Art Day:: Fruit, Flowers, Flying Things

Source: walltowatch.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: mymodernmet.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: badass-mermaids.tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Fashion Friday:: Sea Inspired Add-ons

Peas and carrots. Oil and engines. Summer and the sea. Somethings just go together. Here are some seaside inspirations to add some summer flair to your ensembles.

Source: etsy.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: mt.wiglaf.org via Carly on Pinterest

For the Home:: Cut Glass vs. Pressed Glass

My mother and I had an antique adventure recently. Once upon a time in her younger year, my mother dated an antiques dealer and she picked up some tricks of the trade. During a recent visit to the Antique Trove in Scottsdale I was taught to differentiate between cut glass and pressed glass, a very important skill for an aspiring antique hunter.

Pass on the pressed glass according to Zissel.

The find of the day? A little Arizona Ephemera. Kitschy and somewhat racist, ahhh, Arizona.

Want to know how to tell the difference? Read more here. 

Mid-Week Motivation:: Looking for a Sign?

source

I'm always looking for a sign... some secret belief in fate, perhaps. I'm always looking for the right time to start something new. Maybe we all need some indication from time to time. Take this as a good sign.

Randomness:: Ball Game

My pops is a baseball fan so we decided to head out to a game for his birthday. Good seats, hot dogs, and a win for the Diamondbacks. A great night all around.

Here we have my mother attempting to catch a foul ball. Is there a foul ball somewhere in our area? No. I think the boy scouts must have ripped off their "always be prepared" motto from Jewish mothers. 

Diamond Dog with mustard and onions. The only real ball park food.

Grown men dressed alike showing off their muscles for the cameras.

Food:: Failed Lasagna

Lasagna is strangely enough the one food my mother could make that proved not only edible but delicious. My vegetarian years rendered me uninterested in her ground beef-based dish when I was trying my hand at cooking as a teenager so I never acquired the recipe from her. How hard could it be? If my mother can accomplish this meal I had no doubt it was within my grasp as well. 

I gathered my ingredients on the counter. Cheese, tomatoes, pasta, everything. After the recent egg salad incident, I always gather all my ingredients before embarking on a recipe.

First, one must cook the noodles. This is where I failed. How embarrassing. Not even through the first step. The pasta came out in a clumpy, unusable mess. I turned to Facebook for answers. My cousin suggests cooking the pasta in more water. Maybe adding a little olive oil. Any other recommendations are welcome. I will try again. 

What I hoped for... 

source

What I got... 

all me

Mid-Week Motivation:: Stop and Smell the Flowers

This past week I've been inundated with work leaving no time for myself or, more importantly, my blog. It's important to maintain a sense of balance at all times. Allowing work to overshadow all other aspects of life should be kept to minimum if not entirely avoidable. Today is about seeing the forest and the trees! Today is about stopping to smell the flowers (while accomplishing a staggering amount of work)!

For the Home:: Stylish Simplicity

The best things in life are the simplest, or so I've been told. Perhaps this theory is best applied to household decor. Simple, clean lines. Functional forms. Understated elegance.

Source: gorgeousfever.tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: spellandthegypsycollective.tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: touchofmodern.com via Carly on Pinterest

Midweek Motivation:: Take Care of You

I have been struggling to get a handle on my health for some time now. Despite these struggles bringing my health to the forefront of my daily concerns, it is still easy to allow our own well-being fall behind the of difficulties of every day. Today, for example, a simple oil change revealed a busted radiator and I found myself spending a lot more time at the shop than I initially intended. It would have been easy to scrap the morning gym trip without a sense of guilt. After all, I couldn't help the broken radiator (actually that might be an argument of coolant but, whatever, you understand). It's a golden excuse but after a lifetime of excuses I just want to move forward which means giving a push when your will falters or your day doesn't go according to plan.

Source: sweetmontana.tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Randomness:: Venus in Transit

Today, Venus will move across the face of the sun from our perspective here on earth. NPR answered, "Why the Venus Transit Matters" on All Things Considered. Astrological events offer us a different view of the time frame within our own lives.

 "The next Venus transit will be in 2117. That is 105 years from now. It's unlikely that anyone reading this today will still exist then. Think about that: The next time the orbits of Earth and Venus align just so to create a transit, the world will be entirely populated by an entirely unborn generation. That essential point about time is really what makes this transit worth a moment of your own."

 Something to consider. Time, passing, death, and space. It's like a Woody Allen film in our own sky...

Food:: Egg Salad Lesson

So there I was, staring into the abyss of my post-surgery refrigerator. Almost empty. Two weeks of illness followed by two weeks of recovery does not lend itself to grocery shopping and aside from a constant supply of ginger ale no one thought to help replenish the food stores (nor did I ask) during my "downtime." No problem. I had half a dozen eggs three weeks past code which placed them in the use-them-or-lose-them category. A little mayo, mustard, and seasoning and I would myself some delicious homemade egg salad. When whipping together something on the fly I've learned it is best to pull out the ingredients I intend on using so I'm not left with any last minute trips to my neighbors' homes in search of sugar or whatever. So I boiled the eggs and pulled out the ingredients I would need...

New Rule::  Check the expiration dates on intended ingredients.

Now, that mayo doesn't look particularly threatening, does it? Right after I chopped up my eggs and opened up the jar of mayo I realized that this jar has seen better days. To be quite honest, it's seen better years because it expired in 2011. I had to run to the grocery store to get a new jar before I could complete my egg salad adventure

a moment of zen

I am excited to announce my return to electronic life. Recovery has been a slow-go but I'm returning to my daily life with a renewed sense of focus. Health must be central as I have very few optional organs and find myself adverse to sacrificing others in the future.

Source: tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest