There are few among us who have lived lives as admirable as Nelson Mandela. The world has certainly lost a giant. 

But his words will live on with us forever and it's up to us to make this great world he dreamed of a reality every day.

There will be days of struggle, days of imperfection and a few steps backward.

But there will be perseverance and triumph and happiness and unadulterated satisfaction. 

Some days will be slogging through the day to day or the down and dirty work, that no one ever sees, of creating something amazing. All of those days of slogging through will move us days closer to accomplishing whatever it is we set out to be. 

It may be hard, it may be lonely, it may be slow and seemingly impossible. 

But in that struggle and a constant state of progress, no matter how slight, is what we owe great men like Mandela. They have shown us what the human spirit is capable of. That one person can in fact move mountains and raise others up along with us.

It may not always be pretty, but what's the point, if not to live the life we are capable of living?

There's an awesome thing happening over on Call Me Sassafras that you're going to want in on!

I've joined Allie and some other lovely ladies for a $50 Etsy gift card giveaway.

You're going to love the ladies Allie has collected for the giveaway. You can head over to Allie's blog or use the Rafflecopter below. 

Allie is a designer and running some great blog design rates. Her own blog design is proof of her skills. 

Hop on over to Call Me Sassafras and meet the other ladies: Codi at The Art of Balancing // Z at Sometimes Z Takes Pictures // Alix at Alix Hamilton

Just for fun, the view from our back deck yesterday. This is how Montana says good morning.

Okay so this week got a little busy and I have posted everything I had planned, but it was a good kind of busy.

And since #inspiremefriday with Eileen, Alicia, Julie, Megan, Stacey and more cannot be missed, here goes. 

During conversations with my mom when I'm telling her about my ideas for various projects, she often says "wow, you dream big,"

I've always been that way. I start with the huge, lofty, possibly unattainable ideas and then break them up into smaller, manageable pieces that are almost always attainable. And you know what, most of those huge, lofty, seemingly unattainable things have become reality using that system.

A whole bunch of big projects are in my pipeline right now and they're going to require some big thinking. Some will be harder than others since they'll require convincing others to think big too, but I'm not one to back down from a challenge. 

First on deck is the skating show tomorrow! Here's to hoping my kiddos can remember their program and not run into each other! I'm planning to take video, get excited!

Got any "big thinking required" projects coming in 2014?

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely, restorative weekend! We took a little time to live life and sure enough, I'm back feeling inspired!

This weekend, we headed a few hours across the state to Kalispell and Whitefish, some of my favorite Montana towns.

We had plenty to do at the Homestead and it had been well below zero with snow covered icy roads, but I had my heart set on heading that way for the Handmade Holiday event, a small gathering of local artisans, crafters, bee keepers and bakers showing off their wares. Our friends at Glacier County Honey were there and I really wanted to pick up some beeswax. I have my sights set on attempting to make my own candles. We shall see. 

The drive was beautiful, though frigid. I kid you not, it was -22 when we left Great Falls. I was terrified the car would break down and we'd freeze to death or loose control on some icy patch, but everything was fine.

I had to close my eyes a few times on the ride out because I was so nervous about the snowy roads, but really, M had it under control. 

On top of never ending house work, I had blogging to do, holiday gifting to attempt and truly, we both had a ridiculous to-do list, but I had a long weekend off from work and I wanted to use it for a little change of scenery.


The ride gave us time to just talk, no puppies, TV, house work, errands or anything to distract. Just us. 

Once we got there, we headed straight to the event in Whitefish and chatted with Courtney, my favorite beekeeper, for a bit. Two beeswax bars later, we got to chatting with Sally, a quilter who has kids in engineering and the military so M could relate on those fronts. She gave us dinner tips and I found this sweet little satchel full of herbs she grew herself that are supposed to be relaxing and help you sleep. I often have a hard time falling asleep (so many thoughts swirling around my head) that we decided to give it a shot. 

Another fun find from the event to come soon, but the event gave me so many ideas for the blog, for local activities, for the Homestead, for the skating club. It is true, being around creative people often boosts your own creative juices and it's nice to see friends and concoct ideas together and make new friends all at the same time. 

And then there's this view from the drive home. Seriously, Montana. It's beautiful here. 

Happy Friday everyone! Shout outs again to the lovelies who started #inspiremefriday: Alicia and Eileen.

