In The Cage 4 Cancer

Inthecage4cancer is a group of mixed martial artists/cagefighters who have made it their commitment to bring attention to children's cancer and somehow fight cancer from the cage, one fight at a time!

Chico Santiago is the brains, brawn, heart and soul behind inthecage4cancer, but his beautiful son, Diego is the inspiration. Diego lost his courageous battle with a cancer known as Wilms' tumor three years ago. Diego was only 6 years old.

Wilms' tumor is a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children. Also known as nephroblastoma, it's the most common malignant tumor of the kidneys in children. The peak time of Wilms' tumor occurrence is at age 3, and it occurs only rarely after age 8. Wilms' tumor may arise in either or both kidneys.

In Chico's words "After a long 3 years of missing my son and sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I've decided to do something about it..." and boy did he ever! Chico gathered up a group of his mixed martial artist friends and they started fighting..... literally - to bring attention to children's cancer. Their plan is to take every opportunity to bring much needed attention to this terrible disease thru fighting and planting a seed of awareness in every crowd who goes to see us fight.

Not only do these men and women give and take beatings to bring awareness -they volunteer their time, energy and money by visiting children's hospitals to bring a smile to the face of a child who is ill, volunteer their time to Ronald McDonald Houses and donated money to families to help ease the cost of hotel fees, meal and even overdue utility bills. In my humble opinion , these fighters are heroes! This is the opinion of my 10 year old son "Inthecage4cancer is cool and they kick butt". Let's all try to help them "tap this illness out in kids"!!

The Fighters

May's Giveaway Beach Daisy Limited Edition Soy Candle

May has two holidays close to my heart: Mother's Day and Memorial Day! As most of you know, if you keep up with my blog - I lost my mom a few years ago to lung cancer (see post below) so Mother's Day is a bitter sweet holiday for me. Bitter sweet because I miss my mom terribly, but at the same time I am a mom with all the joy and love that comes with that.

Memorial Day is a time to remember all our heroes that have gone on before us and those who are still out there fighting this crazy war. It seems to me that as this phase of the war winds down and we don't hear about it in the headlines continually that we don't think of those still over there as often and the sacrifices they make on a daily basis for us to live free.

So, I dedicate this giveaway to our moms and our heroes. Thank you for all that you do for us.

To enter to win this cute Beach Daisy Limited Edition Soy Candle -simply leave me a comment about your mom telling me what you love most about them and say a special thank you to all our heroes (or the one special to your heart).

Sweet Pea Candle & Soap Giveaway

Thanks to everyone for entering the contest. I so enjoyed reading them all. The winner of this contest is Nickolay!! Congratulations Jason !!

Spring is my favorite time of the year. For me its a sign of renewal and new beginning. So, in honor of Spring I am giving away a Sweet Pea & Rhubarb Shea & Mango Homemade Soap bar and matching 4 oz Soy Candle in Travel Tin.

To enter simply tell me in the comment section what your favorite thing about spring is. For an additional entry follow me on my blog. If your already a follower, just leave me a note and I'll add your name to the hat a second time. Don't forget to leave me contact info in case you win. Contest ends April 30.

Spirit Jump

CANCER is such an ugly, scary, heartbreaking word. One you hope will never touch your life but, inevitably ,will is some shape or form. It touched my life three years ago when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. Unfortunately, my mom lost her battle with this horrible disease in October of 2007. I wish I had known about Spirit Jump when my mom was fighting the fight of her life-it would have made her day to receive some small gift or card. Because of and for my mom I am now a proud Spirit Jumper. In loving memory to my mom, June Ownby. I miss you more than words could ever say.


What is Spirit Jump? Spirit Jump is a project that directly connects the gift giver with a person battling cancer. When someone you love is fighting cancer or some other terrible disease you always wonder what will help make their days a little brighter. It could be any little thing - a card, a phone call to say I'm thinking about you or a small gift. If you would like to help brighten someone's day (and your own) Spirit Jump will match you with someone who needs to have their spirit lifted.

Today, I am sending an Easter spirit jump package to two little girls who are suffering from Duchens Muscular Dystrophy and their mom. If you would like to read more about them and Spirit Jump check out their blog http://www.spiritjump.blogspot.com/ . For each little girl ,I am sending an Easter basket with an easter egg soap, bath fizzy and lip balm and for mom I'm sending a daisy soap, candle and a lip balm.

Backyard Veggie Garden

We had a busy weekend in the veggie garden. We made 3 more raised bed. The beds are 4x4 and made with untreated lumber. We planted one with a variety of lettuce (head lettuce, romaine mix & butterhead mix)and spinach, one with broccoli and one with carrots and radishes. We also planted older raised beds of cabbage, brussel sprouts and we planted 3 rows of potatoes.

Head lettuce in corners, Romaine Mix & Butterhead between head lettuce and spinach in center.

Broccoli in a squarefoot bed . Plants should be one per square, but I had a few extra plant so a few are planted two per square.

