Eggs and All Things Wonderful

What happened to the system of biggest meal

in the morning, and smallest in the evening?

I mean, It makes complete sense really. Going to bed on a full stomach is so bad for you 

and uncomfortable. 

If you start your day off right, meal wise (aka, no cereal. Cept for maybe on special

occasions), you shouldn't be starving throughout the day. 

All that food helps your metabolism to get going, and wakes up your mind 

for all the thought processes that you'll 

go through in the day, as well as aids any physical 

activity.

So, today, I enacted that system, and was delighted! 

I always forget how much I love cooking, when I am busy with school and work,

and lack the time to actually explore new recipes or

make old favorites. 

I could quite easily do something in the culinary arts along with my

art degree. 

Recently, I have had a renewed passion for eggs;

poaching, soft boiling,  hard boiling, frying, scrambling, sunny side up... 

I love pairing eggs with bright fruits and veggies,

and arranging them just so,

to both please the eyes and water the mouth. 

Gluten-Free Snacking

Hello all,

For a while now, I have wanted

to post on a few delicious gluten-free snacks that I have

discovered.

So without further adieu:

These are one of my favorites. There are so many wonderful

flavors! I have seen them a few places, like our local health food store

and Trader Joes.

These can even be found at Walmart, believe it or not, 

and Starbucks.

 I love LOVE these. They are perfect with some 

"Mediterranean Humus" from Trader Joes. I think the olive 

and "everything" (like the everything bagel) flavored ones are the best.

These can be found at Starbucks. At least that is

the only place that I have found them.

Eating them, make me feel like I am a bird,

however, they are truly good.

This was my last find, a few days ago, and they aren't bad!

I still prefer the LaraBars over the Perfect Foods Bar,

but they aren't bad. I found this one

at our local health food and vitamin store.

 Another Trader Joes Find. Its a bit like Captain Crunch,

in that it can have a tendency to rip up the

roof of your mouth, if you dont let it soak for a few minutes,

Even then, the outside is softer but the inside never

loses its crunch.

You can't see it very well, but next to one of those

little red checks, says "gluten free" I love

rice checks. They are good to throw in a little snack baggy

and munch on where ever. And you can make "Puppy Food" with them.

I think there is another name for it. But I grew up with family

calling it that and can't seem to remember the name of the sacks thats

actually on the back of the box (the recipe for the Puppy Food 

is on the back... is it called munchies or something like that?)

I think Puppy Food sounds better.

I am sure that you could find any one of these,

at other places than I have discovered them. I have been running into gluten free food a lot lately.

And where it is not as much as "normal" food, 

it is still pleasantly surprising to even find a few things.

Cali

Fresh vegetables are the best way

to serve dinner. That is one thing that I will never take for

granted about California, we always

have fresh vegetables and fruits.

(well, there are tons of things about Cali 

that are unfavorable, but then again, all places have 

their cons). I love Cali. I am just a California girl.

Nothing can change this fact.

I love the sun, the fresh produce, the surf,

the fact that we have mountains, hills, fields, plains,

rivers, the ocean. We have what every other state has, all combined

to create a beautifully changing landscape.

A Dozing Mind

 I find myself completely and utterly exhausted right now.

(Though, staying up until 3 a.m. was my fault)

However, school and work are keeping me going when my body wants

to slow down. 

I fell asleep in the car, a 15 minute car ride,

within the first five of those minutes.

THEN

I repeated on the way home.

Oh well, sleep will come early tonight, I hope. 

I truly want a good nights sleep.

I don't want to be tired

for another Sunday Sermon and miss half 

of the sermon itself, due to my 

sleep-deprivation, and dozing mind.

I am happy to say,

that my poetry writing has returned. 

I am always saddened by how it chooses to come and go.

I'd much rather it just stay.

But, I refuse to complain about its goings,

and instead to be excited in its return!!

The END Draws Near!

Thank goodness!

The end of classes! (officially today)

Though this means the beginning of finals week. 

However, I never fear finals week. There is such a hushed calm

about the campus, that even the most routey regulars respect.

I am mentally prepared for my English final, almost done with my art final (waiting on 

and an email from my art teacher),

I need some studying for math (but as I find it much better to study the night before

and day of a test, that shall wait), 

and my dance final will be as easy as cherry pie. 

(I've never understood that phrase. Making a homemade cherry pie is 

true work, though pleasant during and pleasing afterward).

I am so looking forward to furthering my artful talents,

checking off books on my summer reading list, with a dear friend (her blog),

and surfing both water and sand.

