Color of the Month- March 2016 Succulent Green

in , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Friday, March 11, 2016
If we named months by the color we associated with them, March would simply have to be called green if you ask me! Green is everywhere! From the tiny light green fronds on my weeping willow, to the verdant green grass I see from my window, to the delicate green leaves of my newly emerging succulents. The photo of them below was the inspiration for March's color of the month.


Succulent green plant


I've curated a Pinterest board full of beautiful succulent greens this month. If you have a pin that would be perfect for my collection, leave me a comment and I'll add it!



Follow Linda A.'s board Color of the Month- March 2016 Succulent Green on Pinterest.

Happy Friday, Happy Spring! And stay tuned for my succulent gardening tips soon!


Please share in comments: Do you wear, grow, or decorate with this shade of green?



March is a perfect time to start a new hobby as the days get longer and warmer. For me, nothing soothes the soul quite like making something with your hands. Whether your craft style leads you to the kitchen to cook, the kitchen table to craft,  or to the garden to work in the soil, everybody can be crafty. Yes! Even you! 

This post contains affiliate links and I may receive compensation depending on your actions.

Some of my friends don’t think they have the time or skills to do a craft properly, so I wanted to share some amazing free mini-courses offered online at Craftsy. 


DIY Chalkboard supplies crafts, supplies, fun
Easy Chalkboard Craft

At Craftsy you can:

“Explore DIY classes with hours of professionally-produced content for free! Learn a new skill in art, cooking, photography, knitting, crochet, quilting, sewing, woodworking, gardening, cake decorating and much more.


For instance, in March my thoughts turn to gardening and sprucing up our outdoor space. I logged on to Craftsy, went to gardening and found this great free class on transforming your garden design, something I really want to do this year since my front flowerbeds have grown and matured since we moved here years ago and need help.


Free gardening design class online



If gardening isn’t your thing, you’ll find over 40 different free classes available. I found a beginner cooking class that will help any beginning cook feel better in the kitchen. Some of us seasoned cooks could probably find helpful tips from this lesson as well.


Free cooking class fix cooking mistakes



I love all that Craftsy offers, from their helpful FAQ’s, instructors who are so willing to go the extra mile to help you, to their Guarantee.



Craftsy class guarantee, never expries



Win It: National Craft Month Giveaway at Craftsy!


National Craft Month Giveaway


In honor of all of us who love to make things with our hands, Craftsy is giving away a special mystery box full of craft supplies, valued at $700! Entering is easy when you join and there is no purchase necessary. 

Head on over to Craftsy.com now and follow their instructions.  


Good luck and happy crafting! 




Please share in comments: What is your favorite craft and have you started on a project this month?

Today is a special day the world over where women are honored and celebrated as the smart, capable, beautiful humans we are! This year one of the focal points of today is a pledge for parity and I wholeheartedly join in this pledge! 


Parity: The state or condition of being equal, especially regarding status or pay. #PledgeforParity


Celebrate International Women's Day March 8
Source


About International Women’s Day: 

March 8th is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Women- today is our day!  I ask you- What does equality look like to you? Does it mean fair pay? Does it mean a fairer dispersal of chores and child rearing with your spouse? Does it mean more free time to just be still and replenish your soul?

I invite you to visit International Women's Day and learn how you can take the pledge and connect with others in your community and around the world!

For me, today is about being content with myself as a women, wife, mother, friend and wage earner.  The latter is the hardest and most complex for me as a work at home Mom. I don’t have a pay check waiting for me at the end of the week unless I hustle each and every day.  This is a lifestyle choice that I’m happy with most days, but as 2015 came to a close, I felt the need to change a few things to take better care of myself. Something we women should do more of!

A big reason for this change or pivot as I like to call it is due to the evolution of blogging-digital influencer industry. It has evolved over the last two years.  It has gotten far more competitive, not just for paid assignments, but for readers! The stress of bigger, faster, prettier can weigh on you. 

