Days 3 & 4 ~ Baby Tab Blanket

Day 3 ~
  

We are getting down to crunch time before EliseNicole and I leave for San Diego for go put this precious baby's room together.  So excited, so much to do, so much to pack and ship, so much laundry to do before we leave...  Just a tad overwhelming.  

 Love this Indian influenced fabric and hand picked ribbons!

This day I devoted my meditation completely to my daughter and our grand daughter due in May!  Sewing this Tab Baby Blanket (you can find the instructions HERE), making 6 different quiches (thank you Melissa!), 36 Lemon Curd filled cupcakes and a bazillion blueberry and lemon poppy seed muffins all for her baby shower.  You can find the quiche recipes on my other blog The Chef In My Head. 

One trillion pins, just go ahead and count them.

Any-who, it was a great day.  It appears when you devote yourself to someone else and their happiness (my gift), that your legs and feet don't hurt quite so much from standing on tile for hours (God bless my Gelpro Mat).  Seriously, taking the focus off of yourself and putting the focus entirely on someone else makes a huge difference.


Day 4 ~ Also my birthday!

When we were originally looking at the calendar months ago and choosing a date for EliseNicole's shower, when asked, I deliberately aimed for my birthday.  I wanted the focus off of me and it was a perfect opportunity to shamelessly use my daughter for that purpose.  I recognize this now as a symptom of something else larger I really need to work on.  It now appears blindingly clear that when you set your heart to give, the Universe conspires to give back to you whether you are prepared for it or not.

Miss Jane's beautiful home

Dear friends of ours (a mother and her daughter) gave EliseNicole a beautiful baby shower.  Miss Jane's home was lovely, full of light and beautiful colors chosen just for EliseNicole.  Her daughter was the angel that helped me with the preparation for the quiches to be served.   They both worked so hard with all the preparations and it was absolutely perfect!

Terrible pic of amazing avocado, gruyere cheese,

spinach, goat cheese quiche

Lemon Curd filled cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

Blueberry and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

EliseNicole's baby shower was perfect!  So many loving family and friends came to share a day celebrating this "little tiny baby's" arrival!

Beautiful new Mommy!

Precious china antique baby with tiny crocheted layette

This baby girl is starting off her fabulous shoe collection right!

She doesn't know it yet, but she comes from

a long family history of shoe loving girls!

Thank you again to all of the special people in our lives, you are a gift to us each day!

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele

29 gifts...Day 1

Please go get this book & read it!!

My sweet friend H. loaned this book to me and I am racing through it!  It is such a beautiful story, well here's the scoop:

About the Book
One month after her wedding day, thirty-three-year-old Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and the life she knew changed forever. Cami was soon in and out of L.A.’s emergency rooms with alarming frequency as she battled the neurological condition that left her barely able to walk and put enormous stress on her marriage. Each day brought new negative thoughts:
I’m going to end up in a wheelchair. Mark’s probably going to leave me. 
My life is over. Why did this have to happen to me?

Then, as a remedy for her condition, Cami received an uncommon prescription from a friend, an African medicine woman named Mbali Creazzo: Give away 29 gifts in 29 days.

“By giving,” Mbali told her, “you are focusing on what you have to offer others, inviting more abundance into your life.” The gifts, she said, could be anything, but their giving had to be both authentic and mindful. At least one gift needed to be something she felt was scarce in her life.

Cami was amazed by what unfolded during her month-long journey.

29 Gifts is Cami’s poignant and unforgettable story of embracing the natural process of giving and receiving. Many of her gifts were simple—a phone call, spare change, even a Kleenex. Yet the acts of kindness were transformative. By Day 29, not only had her health and happiness turned around, but she had also embarked on creating a worldwide giving movement.

The book also includes personal essays from others whose lives changed for the better by giving, plus pages for the reader to record their own journey. More than a memoir, 29 Gifts offers inspiring lessons on how a simple daily practice of altruism can dramatically alter your outlook on the world.

Believe me that was so much better than I could have described.  

Be sure to check out Cami's website HERE

So today, I began.  I gathered fresh eggs from "the girls", painted a wooden tray, filled it with raffia grass, added a couple of paper flowers, these beautiful eggs and took it to my sweet neighbor.  She was so surprised as it was "out of the blue" as they say.  I appreciate her very much as she is such a dear sweet friend (and a little crazy) and I love her!

Much to my surprise, she sent me home with fresh dill and cilantro from her sister's garden!

I want to see what will happen in my life if I really commit and focus my energy on giving for 29 days.What space will it create in my life for new and unexpected things to occur? What shifts will I see in my thinking and behavior as a result? What impact will my gifts have on others? These are just a few of the questions I have. 

Today was different.  More joyful and lighter!  And I can't wait for tomorrow!!  Oh, and the punch line....If I miss a day, I commit to starting all over again.  Yikes!  I just typed that out loud!!

Abundant Happiness ~ Namaste

LeslieMichele