This bed is seeded with alternating rows of carrots and radishes. My plan is that the radishes will be gone and give more room for the carrots to grow.







Cabbage planted in one of my existing raised squarefoot bed.

I planted Brussel sprouts in this bed. This is my first time growing brussel sprouts, so we'll see how well they do.

Oh, look the peas are finally sprouting!! I was about to give up on them.

Our container potato experiment: We had extra seed potatoes when we finished planting the rows and decided to try an experiment by trying to grow potatoes in flower pots to see what happens. I planted two containers each with kennebec, red pontiac and yukon gold.

Signs of Spring

Ahh Spring. My favorite time of the year. The days are getting warmer, the grass greener , flowers are starting to bloom and the trees are starting to bud.

Oh and its time to start thinking about getting the garden ready for planting. Some of my seedlings are starting to sprout. Here is some of my tomato seedlings peeking out...

and my cucumber seedling have gotten large enough to transplant into a larger container.

It was so nice yesterday that me, the kids and Pop planted some onions in one of my raised beds. We planted Sweet Georgia sets(on the right)that I'm hoping will make larger bulbs to store and use over the winter and some white onions (on the left) to use as green onions (scallions).

I'm hoping to keep a blogging journal of our backyard garden and it progress and all the yummy veggies that we (hopefully) will get to harvest, eat and preserve.

New Featured Artist and Giveaway

AND THE WINNER IS: Rosemary. Congratulations.

Laurel from Ellemardesigns is our new featured artist. Laurel is generously giving away this simple yet striking year-round Mountains & Pines Ornament . This ornament was hand-decorated on a hollow ceramic circle that is 3" wide and 1 1/8" thick, then fired to cone 06. It is quite light weight. The front of the ornament features a mountain landscape with trees in the foreground, while the back of the ornament is glazed in glossy dark brick red. It is totally one of a kind, and would make a great gift for yourself or someone special in your life.




Laurel has been creating art for most of her life and enjoys creating intricate freehand black and white glaze patterns on ceramics, as well as more naturalistic designs.Like this great expresso cup and saucer.

I recently had a chance to "talk" with Laurel via email and ask her a few questions about her inspirations, work and being a WAHM, homeschooling mom.....

What inspired you to begin creating your ornaments?The ornaments are a fairly recent endeavor for me – as of last November, actually, when I saw some in my local ceramics studio and wanted to try doing them. Certain shapes are a real pleasure to work with, and give me a variety of small “canvases” to be creative on. I've only been seriously working at my art for the past two years or so, although I've always enjoyed drawing and painting. The drawings came first (my college notebooks are full of the abstract stuff in the margins – it's a good thing I can listen and draw at the same time!). I started decorating ceramics about a year ago, and was hooked. Here is one of her stunning drawings...



What inspires you?The natural world, with its patterns of symmetry and texture, inspires me more than anything. But I like to see and learn from all kinds of visual art. My work has echoes of some Native American design (like Acoma Pueblo pottery, which I greatly admire but would never try to copy), and I love textiles and ceramics. Finally, my Christian faith inspires me to share the Gospel through my life and art.

Why do you homeschool? And what lead you to that decision?Oh, that's hard! It's been a tough year, I can't give a pat answer. I home school mostly because it's the best environment for my kids to learn and grow. I started home schooling after our son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (usually called a mild form of autism) in an Early Kindergarten program. He had some sensory issues that made being physically in a school very trying for him, and we realized that teaching him at home would relieve many of his difficulties. Socially, home schooling allows him to learn with and from a wide range of kids and adults, in many situations. It also allows our kids to explore their own interests through school activities – unit studies have been very useful to us.

How do you balance running a home-based business and homeschooling your children?My Etsy shop is very new (opened just last October), so this is a learning process for all of us. Since I haven't had a large number of sales, I'm not spending a lot of time away from schooling. I work on my art projects mostly in the evenings, after the kids are in bed, and I do the administrative/networking/chatty Etsy stuff on a catch-as-catch-can basis during the day.

What has been you biggest handmade "oops"?Probably just the learning curve of decorating on ceramics, using different techniques. I have quite a few “seconds” at home because I only want to put my best work up for sale. I have high standards for what I sell, and if it's not something I would buy myself, I won't sell it to anyone else. So, I have NOT made a profit on my shop - yet.

How do you spend your time when you are not creating?Besides taking care of my husband and kids, I'm an avid gardener, a total bookworm, and a history nerd. If I had cable, I'd be sure to have the History Channel on every evening while doing my art. Before staying home with my kids, I was a Special Education teacher. We are in the process of moving since my husband recently started a new job in another part of our state, so life is a bit unsettled now, to say the least.

To enter the giveaway simply visit Ellemardesigns shop, comeback here and tell us in the comments what your favorite item in her shop is (please don't forget to leave contact info). This contest ends on March 12.