Shari Dixon's Handmade In The USA Jewelry

I was super excited to see that little white USPS box sitting at my doorstep last Friday afternoon. I quickly walked inside my house to open it up. I knew what was in that box. I couldn’t open it fast enough. In that little white box I found three gorgeous pieces by jewelry designer Shari Dixon of Memphis, Tennessee.

It was love at first sight.

 

You in love yet?

Let me tell you a bit more of why these pieces are so special to me and near to my heart. First of all they are handmade. I bet you didn’t you know that I’m obsessed with all things handmade, now did you? OK, well maybe some of you knew. But anyways I LOVE handmade items, especially jewelry.

Secondly, I love to garden (have learned to love it anyhow… at first not so much) I LOVE herbs, especially rosemary and I have it all over my backyard. I cook with rosemary often, I diffuse rosemary essential oil and I simply just love the look of it.

I love me some hydrangeas too. I wish they’d last longer though. They don’t last long at all for me which is kinda a bummer, but when they do bloom they are gorgeous and definitely one of my favorites.

Shari Dixon has captured some of my favorite parts of nature and preserved them into beautiful, handmade, high quality jewelry made right here in the USA.

 

(Hydrangea on Canary Yellow pictured above)

What makes many of her pieces so unique and special is that they are REAL botanicals that she has pressed and has preserved in resin. I think that’s pretty darn awesome if I do say so myself. Now my hydrangeas will last forever with Shari’s stunning pieces.

 

How sweet is this this rosemary pendant from Shari’s Vintage Seed Pack Collection? The back of the pendant actually reflects the shape of a seed packet. Precious. The rosemary is a sprig of the actual botanical. Love it. Friends: get ready to be seeing me wearing this piece constantly.

I not only love the look of her pieces, but I love the feel of them. They are not lightweight, nor are they heavy. They are perfect. I find myself constantly touching the pendant when I wear these pieces. They just feel good, It is comforting if you will.

Friends, if you are looking for a great gift (Mother’s Day is coming up quickly!), not to mention graduations, birthdays or better yet a “just because”- head on over to www.sharidixoninc.com You’ll find these beautiful pieces and much much more. Guys, support made in the USA, support handmade, support small business!

More on designer Shari Dixon: 

Merging her graphic design training with a strong background in fashion, Shari Dixon has created a line of jewelry that is not only timeless and artistically well rounded, but stylish as well.

A firm believer that women want to feel beautiful, feminine and strong all at once, her motifs incorporate natural elements and mixed media such as pressed flowers, leaves, herbs and snakeskin, immortalizing their fragile lives by sealing them in a poly resin, preserving the form and adding a spectacular glazing effect.

These elements then become a handmade design combined with curious and daring color choices in a multitude of natural stones, fresh water pearls and interesting fibers. The results are whimsical and extremely unique designs of personal adornment.

Dance Camp Coming Right Up at Sol Dance Academy!

My daughter Ciera hearts dancing. She’s constantly dancing. Even to NO music. At church on Sunday I went to go get myself a cup of coffee, turned back around only to see Ciera showing off her recital dance to a few of the ladies at our church. She’s not shy at all. Never really has been, but about a year or so ago, I don’t think there’s any way she would’ve just dropped everything to rehearse a dance in front of people, whether she knew them or not.

Dancing has brought Ciera such confidence and passion. It allows her to be creative and express herself with some great physical activity involved as well. For this, I give all the thanks to Sol Dance Academy and Miss. Sharon Sandor.

Ciera’s school recently had a “Dress Who Inspires You Day”, while there were many teachers, doctors and sports players walking around the school (and don’t get me wrong, those are wonderful choices) Ciera chose to be Miss.Sharon:

There she is all dressed up in her “Live 2 Dance” shirt. Nothing too elaborate, but she definitely got the message across. She knocked on her classroom door that morning before school started and proudly showed off that shirt to her teacher “who do you think I am?” she said, and before her teacher could answer, Ciera started twirling about the classroom and dancing- no joke. It was super sweet.

