desimms clips 4u

Xristos Anesti! Care for lunch? Here's what we had (and are still having): Lamb: 2 rolled boneless legs from Whole Foods (8 lbs or so).  I rub salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and lemon juice on them, and made small incisions with a knife to insert garlic cloves in several places.  Then I seared them in a hot pan of my dad's olive oil and placed them in a crock pot for about 5 hours.  A very delicious alternative to roasting on a souvla (spit).  I drizzled a bit of red wine on them about midway through cooking. Kefthedes (aka meatballs): I used ground beef from the cow that Jeff's step dad, Ben,  gave us for Christmas.  It was already butchered.  But we were still really happy about it.  Anyway- 3lbs ground beef hand mixed with salt pepper, parsley, oregano, cinnamon, chopped garlic and onion, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1/2 cup parmesan, 2 eggs.  And a douse of red wine. Red Potatoes: chopped and mixed with fresh garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, lots o...

Of course I agree with them. Eastern Orthodox Easter is one week later than Western Easter this year, so in addition to getting all your Easter candy on sale (thanks for leaving some), I also have an extra week to absorb some really good egg dying ideas.  In addition to our traditional solid red eggs, as soon as I saw my friend Alicia's botanical eggs, I was dying to do it (pardon the pun).  Falling in line with their typical kid selves, the children did not trust me when I explained the process.  There were smirks, huhs, quizzical brows, rolled eyes, and every manner of mom-yer-dumb looks on their faces.  Then I pulled up Alicia's post on my laptop and a chorus of aaaahhhoooOOOHhh came over the room.  Why do I always have to prove myself to this bunch.  Hmpf.  This is one rare occurrence where I am totally happy to give someone else the credit (even if those stinkers shouldn't need proof).  (Anyway, Alicia, and then they kept reading your blog w...

Happy Birthday to my Mama! If you and Dad are up to your usual tricks, sometime later today he'll ask you what he bought you for your birthday, and then you'll go get it to show him because you purchased it last week. I bought myself a macro lens for your birthday. I hope you like it. I took these pictures for you because I know how much you like flowers and stitching and because I forgot to put your birthday card in the mail on Saturday and because I need to practice with this new lens because I know how you always want me to do my best at everything that I do. Thinking of you this morning and the amount of stillness required to take these compared to my regular zoom lens brought to mind the years you spent trying to keep me still. I hope it was worth it, I remain pretty wiggly. I am thinking I might need to by myself a mini tripod as an early Mother's Day gift to you. I love you Mama, enjoy your day, you are to be celebrated. xoxoxo anna & fam

Just one more piece of nostalgia this month, as my first born just turned 20 a few moments ago. This is a mutually favorite photo between the 3 of us who were present when it was taken- Jeff, our photographer. Juliana was just a little over one and we were visiting friends in Sarasota, after having left the Ringling School to come home and become a family. Its nice now to think that I had attended school there to make art, but this is my favorite piece. Happy Birthday Juliana! I wish we were together. Hey peoples, want to come to California? I leave first thing in the morning for Palm Springs, LA, and Sacramento. I thought I would send some postcards along the way to share the trip with you..... But first I should get to bed, more soon! xo,AM

While I am not especially good at chronicling photos or artwork into albums or folders of and for my family there are certain scraps and bits of things that I hang onto. Not for any certain reason other than they feel especially poignant. And I am most certainly not great at organizing them, but they just get tucked here and there. I was cleaning out my closet on Saturday (just typing that doesn't quite cover how much that actually required of me). In the process this little card floated on the air down from the very top. A handwritten index card from a 6yr old Nicolas. Translated from his lovely phonetic spelling it reads: Whenever Juliana isn't here I will be there if you fall down. Nicolas turned 14 yesterday. I am so happy to have this postcard from his inner heart, his child heart. He was and is a gorgeous boy. Such a treasure to watch the rest as it unfolds. (And in my mind I can still hear little-him whispering words out loud very carefully in order to spell h...

So I'm a little proud of this, when you consider birthday cake situations I have suffered in the past . (But thankfully barely recovered from.) My sweet Eleni turns 8 today. Pffufff. The time. She do pass us by. Eleni has invited a pair of friends to come home on the bus with her today. And together with her sister we're going to have a painting party. It was Isabela's (secret) idea to make Eleni a paint palette cake. Genius. Thank you Isabela. Talk about an easy design to execute! I did get a little fancy with her name on the side of the cake, but I was staring down at a plate full of beautifully colorful paints, erhhh icing plops. I had to do something besides eat them. So I painted on the side with a butter knife. And with "painterly" as the theme, I allowed myself not to worry about perfection. One helpful tip: etching her name in the white frosting with a toothpick first. Anyway, I think now I need to buy pretzel rods and black licorice string...

