the befores

my post yesterday reminded me of how nice it is to look back on my blog to something from the past.

i never ever remember to shoot BEFORE photos when i work on a project. trying to remedy that.

these 'before' shots were done by anne on the day that i first saw fern. the bathroom was my least favorite room, for multiple reasons.

the 'during' photos have been shot by me over the last few days. i've been priming the plastic walls in hope that paint will stick to them (good news. pretty sure it will). so, not a complete 'gut' job, but everything else in the bathroom will be new.

very exciting to be in this stage! i hope things don't take more than a couple of weeks to complete, so i'll keep posting progress along the way :)

in other words, welcome to my 4th grade diary. ha.

whole foods rock.

so, we were supposed to be in the midst of a giant blizzard today. instead, i woke up to the tinkling sound of rain puttering on my roof. what a weird, weird winter. sigh. kind of glad i am a shut-in today with lots of projects to work on.

i thought i'd brighten things up by telling you what i ate over the weekend :) ha. it's so strange how the nano-second that i decide to start eating better, i think about food all the time. i am hoping that phenom passes. but for now, it's kind of good to share my new discoveries. please bear with me... :)

here's what i started with:

• rolled oats from the canister (i usually have the old-fashioned ones - not sure it matters for this recipe, since you blend everything together. at any rate, just pick something that has ONE ingredient on the side of the box.

• water

• a banana

• a couple of small other things, but not really anything important...like baking soda or powder?! how can that be?!!!!

it looks kind of thick when you're done. i only made a half-batch, because i was not a believer, yet anyway.

okay, so look at those! if it looks like a waffle, and smells like a waffle, can it truly be a waffle. or is it just oatmeal in disguise? i'm not sure!

you decide for yourself. the finished product was definitely heavier than a normal waffle, and a little lacking in flavor, but for the chance to leave the white flour and sugar in the pantry, i would call this one a 'keeper.'

i always freeze my leftover waffles and toast them for breakfast...did that yesterday, and yum. crispy goodness and a carb treat that is good for you.


i might be getting into this ;)

 ps. remember that one time when i did that one messy job?

okay. here we go again. sometimes, i feel like bill murray :)



happy day, y'all! eat waffles!

I think it's time.

as i get more into this idea of changing over to 'healthy' status in life, i have started to think about getting on the bike trail bandwagon again.

i've never been a super awesome bike rider (just ask carey :)) BUT i have ridden consistently on the trails in the past. i really have no excuses anymore, because i live pretty close to access to our little city bike trail. look at how cute it's getting! not quite full circle, but close...i am quite far away from being able to circle the city anyway, so it does not bother me too much that it's not quite complete.

my access point is not the prettiest area of the trail, but unlike before, i probably don't have to carry mace in order to get on the trail. it does snake right behind the zoo, so i could possibly sneak peak an elephant on my rides. that is an incentive for me, actually :)




so, shopping for a new bike is also an incentive, i think! i have to get thru tax season, but here is the little number that i have my eye on!!! i wonder if i could put an antique wicker basket on the front ;)) hello summer, i am really looking forward to seeing you again.

well, this is a little weird.

it's 2pm on a normal thursday, and i just pulled that guy out of the oven. it seemed like a good idea to have a turkey in my back pocket for this whole 'eat healthier thing' that i started yesterday. and this little bird has been taking up valuable freezer real estate for too darn long.

it's hard to believe that only yesterday, it was practically summer. almost 50 degrees, sunny and fabulous outside. definitely not really turkey season.


today, we are back to winter. and the loveliest, softest, fluffiest snowfall coming down in picturesque form all day. i am excited that i don't have to leave the house, and i guess thankful that i will be having a turkey sandwich for dinner, but still.



i would rather be gardening right now ;)

whey yummy.

so, tomorrow is the start of Lenten season. at noon, i'll go to a short church service, receive the 'ashes' and remember that i am made from dust, and to dust i will return.

i'll also be starting a decision to glorify God with my body for the time up until easter. what that means to me is to eat healthier, and exercise more. okay, exercising more will just mean doing SOMEthing. anything.

i went and bought some groceries today, and i am sort of ready. i am nervous. i want to try and limit sweets (that's the fasting part) except for those found in fruit/etc. natural stuff. less white bread and simple carbs. more protein.

i don't like protein much.

i do like eggs, and of course peanut butter. but meat? not so much. i have an 8-lb turkey thawing in the fridge, which i will roast and freeze most of. it's hard to imagine eating protein every day though, so i went and got some whey protein powder. i've heard both good and bad things about it, but i probably won't use it every day.


