Monthly Archives: October 2011

Fullerton Area Art Auction to Support Kids in the Arts

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in The Travels

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"CALIFORNIA DREAMIN" - DENISE ELLIOT MARSHALL - ARTIST

I was recently contacted by students completing a capstone project at Cal State Fullerton. They are promoting an auction for All the Arts for All the Kids. I just wanted to give a heads up to anyone in the Fullerton area who would be interested in attending this auction on Saturday. I wish I could go, but we have family coming to visit and plans that can’t be changed. I’m a firm believer that arts should be a part of every student’s education. When I was teaching, I had some students who were incredibly talented, but their families did not have the resources or knowledge to encourage that talent. So if you’re in the area, stop by and check it out! You could win one of the beautiful hearts like the one in the picture to the right. If you’re not in the area, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind getting a small donation through their website. 😉 For onlly 25$’s, you would be providing an entire year of art education for one student. Pretty cool.

Here’s their mission statement:

The All the Arts for All the Kids Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to developing, sustaining, and supporting the arts as an intrinsic part of every child’s education.
It is this organization’s passionate belief that the arts are the birthright of every child, and as such, the Foundation champions the arts in the Fullerton School District. We enthusiastically raise funds which are used exclusively to supplement the District’s ongoing arts programs.
This grass roots community effort is staffed solely by volunteers, so that all proceeds go directly to the children in every school in the District.

Let Them Be Little, I Heart Faces

24 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Photography, Quick Snippets

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I have lots of pictures of Little T, but I immediately thought of another image that’s near and dear to my heart. Here’s my nephew meeting his brother in the hospital for the first time. I love how happy my brother is in this photo, and I love how curious my nephew looks, like he’s not quite sure what to make of this new person in his life. I know the image is technically flawed, but it doesn’t matter to me. It will always be one of my favorite photos.

Click the icon below to see more I Heart Faces entries:

Vegan Halloween Dinner Party Meal Plan

24 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Meal Plans, vegan

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We’re having some family and friends over for a weekend of fun filled Halloween activities. Here’s what we’re planning on making:

Halloween Dinner: It’s a potluck, so we’re only in charge of a few items.

Creamy Pumpkin Penne Image from Chef Chloe

 

Fruit Compote

Breakfast for our Guests: 
Halloween Dinner: 
We wanted something special for Halloween, but also something we could make a few days before so we weren’t cooking. We decided on our favorite chili recipe from Susan at FatFreeVegan. If you haven’t tried this recipe, you should! It’s so hearty and filling and tasty.

Gold Rush Chile from FatFreeVegan (image by Susan Voisin)

Image from Food Fight Grocery

P.S. Food Fight Grocery has lots of great vegan treats. Definitely check them out if you haven’t before.

Menu Plan for next week

24 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Meal Plans, vegan

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Okay, so I’ve been terrible about writing down my menu plans. Things have been crazy busy around here so we’ve been relying on our go-to meals that never require a lot of thought  like baked potatoes, spaghetti, burritos, ect. This week we have a lot of events planned so I’m having to write everything out and I thought I would share. 🙂

Breakfast: 

  • Oatmeal with bananas, cinnamon, and agave
  • Cereal with Soymilk
  • Dr Oz’s Green Drink (Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!) 🙂
Lunch:
  • Burrito bowl (Spanish rice, lettuce, salsa, beans, lettuce) with baked corn chips. (Cut up corn tortillas, brush on fresh lime juice and sprinkle with salt, bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees)
  • Leftover Pumpkin Ravioli from dinner with friends.
  • Three Bean Salad and bread
  • Chickpea Salad Sandwich (you can tell what ingredients we have a lot of) 😉
  • Spring Rolls from Trader Joe’s

Chickpea Burgers Image by Susan Voison at FatFreeVegan

Dinner: We’re going out a lot this week, so not that many dinner meals
  • Vegan Vegetable Quesadillas (no cheese, just beans, roasted red peppers, brocolli, salsa, and avocado
  •  Herbed Pasta with Broccoli and Peas
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Chickpea Burgers from www.FatFreeVegan.com I can’t wait to try these. BTW, have you noticed we have a lot of chickpeas hanging around here that we’ve got to get rid of?
Snacks:
  • Strawberries
  • Fruit Smoothie
  • Corn Thins with Salsa

Children’s Halloween Parade

22 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

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We have a town nearby that reminds me of the town from The Gilmore Girls. We spend a lot of time there going to farmer’s markets, family-owned restaurants, and coffee shops. Big T and I dream of retiring there someday. We imagine ourselves rolling hand in hand in our electronic wheelchairs, making our way to their little movie theater.

Today they had their children’s Halloween Parade. Speaking of that, Big T and I had a gigantic communication mix up this morning. I’ve been working on getting my photography business running and taking care of Little T, so it’s been kind of crazy and I’ve been busier than usual. I guess I didn’t explain our schedule very well, and Big T had it in his head that we were going to Disneyland instead of 10 minutes down the street to the town next door. I kept wondering why he was putting so much thought into packing Little T’s lunch, asking if we’d be back in time to go to dinner with his friend, etc. It all made sense when I turned the other way in our car and he asked why we weren’t on our way to Disneyland. It blew our minds, we had completely different ideas in our heads as to how this day was supposed to be. Whoa.

