Beautiful season

When it starts to get cold, I'll admit it, my tendency is to stay inside and huddle under the covers. Well, not this year! I decided I would enjoy this coming winter, snow and all.

I went to a local park and walked in silence. I breathed in cold, crisp air and let it renew me.

I looked at the trees and admired the shapes of the branches against the sky.

I walked by the lake and rejoiced at the sight of the sun dancing on the water like diamonds.

I sat on a rock and watched my geese friends play...........and just.......be.

I've changed my mind about the colder weather. I will always love to be cozy and warm inside my apartment, but venturing outside made such a difference. I am filled with gratitude to God for opening my heart and mind to the true beauty of this season.

I adore pizza!

No matter how many raw fruits and veggies I eat...........I will never give up my pizza!
My pizza made in the oven.

I made this the other night with the following simple ingredients:

1 cup warm water
1 package yeast, sprinkle of sugar, Tbsp. olive oil
2 cups flour (you can do half white, half whole wheat)
tomatoes from a local farm
shredded mozarella
rosemary

And this is what I did:

1) dissolve package of yeast in 1 cup water.
let sit for 5 min. Add sprinkle of sugar, and Tbsp. of olive oil.

2) Put the yeast mixture into a large bowl.

3) add 2 cups flour, mix, and let sit for about 10-15 min.(note: the longer you let this dough sit, the "breadier" it will become)

4) I coat my pizza stone with olive oil and put the dough on it. I flour my hand
and press it down and out.

5) I then generously coat the top with olive oil and BAKE THE CRUST FIRST, for about
15 min, or until lightly browned. ( I bake it @ 400 degrees)

6) next, I take it out and add the sliced tomatoes, mozarella, and rosemary (on my section)

7) bake for about 10 min. on bottom rack, then maybe 5-10 min on top rack, depending on how brown you like it.

And that's it!

After I plate my pieces up, I'll add cracked black pepper and some sea salt and I'm good to go! :) Yummy!

If you ever have any questions about any of my recipes, please feel free to contact me, or leave a comment:)

I am so looking forward to fall..........the cooler temps make me want to bake more. I see banana bread and chicken pot pie in my future! Until next time my friends...............

whole food goodness

I've been eating more fruits and vegetables for the last 2 months and it has really made a difference!
I've been feeling lighter, more energetic, and my skin has a glow to it. Last night I made zuchini and red peppers over whole wheat cous cous. It was fantastic!

Here's the breakdown:

1)  Saute cut up zuchini and red pepper in a pan with a little olive oil until soft.
2)  while your veggies are cooking, make your whole wheat cous cous.
3)  to the veggies, add sea salt, cracked pepper, dried thyme, and some fresh basil leaves.
4)  put in a bowl over the cous cous and crumble feta cheese.
5)  I recommend adding some chopped up fresh tomato to this dish for moisture, but I didn't have any last night.

And that's it! It was soooo goood!:)

chocolate love

Chocolate.
One word can evoke such intense emotions such as desire, pleasure,
joy and sheer bliss.

I've been learning to appreciate food over the last few weeks. Instead of laying on the couch at night with my bag of gummy bears (I will always have a special place for you in my heart little guys), I decided to earn my sweet indulgence.

Once a week or so, I will make a decadant treat from scratch. This time I made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I obtained the recipe from the back of the Hershey cocoa box. A little dab of cool whip and a fancy drizzle of Hershey's syrup and I'm good to go.

No more associating food with guilt! I will allow myself to enjoy the occasional sweet. I offer myself chocolate and again I am reminded to take it slow, enjoy the little things in life, and be grateful. Oh, so grateful for my darling chocolate.

thought no.1

Stop looking around you, and look inside. That was my thought today as I was walking through the woods this morning. Since I was a child growing up with an alcoholic mother, I was trained to stuff my feelings down. And since it offered temporary pleasure, food helped me to do just that.

Now at 41, I am turning away from the food, a major distraction. I am looking inside my heart.

For years of struggling with "weight loss", I've come to this conclusion. "It" has nothing to do with the food, and nothing to do with the weight.

It's your willingness to peel back the layers and look inside yourself. If you've had a dysfunctional childhood as I did, this will be very painful. But you might also realize that you've come to a point in your life that you want more for yourself. And just because you were born into a family that you didn't choose, and you were shaped in your early years by negative influences...........you just want more. Because you know there IS more.

I'm not going to say, "don't be afraid, you can do it!" But take a moment and ask yourself, is this what I want for my life? Whatever it is.........your health, your career, your family, where you live, etc.

It's not about looking around, at people for advice, or circumstances.

It's about looking inside and facing the truth about your past and how to break the chains that are holding you back.

