ENJOYING THE PASSAGE OF TIME

Today is my birthday. I am 34 years old. Yea me! I don't feel 34 and yet I do. There is a part of me that is a 7 year old tomboy girl running bare foot all over the neighborhood in her Annie underwear & t-shirt on a blue bicycle with a banana seat and there is a part of me that is a woman who has had a journey of a life that is compared to a roller coaster and who has made many mistakes and learned from everyone of them even if I had to make some mistakes twice.
This year I have decided to celebrate my birthday a little different. A day of doing what I want. A day of relaxing. A day of pampering. A day of reading. a day of exploring. A day of reconnecting with that 7 year old & that woman all at once.
I have been on a journey of change lately of which I will share someday, but for right now am keeping it close to myself. I've realized my entire life has been a journey & will continue to be. There are just some times in your life when you open your eyes & realize you are in the middle of a journey and in the middle of a change. I haven't always embraced the changes, sometimes my stubborness as tried to fight it tooth & nail, but these changes I am embracing & am looking forward to seeing where they will take me next, and I'm sure there will be moments along the way when I want to fight the changing and look back, but I will try my hardest to keep focused.
I have always been spiritual, but over recent months I have become more aware, and things have happened & light switches have been flipped on and other light switches have been flipped off and yet other light switches have been flipped sideways. The difference in me is not fighting it. Changing what I can and adapting to what I can't change. Embracing my anger and sadness and grief and happiness and joy and laughter all with the same awareness. I know I will come out stronger & more healed & more grateful this way.
Mostly I'm am grateful for this wonderful & ever changing life I have been given. I've been blessed with some of the most wonderful things & wonderful people in my life. And I am truly grateful & truly blessed.
So happy birthday to me & my birthday wish is that I may learn to enjoy the passage of time.

STYLE-SPIRATION

I more of a see outfits & find a way to recreate them on the cheap. that is what style-spiration is all about.

HOME-SPIRATION

(Photos found at The Selby, Apartment Therapy,and others)

BLOG NEGLECT

I'm the Karate Kid blogger. Wax on. Wax off. My blogging is one week on & one week off.

Try to get some postings up this weekend.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

IT'S THE PHOEBE

Remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe runs like a maniac. This video makes her look like a ballerina swan.

Collection of People Running Like Idiots

BROKEN OPEN

Posted What I'm Reading Now earlier.

Here is a little snippet from the book:

"We are all half-baked experiments-mistake-prone beings, born without an instruction book in a complex world. None of us are models of perfect behavior: we've been known to be egotistical, unreliable, lethargic, and stingy; and each one of us has, at times, awakened in the middle of the night worrying about everything from money, kids, or terrorism to wrinkled skin and receding hairlines. In other words, we're all bozos on the bus.
This, in my opinion, is cause for celebration. If we're all bozos, then for God's sake, we can put down the burden of pretense and get on with being bozos."

So far I am digging this book.

IN THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEEN

A haunted lighthouse.

The spirit of a mourning mother haunts Heceta Head, a 115-year-old lightstation on the windswept Oregon Coast. Some say the ghost, called The Gray Lady, searches for her infant daughter, who tumbled from the 200-foot cliffs to her death.
A visitor can get creeped out just by the setting -- an isolated stretch of shore where sudden fog can blot out the sun. Mariners braving the pounding surf depend on the lighthouse to avoid smashing into the rocks below. The beacon, the strongest on the Oregon Coast, is visible 21 miles away at sea.
The Gray Lady, usually seen wearing a floor-length gray skirt, lurks in the attic of the lightkeeper's home, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and now operates as a bed-and-breakfast.
One worker saw the silver-haired ghost floating over the floorboards as he repaired a broken attic window. He fled, but the next day the shattered glass in the sealed room had been swept into a neat pile.
Others report a mischievous side to the spirit. Lights flick on unexpectedly, doors suddenly lock, and objects placed in one room later appear in another. Coastal Living: Top 10 haunted lighthouses.
Photographer Steve Terrill of Portland recalls standing outside at dusk and seeing a translucent figure looking down on him from the attic.
"It moved and then it disappeared," he says. "We knew absolutely nobody was in there. I thought, 'Man this is weird. This must be my imagination.'" Steve and a friend were the only ones staying in the building.
The next morning his friend called out in alarm. During the night, the inn's guestbook mysteriously appeared in his room. It was open to a page describing a previous lodger's encounter with the spirit.
"I don't know where that book came from," Steve says. "I'm getting goosebumps now just thinking about it."
Check out Heceta Head Lighthouse website HERE.

WHAT AM I READING NOW?

I haven't really been reading much lately. Just kind of been more into crafting lately I guess. I do got some new (old novels) coming from eBay (yeah eBay is my friend) so I will probably be reading more now. I found a sight about the best novels or novels you should read before you die or something like that so I got a bunch of books coming. Can you say HELLO WINTER READING?

I picked this book up at the grocery store. It just caught my attention & my mood.

Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser. I'm only about 4 chapters in, but I find her very intriguing.

