DIY Labyrinth Complete!

Remember that pile of bricks i just got for free from Craigslist a few posts down?? Well, now they are becoming my new Labyrinth! This is the year of ZERO PROCRASTINATION TOLERANCE, so this picture is living proof! Well, I am back to work outside while I still have sun! The above picture is where I left off.

Voila!! The Labyrinth is finally filled in, now I just have to finish the center, and surrounding brickscape!

Happy Outdoor Wednesday!! Please visit the other outdoorsy folks posting for OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY!

Meditation Bowl For White and Watery Wednesday

Happy White Wednesday! Happy Watery Wednesday!

This is my meditation bowl. It is a lovely daily devotion. Here's how to do it, it takes but a few minutes and is a great way to start your day:

1. Find a lovely bowl that makes you happy whenever you see it.

2. Each morning, fill the bowl to the brim with cold, clear water taken from a tap that has been running for a few minutes.

3. As the bowl fills, picture the water being everything that has brought you to this point, the good and the not so good and accept it with love as the sum total of YOU, right now, as you are.

4. When the bowl is full, reflect on how you use your energy to nurture others, as you carry it to it's special place.

5. Set it down, add a beautiful flower or a leaf. Take another moment to appreciate the beauty of your life and it's fullness, and thank the Lord for having made it possible and getting you to this very minute.

The next day when you are to do this again, take your bowl of "life" water and use it to water a plant, tree or bush.

I hope you enjoy doing this simple yet powerful devotion as much as I do!!

Please be sure to visit Faded Charm Cottage and visit other White Wednesday posters!

Please visit Watery Wednesday and visit those Watery Bloggers too!!

Chicken Soup For the Pixie Soul

Well, my Sparkly friends, since there has never been a chicken soup book written for Pixies, I guess I will do it. Yes Pixies have souls. Everything on earth does. Pixies are just like angels with ADHD, they are the angels that are always getting caught for their mischief and wind up in "Time-Out". I do not take part in anything that doesn't have God involved, so in my little sparkly universe, pixies are God's Creatures too! Okay- that explains the Pixie Soul thing.

Now, On to the SOUP!

I am still not feeling well yet, probably because the Pixies make me do projects like re-do the Pink Pixie Forest Workshop, or build a labyrinth when I think I am finally feeling better. I get all "in to it", and then have to do nothing the next day to pay for my "gotta do its".

Today is a "Pay for it Day" and I had not planned dinner and I feel yucky so I decided on Chicken Soup again.

I thought you might like to see an easy and healthy way to make this classic, Pixie Style!

For those of you who dislike reading directions, here is the recipe "IKEA ASSEMBLY STYLE" aka Pictures!

1. Take a big shiny pot and fill with water a bit more than halfway. If your pot isn't shiny, shine it first! Then dump in a bag of organic pre-peeled baby carrots.
2. Chop about 8 stalks of Organic Celery into 1 1/2 " pieces and throw in your shiny carrot pot.

Try to use organic if you can, it is better for you. If cost is a factor, then wash VERY well with dish soap (some pesticides are oil based) and RINSE REALLY WELL cause you don't want soapy soup!
3. Take some cotton kitchen string and tie a bunch of washed parsley and celery leaves and core into a "Bouquet Garni"...fancy french name for a bundle.
Add your fancy French Bundle to the soup!
4. Peel and half a sweet onion, and add it along with a handful of GARLIC. These are essential for getting better cause they make you smell and that makes people leave you alone for a little while. ;)
5. Add this much Bay Leaves, and real SEA salt if you are able, if not that's ok.
6. Now I add ground Cardamom (optional) I add it because It also has numerous health benefits such as improving digestion and stimulating the metabolism.
7. Then I add ground GINGER if I don't have fresh, and ground Cayenne Pepper.

The main medicinal properties of cayenne are derived from a chemical called capsaicin. In addition to adding heat to the pepper, capsaicin acts to reduce platelet stickiness and relieve pain.

Cayenne is used worldwide to treat a variety of conditions, including poor circulation, weak digestion, heart disease, chronic pain, sore throats, headaches and toothache. Cayenne soothes the digestive tract and stimulates the flow of stomach secretions and saliva. These secretions contain substances which help digest food.

Cayenne is the greatest herbal aid to circulation and can be used on a regular basis.

Ginger is classified as a stimulant and carminative, and used frequently for upset stomach, nausea and colic.

8. Lastly, I add 4 chicken thighs (more flavor and the fat from the skin helps extract the herbal properties) and a sprinkling of red pepper. Simmmer for a long time till your house smells like mama's and you feel comforted. When I serve it, I add fresh LEMON JUICE which gives it a yummy tangyness, and makes you not miss salt if you can't have any.

