So Much Love

In just a few hours Mark and I will hit the open road on another journey to the Southwest! Today's Yoga Girl Challenge theme is I Love You and it couldn't have landed on a better day.

I gush about my husband a lot, so it is no secret that he is my best friend and I am madly in love with him. We have so much fun together no matter what we are doing but one of our favorite things is to travel and have adventures together. I took the below photo when we were in London in 2012. I love snapping a pic when he doesn't know what I'm doing. It captures his true sweet spirit.

Day 17 Yoga Girl Challenge: I Love You!

I am also madly in love with Taos, NM. For a long time I didn't understand when people talked about being in love with a place. I liked places and liked experiences I had on my travels, but until my feet landed in Taos (or Northern NM in general) I didn't understand. But, I get it now. I LOVE Taos. I have a passion for the place that makes me speak of it in a poetic fashion. I can go on and on about the way the shadows move across the Sangre De Cristo mountains, or how the sky is the most brilliant sapphire blue...how my spirit can feel how sacred the land is. When we arrive in a few days it will be as if my soul is reunited with an old friend. 

Mark and I have been to New Mexico together, but we stayed in Albuquerque on our way to California. I am so excited to share Taos with him and I hope he loves it as much as I do. 

Tonight we head to Oklahoma and will stay the night in Tulsa. Mark called to ask when the pool and hot tub close and the desk clerk said she will be the only one working tonight and that we can stay in later than the normal closing hour. Wee! I have a personal goal of hitting up every hotel pool and hot tub we stay at. 

Evening light on the Sangre De Cristo Mountains photo by Geraint Smith

~ Love & Light ~

Hallelujah! The Damn Thing Is Done!

After close to half a year I finally finished reading The Earthbreakers by Ernest Haycox. I stayed up crazy late last night and powered through it. I couldn't stand the thought of having to jump back into it after vacation. I really am glad I read it and I feel like I know my grandma a little better now (it definitely had the romance aspect she liked). I don't plan on reading historical fiction again anytime soon though, steamy romance scenes or not. I did find a cool card inside of its pages that my grandmother was using as a bookmark.

Grandma was using this as a bookmark. 

For today's Yoga Girl Challenge the theme is The Altar. I spent a moment dusting mine and meditating. Over the years my altar has been made up in a Hindu or Buddhist fashion, but for the past year I have had it set up in a pagan fashion. It's good to shake things up once in a while. 

Day 16 Yoga Girl Challenge: The Altar

Well folks, that's about all the time I have for blogging today. I have floors to vacuum and packing to begin! I'll do my best to blog from the road, but I can't make any promises. Sometimes you're having too much fun to do anything else! Have a great weekend!

~ Love & Light ~

Breaking A Sweat

Gah! It is HOT out there. Today's theme for The Yoga Girl Challenge is Sweat! This could easily be accomplished by stepping outside and doing nothing more that standing in place and waiting, but I'm sure Rachel was hoping we might actually exercise. I don't have a lot of time for that today because my focus is on cleaning the house and the car...luckily both of those things will make me sweat and I totally think that counts. My car is pretty dirty so that alone is gonna take some elbow grease. I really hate coming home to a messy house after a long drive, so I want the place to be spotless.

My trusty feather duster!

I've gotta run friends! Thank you for dropping in and reading along! Cheers!

~ Love & Light ~

It's Nice To Be A Winner

I don't have much time to blog today, so this is a random and slightly rushed post. I am heading out in about 30 minutes to get new tires put on the car for our trip. So here I go...


Today's theme for The Yoga Girl Challenge is Clean Out! We have a paper catch-all drawer in our kitchen that has been screaming to be cleaned out for a year now. I have started to do it several times, get distracted and forget about it. I decided it would be perfect for today's theme. This drawer was so loaded with old receipts, coupons etc. that it took over an hour to go through them. It was like a walk down memory lane though...all kinds of receipts from restaurants, big purchases like furniture, and receipts from our travels. It was very nostalgic. The photo is a before and after I made using the app called pic stitch.

Day 14 Yoga Girl Challenge: Clean Out!

