Camp Joe Joe's in #CHA

Last week our little lady was quite trepidatious as Tuesday approached because she was headed to "Art Camp." She wouldn't know anyone. It was on the other part of town. And she'd never been before. We had confidence, based on the high reviews of our friends at Cobblestone Rue who sent their daughters there last year, that Art Camp, aka Camp Joe Joe's was going to rock our girl's socks off.

We were not mistaken.

We picked her up on Tuesday afternoon and she literally dove into the car yelling, BEST ART CAMP EVERRRR! Her confidence was a mile high and her enjoyment of all the activities was superlative.

The camp takes place for 3 days, from 9a-12p at the Clay Pot on the Northshore (which I call NoSho to be cool...so join me in the pool of cool and start saying it. Propagate it, baby. Ready? On three: 1-2-3, NoSho! Yeah, wanna be startin' sumthin'....). The Clay Pot is just such a funky and fabulous little shop of home decore and floral arrangements. I want to move in and learn the ways of the festive mason jar arrangement.

The counselors all seemed genuinely tickled about spending their mornings with exuberant young'ns and tweens. Counselor Nikki was a fan favorite of our girl's.

As for the camp's namesake and fearless leader Joe Jumper, the man is a cartoon. I really think he just walked out of an Archie comic book and opened up an interior design shop and appointed himself Captain Fun of the art camp scene. His enthusiasm for teaching children to love art and make uber cool things at an hour in the day when most folks haven't even drained their coffee mug is just really admirable.

Our girl and our little man can't wait for next summer when they can both go.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy the memories and the masterpieces. Thanks, Camp Joe-Joe!

P.S. Don't forget to enter the Easy Canvas Prints giveaway!

GIVEAWAY: Easy Canvas Print!

We are blessed to have a very lovely mantle in our living room that I like to decorate through the seasons. I finally got the mantle assembled for summer but I felt it was missing something... ...something that represented our family as it is today.

Goodness of goodie gumballs, I became connected to Easy Canvas Prints through my friend Meg over at The Caffeinated Critic, who offered a free 11x14 canvas print in exchange for this review.

Fast forward to last week when I received the print, I promptly placed it on the mantle and decided it was exactly the element that the mantle menagerie needed. A cheerful gleam of our family as we are in this season of life.

As for Easy Canvas Prints, here is what I found: The website: - The site is very user-friendly, with bright, easy navigation. - The prices seem reasonable, based on what I see user-generated print services charge, e.g. Shutterfly, etc. - The extras, e.g. borders and so forth are not sneakily added. You definitely know up front what you are paying for and why.

The shipping: - Shipping was swift. I got my print within 2 days of ordering it. - The canvas arrived by UPS, covered in plastic and sandwiched between cardboard. It was perfectly in tact. If you live in an apartment building, I would be sure to request UPS signature confirmation because the canvas could easily be stepped on if your building is high traffic.

The print: - The print came with a hook on the back if I want to hang on the wall--lovely touch. - The canvas fabric itself feels heavy-duty to me. - The colors are a little more muted than a photograph printed on paper might be. My best advice would be to pick a very vibrant, color rich picture for printing on these canvases.

The company: - Easy Canvas Prints has been fabulous to work with: friendly, efficient, and offering step-by-step instructions. - Let me know if you are a blogger and you'd like to participate in a similar contest!

The offer:

To enter for a FREE 8x10" canvas, click here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will announce the winner next week!

Thanks, Easy Canvas Prints! 

Review: 3 Day Juice Fast

Due to the manner in which I Pac-Man ate my way through the holidays and due to the number on the scale that manifested as a result, I put my new juicer from Santa to work upon our return to TN. I elected to do the 3 day juice fast that the fellow who is no longer fat, sick and nearly dead touts as "jumpstarting" a healthier lifestyle. As my personality tends to Overdo Everything, I thought a 3 day juice fast was right up my alley. It's just part of my contract that I must Overdose on Everything I Enjoy so much that I develop a deep and abiding repulsion for things like Aunt Annie's pretzels of which I once ate 3 in one sitting. GOT CARBS? I can juice myself silly and then I'll be so excited to go back to chewing real food that I'll have a visceral reaction every time I eat a cupcake, triggering the ominous threat of going back to juicing if I dare.

So, the juicing. It was fun to make the juice. That new Breville machine could probably grind a Redwood tree trunk pretty gamely into a nice bark-juice. Lovey Loverpants bought me a bounty of kale, carrots, onions, peppers, and we had loads of grapefruits and oranges. I had a good time with the prep.

Day 1 of the juice fast was...you know. Cleansing in a way where no one can get near you (see also: hazards of eliminating fiber from your diet). By noon I was getting hypoglycemic and I needed to think clearly to finish my semester syllabi. So I ate a bowl of almonds. Otherwise, I was good with the fruit and veggie juice for the rest of the day. Which is to say I didn't eat anything else and by 8 p.m. was begging the man who was hitting my head with a meat tenderizer to stop (see also: the worst headache of my entire life). So I went to sleep and woke up ravaging for food.

Day 2 I woke up hating everyone. The thought of juice made me gag. I ate some oatmeal and felt no guilt. For lunch I had some juice. A couple hours later, I had some more juice. By late afternoon I was so cranky and my head was hurting so bad that I just started speaking blather. Who knows what I was doing. Probably shouting out all of my banking passwords to the people at the express check-out who had the nerve to be buying Little Debbie Snack Cakes at a time like this. By dinner I was feeling faint so I begged Loverpants to make me some rice. By 10p I still had a dull ache in my head. I went and grabbed a piece of chocolate and within 20 minutes my headache was gone. I slept the sleep of a milk-drunk newborn baby.

Day 3 I woke up and stepped on the scale. I was already down 3 lbs., probably from the stress and water loss alone. I decided to leave the juice cleansing to Gwyneth Paltrow. Later we went to Waffle House and I shoved the buttery waffle into my wide-gaping maw and praised the God of the Universe for giving us the ability to chew.

I still enjoy the occasional veggie juice, especially with the assistance of my deputy juicer.