Thankful Thursday

This entry is coming to you from the past. I wish it was the future, because that sounds much cooler. Anyway, at the moment you read this, I'll be internet-free in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I find these posts really uplifting, though, so I wanted to make sure to write one before my departure. So, these are three things I expect to be thankful for tomorrow, er today. Whatever.

1. Vacation!!!! How could I not say this? I love traveling, I love time off work, and when they combine, they form a harmonious, divine convergence.

2. No checked luggage. I have my quart-sized, ziptop bag of liquids and as little as I think I'll need. Overpacking is only fun once the stuff's in the hotel. Lugging crap through the airport -- and waiting for it to rotate on those delightful conveyer belts upon arrival -- is cazzato.

3. Sunshine. We've been dark and rainy around here lately, so I expect to be enjoying one of the 300 days of sunshine Santa Fe has every year. My migrained head needs the break.

That's my three for "today." I wish you were all on vacation, too! I hope your weekend is lovely wherever you are. I'll check in again Monday.

More OklaTravelNews!

Hey there friends! I'll be on OklaTravelNews today around noon (CDT) to promote Deluxe. I'm so excited to help spread the word about this awesome event. As with last time, tune into the Web site right at 12:00 p.m. to watch it live or catch it any time between 1:00 p.m. today and 11:59 a.m. tomorrow. To catch it after air time, click the "Last Show Archive" button on the viewer. I'll be sporting a few Okie-made items on the show, so look out for them. :)

Seeing green

Brigid Brigid, happy and fulgid, how does your garden grow? Quite well, it seems!

As you can see, I haven't killed anything yet! In fact, everything is getting bigger and brighter. A few days ago, I tied my cherry tomato plant to its trellis with some  leftover pillowcase fabric from the skirt I made. Check out all the snapdragons! I also seem to be revitalizing the parsley (on the right). And -- wait, what are those tiny sprouts I see?

Little radish plants! Five poked through, but I had to thin one out. Look how perfect they are.

They're reaching for the sky. I can just hear the "ehn! ehn!" sounds.

Over on the far left, I today spied another new friend.

A teeny lettuce friend to be. Oh little sprout, how delicious you shall become.

If you let your eye migrate upward, you'll see the pièce de résistance:

It's a baby tomato! I am so proud of this little guy. In fact, after I first discovered him, I had a nightmare that he was taken from me. I know how sad it is to become so attached to a plant, but I'll admit that I have. I can't wait to eat him. :)

And all the while I was snapping photos of my little urban jungle, I had the feeling I was being watched.

Extreme close-up:

Gladys Kravitz ain't got nothing on my little mutt.

My dream studio

The EtsyBloggers topic I chose for this carnival is all about my dream studio. ::sigh:: I'm one of those gals who keeps all her supplies mostly in shoeboxes and wherever else I can shove them. We have a second bedroom in the apartment that is supposed to be a studio/office, but until the past couple of weeks, it's been primarily a storage area. We finally started getting down to business -- a year after moving in! -- to get more things unpacked or thrown away, as the case may be. I have no delusions that my space will ever be a picture-perfect work area, but I vow to have a real studio some day.

I'd want a desk like this:

(Photo courtesy of MayaLee♥.)

Shelves like these for my books and magazines:

(Photo courtesy of Laurie :: Liquid Paper.)

A great bulletin board full of inspiration like this:

(Photo courtesy of Cathe Holden.)

An amazing color scheme:

(Photo courtesy of Crafty Intentions.)

And, of course, lots of bead storage:

(Photo courtesy of freshie & zero.)

It would all come together in a brightly colored amalgamation of vintage, kitschy and modern. I'd put a little cot on the floor and never leave! :) Oh, and of course, it would come complete with my hairball:

And heck, since I'm dreaming here, maybe even one of these, too:

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for these three things:

1. Spring! I know a lot of people aren't so into the 90-degrees-in-April thing, but it certainly beats the snow-on-the-ground-in-April bidness we experienced earlier this month. Plus, I'll admit to being one of those sick people who enjoys a little bit of sweltering. I live right on the River Parks trails, too, so warmer weather means I can take long, lovely walks outside.

