Life Since Last Time

Last Saturday we met up with Josh and Noura and Henry's cousin Diana and her new fiance for dinner at a Middle-Eastern restaurant called Carousel. It's one of my favorite places to eat! There's a five-course dinner of Arabic foods, live music and dancing, and a belly-dancing show at the end. I love that I get to have this culture as a part of my life since I married a Lebanese guy! 

I loved all the colors of our first course. That pretty pink stuff was a delicious turnip hummus. 

Me and the hubs.

 This week I've just been trying to put one foot in front of the other. I got a bad cold that I kind of deserved after not taking care of my body too well with all the snacks and sweets from Super Bowl parties and such last weekend. I've been a bit discouraged by thoughts of inadequacy and the likes, but I've gotten a lot of good advice and revelation on the subject. I really want to make sure I'm living a life that I love and not trying to mold myself to anyone's expectations, including the expectations I put upon myself! I'm also really trying to make sure my life is in line with what God wants for me. Ultimately, He know what will make us the happiest in our lives. 

Here are a few quotes that have totally inspired me this past week...

Be sure to check out my Pinterest page where I pin pictures, ideas, recipes, and quotes like these that I love.

Sometimes when things get too complicated in my head, looking over at my cat reminds me to simplify!

I've spent a surprising amount of time in the kitchen this past week doing the dishes, making meals and green drinks, dehydrating all the extra fruit Henry's mom gives me, preparing our emergency food storage, and baking a cake with Hayden!

I've been spending a lot of time with my little brother Hayden over Skype recently. Earlier this week he mentioned that he really wanted to learn how to make fondant so I told him we would figure it out on Tuesday. We ended up baking cakes from scratch, cutting them in the shapes of hearts for Valentine's Day, and making a marshmallow fondant for decoration. They turned out not perfect, but very cute! Best of all we had a good time working on it together. 

I've been spending my Fridays organizing and working on our emergency preparedness storage. Since I got a food dehydrator for Christmas, I decided to make an emergency meal plan using dehydrated recipes that you can just add water to (all from the recipe book I got called, "The Dehydrator Bible.") If you're interested in doing this yourself, let me know and I'll send you the meal plan I made (you'll need a dehydrator!) I'm still working on a master list of supplies one would need in an emergency situation. 

Here are the first two meals I put together. The one on the left is Caribbean-Spiced Rice and Beans (for Sunday lunch) the one on the right is Brown Rice Porridge (for Sunday breakfast). We tried some of the first recipe since I had extra, and it was really tasty! 

This is definitely taking time, but I feel better already knowing we're on our way to being prepared for an emergency!

Take Time To...

I have so many hobbies and things I'd like to be doing in my life. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by all the possible ways to spend my free time that I end up spending hours on Pinterest or something like that (not that there's anything wrong with Pinterest. I love it, but it doesn't feel good to spend hours on it.) I realize that I'm stacking up the ideas, but not taking time to act on those ideas. 

I decided to make a "Take Time To..." jar for those times when I just can't decide. I made a cute label then wrote out all the things I enjoy, ideas I have, and things I want to make sure I'm taking some time out of my life to do on strips of paper.   

Here's how it turned out. I made my strips of paper out of some copied sheet music to make it all the more personal and cute. 

Here's the label I made. I used a free template from a blog I love called Eat Drink Chic. I love that quote I found for this label: "A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away!" I believe it! When you are fully engaged in something you love, there is no room for worry or the blues.  

Bird Feeder Fun

I had a hard time getting good pics of the bird feeders I've been making after I hung them high up in the tree, but I wanted to post about them anyways.

I made some out of these 50 cent twig wreaths I found at Michaels by spreading peanut butter all over them, dipping them in birdseed, then hanging them up with a strip of cute cloth.

I made two other bird feeders out of two halves of a coconut shell by drilling two or four holes then tying them up with lace ribbon. Pour the birdseed in and wallah! The birds love them!

This one's already been half eaten!

My cat Gracie and I have loved watching all the birds out our dining area window! My favorite sound of all time is birds chirping.

Fantasy Photo Shoot

My friend Stacey came into town with her new fancy camera! We did a couple of photo shoots, one in my neighborhood and one at the Huntington Gardens. We were going for kind of a fantasy/fairy feel at the gardens, and it was so much fun! Stacey's getting really good with her camera. I had a great time photoshopping the pictures back home. Here are a couple I finished...

Almost makes me believe it's real!

The photos with stone in them turned out really nice and gothic-style. 

I'll keep posting as I go through and edit!

Awesome Hair! Thanks Chantel!

I saw a hairstyle I loved on the December Free People catalog and had to try it out. Good think I know an excellent braider! My friend Chantel is awesome and so nice to take time to braid my shaggy mane of hair.

Didn't it turn out great?

More Digital Painting Practice

Here's my latest digital painting! I call it "Elf Girl" (ok I know it's not very original, but it's just a practice painting). The one I'm working on now is a character painting from the book Inheritance which I just finished. Look for it soon!