Threads by The Shine Project

So I have to ask...have you heard of the Shine Project? If not, let me fill you in...it was started by a pretty amazing woman, Ashley, and the idea behind it is to inspire people to go out of their comfort zone and reach their goals.  Last year The Shine Project started a non-profit called The Shine Scholarship Project.  They raise money to send at risk youth to college.  How cool is that?  I love people who have a passion to make change in the world! If you want to see a quick but very good video about it click here, you'll also get to 'meet' Ashley...she is such a cutie :-)

Ashley contacted me not too long ago about her shop that sells products to help raise money for The Shine Scholarship, it's called Threads by The Shine Project.  Threads employs the students that they give the scholarships to so they have continuous money coming in for college.  The students make all sorts of amazing bracelets that are very Anthopology-esque.  

 Like this one, The Alex Bracelet, isn't it gorgeous!?

 And how about this one, The Change Bracelet.  I love the simplicity of it, so trendy right now!

These bracelets are the perfect accessories for me, not too flashy and perfect for this momma to spice up her everyday outfits.  They are made so well and are very durable...said the momma who has four kids hanging on her 24 hours a day.

They pair well with anything and everything!  From my new addiction to loud and colorful skinny jeans all the way to my yoga pants mommy dress code.

If you have a moment, head on over to Threads and maybe grab a few things for you or someone you love...how about birthday presents, Christmas gifts, a 'just thinking of you' gift.  You will feel so good knowing you are helping out at-risk youth and at the same time look stylish doing it...total win-win!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Farmers Market Fun

As many of you heard on the Smashed Peas and Carrots Facebook page earlier this week, we were able to visit one of our favorite Farmers Markets for the first official market of the season.  

We were so excited.  The kids even made a list of things they wanted to buy which included honey (specifically honeycomb), butterkase cheese, and a bag of kettle corn popcorn, lol, they have very specific tastes.  I was pretty impressed with how well they remembered the market from our trips last summer.  

We enjoyed lots of pretty blooms that are in season right now and a few fresh picked veggies too...although in a few more months the pickings will be much more varied over here in chilly midwestern Illinois.

We worked our way sampling through a whole tableful of peanut butters...and decided on a large container of fresh ground Honey Roasted Peanut Butter, who can deny that flavor.  It has been the perfect breakfast addition on our toast these past few mornings....YUM!

The kids dove right into the Kettlecorn.

Sustenance needed...

after climbing trees...

and balancing ever-so-carefully on curbs...along with all the running around they did.

If you live in the Chicagoland area I highly suggest that you spend at least one Tuesday or Saturday visiting the Woodstock Farmers Market.  It is set in their perfectly quaint downtown square which is loaded with lots of olden-day visual eye candy.

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?  With Bill Murray?  It was filmed here (way neat-o!)...so you can see lots of the buildings that were in the movie...pretty cool if you like that kinda stuff!  Plus, while you are here there is also a small Dick Tracy museum you can visit since this was apparently where the creator Chester Gould lived.

Who Knew?

Thanks for stopping by today!

 XOXO,

Choose Joy

I'm sure many of you have heard of the lovely Ashley of Little Blue Boo and her battle with cancer, if not you can read all about her courageous fight here in her Cancer Chronicles series.  I love Ashley, she is an amazing and strong woman and I pray for her every day.  Her story has struck me to the core as she is my age and is also a momma to a little girl my Noah's age yet she radiates nothing but joy and calmness in what I can only imagine is pure madness when your body is at war with itself.  Right around the time that Ashley was diagnosed with cancer (choreocarcinoma from a miscarriage gone bad) I became pregnant with our number 4.  I just couldn't believe it.  It's hard to think that from such joy can come such shear pain....one minute a baby the next minute cancer.  

She is so candid with everything she is going through and I am so grateful that she decided to share her journey with all of us.  Her story has had me in tears one moment (this video gets me every time I watch it) and then laughing the next, how does she do that?  Her motto has been, "Choose Joy" and she really does live it...I love this motto and feel like I live my life this way too.  There is no need to let the bad rule your life especially when there is so much good out there.  I always like to look for the bright side in things...an eternal optimist I guess!  Last week I finally received my official Team Ashley t-shirt 'Fear Will Not Rule' in the mail and I was so excited I have been wearing it every chance I get!  Stephanie Corfee designed it and you can read all about it here...not sure if they will be printing more of this exact one or not but anything you buy from Team Ashley will go to help Ashley pay her medical bills, we're talking 100%, every penny counts!  So if you feel so inclined...go buy something now!

And here I am, 25 week belly and all (joy!) :-)  Team Ashley doesn't do maternity wear so I just bought a medium and thought I'd stretch it out a bit, that way once baby is here the mid-section will have some extra space for that post-baby belly flab, lol!

