Astrology ... It Is Really Just Like a Weather Forecast

I have studied astrology for a number of years.  I started reading my Yahoo horoscope and was pretty amazed by how some things really lined up. I dug deeper over the years and now I really on the horoscope I create for myself each day based on the where the planets are.

Some days the planets play nicely and some days they are in major conflict. You throw in the moon and your birth chart and you get quite a forecast for each day or for major periods of your life.  

But what do you do with it?  

I have toyed with that question over the years and I think I use the information pretty well but I don't really think I have been able to articulate how I do.  Until now.

I realized that astrology is like a weather forecast.  Is the day going to be full of sunshine or maybe some snow flurries or is there a hurricane coming?  

And when you know the forecast, you can prepare.  Do you need an umbrella?  Should you cancel your picnic?  Should you skip work and bask in the perfect day?   Your astrology forecast does the same.  Do you need to avoid signing a contract?  Should you reschedule a lunch date with your mom?  Is today the day to go look for a house?

Just like the weather forecast, the astrology forecast does not tell you exactly what is going to happen but it tells you what you might expect and you can use that information to your benefit.  You can keep from getting soaked or missing that one day in the month that is picture perfect.

If you are intrigued, there are a few sites out there that make it easy to start forecasting your weather.

Astrology Zone gives a nice monthly forecast with some key dates for each sign.  It is a great place to get started. (Be warned that she has these really annoying pop up ads!)

Cafe Astrology is a great resource on all things astrology.  It can help you dig a little deeper when you are ready.

Ruby Slipper spotlights notable astrological events and gives you some really thought provoking questions to consider for each.  This is my favorite astrology site!

Wishing you sunny skies!  Or at least an always handy umbrella!

Chef of the Month .. Celebrating Charlie Trotter

For the past few years I have been picking a chef each month and immersing myself into their stories and recipes for a week.  I grab some cookbooks from the library, check out their autobiography, search the internet.  Sometimes I even treat myself to dinner at one of their restaurants.  

This month I picked Charlie Trotter.

I grabbed his Kitchen Sessions cookbook and Charlie Trotter Cooks At Home and even Raw and planned out the menu for the week.

A warming soup made with beef, soba noodles and a dashi broth.

A roast pork stuffed with dried fruit over a bed of sweet raddichio and roasted potatoes.  Oh and topped with this amazing bacon dressing.

Little tomatoes stuffed with a goat cheese, pine nut and sundried tomato mixture.

A poached (yes, I said poached) beef tenderloin with brussel sprouts and potatoes topped with a shallot vinegrette.

And to top it all off... cinnamon bread pudding.  Delicious even if I burned it a little!

A tasty week with Charlie! Yum!

Being Present in the Moment ... More Than Just Paying Attention

I have been delving into the depths of my soul for many years now and one of the primary concepts that I have learned about is being present in the moment.  

For many years I got myself to stop focusing on one thing while I was doing something else.  I stopped letting my mind wander.  I meditated.  It all felt really great.  It brought much greater joy in to my life to actually be paying attention to what I was doing, to really enjoy it.

But today I went to a whole new level of understanding about being present in the moment.

A friend contacted me to let me know that my daughter was behaving in a not so nice way towards her son at school.  Immediately my mind ran to the past.  I am such a bad mother because I thought I had taught her about the ills of teasing but clearly I missed the mark.  Then I swooped out to the future.  What if she doesn't stop and then becomes a "mean girl" and all of the parents hate me and none of the kids like her?

After 10 seconds of watching myself dive back and forth between what has been and what could happen, I stopped.  And I realized I needed to get into the present moment.

The present moment is talking to her about the problem.  And that is it.  

It does not matter what I did in the past.  I can't change the messages I conveyed to her.  I can't change how well she listened to me.  It does not matter how we got to this point.  

There is no point thinking about it.  

What matters is where we are now.

It does not matter what will happen in the future.  I cannot control if she will hear me.  I cannot control if she will immediately be able to change her behavior.  I cannot control what other people will think.  

There is no point wondering what the outcome of the situation will be.  

What matters is dealing with what is happening now.  

So I will talk to her.  Plain and simple.  And in the future, if the issue arises again, I will deal with it in that present moment.

This simple realization freed me from a night of worry and beating myself up.  Amazing!

Zen Painting ... An Exploration Into Alcohol Ink

I found a few vials of alcohol ink the other day while cleaning out my craft closet.  I had bought them for making Christmas presents a few years back and there were only a few drops left in each.  I decided they deserved to be used up.  So of course I went to Pinterest.

I fell in love with those little vials all over again as I looked at all of the colorful, beautiful projects.  But I fell hardest for one particular painting.  So I decided I would make a painting for my husband as part of his Christmas gift this year.  The whole theme for his gift is "zen" this year and since painting with alcohol inks is so very meditative I felt like it fit the theme.

I grabbed a blank canvas and the bottle of ink and spread out on the kitchen table.  A bouquet of flowers was my plan.  I picked my first color and let a drop of ink fall onto the canvas.  I watched it spread out following it's own free will.  I made other drops.., some with more ink and some with less.  I put a drop of another color into the center of each and watched them merge together and spread out.  I noticed that the drop in the center acted very differently depending on how dry the color underneath had become.  I removed color with a paper towel in some areas revealing a subtle rainbow like you find in an oil slick.  I watched and experimented until I felt done.