2. Honey vanilla white tea chai from Celestial Seasonings. This stuff tastes like spicy, delicious heaven but has no calories. Woo hoo! Plus, Celestial Seasonings is relatively inexpensive but still ethically traded, which is a necessity for me.

3. Cloth pads, but I know you don't want to read about those. :)

All in all, everything is shaping up to be a great Thursday. I hope the same is true for all of you!

Happy Earth Day!

I probably should have done my garden post today in honor of Earth Day, but, well, I clearly didn't think that far in advance. Oops. Anyway, I did celebrate the day a bit by walking to lunch. A wonderful place called Dilly Deli has opened about six blocks from my workplace. They happen to have my new favorite sandwich (grilled portobello mushrooms with feta sauce, roasted pepper aioli, and lettuce, tomato, and red onion in a roll from Farrell Family Organic Breads -- droooooool!), and since I've been too migrained to work out this morning or the one previous, I decided a lunchtime stroll was appropriate. And so worth it! They also sell Boylan Creme Soda, which is my new favorite treat. In fact, I'm so in love with this particular meal that I'm considering starting a new blog just to review vegetarian food offerings in Tulsa, but that'll be an announcement for another day.

There are probably lots of Earth Day events going on in the area, but I do know for sure that the University of Tulsa Conscious Consumer Marketplace is taking place this evening from 5 to 8 p.m. at the McFarlin Library. I decided not to participate, but one or two members of the Tulsa Craft Mafia (as well as many other awesome folks, I'm sure) will be there. If you're looking for an economy-stimulating and wallet-lightening way to spend a couple of hours, head over to the TU campus.

Grow, baby, grow!

Things have mostly calmed down in my corner now. My grandmother went home on Saturday and says she's feeling better. She reassured me that she went first off to get her hair done. :)

I took advantage of a stress-free and planless weekend by hitting the Cherry Street Farmers' Market on Saturday, where I bought spinach from Bootstrap Farm, handmade soap, and snapdragons. I intended to do marigolds as my sole flower in the container garden, but I couldn't turn down snapdragons, which instantly evoke images of childhood for me. On Sunday, we went out to Southwood Landscape & Nursery to get supplies to finish putting in my container garden. We got three pots, Southwood's own soil mixture, a tiny strawberry plant, a small tomato trellis, and three kinds of seeds. Before and after The Amazing Race, I finished. Check it out:

Here's the whole garden! It's little but mighty.

The first pot contains a nice sturdy patio tomato plant. The little pouf of leaves in front is what will hopefully grow to be a strong, fruitful everbearing strawberry plant. In the "empty" spaces on the left and right are a few leaf lettuce seeds.

In the second pot, we have gorgeous, hot-pink snapdragons in the foreground. Behind them is a young grape tomato plant and its pretty trellis.

In the last pot is flat-leaf parsley and Genovese basil (like I could resist the Italian name!). In the blank foreground shall grow delicious radishes and little Italian carrots from seeds.

Ta-da! These photos were taken around 8:20 this morning, so the sun hadn't yet reached its full shine. My south-facing patio should get plenty of sunlight to make these little guys grow!

It's coming!

I finally did some work on my very own web site, www.greyeyedesigns.com! There isn't much up yet, but feel free to check it out. I'm very excited!

That's all for now. I hope everyone's having a great weekend.

Thankful Thursday

I recently started reading 1-2-3 Autism Free, and the mama behind it does a feature every Thursday of three things she's thankful for. With things being hectic at work and with my family, I've had little time for crafting and other hobbies. Instead of being frustrated, I've decided to be grateful for what I do have instead.

1. I'm thankful for having a job, deadlines and all. Lots of people cannot say the same. This week is crazy, but I'll take it -- and my decent paycheck -- over unemployment any day.

2. I'm thankful for my boyfriend. It sounds cheesy, but he's always such a great support for me. He'll even skip a new episode of Lost to spend the evening visiting my grandmother in the hospital! ;)

3. I'm thankful for knowing the difference between wanting to get in shape and needing to lose weight. I may be frustrated with myself with regard to exercise, but I'm not under the delusion that I'm hideous or disgusting. I've been around enough girls with eating disorders -- and had my own eating troubles in the past -- to know that's an important distinction.