Side view anyone?  

For those that are wondering, we still haven't opened that darn envelope.  I know, I know...we are so weird.  

It's fun to take wild guess though, right?  This babe's heartbeat is always around 150 and so far no heart burn (crossing my fingers!)  I haven't had any major cravings yet and have been loving my protein...cheeses, chicken, fish.  What does that mean!?!  That baby likes to eat I suppose!

On another joyful note...I have been thoroughly enjoying my Cuppow a whole lot lately.  I saw it a while back on Pinterest (follow me here if you want!) and just had to have it.  Can I just tell you it is such a super duper awesome invention!  Love!

Now I can take my at-home glassware (mason jars rule our home) with me on the road.  They only make one size that fit wide mouth canning jars currently but I have heard they may be making one for regular mouth canning jars this summer.  Sweet!  Hopefully they will work with the 1/2 pint jars making them the perfect reusable sippy cups for my kids!

Hope you are all having a lovely start to your week.  

I'll be back tomorrow with a uber-delicious recipe you are sure to love!!

We'll talk soon!

XOXO,

A Weekend Away

Ever since baby #4 wonderfully came into our life my husband and I started talking more and more about doing some weekend aways.  Yup, minus children...just the two of us.  We've never done that EVER in the last 5 years since we've been on the baby-making path...can you believe it?!  I think it has always had to do with not really having any close family around, breastfeeding each child for well over a year, getting pregnant every other year and consequently nauseous and sick as can be for at least the first 4 months of each pregnancy, and then having them so close in age that there was always some milestone we were facing..."oh, you're just getting teeth in?  what you want to start jumping out of your crib at night?  hey, let's bunk two of the kids in one room!  Cool, everyone is throwing up an hour before our date night starts"  Good but very busy times.  

Anyways, we finally decided that starting in 2012 (and once I started feeling well again!) that we would take one weekend a month and go away...anywhere...just the two of us.  We figured the kids all seemed to be in a good place and Noah and Penny are actually old enough to be really good helpers so they could tell anyone visiting exactly where their snacks are and how their bedtime routine goes, etc.

A few weeks ago, we did it.  We left for a long weekend with no children.  We headed into Chicago since we thought it would be a great beginners trip for us.  You know, in case we had to rush back home because someone needed an emergency appendectomy we weren't too far away (seriously, isn't that the way it always seems to go?)  Plus there are always a million things we want to do there that never seem fun when you have three little ones.  Can you imagine heading to the Museum of Modern Art with my three kids...ummm, no!

Clif made a reservation at a super swanky hotel.  Did the hotel have a pool?  How would I know, we didn't have our kids!!  Our room was filled with modern art and very funky furniture.  Definitely glad it was just us or our hotel bill would have dramatically increased with the amount of damage they would have done in there. 

Of course it snowed a big scary meteorologist's dream snow right before we left but that wasn't going to stop us, hey we made reservations!  Of course Eloise would just happen to come down with the croup two days before we left (really?) but we felt our babysitters (grandma and grandpa) could handle it, and they did.  All went very well, hooray!

Clif and I were able to spend lots of time talking, holding hands, and just enjoying being with each other.  It was perfect.  'Hey guess what?  I can hear you without you needing to yell'  oh, it's the little things!

We ate lots of delicious foods...chocolate almond croissants with chai tea for breakfasts...

Grown-up ham and cheese with Gruyere, Aged White Cheddar, and Brie for a lite lunch out.  

Eating out without our 3-ring circus might have been my favorite part!  I love them all so much, but... :-)

Of course we had to stop at Sweet Mandy B's on the way home to pick the kids up something special  just for them.  These cupcakes were a hit. 

I love this bakery.  If you are ever in the Chicago area you.must.go.  It is full of those yummy sweets and treats you ate as a kid, the recipes aren't doctored with so everything tastes just like you remember it.  I took home a peanut butter rice krispie bar the size of my head...okay, my hand, but it felt like it was that big!  

And of course, since we didn't have any children with us, I just had to ask Clif to make one last stop our way home.  Yup, home of the blue and yellow and so much more fun to browse when you can actually think clearly :-)

What a great and needed long weekend away.
It made coming home to their smiling faces awesome.  And getting back into the swing of things the following Monday not so bad.  I suppose all of us parents need that every now and again, right?  Not sure why we waited so long to do it.
Do you ever get to do fun things like that with just your significant other and you?
Now the big question is where should we go next?

XOXO,

For the New Babe...

So I went and bought the new babe something a little bit ago, I had to, it was like there was this magnetic force pulling me towards my computer and Amazon.com.    