A perfectly zen painting experience!

I Am In Print! ... A Cake in Contemporary Bride Magazine

I am so excited!  I have not one, but two cakes in a REAL PRINT  magazine!

Over the summer I was asked to submit some cakes for the fall/winter edition of Contemporary Bride magazine.  With only a few days notice.  Here is what I made!

The first cake I knew I had to design around this flower I had made a few days before.  It was an orange flower with gold edging so I knew I wanted to bring some gold in to the cake but I wanted most of the cake to be simple and white to really let the flower stand out.  I created a few brooches out of gumpaste and finished them in a vintage gold and realized they had the look of old jewelry and gee, wouldn't they go great with pearls.  So I decided to cover the middle tier of the cake with pearls and throw in a few of the gold brooches.  While it took HOURS to get all of those pearls adhered, it was really worth it.  I love how the whole cake came together in this vintage jewelry, Great Gatsby sort of way.

I knew I wanted the second cake to have a softer feel to it and I wanted each of the tiers to be different.  I started with the bottom tier covered in simple white ruffles.  The second tier I embossed in a lace pattern and then dusted with a bronze powder.  Which actually got sort of blotchy in places.  So I rubbed and dusted and rubbed some more to achieve a very weathered, vintage look.  The top tier was roughly painted with a dusty rose coloring.  The flower is sort of a fantasy peony.  I wanted it to be a peony but I also wanted it to have the feel of an old silk flower you would find on grandma's hat.  I thought that went better with the thee of the cake than a fresher looking flower.

I must give a huge thank you to my friend and photographer Brandi of Brandi Grooms Photography who not only takes beautiful photos for me but is always ready with her camera when I call her up on these last minute adventures!

If you would like to check out the entire article, it is on pages 115 through 119 of the Fall/Winter 2013 Issue of Contemporary Bride.  

Art of the Week ... Creativity Inspiration for the Entire Family

I have recently been on this kick to try to be more creative.  I think it may have been stumbling across an old copy of The Artist's Way that did it to me.  But I have been finding it really fun to just create without a purpose.  And I thought it would be fun for the rest of my family to experience that joy too.

So I started Art of the Week.  Each week I pick a topic and post it on our Art of the Week bulletin board and each family member has to create it.  Topics have included favorite animals (this past week!), favorite food, worst nightmare, shoes, you name it!  Typically people draw their inspiration item but we are open to painting, collage sculpture, absolutely anything.

I love seeing how excited everyone is to get the inspiration for the week and how they sneak off during the week to create their piece.  Even my business, uber-on-the-road husband!  I also loved that for the first time in a long time I wasn't hearing my kids talk about their work being good or bad, or right or wrong.  They adjusted things they didn't like or started over.  They talked about their art together and complimented each other.  It was a refreshing change from the pressure I feel they get at school.  

And of course I love seeing each and every picture!

Gotta go!  I have to draw some bacon for "Favorite Breakfast Food" week!

The Creative Challenge of Using Leftover Craft Materials ... A Pretty Necklace

I cleaned out my craft closet yesterday.  I pulled out all of the paper goods I have been hording and put them in the kids craft area because I will never use up all that paper and all of those alphabet stickers in my lifetime.  I tore apart of the unopened cross-stitch kits from my 1980's "country" phase and saved the fabric and needles and floss for projects I might actually want to do.  I made giveaway piles of unopened little materials that no longer hold my interest.   Everything had a use, a place or a new home.

Except for a huge box of crystal beads that has been sitting around since I realized I really don't enjoy making jewelry as much as I enjoy buying it off of Etsy.  I decided that they were the perfect inspiration for a crazy art project.  

My rule to myself was that I had to use them all!  But after that there was no plan.  Which worked out great because after the first string or two I questioned what the heck I was doing and I wondered if it was going to turn out to be a wearable piece of jewelry or a piece of crap.  But I put those thoughts aside and just kept stringing because I needed to use all of the beads, no matter what!  

It was really very meditative to string all of those beads.  It was about a full 3 hours that I was alone with my beads and my thoughts.  It was nice.

And I think my resulting jewelry piece is nice as well!  Very earthy.

I liked this challenge of needing to create with an entire box of materials.  I think I will have to do it again soon.  Maybe with those 6 rolls of duct tape....

Sharing Books... BookMooch

One of my very favorite websites ever is BookMooch.   Heard of it?  Well, you must check it out because it is this terrific place to pass on books you no longer want and pick up some of those books you do.

As a BookMooch member you set up an inventory of all of the books you have that you are willing to part with.  You also make a list of all of the books you want.  You can add them because you know you want them or you can just browse around.  When someone wants a book you have, you send it off to them. Remembering of course the fabulous book rate at the post office!  You get points for sharing your book.  When a book you want becomes available, the owner will send it off to you and points are deducted from your account.  Easy as pie!  

