July 2011 – Page 4 – The Creative Salad

Leaf Exploration With Stencils

We’re finally feeling the heat here in Sonoma County and I can’t help but look towards fall for cooler weather, the typical season for leaf exploration.

But why wait until autumn to learn leaf shapes? The more we practice now, the better we’ll be prepared for identifying the plethora of fallen leaves this November. In true Spritzer-Leyba fashion, we feel the need to transform everyday activities into learning experiences.

We stumbled upon this fantastic, incredibly inexpensive book of leaf stencils at our local art supply store. The stencil book contains six different leaves: aspen, holly, maple, sweet gum, white oak, and yellow poplar, all common to North America.

The book contains perforated pages, so you can remove the stencils from the book to trace them more easily. We decided to punch a hole in the top of each stencil and use a binder ring to keep them together.

I love watching our daughter learn without realizing it. She’s having fun, stenciling away, while learning the names of leaf shapes.

I watch, with a smile on my face, as she decides that we need to clearly label each leaf.

She’s our daughter for sure.

I can’t help but hope that she’ll grow up to be a scientist too.

Six Years Married, Eight Years In Love

It seems like only yesterday day that David and I stood atop a windy hill in Boulder and vowed to build a house, home and life together:

“I love being your best friend and companion, your partner in life. I promise to love and respect you; to stand by you, and be faithful; to be open and honest; and to always nurture and strengthen the love between us. Today I choose to walk this path with you always. May our home be filled with love, peace, learning, and laughter. This is my vow to you. Let this be a marriage of equals.”

These six years have passed in a blink of an eye, yet I barely remember a time when we weren’t together.

Look at what we’ve accomplished:

We’ve moved to California and built a life for ourselves in Sonoma County.

We’ve created our daughter and savored being parents, best friends and partners in this exciting journey together.

Whatever challenges we’ve faced in the time we’ve been together, we’ve overcome together, a united front, supporting and loving one another. Outside forces have affected us, but our love has remained true and blossomed.

I could never have imagined I’d love this much or ever be this happy. Our laughter and love bring such joy to my life.

I love you, sweetheart. Each day I feel thankful having you by my side.

Pinterest Love

When I first heard about Pinterest, a virtual display space that lets you organize and share images, I thought, “Just what I need: another site to check; another internet addiction.”

I’ve had a Pinterest account for less than a week yet I’m already hooked and can’t imagine my life without this nifty organizational tool.

I use Pinterest to save my favorite posts, inspirational photos, new recipes and projects to try. When I find a project or post that I love, I “pin” my favorite photo from the post, write a brief description and file it away into one of several themed boards that I’ve created. Later I can go to that particular board and see all of the posts I’ve linked to.

I’ve created pin boards for photos of future house inspiration, projects to try, organization love, everyday learning, garden inspiration, recipes to cook, special occasion party fun, and winter, spring, summer and fall holiday inspiration.

In the past when I found pictures I liked or projects to try, I shared them via my Google Feed Reader, where they’d then be lost amongst the thousands of other posts I had already shared. I could slowly go through post by post to see what I had marked (or do a search), but it was time consuming and not the best way to look for a quick craft project or a recipe for tonight’s dinner.

Pinterest has made my life so much easier.

Slowly I am going through several years and thousands of saved posts in my Google Feed Reader and pinning to the best articles that I shared previously. So, please follow my boards on Pinterest to see my favorite posts.

If you’d like an invitation to Pinterest, please shoot me an email with PINTEREST in the subject line and I’ll send you an invitation!

Still confused about how Pinterest works or want to learn more? Read this fantastic primer on Pinterest from Callaloo Soup. Francine clearly explains how to set up and use Pinterest, outlining several methods for pinning content to Pinterest.

After you set up a Pinterest account, be sure to click back here and then follow me on Pinterest! See you over there!

Drought-Tolerant, Low-Maintenance Flowers

We’re transforming our front flower garden into a drought-tolerant oasis.

My actions may sound eco-groovy (and, in part, they are), but I’m not going to lie and say it’s completely altruistic. Watering the garden several times a week takes a long time and, frankly, I would rather focus on other things.

Like this blog, for example.

So those water-loving plants have got to go.

I love these particular flowers, called gazanias and native to Southern Africa, because they’re drought-tolerant and contain the most simple, beautiful flowers that exhibit an interesting behavior.

The gazania flowers close at night and only open during the day when the sun shines directly on them, a behavior called nyctinasty.

They come in a variety of colors, each distinct and pretty. We have a host of orange, yellow, and pink blooms.

While typically considered annuals, here in our mild climate they act as perennials. If left alone, the blooms do go to seed and spread. There’s no shortage of gazanias on our street.

All of our gazanias came from volunteers from our neighbor’s garden. Look at that line of gazanias from her yard (on the left) up to ours… Just beautiful.

Pop over to your neighborhood garden center and pick up some today.