currently

Stopping in before I'm off to meet my partner to finish up our presentation for tonight. If all goes according to plan I'll have an interesting how-to for you tomorrow. Well I think it's interesting anyway. ;) So for now, I'm borrowing this meme I've seen on Lariats and Lavender and Sometimes Sweet just for funzies.

fruity fruity fish and glowing hair at a recent video shoot

 Currently.. 

Obsessing over..
Homemade iced coffee. It's that time of year again! It's oh so refreshing in the morning.

Working on..
My presentation for class tonight. I finished the first one yesterday and now I'm trying to wrap up the second one but I have to meet with my partner to do that. Yea, two presentations in one night. That is exactly why blogging is sparse at the moment. :/ This is the toughest class I've had all of grad school. And it's really just because of a project overload honestly. Some nights I have three things due at once. But I knew it was coming because I heard about this somewhat infamous class from everyone who had it before me so I'm trying really hard to remain calm and just push through it.

Thinking about..
All the things I want to do this summer! I want to have picnics, go to the beach, see my brother, dust off the ol' beach cruiser and go for bike rides, make more ice cream, read for enjoyment again, try new juicing combinations with summer fruit, go for walks, plant more herbs and veggies..

Anticipating..
The start of camp! I don't think I've mentioned this yet but I got a job this summer teaching classes at an art and design camp for girls! I couldn't be more excited. I've been planning projects like crazy and digging through my inspiration folders for ideas. I'll do a post sometime on the projects I'm planning on doing. They're pretty fun!

Listening to..
Supernatural on the telly. :)

Eating..
Leftovers from dinner last night. Broccoli and ziti with garlic and olive oil. Yum!

Wishing..
My allergies would go away. Far, far away! They've had me miserable for a month!


What are your currently's? :) Hope your week is going well!

ps A big thanks to everyone who wished my piggy well and sent some good thoughts. It made me feel a lot better to hear that other people have been through similar things and they turned out okay. Also glad to hear about other piggy mamas out there! I don't think some people truly understand just how awesome those little guys are. :) Also, Walnut's eye is looking AMAZING. I keep up with the meds and it's gone down to almost normal size!

six weeks

Check out my post over at Silly Grrl today! Sarah, who put together this whole shindig, asked me to give some tips on how I take food photos for recipe posts. I'm no photographer or anything, but through trial and error, and quite a bit of help from a certain photographer boyfriend, I've managed to find a few things that help improve my photos. Check it out if you're interested! Also click through the other posts! Some really talented ladies gave a lot of great advice over there!

Oh yea, by the way, remember me? The girl who used to blog here? Talk about life going from sitting in a rocker to fast paced in five seconds or less. I was enjoying my break from classes and planning on doing a ton of things for the blog that I could bank for later (aka now) when I got busier.

Then suddenly I'm a live-in vet for poor Walnut, I think because I put the meds on her eye the day we got them so it was like "well you're good at it, this is your job now". Not that I mind at all, I just think it's funny. A little update on that.. we're pretty sure she has glaucoma, which isn't the worst thing in the world for a guinea pig. She still has sight in one eye and her bad eye looks like it may be improving. She may not be able to see out of it again, but we just hope the swelling goes down and it's less.. well I don't want to be too graphic so let's just say less infected looking. She's still acting 100% normal though so we think she may be okay!

Besides all the piggy care, I was subbing at two different schools this week, had a quick emergency design project, and started the summer class from hell. Yea this semester is going to be interesting to say the least. It's six weeks long so I may be a little reclusive during it but I'll try to keep this ol' blog running. Just know that if posting is sparse, that's why. And six weeks isn't really that long. I mean look how fast these first five months flew by!

Well, I hope your Memorial Day weekend is great. Go barbecue, be outside, and have fun!

piggies

I've been meaning to introduce you to some very important furry babies in my life, but being the perfectionist that I am, I was always going to take "better" photos. I took these just playing around once so they're occasionally out of focus or have a bit of motion blur. They get so curious when you bring something foreign into their world (like a camera) and never stop moving, smelling, running..

Anyway, the reason I finally organized these photos into a post is because one of our poor little babies, Walnut, is having some trouble. We ran around to a couple vets yesterday because, seemingly overnight, one of her eyes swelled up and got all infected. This could either be from a deeper problem or just be an infection. She got a few shots - which was terrible to witness :( - and some goopy stuff to put on her eye.

Now we just wait to see if the antibiotics work and what the next step will be. Sadly, if she needs surgery, we may not be able to afford it. And surgery for guinea pig is really risky to begin with because of how tiny they are. So we're really praying that she'll rally and any further care she'll need will be affordable.  For now though, she's totally happy, eating, and acting normal. Besides her eye, you wouldn't think anything was wrong.

