Etsy GIVEAWAY - Mooza Designs Fabulicious Acrylic Wall Art!

And the winner is (chosen by random.org)
True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
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Result:
144

Monapete!


Mooza Designs is the amazing team of Jessie & Michel - full time moms working from their home based business located on the beautiful northern beaches of Sydney, Australia.

I bought a set of these for Christmas and they are totally gorgeous, super well-made, come with their own names

(I loved that)

and will look totally unique and welcoming on your bathroom door!
Mooza also creates names and house numbers and all kinds of other wonderful signage with their same techniques.

We are so lucky to have one of their amazing creations for this week's giveaway!

WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive their choice of one of MOOZA's fabulicious bathroom couples!




HOW TO WIN:

It's easy, peasy - just leave your contact information below with your 2 color choices (one for your boy and one for your girl)

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:
Enter by midnight, Sunday, February 27th! Good Luck! CLOSED

Make sure to bookmark Mooza for future purchases!

CruelTEA Over at Lipton - the year of the rabbit is off to a good start

With the threat of PETA's ad campaign set to launch next week, Unilever - owner of Lipton Tea has pledged to immediately halt all animal testing with their products.

(and before we go thinking I wish someone would test some tea on me- these animals are given diseases and then fed tea as a "cure" and even autopsied while still alive)

I am not always a fan of PETA

(not sure that turning half the population into objects is necessary toward getting people to treat animals ethnically)

but I am happy they convinced Lipton to join the growing number of cruelty-free companies.

Probably not all animal testing in medical research can be ended but as for the necessity of animals in cancer research (for example), Dr. Richard Klausner, former director of the National Cancer Institute, stated that -

"The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer ... in the mouse.

We have cured mice of cancer for decades - and it simply didn't work in humans."

That - added to the fact that only 3 medical schools in the U.S. (out of 150 plus) still use animals to teach surgery because there are better teaching methods available now says alot to me about the modern alternatives that can be used to alleviate much of this testing (about 200 animals are killed every minute in U.S. labs).

So, maybe have a nice cup of tea this weekend to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit knowing less rabbits are being tortured in the name of research - but maybe make it a Stash Tea, Luzianne Tea, Twinings or Honest - they have all been cruelty free without the threat of a PETA ad campaign.

xo

To see if a company you are giving your money to is cruelty-free, check PETA's database here

maybe Lucy (and Punxsutawney Phil) don't have no 'splaining' to do ....

My year of deciding has me sometimes thinking I need to explain my decisions to other people

(and of course, sometimes I do - I am not talking about thoughtlessness and selfishness here ... not exactly)

but sometimes this explaining thing has a bit of waiting attached to it - as in waiting for others to

A - pass their judgement

(so time and energy is wasted preparing to have to support my decision to others)

B - give their approval

(my choosing to explain myself allows others to mind my business instead of their own and I am not so into teaching them that)

C - voice their critism

which is actually a huge opportunity for growth

(can I love someone enough to allow them to not be happy with a choice I am making and make it anyway)

Making decisions creates important lessons in intuition and trusting our instincts - at least that is what my decision making right now is all about for me - and having to support my choices with explanations isn't embracing of this.

It is forcing me into the part of my brain that didn't make this decision in the first place,

so when someone is questioning my decisions

(lots of extended family time has brought this home to me lately)

- it is enough to say that it is the best decision for me right now or the best decision for my family right now and leave it at that.

Put a period at the end of that sentence and move on.

So that is what I have been doing the last few days and it has been working out pretty well for me.

(UPDATE - I have just been advised that Punxsutawney Phil has not seen his shadow which means spring is on its way - and I will support his decision and not ask him to explain himself since groundhog instinct and intuition is, I'm sure, at least as accurate as my own)

an (almost) wordless week for olive

This is a bittersweet time for my family- we have a funeral for a beloved aunt this week after a short, but challenging illness, other family drama that has left everyone exhausted, all the little ones in our family had birthdays within the last couple weeks and hubby's and mine are this week, so I think I will welcome February with some beautiful pictures and a little less said -

(BTW don't forget to enter CleverHands giveaway if you haven't yet)

xo

*love on a sunday morning print by the amazing myan at zuppaartista

Upcycled Wall Art Tutorial - getting shredded without any crunches

I shred everything for packing material

(I have been known to mistakenly shred unpaid telephone bills and insurance cards - oops)

I keep them in plastic bags hanging in my studio and visitors often think it is some kind of modern wall art.

(of course I nod in agreement at my genius)

On Tabitha's Salon Takeover last week (the episode with the crazy salon owner with the gazillion rules) - when the salon was renovated at the end of the episode they had shredded the gazillion rules and framed them in huge hobby frames. They were uber cool looking.

So, I decided to grab some of my shreddings and frame them. I think a cluster of framed pieces like this - you could use misc color shredded (as shown), solid white or all the same color - could make an amazing wall display.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone - stay warm - more snow expected for us!
*see other tutorials (some more tutorial-like than others) here

where the path of least resistance might really lead us ...

"the path of least resistance is for losers" - H.G. Wells

Now, I have no idea the context of this quote and don't know much about H.G. Wells other than that he wrote "War of the Worlds" -

which before it was a Tom Cruise blockbuster was used in a radio broadcast about a martian invasion of Grovers Mills, New Jersey -

(which I can assure you would be the first place for an invasion especially if these were desperate pizza-addicted aliens willing to sit in bumper to bumper traffic and pay high tolls to get some amazing thin crusts)

that was so believable people actually leaped to their deaths rather than face this potential calamity.

I would agree that the path of least resistance isn't a path that you can be on from birth to death and actually get anywhere - you will end up in the basement of your parent's house, with your mom doing your laundry and dad paying you in quarters to cut the grass on Sundays -

(although there are days this does not sound so bad to me)

but, I don't want to be beating my head against the wall all the time either.

(and I really can't spare the kind of brain cells this beating might endanger)

Can't the path of least resistance be the appropriate path sometimes?

Some of the best things in my life have come to me, at least in the early stages, rather effortlessly.

I met my husband on a blind date I totally did not want to go on (still married), I got the best job I ever had while using their restroom, bought the first house we looked at (still here - not sure I would recommend this one, but it has worked out for us)...

Of course at a certain point these effortless things get a bit efforty and then you get to decide just how much you want them and whether you want to push through the resistance, that is sure to come up sooner or later,

and the importance of that pushing may be more about the muscles you will get from the process than whether or not you actually get where you think you want to go or get what you think you want to get

Maybe, the start of a very good path for us could look like the path of least resistance - I am not going to climb through sticker bushes when there is a perfectly plowed path to the ocean, after all

(of course if those sticker bushes lead to a private beach, and I know the owners are in Hawaii for a week, well, I might just put on some heavy denim and plow through - not that I have ever done this)

but when that perfectly good path has some rocks and detours and sticker bushes of its own as it will sooner or later, I'm not exactly going to turn around

although sometimes when that path turns into a 10 ft brickwall we may need to find a way around it or regroup to grow the muscles we will need to climb that or decide if we even want to because how many times have we really, really pushed and moved mountains for something only to find it really wasn't what we wanted anyway - it didn't make us happy ...

I don't think the path of least resistance is for losers - sometimes it is for smart people avoiding sticker bushes and Jersey traffic.

Disclaimer - since I am not an expert in resistance and cannot be said to actually know what I am talking about I cannot be held responsible for any actions you might take from reading any of my posts - please keep this in mind if you end up in your parents' basement playing Guitar Hero in which case I would recommend a Nook and some H.G. Wells.

* a hazy stretch of grey print by leahtree photography