Thursday 13

May 28, 2009

Thursday 13

THIRTEEN POSITIVES ABOUT
MITCHYPOO

The idea for this post came from The Gal Herself, who listed things she was good at. Since so many of us concentrate on our faults and flaws and weaknesses and peccadilloes, it was a refreshing read. And so I am stealing it. I encourage everyone else to steal it. Looking at yourself objectively and liking what you see is a natural high.

1. I love animals. I've always had a soft spot for them and it doesn't matter what kind of animal although I'm partial to cats and dogs and hippos. You know that kid who always brought home a stray animal~ that was me.
2. I'm crafty. I've always loved to learn new things and I love craft. My favorite craft now is knitting of course, but I love to paint and bead, and, you name it crafty and i love it.
3. I'm a great cook. My Mamacita says that she is a recipe cook, but I can cook anything and without a recipe. It's true. I can take any ingredients and make a meal.
   
4. I can bake homemade bread. From scratch, not a machine although the machines are cool too. I also make homemade pasta. I also used to make bagels, crackers, hotdog buns.
   
5. I have nice handwriting. People comment on it.
6. I quit smoking. If you are a smoker, you know that this is difficult. To quit. But I did, and cold turkey. It's all or nothing for me a lot of times.
7. I work well under pressure. I've had jobs where sometimes there is a lot of pressure or deadlines to work under. I've always been able to get through these times, it kind of motivates me.
8. I'm loyal. I pride myself on it.
   
9. I still love to learn. I should be a perpetual student because I love to learn about things. I want to know more. If I don't know how to do something, I want to learn how to do it.
10. I am empathetic. When I was active in church they discussed that everyone has a gift and I believe that this is my gift, although truthfully, it causes me some pain sometimes. I try to see the good in it.
11. I love old people. When I was young, in grade school I liked to go to the nursing home or convalescent center to visit the old people. I would ask my Mamacita to take me down there. I always saw really cool things in older people.
12. I'm smart. I have an Associates degree, I'd like to someday continue my education formally, but I truly believe that some of the smartest people do not have a paper degree. They have a life learned education. I'm not an Einstein, but I maybe could have joined Mensa.
13. I'm creative. I think it's a talent and positive thing to be creative and I'm glad that I can see something and see how to create that thing or how to improve something. You need imagination to be creative. That's why I love knitting because I determine what I create and how it looks.
    

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Celebrate!

May 27, 2009

Celebrate!

Diva Knitting is having a Blogiversary! And she is so cool that she is giving away a
Namaste Bag and some other goodies! Check her out, you still have time to sign up!

Belly Garnish

May 20, 2009

Belly Garnish

Have you heard? There is a new food blog called Belly Garnish. I'm a contributor and I hope you'll come see us. Thanks Flawfulfibers for starting it.

Thursday 13

May 14, 2009

Thursday 13

I have an Ayurveda appointment today. Ayurveda is the ancient form of health care from India. It has been practised for over 5000 years but is just now getting a little more well known in the United States. I have been seeing my practitioner, Eleni, for almost a year and I love her and everything I learn about Ayurveda. She is not Indian by the way. She is very interesting actually. She is from Australia, with Greek nationality and married to an American. She has been a Godsend to me. My list this week is 13 things about Ayurveda and why I love it.

1. It's natural, based on nature and how our bodies work naturally.
2. Everyone is an individual and has a body type that relates to nature. There is your basic "prakriti" or constitution. They call it your Dosha and there are 3 basic doshas, Pitta, Vata, and Kapha.
3. Each body type has qualities that relate to nature. The basic doshas relate to Earth, Air and Fire.
   
4. Ayurveda believes there are things we can do daily to improve our health such as, oiling your body. They suggest you use an oil for your dosha and before showering you should oil your body from head to toe, doing self massage. I've done it, it's very relaxing and does make you feel wonderful.
5. Other daily habits they suggest are exercising, meditation, using a neti pot, scraping your tongue, eating a large leisurely lunch, resting after meals, resting on your left side after eating and the oiling.
   
