Love is:

GOOD strong coffee:

Bob and Cleo

I adore sock monkeys. I really do! I’m falling in love with all stuffed monkeys as well, maybe I’ll start a collection? Here is Cleo and Bob.

Cleo, the striped sock monkey, was a gift from my sisters when I had my hysterectomy. I adore her purple stripes! (Purple is my FAVORITE color!) Bob is a new member of our family, he came to me from the wilds of Amazon (.com) as a gift from my GF! I LOVE him. He’s fluffy and furry and he makes Cleo immensely happy, obviously! Look at Cleo’s moony googly eyes! She’s in love!

Okay, so you may or may not know that Borders Books and Music is going out of business. I spent a LOT of money at borders in my time, but apparently, it wasn’t enough. I do admit to being a part of the downfall of the book empire, as I’ve converted to being an Amazon.com lover and Kindle ADDICT since my move to middle of nowhere PA. But that’s another story….

Wednesday I had to go down to do some work in my office, all they way down in Harrisburg (65 miles from home!) I decided to reward myself for the trip by visiting the local Borders to check out their “everything must go” sales. Here is what I came home with:

I love Somerset, I do! But most of the time I just can’t bring myself to drop the $15.99 they want for some of their special publications. But Borders had ALL of their magazines on sale for 40% off! So I went wild and bought…well…obviously a lot! The books were 10% off, which isn’t fantastic but still…all in all I spent just over $100 and I think I got a pretty good HAUL!

And as a complete aside, has anybody ever had this happen to them?

Word to the wise? DON’T keep your carbonated beverages in the car “for convenience when you go into work” when it’s 95 degrees out! At least it was sparkling water with no sweetener and not soda….

Food Snobbery

So my brother was going on and on last night about his amazing couponing. I’m really proud of him for doing this, taking the time to really think about the groceries they are buying and managing his budget. But that being said…..I don’t coupon. Nor will I. The reason being, most of what is offered up in coupons is newly released processed foods full of stuff that I NEED to try to stay away from.

I admit, I’m something of a food snob.

Most of the groceries I buy would be considered “High end”. Gourmet brands and organic meats and produce. The stuff that makes budgeting your purchases hard. But I’m a single mom with one kid and I think it’s also important to carefully monitor what goes into our bodies. Food is a POWERFUL medicine and we don’t treat it as such. Food is also being perverted in our nation and around the world. We’ve seperated ourselves from the source to such an extreme we have NO idea what we put into our bodies anymore.

I’ve talked before about struggling for a LONG time with depression. I’ll also be the first to say that it’s not over yet. But I firmly believe that the path to my mental recovery follows closely with what I eat. My psychologist has me on a laundry list of supplements to ensure that I get an appropriate amount of brain boosting amino acids and this made me realize even more how powerful food is. I’m an addict to fast food, like so many of us, and when I had my long commute to work I was especially susceptible to it. Now that I’m home I’m trying to turn that tide back along a better course. Organic foods and vegetables. Less eating out. Less processed foods by far.

It’s a process. Consider today’s lunch:

Cracker/chips with Hummus and a nectarine. Better than McDonald’s but could be better by FAR. So here’s to ongoing food snobbery for good health…let’s see where it goes!

I needed a treat

Today was an awful day. Not really but it felt like it was. Emotionally for me anyway. So, I decided to make myself a special dinner in my newly cleanish kitchen.

The most wonderful bag of mixed greens in the world….Kale, salad savoy and some other bits of wonderful stuff that has yellow, red and purple stalks. I sautéed this with hot pepper flakes, olive oil, salt, pepper and chicken stock. Then added a hearty tablespoon of apple cider vinegar at the end. This I paired with:

A big piece of WILD caught Alaskan salmon. You know…the GOOD stuff from the deli counter that costs a fortune? Not terrible if you’re only buying one piece though. I cooked this simply, skin side down in a skillet with olive oil. Salt and pepper. Cook until done. Perfect. Why mess with it?

I think for desert I’ll have two or three chips ahoy cookies and call it a day.

Wild Woman: A wordless Wednesday post

I’m seriously disappointed in people on facebook

They think it's still high school and they can get into the “he said/she said” game. It’s even more disappointing to see people get into it whom you’ve figured to be “grown ups”.