That’s why at the beginning of this year I added a second income stream to my portfolio; Avon.  I knew that if I wanted to be content in 2016, I needed to pivot. Not quit the blogging industry, but change how I worked within it and Avon affords me that. I can stop fretting when things are slow in the blogging industry because I have a second income stream I can work.


So today, I also honor all the direct sale trailblazers who came before me and helped build Avon into the 130 year old business it is today! From the very beginning in 1886, Avon has been about empowering women.  

Avon celebrates 130 years in business


Avon’s Chief Executive Officer Sheri McCoy said something very powerful and topical for today: 

“We believe that a world with more empowered women will create a better, more beautiful world for everyone.“


I want to help continue to break down barriers, I want my daughters to see me as successful business woman on my own terms, I want to do my part to make this world a more beautiful place for everyone, so I’ll continue to write here from my unique point of view, which is almost always positive!  I’ll be sharing my Avon journey here as well. It’s a part of My WAHM Plan now because I think it is important to show other women that working and earning at home is a possible!


I wish all women a very happy day today! Remember to value yourself, your time and your talents today and everyday!


Please share in comments: Have you had a woman impact your life in a positive way recently? How did you thank her? And, what does equality look like to you?

March is a very busy card month in our family. There many joyous occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and this year; Easter. I love sending and receiving special occasion cards and want to pass this love on to my teen daughters, so this weekend I pulled out some cards, our family calendar and a bunch of new Pilot pens I’d received from Shoplet.com to use and share my thoughts here with you. While I did receive complimentary products all opinions, love of a good writing pen and cards are my own.

Assortment of special occasion cards


When talking with my daughters about writing special correspondences, I learned that sometimes it’s the very act of writing, putting pen to card-stock that stalls their creative process and I can understand that. 


Sometimes a pen doesn’t feel right in your hand, or it doesn’t glide across the writing surface, or worse, it leaves blobs of ink behind! I’m happy to report; you’ll find none of those issues with Pilot Pens! If you want your teens to love writing, give them a great pen and these easy to follow steps!


Pilot Pens- great for writing



 1. Pick Your Pen by doing a writing test:

We each chose a different type of pen from the very nice collection we’d received. After you pick a pen to try, hand out lined notebook paper to practice writing on first, that way you won’t ever ruin a card again! Don’t worry about what they write now. Just let them choose a pen solely on how it feels and how the ink looks to them. We’ll get to the wording in another step.


Do a writing test to see how pens feel and ink looks


We all loved the cool pastel color of the Dr. Grip pen that’s light weight and has a cushioned barrel which feels good in your hand. Personally, I found it to be a little too thick for me, but I know my senior mother in law would love this pen as her hands bother her, so I’m gifting this pen and a set of all occasion cards to her.

My teen daughters preferred the fun and sleek looking Acroball pure white pens with their fine points for their writing styles. Both are right handed with a light grip and so they enjoyed the feel and flow of the ink.

I’m a lefty, who turns her paper and tends to bear down on a pen, so if I’m not using a good pen, I’ll either smudge my previous sentence or find a glob of ink at pause points in my writing. I had no problem at all with the Acroball color medium point pen.

My husband chose the Acroball Pro medium point in blue to sign his card and liked how it felt in his hand and how it didn’t drag on the card stock.  To learn more about any of these pens, just click on their links and you’ll be taken to Shoplet.com where you can find them on sale along with a large variety of office supplies.


2. Let your Teen pick the card:

Congratulations card ready to personalize


Whether you buy for one special occasion, or keep an assortment of cards on hand like I do, it’s very important that you let your teen choose the card, not just for the visual aspect, but for the statement inside if any. 


3. Give your Teen Privacy and Time to write:

In other words parents- don’t hover! Nobody likes to write under pressure with somebody watching them, so be patient!  If you want this to be an enjoyable endeavor for your teens and if you want them to ever go beyond a short sentence or two, you must allow time to gather their thoughts and then, allow them to practice writing it out on scratch paper before writing anything on the card.