Ciera has been dancing with Miss. Sharon at Sol for about a year and a half now. It’s been wonderful. The dancers are gearing up for their spring recital soon, and Ciera has been practicing SO hard. I’m SO SO SO proud of her. Not only are we looking forward to the recital, but SUMMERTIME is coming, WOO! And that means DANCE CAMP! Sol has many fabulous dance camps going on this summer, and if you are in the OC area, it is SO worth checking out. Sol’s dance camps are affordable and you will be absolutely in awe of what these kids learn in just a weeks time. I’m not gonna give away too much about them, but I can honestly say that we love Sol’s dance camps. Ciera attended Sol’s Frozen themed camp last year and it was amazing. She woke up every morning very much looking forward and anticipating what lie ahead of her at camp that day.

Sol has many camps to choose from, for a variety of ages. I’ll let Ciera choose her camp and this year she’s very interested in Teen Beach Movie, although lots of others look enticing as well! In these camps the dancers will learn all types of dance styles- tap, jazz, hip hop, ballet, lyrical and even musical theater.

Be sure to jump on this great deal, if you sign your child up for dance camp before May 9th, 2015 it’s only $150 per student. It’s worth every penny. Oh and did I mention that Sol Dance Academy had received the award for the 2015 BEST SCHOOL OF DANCE IN MISSION VIEJO? (no surprise there though!)

Give Miss. Sharon and her friendly staff a call at  949.305.0005 or email them at:

Sharon@soldanceacademy.com or info@soldanceacademy.com

Stop by to say hello:

Sol Dance Academy

25571 Jeronimo Rd #3 Mission Viejo, CA 92691

“Like” Sol Dance Academy on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/SolDanceAcademy

Want to read more about Sol? Check out my blog about last years dance camp.

The Newmans do Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks!

All I can say is that it’s been almost a week later after returning from our trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. I’m still in awe. I can’t stop thinking about it. It was beyond stunningly beautiful at both parks.

It’s amazing to be able to see God’s creation up close, first hand. Amazing. Just amazing.
I can't help but think how anyone can doubt our God after seeing his beautiful creations in this world. National parks definitely help me feel a strong connection to God. They are so pristine, powerful, grand and yet so peaceful. 

I’ll start off with some photos from Zion National Park. Peeps, the pictures don’t do it justice. Not by a long shot. This place is amazing, gorgeous, majestic, mysterious. So many words I can use to describe Zion. Zion has beautiful ginormous red rocks that were carved out over millions of years by the peaceful yet raging at times Virgin River. Sparkling pools of water (The Emerald Pools) that are just so amazing that you want to drink from them. I fell in love with this national park, and didn’t want to leave.

We were able to do a lot at Zion, such as hike all three levels of the Emerald Pools. The hike to the lower pool was super easy, on a paved road. The lower pool was beautiful with a waterfall that we walked under to get to it.

Here we are at the middle Emerald Pool

The kids wanted to touch the pool. It was super icy cold, but felt so refreshing.

After a pretty short, yet extremely rocky hike, we made it to the upper Emerald Pool. SO worth it. The water was a sparkling green. I seriously wanted to jump in and swim in it, it was gorgeous. Worth the hike up, and worth the twisted ankle on the way down. Oops.

We did the River Walk hike to the beginning of the Narrows. Here are some photos from that hike:

 

Man it was gorgeous. We got to Zion that day about 9am and it was about 39 degrees out when we started the hike. It didn’t help that the hike was mostly shaded the entire way, but it was well worth the cold temps.

 

We stayed at a place called Zion Ponderosa for the week. It was great. On the days that we didn’t go into Zion or Bryce, we just hung out at the resort. They have a TON to do there including ATV’s (pictured above), horseback riding, bungee trampoline jumping, rock climbing, ping pong, you name it!

 

We were able to take a day trip out to Bryce Canyon National Park, which is about 2 hours North East of Zion.

No words needed to describe the beauty of this place.

   

It even snowed that day. SNOWED! I think we lucked out big time to be able to see Bryce Canyon with snow. As if it couldn’t get any more breathtaking.

On our way back home we stopped at a Cracker Barrel!

SO MUCH FUN.

A good friend of mine who recently moved here from Tennessee had told me about this place, and I’ve been dying to try it out. I thought I’d have to travel all the way down to the southern states to see a Cracker Barrel… Nope! Found one in good ole Utah. They also are in Arizona. Opening soon in Las Vegas, and word is, they just bought some land out in California! Yay! Although depending on where in CA, it may just be closer for us to drive back to Utah, ha.

