Simple Pleasure: Morning Coffee

I gave up coffee for about two months in the hopes that it would make me feel better. I convinced myself that it was contributing to my fatigue and other health issues. It IS clear that I definitely need to limit my caffeine intake, but I'm telling you, for a non-morning person like me, one twelve-ounce mug of coffee makes a lot difference in how I start my day!


In addition to neglecting my own blog in recent weeks, I have neglected reading and commenting on my friends' blogs and Flickr photos. I plan to get caught up with my communications and correspondence next week. For now, I'm off to prepare for a weekend get away. Laundry to do and bags to pack. Have a good one!

WIP Wednesday: Montana Barn

As I said in my last post, I got my paints back out a couple of weeks ago. I started out doing some brushwork exercises and some color mixing and palette updating. Then I did a couple of ink and watercolor wash drawings, and I made some cards.

I've been reading watercolor books again and watching online art instruction videos. Finally, yesterday, I began a painting. I started out with a thumbnail sketch, and then I painted a value study, which is what you see on my worktable. I'm pleased with the results. I'm still thinking through the palette (colors) I'm going to use and how to approach certain elements of the painting. I hope to get started this afternoon.

As you can see, I had to move back to the larger table. I like my big John Pike Palette, and there wasn't enough room for it on the smaller desk. Moving to the larger desk necessitated putting away the sewing machine, but I'm fine with it. I have enough hobbies!

It feels really good to be painting again.

Thoughts on October

I've loved October for as long as I can remember. It finally begins to cool off here in the Deep South. The leaves change color, and I can break out my cowboy boots again for another season. Both of my precious little ones have October birthdays, as do several other loved ones. We have soccer games and fall festivals to entertain us. I make countless loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread for pastor appreciation gifts and cake walk prizes.

However, as much as I look forward to it, I'm always a bit relieved when it is over. Of course, there is only a short reprieve before the Christmas season begins with another onslaught of activity. Right now, I am teaching a crochet class, taking a personal finance class at church, and singing in the choir (preparing for the Christmas program, of course). In the midst of all of the October activity, I resumed some of my less than optimal eating habits, and I haven't walked but once in weeks, which has resulted in my not feeling as well as I would like. At the moment I have some sort of intestinal virus, but I appear to be on the mend.

I suppose the point of all this is to make excuses for why I haven't blogged but once in the past six weeks or so, but if I left it at that, I wouldn't be telling you the whole truth. On the one hand there have been very busy times, but there have been many days of going back to bed after taking the kids to school because of fatigue and lack of motivation. There are countless hours for which I cannot account. What was I doing?! I was not motivated to blog. I did very little crafting. I put down my new Diana Gabaldon novel for which I had been anxiously awaiting for nearly two years after 272 pages due to lack of interest. I quit the feverish cooking and cleaning that consumed me in September.

I haven't been depressed, just tired and unmotivated. Recent bloodwork showed some possible reasons for this, and I am having more tests done this week, so I am hopeful that most of my malaise can be explained from a physiological standpoint. I have been earnestly praying for healing and direction. There may be a big life change on the horizon for me, but it hasn't come to fruition yet, so I'm waiting, which I am generally not very good at.

Thankfully, there has been an unexpected blessing from waiting. I had not painted in months and wondered if I ever would again, but a couple of weeks ago, I got out my paints and started dabbling a bit. Come back tomorrow for the results!

WIP Wednesday: Brady's Blanket

I had no intention of taking a fall break from blogging, but that's exactly what happened, isn't it? There hasn't been much crafting going on. Other good things that I hope to tell you about soon though.

The blanket that I planned to show you a month ago still isn't finished, but it is high on my list of priorities for the coming days. I'm pleased with how it is turning out, and I'm enjoying working on it, but there hasn't been as much DVD watching going on lately, which explains my lack of progress. Now that the days are cooler, I'm planning to sit down with a cup of tea and some music to get it done.

Thank you for all of the nice comments on my last post! I really enjoyed hearing from some new readers!

Simple Pleasure: Afternoon Snack

Since I began my new wellness program, my afternoon snack has been a sliced Gala apple with homemade almond butter. I look forward to it every day! I found the almond butter recipe here. It's not as good as what I bought at Trader Joe's, but all I can find in my town either has sugar or does not have salt, so I had to resort to making it myself. If you're looking for a delicious healthy snack that will satisfy your craving for something sweet, try it!

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

Today begins the second new feature I'm planning to post regularly—WIP Wednesday. For those of you who are not crafters, WIP stands for work in progress.

This week's featured WIP is a knitted feather-and-fan scarf that I begin months ago with the intention of it being my travel knitting. It has traveled to North Carolin and to Montana and Wyoming as well as on shorter trips within my home state. Unfortunately, I finished traveling before I finished the project! I haven't picked it up in weeks as I have been occupied with other projects, but now that I know who I am knitting it for and for what occasion, I am more motivated to get it done. For now, at least.