A WEEK OF COOKING WITH SOUP - DAY 4

CHICKEN QUESADILLAS

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
1/4 cup Pace Picante Sauce
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
8 flour tortillas (8 inch), warmed

1. Heat oven to 425
2. Stir the soup, picante sauce, and chicken in a medium bowl
3 Place tortillas on baking sheet. Top half of each tortilla with 1/4 cup of soup mixture. Fold over tortillas (I used tooth picks to help them stay folded over but the recipe says to moisten the edges and pinch together)
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until the filling is hot.



VERDICT: YUM! I think next time I may cook the tortillas in a frying pan with oil before putting in oven, maybe at more crunch to them.

THE AGNES RICHTER JACKET

OMG this is just so amazing The Agnes Richter Jacket. Apparently Agnes Richter was a mental patient in an asylum in 1890s. In attempt to write her life story she spent her time embroidering every inch of her her asylum uniform inside and out.

This is just one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It makes me feel inspired and heartbroken all at once.





sources:
prinzhorn
lulubird
inspirationresource

HOME-SPIRATION

All photos found at TheSelby

what I love about these photos.......

pictures just sat on the mantle, the little bird house

different fabrics & designs of pillows & the quilt as a slip cover

2 different colored stools, the bowls placed on the end shelf

the different chairs around the table, the different size pictures covering the wall

the bookshelf/record shelf..i adorer bookshelves..and the bright red chair

again the book shelf & the bright color of it....i like the long thin table to looks great for having lots of friends and family for entertaining

the trucks stacked I have started my trunk/suitcase collection...i have a wopping one truck :) im actually thinking of doing something different with my trunk im going to see if it can be mounted on the wall and work like a book shelf i just have to make sure the books wont fall out.....again the different size pictures placed just so on the wall

the collection of vases and pitchers in different colors....and the ransom coloered bowls on the back wall shelf

yellow couch & leather chairs

james dean & ghandi black & whites - one hung and one placed on mantle

A WEEK OF COOKING WITH SOUP - DAY 3

PULLED PORK SANDWICHES

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/ 1/2 to 4 pound boneless pork shoulder roast, netter or tied (I could only find a 2 pound-er but I still used full ingredients)
1 can (10 ounces) Campbell's Condensed French Onion Soup
1 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
Sandwich rolls or buns (I used just hamburger buns & put them in the oven for a bit to warm them up)

1. Heat oil in a 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the roast and cook until it's well browned on all sides
2. Stir the soup, ketchup, vinegar, and brown sugar in a slow cooker (crock pot). Add the roast and turn to coat with the mixture.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours or until meat is fork-tender.
4. Remove the roast from cooker to a cutting board and let it stand for 10 minutes. Using 2 forks, shred the pork. return shredded pork to cooker.
5. Divide pork and sauce mixture among rolls or buns.



VERDICT: Super yummy. Very Flavorful. I did steps 1-3 in the morning and it cooked all day while I was at work. Perfectly tender and yummy. You have to eat it as soon as you put on buns though cause buns will get soggy.

Also made with this peas and fried potatoes (I cut up potatoes added salt & pepper & some of the juices from the slow cooker and fried them up).

A WEEK OF COOKING WITH SOUP - DAY 2

ULTRA CREAMY MASHED POTATOES
3 1/2 cups Swanson Chicken Broth
5 large potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup of light cream
2 tablespoons of butter
Generous dash ground black pepper

1. Heat the broth and potatoes in 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain,
reserving the broth.
3. Mash the potatoes with 1/4 cup of the broth, cream, butter and black pepper. Add additional broth if needed, until desired consistency.



VERDICT: Yum. Flavorful

What I also made with this is corn and Easy Baked Parmesan Meatballs (see recipe below).

EASY BAKED PARMESAN MEATBALLS
1 pound ground
1/2 cup Kraft grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley (if you use parsley flakes cut to 1 tablespoon0
1 egg
1 clove of garlic (oops I forgot this) :)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix meat, cheese, parsely, egg, and garlic. shape into 12 meatballs.
Place in foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan (did not foil line oops again) :0
Bake 25 minutes or until cooked through.

CRAFTING LATELY

Some crafts I've been up to lately. Just keeping my hands busy.


The cover of my new art journal. May show pages later, maybe some of it is kind of private. I've only done 2 or 3 pages. Kind of neglected it lately.

Some heavy duty envelope boxes I covered in pretty paper. Good for hiding all that crap.


Some inspiring words to have around. I still need to cut off the extra material and maybe hang some ribbon from them to hang on the wall.


Weaving. Just getting started on this kind of thing so these are kind of...egh. I found a use for all those old birthday, anniversary, etc. cards that I can't throw away but am sick of having laying around. I got six frames to paint black and I'm going to frame them and hang them randomly on the wall.

TREASURES FOUND

Some treasures found over the weekend. I love finding unique things no one else will have. It doesn't have to be expensive just original, one of a kind, and unique.


Walking stick. No I don't need one, but it looks awesome placed 'just so' by my fire place. Below is a close up.

Yes let's do that. Adorable colors. Simple sewing.

Made from recycled metal. Peace & Love together forever.

HOME-SPIRATION

Unique homes for decor inspirations.

I love the idea of using a rug as a table cloth. And I have always been in love with vases and pitchers.

I dig the different materials on the wall.

Rock Star/Gypsy/Hippie Bedroom

I like all the random framed photos. Local artists framed would be neat.

A mantle full of unique finds. Love.

I love large letters randomly placed around the pad.