5. Help your teen address, stamp and mail their cards:

My girls have seen me do this countless times in their lives, so they can do this step on their own. The very best way to make it second nature is to let them take the lead. Give them your address book for cards going to family friends and relatives, or help them look up a friends address with the old school way with the phone book or their preferred way, Google it.  Allow them artistic freedom here as well. If they want to use print instead of cursive writing on the envelope, let them.  It’s their mail to personalize how they choose. 

With a good pen, a nice card and a healthy dose of patience and understanding from us, we can instill a love of writing not only cards, but other correspondence that will serve our teens well from middle school and beyond!


Comments Please:

Do you send out special occasion cards often? 

Happy Friday! As I sit here typing this post this morning, my daughters are sitting in their homerooms at their respective schools ready to learn.  I’m betting they are feeling a sense of privilege to be doing something so ordinary after watching He named me Malala last night. As their Mom, I felt honored to have the ability to share this special pre-screening movie with them, all because I work in this great digital industry in this great country, where women and girls and their educations have value.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Review Wire Media for 20th Century Fox. I received information to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

He named me Malala stand #withMalala


Global Broadcast of He Named Me Malala Monday, February 29th, 8 pm EST/7 pm CST on National Geographic Channel.


About the Movie:

HE NAMED ME MALALA is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman) shows us how Malala, her father Zia and her family are committed to fighting for education for all girls worldwide. The film gives us an inside glimpse into this extraordinary young girl’s life – from her close relationship with her father who inspired her love for education, to her impassioned speeches at the UN, to her everyday life with her parents and brothers.”




My Thoughts:

Stand #withMalala


Watching this movie with my teen daughters was an amazing opportunity! I was moved by Malala’s love of learning, her sweet and funny interactions with her brothers, her adoration for her father and her respect for her mother. But what moved me most, was how my daughters reacted to this powerful movie.  Upon learning that today over 60 million girls are out of school globally, we all shook our heads and asked how can that be? How can this type of discrimination be allowed to continue?

It was not okay for one girl from Pakistan, so she raised her voice for herself, for the girls in her village and now- for all girls around the world. 


Malala said at one point in the movie that if she had not been shot by the Taliban, she would probably have 3 children and a husband by now. She is 17 years old! I cannot fathom this! My oldest daughter will turn 17 next month and she is thinking of exams and spring break with friends and in the near future; college. She certainly isn’t thinking about being a wife and a Mom.

He named me Malala takes us on a journey of a family living peacefully in a small, beautiful village in Pakistan. We learned about peace and faith and hope from Malala and then, we saw ugliness and oppression of not just women and girls, but those who stood up for them.



The documentary offers a look into the life of Malala Yousafzai both before and after the attack. She was just 15 when she, along with her father was singled out for advocating girls’ education. The shooting sparked an outcry from supporters around the world.


Here is a special movie clip of Malala with her father for you to enjoy:




My daughters and are were moved to action and have joined our voices in support of the Malala fund and the NGC and 21st Century Fox social initiative to raise awareness for girls’ education. We Stand #withMalala! 


Want to learn more about the movie before watching it? Please visit the movie website here.


Get involved:

Leading up to the television debut, Facebook fans can show their support by changing their profile picture using a custom animation found on their Facebook page. On Twitter, users can contribute by tweeting with hashtag #withMalala and be sure to follow the Malala fund! For ever profile picture change and each tweet sent with that hashtag, 21st Century Fox will donate $1 to the Malala fund, for a total of up to $50,000.





Free Education Resources Available:


Malala fund education


There is a robust education program on National Geographic’s website for the film that includes free education resources, discussion guides, a service learning toolkit, books for change, a map maker interactive and more here


If you believe in education, in girl power, in hope for the future- please join us and stand #withMalala! 


Please share in comments: What was the last movie or TV show you watched that moved you to take action?

Sunday dinners hold a special place in both my husband and my hearts. Memories of dining at our grandparents homes, surrounded by lots of family members; tables stuffed with so much good food it was certain no one left hungry or without leftovers!  Even though time and distance keeps us from having Sunday dinners with our extended families often;  we preserve these family traditions and pass them on to our daughters with home-cooked Sunday dinners. Thanks to today’s post sponsor: Publix #PublixVivaItaliaSale, I whipped up my tasty take of Chicken Cacciatore last night and my family loved it!