I went to the market today to get some cookie dough. Mark and I have been on a major chocolate chip cookie kick lately. While I was standing in the refrigerated cookie section, looking for the Nestle' Toll House brand (only 80 calories a cookie!) what sounded like a gunshot went off two feet away from me and I almost peed my pants. Turns out the store was not in the midst of a shoot out, just this...

Exploding cinnamon roll tubes.

Usually when my phone alerts me of an email it is kinda annoying. This morning however I got an email from a skin care company named Repechage. I had entered a contest for a set of skin care products and I won! I am so excited because their motto is "Beauty from the sea". They are one of the companies I found while researching seaweed skincare. They have been around since 1980 and many high end spas use their treatments. I cannot wait for these goodies to arrive!!!

Well, I better go get the new tires. My old ones are pretty worn down and I'm looking forward to having a smooth ride again! 

~ Love & Light ~

First-Aid Travel Kit

Before I get to the focus of this post (my first-aid kit), I want to share a few photos.


I am so glad that one of my three hostas decided to flower. They are all doing pretty well, but this is the only one that bloomed. The friend who gave them to me was worried they might not take because they were ripped up instead of dug up, so they didn't have much of a root system left. I feel victorious!

Blooming Hosta.

I have two more Yoga Girl Challenge photos to share. The theme yesterday was Get Shit Done. Mark and I spent the day making a travel itinerary and even went out and bought new swimsuits to use at all the hotel pools and hot tubs (and the Ojo Caliente hot springs in NM). It was a busy Sunday but we got a lot accomplished. 

Day 12 Yoga Girl Challenge: Get Shit Done

Today's theme is Be Fearless. As most of my friends and family know, after a nasty car accident many moons ago, I have become a control freak driver. I CANNOT stand to be in the passenger seat and am positive we are all going to die at the hands of anyone driving other than me. This obviously doesn't fare well for road trips. When my husband and I went to California in 2012 we took his car and he drove almost 100% of the time. Needless to say I was stressed. This year we are taking my car because we want the AWD for the mountains. I hate it when other people drive my car and I get WAYYYYYY more nervous than if they are driving me in theirs. So. This phobia is annoying and exhausting. By the time we reach our destination I am pretty worn out from the tense car ride. On this trip I am going to do my best to overcome this fear and relax. As silly as it sounds, it will be hard but I am serious about overcoming this.

Day 13 Yoga Girl Challenge: Be Fearless

Now, let's take a look at the first-aid kit I put together for the trip. I had an old make-up bag that I wasn't using so I cleaned out any powder and other make-up grime that was in it and had the perfect size bag.

Make-up bag turned medicine bag.

I filled it up with all the things I thought we might need in case of a minor injury.

Inside the bag.

First-aid essentials.

1. Band-aids. I also put some of the extra large pad size in the box. 

2. Home made tinctures in spray bottles. Lemon Balm and Hops for anxiety (see above description of car ride phobia).

3. Tums. Cause vacation food can be exotic and rich.

4. Calendula ointment. This is great for rashes and stings. 

5. Peroxide. I put some in a blue bottle.

6. Rubbing Alcohol. I put some in a tiny jar. 

7. Steroid cream. This is for more hard core rashes like poison sumac. 

8. Triple Antibiotic Ointment. For cuts and scrapes.

9. Benadryl cream. For mosquito and spider bites. The itchy ones. 

10. Zip's Muscle Rub. For sore aching muscles.

11. Soothe Your Soles foot wipes. For dirty feet that can't get to a tub.

12. A flashlight.

13. Heartburn pills (for when Tums won't cut it).

14. A box knife. I hope we won't need this for anything, but you never know.

15. Safety pins.

16. Prid drawing salve. For cactus stings and splinters.

17. Eye oil. Made to soothe scratches on the eyeball.

18. Ace Bandage. For sprains.

19. Small Clips. 

20. Ibuprofen. For headaches and painful inflammation.

I have a pocket knife in my car and I a will toss a bottle of aloe vera gel (for burns) in there when I do my final packing. Am I forgetting anything essential? What do you take when you travel? 

