Weekend Links

I would love to get married just like this.

This cracks me up.

The absolute worst things in the world. (Well you know... from a dramatic point of view)

On my to make list.

A pretty awesome advertisement.

I want to go to all of these places.

True words to remember more.

I wish we had the worlds tiniest library here.

An amazing blog about breakfast.


Have an amazing weekend!

So Tuesday, I got paid to play in the dirt. No really. My mom is certified Master Gardner, and she has a job gardening for a family. Well her back has seen better days and there were some lifting and monotonous weeding that would have taken her several hours to do, and so the lady that she gardens for offered to pay me to help out.

Jackpot!

It's fantastic.

I got paid to weed wild onions, plant lady's mantle and elephant ears, haul water and top soil and manure, and to essentially hang out in the sun all day.

Lady's mantle and Elephant ears do not really sound like plants. One sounds like a medieval term and the other a tasty carnival treat. Just saying.

And now, today, I get paid for taking pictures at an event. For taking pictures!

Is there anything better then getting paid for doing the things that you love?

I don't think so.

<3

A clean room keeps the doctor away?

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, it was one of those days that did not go well for me. I woke up, and made bad coffee, and couldn't print my resume, and couldn't find my shoe, and got lost, and was late, and all sorts of other stuff.

 It was one of those days that I wanted to start over, And so, exhausted, I did. I took a probably 20 minute nap, and woke up even more tired, but then decided, that I needed to do something productive to make up for all the bad morning experiences. And so I got down to work, first by making good coffee (which is a sure sign of productivity...right?)

 I have one of those rooms that no matter how many times you clean it, it never stays clean for more then a few days (depending on how busy I am). Now here, of course, I am blaming it on the room, because obviously I have nothing to do with it....right? Good, I'm glad you agree.

And so, a few weeks late, I did some serious spring cleaning on my room, I pulled out the bed, dusted, mopped, swept, organized, while blasting the soundtrack to Amelie. (which is an awesome movie, if you haven't seen it, though be prepared for subtitles, it's in French!)

It was a long overdue cleaning. I always have the standpoint that we live in houses not museums, so if it's not spotless it's not such a big deal (Except for the kitchen, that's a different story, or I suppose, if we're having visitors over, especially my mother.) But the amount of dust that I swept up.... well we'll leave that to your imagination.

I'm always more productive when my room is clean, I'm not entirely sure why...it's a mental thing. Clean work space? Organized chaos....

Except For the next couple weeks, I'm probably not going to be able to find anything.

<3

T is for... Tea

            Lately I have been on a major tea kick. I've always considered myself more of a coffee kind of girl. It's pretty rare when I go a day without coffee...but tea? Well, usually I would only drink it consistently when I was at my parents house.

           

My parents are have a routine. Coffee in the morning, green tea at night. Growing up, I completely ignored this routine. Now? I definitely take part.

Now don't get me wrong, I do love me some tea. A few years ago I discovered this place in East Grand Rapids (which is now conveniently in walking distance) called Global Infusion.

Global Infusion, apart from being all fair trade goods from all over the world, also has a wall of loose leaf teas and spices. Anyway, a while back, I got this kind called Ambrosia white, and lately have been mixing it with ginger in my awesome strainer.

Speaking of ginger, the other day when I was at the grocery store, I was picking out some, and this woman came up to me and asked me what I knew about ginger. This woman was about my mother's age, and so I felt pretty cool about sounding knowledgeable about health benefits and uses. She asked me how to store it, what it was good for, and how much she needed for her dressing recipe.

You should try ginger in your tea...if you haven't yet.

On the other side of things, today has been one of those days when everything seems to go wrong. Do other people have those days too?

<3

Happy Friday!

To start of the weekend right, here's a link round up from this week:

This cracks me up, and makes me want an Iphone.

I'd love to have this for breakfast this week.

This wedding is adorable.

Coffee as an anti-depressant for woman? Sign me up.

Some Cool Websites about backpacking.

These totes crack me up.

Reusable Sandwich bags. I know I use too many of the plastic kind.

Love this Hemingway quote.

Have an awesome weekend peeps!

<3

Food Related Somethings

Sometimes, I get random craving for foods, bananas, chocolate, you name it. The other day, I was craving french fries. 

Generally once I get something in my mind, especially food related related somethings, it sticks. For several weeks now, I've been craving sushi. That's not to rare for me, I love sushi. But the craving didn't go away, until I satisfied it at Ming ten, an absolutely wonderful all you can eat Chinese and Japanese buffet for just ten dollars. 

Now the other day, I had a mad craving for french fries. I've been trying to eat healthier, and limit my consuming, but that's a rant for another day. However, I had some potatoes, olive oil and an oven easily accessible, and so, I figured, why not try to make my own?

Success. I don't know if I'm ever going to buy french fries out again. Never mind, I'm sure that I will, forget that last comment. But they were delicious. 

I cut potatoes into reasonable french fry sizes, and then soaked them in water. This is a trick I learned from dad from when he makes hash browns, it asorbs the starch in the potatoes, prevents them from sticking together and makes them crispier, I'm sure that there is a more exact science behind this, but I've never really been too sciency. 

I then put them on a non-stick foil lined pan, and drizzled olive oil and a little bit of salt over them and tossed, and then baked, turning them from time to time. 

Finally, I drained them on paper towels and sprinkled more salt on them and enjoyed. A-maz-ing. Fan-tas-tic. Wonderful. 

This time, I only served them with ketchup, but I'm excited to experiment with dipping aiolis in the future. 

<3

Typical Friday Night

On Friday night I had the house to myself. This is pretty rare, and so I thought that I'd take advantage of it

I cooked. 

I played guitar as loudly as I could. 

I did some yoga and meditation. 

I set off my fire alarms. 

Typical Friday night, right?

Let me start by saying that I don't do yoga very often, and I'm pretty poor at it when I do. My brother got me a yoga mat for Christmas a few years ago, and it hasn't done much other than sit in the back of my closet...

I do really enjoy doing yoga, and meditating though, clearing my mind, relaxing and letting things go. So on Friday, I thought that I'd go all out. I would do yoga, in the dark, with candles lit. It started off well, I did some sun salutations, relaxed a little, and then decided to meditate a bit before I continued. 

Ah, there I was, sitting calmly on my floor, legs crossed, eyes closed, focused on my breathing, watching my thoughts flow out of my head....So relaxed....

I've set fire alarms off before, it's part of how graceful I am.

I don't remember them being so high pitched.

 Maybe it's because I managed to set two of them off at once. 

Any relaxation that I had achieved flew out my very closed window. I don't know how I scrambled across the room so quickly. Candles were out, pull my rolling chair across the floor to press the button on the one in my room, and the more dangerous one by a very steep set of stairs in the hallway. Fans on, windows open, and then finally, I thought I had peace. 

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Can those things get any more high pitched? I'm sure even my neighbors were scrambling now. Back onto the rolling chair, holding on to the wall for dear life trying to hit a tiny little button to send my world back in to quiet. 

So much for relaxing... 

I think next time, I'll rethink my meditation routine. 

-Sarah