Most of the time, I dread the after affect that the finishing of a semester leaves

you with: the strange hole that burns in the very front of your

brain, telling you that you have a math test tomorrow, and an essay due the day after that,

and loads of reading. As well as the waking up

at 6 a.m. out of habit OR the waking up at a lovely, late hour,

and running into the shower, out the door, in your car and down your street

before you realize that you AREN'T late for class, as there is no class! 

(yes, I have done this). 

Or even the fact that you feel like you HAVE to do something

when you really don't.

Romatic Hearts

What is it about the works of Keats, Austen, The Brontë sisters, and, occasionally,

Dickens and Whitman that beguile me so?

Is it the richness of description and a flourishing, endless

use of vocabulary that captures my heart so strongly? 

Or is it the world in which they lived and described that holds my heart
with a fast and dead-lock grip: The letters, the gardens,

tea three and four times a day,

the picnics, the gorgeous, welcoming homes, light by candle, true, religious
cooking and baking (wholesome and without preservatives),
the love of all things artful and
beautiful (for much of our society has 

lost this love). There are precious few of us, romantic hearts, left

to take full appreciation and advantage of such things.

Precious few people in this day and age,

take the time to read literary classics, with a passion and zeal to match

the books themselves.

I am happy to say, that I do own sealing wax and a seal,

still write old fashioned letters,read classic literature, I am in love with tea and 

with lying in the sun, surrounded by wild nature,

reading good a book. 

"Then let winged Fancy wander
Through the thought still spread beyond her:
Open wide the mind's cage-door,
She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.
O sweet Fancy! let her loose;
Summer's joys are spoilt by use,
And the enjoying of the Spring
Fades as does its blossoming;
Autumn's red-lipp'd fruitage too,
Blushing through the mist and dew."

John Keats- from Fancy

  

Pepole Watching and Bulbs

Just a moment ago, I was sitting on my porch sipping coffee and people watching 

(As I am well hidden on my porch in my black sweater).

Two little kids with rusty, old metal pipes came 

into my view. The little boy was struggling with jamming the pipe in his

bike so that he didn't have to carry it.

This made me really nervous, as the end facing outward was

very sharp. I ended up saying a silent prayer 

for safety over the little ones with their sharp rusty, old poles. 

The two were joined by a third on a bike

just as the little boy had finished pounding his pole into

his bike with his friends weapon.

They were soon out of view as they scampered off on whatever their

mission was (I did hear the third child ask if something was found, which the answer to was 

no).

All the while, the guy whose house the little kids had stopped 

infront of, was watering his grass quietly. 

Soon, another man came out of the house of the lawn guy,

and rode away on roller blades, with to boxers on leashes (he does this frequently).

A random survey guy muttering to himself and searching out

a new house to make his victim (no doubt he was muttering about how 

no one takes his survey, and how he wish he

were home with some homemade bread and soup).

Then I happened to look up at our porch light,

it is such a gross color:

a brownish orange that fades into a sickly yellow towards the top

of the bulb. How gross. Is it discolored from age?

Or did the previous occupants in this house actually pay money

for such an ugly bulb. I never did understand those yellow bulbs. They make everyone

look a sickly yellow,

and make every shadow a lurking preditor. They should be

banned from every store,

and made completely unavailable to anyone. No one should buy those

gross things (nor the bluish ones either. Those ones make even the prettiest person look

not quite so pretty. Though the color of the light itself is lovely).

Life Of Sleep

Tonight, I shall go to bed at a decent hour and dream of summer.

I will dream of fantabulous adventures 

and the precious memories that await around this 

spring semester.

Of filling my summer days with art and books, surf and sand, and freedom.

I really want to get my etsy up and running. 

This is towards the top of my Summer To DO List

(Yes, I make lists to comfort myself. I know that I wont forget, they just make me feel at ease).

Oh yes, my dreams will be lovely tonight. 

At lease I hope.

We have little control over our dreams. 

I remember, as a child, I used to think about something that I wanted

to dream of really hard, and hope that 

whatever it was would make it to the life of my sleep.

Nevertheless, it is still a lovely thought to have.

I wish you all sweet dreams tonight, dear friends. 

Sleep peacefully and soundly.

Mercies Anewed

Yesterday, while sitting in church, 

I was thinking about God's mercies and how their limit never ends.

How they stretch beyond the deepest point

in space and are new every day.

Though we are wretched sinners and deserve 

nothing, He gives us everything. 

No greater gift could

be given to us. No greater gift could

possibly exist! 

How blessed I feel, that through all my sinful follies,

My Lord still shows me mercy 

and never leaves my feet, as they travel down

this world's worn and miserable path. 

How blessed I feel, 

That even after I stray, He still guides

my feet back to that narrow road,

upon which is heaped

blessings. Even if these blessings

do not make themselves apparent as soon as we encounter them. 

