over past two years i've been doing a lot of self reflection, figuring out who i am as a person, doing a lot of discovery and exploration - now the time has finally come where i will be at the end of an era. since i will be turning 24 on wednesday, it will be the last year where i can be considered a young adult, and next year will reluctantly be added to the 25-30 age group. i'm not ready for this, time moves too fast. no longer will i be a care free college student, but rather a working class/student loan debtor/starving artist who has other responsibilities. these i am ready for, and thank my parents for raising me to be responsible and independent, but it i think it is the age itself that scares me, and all the experiences i feel i missed out on. instead of feeling sad about what i missed so far, i decided to start working towards those experiences and opportunities, do what i always wanted to do, and work on my character and my flaws from here on out. not only do i want to catch up, but i want to work on being a better person.
so having said all that i have decided that since this is my week, i am going to spend it the best way i know how, striving for daily goals, and spending any minute i can savoring and enjoying the day. i am calling it my week of discovery and expanding my horizons. each day i will explore the things that i love : food and crafts. my goal for the entire week is to have a very fulfilling birthday before my 25th birthday...so why not start a year ahead?!
monday december 5:
first of all gorgeous, warm day!
food that made me think of this in the first place:
strolled into South Street Philly Bagels, while going to drop off a rent check on this gorgeous day. ordered the turkey club on a salt bagel....thought i died and went to heaven. i almost didn't want to eat anything for the rest of the day to not loose the taste in my mouth, but realized that was kinda gross and got some gum....nonetheless it was this huge bagel sandwhich -while drooling over it - made me come the conclusion that i started my birthday week off the right way and should do this for the rest of the week (that is eating at all the places where i've always wanted to, or discovering a new spot for awesome food).
for dinner i stopped at Grindcore House, (mainly because i had no food in the house) and decided to keep my birthday week alive my treating myself to a big mug filled with a chai latte and ordered a new sandwhich that i had not tried there yet. the treehugger salad on sourdough bread (mixed greens, olives, cucumber, avocado, tomato, and shitake vinagrette) was great. to top it all off, i got a big slice of vegan confetti cake.
the craft:
i finally made a curtain to hide my messy clothes in my closet! this is fabric i had designed junior year in print class, hand screen printed by yours truly. :)
my work space, my painting, my fabric....my closet :)
i also made a test batch of soap tonight! i decided for christmas to make everyone handmade soap. every year i make people gifts for the holidays, however this year i am broke even more and decided to make a big gift and give a little of it to everyone i care enough to share it with. this year i decided to make handmade soap. it has been a "quite" passion of mine for years, and it something i find really fascinating and enjoyable. i got my supplies in the mail today so i made a test batch with ingredients i had ready...
Eucalyptus + Clove+Coffee Soap
since i do not have the luxury of spending time with hand processed soaps from scratch (which i have done before and is quite a process) i decided to just got with microwavable soap bases :\ i know i know, not the most ideal, but they do the trick. it was super easy and only took me about 15 minutes tops! i bought shea butter and goat's milk bases to try and experiment with.
combine equal parts of shea butter + goat's milk base.
microwave until fully melted (for the amount i used, about 3-4 mins)
add desired amount of avocado oil, ground cloves, eucalyptus essential oil and hazelnut ground coffee
stir and pour into mold
let sit for about an hour or less depending on how much
remove from mold and cut
soap!
it smells like oatmeal surprisingly....
the team at work will be happy to be my first testers i'm sure!
that wraps it up for monday of my awesome birthday week. i'd say it was pretty successful, wouldn't you?
Kathleeny,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Happy BIRTHDAY week pretty lady! Second, I am happy you are back to blogging and am looking forward to future posts from you! Thirdly, this post was so positive, uplifting and inspiring. Lately I feel like I have been in a creative rut, and I think you might have just given me the bump I needed! Thank you, sincerely.
ALSO...I miss you!
Rachel
Aww Rachel, thank you so much! It's great to hear from you, i hope you are doing well. i saw all your pictures from thailand and it looks sooo beautiful! yeah, i'm starting to change my life around and do things that i've always wanted, like blogging and selling my work on the side. That's incredible how inspiring this was, i hope they continue to be for everyone as well!
ReplyDeleteI really hope I get to see you soon! I miss you so much!
xo, Kathleen