~ Love & Light ~

The Mother Of All Mantises

First of all, yes, the dictionary says mantises is indeed a correct spelling for the plural of mantis. It does sound weird though. BUT regardless, I did see the biggest mantis that I have ever seen, and if you read my blog regularly you know that they make appearances for me all the time.

Mantis almost as long as my hand!

The Mantis Queen.

Thursday night I went out with some of my oldest friends. There were six of us who grew up together. Two sisters in each family. My sister (I know I have two sisters but I didn't get my second one until I was 20!) is in Jefferson City and couldn't make it so we are one shy in the photo. We all try to get together whenever Charmagne, who lives in California, comes to visit. After a half dozen attempts we finally got a decent shot (thanks to Cynarra and her long arms).

Cynarra, Alicia, Christa, Charmagne & Leanne

I suppose I'll give an update on The Yoga Challenge. The theme for day 9 was True Forgiveness. I wrote down the names of people I feel have wronged me (on a thin napkin) or that I might have been holding a grudge against, etc. (myself included) and then flushed it down the toilet thus releasing the negative feelings and forgiving. But seriously...a photo of a toilet is gross no matter how you look at it. Sorry.

Day 9 Yoga Girl Challenge: True Forgiveness

Day 10 was Get Creative and this was super easy and fun. I worked on finishing my art project that I told you guys all about in my last post.

Day 10 Yoga Girl Challenge: Get Creative

Today's theme was one of three Random Act Of Kindness days included in the challenge. We weren't left to our own devices though, Rachel had a specific request for this one:

Tomorrow is Trasdockans Dag (The Day Of The Rag Doll) in Sweden and thousands of people gather at Medborgarplatsen to push for these silent voices to be heard and to give children and adults the courage to break the silence. For one solid minute, everybody screams together. As loud as they can. Young children that suffer from this abuse don't have to voice to speak up so on this day, we gather to do it for them. If you live in the Stockholm area - please go take part in the event and SCREAM FOR KIDS! Lots of people and music and healing vibes and trust me, it feels damn good to scream your head off and let some demons out. The louder we are the more awareness we spread!

She is talking about child victims of sexual abuse, and although many of us doing the challenge aren't in Sweden, she asked that we participate. I did, and I screamed LOUDLY. 

Day 11 Yoga Girl Challenge: Random Act Of Kindness

Have a great weekend everyone! If it is 100º where you are (like it is here) take it easy and remember to drink plenty of fresh water. 

~ Love & Light ~ 

Tactile Boards: Exploration #29

I haven't posted an assignment from the book How To Be An Explorer Of The World: Portable Life Art Museum by Keri Smith since May! And although you guys have had a nice long break from subjection to my art, I have actually been working on task #29 all along, slowly but surely.


Exploration #29


TACTILE BOARDS


Collect materials based on texture. Glue the textures to a sheet of paper or cardboard. Invite people to close their eyes and guess what the different materials are. Experiment by touching the boards with different parts of your body (such as your cheek or elbow). Source: Bruno Munari


My board is BIG so it took a set of photos and one video before I felt like I kind of captured how it looks.

Exploration #29: Tactile Board 

I'm not sure why this project became so time consuming. I was really picky about the materials I used (What? You can't tell?) and maybe I shouldn't have used such a huge piece of cardboard. You know, even just doing simple art projects like this one--you get really into it, you know? I mean, I was like having moments where I would think, "Oh, yeah...this is profound...the monopoly men with the word love popping out above them... to me that is about our love of money and possessions, but then raining down next to them are the pumpkin seeds that represent the natural world and how the line between these two things is being blurred--with GMO's, factory farming--it's greed. Or take the heart. It is made with bubble wrap because sometimes our hearts feel full and other times deflated. Everything in this tactile board has meaning to me, so I took this project a step further than just a tactile board. I did an interpretive abstract, so maybe that will make up for a few of those projects where I didn't really put myself fully into the work ;)  

Okay, that's all for now. I'm off to enjoy the weekend. 

