Life is in the Details

The sweet scent of...

For Valentine's Day, Jessica inherited my perfume collection when I was a teenager. My mom had saved them all these years and recently shipped them up to us. I gave the shelves a fresh coat of white paint (Jessi's choice).

The look on Jessica's face was priceless when she started opening the boxes that these all came in (there was so many... AND there was bubble wrap! Fun!).

I immediately aquired a rock-star-like status in her eyes (it was fleeting, but still it was there!). She thought it was so cool that I had all of those and she start talking about the shapes, colors, and smells of each one. She asked if I had any other secrets that she should know about! She wondered why I didn't use them (answer: I loved the designs of the bottles and liked only one scent to wear: Obsession, which I eventually ditched for the smell of vanilla oil. For the record, I adore Shalimar too, but that's because it's my mom's signature scent. It's not worn by anyone else I know and one day a year or two ago a woman passed me in the grocery store and that unmistakable scent passed through the air that made me catch my breath and turn all around to see if my mom was somewhere nearby. Yeah, like as if she would surprise me by not telling me she was coming and then sneak up behind me as I was grabbing a chocolate croissant for Mike at the bakery. But still I looked around all the same because... well, that SMELL!).

So back to Jessi, she took such care going through each bottle. Arranging and rearranging each bottle until it just so.

To best highlight her favorite bottles.

Even adding her own Justice perfume to the collection (this is not pictured here as it's on the other shelf).

Mike hung the two shelves beautifully in her room and now my perfume collection - the same bottles, the same shelves - that I had in my childhood room, that were privy to many sleepovers, whispered secrets between friends, laughs, and the ups and downs of tw/een life has now been passed down to my daughter, who will likely share many sleepovers, secrets, laughs, and ups and downs of her own. O, if these bottles could talk!

I've encouraged Jessi to use every last drop of any perfume that she wants... after all it's hers now and life is too short to save the good stuff for later.

Cooking Adventure Video: Butternut Squash with Sweet Spices and Lime (with a yogurt almond butter sauce)

I made this a few months ago and am finally getting around to finishing up editing and posting the video. Sheesh. Sorry it took that long... but with the bout of cold weather we're having here this week, it's time to break out the winter squash again!

This roasted butternut squash was delicious!!

This is our real family dinner-cooking time... with the kids coming in and out to help... and offer their opinions with a few more comments on Mee Goreng and a look at my current favorite chocolate bar. ;D

My most recent international market purchase

My most recent international market purchase: fermented black beans, sweet soy sauce, and buckwheat noodles (soba).

Apple Pancake recipe fail (vegan)

Just to show that things don't always turn out wonderfuly in the kitchen, I present you with this post. Sometimes I cook up awesome things that I want to eat over and over again. Sometimes I cook things up that are okay - fairly average - and though I know I won't be able to serve it to most of the family,  I'm comfortable eatting if for my own lunch or snack because, hey, I put good time into it, it's usually good for me, and I don't like to waste stuff. And then there are the miserable failures.... the things that even I won't eat and I have to toss entirely in the garbage. Pronto!

I thought these (vegan) apple spice pancakes sounded incredibly good when I read the recipe (and I've made other recipes from this cookbook, so thought it to be fairly reliable).  I set out to make them one day when I had all the ingredients on hand and, unfortunately, that's when things took a bad turn. 

Spiced and sliced apples look good enough. I mean, come on, I LOVE cardamom. I adore cinnamon.

I drink almond milk in my smoothie all the time.

Maybe it was the flour??

I hated these pancakes.

They stuck to the pan and had a mealy, crumbly, icky texture. I *think* I've had vegan pancakes before (though maybe I'm mistaken). But these left a bad taste in my mouth, literally, due to poor texture.

After tasting one of these little babies hot out of the pan, I turn around and dumped the whole thing and cooked up my usual batch of pancakes.

Vegan pancake... I'll be back to try again. It just may be a while. Do you have a favorite vegan pancake recipe that you can share?

Waving hi!

I haven't peeked in here much this week. I pulled something in my back early in the week I've been laying low. Lots of rest... Little exercise... Walking to get the kids from school but none of the other stuff I had scheduled (good thing it was my recovery week!). No painting at all until today. The absence of these two things that I love really made me realize how much these regulate me. I sleep so much better when I've had a good workout. This week I seem to have book ADD. I can't for the life of me stay interested in any of the books that I'm reading and I find myself continually switching to another one after 20-30 minutes. It's driving me crazy.

This week it's been especially helpful (read: grounding) to think about what I am grateful for because there is so much even though I've been laying down with a heating pad as often as I can in between meetings and volunteering, bringing my car in, yada yada.

Today I'm pressure cooking some artichokes, baking up some millet apple muffins (gluten-free cuties from La Tartine Gourmande, my latest cookbook addition filled with delightful, colorful, mouth-watering photographs), and later, will be assisting at COOK for a crepes and soufflé class. :)

I'm also going through some more Cooking Light magazines... Tearing recipes to save, recycling the rest.

Have a great weekend!

Canvas #1 - Many changes #bloomtrue

So I turned the canvas horizontally after all and got to work on making a bold change, taking the painting in an entirely different direction. I truly loved the bird but it I wanted to push past that and see if there was something else there in waiting. I laid on my basement floor and stared at this canvas for 40 minutes (!!). I got frustrated because nothing emerged. I stared some more. I moved further back to bring a greater distance between me and the piece. More staring. I took my glasses off. I squinted. I squinted harder so everything blurred. I put on some music. Perhaps I was pushing or forcing the issue a bit. There is some truth to that but I had to see what more was there.

Then finally it happened. The tail of the bird morphed into a butterfly wing and then I could clearly see the other wing emerge. So I let my beautiful bird fly, fly away, hoping that it revisits another time, on another canvas.

Once I committed to that change, I discovered what had been a leaf easily became the wing of a another butterfly. So now there are two.

I'm continuing to work through this painting as there is still much to be decided. Some things meant to be kept; others that will be let go; others still waiting to appear.

The joy is in the journey. Truth be told, it is not without frustration at times too. But without these frustrations there would not be as much learned from the whole experience and the joy would not be as sweet.

Canvas 4 - Layer 2 - #bloomtrue #painting #art #acrylic

So remember I started two new canvases so I'd have something to work between as canvas #1 & #2 for Bloom True evolve and get refined?

These two were for letting loose... well, I liked what I did with the first layer of mark-making (technically layer #2) and now I don't want to paint over it! So I'm allowing myself to keep it and live with it a bit before letting it go and painting over it.

Evolution of painting on canvas #2 #bloomtrue #art #painting

This week we've begun to focus on what's working for us in the painting and building upon that. This is such a great perspective. So positive... and it makes such sense! In a big YES(!), let's shift and focus on what IS WORKING... in painting... in life. Then it will be easier andb ecome more apparent what to do with what *isn't*. The what IS working will spill over into the what isn't until what isn't, isn't any more. And all that's left is what is.

I spent some time on Tuesday afternoon starting this week's lesson with this canvas trying to block out the shapes that I do like... there are some areas that I'm still not at all sure what to do with. There are some that I like that I want to become SOMEthing, but what thing? I don't know. I will leave those be for now and bring my attention to other areas.