This is the second feather-and-fan scarf I have knitted. This one is different from the first one in that it uses one skein of sock yarn rather than three balls of a heavier weight yarn—perfect for portability. It also includes a purl row within the pattern repeat. IF there is a next time, I will not purl that row!

I am using Tiennie's Old Shale Scarf pattern and Sweet Grass Wool Toe Jammies yarn. Isn't it pretty?

Homemade Bath Salts

Last week, I made a lunch date via email with a friend that I haven't seen in months. Later that day, I realized I had missed her birthday earlier in the month. She is the type of person who can appreciate a handmade gift because she makes them herself, so I decided to make her something. Because I was short on time and resources, I decided on bath salts.

I Google'd, and there is an abundance of recipes. From looking at a number of them, this is what I came up with:

Ingredients:
4 cups of Epsom Salt
10 drops of lavender essential oil (I got mine here.)
1/2 cup lavender buds, optional

Place Epsom Salts in a bowl, and add essential oil. Mix thoroughly. Add lavender buds, and mix again. That's it! This recipe makes enough for several gifts.

For packaging, I filled up a mason jar and wrapped it in lavender gingham. (To learn more about wrapping with fabric, see Sonia's post here.) I was very pleased with the result, and I hope my friend is too!

Added bonus: I'm still enjoying the scent of lavender in the kitchen!

"Good Weekend" Defined

It was a good weekend. For some people, a good weekend may consist of a great trip or some special adventure, maybe shopping and a movie; but for me, a good weekend is one wherein I am able to stay home, accomplish much, AND enjoy myself and my family. I had hoped to complete a crochet project that I have been working on for months, which would give me a much needed FO to share here, but it didn't happen.

A few things that DID happen:
(1) Lots of housework on Saturday, including dish washing! I must have exorcised some kind of dish washing demon with my confession on Friday because I washed dishes BY HAND three times on Saturday! This was prompted by my frustration with the dishwasher. Not only has it never worked really well, but I have never been able to master the flow of loading and unloading. There was a never-ending accumulation of dishes on the counter waiting to be loaded, and I rarely seemed to be able to run the dishwasher fewer than two times a day—definitely not green! I decided that to maintain the kitchen as I would like, some hand washing would be required, so I invested in a dish rack. It says a lot about how much I have cut back on my consumption when the purchase of a dish rack can bring so much pleasure! LOL

(2) We made homemade dog treats. Easy recipe. Four ingredients. Lots of fun for the girl. And the dog loves them. Highly recommended!


(3) We had a visitor. He was in the back yard when we came home from church on Sunday. His timing was perfect since his photo is needed for the reptile section of my son's animal notebook for school. Isn't he/she cute?

I hope your weekend was just a nice as ours!

Simple Pleasures

This is the first in a series I plan to post weekly. I hope that you enjoy my photos and comments and that they inspire you. However, I have to admit, my motivation for doing this is primarily for my own benefit. As I seek to live more simply, I want to do a better job of being thankful for the abundance of blessings that I have, and I want to be more sensitive to the everyday things around me that bring me joy. Posting about these things will help me focus more clearly, I think.

This week's simple pleasure is a comfy chair and a stack of library books!


Have a wonderful weekend!

Cookin' from Scratch

My life has continued to revolve around food this week. I am taking charge of my health and striving to live more simply and frugally, and all of this requires a great deal more attention to food than I have been accustomed to for some time. Bascially, we are eliminating processed and convenience foods and trying to eat whole foods as much as possible. (I am also currently forgoing sugar, caffeine, and most starches.) Therefore, I have been thinking about food, shopping for food, cooking food, and cleaning up the kitchen much more than I am used to, and it has taken up a great deal of my time.

I generally enjoy cooking, and have had periods of intense interest in cookbooks and watching Food Network. But my passion subsided with the realization that the other three people in my home are very picky eaters and often do not appreciate the things I cook for them. This limited my motivation to cook, and we gradually began eating out more and relying on convenience foods.

Two other factors I am up against are my lack of enthusiasm for grocery shopping and for dish washing. If I lived somewhere with a farmer's market and a well-stocked grocery store, the shopping thing would not be so much of an issue, but I live in a rural area where tomato paste in a tube is unheard of, and I can count on one hand the organic vegetables that are available.

The dish washing aversion is most likely due to the fact the I had to wash dishes as a child. My mom had excema on her hands, so it was my job to wash the dishes every night after dinner. I do have a dishwasher now, but that doesn't seem to make much difference. For me it doesn't appear to be the time involved but the task itself. We all have these types of aversions, I suppose. (For the record, among home keeping tasks, I also dislike dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, and ironing.)

For inspiration and information, I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in the evenings before bed. As I revisit the issues I originally familiarized myself with years ago by reading Wendell Berry's essays, I hope that the changes I am making are for good this time, and that I will not allow myself to fall back into the typical American mode of mindless consumption.

Top photo: Breakfast focaccia from No Need to Knead. (For my children!)
Bottom photo: Lentil stew based on the recipe from The All New Joy of Cooking (1997).