Etsy Favorites: LOVE

So many sweet lovey finds that have been gracing my favorites list on etsy:

Personalized Birch Vase by braggingbags

Love Bird Mobile by babyjives

Lovebirds Print by bangbangyourethread

Couple on Bikes Paper Silhouette by papercutsbyjoe

Giraffe Love Necklace by emmagemshop

All You Need is Love Necklace by sudlow

I Love You St. Louis Candy Heart Map by capow

Love You to the Moon Print by dazeychic

Love and Etsy,

Sarbear

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: Groupon Date

Saturday E and I finally had our Groupon date!

Different groupons than planned (I used my craft supply one the day before with a gal pal), but we had a great time.

I'm excited to see what our bowls look like once fired. Shouldn't be too long!

Love and Pottery,

Sarbear

P.S. Feeling a bit better than yesterday. I'm just a sensitive lady.

P.P.S. Vloggin' Vednesday is revvin' up again next week. 

Hurt Feelings

Someone I love a whole lot hurt my feelings this evening. Unintentionally, but it still stings just the same.

I've spent a lot of time in my life being made to feel crazy just for being me and when someone close to me makes me feel that way I take it pretty hard.

Growing up in my early teens I was always exhausted, felt down and depressed, and just didn't feel right physically.

I was put on birth control, felt ignored, and just thought that was the way it was. Come to find out, after many many years of being made to feel like I was crazy, I was finally diagnosed with PCOS and it all started making sense. I know when something isn't right with my body and this time is just the same. I'm just not sure what it is yet.

For now I'll keep a finger on my feelings and spend time cuddling with my little dude and knitting.

Love and Hormones,

Sarbear

30 Day Shred & 100 Days to Health Progress

I'm officially done with the 30 day shreddin'.

I stopped due to knee pain and the pain wasn't helped by getting kinda bored with the repetition.

So, I've been doing treadmill workouts instead.

Rockin' it on the treadmill while watching reality shows and sweating by booty off.

I've also been doing well with drinking lots of water, but need to refocus on that this week.

I'm about one-third of the way through my first round of 100 days to health. Feeling good about it, but don't feel like I've been all that committed. I guess that's not entirely true, but the past four or so days has been tough because I'm still feeling funky like Friday. We'll see what's up, but for now just trying to let things work themselves out and see what happens. I'll be sure to keep you all in the know though!

I know I had a lot more to say, but spent most of the day knitting (once I finally woke up) so will have to catch up on this stuff sometime this week because my fingers and mind are still on my stitches.

Love, Knits, and Purls,

Sarbear

Feelin' Weird

Roxanne has the right idea. I need a Sara-sized basket to get cozy in. Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Had a lovely day with my two gal pals, worked on some sewing projects, and gathered more crafting items, but now I am feeling STRANGE.

Crampy, nauseas, and just plain funky.

Hope I don't have food poisoning or something!

Today I promised a 30 day shred and 100 days to health update, but that's on hold until Monday while I take the weekend to gather myself, catch up on some book and blog reading, and spend time with my fella and critters.

Can't wait to check in and make new goals for the week to come, so do peek back in on Monday.

Lilly May wishes you a happy weekend!

Love and Puppy Kisses,

Sarbear

Book Love

Just wanted to share my excitement on finally getting around to signing up for the Adult Reading Program at my local library!

Went in, paid my fines (oops), signed up, and picked up these two books I already had on hold.

Started Just Kids already and am nearly 200 pages into it. Very very good. Makes me excited about making more art and following my heart, and also is just a really good story.

For this program we're to read 10 books or 50 hours worth. However you'd like to record. I'm going the 10 book route for simplicities sake. After the first 10 you can go back and get a new pamphlet for another round and another entry into a drawing for great prizes. I got a late start, but still plan on rockin' my 10!

I'd highly recommend checking for something similar at your library if you're a reader.


Do you have any recommendations or favorites I might want to add to my list?
I'm especially fond of memoirs, contemporary literature, and stories of artists, dreamers, and vagabonds.

