! Posted is a picture of the National Anthem presentation. Thanks so much Jerry and Kim for sharing the day with us!!

The party that evening was great with lots of good friends, the TB Finale and a surplus of food. True Blood was full of twists and it will be hard to wait until next June!! I made some little tags with vampire stamps and some quotes from the show this season and hung them on a black Halloween tree.....lots of other decorations but I forgot to take pictures!! Oh well....next time!

Have an inspired day!

Toni

My "Room with a View"....

This summer we had our daughter's bedroom and my studio painted and we switched the two rooms. Taylor loved it when she was home this summer because the new guest room is darker and was conducive to sleeping in...I love the switch because my studio is so bright!

But most of all I love my new view and my paper crafting window faces the large double window with this great view. The flowers are getting a little tired, but I have an endless parade of butterflies, Hummingbirds and Cardinals to make up for the fading flowers

I put up a Hummingbird feeder hoping they would find it before their fall migration and within hours I was rewarded with constant entertainment just a mere four feet from my chair! They are a wonderful and spectacular creation of nature!

Now will I be able to concentrate on my work......

Have an inspired day!

Toni