Chick Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day = free food

Chick Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day = free food

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Favorite Local Businesses: 3/50 Project

As promised, I am continuing my quest of recommending local brick and mortar businesses in which to spend your money. The 350 Project recommends spending a total of $50/month on locally owned businesses in order to support your local economy and keep shop owners in business. The focus this time is on businesses located in Chalfont, a suburb of Philadelphia, PA.


Manhattan Bagel, Chalfont
Although Manhattan Bagel is a chain, I personally recommend the Manhattan Bagel in Chalfont, which is locally owned. My eldest son works at this location and has always been treated with respect by the owner. A few years ago, Eckerd Drug wanted to build a store at this location which would have meant losing the Manhattan Bagel along with several 100 year old Victorian homes. I am happy to say that the residents of Chalfont, through community meetings and picketing, were able to avert having a larger, less personal chain move in.



Salon Salvatore Christian, Chalfont
Salon Salvatore Christian, located on Main St. in Chalfont, is another locally owned business that I highly recommend. The owners, Kelly and Dean Sulimay, transformed a Victorian home into a fresh, high end salon while maintaing the intergrity of the architectural details. Dean and Kelly focus on giving their clients stylish, modern hair cuts. By traveling to specific hair shows in Europe on a regular basis, Dean and Kelly are able to stay abreast of all of the latest trends in hairstyles.


Jeff Reeder Photography!
How could I not support my own husband's business? His work speaks for itself, whether it be event photography, PR, family portraits, or his own personal artwork. This photo is one of my favorites from his portolio.

Chocolate Cupcake Love

As I continue on the quest for the perfect chocolate cupcake, this experimental recipe did come close. The cake was dense and moist, more closely resembling a devil's food cake recipe. The double chocolate frosting was a definite winner, but the two combined were almost too much chocolate for a couple of my taste testers. And, yes, I do have taste testers outside of my own immediate family.

Easiness to Uneasiness

What happens when God or life moves us out of our comfort zone? I believe that Newton's first law of motion is being applied to my life. "A particle will stay at rest or continue at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced net force." Some might call that outside force the poor economy while I tend to think it is God giving me a little nudge. In 2007, I spent a good portion of the year creating a photographic diary of days and doing more writing than I had been. For most of 2008, I didn't do as much creative or personal writing, but I did write professionally reviewing restaurants and hotels. It seems to me that what started out as a slow year is beginning to explode with possibility and more writing than I have ever done before. My mind is an old-fashioned slide carousel clicking through each possibility wondering if I should bring that particular slide more into focus or continue to the next one because it could be even better than this one.

Star Trek and the creative home

Sitting in the movie theater watching Star Trek this past weekend, almost brought tears to my eyes. To view a movie that actually has a plot line that twists and turns enough to not be formulaic is a rarity. Being a long-time Trekkie, I didn't know what to expect when I walked into the theater. Could new actors and a new director match the creativity and depth seen in previous Star TrekStar Trek can be a jumping off point for new stories and adventures.

How can you weave more creativity into your home life or homeschooling day? Put away the school books and get out the art supplies, the video camera, pens, pencils, papers, dvd's, and anything else that excites you or your children. When my son was eight years old, my husband started teaching him how to make stop-action animation movies and live action movies using our video camera. My son ended up making a series of three movies centered around alien life, several stop-action lego movies, and more recently, pretend Heinz Ketchup commercials (see Youtube video below). Making movies was a fantastic way to foster his skills in dialog creation and art. Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing in your house: movies and tv shows? Apparently, the answer is yes. Creativity is a part of life worthy of high appreciation. Movies, like other art forms, can be used to motivate the viewer to further artistic expression. For example, well told stories like the one presented in

• Go to the library and take out music cd's in various genres such as classical, jazz, techno, etc. Get out some markers, crayons, paints and paper and have your children interpret the music into drawings, colorings or paintings. Discuss how the tempos and flow of the music can effect the lengths of the lines used and the colors chosen.

• Get out your digital camera and exit your front door. Without going further than five feet from your door, let each child choose an item to photograph in a new way. Perhaps they will focus on the doorknob close up or lay down on your sidewalk and shoot something from below. Even the most mundane objects can be made interesting if you capture them in an unexpected way. Photojojo.com is a great site to visit for photography-related ideas.

• Take out all of your old magazines, glue sticks, and cardboard or poster board. Have your children cut out squares of color from the photographs and then sort the squares by color. Next, encourage them to create a picture by pasting the squares onto the board.

• Get a large cardboard box and cut out a "window" in the front of the box. Have your children decorate the outside of the box with crayons or markers to resemble a television. Next, let your children act out their own tv shows, commercials, and interviews through their new pretend television. My children always end up making me laugh hysterically when engaging in this activity.