Love and Libraries,

Sarbear

P.S. Look at my two boys hanging out together.

Aren't they just the sweetest?

Project - Dry Erase Frame

I've had a frame lying around needing this makeover for awhile, and then I saw a post on something similar over at Metal and Mud and decided to make it happen.

For this project all you need is a frame, paint, one piece of scrap-booking paper, and something to cut with.

I found my frame at a thrift store for a little over a dollar and picked up this slate blue paint at the hardware store for a different project and used it for this one as well.

All you need to do is take the back and glass out of frame and wipe everything down to remove dirt or dust. Make sure it's dry. Then spray paint the frame in your color of choice. 

Touch up, or do another coat if needed. Once it's all the way dry, trace around your glass from the frame straight onto the scrap-booking paper and then cut out that portion.

Place the paper in frame as you would a photo, break out the dry-erase markers, and enjoy!

These would make great gifts and could be used in just about any room of the house and made to match just right. I plan on using mine next to my desk for helpful reminders.

Bonus, the entire thing cost me under three dollars from beginning to end. That's the kind of project I like!

Love and Crafting,

Sarbear

Parenthood, Fatherhood, Life

With Father's Day just happening, I've been all in-my-head with thoughts on fatherhood, parenthood, and so on.

You see, my dad wasn't able to be around in my day-to-day life from the time I was about 9.5 onward. While we were still in touch he was off fighting his own demons and later emerging from that fight only to let it take him down for the final count. There's a part of my heart that will always be broken because of this. His influence on my life has been strong and there are good memories, but tied in, there is a quite a lot of pain.

With all the blogs I read, there's so much talk in the last week of people's fathers and their close relationships, but this idea is so foreign to me. My childhood was different than my friends and I readily admit I don't know how average families work. What do typical Moms and Dads do? Well, I'm not so sure, but I'm also certain I'll figure out what THIS future mom and dad will do and I know we will have kids that are loved as much as is humanly possible. 

I want to be there for my kids to ease their minds, not load adult problems onto their backs before their time, be strong and sturdy for them and let them know they'll never be alone.

And? And I'm lucky to have a fella I know is going to be a great dad. He's reliable, even-tempered, loving, strong, supportive, and everything a partner and father should be.I want my children to have a pop they can turn to when things get hard, can hold onto when they need love, and to smile and laugh with every day.

I'm lucky to say, I know they will.

He's right here:

Seeing how he is with my nephew makes me so excited to see him with our own children. I can't wait.

Love and Good Fellas,

Sarbear

Steppin' Out

This week I'm going to participate in Steppin' Out for the first time.

Now, I'm not super stylish and am no fashionista, but want to do this to encourage myself to keep working on my personal style and to now and then pay a little more attention to my clothes as I fling them over my bootay.

This Saturday the fella and I went for tacos at Flaco's Cocina, followed by some browsing at little shops down Delmar and some good ol' grocery shopping. That evening consisted of Thai with friends followed by snow cone eating and board game playing, so this outfit made it's rounds.

Dress: Thrifted

Sweater: Kohls

Tights: Target

Shoes: Thrifted

Necklace: Thrifted

Chihuahua: Humane Society

Nice and comfy, yet a little bit warm once the sun stopped hiding. Would be perfect for fall with some flats and a long sleeve cardigan.

Great Saturday because besides feeling put together, I also got to spend it making plans for the future with this dude:

...and eating that food.

Love and Street Tacos,

Sarbear

Go there to link up!

30 Day Shred & 100 Days to Health Progress

This week, I tell ya, not so good.

Shred...one day.

Activity...three days total.

Bummer dude.

And healthy eating?

'Bout half good and half not so good.

Had my smoothies all but two days and have been doing great on the water front.

No bike ride due to weather and time restraints which is unfortunate because it's my favorite. Hopefully this weekend I'll have time for one if the sky stops crying.

