Around here? Earth Day hangover approaching ...

Around here, it's the "busy" season. As an environmental educator, the months of March and April are filled with requests for presentations on water pollution and events focused on conservation. It is, after all, south Florida and we do, after all, live in the Everglades!

visited over 400 fifth grade students at three different schools, one classroom at a time and talked about water pollution

served as the outreach connection at Water Matters Day at Tree Tops Park for more than 500 folks who care about things like saving water ~ the kids love the Enviroscape model and they don't realize that they're learning something important while they play with the little cars

challenged the local politicians about the significance of teaching school children about the Everglades (they don't seem to find it important enough to fund)

photographed our mascot, Teddy the Turtle, with a lot of the local environmental 'celebrities' at the Waterway Cleanup along the C-11 Canal

clipped news articles about the next steps in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a 30 year plan to restore the flow of water to Florida Bay at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula

organized the 8th Annual Children's Art Competition, "Everglades Eyes: What Children See," and accepted 119 entries from five different schools in Celebration of Earth Day on April 22 ~ the artists are fourth and fifth grade students that I've visited with my Enviroscape model and my pep talk about the Everglades and they totally "get it!"

planted a tree in honor of Arbor Day on April 25, a dahoon holly, a Florida native tree that has red berries that the birds love to eat

shopped for a bottle of wine with which to nurse my "Earth Day hangover!"

And, what have you been up to this month?

what's doin'?

celebrating my daughter's departure to Paris, her first journey to Europe!

watching "The Sopranos' final episode again and discussing what it means. What DOES it mean?

crying because I still miss my dog.

thanking my darling husband for finishing the kitchen cabinets. (A custom job, it took a while. After all, he does work full time!)

watching as the back porch is transformed into a livable space.

cleaning my closet and donating under worn items to Goodwill.

taking an inventory of my Momoko dolls. (I have 34 of the little darlings.)

eating more veggies and fish and less red meat and fast food.

designing marketing materials for Art Gallery 21.

getting a summer haircut.

updating the German Bread Haus web site for my best girl friend.

discovering the organic coffee beans now available at Trader Joe's!

counting the days until school lets out.

researching how to protect my neighborhood from exploitative investors.

keeping up with pulling weeds in the yard before rainy season arrives.

seeking a good book to read that I haven't already read.

improving my writing skills by taking a stab at short stories.

shooting Jazzercise technique photos for the instructors.

enjoying the last "cool front" of the dry season.

needing to find time to play dolls.

What are you doin'?

my most pinned pin on Pinterest

Pinterest was launched in March of 2010. For the first couple of years you had to be "invited" to join. I requested an invitation on a couple of occasions after I discovered the site in 2011, but I never received one. Then, finally, in December 2011 they let you in via Facebook and this pinner was born!

In the first few months, I was obsessed, which I wrote about here. I overcame the obsession and began to use Pinterest for my own purposes (mostly dolls and clothes) and now it is my favorite inspiration board. Like Facebook, I visit Pinterest almost daily. I "pin" things to bookmark them and I really do return to my boards on a regular basis. Lately my watercolors pin board has been my favorite inspirational board. And, my photograph board. There is so much to learn about both of these subjects and it's delightful to have one place to put all that stuff! It beats rifling through a drawer of file folders!

So, this post is about my "most pinned pin." That's it, right there. The haircut. It's pinned to my style board and, as of today, has been pinned 2,200 times and liked 491 times. And, it's evoked quite a conversation of comments about short hair, particularly pixie cuts. It seems that young women are eager to try the pixie cut but are afraid it won't look good on them. I don't think anyone looks bad with a pixie cut. That's just my opinion, of course, but every woman I've known of any age who got her hair whacked off into a pixie discovered it is the most flattering cut of all.

The only thing I know about the young woman in the photo is that her name is Ema and she is from Romania. I found the picture on a photography blog that included about 20 photos of this lovely young woman, apparently shot in the spring of 2012. This particular photo appealed to me because she's wearing red lipstick and glasses and I think the contrast makes for a really great portrait! Oh! And, I love the haircut!

I'm not entirely sure how they keep count of who pins what, but it really doesn't matter. What became clear to me since I first started this pinning thing is, it's all about connecting to people who share your views. About art. About fashion dolls. About personal style. About a great haircut!

Who could ask for more? Certainly not me!