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 ~