6. Ayurveda says you should eat with the seasons and eat as natural as possible.
7. Ayurveda treats the whole body. Not just the physical, but the emotional. It all relates. Emotions can affect your health.
8. They use herbs and natural remedies for common ailments. For instance, I've suffered with migraines for years. So I was instructed to take a quart a day of feverfew tea for 30 days straight. Feverfew is an herb, a dried green leaf, it looks like oregano and I did do this and I am happy to report that my migraines/headaches are reduced very dramatically! I still get them every now and then, maybe once a month, compared to getting them 3-4 times a week, and sometimes daily. It's totally remarkable and it was so easy.
9. They use certain spices for your health and because of taste. Certain tastes help your health. A big one for me is turmeric, I use it everywhere I can in cooking and I take a capsule of turmeric daily. I made the capsules myself and I take it because turmeric helps digestion and also improves the health of your skin.
10. Kitcheri. It's a type of indian style dish that has whole grains in it and is easily digestible. I love it because it's comfort food for me now and because it's versatile and because I actually like the taste of it.
11. Yoga is a part of Ayurveda, they are connected, but you can do one without the other. I do some yoga, but it's not a definite part of my practice yet.
12. I had some pretty significant stomach problems for over 6 months before seeing Eleni. We worked on my digestion with some herbal supplements and my diet, and taking a yogurt drink. I mixed plain yogurt with fresh ground ginger, pumpkin pie spice and honey or agave and I drank that twice a day. My stomach issues also went away after a while of this treatment.
13. I've lost weight. Since seeing Eleni I've lost about 30 lbs. The weight is a symptom of my body imbalance and I'm working on that. When you get in balance, the body loses the weight because the body knows what is a natural weight for you. It's also empowering to be able to lose the weight.
    

I hope you are intrigued. Could it help you? Is it a better way to live? For me it is. I'm healthier and I only have to take one medication now only because there is no other alternative for my hypothyroid.

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Thursday Thirteen

May 7, 2009

Thursday Thirteen

It's been a long time since I've participated but I thought I'd try to join all of you again. I met some cool people and saw lovely blogs while doing this before. My list today, based on this TT picture, is about Italian food and why I love it!

1. Italian food is very fresh! They use almost no packaged, processed foods in their preparation.
2. I love PASTA! Nothing like it. I've tried the whole wheat pasta, which is OK, actually it's pretty good, but I love traditional semolina/flour pasta.
3. It's very versatile. If you have pasta you can do all kinds of dishes by just varying the sauce. It can be as simple as some butter and parmesan cheese. Or with a tomato sauce or marinara. Or you could do a clam sauce, or even a cream/butter/parmesan sauce.
4. Fresh herbs. They use a lot of fresh herbs in preparation or even at the end for color and taste. Herbs like oregano, basil, italian parsley.
5. Lasagna. Who doesn't like layers of ooey gooey cheese, between layers of pasta ribbons, with a tasty meat sauce and tomatoes, and then...more cheese.
6. Gelato~It's the italian version of ice cream and it's usually lighter and less fattening. I also like that it's soft and I like soft, melty ice cream.
7. Charcuterie~I love their meats, bologna, salumi, italian sausage, cappacola
8. Prosecco~The italian champagne. It's lovely, light, and not so sweet.
9. Family style~Many times a dish is served family style, meaning instead of making individual plates, you just serve it on a large warmed platter and everyone passes the dish around and takes what they like.
10. Cheese~who doesn't like fontina, and romano and then the parmesan. Regianno Parmesano in particular has a huge history and it continues to be the best parmesan available.
11. Olive Oil~how could I have a list like this and not have olive oil on the list. They use olive oil, mainly the extra virgin olive oil for flavor, not just as a way to cook. A really good olive oil is full of flavor and dipping bread in it with some balsamic vinegar for flavor....oh, yum!
12. Balsamic Vinegar~Again, they are very serious about their balsamic vinegar, there are vintages of balsamic. Some is aged and is quite decadent. It can be like a bottle of wine, it gets better with age and depending on the year and the circumstances can be quite expensive.
13. Attitude~ A lot of the italian dishes came to be because of their attitude about food. Food is to be enjoyed, it's to entertain family and friends. It's comfort and it uses the best food at the best time and to the best advantage. It's survival. They do not like to waste food. The panzanela salad has used bread in it. It's still usable and it's enjoyed in this preparation. I love that it's about family and enjoying yourself.
    

