Posted on March 15th, 2012 in Baltimore Craft, blog, family, homeschool, Lana Bella by jenni
Woo Hoo this is the last monthly recap post tomorrow I’ll have just a regular concise post for you aren’t you excited? 
Early in the month I decided to restock our freezer with pancakes. What started as a couple batches of pancakes turned into making 125 pancakes 3 at a time in a pan on the stove I know crazy right? I started with plain, then was asked if I’d make apple, then banana nut, then I went crazy and also made cranberry orange, lemon blueberry and a savory tomato, basil & mozzarella that we had for dinner.
Jack received this new friend also named Jack from the amazing danamarie you can check out her work in both her greenstarstudio and mightMIGHT shops.
We went on a shopping trip to get some new clothes and Rory said he needed these sunglasses.
We played in the rain and painted.
Lexi got a guitar after so many months waiting. Remember this?
After the insanity of making all those pancakes on a pan I splurged and bought a griddle and waffle iron so we tested them out with strawberries and fresh whipped cream and dinner outside under the moon on the patio.
We had some great family time all together again with the kids really enjoying the pool.
Rory and Finn helped me plant a teeny garden late in the season for Miami but hey better late than never right?
Rory and I went shopping and started gathering supplies for his Rainbow Spectacular Birthday party.
We also got an Xbox and I have really enjoyed watching the kids play Just Dance! By the smiles on their faces I think they like it too!
Posted on November 14th, 2010 in Baltimore Craft, blog, Lana Bella by jenni
I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was when I got into this show. I’m getting even more and more excited as the date approaches. And nervous. Really really nervous. I’ll be there with fellow BEST mates Jennyjen42, Sweet Pepita, greenstarstudio, and more.
This is what I know.
BAZAART: Artful Holiday Shopping
- When: Saturday November 27, 2010
- What Time: 10am – 5pm
- Cost: FREE ENTRY!
American Visionary Art Museum’s Annual Holiday Marketplace of original creations by 50 regional artists and craftspeople. Painting, sculpture, papercrafts, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, mixed media, and other work that simply defies categorization! FREE ENTRY. And, of course, Mr. Rain’s Fun House will be open.
Location: American Visionary Art Museum, Jim Rouse Visionary Center 3rd Floor. Note: Bazaart shoppers are welcome to tour the entire Jim Rouse Visionary Center for Free! Ongoing exhibitions include the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre automata, Baltimore Screen Painters, Emily Duffy’s Bra Ball and more.
Or if you are like me and need an actual address :
American Visionary Art Museum
800 Key Highway
Baltimore, Maryland 21230 (Map)
P: 410-244-1900
Don’t forget to share this info with all of your friends 
Posted on March 12th, 2010 in Baltimore Craft, blog, family, homeschool, Lana Bella by jenni
Better late than never right? Photo of the day is of Jack & Rory hard at work coloring their greenstarstudio color your own valentines. I know the boys enjoyed coloring as much as giving!
Posted on October 1st, 2009 in Baltimore Craft, family, Lana Bella by jenni
Since I was a little girl and my grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer its always been on my mind and supporting research or those with cancer has always been dear to my heart. Those days spent sitting in a bed next to him reading to him even after he fell asleep are some of my fondest and saddest memories. I remember walking the streets of my neighborhood asking for donations whenever a new packet would come in the mail lung cancer, leukemia, the heart association I’d fill out all the paperwork in my best handwriting feeling so proud that I was doing something to help. I’d skip playing with friends ( a big thing in the 8-11 age bracket) to go door to door doing my part. Sure I often got invited in when it was cold for a cocoa or some cookies or sometimes I was just the only face they had seen that day, or week and people just wanted to talk sometimes it was for fifty cents (as we lived in one of those working class suburban neighborhoods in the old italian section of town) sometimes it was for ten whole dollars I didn’t care I was a kid it was the mid 80′s .50 still meant something.
Fast forward some 25 years I’ve lost three of my grandparents now to one type of cancer or another, had cervical cancer myself over 10 years ago but none of that hit home harder than what was to come.
To say that my Mom and I haven’t had the best relationship ever would be an understatement. She knows all the buttons to push, views the world differently than I, and is so much more trusting of other things which just sets us off on each other. In so many ways the best thing for our relationship was being 1000 miles apart when we moved to South Carolina. In the past four years I’ve seen my mom twice for less than a week both times and that was fine. So much changed this past winter. Just after Christmas my mom called and told me they found something on her mammogram and they wanted to look further into it. I honestly didn’t think anything of it because she has had a few non cancerous cysts removed over the years. They kept looking at it one doctor saying it was nothing but luckily her radiologist was very insistent that it wasn’t nothing and kept checking it.
In late February just days after her 55th birthday she got the dreaded news it was Breast Cancer. It would take two months of weighing the lumpectomy/mastectomy and co-ordinating the surgical schedules of her doctors before her surgery. What was thought to be nothing by doctors just four months earlier and then changed to a stage 2 just before surgery changed drastically to a stage 3B post op and after scans revealed spread to her lymph nodes.
I’m dealing with the emotional aftermath of feelings of how this woman my mother who I’ve never been overly close to could very well have been gone had this one radiologist not been so insistent, and with the idea of no longer having a mother possibly sooner than later. I’ve never once thought of my Mom as an optimistic person (to which she will beg to differ), but this diagnosis has changed that. We are closer than we have ever been. It has changed everything, how she eats, how she lives, how she looks.
Somehow this has all made my Mom a much more optimistic person, someone I want to take this second chance with and really get to know while I can.
Not long after my Mom started chemo she got even more bad news, she was being downsized because of the failing economy. Its been a blessing and a curse. While she can concentrate on getting through chemo and not have to feel pressured about missing too much work, she now is out of work and has medical bills piling up. So this October for me its not about supporting more cancer research its about helping to deal with the aftermath of a failing economy and a cancer diagnosis. My mom still had months of chemo left and then radiation in her treatment and thousands of dollars in medical expenses so this October I’m thinking pink closer to home and will be donating 10% of all sales to my Mom’s medical bills and for every 10 items sold you get a little surprise treat and she gets and extra $10! What are you waiting for go SHOP NOW!
I also have it on good authority that some of my fellow BEST members are also donating to cancer causes as well so be sure to check out greenstarstudio and Spa Therapy Works and see just what they are up to as well.
We had some great family time all together again with the kids really enjoying the pool.