Artful Friday (belated)

Pashmina Love

I have realized, of late, that I have become the scarf girl. 

I wear one almost every day.

If its not on my neck, 

Its in my bag, just in case I need it.

I have even worn a scarf with a tank top, 

which seems to defeat the purpose of the tank top,

however, I can most assuredly tell you that

It is lovely! 

I tell you, there is nothing that you cannot wear a scarf with.

I notice that I have a type of scarf.

I seem to especially gravitate towards Pashmina scarves
(and the ruffle scarf that my 

mommy knit me for my birthday). 

I have received five scarves, between Christmas and my birthday,

as gifts; I cherish those all the more! 

Though, I have few outside of those I suppose. 

However, I do find that they are all the more sweet

to wear knowing that they came from a loved one.

If I could, I would send all my loved ones, and my loyal blog followers,

a lovely pashmina scarf. 

But alas, my pocket does not permit such an endearing deed.

SO, I will just have to slowly send them out;)

Artful Friday (on saturday)

"Where Flies Are Born"

Darl-Abyss666(deviantart)
*Note* This artist created this work of art using oil paint
applied entirely with a flattened spoon.

This Night

Tonight, I've no homework. None. Tonight, I can breathe in a deep

breath of fresh air. I can surface the mass of water, known

as homework, and peer around at the world outside of that unavoidable mass.

Tonight, I can dream. 

Tonight, I can think on lovely things; I can imagine

glorious subject matter arranged just so,

on a blank canvas. 

I can imagine what my art studio will look like someday,

when I've a house of my own.

Picture by PoorSailor

Artful Friday

Urban Expressionism

Artist: Unknown

Antique?

 As I was walking through endless rows of antique jewelry, I thought to myself," Will my ring every ever make it to the furture as an antique? Or will it be a lost treasure? Will someone find it on some shore amid sand and seashells? Or will it be found in an antique store like this one and given to another lucky girl from her sweet heart?"

Things Of Wonder

Trees striped completely bare,
ashy and solomn,
Amid a circle of flourishing brethren,
as vibrant and fresh as the mornings dew.

A classic old timer story (keep in mind, that
the train was rather loud; I only have
tidbits. However, tidbits are more than enough.
Trust me):

We went all the way in the snow cuz we didn't
have it. I mean, we had ice cycles from the eave
of our roof to the sidewalk (demonstration
with hands*)!
And and, stuff doesn't grow on trees.
Deer. And once in a while foxes!
Squad cars lined up (shaking finger*).

Trains, Pearls, And Emeralds

Yes another train ride.

I managed to get through my water works. I can never help it. The tears just flow when I leave and when I come back, from both places. Only this time, it was more embarassing. They handed out snacks, drinks, and called for tickets, right after we got on, which usually doesnt happen until a few minutes into the ride. So I kept my face down as far as possible to keep unknown eyes from seeing my weakness. (Not that weakness is a bad thing. Through weakness, we become more dependent on our Heavenly Father, which is right). I just don't tear up (aka cry, infront of others very well. I will snuffle it as soon as it starts peaking).

The ocean is so calming and distracting. I close my eyes and see myself on the beach, toes in the sand, hair damp with ocean spray, and face to the sun and the ocean. Into the ocean, I walk. Clothes and all. Steadily submersing myself in the cool calmness of the emerald, peacock blue water. I can feel the water around me and the foam of crashing waves. Eyes, closed, I imagine a secret, under water world. One unlike any other. A world where pearls are bubbles, white and pure. A world where emeralds sprout and grow from beneath the sand, wet and warm. All the fishes are precious metals and time passes away without recllection.

Side note* this version of Ave Maria is entrancing: LIBERA.

Flojios flip flops are so comfortable! I love their simplicity. I have a tan pair, eventually I think that a black pair would be in order.

Day Dreams

I day dream in watercolor and ink.

Summer Santa

What if there were a summer Santa? Wouldn't that be lovely? If there were, I'd ask him for a Watercolor Moleskine.

What would YOU ask him for?

Daily Wanderings And Tea

Hello Blogglings!

I have had a much needed day full of tea, amid all my daily wanderings. Today I happened to wander to work, then to the writing lab, to my classes, and lastly to Michaels for some much MUCH needed watercolor  pencils. I am now home, with a list of to do's and a list of lists to create!

I found inspiration in art class today! (With a bit of help;) Isn't that how it goes sometimes? I am very excited for my art project (which will involve the new watercolor pencils) and for the reaction it will create In the eyes of those who behold it. 

I have added two books to my reading list this year:

And

I am very excited to read them! The trick is, to find the TIME to read them.