I really want to focus on finding balance in my meals. To have protein, healthy carbs, veggies, at every meal. Maybe that would help. I find that I've just been being very lazy when it comes to meal preparation, so it could be time to work on that.

So far (started on the third and will have 28 days total):

Shred - 6/15

Active - 8/15

I'm not sure if I should be linking up to the shred still if I only did it one day this week, so someone tell me if you think so. I like staying connected to you all though, it's motivating. I might have to look for alternate activities though due to my knee injury giving me a scare this morning. We'll see. That's why I enjoy that cycling is low impact. I can really push myself without putting too much pressure on my knee. It actually helps rather than hurting...mostly.

Goals for the week:

-Continue 3 quarts of water a day

-Active 6 out of 7 days at least...do SOMETHING, anything

-Stop eating before 9:30 at night (this is really important to me)

-Go to Yoga at Janes House once

-Ride bike once

Sounds good. I can do this. YOU can do this. No pressure, just progress. No perfection, just trying our best.

Love and Water Jugs,

Sarbear


Linkup found HERE.


P.S. Look for a post this week of WHY being healthier is important to me and what my long-term goals are. I also plan on working on my health tab to the left.


(Cartoon via google)

Grouch Pants

Today I felt like this:

All day. Absolutely all day.This week has been just crazy. Nothing even happened, just one of them there crazy weeks!

Hopefully this weirdo mood thing will pass soon.

Hollers and Headaches,

Sarbear


(Image via Google)

Love My Dude

Today I was thinking lovey thoughts of my dude alllll day so I put together this little video photo show for him:

Untitled from Sara Reeves on Vimeo.

He's the best!

Love and Puppy Kisses,

Sarbear

The Necessity of Lists and Missing Family

Oh lists. You know you love 'em.

Without my lists I would be an unproductive slug.

They keep me focused and make me want to be awesome so I can scratch through my goals for the day/week/whatever.

Sometimes they even remind me of very important things:

Mmmhmm. A reminder to french press some coffee to fuel me through the rest.

Good call Sara, good call.

And the rest? All done! Except the photos of items for the shop. I'm bumping that to tomorrow and adding 5 more to the number. Still have to finish my banana treats, but they're started and ready for the next step.

And the blog about family? I was going to whine about missing my family and how pictures make me cry, because they do, but I won't whine much.

Just think I'm an emotional lady. My sister put new pictures up on facebook of my now five month old niece last night and I teared up. She's grown so much and I wish I could be there for every minute of it. They'll be in town for fourth of July and I am more than ready. What is left of my family is small and I want us to always be close, even if not geographically. I want my (future) kids to know their cousins well and to have backyard bar-b-que's and game nights and little family reunions. So, that's why I teared up I suppose, out of love.

Love and Puppy Kisses,

Sarbear

Cat Grass and Photo Challenge

Super lazy day. Shipped out a couple more orders, read blogs, and just hung out with my furry babies. Now I'm lying on the couch with my footless tights on and fixin' to play some Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and work on some sewing projects. 

Speaking of furry babies, here's my entry for the "green" challenge on The Paper Mama:

Roxy girl enjoying the organic cat grass I grew just for her. Love this little lady.

Love and Kitty Kisses,

Sarbear

Enter your photo here!

Prints for Joplin

I'm sure most of you have heard about the devastating tornado which occurred in Southwest Missouri in the town of Joplin last month. The town was ripped apart and many lives were lost.


Now, so many are stepping up in a variety of ways to help rebuild this community.


Here's a beautiful way to help:

A local (to St. Louis) design firm called Moosylvania has put together an Art for Joplin fundraiser.


Prints are $25 each with benefits going to help rebuild small business in Joplin.


I purchased this print last night:

Which do you like best?


According to the shop site, sales end June 20 and prints will ship within a few weeks after.


Go on over, check it out, and consider purchasing a print of your own to benefit Joplin.


Love and Puppy Kisses,
Sarbear


(All Images Via Moosylvania)