Enjoy my sparkly Friends!

I just added this to Foodie Friday at Designs By Gollum- go check it out!!

More Bricks Please!!!

HA!!! (Sung like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood)

"It's a sparkely day in my neighborhood,

A sparkely day for a neighbor,

Do you have Bricks?

Could I have Bricks?!"

Well, I got an email from the "Brick Man" that I met on Craigs List last year and guess what?? HE HAS MORE BRICKS FOR ME!!!

YAY is all I can say.

"Why Tobi..." you may ask

"Don't you still have a huge pile of bricks you got from him last year and haven't moved them an inch?"

"Why YES..." I reply, "I certainly DO still have them, but NOW I don't have to decide between a Labyrinth or the waterfall brick walkway!"

The Best part of all this is- IT"S SATURDAY AND the HUBS isn't home and that means I am in like Flynn!!

I will post some pics for you later!

Sparkly Bricks,

Tobi !!

To All Of My Lovely Crack Pots

 I have a beautiful old lamp base that despite it's beauty, is flawed and has cracks.
This story warmed my heart and reminded me of my lovely French Enamel Longwy lamp/vase.

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a
pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and
always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked
pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home
only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and
miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to
the woman one day by the stream.

'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to
leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your
side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?'

'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower
seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you
water them.'

'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to
decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty
to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we
each have that make our lives together so very interesting and
rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the
good in them.

So, to all of my crack pot friends, have a great day and remember to
smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Morning Has Broken

Morning has broken,

 like the first morning 

Blackbird has spoken,

 like the first bird 

Praise for the singing,

 praise for the morning 

Praise for the springing fresh from the word  

Sweet the rain's new fall, 

sunlit from heaven 

Like the first dewfall,

 on the first grass 

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden 

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass 

 Mine is the sunlight, 

mine is the morning 

Born of the one light, 

Eden saw play

 Praise with elation, 

praise every morning 

God's recreation of the new day

I have always loved this song, but now it is my morning prayer of gratitude as I look out my window and see just how blessed I am to be alive!

Something To Remember

This post was not written by me, it came to me via email, but I loved the story so here goes!

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall
To see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered.
He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard,
The mouse proclaimed this warning :
"There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse,
I can tell this is a grave concern to you,
But it is of no consequence to me.
I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him,
"There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"


The pig sympathized, but said,
"I am so very sorry, Mr.. Mouse,
But there is nothing I can do about it
But pray.
Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said,
"There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"


The cow said, "Wow, Mr.. Mouse. I'm sorry for you,
but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house,
Head down and dejected,
To face the farmer's mousetrap
. . .. Alone. . ..

That very night
A sound was heard throughout the house
-- the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.


The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see it.
It was a venomous snake
Whose tail was caught in the trap.


The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital.

When she returned home she still had a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup.
So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard
For the soup's main ingredient:


But his wife's sickness continued.
Friends and neighbors came to sit with her
Around the clock.
To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.


But, alas,
The farmer's wife did not get well... She
died.

So many people came for her funeral
That the farmer had the cow slaughtered
To provide enough meat for all of them
For the funeral luncheon.


And the mouse looked upon it all
From his crack in the wall with great sadness.


The next time you hear someone is facing a problem
and you think it doesn't concern you,
Remember
---

When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another
And make an extra effort
To encourage one
Another.

- REMEMBER -


EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD
IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY.

OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER
FOR A REASON.

‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ "

WINTER WONDERLAND

Welcome All to Living Green!

Wow! I was just thinking to myself today "why are you starting all of these different blogs...and what will each blog be for?" Well my dear readers- Tobi Britton's Living Green has decided it's own fate. For me, Living Green feels like just getting down to earth... Appreciating the beautiful blessings we have, dealing with both the pretty stuff and the not so pretty stuff that comes up in our lives and trying to handle it all with grace, with as much love and understanding as each of us can muster while battling with the real demons which essentially are of course our egos. Living Green means Living raw- feeling our feelings... the pretty AND the not so pretty. Living Green means to find the natural beauty and grace we all have in consciously deciding at each challenging moment what part of us we choose to have show up. Do we choose to overwhelm and shut people down with our "Know It All" selves, or do we choose to extinguish the possibility of love and reconciliation with our "You are wrong-I am Right" judgmental selves. And when all is said and done...what REALLY MATTERS? I can tell you the answer- what always matters is love. What always matters is the relationship.
My goal is to find my own truth, and in making public my process, hopefully inspire others to move thru life's challenges in complete grace, love and understanding of each other.

Peace, Love and Cheerios