So that's my three for today. What are you thankful for?

Meemaw update

I wanted to do a small update on my grandmother because I said I would. They still aren't sure what's wrong, but they think it's something electrical in the heart. Apparently, this is good news since there are no blockages or growths. She'll likely be stuck in the hospital until the end of the week. Grey and I are going up there tonight to check on her some more, and if she's released Friday or Saturday, I may spend some time with her at her home in Muskogee over the weekend.

It was really strange to see her in the hospital with her hair deflated, her body covered in tubes and monitors, and looking smaller than I'd ever thought before. She's in great spirits, though, and is every bit the firecracker she ever was. I promised the story behind why I call her Meemaw, so I shall now deliver. I was the first grandchild born on my dad's side of the family, so my parents asked what she wanted to be called. She chose Meemaw, I guess because it was different. I remained the only kid until my cousin Nathan was born four years later. He called her Grandma, as has every other child born into the family -- five, including him. The only other kiddos who don't call her Grandma are my twin cousins who are related to us by marriage. They just call her Margaret. There are few things sillier than hearing a grown woman talking about her Meemaw, especially when her 10-year-old sister and 13-year-old brother use the name Grandma. I guess I've always been the odd one out. :)

Easter blues

I was hoping to pop in first thing today to show off pictures of the green goodies scored during weekend plant festivities. I did get about half the stuff I planned to on Saturday, but Sunday brought a roadblock to completion. My grandmother is in the hospital. She's the healthiest person I know, and you'd never guess she has almost 78 years under her belt. The good news is that her condition isn't that bad. She called my dad complaining of chest pains and difficulty breathing, so he drove to Muskogee and brought her to a hospital in Tulsa. After they put her on oxygen, her breathing regulated. She's experiencing something called atrial difibrillationg, which basically means the bottom part of her heart is beating normally, but the top is beating too fast. They have her on blood thinners so the problem will work itself out. The afib is causing congestive heart symptoms but not failure. She's also having some kidney problems, but I don't really know the extent of them at this point. In a few minutes, I'm taking a long lunch to visit her in the hospital. She sounded fine on the phone last night, but she's my grandmother, so of course I have to see her. If nothing else, she's not in town that often. :)

So instead of eating copious amounts of chocolate and replanting my herbs and veggies, I was worried yesterday for obvious reasons. She's the greatest lady, and Easter is probably her favorite holiday after Christmas. Though I don't subscribe to the same religious beliefs as her, I used to visit her every year on Easter weekend. I was feeling guilty for not going this year, and then this happened. I know the two are unrelated, but it is a bit jarring.

Anyway, I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend, and I'll update soon with Meemaw news (including the funny story behind why I call her that) and crafty/garden goodness!

Great big sad face -- The Collective is closed

Lovers of coffee and art in Tulsa likely know of The Collective, a great cafe/bar in town across the street from the University of Tulsa. I was very, very sad to discover this in a MySpace bulletin from them:

"Tulsa—We must inform you that as of Monday, April 6th, The Collective is closing indefinitely. We have been struggling against the downturn in the economy for a few months now. With expenses escalating, and an extremely high rent payment, we were unable to continue serving you. After extended negotiations with our Landlord in an attempt to purchase the building, we could not come to an amenable agreement that benefited both parties. We hope you enjoyed your patronage here, and we hope that we were able to bring some comfort and happiness into your lives. We will continue to try to serve Tulsa in the capacities that we can in the future. Comments and concerns can be sent to thecollectivetulsa@gmail.com. As always we will try to respond promptly and honestly.It is important to say that our closing is not due to a lack of support from this community. Word of mouth, news outlets and return customers helped us to be more successful than most businesses starting out. We thank you for your continued patronage. Everyone would like to think that they made a positive change on their environment. We would like to think that The Collective created a community atmosphere and arts-based business that hadn’t previously existed in this location. Thank you for making this possible for us, and thank you for the opportunity to serve you. We are deeply saddened by this turn of events, and if nothing else, please continue to support locally owned, Tulsa friendly businesses for they are the lifeblood of our community.