• If you are more daring, go out to your local hardware store and purchase blackboard paint. Choose a wall in your house and cover it with the chalkboard paint. I chose to paint a 6' x 6' square on my living room wall and have not regretted it once. Every time I look, there is a new drawing on the wall. In order to avoid conflict in my house, we have a rule that no one can erase the current drawing until it has been photographed digitally.

I hope these ideas help you start down the path to a more creative lifestyle. As an artist and writer, I'll be posting ideas on how to stimulate more creativity in your family on a regular basis. If you don't want to miss upcoming articles, click the "subscribe" button to receive emails whenever I update my column. Happy homeschooling!

Sitting in the movie theater watching Star Trek this past weekend, almost brought tears to my eyes. To view a movie that actually has a plot line that twists and turns enough to not be formulaic is a rarity. Being a long-time Trekkie, I didn't know what to expect when I walked into the theater. Could new actors and a new director match the creativity and depth seen in previous Star Trek movies and tv shows? Apparently, the answer is yes. Creativity is a part of life worthy of high appreciation. Movies, like other art forms, can be used to motivate the viewer to further artistic expression. For example, well told stories like the one presented in Star Trek can be a jumping off point for new stories and adventures.

How can you weave more creativity into your home life or homeschooling day? Put away the school books and get out the art supplies, the video camera, pens, pencils, papers, dvd's, and anything else that excites you or your children. When my son was eight years old, my husband started teaching him how to make stop-action animation movies and live action movies using our video camera. My son ended up making a series of three movies centered around alien life, several stop-action lego movies, and more recently, pretend Heinz Ketchup commercials (see Youtube video below). Making movies was a fantastic way to foster his skills in dialog creation and art. Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing in your house

• Go to the library and take out music cd's in various genres such as classical, jazz, techno, etc. Get out some markers, crayons, paints and paper and have your children interpret the music into drawings, colorings or paintings. Discuss how the tempos and flow of the music can effect the lengths of the lines used and the colors chosen.

• Get out your digital camera and exit your front door. Without going further than five feet from your door, let each child choose an item to photograph in a new way. Perhaps they will focus on the doorknob close up or lay down on your sidewalk and shoot something from below. Even the most mundane objects can be made interesting if you capture them in an unexpected way. Photojojo.com is a great site to visit for photography-related ideas.

• Take out all of your old magazines, glue sticks, and cardboard or poster board. Have your children cut out squares of color from the photographs and then sort the squares by color. Next, encourage them to create a picture by pasting the squares onto the board.

• Get a large cardboard box and cut out a "window" in the front of the box. Have your children decorate the outside of the box with crayons or markers to resemble a television. Next, let your children act out their own tv shows, commercials, and interviews through their new pretend television. My children always end up making me laugh hysterically when engaging in this activity.

Cupcake Love! (for little girls!)

As I make my way down the trail to discover the perfect chocolate cupcake, I have veered to the left in order to fill an order... vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting for a lovely 7 year old girl. I tried two different recipes tonight, both with tasty results. One of the recipes leans more toward tasting like a butter cake while the other one tastes more like a traditional vanilla cupcake. My client is getting the traditional version. I am also experimenting with two new products I found at the arts and crafts store... edible glitter and spray food coloring. Air brushing cakes is nothing new, but being able to do it without owning an air brush is a newer concept. Above is a picture of a work in progress. The frosting is a light spring green sprayed with blue highlights. The pink is merely a reflection from the surface the cupcake was shot on.

Stimulating your local economy

A friend of mine found this great website, The 3/50 Project, that offers terrific ideas for stimulating your local economy. The basic premise is to choose 3 different local, independently owned businesses each month to spend $50 total at. If even half of the employed population participated, it would generate over 46.2 billion dollars in revenue, according to the website. One business that I would like to feature and encourage others to support is the Doylestown Bookshop. The Doylestown bookshop is quirky and unique unlike "box" bookstores. My favorite part of the bookshop is the aisle that features the favorite books of the store employees. There is always a wide range of books to choose from in this aisle, everything from the classics to NY Times Bestsellers. The bookstore is constantly giving back to the community by hosting book signings by local authors to holding free meetings and parties.

Another local business that I'd like to feature this month is:
La Maison Cheese
51 W State St
Doylestown, PA 18901
(215) 348-7543

They don't have a website, as far as I know, but they do have the best croissants on earth. Heavenly, melt-in-your-mouth buttery croissants with either sweet or savory fillings. Of course, you have to get there early to have the best selection and they do sell out regularly before noon. La Maison Cheese also offers the obvious, cheese. I can't really review the cheese, though, because I go there for the croissants. The store also sells French kitchen items such as platters and tablecloths.

The third business I'd like to feature this month is Chalfont Hardware. It is a family owned and operated business. Unlike large home improvement store chains, the owners of Chalfont Hardware offer personal and knowledgeable assistance. I can get in and out of this store quickly, even if I need assistance, which is something I can't say about those larger stores. Currently, the hardware store is undergoing renovations, but they are still open for business.