Thursday, May 9, 2013

National Military Appreciation Month


National Military Appreciation Month started as a simple idea; to gather America around its military family to honor, remember, recognize and appreciate those who have served and those now serving and to know the history behind it all. This idea was then legislated twice to achieve greater national attention and recognition.


Most intriguing to National Military Appreciation Month success is that it's built from the ground up by a handful of volunteers with genuine desire to build public patriotism, awareness and support for our troops and veterans.

Because most holidays commemorating historical military events have become little more than three-day weekends lacking focus on their original purpose, this month is needed to remind us of the sacrifices and the history we as Americans have been privileged to participate in throughout the past 230 years.

As a nation, we observe and participate in various national cultural and social awareness events through mass media attention and educational curriculum. However, we have not allocated appropriate recognition of the most important presence in the world today, an entity that impacts each and every American in a significant way, the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

A dozen ways to Support Our Military and Veterans

Roger's daughter,





The Licorice Project

If you have breast cancer, or know someone who does -- please this check out this website !! It has lots of useful information and was started by women with breast cancer, including my own sister.

The Licorice Project



Saturday, February 9, 2013

Gift Wrapping
























Fabulous Idea via The House the Lars Built

Please visit their for instructions and also see their Etsy Shop

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The "Throw Up" Kitty Creamer


The famous "throw up" kitty in our family. Almost all of the siblings has one I believe. When we grew up we only had hot cereal for breakfast, like oatmeal or Malt 'O Meal, etc. (One of my sisters and I didn't know about cold cereal until we started school). Milk went in the kitty cream pitcher and we'd pretend the kitty was throwing up on our cereal ! Obviously we were easily amused -- but so are our own kids!

This one can be found at See Dolly Run at Etsy for $32, a very good price, and what a great way to make breakfast a fun time for your kids - my nieces are loving their throw up kitty joining them for breakfast with oatmeal.



Vintage Cat Creamer made in the USA by Shawnee Pottery on the bottom is stamped Puss'n Boots.



Because I'm a HUGE Nancy Drew fan, I must point out that she also has two vintage Nancy Drew books in her shop. Personally I'm glad I grew up with Nancy Drew and not the Twilight type books that are popular now - now sure why.






Teen Girl Decor


This a very cute idea for your teenage tennis star who also loves her jewelry collection. Found on Etsy, of course.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Before It Comes Down for the Season


Before the decorations come down for the season, I thought I'd share what we did to decorate the bathroom to match the Peanuts shower curtain. The Charlie Brown tree was bought for $2 at Walgreens clearance last year--perfect. The walls are green and with a black and white curtain, plus the red border, my son liked the idea of silver, red and black decorations--with plenty of green via the walls.




The shower curtain, all black and white with a red border from Target



A cartoon Peanuts picture which is above the toilet and current our Charlie Brown Christmas tree from my sister

Friday, January 4, 2013

Childhood Cancer


The Truth 365 is a website dedicated to fighting and raising funds for childhood cancer, an underfunded form of cancer - in OUR CHILDREN !!  They are using the power of Social Media to bring awareness to cancer in children !!

First of all, the kid in this video is Taylor Love and she is the one who got me involved in this cause. Over 5 years ago I met her and her awesome family and my life will never be the same.

The second reason is that Taylor is doing well right now and just got clear scan results. She has fought neuroblastoma and then chemo-induced leukemia requiring a bone marrow transplant and then kidney failure and then liver surgery this spring plus a bunch of other things that I have lost track of.

The third reason is that the song is the theme song to our film. It is called “The Truth” and it is written by Nicole Ricken, a 14-year-old from the Chicago area. I met her this spring at a Pennies for Patients fundraiser at her school that was partially for Taylor Love. A few months later I went to Chicago to interview some families for the film and stopped in to meet with Nicole and her family. One of the amazing things was that she wrote this song the day before I got there. She and her family also flew in the DC-area on September 1 and Nicole played this at Ryan Raffel’s Celebration of Life.

The Truth 365

Wednesday, January 2, 2013