The Collective Team"

This great venue was a wonderful friend to the Tulsa Craft Mafia. It was the site of our monthly meetings (we held one there just this Sunday), offered up space for Swap-O-Rama-Rama, and hosted monthly art exhibitions -- including one for us the back in December. I also greatly enjoyed lunching there from time to time or sipping one of their fantastic mochas. Losing The Collective will leave a void in the community, and I genuinely hope Colleen and her crew can reopen in some fashion somewhere else very soon.

For fellow mourners in need of a lunch or caffeine fix, I recommend Coffee House on Cherry Street (friendly staff, excellent food and drink, my favorite) or Shades of Brown (tasty coffee, local art for sale, the location of Grey and my first date). The vibes are different, but they are both great, locally owned establishments in the area.

Baby!

My friend Kayla had her baby on Saturday. After almost 24 hours of induced labor, every contraction was making Rylyn's heart rate drop, so they did a C-section. Everyone's doing just fine. Here are a few pictures of my pseudo-niece.


Rylyn Diana, 5 lbs 1 oz, 19 inches.


Beautiful thumbsucker, through the glass to the nursery.


Look at her little peeky eyes! She's has full lips like mommy and daddy.


Proud Daddy. :)


Me with the sweetie pie.

I didn't get any of momma because she was still groggy and underslept, so I didn't want to shove a camera in her face. I'll get one soon. Rylyn looks so much like her. We all bet she'll darken up some soon and that her hair will get a little curlier. I know for sure she's gonna grow up to be beautiful!

Great Green Smoothie

I've been reading lately about green smoothies -- yep, ones that contain vegetables. I was a bit wary at first since, you know, it sounds really gross to drink blended spinach. I came across so many testimonials that said, when combined properly with fruit, you really can't taste the leafy greens. I was still unconvinced since I've also read plenty of "Boca burgers taste just like the real thing!", which is an out-and-out lie. Still, my weekend grocery trip saw me buy a bag of frozen spinach in addition to my fruits. The verdict: I love them! No, seriously. The flavor of the spinach disappears in these things, leaving behind only it's great health benefits . . . oh, and that unappetizing color.

Every day this week, I've tried slight variations on the theme. Here's what I did today . . .

First, I added two or so handfuls of frozen spinach leaves to the blender and a banana cut into a few chunks.

I blended them a little just to make things easier. Then I added about a handful of frozen mango chunks and six fresh strawberries cut in half.

I then poured half a cup of orange juice on top and got to blending.

The end result has a very unpalatable color, but the flavor is fruity and delicious.

This 16-oz smoothie has about three servings of fruit and veggies, 250 calories, 200% of your vitamin C, and 160% of your vitamin A. Like any other smoothie, you can do different flavor combinations, use water instead of juice to save some calories, or use all fresh fruits and add some ice. I prefer a mixture of fresh and frozen fruit because the texture is smoother, never chunky like ice can get when blended. I have been pairing it with 6 oz of fat-free vanilla yogurt mixed with a tablespoon each of almond slivers and flax seeds.

The best part of all, though, is that this really sticks with me. I haven't been ravenous before lunch time all this week. I can't wait to try more flavor combinations next week!

World Autism Awareness Day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day, and all of April is Autism Awareness Month. In honor of my sister, Sarah, who is on the spectrum, 10% of all sales this month in my Etsy shop will be donated to Autism Speaks. If there's something you've been eyeing, now is a great time to buy! I'll be listing more items next week, too.

Today is also my father's birthday, so I'm planning to make a donation in his name to the Autism Center of Tulsa. Happy Birthday, Dad!

and I'm thinking of you, Sarah!

Also, for those of you in Tulsa, head down to Qdoba near 51st and Yale any Monday or Thursday after 4:00 or all day Saturday until April 30. Present this flyer, and 10% of your check will be donated to the Autism Center of Tulsa. Great food and a great cause -- it's a win-win situation!

More media attention

Guess who's in the news again? Yep, it's us crazy gals from the Tulsa Craft Mafia! You can check out the article here, written by blogger extraordinaire Natasha Ball of Tasha Does Tulsa. If you live in the Tulsa area, pick up a copy of Urban Tulsa to behold its glory in person. :)