Here was the beginning of the children’s parade. Little T knew something fun was about to happen and we couldn’t stop this kid from wandering towards all the action!

I stayed out of the parade so I could snap pictures of Big T and my little snugglebug. Little T started out walking, but he soon decided that Daddy’s shoulders were much better.

Here’s a few of the other cute costumes:

Even the animals were in the Halloween spirit:

Towards the end of the parade, we stepped out and decided to watch the band behind us. Theo loved the drummers the best. Do you think we may have a future band geek on our hands? I write that lovingly as a from a former band geek. :p

And then the Inland Pacific Ballet came by. I can’t believe it’s almost Nutcracker time.

We finished the day at the Last Drop Cafe. Our favorite coffee shop, and not just because they have Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’ve watched Little T grow up over there.

You see? It really is like an episode of the Gilmore Girls. Much better than an episode of I Love Lucy, which is how my life usually feels. 😉

Disney Fairytale Pirate Wedding

18 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Photography

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Avast there, Matey…Ye come seeking adventure in salty old pirates, ay? Well, this here be the wedding for ye.

I was so excited to photograph this wedding, I couldn’t sleep the night before! This Disney Fairytale Wedding took place at the Grand California Hotel. Wendy (the bride) told me before about the little touches she added, and they turned out amazing. She actually made the beautiful hats that all of the bridesmaids wore! This is just a small sample of photos, I couldn’t wait to post them. 🙂

This is exactly where a pirate should be at a party, methinks. ^_^

Scrapbooking Giveaway

17 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Photography

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*Edit for Winner* The winner of the scrapbooking giveaway, chosen from a random generator at random.org is…lucky number 13, Kelly!

Kelly, e-mail me and I’ll send you the link to get the program. I hope you have as much fun with it as I’ve been having.

~Jenna

Scrapbooking Giveaway: My Memories Suite Digital Software. Value of 40.00$

When I was asked to host a scrapbooking giveaway for My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking, I jumped at the chance. My Mom and I love to make digital scrapbooks. We’ve made photobooks as gifts for our family, and we’ve also used digital scrapbooking to make children’s books for my nephews. Kids love seeing themselves in books that look like professional hardbound children’s books. It’s a creative way to get the kiddos reading, and I treasure the book that one of my students made for me as an end of the year teaching gift. Someday soon, I’m going to create a book for Little T that documents his adoption story. After working with My Memories Suite and seeing the possibilities of their program, I can’t wait to get started.

The cool thing though, is that you can make more than hardbound books. You can also make cards, digitally interactive books, DVD’s, web videos, and lots more. You can save the images of your scrapbook and print them out yourself, or have them made into a fancy book! Here’s a video of the Scrapbook I’m putting together of our trip to the Hot Air Balloon Festival:

And here are a few of the pages I came up with. I made these with the MyMemories Suite Software. I haven’t purchased any kits yet, but they look awesome. The great thing about the kits are that they last forever, it’s not like buying paper scrapbooking items that you can only use every once in a while.

The winner of this giveaway will receive the complete MyMemories Digital Software Suite program, a value of 40$. There’s nothing more you need to make these easy peasy scrapbooks, just some pictures and a little creativity. 🙂

To enter:

1. Visit MyMemories and leave a comment here on this blog post telling me which digital scrapbooking kit is your favorite.

Additional Entries: 

2. Follow the MyMemories Blog

3. Like MyMemories on Facebook (BTW~When they hit 10,000 likes, they’re giving away a free IPad). Their Facebook community is so much fun, definitely check it out!

4. Follow MyMemories on Twitter

Winners will be announced on this post, one week from now. I will post the winner and they can contact me through my blog e-mail address: thislittlemail@gmail.com, and then I will forward them the code to use to download their free software! Exciting!

And if you already use MyMemories Digital Software, you can use the special code below as a 10$ coupon! w00t!

Just copy and paste this code during checkout for your coupon: STMMMS21031

I Heart Faces: Tickled Pink

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in Photography

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This week at I Heart Faces, the focus is on the color pink in honor of breast cancer awareness. The picture I decided on was from the wedding I photographed on Thursday. The wedding took place at Disneyland and was pretty extraordinary. The theme was pirates and the bride put together the hats all by herself! She said she might start making and selling them on Etsy. I hope she does, because she is uber-talented, and I was thrilled to be a part of her event. I can’t wait to get a set of her photos processed!

On a more serious note…

They chose the color pink in honor of breast cancer awareness, but I hope you’ll excuse me as I talk about another type of cancer. Around a year and a half ago, my friend Jen lost her life to cancer in her spinal cord fluid. It was fast, it was sad, and she was too young to be taken away.

Jen and I worked together at Disneyland. I can’t walk around the park without thinking about something funny that happened to us while working. When I said goodbye to her for the last time-one of the hardest and saddest moments of my life-she took my hand and told me the park wasn’t the same after I left. If she could hear me right now, I’d tell her that life hasn’t been the same since she has left. She was funny, vibrant, and one of a kind. I miss her.