and then i made a smoothie to 'test' it out.

um. yeah. that was delish. it was a little like dairy queen?! how can that be healthy?!!! ha.

i just blended 1% milk, the powder, a few frozen unsweetened cherries and a couple of ice cubes.

my big secret discovery of late is that you don't need to use your blender container to make a smoothie or small drink....most blenders will fit a pint or quart glass jar. therefore, the jar becomes the glass, and there is far less 'blender cleanup' - plus, i did not have to buy a special appliance in order to make a smoothie.

wish me well. and maybe say a prayer or two for me along the way :)

sunny weather

i find that i am starting to dress a little more 'spring-like' now. it matches the weather.

today we are back to sunshine after a snowy/rainy/sleet-ish hissy fit of a day yesterday. that is nice :)


happy tues!

the nudge part 2

as i was titling this post, i decided to see if i had ever titled a post this before. guess what? i had. odd that i thought of that, i think.


so, i had a small nudge from God last week. it started out simple enough, and only required me to send an email of encouragement to a friend.

it ended (well, technically it hasn't ended yet) with an idea, and me having to share it in all 3 services at church yesterday. yikes.

long story short, i think God nudged me into taking the Lenten season on in a new way. he did this by asking me to 'give' more of myself. and quite possibly he asked the other members of my church to do the same thing.

anywhoo, it was cool. of course the thought popped into my head more than once: 'what if God did NOT say this, and i am making it up?'

that is the funny thing about nudges. usually we can convince ourselves that they didn't happen if we would rather not do the thing we were nudged to do! i am famous for this, sadly enough.

i did get some confirmation though, yesterday. after i spoke about choosing to give back one thing to our church for all the things we receive regularly, a friend came up to me and said 'i hope you know you have made my week very unpleasant, because i don't want to do what i am supposed to do.'

he he. we laughed. i feel the same way, and yet obedience also feels good, we reminded ourselves.

another couple listened in first service, then proceeded to go out and buy a wonderful gift for our church kitchen, which they brought back and delivered in between 2nd and 3rd service. the husband said 'we've been meaning to do this for awhile, your message just pushed us over the edge.'

think about it. if we ALL did the things we are nudged to do - for good - for love - for God - for others - more often, our world would be so much more 'right.' i have to remember that this week as God shows me more and more what He means by putting this in the Bible:

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Acts 20:35

happy week, everyone!

#499

so, today i pinned my 499th pin to Pinterest.

now, i'm kind of afraid to pin, because i want to make sure that #500 is 'special'!

it's hard to believe i have not quite been pinning a year. today i had lunch with a friend who is going to a 'pin party' this week to gather ideas for her students (she's a teacher). it's crazy how popular it's become!! in the beginning, it was just us art people googling and pinning all the pretty out there :)

i kind of wish pinterest and facebook would get together, because facebook bores me to TEARS mostly. how many mundane thoughts do i have to endure from myself and others before i just QUIT already?!

sigh. i won't quit. that's because social media is like crack.

and pinning #500 is like super duper duper better-than-crack crack.
:)














ps. upon posting this, i feel the need to express that i am in no way advocating that crack is good. not that i would even remotely know.

v-day

happy 'love' day! it's a good day to check out pinterest if you don't already do it regularly. lots of pretty stuff.

ps. that bottom valentine is from me :) i found it at the thrift store this weekend for you....!

monday morning coming down

schwew. i can't believe i have not blogged for days! i'm losin' game, people, i am sorry!

what did you guys do this weekend? i am sad that mine is over, even though it was a slow-moving affair.

i went thrifting on saturday. thrifting is like a vacation in the bahamas to me. except it only takes a couple of hours, and costs a little less.



i found this round person, and named him 'lil bobby' - hmmmmm. he also plays a little tune. a good office mate, i am hoping.


look at the ranger alfalfa pillow! the biggest typo i ever heard about in the history of my old ad agency involved the word aflafla. alflafa. aflafala. ha. siesta likes to sniff it before she takes a nap on it. a little walk in nature, i am sure.


oh, and i'm working on a craft. i don't have quite the right materials yet, but it involves a style element made famous by the tv show 'glee' - which i don't watch. i will update with a tutorial soon!








and lastly, i watched the grammys last night. i know. two weekends running - first the super bowl and now this. i am feeling like i just spent a week at the mall.....must. stop.

ha.

