guest post: manic mrs. stone

Hello all, I'm Elisabeth of Manic Mrs. Stone and I thought it'd be fun to share some of my life with you.  I am a very goal-oriented person and am constantly making lists and checking them off.  Well, one of the things on my list of things to do in 2012 was to connect to a crystal.  I've never done this before but have been studying and felt it was the right time, especially in preparing for big changes in my life (a new home, a second baby, etc).  So here is how I did it!  

I went to my favorite alternative bookstore and checked out the crystal table.  Anything that seemed to speak to me, I immediately picked up.  If it then felt right to me, I got it.  I picked out 4 crystals, giving one (the tiger's eye) to my daughter because she fell so in love with it.  My two favorites below are the green adventurine and the red jade.

I then needed to cleanse the crystals.  There are many techniques for cleansing a crystal but the way I chose to was running them under water, using visualization, and then smudging them.   Pictured below is the smudging process.  You can see that my daughter had fun helping me with it.  You can also see an adorable little dreamcatcher pouch that I fixed up as a way to carry my crystals close to me at all times. 

And as of now, I've become seriously connected to my adventurine crystal.  I am always grabbing for it and feeling the need to hold it close to me.  I decided to look up what it's specific purposes and meanings were (remember I only bought it because I felt a connection to it at the store).  It turns out that adventurine is a very healing and soothing stone that is quite known for blocking negative energies.  So it totally makes sense to me why I'm really attached to it right now.  I'm in the process of really taking charge of things in my life and learning to express myself openly - often resulting in critisism and negative energy from family members.  I am also preparing for a really big event in my life (a natural VBAC) and have been trying very hard to focus my positive energy and thoughts on it.  It really seems that adventurine is perfect for me at this exact moment and I'm so glad I went with my intuition in choosing a crystal to connect to.

Crossing that off my 2012 list!

Here is a recent image of me wearing my crystal pouch that is holding - guess what?! - my adventurine!

Have a beautiful and inspiring year!  :)

xo, mrs. stone

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freebie: valentines print

i love these lyrics from the stevie wonder song...i thought they'd make a sweet little valentines print! click on the image to downlaod the full size print.

i printed one out and framed it for my Mr {hope he's not reading this!!}

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letterbox love

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i love getting snail mail...nothing beats a handwritten letter dropping into my letterbox to make my heart happy. in these days of texts, emails and im's it's easy to forget about writing real letters...  i've been penpalling since i was around 7 or 8 and it's still as exciting to get a handwritten letter now as it was then! if you fancy getting some snail mail or you want to send me some please email me - i need more!!!

also, my kiddos are keen to have some penpals too. they love getting mail and would love some other kiddos to write to. lola is 8, kiki is 5 and baya is 2 - if you have kiddos who'd love a penpal {or three} i know my kids would be stoked! drop me an email and we can swap deets :)

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instalife

good morning from one very tired mama.... the kiddos sleepover was a huge success - they stayed awake until 4:30am {and got up at 10am!!} between that and miss baya kicking me half the night i didn't get much sleep :/ today's definetly a coffee kinda day.... we have friends coming for dinner later and then it will be early nights all round! here's some pictures from me week {if you're on instagram you can find me @thisenchantedpixie}

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sleepover fun

miss lola is having some of her friends round tonight for a slumber party. she's been getting things ready all day, making cakes and organising some craft activities for them all to do! my mr is escaping for the evening - the thought of 7 little girls is too much for him ha!

i'm still feeling a bit groggy from this cold - we've been taking it easy(ish) the past couple of days, hopefully it'll pass soon - baya hasn't let me sleep much the last couple of nights and i'm a very tired mama.

i'm planning on watching a movie this evening, tucked up in bed while the kiddos have fun downstairs. i've some work i ought to be doing, but my head isn't switched on so it'll have to wait ;)

if you haven't checked out my shop lately, it's full of some lovely new goodies - as well as gift sets offering a discount if you purhcase two pairs of earings or a necklace and earrings together. also if you enter loveme at checkout you can get a further 20% off everything from now until valentines day.

what have you all got planned for your weekends??

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pretty things

happy friday friends! little miss baya is full of cold, and kept me up most of last night.... so i'm a tired mama today. lots of coffee and lots of snuggles is in order today! i'm hoping we get some more sleep tonight as lola is having a sleepover tomorrow - and we four extra girls in the house things could get a bit noisy! here's a few pretty things for your friday!

one / two / three / four / five / six / seven

 

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diy - valentine's love notes

the girls wanted to make some cute little notes to give to some of their friends for valentines - we settled on these cute little heart note/envelopes - easy to make yet they look super cute!

i made this heart template that we printed out on cardstock {you can click on the image below to download the pdf} you could of course just use some pretty paper and cut a heart shape out :)

 when you have your heart cut out, on the blank side you can write your love letter/ draw a picture -whatever takes your fancy

then, to fold it into an envelope, first you need to fold both sides in to the middle - like below

then fold the top of the heart down as below

finally, turn the heart around and fold the point of the heart down and seal with a sticker - done!

i think these would be perfect to sneak into wallets/lunchboxes/coat pockets too!

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meal planning

source

one of my goals for 2012 was to clean up my diet. lack of time and lack of money had led me to eating to much junk and processed foods. way back when, i used to meal plan. not only did it allow me to budget better, but also plan healthy meals and save time - as knowing in advance what we were going to be eating that day meant no last minute panics over what to cook for dinner.

it also encouraged me to try out new recipes and foods that were in season. and it meant the mr didn't have for lunch what i was planning on making for dinner.

so, this week i finally got around to starting meal planning again. and of course - a pretty meal planning sheet is far better than a scrap of paper right?! i made this cutie - i'm planning on putting one in a pretty frame, and using a wipe-off marker so i can use it over and over. 

click on the image to download the full size print

i tend to only plan out our evening meals, but there's space on the sheet for breakfasts and lunches too if you wanted. a typical weeks evening meals might look something like this:

mon: spaghetti & veggie meatballs

tues: hassleback potatoes & veggie chili

weds: stir fry veggies & rice

thurs: home made pizza & wedges

fri: veggie pot pies & salad or veg

sat: pasta bake with garlic bread
sun: veggie roast, with roast potatoes, veggies, gravy & yorkshire puddings

i'm in the middle of transfering all my recipes from the scraps of paper to these cute recipe cards {again, click on the image to download a full size, printable size}

 

Do you meal plan?? If not, it's a great time to start!

p.s I have a guest post over at Miss Indie today if you want to check it out :)

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