I guess this is becoming an unofficial ritual with myself as I reflect on the year, no order of importance, some restating, some revelations, but each entry a recollection of what it was to live and breath through another year as me. In 2011... :: I became particularly practiced at goodbyes to my oldest without tears :: I realized that the reason we had to say goodbye so often was because we said several hellos, through many -sometimes quick but always welcome- trips, and that is good. :: Through trips, calls, texts, emails, skypes, phone photos, I discovered that I am as needed (maybe more) as always. :: I traveled to the other side of the country alone for the first time ever for 3 days (within 15 minutes of arriving my sweet husband called from the emergency room to ask me Roman's birthdate - Roman had fallen off of Isabela's shoulders and hit his head on the concrete- I think my reply to Jeff's question was something like"what's his birthdate? which one of you...

...to Yours. Thank you for making my days twinkle all year. We wish you a joyous Christmas and blessed holidays shared with those you love. With lots of love from the Horner House: Anna, Jeff, Juliana, Nicolas, Joseph, Isabela, Eleni, Roman, and Leo the puppy. xoxoxo

Next on my list: wrapping presents, making sugar cookies, folding laundry, paying a plumber. xoAM

Yesterday I woke up with an aching head, stuffy nose, sore throat and a bubbly 2.5 yr old boy in my bed that didn't quite get it. I kissed each kid off to church with their dad, and I stayed in bed as long as I could. Once just laying there was driving me crazy I got up and took as much legal medicine as possible (its really all I have) to feel a little better than absolutely horrible. Somewhere after the medicine and some black mint tea, I started realizing that I was alone in the house and could possibly have some quiet time with a glue gun (as opposed to chaos time with a glue gun where I try to prevent it from ending up on my rug or someone's delicate skin, which amounts to me plugging it in and out of the wall about 80 times in a 30 minute period and always waiting for it to heat up to do any little dab). Ahem. So working on a twig wreath that I've had for years and never really knew what to do with seemed like a manageable task. In my jammies and wooly slippers. ...

16 past noon on Saturday. All of our ornament & decking boxes are piled up on the dining room table. Sunshine is pouring in. Loukoumades are rising on the kitchen counter. Under a towel I made more than 3 years ago, which has held up quite nicely. I'm so glad I've used it. I hope we have enough honey. Getting the tree today. xo, AM

Yes, its normal to want to go straight to your local craft store now and purchase glitter. No, its not normal after doing so to think about what your yellow lab (insert any human, pet, automobile or piece of furniture here) would look like with some glitter. You must inhale just enough during your projects to mess up your brain a little. Last night we ooohhhed, ahhhed and barely blinked we were so excited to try every next color. Totally worth the line at Michael's that stretched to the back of the store. xoxoxo, fluttery eyelashes and glittery kisses to you, AM & the sparkle team (burnt lightbulb rehabilitation program found here )

Post Disclaimer: All photos reference the THAT of which I am thinking and not the THIS of which I am doing. There are too many THISs to photograph. Doing:: Replacing six 10 1/2 ft structural porch columns on the front of our house :: waiting impatiently to have this installed in the dining room :: and two of these and one of these in the hallway :: attending to the lingering details in Nicolas's room and the girls' room after having renovated both :: considering which day to buy our Christmas tree and therefore decorate the whole house Thinking:: About picking up all the little sunshine crochet squares I started last winter on the couch with Juliana and lots of Whoppers :: Wondering if I need all those things again to be able to do it :: Yes, I do :: I was originally inspired by an amazing blanket that I saw either on etsy or flickr or both.... I think by a talented (Northern?) European woman.... and she had it styled on a modern gray couch.... anyone? I have seen sever...

Two of our little ones were only glimmers then. Juliana nearly 10. Nicolas 3. Joseph 18 mos. I had 3-wk-old Isabela in a snugly and was headed out the back door for a walk on a gorgeous, sunny day. My sister rang and told me to turn on the television instead. It was only a minute after the first plane had struck. Each of us, of course, remembers where we were. What we were doing. I know for certain what none of us was doing. None of us was waiting for an attack, not expecting the grief and mourning that is still the part of so many of our lives today. I feel like I am finally able to admit, perhaps boldly, even though I did not personally suffer tragedy on 9-11, that we all suffered. I was traumatized. I never felt it fair to feel that or certainly not respectful to say so. I still feel so much grief and sadness when I think back to those raw emotions of watching the story play itself out, changing second by second. I was transfixed nearly 24 hours a day with a baby who bar...