Slowly becoming a real person

Has anybody else clung to their online moniker for all it’s worth? Opting not to put a real name on your blog, your log-in IDs for webforums and sites? Even on Facebook? For YEARS I’ve gone around with my Online ID “Chloe” or “LadyChloe” and let my real name slip into oblivion to the online world. Lately though, I’ve been letting the real me seep through more and more. Some of this is deeply personal, as I become more and more “out” in my real life. I’m less afraid of the proverbial boss or co-worker stumbling onto my alter-ego, the “mostly” gay pagan woman who struggles with *gasp* depression. A woman who has a healthy or unhealthy love of fanfiction, erotica, art, Faerie and YARN. A woman who feels censorship isn’t always appropriate and sometimes blurts out exactly what is bothering her…complete with a curse word or two. Maybe my boss will find my blog one day? Aren’t I allowed to have opinions that are diversified from my extremely catholic work place? I don’t “flaunt” it at work. I don’t “hide” it either…not really. I just don’t bring it up or rub it around.

So, here I am. I’m a REAL person. Not a moniker. Not a handle. Not a faceless drone. I’m real. I bleed. I fear. I cry. I have a mess house, a messy life and a messy set of ideals. I’m changing my blog name from “Chloe” to Jennifer. Because Jennifer is the real me. One less step out of hiding.

I’m so in love

…I have been dying to make this pattern for so long now. I’m having trouble understanding the charts however….But I have this NEED to try again! Time to go stash diving.

Drink more water!!!

I'm having a hard time with this edict, layed down to me by more than one doctor recently. (Urologist, chiropractor, Primary doc....)I don't mind water, as a rule, but I have trouble with lots of it, and lots of it plain. It tends to give me heart burn after a glass or two. Odd? Maybe. Psychosomatic? Probably....

I'm doing my level best to come off of sodas after a nasty round of battling with a kidney stone. And the tannic acid in tea also takes that right off of my "good" list and puts it into the "bad" category. Turns out soda and tea are both very big causes of kidney stones, and I do not want to suffer through that EVER again if I can help it. My urologist said lemonade was fine, but my Primary doctor...being concerned about my abundance of belly....nixed that option unless it's sugar free. Splenda sweetened beverages are "okay" but I have concerns about them, aspartame is RIGHT out (migraines)and my wallet can't afford to much of the natural sweeteners (stevia and agave nector and xylitol).

So what's a thirsty girl to do? I think I found the solution in sparkling waters. I found them at my regular, tiny grocery store a "Seltzer" waters with flavoring. Lemon, lime, cranberry, orange and even pomegranate. They come in soda sized cans and have zero calories and no sweetners of any kind. The taste is....acquired. Get it cold enough and I kinda like it. I like it more with a shot of lemonade (not sugar free...Sorry Dr. Z.)

So, does anybody have any suggestions? My goal, according to my urologist, is to drink "obscene" amounts everyday. "Enough to have you getting up at night to use the bathroom and needing to go at least every hour through the day". This is for kidney stone prevention. I haven't reached that goal yet....

Beeswax…do I like it?

 

This was my first real experiment with adding beeswax to something. You tell me? Good or bad?

before:

after:

And a close up:

Vampire Romance–my first painting, nearly completed

I’ve not gotten over my BHG fetish…I won’t for some time, I’m afraid. So I’m going with it! I finally got up the guts to really try one, on canvas (collaged paper on canvas I should say…)

Okay, she’s not done yet. I do want to try to WAX her over with beeswax…but that requires some equipment set up. Plus I think she needs..more embellishment somehow. Now much more but…more. But other than that, I’m THRILLED with her so far!

Do you ever make something you just LOVE?

I adore her.

It was one of those WONDERFUL long weekends…

I wish there were more of them. My brother and his family came to visit. There was swimming and fireworks and watermelon and lots of hugs, kisses and card games. What more could you want?

A day away from home

I spent the night over at a friends house. She recently had a hysterectomy and is recovering nicely. It was good to spend some time away from home, with a friend, just relaxing.

Just a little art:

She’s not done yet.