So today I wanted to honor my favorite little furries and ask for some prayers and positive thoughts for our little Walnut.

That's Walnut! She was actually quite the surprise piggy. We didn't know when we got her that she was pregnant. So we added two more little piggies to our family a few months after bringing her home. :) If you've never seen a baby guinea pig, you're missing out. I mean like weeks old baby. I swear, they are just little heads with giant kangaroo feet. I die.

 Thirsty Walnut.

This is Suzi. She's the first pig we got, a little bit before Walnut. And she won't let anyone forget it. She's half old lady, half puppy. She hates being touched unless you pick her up and hold her. Then she'll practically roll over like a puppy and let you pet her. She can be a pretty big grump though and is definitely the alpha lady.

Suzi is trying to determine if the camera is something she can eat. After realizing it's not, she's over it.

Here's my little Pete! He is one of Walnut's babies, and since we couldn't have him staying with the girls and impregnating them all, I took him to college with me and we were best friends. It was my first time living alone and he was good company. Now he resides right next to the girls and purrs at them when they walk up to his cage.

Checking out what the girls are doing next door.

And finally, Peach, Walnut's other baby. This photo pretty much sums up Peach. Always looking over her shoulder, a little dodgey eyed. She hasn't gotten the idea yet that we don't want to eat her. However, she has the best butt-shake when you give her scratches. She loves her butt scratches.

Suzi photobomb.


I'm glad I finally got it together and showed you my babies. They all have such personalities and are big sweethearts. Even the grump. ;)

What furballs do you hold near and dear?

canvas + paint markers

Okay maybe a few words first and then it's wordless wednesday. :)

Did you ever take pictures of something and fully intend to use them in a post, only to completely forget and leave them sitting in a folder for months? That's what happened here. I went to this really cool art show back in December. A few friend's of mine and Charlie's that we haven't seen since college days were painting huge canvases at this sort of live art show thing. It was pretty interesting and was held in a bar on South Street with this really crazy 2nd floor that is covered in paint and stickers. Oh, and there were bumper cars for seats. Nuts! Sorry for the low quality phone pics but I still though they were fun. :)

I hope you're having a great Wednesday! I subbed pre-k today so I'll be looking for a drink soon. :)

carrot apple ginger beet

Kicking off a new week with some fresh juice seems like the right thing to do. Especially with the state I'm in.. sun-burned and allergy ridden. I'm usually really good with the sunscreen, obsessive even. I get made fun of for using spf 100 and I've heard that nothing over spf 30 is any bit more effective. But if they make it, I'm gonna use it.

So before the Union game yesterday I slathered my face and arms in lotion and somehow thought my legs would be immune to the sun. It was early. Poor decisions are bound to be made. Anyway, the backs of my legs are toasted and it hurts to sit, walk, move, ya know. On top of that I woke up this morning with pink puffy eyes. It's been great. And I know juice isn't going to alleviate my allergies or cure my sunburn, but dammit it makes me feel good! ;) 

Back when I did my first juicing post, Caiti suggested trying this mix. I already had tried carrot apple ginger, but the beets were something totally new for me. I've had them once or twice in the past but I never really loved them. I thought this could be a good way to add them to my diet. Just like spinach! I swear, apples make everything better. I loved this juice! And look how pretty..

Oooooh I didn't even want to mix it up! But then I did and it made the brightest hot pink I've seen since my hair circa 2006. I love finding ways to get healthy things into my diet without having to really taste them the way they are on their own. I've always been pretty good with fruits and vegs but sometimes I find one I just don't get along with.

How was your weekend? Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

happenings lately

May is off to a pretty good start I'd say! We've been busy little bees around these parts, and I've been taking full advantage of my time off from classes. I'm trying to get outside as much as possible while the weather is warm enough for light sweaters but not so hot that it renders you a sweaty puddle the moment after stepping out the door.

Lately, I've been making tons of juice, going for walks in the gorgeous weather, making "rummy bears", and dipping soft pretzels in homemade ice cream.

This past weekend we went to a wedding at a sweet little inn on the river. It was a lot of fun! You can see a lil peek of what I wore up there in the photo of the floral dress and yellow tights. I want to do a full outfit post at some point because I'm infatuated with that dress!

Last week was spring cleaning week. I made my favorite green juice, turned up the Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora, and finally put away two laundry baskets that were overflowing with clean clothes. I don't know why I let it get so backed up.. it could have something to do with the fact that I loathe putting away laundry. Anyway, I decided to be a real adult and put into place a laundry day once a week so I have to deal with a lot less at a time and hopefully I'll be a lot less whiny about it. ;)
 

The moon has been pretty interesting to look at lately.. usually photos of the moon don't turn out too well but I was pleased with this one since it looked nice shining through the clouds. I also murdered some basil and attempted to bring it back to life to no avail. But! After this tragedy, we bought two basil seedlings for the backyard so now I have some hanging out in a pot back there! Hopefully I can keep them alive. If not, I can always drown my sorrows in black and white milkshakes. Or maybe celebrate with one!