I love BookMooch because over the past few years I have been trying really hard to reduce the amount of "stuff" my family has.  And we have a lot of books.  So I refuse to buy anymore.  When I want a book my first stop is now always the library, followed by my Kindle.  But there are just some books that I want a hard copy of.  Cookbooks are a great example.  But really any books that I want to flip through (which I find annoying on my Kindle) and books I want to have for the long haul (which the library frowns upon).  In those cases I put the book request out on BookMooch and keep my fingers crossed that it will show up on my doorstep soon.

And not only am I not bringing in any new "stuff", I am also getting rid of some of the "stuff" we already have!  Win, win!  

Leaving a Legacy... Of Happiness

Yesterday I attended a memorial service for my grandfather who passed away last spring at the age of 93.  During the memorial service my father asked everyone to sit in a circle and share a favorite memory of my grandfather.  I learned from his relatives and neighbors and co-workers that what was left in their minds was not what he did or how much money he made or what he looked like but how he touched each and every life he came in contact with by generating happiness.  He saved many lives as a volunteer fire fighter, he protected the job security and benefits of the people who worked for him, he painted houses and built cabinets.  He was always ready to lend a hand and pass on a book that he thought you would enjoy.  He did everything with a huge smile and laughter and a very loud rooster crow.  He was happy in the moment and he shared that joy with everyone around him... especially the ladies!   (Over the years I watched him bring a smile to the face of many a cranky waitress.)  My grandfather did all of these things because they made him feel good, not because anyone was going to pat him on the back or even say thank you.

How he lived his life ties very much in to thoughts I have been having recently about my own life and my own legacy.  I want my existence to be about what I have given instead of what I have collected.  I want to give positive energy and happiness and inspiration.  I want to help my kids learn to do the same.   I want my job to be driven by connecting with people and creating not accumulating wealth.  I want my kids education to focus on learning how to learn and being inspired to be creative instead of preparing to get good standardized test scores.  I want our lives to be about doing things because they make us happy, not because we are going to get a big gold star.

When I leave this life I want my relatives and friends and co-workers to sit around and share the stories of how I touched them.  I want them to feel like I made a real connection with them and that I brought them happiness.  I want my kids and I to learn to give to others, not for the thank you that I might get but for the joy it brings us.

A New Way to Eat ... The De-Throning of Dinner

I am very excited that I have a new plan for eating!!!!

Now, I need one because over the past couple of years I think I have gained 15 pounds.  I attribute it partly to starting a business where I make cake all day and partly to my kids dancing from after school until about 6PM each night.  I sometimes stuff a scrap of cake in my mouth and I sometimes resort to take out pizza more nights a week than I would like.

Once I realized that I was on a bad path, I did really try to get back on track.  I listened to my very nutrition conscious friends.  First there was a phase of juicing for breakfast and lunch, there was a phase of being a vegitarian, then a dabble into paleo, and a few month stint with Weight Watchers.  None of these fit me.  Juicing felt great but I think I was depriving my body of enough food until dinner and then it didn't know what to with it.  I like all of my food groups so rigidly eliminating some just made me unhappy.  And Weight Watchers is expensive and I can really track what I eat on my one.

So for a while I have been wallowing.  Trying to figure out how to eat healthy, not stress out over having to make dinner for 2 young kids starting at 6PM and keep to my diet of no processed foods.  I have been eating very little for breakfast and lunch and saving it all up for dinner time.  And a glass of wine.  Because for me it has always been all about dinner.  Clearly some mental attachment there.

And today it hit me.  Into my head popped something I heard a long time ago.  That you should "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper".  And I realized perhaps this would work perfectly for us.   I am up early and I love breakfast food.  I can make a nice, protein-laden breakfast each morning to get started.  I can eat a normal lunch packed in my cute bento box.  And then I can have a much lighter dinner made of mostly easy to cook or even precooked veggies and maybe a little leftover protein or some beans.  Maybe a soup or stew I can easily reheat.  Or a loaded up salad.  And on Sundays I can combine lunch and dinner into an earlier family dinner and splurge on a heavier meal like homemade sauce or everyone's favorite meatloaf.

I have no idea how this will work but it feels right even before I started.  I feel like it will be lighter and more energizing on my digestive system and my lifestyle.  And as a byproduct, maybe even my body.

I am really excited to give this a try!

Finding Creativity ... In the Craft Store

Yesterday I went to the craft store.  And I left my credit card in the car.  On purpose.

My mission was to spend an hour slowly walking through the aisles to see what caught my eye.  Once something did I would take a picture of it.  

Some things I took pictures of were things I really wanted.  Like this book Creative Doodling and Beyond.

Some things I thought would make a great cake.  Like this rubber stamp of a tree filled with animals.

Some things I wanted to figure out how to make at home and do with the kids instead of buying the stuff.  Like these really pretty flowers from the American Girl wreath kit.

And some things I just liked and I am inspired to come up with a way to use them.  I was thinking that these cute elephants and flowers and stars might be a really nice embroidery or maybe the inspiration for some birthday cards this year.

It was really fun to just wander around with no purpose and to be free of the desire to buy anything!   It was a great spark to my creativity.