Happy Thanksgiving/This Week in Pictures!

Astrud Gilberto- The Girl From Ipanema

Happy Thanksgiving Loves!

I just wanted ot share with you some photos from the last week or so. I think this will be my new method of posting for the most part. Sometimes I have so many individual posts that I want to do and I never get to do them because I post them individually and run out of time. I have been a busy bee and I probably will only get to posting once or twice a week. So you can keep an eye out for these little gems every once in a while. They are kind of like a summary of my life :)

Crafts:

I have decided to be more productive with my time and do things that I adore, like creating. I realize that way too often I tune out when I get home from classes and just watch t.v. But it is becoming apparent to me that this life we have is so fragile and so brief, that I don't want to waste my time by tuning out to the t.v. Now, that is not to say that I will be missing my Grey's Anatomy and America's Next Top Model, but I do plan on being more productive with my time.

So, I started working on crafts!

I painted this little humpback whale a while ago with pen and water colors. He reminds me of my love for the west coast. I found this old frame in my room that wasn't really getting used for anything, so I decided to frame him. I like it. I think it's funny it seems like such a fancy-shmancey frame for such a simple painting. Love him.

I also made my own papier mache (boil 5 parts water to 1 part flour for 3-5 minutes) and made mason jar lanterns. for the paper part, I just used an old Spanish Civilization book from one of my classes that I was never able to sell back. I hated that class and the book, so I am glad I found a use for it. I added rice to the bottom of the jars to hold the candles. I rather like them :)

Baking!

For Thanksgiving I decided I wanted to bake something for the family. Being that I am not the most skilled baker ever, and that my grandma is in fact one of the best bakers ever, I decided to go over to her house to spend some quality time while she helped me bake. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from scratch and they were amazing. You can find the recipe here and the pictures below. I have realized that I really want to spend time with my grandma and learn all the things she can teach me. I wasn't really raised learning how to cook or to be in touch with any of that. That is definitely something I want to change when I have a family some day. I want to be in touch with gardening and fresh cooking. I want to find joy in creating and being in touch with that side of myself. I think that I can learn so much from my grandma.

mixing the ingredients

yummmm

haha my nana looks mad here. I promise she wasn't. She didn't know I was taking her picture. She doesn't like her picture taken. I don't know why, I think she is beautiful. I only hope I inherit her aging genes!

Eating the cookies! If you look closely at my upper lip on the left, you can see where it is beginning to swell which you can read about below!

Hospital

Finally, but definitely not the most exciting, I woke up yesterday with a bit of a swollen upper lip. Well, throughout the day I noticed that it started to get worse and that I had hives on my neck. By the time I went to bed it was pretty bad and to make sure that my throat wasn't going to swell in my sleep (yikes) I went to the ER. 2 hours in the ER and one giant shot in the ass later and I was on my way. Evidently I have developed an allergy to mangos. I am so sad. mangos are one of my favorite fruits. They told me never again can I eat anything with mangos in it because the next time, the reaction will probably be worse. Why couldn't it have been radishes or mushrooms??! I would have been totally fine with never being able to eat those again! This morning I still have a little bit of the Angelina Jolie look going on but they aren't too bad. I'm thinking with a bit of lip stain and makeup we will be good.

Anyways, I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for all of the people in my life who make me smile and encourage me to stay true to myself. I am thankful for this new stage in my life where I am focusing on embracing life, living life, staying in the present and "drinking the wild air" (if you don't know already, Emerson is my favorite writers).

Plans for today include going to my aunt's house in the country. She has a barn with horses and we will probably go riding, eat lots of veggies (no turkey for me, unless it's tofurkey) and lot's of pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies. Mmmmm.

What are your plans for the holiday??