 

Cracker Barrel was yummy. I had maybe THE best pancakes I’ve had in my entire life. Brandon’s breakfast was HUGE. The prices were spectacular. The coffee was really good. And they have a super cute country store in the front of the restaurant, that of course I had a little too much fun in :)

Friends, if you haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel yet, you MUST find one- www.crackerbarrel.com


Well, that about wraps it up. As I was writing this blog and putting together my photo album from this trip, I couldn't help but feel a little sad. Never have I felt this way about a vacation, or national park. I'm pretty sure I've found my park ( #findyourpark ). And that would be Zion. There's SO much of Zion that is still a mystery to me. I'd love to go back one day and hike (or attempt to hike) Angels Landing. I'm pretty sure there's NO WAY I'd actually hike the chain part, but I'd at least like to try and to get to it. I WILL hike The Narrows. No doubt about that, but I think that's a hike that would be good when the kids are a bit older and taller (ahem, Ciera) I'd like to see "The Subway". If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, Google "Zion Subway". Amaze. I'd like to hike the Canyon Overlook trail and camp out at The Watchman Campground. Until then...

EASY Carrot Cake Cookies!

You ever get a massive craving for something sweet, that you just have to have immediately?

Or is it just me?

The other day I was at Mimi’s house (aka: my mom-in-law/Charlie and Ciera’s Grandma) I was dying for SUGAR! I knew I DID NOT want to wait a long time for something to bake up, cool, yada yada.. I searched her pantry and found some cake mix. Well, if you know me, you know how I feel about boxed cake mix- not a fan. There are a few exceptions though. Such as carrot cake. (I know, I know, I’m a little crazy).

Well thank goodness Mimi had a carrot cake mix in the pantry. I didn’t want to make an actual cake though- too long of a wait.

So I made COOKIES! Carrot Cake Cookies!

I know I’ve blogged about my cake box cookies before, and since I love them so much, I’m gonna blog about them again. Plus share some super adorable pictures of my little baking partner in crime, Ciera.

Here’s what you need for this recipe:

1 box of carrot cake mix

2 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

For the Icing:

1 8oz bar cream cheese

approx 2-3 cups powdered sugar (eyeball it to your achieve your desired consistency)

1/2 stick butter

approx 1-2 tsp milk (again, eyeball it)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Combine cake mix, eggs and oil with a fork. Roll into 1 inch balls, and bake on parchment lined cookie sheet for approx 10 minutes. Cool.

For the icing, combine all ingredients with an electric mixer. Ice the cookies once they are cooled (or not) haha.

 

Love that little baking buddy of mine.

 

I also LOVE all that natural light that Mimi’s kitchen has. It makes for some great food photos.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. I got great reviews from my taste testers! Of course I can’t take all the credit, I’ll give that to Miss. Betty Crocker :)

Marvel Universe Live Coming to The Honda Center!

My son Charlie has been SO anxious to go see Marvel Universe Live ever since he saw a promo for it at a Ducks game last year. He LOVES Marvel, as does my husband and this is going to be the perfect Father/Son outing for them to experience together!

Join Wolverine, Captain America, Spiderman and MORE for a night of action packed comic book fun!

 

Marvel Universe Live is coming to the Honda Center, Thursday March 26th- Sunday March 29th, 2015.

Thursday March 26th- 7pm

Friday March 27th- 7pm

Saturday March 28th- 11am, 3pm, 7pm

Sunday March 29th- 11am, 3pm, 7pm

Tickets available for purchase online through http://www.ticketmaster.com, charge by phone 1-800-745-3000, or in-person at the venue box office.

Marvel Universe Live also coming to Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario and The Forum, Los Angeles. Please visithttp://www.marveluniverselive.com for more info.

Moms and Dads: I have a very special deal for YOU! 

Use code MOM to save $5 off tickets in the $30-$45 price level. Limit 6 tickets. **Valid on select shows:**Honda Center: Friday 3/27 & Saturday 3/28 at 7pm & Sunday 3/29 at 11am; CBBA – Friday 4/10 @ 7pm, Saturday 4/11 @ 11am, Sunday 4/12 @ 5pm; The Forum 5/2 @ Saturday 7pm***

 Photo Credit: Marvel Universe Live and Feld Entertainment