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Booga Bag

May 5, 2009

Booga Bag

It starts like this. A lovely all wool yarn.

And then you knit furiously for one evening and early the next day you end up with us. I used a 10 1/2 needle on the bag base and then a size 13 for the bag and for knitting the i-cord.


Then you put it in the washing machine with some detergent on the hot wash and cold rinse. And after a couple washes, actually four washes, and finally I wizened up and put in about 3 pair of jeans with it, you get this lovely felted creation.

I dried it overnight, upside down over a tupperware cereal container. It just happened to have the right size to attempt to have the base dry flat and square.

I've known about felted bags and wanted to make one for years. I have felted other items, such as the knit chinese fortune cookies I made one year for Valentine's Day, but a bag seemed like such a big project. It turned out to be so simple. A really quick knit, I mean it literally was knit up in less than 24 hours including me sleeping overnight.

I think I will actually use this bag. I'm happy.

May 2, 2009

This is what I've been up to.



Yes, up to my eyeballs with 5 kittens and a very good and protective Momma Sophie. She had kittens Easter morning. It's all kind of new to me, I'm having to learn as I go, but nature is a wonderful thing and has blessed me with a really good momma cat, so I haven't had to do too much or worry too much. So they are 3 weeks old now and really cute. There is four black kittens, maybe tabby striped, can't tell yet. I think they may have medium or long hair, must have come from daddy, and there is one mini Sophie. She has the white markings on her face, the cutest spotted tummy and a pink nose. She seems to be the smallest but the most alert. We are going to keep one of the kittens...and it was Mamacita's decision to keep one. Knock me over with a feather. But I'm happy she wants to. It'll be hard to pick one, I'd like to keep them all, but we have to do what is best for the kittens.

I've also been knitting. I got kind of bored with sock knitting, not sure why, but I had to make this lovely lace scarf and finished it yesterday.

This is Malabrigo Lace yarn in Water Green colorway. I got it at The Loopy Ewe. This is luscious lovely single skein lace weight yarn and hey, it's CHEAP! Can you believe it cost me $9.00 in yarn to make this lovely scarf! I still need to block it so it lays nice. This pattern was made for 1 skein of this yarn and I think I'll definitely make another one, i love it that much. The pattern is called Leaf Lace Scarf and here's a link to the designers blog with a link to a free pattern.

I also knit another scarf but I haven't taken pics or blocked yet. I'll post that later. And I've started another baby blanket, this time in primary colors for baby Logan. I already made him a blanket but it's in pastel baby colors and that just will not do. His nursery is all in primary colors, with trucks and stuff, so now I'm knitting a Modern Baby Blanket by Mason-Dixon Knitting. I had to mail order the yarn because I was looking for a machine washable, good quality, soft but strong DK yarn, and my plurk pals suggested a few, and I decided I wanted Plymouth Dreambaby and it's lovely, lovely yarn. But the company had a back order of 2 colors of the 4 I'm using, so I've knit what I can and waiting for the other 2 yarns to be delivered. I know they shipped yesterday, so I'll be able to get started again.

Still going to Acupuncture, even though my Dr. moved up north to Santa Clara....boo hoo. I'm seeing a new Dr. and it's OK. And I'm still doing Ayurveda, I see my practitioner only about once a month. I finally got my wii fit so I've been doing that and I'm enjoying it.

We're going to see Dad today at the cemetery. Gary hasn't seen his grave marker yet. It was suppose to rain today, but in Southern California fashion, the weather man was wrong and it's simply glorious here today. Have a good weekend!