This week was full of progress and some very amusing moments. You know those ones where you can finally laugh at the things that have been stressing you out for months? It feels good to see it finally for the comedy that it is and just let it roll on by. It also involved a new fridge. I'm stoked about the fridge. That makes me think I'm turning into my mother.

In settling into Montana, the job, building the blog and renovating our house and creating our life together, I'm learning more about myself and exploring paths I may not have considered before. It can be a little unnerving sometimes, but it's also super exciting. 

There's so much to look forward to in the coming year and I'm going to enjoy mapping new territory, and bringing you all along for the ride! Hopefully, that will also involve major progress on the house to share!

Holiday gifts have always been something I put considerable thought into. In high school, I made personalized ornaments and/or cookies for all my friends. For a small group of people, I made baskets full of things and special gifts.

I prefer to give something that is useful, something the person wants, or has some special meaning in some way. Whenever I travel abroad, I bring back a handful of gifts for my close friends.

But, as life gets busy and my gift giving budget shrinks, I've turned to writing and mailing mountains of cards instead of trying to send gifts to everyone. The gift list is considerably smaller this year since we bought a house and will have to ship all gifts and it's just not financially feasible to go all out this year. 

Many of our gifts will be things we picked up throughout the year, with the intention of gifting. Like honey from Glacier County Honey, wine from Ten Spoon or other Montana wineries, coffee from Montana Coffee Traders, something huckleberry and our photo collections packaged into calendars.

If I'm not buying local for gifts, I look for those that contribute to charity or other programs I consider worthwhile. 

One of my favorites is Fresh Words Market. I love her prints and for each one sold, Rebecca gives 10 percent of its proceeds to women and children focused initiatives around the world.

Some of her prints will be coming your way shortly in the form of an awesome giveaway. Here's a preview!

In observance of Cyber Monday, here's a few more nifty gift ideas that donate to charity or give back in some way.

Gift Cards 
GlobalGiving, Benevolent and Universal Giving gift cards can be used to support lots of different projects worldwide. And some of the cards are biodegradable. 

Women for Women International lets you support agriculture, education, job skills training and more through their Gifts that Give Back as a gift to friends and family. Choose your gift and personalize a card to the recipient. 

Jewelry

Bravelets let you support all kinds of causes, groups and other programs by donating $10 of each purchase to the associated cause. 

The Brave Collection is jewelry handmade in Cambodia by artists who come from underprivileged backgrounds or suffer from disabilities. Each piece is made my hand and proceeds go to fight human trafficking, sustaining the work of fair-trade artisans and supporters join "a global community of dreamers and change-makers."

Same Sky provides jobs for women around the world who are living in poverty. Same Sky trains them as artisans and the woman can then earn 15 to 20 times the average wage in Sub Saharan Africa. Proceeds are reinvested in the program. 

WeWood makes super cool watches from scrap wood and for each one sold, plants a tree.

Environment/Animals

The National Resources Defense Council has a collection of green gifts to support animals, marine life, plant a tree and more.

The World Wildlife Fund lets you adopt animal for someone or donate to specific programs. You can opt for the gift that goes with the donation, or to put the entire donation into WWF programs. I have to admit, I really love their plush pandas and other animals. Have I ever mentioned how much I love pandas? (Seriously. I once wrote to then President Clinton instructing him to do more to save the pandas. When I was about 10. I always go big.)

This one is super cool. Pangea Organics makes all these great beauty products and their bar soaps are made with palm oil grown on Organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and the carton is made from 100 percent post-consumer newspaper, so it's biodegradable, compostable or plantable. The cartons are embedded with Blue Spruce tree seeds. How cool is that?

Adorable cards and stationary from Hooray for the Underdog support all kinds of animal welfare groups and shelters nationwide. How cute are those pups?

My dear friend Ally is going to love this one. Lush has a special line of products and for each sold, 100 percent of the proceeds go to groups that support the environment, animal welfare and human rights. Soft hands and save the world? Heck yes.

Hunger

There's a bunch of iPhone cases you can buy that give back to charity. I have this one that supports World Hunger Relief. There's also ones like this, that support charity: water. 

***

And if none of that works for you, head over to Ebay Green to find all kinds of products that are made sustainably and/or give back with the proceeds.

What will you be gifting this holiday season? What are your favorite gifts? Do you have favorite gifts that give back?