~ Love & Light ~

Pretty Penny

Penny had a visit with the veterinarian this morning. She was due for a few immunizations and they couldn't wait...all dogs need to be current on their vaccinations to stay at Caroline's Pampered Pet Motel (Penny's favorite place away from home and the place she will be staying when we head to New Mexico next week). Penny likes going to the vet and seeing Dr. Germeroth, he is very good with her and I feel like he is a good fit for us. I recommend Best Friends Animal Hospital if you are in the Ozark area.

Dr. Germeroth and his assistant taking care of Penny

Now we are home and she is snuggled up next to me on the couch while I type.

Um, can you pwease turn cartoon on?

She is watching The Pirate Fairy on Netflix. Such a good girl.

She loves family and children's movies.

I also want to tell you guys about a really fun body wash that my mom picked up for me when she was in Florida last month. It is made by a company called Blue-Q and is called Me-Om body wash. The scent is mandarin lotus petal and the citrus smell is a great eye opener in the morning. I'm not a body wash person so I find myself using this product for shaving my legs and it also makes a really lovely bubble bath. Added bonus--this wash is paraben, sulfate, phthalate and dye free. It's certified organic and they don't test on animals either. I'm pretty sure this company is known for making products designed to make you laugh. A great place to shop for gifts! I don't know any local retail spots that carry their stuff but that's not to say there aren't any. Do you know of any? If so, please let me know.

Me-Om body wash by Blue-Q

It requires a certain sense of humor. 

~ Love & Light ~

Making Herbal Infusions (and a few other things)

I was really excited to start drinking infusions (really strong tea) made from the dried herbs I bought at MaMa Jean's yesterday. I decided to start with the red clover because it is the one I am most excited about. Red Clover is used for hot flashes, PMS, breast enhancement and breast health, improving cholesterol, improving circulation of the blood, helps prevent osteoporosis, reduce the possibility of blood clots and arterial plaques and limiting the development of benign prostate hyperplasia. Whew! Red clover is also a great source of calcium, chromium, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, and vitamin C. One thing I read about red clover and was excited by is its ability to reduce incidence of heart disease. What a truly wonderful plant.


To begin making an infusion, fill a quart size glass jar with 1cup of dried red clover.

Measuring out the dry herb.

Next, boil a kettle of water and then pour over the red clover all the way to the top of the jar. Close the lid tightly and let steep overnight (or a minimum of 4 hours).

Adding boiled water to the herb.

In the morning I woke to a nice dark colored infusion.

After steeping overnight the infusion is ready.

Strain the liquid from the plant matter into another glass jar.

Straining the red clover infusion.

Then pour infusion over ice and enjoy the many health benefits! You can drink it room temperature too if you don't like it cold.

Red Clover infusion over ice.

I have plenty left to drink tomorrow too. I wouldn't suggest keeping it longer than two days.

Remaining infusion for tomorrow.

Basically what we have here is a tea that steeps for a long time. By steeping the herbs overnight the water is infused with more of the vitamins and minerals we need. By making it in greater quantities we are able to drink it in therapeutic (larger) quantities. I have been sipping this infusion all day and quite like the taste. I have been drinking strong medicinal herbal teas for many years though, so if you are new to herbs it may take a few tries to acquire a taste. I find the red clover to be earthy and bitter with the tiniest hint of sweet. You may prefer to sweeten it or add a little bit of mint for flavor. I like it fine on its own and plan to drink infusions regularly.

Last night at the Springfield Area Herb Society meeting I was given a Holy Basil plant (aka Tulsi). I want to try growing this one indoors in a pot so I have access to the fresh leaves all year long. Holy Basil is a member of the mint family and has been grown in India for over 3,000 years, where it symbolizes the Goddess Lakshmi. A powerful antioxidant and antibacterial, Holy Basil has been used to treat everything from a common cold to bronchitis to fever to certain digestive issues including ulcers.

New Holy Basil baby.

One of the three hostas in the little shade garden we made, has flowered. They are the lightest lilac color and very pretty.

Flowering Hosta.

