I needed some green color on my open kitchen display shelves and I needed something that I did not have to water or change out too often.

I went to Jo Ann's (craft store) and got a few simple items. Two green glass bell jars, two round vase fillers, some green oasis and sheet mos.



Then I went to my back yard and cut some 14 inch branches that looked relatively straight and took off the leaves.

I then covered the oasis ball with sheet mos and stuck it into the bell jars. Next I inserted the thicker end of the branch into the oasis and the thinner end into the vase filler.

This is what the oasis ball looked like.



That's about it...

Here is what my topiary looks like (I made two - the other one is in my guest bathroom).



I put it on my kitchen shelf. The white tray is from Pier 1. It is wood with cut-outs.



The cow and the zebra is a post card I framed from a trip to Hearst Castle. The silver frog I picked up on a trip to Denmark. I like the juxtaposition of the cow and the zebra with them being the same size, but not usually seen together and I mimicked that by placing the shiny silver frog close to the pine cones - also about the same size, but completely different otherwise.

Here are my kitchen shelves



The two baskets on the top left I made myself while attending a willow basket course. If you ever see a basket course offered, I highly recommend taking a class. It is a lot of fun and it is relatively easy to achieve good results even on your first try.

The square light gray basket is from World Market Plus. The turquoise artwork is by my son when he was about 3. Paper, paint, cork - go!

The cobber container on the bottom shelf is an heirloom from my grandma. I think it brings out the color of the cow nicely

I was really inspired when I saw this post by Emily Henderson.

I was also inspired by a butterfly art piece by Ali Edwards

I made two pieces of paper art for one of my living room art walls.

I made this smaller piece that fits inside the IKEA 8x8 shadow frame



And this piece which fits inside their 12x12 shadow frame.



Row of hearts - Art

Starting with the second piece first, I first punched hearts out of white card stock. I really liked the white on white feel with the shadows creating the drama.



Instead of gluing half of each heart to the paper, I laid out the die cut hearts - 25 total - out on the cardstock background and sewed down the middle of each row. I used white thread, but a contrasting thread would have looked good too. Maybe turquoise or red or orange?



I purposely ramdomized the position of each heart for a more organic feel.

Then I carefully folded up each half of the heart to create the butterfly effect.



Then I framed it in the shadow frame which has room for the 3D effect.



Layered heart - Art

Next up I made the layered heart. First I cut a heart out of news paper in a shape that I liked and that fit inside the mat of the frame. I then copied the shape cutting out a total three news paper hearts, 3 yellow tissue hearts, 3 light yellow tissue hearts and 12 cream yellow tissue hearts.



Then I stacked them by color from the bottom up: Yellow, light yellow, cream yellow. I layered the news paper hearts in the cream yellow section. Then I sewed a wide zig-zag on the widest setting with a stich spacing of 1 on my sewing machine down the middle of the stack of hearts.



I taped the stitching on the back to keep it from unraveling.

Then I crumbled each layer slightly and framed it in the smaller of the two shadow frames.



Then I hung the pieces with a group of other artwork made previously by me and my son and it ended up looking like this.



My son made the Koala with pastels, the penguin with color pencil and the wet felted art (framed after it dried ) above the penguin. I made the rest.

I was watching "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" by Joe Cross the other day. You can watch it on Hulu or it is also live streaming on Netflix.

I have been looking for a juicer for some time and I looked at all the popular models, the high end models and the "so great, you know they will always work, but I am never going to use it because it is too much work" models (cough, Normal Walker, cough).

I needed one that would look good, not too big, do a decent job, have a high probability of actually being used, and not dip into my son's college fund.

This landed me on the Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite 1000-Watt Juice Extractor. Say that three times fast. I used my 20% coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond - and no shipping (I can smile really pretty). You may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.

While I am waiting for it to arrive, I have started with the smoothie versions of some of the juices I plan to make.

The first one I made had:
(recipe found here)
Kale
Mango
Alfalfa Sprouts
Granny Smith apple
Banana.
Almond milk

It was very good.

Yesterday morning I made one with

Granny Smith
Pineapple
Blueberries
Strawberries
Banana (wish I had left it out)
Almond milk

Today for breakfast I made
Pineapple
Granny Smith apple
Almond milk

For snack I made the one below:
1 handful of spinach
1/2 inch slice of cabage
1 Granny Smith apple - cored, left peel on
1 inch slice of pineapple - cored, peeled
2 cups of almond milk