it was seriously not even that bad. there is always some train wreck that people cannot believe, and some talented person who redeems the thing. same story, different millenium. it was made more entertaining by the live tweets and FB updates expressing both the awe and disgust of the whole production. i wanted to tweet, but it would have taken too much effort to type all that i had to say!

i did like whitney houston, btw, in her 'bodyguard' days. a very beautiful voice....and an all-too-familiar story.




i was giddy to find some new music to download. loved, LOVED 'the civil wars' - and yes, that is joy williams from way back when in christian pop music. i wonder if she is still 'saved'? ha ha ha.



anyway. happy week! i promise to be a more faithful blogger moving forward. no really. i do.

the in-between

whew. thanks for praying yesterday. i am feeling much better today, i think!

i find myself in a strange, not-quite-sure mood lately, i think i can attribute it to the february=ness of things. i have so many thoughts going on in my head, but still find myself staring at the computer every morning, wondering where/how to start the day. it's a little overwhelming, to be honest.

i am trying hard not to put too much emphasis on the future dates that i am looking forward to....you know...

when spring comes.
when i lose weight.
when i get that project going.
when we get our church camp designed.
when this happens.
when that happens.

still. the in-between months make it hard not to think of 'when' - i am imagining myself in my new-to-me back yard, which to be honest, is pretty crappy right now. in my head, it looks like these pics of a beautiful low deck/pergola. sigh.

happy tuesday. going to get off the 'when' wagon, and try to live in the 'now' for today :)

super sized

so, how many back forty readers watched the super bowl? i will shamelessly admit i did and it was my first/last football game of the season to watch. why, WHY do you suppose it has become such a must-see in our culture?

i do like football. it's just quite a time commitment to watch a whole season of nfl, if you are actually going to care about it. and i've long since passed the season of life where i care that much. i do enjoy tuning in to the super bowl anyway, mostly for the who-ha and increasingly for the oddity of it all.

a couple of sdsu acquaintances where there this year photographing the event, so that was a fun perspective on facebook this time around. a former intern in the dept. i worked at on campus shot the money shot this year (above) ...! kind of cool.



i suppose madonna is another talking point. never have i been a madonna 'fan' but i am not a hater, i guess. i did think she looked a bit ridiculous teetering around in her big pointy boots, and not entirely confident, either. not many people are mentioning the fairly obvious missteps in her dance moves. i think she sounds really good, still, though. i just think at 53, you might want to put away the ridiculous costumes and goofiness. dunno. apparently, it's still compelling to her to be the star of the show. at any rate, the super bowl has become the place where dying rock stars go to make themselves look silly. she probably did better than most.


i didn't see all of the commercials, because i was roaming around alot and not watching the whole thing. but i did LOVE the dog who exercised and lost weight for VW. thought it was a perfect analogy for the new bug, which IS pretty cute. i sort of want one. i guess that IS the point of the ads, right?





sigh. now, monday. i'm on my 3rd day of the stomach flu in da house, so would appreciate prayers if you read this. back tomorrow, hopefully feeling better!

if i had a million dollars

i saw this list this morning, and it made me think about how weird it must be to be a totally rich rock star person. let's face it, john lennon's to-do list looks kind of like an 84-year-old retired person's list. i'm somebody who enjoys having something TO DO during the day. not sure waiting for the HBO man would be so fulfilling.

it looks like he had something to do with 'marmalade' on his list, which is possibly why i love him anyway.

that being said, the mind started wandering to what WOULD i do if i had a million dollars like john had?


i'd probably still surf the interwebs.
i'd buy siesta a really expensive cat bed.
i'd keep my job, but possibly skip the meeting i have this afternoon.
i'd keep my house, and probably also get a cabin in the woods.
i'd keep thrifting for .99 items
i'd think about ALL the things that we could do at mercy church that we want to.
i'd dress better and have a decent haircut.
i'd bake cookies for the neighbors for valentines day coming up.



wait. couldn't i do most of those things WITHOUT a million dollars?

sigh. sometimes you just have to admit that you're a procrastinator, and ask God to get you off your holding pattern. whatever you want to do in this life, DO IT.

:) happy day.

back in the day

anne and i are doing 'research' for a project (well, okay, mostly SHE is, but i might do a little)... she found this yesterday, looking back at some vintage national park projects.

this is for REAL, peeps! can you imagine the number of art directors who raised their hands and volunteered to do THIS one?! i sure would have! ha! 'sasquatch says' is the best line ever!