I also wanted to share a picture of my tomato harvest from this afternoon. The cherokee purples are making beautiful colors and the cherry tomatoes are making more than the three households who are sharing these plants can eat!

An abundance of tomatoes this summer.

Today is day 8 of The Yoga Girl Challenge and the theme was Manifesting Dreams. I am working on writing a book ( a long time dream of mine) and below is a photo of the accordion folder I keep notes and ideas in. I know I promised in an earlier post to talk more about my book, but until it takes on a more solid form I am keeping it under wraps. 

Day 8 The Yoga Girl Challenge: Manifesting Dreams

PS The delicate flowers (petunias and dianthus) that we planted last week are HATING the extreme heat we have been having over the last few days. I hope they can make it. 

~ Love & Light ~

Let's Get A Physical

I got a physical/check-up today. The first one of my adult life! That's just stupid and irresponsible. But I got one and everything checked out fine. I mention it (and title my post after it) because it connects to The Yoga Girl Challenge. Yesterday was day 6 and the theme was Start A New Routine. My choice was admittedly lame, but also a no brainer. Flossing. Every damn day.

Day 6 The Yoga Girl Challenge: Start A New Routine

That brings us to today, and my roundabout connection to the doctors exam. The theme for day 7 is Thank You. I made a point to be incredibly grateful and express my thanks to everyone who helped me today, from the receptionist to the doctor, and the lab tech. who drew my blood. It was also a great reminder that we are lucky to have access to modern healthcare in the U.S. For that I am thankful.

Day 7 The Yoga Girl Challenge: Thank You!

Now, I am a complete wuss and hate going to the doctor. I do see my OB/GYN every year but I have known her for 13 years now...and I still drive all the way to KC for my check-ups because I don't want someone new. I told you. Wuss. 

Anyway, as you can imagine, going to a new doctor and getting blood drawn FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE was nerve rattling. I was fine though--unlike the grown man drinking juice who passed  out next to me. And although the experience was painless, I still decided I deserved a little reward. :)

I headed to MaMa Jean's Market to procure one of the woven African (fair trade) baskets that I had been eyeing for months. Of course, while I was there I grabbed a few other things too.

New basket full of goodies

See how nice it looks sitting on top of the fridge?

I love it so much I think I might name it.

How about from this angle? I'm kidding. I'll stop.

Now if only I can remember to take it along when I go shopping...

I bought red clover, nettle leaf and oat straw to make herbal infusions with. I'll post photos when I get to making them.

Nourishing herbs for infusions.

I also got some new quart sized jars to make the infusions in and a couple of amber spray bottles to put tinctures I've made in for our road trip next week.

Jars and spray bottles for remedies.

I grabbed a bottle of Bragg Kelp Sprinkle for soups and salads (maybe other things?). I love this stuff. If you want to add a salty flavor to dishes the kelp will do just that. They also make an herb and spice mix sans kelp. Both are awesome. Speaking of seaweed (kelp), I have come to be disappointed in my Seaweed Bath Co. shampoo. It is drying my hair out a lot and leaving a gross residue. I'm going to try something else once I finish the bottle. I still love you seaweed, don't hate.

Bragg Kelp Seasoning.

Oh! And the main reason I went to MaMa Jean's was to get carob powder.

Bulk carob powder is cheap!

To make this...

Taos Whole Foods Cookbook

And just when I think the day can't get any better, I get home to find my neighbor at my door bringing me an arugula start which I immediately planted in the herb bed. Sweet!

New arugula start.

So that was my morning and afternoon. Pretty good if I do say so myself. Oh yeah, yesterday I gathered together my gemstones. Just the actual stones. No crystals or beads or any of that jazz. I cleaned them and put them on a plate to admire them.

My gemstones

Then I thought to myself, "I should get more variety, maybe some purple and red", and an hour later I saw this...

I'm totally going.

Well, I have an Herb Society meeting to attend shortly. I better get going. Let me leave you with this inspiring idea I saw on Facebook the other day. Little cucumber boats filled with goat cheese and sprinkled with monarda. I. Must. Do. This.

Cucumber, goat cheese and monarda boats. 

~ Love & Light ~