Good things happen to good people!

I have an insane amount of love and respect for the people at Shepherd's Haven in the Memphis area. Shepherd's Haven is a ministry for adults with special needs. It was started by a group of parents in 1991, and has grown into quite the organization since then. A few years after starting, they achieved their dream of opening a home for men with special needs. It houses about 8 males and two house parents. AMAZING, right?! Well, here's the best part...they are finally able to build a house for women! They broke ground this month, and pretty soon, the dream will be a reality.

Part of the whole organization is the Day Center, where the participants come during the day to be cared for in a Christian environment. Parts of their daily routine include a Bible study, learning activities, and craft time. In order to fund field trips and other activities, they sell their crafts at various craft shows and on Etsy

All that to say CONGRATULATIONS, guys!!! You earned it!
I hope I can continue to be involved with this organization. I visited last week and here are some pictures from my visit. I was there during craft time.

As for me and my hummus, we will be homemade

I decided to make hummus. I broke my blender...but it was all worth it.

First you have to buy the stuff...that's the hardest part. You've got your tahini, your chick peas (garbanzo beans), red pepper (or whatever you choose to flavor it with), and some lemon. I made "roasted" red pepper, but I didn't actually do any roasting. Oh and the juice in the cup is the juice from the peas (you use that to smooth out the texture until you like it)

Blend it all together and what do you get?

Hummus! Hooray!
And then there's this...

Easter Celebration

The past few years, I have spent Easter afternoon with my stepmother's family. I love hiding the eggs for the younger cousins and eating Nana Emma's fruit salad. It's just an all around great day!

Getting my DIY on

I've been looking at these things called yarn wreaths and thinking, "wow...I'd love to have one of those for my front door." Well guess what? I made one! I documented it, so that when my memory finally bites the dust I'll have this little blog to remind me where that crazy yarn thing came from. Enjoy! (and make one yourself, if you feel inclined)

When I'm decorating I tend to go the minimalist route, so I didn't embellish mine very much at all. However you can pile stuff on, and it will still look great! Things needed: a wreath form ($5), Yarn ($6), fake orchids ($3.50) and other embellishments if you want.

First color=done! On to my lovely green yarn. P.S. This yarn is natural bamboo yarn, and it's SOOOO soft.

This probably only took an hour all together...while watching King of the Hill. It's totally do-able on a nice Saturday afternoon.

Add the orchids and BAM! Now our door is like the snooty rich kid in the neighborhood.

I enjoyed making this, and now I feel that my Spring Break has been productive. If you decide to make one, send me pictures!

Weekend thinking about Home

Assignment 4 for my Photo Editing class was "Home."  I realized that I don't really know what home means to me so I sort of took photos of a lot of different things to try and figure it out.

At first I was going the direction of photographing memories, but I decided that's just not what home really means for me. Home for me is more of a situation, so I ended up with a portraits of my parents, who divorced when I was two. My home has been a broken one since I can remember, but don't feel sorry for me because I have twice as much love in my life because of it.   It's like having double the family...double the fun. (They were both remarried when I was really young)

These are some outtakes from that little exploration. 

Of course I took a million pictures of my sister while I was at my dad's house. I mean, how could I not?! She's the most adorable kid in the world!

Now you know...