Lavender Biscotti

I think that I meant to make this on that lavender kick that I was on a while. But I needed to fill the family Christmas baskets, like tonight. I had made my regular biscotti, which is from The Veganomincon and left off the almond extract, added that fantastic Lavender Syrup and threw in some dried lavender. This is really classy dressed up biscotti.
Enjoy and happy New Year

Christmas

Things have been interesting around here. I have had to focus on  other things to make sure that my family is getting the things they need. And sometimes when we do that, other forces push back. 

I do have things in the works (drying as I type), and a schedule that I hope to be able to keep to in the new year. I am all for trying new methods of increasing productivity. 

The above photo is of a Christmas ornament that my mother made at least 30 years ago. I have had it on my  tree for as long as I have been away from home.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season. 

Gingerbread

I love gingerbread, ginger snaps, ginger tea, ginger tofu... I think you get the idea. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar has an amazing recipe for gingerbread biscotti. It has wonderful bits of ginger in the cookie that add a great texture and zing.

And the light in the house was wonderfully cooperative today, so I was finally able to get great photos of some of my favorite ornaments. That is something I have been trying to do for several years. Some of these ornametnst are from my childhood, and I would bery much like to scrap them.

I hope you all had joyous weekend.

Shabby Chic

That is what this page reminds me of... shabby chic. It is a picture of me holding my niece who is just a week or so old. And Bit is beside me. It is hard to tell it is Bit, as that curly hair that so many people recognize her by has not come in yet. 

The little heart shaped extra is from a bracelet that I harvested the pieces from. I am trying to use more of my stash than I am purchasing new.

Thankful

I certainly am. More than anyone can imagine. Most days my life is better than it has ever been. I am gifted more opportunities to explore my world and to find out what I want from it, and what it wants from me. I am able to help others. I teach and I learn.

And I hope you all had a truly wonderful weekend. 

Follow up Thinking

After all of the wonderful comments that I received on my thinking post, I found myself thinking even more.

One of the wisest people I know as frequently told me that motive is more important than we realize. She comes to this from a recovery point of view. Addicts must ask themselves what it the motive for participating in their addictive behavior in that moment. 

What I take from that comes from a very Buddhist point of view. In Buddhism we know that the way to escape suffering is to follow the Noble 8-fold Path. The second step is Right Intention. I see this as motive. What is my Intention or my Motive in the actions I am about to engage in.

How this relates to inner and personal peace is the peace that comes from being able to TRULY check your motives. It is easy to superficially say "I want that to say these mean words to K because it will help her see her errors. I am doing it for her". But if your actions are meant to help in a true sense, there is always a way to make them not hurt. ALWAYS.


Part of understanding our own motives is understanding that we cannot be responsible for someone else's motives. Only the person acting is responsible for their actions. And only the person reacting is responsible for the reaction. 

Because that inner peace comes from personal responsibility as well as deep introspection.

A pretty little card.

I love how this little thing turned out. It was for an office mate of my husbands. It uses my favorite, favorite fabric.
She even said she would frame it!

 

Thinking

It is funny. I have been thinking a lot about where I was five years ago when I moved here. Comparing it to where I am now.
Five years ago I was a timid woman who had a great family, but was in the midst of a few abusive friendships. Problem was, like with all abusive relationships, I did not recognize the abuse. It was subtle and it came from the places that I should have felt safest (well aside from my husband, who for the record is amazing). 
The abuse came from the sisterhood of friendship. And it hurt more than I knew, even at the time. It left me questioning everything that I did or even said, because the simple things were open to criticism, even days later. I have slowly been finding new support. And it has freed me to find myself and to help others in new ways. It has been both an emotionally ragged five years and a five years of powerful personal healing and growth.
I have been thinking about this a great deal lately, because I have been watching my friends (the supportive, non abusive ones) go through some terrible troubles. Some are leaving abusive romantic relationships, some are dealing with terrible work relationships (that can be abusive as well) and some are experiencing betrayal from family members. And I wonder when I sit and listen to the terrible things that they are going through, when did humanity get so selfish that we treat our loved ones so badly, just so we feel better about ourselves? When did it become okay to always put yourself first, even at the expense of children, or siblings, or friends? I understand that the need to lower others to feel good stems from personal problems that one may be to terrified to look at. It saddens me that so many people are too afraid to do the work that helps them grow.
At the beginning of this holiday season, I ask all of you to step back a moment and think outside yourself. Because my true wish is  not so much world peace, but individual peace. 
Blessings. 
K

The first blech of winter.

I actually like the winter weather around here. I know, I am odd! I like the rain and the fog and all that.

And to celebrate the first real sort of winter weather that we have had, and to help out my best friend with her recent conversion to veganism (you bet we are taking over!) I made vegan cocoa mix. I used the recipe found at Go Dairy Free  and I am thinking it is fabulous. I can imagine that it would be just magical with some Dandies in them. I have to go now, I am drooling.

 

More Scrap pages just for me

This is s photo of my brother and my sister and I, rocking out the early 80's.
The setting is Leavonworth WA, where my father grew up. He took us back every summer. Also, how cool is that paper?!

I do love mushrooms

So much that I made one. I think I will be making more.

 

Surgery

I spent the weekend in the hospital with my ten year old. Tot had woken up in pain on Wednesday, but seemed to shake it off. However when she was still in pain on Friday, Vyapti took her to the doctor. And then we went to the emergency room and then to surgery. She had her appendix removed. Currently she is on a pain management regiment and is taking it easy. But she is healing so quickly. she did insist on some picture and she has a huge bag of stuff to share during school. 

I need to give a big thank you to the staff at Riverbend hospital. They were amazing. Nothing sucks more than your baby in the hospital and they were completely compassionate about that.

 In the e.r.

 Her I.V. (at her request)

Sleeping off surgery

Scrap pages for me.

That is what I will be sharing now. I did the following page for a hike the kids took with their dad. He took the photo and I thought it told a story worthy of its own page.

Happy November (or something)

Or, you know, whatever.

I made several awesome pumpkins with which to decorate for fall. The pattern was from one of those awesome calenders that has all sorts of projects. I may try to make them all in the future. (But, in all reality, I am full of ideas and easily distracted). 

They turned out great, and I made a couple of different styles. However, I also gave some away and only got pictures of this one.

Now I am thinking Christmas!

November

I would like to say that this absence has been due to working my fingers to the bone making pretty things. But it may have just been laziness. At any rate, I have a stunning card to share.

New Launch

Hey, my hubby and I (mostly my hubby) launched a new blog with all sorts of excellent vegan information. And in the future I suspect it will hold lots of other fabulous stuff too.
Check it out at http://www.ourveggiekitchen.com/

New mixed media piece

I I have had this canvas started for months and months. But I was never sure what I wanted to do with it after I had the wash done. Then I found this little bird stamp and started playing with the "empty" space in it. And finally I saw a scrapbook page in Creating Keepsakes (the newest issue) that had the leaves. That was what it took to get me to finish the canvas. Well, that and left over ribbon. 

 Next, I will be working on a paper flower garland.

Scrap Pages Part 4

I think we might be coming to the end (but maybe not)

Scrap Pages Part 3

Part 3 of the Scrappy installment.

We interupt your regularly sceduled blog drop...

For an incredible little Halloween trinket I made. I love how simple this is. And, yet it is still pretty, elegant and timeless.

Scrap Pages Part 2