What have you been up to lately?

homemade soda: strawberry lemon

In an effort to make more things at home and buy less processed foods and drinks, I've been brainstorming things I could make to replace some not-so-healthy guilty pleasures. One thing I knew I wanted to try this summer was making my own sodas. Though I'm sure I'm far from the first person to think of it, I was pretty excited when I came up with the idea to mix fresh juices with sparkling water or club soda. I'm sure sparkling water would be even healthier but we happened to have club soda on hand so that's what I used!

I filled about 1/4 of the glass, maybe a little more, with the strawberry and lemon juice from my juicer. I added simple syrup (equal parts sugar + water, boiled until dissolved) to taste and then filled the rest of the glass with club soda. It had the perfect fruity flavor and the bubbles were so refreshing! Sometimes you just need that..

..amiright? ;)

Stir gently to combine so you don't flatten the soda.

I see many more flavor experiments in my future. What I love about this is not only the endless possibilities, but you know exactly what's going into it. It can be as simple as fruit/veggies/herbs and sparkling water, or you can sweeten it with raw sugar, honey, sweetener.. whatever you fancy!

Can't beat that vivid summery pink. I can just imagine sipping on this at a summer picnic or sitting out with a book enjoying some rays. Just cap with a lemon slice and umbrella and you're set.

Now I'm really wishing the weather would shape up sooner rather than later. :)

Have you been making anything at home that you could just as easily buy? I've done ice cream and soda, now I need to think of what I want to tackle next. That last statement just gave me visions of ice cream floats. That's happening at some point.

Well, chin up! We've almost made it to Friday. ;)

homemade ice cream: mint chocolate chip

I do believe in my first homemade ice cream post I mentioned that there were two no-churn recipes I wanted to try. Well that was the first and this is the second! The difference is that the first one used heavy cream mixed with confectioners' sugar and this one has heavy cream mixed with sweetened condensed milk.

Maybe one day I'll make two of the same flavors at the same time using the different recipes just to see if there's any real distance in consistency or taste. But separately I thought these both tasted delicious and like ice cream so they both win in my book.

My only complaint with both so far is that each time the texture got a little ice crystal-y in certain parts. They were still good but it could've been creamier all the way through. Neither recipe mentioned stirring the ice cream once it was popped in the freezer, but I have since heard from several people that giving a stir every so often during the initial freezing process will eliminate this problem. I already have more ingredients so I can give this theory a try!

I was excited to use one of my new Wilton gel food colors in this. I bought an obnoxious pack of a million (twelve) colors and I've been waiting to use one of them. So there's all of your ingredients, except for the chocolate, in the first photo. While your cream is whipping, combine all your flavors, colors, and chips to the sweetened condensed milk. Then add milk mixture to cream, blend well, transfer to some containers and freeze! And maybe stir periodically for good measure. :)

See the linky below for a more detailed recipe. Hope your month is starting off well!

welcome may

 Some modern day ruins at one of our favorite stops on a springtime walk.

I'm getting to be a bit of a broken record, but May already? You serious?? This year is just out of hand. Maybe because I am very content, very busy, and very much looking forward to a lot of things. Tends to make time go by faster. As per usual, here is my first day of the month post. I do enjoy looking back at these after time has passed and either pat myself on the back for getting things done or being all, "pshhh, yea right" for totally not accomplishing a goal I set. Like sticking with yoga. I was way inconsistent and then took a break for the whole week and a half I was sick. Which I finally got well from and transitioned oh so gracefully right into allergies. Hoo boy.

This month I am looking forward to..
+  Enjoying the next three weeks off before Summer I starts. Get things done with all the free time I should have. (Note: should.. don't wanna get my hopes up!)
+  A wedding Charlie and I are going to. I love weddings. There's something about getting all dressed up and dancing that makes me all sorts of happy. :)
+  Art Star Craft Bazaar in Philly. I haven't been to one yet so I'm excited to see what it's like!
+  Memorial Day Weekend. Good food, good drinks, good times. ;)


Mini goals for the month..
+  Yoga. For real this time. I want to stick with it and get my flex on. ;)
+  Keep on juicing. Maybe even get brave and do a short cleanse. This month, my schedule is actually perfect for that.
+  Paint more. Yes. That is what I would like to do.
+  Find some time for enjoyable reading before classes start back up.



What are you looking forward to this month?