"The Lord is my strength and my shield, I've learned I need to trust in Him" -lyrics from Whitecross song

creative energy

Over the weekend, I went to the park and brought a little red heart gem with me. I love photography and wanted to see how many interesting photos I could take with it as the centerpiece. I also altered some of the photos for some cool effects:) hope you enjoy!

This first photo was taken in the parking lot.

this was on the side of a stairway

on top of a drain

on the patio furniture

on top of some leafy greens:)

on some concrete

with a beautiful branch



on a rock

in the garden

and then back to where I started.

It's great to stretch your creative wings. I love to paint, collage, and journal, but this was another great way to get out my creative energy out and satisfy my expressive soul:)

Simple Summer

Spring is my favorite season, but there is truly no denying the awesomeness of Summer's bounty. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the produce that is peaked in perfection! And the fact that a snack or meal can be so simple is another reason to love this time.

I just finished this delicious bowl of grape tomatoes.

All I did was wash and cut the tomatoes, add a drizzle of olive oil, fresh ground pepper, sea salt and some dried thyme. Yum! I'll post again soon with another simple Summer recipe or some more art.

yay for tomatoes!

QDS challenge # 3

I finished my journal page for Marit's Quirky Dutch Summer challenge, word play.
You can find out more about it here:
http://www.maritspaperworld.com/blog/

So, I decided to do "cutting out words". I cut words from a children's science book from the 1950's. It was from the table of contents. I've said it before, it's really amazing how the subconscious works. I'm discovering that I work through a lot of emotion in my journal pages.

When you are "just" a stay at home mom, things may seem very elementary to people. Especially if they are of school age. My, you must have so much time on your hands! What do you do all day? Sit around eating bon-bons? It's such a stereotype.

All I know is I'm always thinking of a thousand things at once and trying to accomplish about a million.
In creating this journal page, I thought it apropro to surround the head of the woman with the many things I think of on a daily basis.

 And it's kinda funny........after I glued the bird, I was kinda mad at him. Like, "you can just fly wherever you want......you're free........what do you have to complain about?!" Can you say, therapy? ok.......feeling a little trapped in the mundane lately. I'll leave the bird alone.

And let me just say, I have really been LOVING to use tape in my journal. I just found this amazing paper tape (the yellow around the image) at Target in the kid's craft section. It comes in a roll of a bunch of colors and it's fantastic! Much different than washi tape, it's stiffer.......like a thick paper with adhesive.I also used the insides of some junk mail envelopes (black & white, blue & white). I've been wanting to do that for a long time.
Well, that's about it for now..........hope you enjoy my journal page. Ta ta for now:)

Quirky Dutch Summer challenge # 2

The second challenge from Marit, http://www.maritspaperworld.com/blog/, is to create mail art. I thought of my sister in law, Karen. We don't get to see eachother much because we live in different states, about a 12 hour drive. I knew she would appreciate some bright and colorful cheery mail art. We joke that all we ever get in the mail is bills.

I grew up with 3 older brothers and was quite content with my sibling situation in my childhood.
Then, my oldest brother got married and through the years his wife and I developed a close friendship.
But what's even more special, is that I realized she is the big sister I never had.

Karen,
through the years
you've been more than a friend
you've been my big sister.

thank you for not judging me and always staying by my side.

thank you for always looking out for me and not being a selfish friend. I like the balance we have and
I know I can count on you.

and I thank God we share the same sense of humor! Thank you for making me laugh, especially on days when nothing seems funny. I love you!

Quirky Dutch Summer challenge #1

The lovely Marit Barentsen is holding art challenges on her blog every Tuesday for the next 10 weeks.
It's called the quirky dutch summer..........love it! You can find it here:
http://www.maritspaperworld.com/blog/

I discovered this wonderful artist when I found Featuring magazine. She is the founder and chief editor.
It's a fantastic magazine! It has wonderful articles and great mixed media artwork.
You can find it @ http://featuringmagazine.com/

So, the first challenge on Marit's blog is, "fear of the blank page", and what we can do about it. Out of the choices she offered, I chose the paper scrap route. I basically followed her tutorial with a few additions. 

First, she suggest to take paper scraps and glue them together like a puzzle piece:

Next, cover them with white gesso. I did that, and also added some washi tape.

The next step is to add some color with either ink or water color crayons. I used a green spray ink, but ended up not liking it, so I wiped some of it off. I still wasn't satisfied, so I peeled a lot of the washi tape off and it gave the page a nice distressed look.

I stenciled the word, "silence" and stamped the words, "is beauty". I added a flower image from an antique book and some blue polka dot washi tape.

The reason I say, "silence is beauty" is because I feel like I can enjoy nature more when I'm quiet. Two instances come to mind...relaxing in front of an open window while a soft, cool breeze rustles the curtains and sitting on a beach at dusk, mesmerized by the motion of the waves.

