Raw Vegetable Soup

I really love eating raw foods.  I feel good about putting pure, healing, wonderful nutrients in my body.

One of my favorite raw food recipe books is Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet.  She is the guru of quick and easy raw food recipes, and has videos on her website and youtube showing how to prepare raw foods. 

One recipe I make a lot is Garden Vegetable Soup, which is a cold veggie soup that is similar to gazpacho.  Here is a video showing exactly how to make it.  The recipe is flexible and uses whatever vegetables you happen to have.  Perfect if you have veggies that are on the verge of going bad and you need to use them up.  One of the ingredients she recommends using is miso paste, and I am hooked.  It has a really great flavor.  

If you like gazpacho, you will really like this.  I fill up 3 mason jars and eat it for a few days.  Yummy!

Virginia Earthquake

I'm a California girl, living in Virginia.

(awesome photo from Blahbethany)

Need I say more?

Jewelry Storage

I thought I would show you my jewelry storage today.  I put this in a while back, and it is great.  So easy, too.  Here's what I did:

I bought a poster frame at Target (clearance for a couple bucks).

I cut a peg board to the dimensions of the frame

(the guy at Home Depot can do this for you if you don't have a saw)

I took 3 scrap pieces of wood and mounted them to the wall where I wanted the pegboard to hang (top, middle and bottom).  You want the peg board to come out from the wall and not sit right on the wall because the hardware will go through the holes and mess up your drywall.  Don't make the wood too big though, because it will block the holes.

I screwed the pegboard to the pieces of wood.

I placed the frame right on the peg board and secured it with some hot glue.

On my dresser I have a silver dish for small earrings and flower pins.

You can also see my thrift store painting that I love, but Mr. Jones does not love, so I propped it up on my dresser.  It really softens the very modern furniture I have in my closet.

Stop by Simply Brookes to see some other jewelry storage ideas.

Where do you keep your jewelry?

A Thought on Parenting

I had a thought this morning . . .

(view of the back yard as I was taking out the dogs)

I was laying in bed thinking about the day ahead with the kids.
Mr. Jones was up early getting ready for work.
He works so hard.
I wondered . . .

(something got missed last night)

What would happen if
I dedicated the day to working hard as a parent?

(we had a lego building marathon)

I tend to float through the day,
do what needs to be done,
get distracted by things that interest me.

(do these ever go away?)

Maybe today I'll try a little harder.

Pretty soon the house will be clean all the time,

Legos gone, dishes fewer, shoes somewhere else.

(i cleaned out the closet yesterday. just some of the guys' shoes. wow.)

I want to make the most of this day.

Have a blessed day, friend.

Organizing Embroidery Floss

My daughter likes to make friendship bracelets.

This is what her stash of embroidery floss looks looked like.

 I was wasting time on my new favorite website (pinterest.com),

and I saw a photo of embroidery floss wrapped around clothes pins.

I just happened to have two packs of

clothes pins from the dollar store (30 pins for $1)

I used two packs.  $2.00

Looks so much better, don't you think?

I guess I didn't totally waste my time.

Have you become addicted to Pinterest yet?

(If you have no idea what on earth I'm
talking about, go here for an explanation.)

Here are my Pinterest Boards.