The First Grade Play

Oh, the cuteness!

10 Summer Outings

The summer always gets away from me. We are buying Thing One a new backpack and I am wondering what happened to the summer I fantasized about in May. The summer full of jaunty outings and crafty activities as promised in "Family Fun" magazine. The summer of my childhood memories: playing in the sprinkler, eating ice cream sandwiches and reading in the hammock.

So I have made a couple of lists (I am so good at lists!) to help me pace myself.

Summer List Number One: Ten Outings

1. A local amusement park for ages 10 and under.
2. The King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia
3. The Philadelphia Zoo
4. Hiking (hopefully this will happen more than once!)
5. My Dad's cabin in Potter County
6. Cape May, NJ
7. Annapolis, MD
8. A free concert in Long's Park
9. Longwood Gardens
10. My brother's house to visit the cousins

History of A Garden, Part One

Originally uploaded by stephgibson23

This little corner by the front porch was covered with English Ivy. Took me two afternoons (one last summer, one this past weekend) to get rid of all the ivy. Finally, four years after we bought the house, the ferns are free to breathe.

I Love Summer

We kicked off the summer with a perfect weekend. A picnic with my Dad's family at one of my favorite spots in the whole world - my grandfather's farm. (more on the farm later). Dinner on the patio with our favorite neighbors last night. Their son is a year younger than Thing One and they play really well together, each new game starting with the phrase "Let's pretend..." I got a ton of work done in the garden and we survived our first power outage of the summer. And Geoff has the day off today, so more summer fun to come!

Would You Rather....

No, it is not one of those "revealing" questions games.

Wondering about my Etsy promo blog and whether anyone actually reads those lengthy (but fascinating!) interviews. Do you like the interview format or would you rather see a great photo and a short blurb with a link?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

One Small Change: Week Two

Your Life is 40% Green

You're on the right track to living a green life, and you're definitely doing your part to help out. You care about the earth, and hopefully this quiz has given you some ideas on how you can do more!

How Green Is Your Life?

Well, I thought for sure I was doing better than that!

I have thought about using cloth bags for shopping, but here is the thing. We do not buy trash bags for our house. We use the grocery bags as our trash bags. So I think that kind of cancels out the fact that we do not use cloth bags. Although, I could use a cloth bag when I go to the farmer's market.

So, my new small change this week is to hunt down (hopefully on Etsy) and start using a cloth bag for market day.

And, I am sad to report that last week's change will have to carry into this week's change, because I only cleaned my kitchen one night out of seven. There are so many pathetic excuses for my slackness. Let's just say I am going to try better this week!

What A Big Day!

Just stumbled upon one of my necklaces in a Trousseaux to Treasure Collection. See it here.

And I was in two different treasury lists with two of my bloggy buddies. A brown pearl themed list with Ginger from MsBelle and an orange themed list with Maia from Glass Beach.

And since I am the lamest girl in blogland, I could not figure out how to get a screen shot. Not with help in the forums, not with help from Mac. Bah. So, if you are curious, click on the links above.

I Am Becoming THAT Neighbor

So this morning while Thing One and I were out in the yard, I noticed the HS age neighbor slouching down the street toward his house with his backpack. We are not within walking distance of the school. Where did he come from? Why isn't he in school? Knowing that his mom was having some trouble getting him to go to school over the winter, you can imagine where my mind went for these answers.

So do you rat him out?

Feeling like the world's biggest busy-body, the world's oldest tattle-tale, I called his mom at work. Because I want to live in a neighborhood where we are all watching out for each other, where we pick up each other's slack, where the village is raising the child (oh, I tried so hard to avoid that last cliche!). And even though I am the last mom in the neighborhood who has not gone back to working outside the house, I am really hoping someone will be there to rat on MY kids when they are not where they are supposed to be.

New Artist Profile - Lemon Cadet

Stop by Mira and see my interview with Lemon Cadet. The place to buy adorable onesies and YETI PANTIES. You have to see them to believe them!

One Small Change: Week One

Inspired by this post by Gillian (of Gilfling), I am going to strive to make one small change in myself/my life every week, with the hope that in a year's time I will be a new, improved Steph.
My first change stems from something I read in this interview with Julie of Puffluna fame. She said, "...if you can't clean the whole house because you are too busy working, just make sure the kitchen is clean." And as I read this I realized that I feel stressed when my kitchen is a mess, but the rest doesn't really bother me. Sooooo..........

My first small change is to clean the kitchen before bed.
Every night.
No dishes in the sink.
Clean counters, clean floor.
Every night.

I'll report back in a week.