Summer happiness! (photo post)

It's summer! YAY!! After the snowfall on May 17th, the weather made a turn for the gorgeous. So I've been spending lots of time out in my yard. The dandelions and eagle are clickable for larger versions.

My radish seedlings! I plan to pickle some of them.

My raspberries are sending off tons of runners. 

I've been outside crocheting, when this is done, I'll post the pattern.

This gorgeous photo was taken by my husband. 

June Birthstone and Flower Mandala

Happy Birthday to people born in June!
The birthstone for June is pearls, and the flower is the rose. I think it's safe to say that most people, even if their birthday is not in June would be happy with pearls and roses! June is the only month with a birthstone that isn't actually a stone, and there are a lot of kinds of roses. It was a hard choice what kind of rose to draw, but I'm pretty happy with this one. It was June which inspired the birthstone and flower series of mandalas after I drew this one last year.

The Birthstone and Flower series of Mandalas

Click the images for larger versions of the mandala to print and color.

Small JPG version-

Large transparent PNG version:

It's a Good Life with Allstate and a printable happiness quote

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Allstate for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Allstate Good Life believes, and I completely agree that there is more good in life than bad.

The 8x10 printable version of the quote above is linked at the end of this post.

One of the things that I try very hard to do is to let the good moments in life make my day. Too frequently it's easy to let the annoyances ruin a day, so why shouldn't the little victories, moments of beauty and pleasure make my day?

Life can be pretty unpleasant at times. My husband had a very hard time after he got out of the Army readjusting to civilian life. He'd gone back to his home state and found that he'd outgrown it in many ways. After a bit of time there to realize it wasn't where he belonged anymore, he made a daring choice. 

He sold nearly everything he owned for a one way ticket to Alaska. He had one friend here who said he could stay for a little while at their house. He landed at Anchorage International Airport with 20 dollars in his pocket. He had a job by the end of the day. The courage it takes to move to someplace you've never been before without having a way to go back is an amazing thing.  Every single day I'm glad he made that choice. In a few months, he'll celebrate his 20 year anniversary of being an Alaskan.

When we met, we were pretty nearly completely opposite in everyway, at least on the surface. But we took the time to get to know each other. We found out that had a lot more in common than anyone would have guessed. The risks were so worth it and the small moments that make up our lives together are the things that make it a very good life indeed.

We take the risks, we make the choices, we explore and do and build and succeed every single day we don't let the bad things stop us or scare us. What is your story of making a Good Life? Please, feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to read about it.

 

If you want to download the quote art from above to print and frame, you can get it here. 300 ppi, 8x10 inches.

 

Chainmail inspired printable box in 5 colors

Yesterday we went to our local ren faire, and since William has been doing chainmail recently, that inspired this printable box. I did it 5 different colors- a white background to save ink, purple, green, blue and red.

Click on the images for larger versions, print on card stock, cut out, score folds, fold and glue!