Breakfast Club Success!!!

Do you know what it feels like...when you have a fire in your heart to do something that you're passionate about? I guess that's how I feel about Breakfast Club. It's not that I'm so passionate about pancakes (although I really do heart them A LOT), but I'm passionate about community. I think that we've really lost so much of it in our society. True connection. I feel that this loss has created a group of emotionally wandering people, and we're searching for this connection now in so many different ways.

So today we opened up our door, swept the floors, straightened the livingroom, and made pancakes. And not just any pancakes...but...

Lemon-Souffle Pancakes with Blues...

Fresh squeezed orange juice.....

Free-Trade coffee...

and Whipped Cream....

And all of the club members that could make it to the first meeting.

A success? Yes. Yes indeed. You see, the measure of success comes not by the amount of people that were able to attend, or the food that was served, but by following our convictions, and trying to make a difference in our little part of this world.

Until next month......

If only I would've known....

This is Katie. Katie loves order.

Katie loves to put things in order...especially when we're at stores.

Katie loves to straighten the clothes on the racks at TJ Maxx.

Katie loves to straighten the tall racks of thread at JoAnns.

Katie loves to straighten the dollar bin items at Target.

And at home, Katie finds such joy when all of the dishes are clean so that she can straighten them all into the glorious ROYGBIV way.

If only I would've known...I would've named her Straightenella Orderiffic Dunn.

If only I would've know.

Rain, Rain...

If you're worried that we're not getting enough precipitation here in Southern California,

you need not.

We're getting puh-lenty! Really.

But the rhubarb has pushed it's way out to greet the world,

The bell pepper transplant is thriving in its new home,

and the funniest little "button flowers" suspiciously sprung up in Ally's garden box.

I guess she's a little anxious for her flowers to start growing.

She's a funny one, that Ally.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

It all started here...across from my friend's house...and a pile of trash lumber.

The kind construction worker gave me the wood, and even offered to cut it in half for me so that it would fit in my car. We "paid" them with In-n-Out milkshakes, and it was so worth it!

We started early Saturday morning, removing old nails, and nailing the beautiful trash together to make boxes.

It was all planned out...each square foot of wonderful earth.

We turned the soil, and the girls captured earthworms in order to relocate them to their own boxes. (They did share some with me, after a little bit of momma persuasion.....)

The boxes complete, we were ready for the twine. But when one doesn't have twine, one uses the next best thing...YARN! So, you can say that this will be a "crafty garden"!

The amending materials are assembled....

the seeds are ready...

and at 5:00 pm, on a rainy Sunday night, we are finished...

and that, my friends, is how our garden grows!

Pasadena Flea Market

On the 2nd Sunday of every month you will find the most amazing assortment of both people and goods at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

This was my second time, so I was a bit more prepared...well...kind of.

I knew that I was going to find the "something" that would bring it all together for me...

I really wanted this bench. But Jennifer and I agreed that we wouldn't buy anything that couldn't fit in my little suitcase. Nuts!

Jennifer found a 'purse-o-felted wool balls'. So neat.

Hmm. I found these guys.

We found these FANTASTIC metal letters. Hand cut from old security boxes and the sort.

We were trying to find something fun to spell, but at $15 a pop, it was difficult finding one word words! "I" and "A" just didn't have the magic that we were looking for! :)

"Raise your hand if you love flea markets!" (Hilarious, Jill)

I ::heart:: this...but after I found out that it was $100, my heart changed it's mind.

At the end, I ended up with some tea towels, scarves for Ally, and some old maps.

They all fit in the suitcase (but I really wanted that green bench....)

But my best find? Still has to be my friend Jennifer.

A good day, indeed.

We were given an apple pie. Now, the reason that we got the apple pie was because it was pulled from the shelf because of that little date printed on it that says that it will start growing new botanical life forms if not eaten quickly. We weren't quick enough, as we found out this morning upon inspection of stated pie. So, who got the pie? The chickens, of course.

I had mentioned that Scott and I had watched Food, Inc. Wow. Scott then found the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on cd at our public library. Wow. I am so going to change the way that we eat, and the way that we see food altogether. So for a first step, we found a local "farm" and we bought beets, carrots, spinach, swiss chard, and broccoli.

I'm also going to plant the biggest garden in the world!!!!!

And then to top it, we made pizza for dinner. It was a crazy pizza...artichoke hearts, bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and beet greens with mozzarella, asiago and gouda cheese. How do we come up with such a crazy pizza? We go through the pantry, and any can or jar that has been in there for over 3 years, we put on the pizza. And the cheese has to have at least three layers that have to be cut off to actually see the cheese! (But the beet greens were from our farm adventure today, so they weren't technically 3 years old!)

The day? A good day, indeed....for everyone.

Happy (Rockin') New Year!

Here's some rockin' wishes from the Dunn girls to you!
Actually, they have nothing to do with the New Year, but hopefully you won't even notice.
Wishing you extraordinary blessings on this new year.