The last thing I did was dip my paintbrush into some dark brown watered down paint and create paint splatters by just flicking the brush onto the page. It was so much fun, I decided to do some on the opposite page. Now, I can use that as a jump off point for my next journal page. I'll post that when it's completed.

Hope you enjoyed the process. Thank you Marit for this fun challenge!

Simple things

Hello again my friends! Welcome to haiku my heart Friday hosted by the beautiful Rebecca:)
You can discover links to more haiku treasures on her blog @ http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/.

Here is my offering for today, entitled, "Simple things"

Nature's beauty lives

The breeze refreshes my soul

gratitude abounds

I hope you get to be outside this weekend to enjoy God's magnificent creation!
love & peace,
Peg

Wish: a desire or hope for something to happen

How my wishes have changed throughout the years. Of course, when I was younger it was mostly for things. Now, at 41, it's for intangible things: good health, peace in my family, wisdom for raising my daughter, more gratitude, and the list goes on.

I'm new to blogging and the one thing I'm starting to get involved in, is art challenges. The most recent one is on  http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/  and the current challenge is to create a piece of art using the theme, "wish". I decided to make a journal page, and here it is:

feeling overwhelmed, this is my wish today

a clear mind to help me think and accomplish all I need to do.

and a strong heart to endure and press on!

Free falling

Hi friends:)

Here's the journal page I mentioned in my last post.

I always wanted to just pull a headline or part of a headline from a newspaper and make a journal page around it.Well, here it is:

This spoke to me today. Sometimes it's easy to know why you're in a good or bad mood. But lately, I've found that if I'm upset..........the reason for it goes deeper than I think. I thought I was done dealing with my childhood.........really? I'm being reminded of things lately and it feels like I'm in an emotional free fall. Don't like the emotions.......don't like the feeling of falling (emotionally, that is). But I know that I need to deal with some things once and for all.........and then let them go.

Don't be afraid of your emotions, and no, I'm not going to say embrace them. Just take a look at them. It's a small step in the right direction.

Bump in the road

Every Thursday there is a journaling challenge on http://putitonpaper.org/ . Check it out! The topics can be very thought provoking. Here is my page from the current challenge, bump in the road.

and a closeup for easier reading:

I just love floating heads..........don't you?

I just finished another journal page. I'll be posting it in a day or two. Please stop by and check it out:)

Reveal

Hi friends! Welcome to haiku my heart Friday hosted by the amazingly talented, Rebecca:) You can find out more on her blog @ http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/.

Here is my offering for today, entitled, "Reveal"

Something hidden deep

Why can't I find the answer?

Lord, I need your sight.


Be well everyone and enjoy your weekend.
love and peace,
Peg

wisdom

I just finished this ornament and wanted to share it with you.
Below is the excerpt from my etsy listing.

Wisdom is more powerful than beauty.

As women, when we get older and start to lose our beauty, we may feel
like our value is diminishing.

But it's not. It's increasing.

The specific wisdom that comes with age, is a gift.
You can use it to keep yourself from making the same mistakes,
to grow in many facets of your life,
and to share compassion with people that are suffering the same hurts
that you've already experienced.

Memorial Day

Thank you to all the men and women who serve our country.

Thank you for the sacrifice you make every day to protect us and make us secure.

Thank you to all of the families of the military. We know it is a great sacrifice for you as well.

And thank you to all of the men and women who have served our country in the past.

We appreciate all that you and your families have done for us.

On this Memorial Day, we honor all of you.

Don't misunderstand

Let's celebrate this wonderful idea of haiku my heart Friday brought to us by the lovely Rebecca. You can read her inspiring haiku @ http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/ along with links to many others. And as always, you are welcome to join!

Here is my offering for today entitled, "don't misunderstand"

You see me alone
know that it is by my choice
I am quite happy

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!
love & peace

restless

uneasy - restive - anxious - fidgety - troubled - unquiet
but why? There is nothing "majorly" wrong. Here is the journal page I created based on my thoughts today.

I forget where I read this, but someone said that when you journal, your subconscious comes through.  Sometimes when I'm glueing papers down, I'm not sure why I place things where I do, or why I choose certain elements. But now I see it.

Be quiet, go about mundane duties............every day. Day in, day out.

But I can't deny the fact that my heart longs for adventure, travel, the freedom of a bird. Here's a shout out to all of the women that stay at home to serve their families. They go unnoticed and are expected to hold everything together. Sometimes you don't feel like you exist because you are not part of the career world.

But be assured, there are women out there (like me) who know you exist. And also know that it takes a lot more than people realize to do what we do.