I bought one of these sweet Sophie the Giraffe teethers, well actually two as I figured any toy/baby product that I adore and therefore my little babe loves usually ends up lost, left behind, or eaten by our dog...smh.

Having received the teethers only a few weeks ago, I am already in love with them...seriously just as cute in person as in the picture, I swear.  They are also made with natural rubber, the details are painted with food paint, and they are BPA and Phthalate Free which gets this momma's seal of approval for sure but the big kicker is that the little squeaky sound is super cute--not annoying like so many others we have had in the past, holla!  

Oh, and I realize that Sophie is a girl giraffe but even if the baby is a boy I figured he wouldn't care anyways, right?  Babies just love something to drool on.  Anyways, I just wanted to share a little something I went and bought recently, I am getting so excited for this little one to arrive even if it is 5 months away ;-)  If you want to buy one to you can get it here! 

Happy Weekend-ing! 

XOXO,

A Box Full of Pretties

My momma loves to send out boxes of goodies for me and the kids every month or so.  We absolutely love getting them...but c'mon who doesn't love getting packages in the mail!  Last month she sent out a Valentine's themed box with all sorts of V-day fun inside but what I loved most about it was that she included a few knits that my Grandma (my Dad's momma) ever so carefully knit with alpaca for my siblings and I when we were just wee ones.  Dare I call them vintage?  Am I really that old?

This little red number is about a 2T/3T in size.  If fits Penelope like a glove, as if she was meant to wear it.  It couldn't be more perfect for her.

I love all the little detail that was put into this dress from the little flowers knitted onto the front, the sweet little eyelets across the skirt portion of the dress and then right down to that lovely reverse scalloped hem. 

There are even two tiny little buttons on the back enclosure...and they held up after all this time.  Good going Grandma, very well-made indeed!!

The box also included this cream dress, I'm guessing it's around 12-18 months in size.  Sorry for the wrinkles, I swear it didn't look this wrinkly when I was taking the pictures!  

As a knitter, I am just in awe over all the little details that she put into this dress.  I know how long something like this must have taken and I just smile knowing she knit these by hand just for me and my sisters.  

I love the scoop back of this dress...just beautiful :-)

And lastly, here is a sweet little boy's sweater.  I love how it has the Incan figure drawings knitted in the band across the top...so completely Peru in every way, I just love it!

Really, check out all that detail!  There is not one hiccup in all that knitting...crazy amazing.

I really wish I could have known my Grandma so much better than I did (she lived in Peru and I only met her once!) especially since I feel like we have so much in common.  We would have so much to talk about today. It would have been fun to knit together with her or talk about what project we were thinking of working on next.  For now getting to share these hand-made knits with my children will do, how lucky am I to have something like this to pass down in our family!

XOXO,  

A Happy Birthday in Pictures {and a Printable too}

So Mr. Smashed Peas and Carrots is now another year older.  He had a birthday last week that I told you about here.  Now since we aren't kids anymore (really?) there isn't much that either one of us really asks for so when my husband's birthday rolls around I'm usually left doing a big 'Hrrmmm???' with a consoling toe tap of sorts and sometimes even a index finger to the chin while looking up to the Heavens for some inspiration.  I always like to decorate the house as that's what my family did while I was growing up but as for gifts...that's just a big 'ol question mark.

Well this year I came up with the grand plan (read: easy idea) of using my most favorite little camera my Fuji Instax Mini 25 (which by the by the Pioneer Woman has been loving to give away lately!) to take some fun mini 'polaroids' of the kids and then I just whipped up some colorful printable thought bubbles to grow out of their/our heads as sort of a cute birthday gift that rolls into fun party decor...sounds awesome, doesn't it?  Aww Yeah.

The kids proudly posed for pictures...

They were more than excited to actually be 'IN' daddy's birthday gift...

I was even able to get a snap of Eloise who is crawling (gah!) these days and is a pretty hard little peanut to get to stay put.

I taped them to the front of our refrigerator as magnets and stainless steel just won't be friends...even for a birthday celebration.

Here's the printable if you so desire.  I just made one Bubble that said Daddy as I figured the majority of us are ladies who would be wishing the 'man of the house' a Happy Birthday.  If you want more/different bubbles just let me know and I can whip them up :-)

These would be awesome to laminate and add a magnet to the back for year round fun with pictures....if you have a fridge that plays nicely that is.

To print this just right click on the picture above and save it to your computer...easy peasy!

And after last year's cake debacle, I decided to lessen the amount of candles to a more cake-friendly number.  After taking pictures (annnnd video) we were actually able to eat this lovely little gem in it's full delicious chocolate-y glory...and it was good!

XOXO,