Sunday dinner: Chicken Cacciatore w/veggies and french bread



Let me say right up front- this is not a traditional Italian Chicken Cacciatore recipe. This is one I’ve changed and perfected over the years using as many ingredients as I have on hand. For instance, in summer, I’m looking for dishes to use up my zucchini and yellow squash so there would be no need for me to use frozen bagged vegetables like Green Giant's in my Cacciatore dish.  

Raid your pantry for Sunday dinner ingredients


Sunday dinners are perfect for “raid your pantry” type meals, so don’t be afraid to try out new flavors or products in a dish. That’s how I found out that adding Progresso reduced sodium creamy tomato with Basil soup to my sauce imparts a light and flavorful creaminess my family enjoys with less calories and sodium! To make this an even healthier dish, I use chicken breasts rather than skinned chicken thighs.

Ingredients:
Serves 6
  • 2 cups dried pasta of choice (I used Farfalle)
  • 4 medium to large boneless chicken breasts
  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • ½ cup red wine
  • 2 cups fresh zucchini, squash, cauliflower chopped (use 2 bags frozen veggies if you don’t have fresh)
  •  ½ to 1 cup sliced mushrooms
  • ½ yellow or white onion
  • 2 14.5 oz. cans Hunts Diced Basil, Garlic & Oregano Tomatoes (use juice)
  • 1 19 oz. can Progresso reduced sodium creamy tomato with Basil soup
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 sprig Rosemary
  • Grated Parmesan cheese to garnish
  • Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

In large, lightly oiled skillet brown salt and peppered chicken breasts till cooked. I cut my chicken into medium bite size pieces for faster cooking time.  
While chicken is cooking, chop up mushrooms, garlic and onion.
Once chicken breasts are cooked, pull from pan and set aside. Deglaze pan with red wine, then add onions, garlic and mushrooms. Lightly brown.
Next add fresh or frozen veggies to pan, sauté till al dente, about 10 minutes.
Put water with a bit of oil and salt on to boil.

Simmer Chicken Cacciatore veggie sauce till bubbly

Now that veggies are mostly cooked, add to pan tomatoes with juice, Progresso creamy Tomato and Basil soup.
Add chicken back to sauce. Stir until well covered.
Add Rosemary and any additional salt and pepper needed.
Simmer sauce for 15 minutes while pasta cooks.
Drain pasta, drizzle with olive oil. Cover.
Plate pasta, cover with Chicken Cacciatore Sauce.

Manja!


This hearty Italian style Chicken Cacciatore dish is a delightful Sunday family style meal! I served a loaf of Pillsbury French bread with our dinner that I’d picked up while shopping at Publix. You can save a $1.00 off any 3 Pillsbury breads and $2.00 off Publix fresh chicken and more when you shop the #PublixVivaItaliaSale in store and by visiting www.readyplansave.com to download coupons. Be sure to check out their great recipes while you are there too and you’ll be serving up smiles with your Sunday dinners as well.


Win it!

Thanks to our Sponsor, Publix, one lucky winner will receive a $10 PayPal cash transfer so they can go shop the #PublixVivaItalia sale and serve up something Italian soon.

Terms:

No purchase is necessary to enter using the Rafflecopter from below.  My WAHM Plan is responsible for prize fulfillment.  To win, you must have a valid PayPal email account. Winners will be notified by email used on entry form and have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.  This giveaway is not associated with nor endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or any other social channel. 

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wordless Wednesday: Old Treasures

in , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, February 17, 2016
As I was going through my photos for this Wordless Wednesday, I came across a file full of delightful photos taken by my 16 year old daughter on one of our many "junking" trips we take. I hope you'll enjoy some of the old treasures pics from her collection.


Underwood Typewriter



Ornate vintage light





Vintage  Dolls


Please share in comments: Do you like going to look for old treasures too? What is your favorite local shop?
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