Siblings Day

Oh, snap!  I just learned that today is Siblings Day in the U.S.A.!  More excuses to send goodies to the two ladies largely responsible for my enchanting childhood, incomparable adolescence, and atypical adulthood.

Here's to Springer's, suspiciously shrinking jaw breakers, stolen cut-off jean shorts, ice cream soup, wet french braids, human clay balls, the pink brush, 100,000,000 piece puzzels, Clearly Canadian, sherbert, Hold On, green light bulbs, dance parties, Seattle, the Crissmas Cup, and spending all of our money on international flights so that we can be together as much as financially possible.

You complete me.

By the way, I just watched all of our music videos from Kiawah 2008.   Can't. Stop. Laughing.  I'm tempted to put our dance to Ice Ice Baby on here.  You know, the one where Timmy dances with a body pillow, Lyd cools off by rubbing ice packs all over herself, and I bring back the Butterfly dance.  It's just so good.  Either that, or Baby Got Back.

What counts?

"Only love counts"

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

Honk, Honk!

For today's post, I'm suggesting that you pop over to See Beautiful and check out the very cool "Honk for Japan" video made by the creative and comedic Ryan Higa.   

Ryan made this video on March 14 (only 3 days after the earthquake and tsunami disaster) and yet, even 5 months later, he's still showing his support through continued donations.  For every 1,000,000 views his video receives, he's donating another $600 to the Red Cross!  You might want to watch the video a couple of times :-)

See Beautiful Feature & Giveaway!

We're so excited that the See Beautiful movement is taking off so quickly!  The blog is less than 2 months old (and the website is less than 2 weeks old!), but already it's reaching and inspiring people all over the world. 

Here are two beautiful things happening with See Beautiful today:

1. The Fill Your Well blog is featuring See Beautiful as this week's "Good Deed."

 

2. See Beautiful is giving away it's first Start the Week Seeing Beautiful Treat!

 Don't forget to enter yourself into the contest!  Here's how to do it:

Contestants are encouraged to be a "Follower" of the blog

Leave a comment about today's post or the giveaway prize (1st Entry)

Follow SB on Twitter or "Like" SB on Facebook and comment on today's post (additional entry)

Share See Beautiful's giveaway contest on your own blog and comment on today's post (additional entry)

Purchase a See Beautiful product today and comment on today's post (additional entry)

*Proceeds from the product sales will be donated to The Breakthrough Corporation 

Viel Glück!

Signs of Affection

The See Beautiful blog has inspired us both to notice more of the beauty that is present in everyday. Whether it is postcards, a particular 10 year old Golden Retriever, balls, fondue with friends, family dance parties, particularly awesome graffiti, kindness from a stranger, or a Cardinal perched outside the window, we certainly are more aware of how beautiful the world really is.

Something beautiful that I came across today on Brandi's blog is the picture to the left. I followed the link she posted of the picture and discovered this very cool website. The Signs of Affection project is simple. If you have a positive message to share, submit it here and they may just design a sign, print it and send it across the world to be pasted on the walls of cities around the globe -- for free!

I was inspire to submit my own positive phrase. I won't share what the phrase was just yet, but if it's selected to be printed, I'll let you know for sure!

[image taken from http://www.signs-of-affection.com/]

Schlafen Sie gut!

Good news! Our bed and mattresses arrived yesterday! We've been sleeping on an air mattress since the end of February (that's got to be some kind of world record!) and the inevitable slow leak materialized this weekend, so it was perfect timing that the deliveryman appeared yesterday afternoon. Our goods were originally scheduled to arrive at the end of April, but for some reason (which we're still not completely sure of) we were informed that the delivery date was pushed back to mid-June. Well it's mid-June now (almost 4 months later!) and our beautiful bed is settling in and becoming acquainted with its new room.

Grüne Erde (Green Earth) is the manufacturing company from whom we ordered our bed, mattresses, and nightstands. All of their products are hand-crafted from local, organic, and sustainable materials and produced right here in Austria or our friendly neighbor, Germany. The company uses only high-quality textiles from natural fibers in their hand-sewn mattresses which are good for humans and the environment. Their products are simple and uncomplicated and make me feel like a calmer, better, fresher person.

If I had all the money in the world, I'd buy all of my products from this store. Well, first I'd donate all the money necessary to animal shelters around the world so that pound puppies had a more comfortable life while waiting for their families to take them home. Then, I'd buy monthly plane tickets for all of my family members to visit us in Vienna, and I'd fund research to find a cure for Crohn's Disease. I'd also sponsor See Beautiful. After all this - in addition to feeding the hungry, eliminating Global Warming, and replacing global conflict with cooperation (with money, right?) - I'd buy my living, beauty, and fashion products from Grüne Erde.

Alas, I don't have all the money in the world. What I do have though is a loving and brilliant husband, two soul sisters who happen to share my blood, supportive and generous parents, interesting and intelligent friends, a warm home, delicious Apfeltascherl, and a bed from Grüne Erde.

I wish you a good night's sleep tonight. As for us, we'll be hunkering down and sleeping all weekend long!

Just assembled!

All dressed up and ready to be slept in!

See Beautiful

Lindsay's beautiful sister and her husband have a beautiful idea to start a beautiful movement that recognizes beauty in the world. They've created a space for readers to share, encourage and focus on what is beautiful. See Beautiful is in its infant stages, but we're already inspired by it and we know you will be too.

• If you're into that sort of thing, you should 'Follow' their blog.

• If you're on Facebook, you should 'Like' their page (search for "See Beautiful")
  

Something that Lindsay finds particularly beautiful today is Postcards. One of our Canadian friends is decorating her newborn baby's room with postcards from loved ones living around the world. It's a terrific idea to surround a child with images of people and places from foreign lands. Even better is the idea to surround a child with loving notes from friends on the back of such images. Surely the collection of postcards Lil' Lily receives will be special to her when she gets older. It's a wonder how the images and messages will influence her as she grows and learns about the world herself.

After choosing a card of Vienna to send to Lily, the daily routine of passing hundreds of postcards on the streets of Vienna is different now somehow. While no longer annoying obstacles to dodge, they have become thinking posts. Each card is now something to consider. One wonders, who will buy the card? What will be written on it? Who will receive it? And what influence will it have? Sure, there is the chance that it might not have much of an influence at all. But, considering the power that a postcard does have is quite beautiful isn't it?

Image take from http://mindmomentmemorypostcard.wordpress.com