after two months

so it hasn't been perfect, with some ebbing and flowing in both my desire and choices to move toward health and wholeness. but oh so much closer than before. enjoying cooking healthy and lovely. jason keeps telling me i look "more toned" ;) and my soul just feels nearer to its own self as far as being who i truly am and am meant to be. two months into this blog, and i'm now at 190lbs even (7 down!). which seems pretty much right on to me. i'm not about starving myself or striving physically or emotionally to stick to some drastic external plan (though i do see good in discipline). just generally day to day leaning in closer to wholeness. to truth and rest and beauty. 

 some closeups

so, did you notice the cues that this is the monthly update? i mean, before you read all that above? ;) the shed, the shorts... (what am i gonna do when the temperatures start falling?? hadn't thought about that... good thing i live in southern california, and it pretty much never goes below 40! :)

so besides the aforementioned cutoff jean shorts, we have:

yellow floral top: cozy (maternity), ross

green vesty thing: ross

belt: thrifted (isn't it awesomely detailed??)

necklace: f21

and the best part, my new bracelet that just arrived via UPS: InPink (due to a gift card won on adored austin!)

sunday afternoon

how could i resist this green wall? we were just wandering around uptown whittier (as we tend to do on sundays after church), and i spied this loveliness. it was one of the (very few) days that i went out without a shower in the morning... i have that kind of thin, oily hair that just looks greasy day-after (instead of "perfect second day hair" i hear people claim ;) - so it's up ;) 

i love this yellow polka dot scarf. although, i'm pretty sure this is the first time i've worn it out around my neck, and i bought it long enough ago that i can't remember where (target?) but since it's fall now (in my own little private world, at least ;) 

a scarf was needed this day...

top: thrifted, leggings (which were apparently ripped and no one told me): ross, flip flops that i love: old navy (i smile every time i put them on :)

just realized this is the first outfit i've put on here that i made absolutely no part of it! but it was still creative, in just being put together. and i just want to say to those of you who believe you are "not creative", you are. that's all. you find delightful ways to get dressed in the morning, you problem solve throughout your day, you bring beauty and joy to people through your take on the world. and you reflect the Creator in all of that. speech over. ;)

we had lunch at Mimo's Cafe, which is such a fun place to hang - all the locals sitting outside in a little courtyard, super friendly - joey gets to talk to pretty much every table when we walk up (ok, really, he talks to everyone everywhere - i love how friendly my kid is!). and they have AMAZING mexican hot chocolate. i need to learn how to make that.

 jason and joey went exploring while i finished my mug of delicioso and found "the basement" - wow. such a cool little vintage clothes shop! i wanted to not only shop there, but work there, own it, and even live there! okay, i might be romanticizing it a bit. but it was fun. and then - joey's favorite part - we stopped at the candy shop :) after debating between "blue" (saltwater taffy) and "pink" (jelly bellys), he came out with a red gummy rat. and loved every bite. "mouse!!" ha. love that kid. not sure why he had such a hard time falling asleep for his nap afterwards... ;)

not bad for an impromptu iphone shoot :)

back to school... happy fall!!

 my heart is so gleeful from writing those words in the subject heading!! in the past 3 days, the temperatures have dropped 30 degrees, and it was RAINING when i got home from work this morning!! helloooooo, fall! ever my favorite season (despite naysayers telling me "california doesn't HAVE fall" - we have wind and rain and cooler temperatures and sweaters and falling leaves and chai tea and pumpkin spice lattes! sounds like fall to me!! :), jason and i went out and celebrated this lovely fall afternoon with aforementioned pumpkin spice lattes (ok, his was a frappe - which totally defeats the whole "feeling" of fall to me, but he still wants it to be summer, so i guess it make sense ;)

...98, 99, 100! ready or not! here i come! 

when i was editing these pictures yesterday, i found my soul just stirring up with excitement that it's finally coming! we took these shots on the playground at the school where my sister teaches, and not only did it remind me of the warm colors of fall, but the school campus itself brought back a flood of delightful back-to-school emotions, too! probably one of the reasons fall has been a perennial favorite (i always was a nerd)... but best of all was always... school supplies!! you know what i'm talking about!
 the smell of a freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils, elmer's glue, notebooks and paper (peechee folders? any 80s kids out there??). at this time of year, i suddenly find myself wanting to buy a new box of crayons, pencil cases for nonexistent school notebooks, ahhh.... we took a trip to office depot last week. i think we were there to look at a printer, but as soon as i walked in the door, i saw nothing but school supplies wall-to-wall! pennies and dimes could get me rulers and protractors and erasers and notebooks of first-grade composition paper! :) is it just me?

 you may recognize this jungle gym from this post about accidental art - i had to do a shoot here because of it ;)

 oh, yeah, and about what i'm wearing... this was a pretty creative one ;)
tank: american eagle, thrifted
skirt (or bottom half of shirt, however you want to look at it ;): mossimo, thrifted.
shorts: ross, years ago. pre baby. yes, it is being held together by an awesome trick my best friend told me about halfway through pregnancy... put an elastic hairband through the buttonhole, and take both ends & wrap it around the button - voila! you can still wear your regular, surely much cuter than maternity clothes all through your pregnancy - and beyond! - and not have to buy a whole new wardrobe! i probably should not admit all that. oh well - it's true! and i look forward to the day when i can button my shorts again ;) 
necklace & belt: forever 21 - $4.50 and $2.50 respectively! might have even gotten me over my extreme aversion to mall shopping ;)  hair flower: handmade by me that day right before going out :) 
flip-flops: old navy, also $2.50 - my regular daily fare (yes, even in fall - ok we don't really have fall here ;) love that i can buy them in as many colors as i want, and that i can dress them up by adding a couple of clip-on flowers - super cute awesomeness! 

 fall! can you feel it??!

thanks, kristi for letting us in, jason for taking the pictures, and both of you for putting up with me wanting to shoot all over campus! there are just too many cool spots! :)

a night in Los Angeles... at work.

for those of you who don't know, i've been a nurse at children's hospital of los angeles for 8 years now (!)

 i only work occasionally now (like one 12-hour shift a month ;) so i can mostly stay home with joey full-time and play with art and stuff sometimes (much less than i feel like i should be able to, being so lucky to stay home and all... but what they say about motherhood being full-time is SO TRUE! i always have this little person tagging along, wanting to be with me, needing me almost every minute! and i love it. ;) 

these lovely instagrammers were taken in the breakroom during my lunch - ha ha.

you'll get better photos next time i hope ;)

so usually when i'm running out the door to work is the time i'm least concerned with healthy habits, but today, i had made these chicken strips (got randomly inspired to cook during joey's nap!), and they turned out so yummy! and we had these cherries that it turns out were super-sweet (but still firm - can't eat me no squishy cherries ;)

so there you have it - chicken and cherries! i wonder if those could be combined into a dish somehow... it'd have to have some cool name that also started with ch... 

a little honesty

my amazing apron...

 i love this apron. it's made from vintage fabrics, and so colorful and fun! i saw it at Luna Sol in Uptown Whittier, and couldn't pass it up. isn't it lovely? makes me want to cook just thinking about it!  also, this is probably the only time you'll see this handkerchief... also vintage - handed down to me by my mom :) i love how stuff cycles through like that. she was here a couple weeks ago, and was wearing a dress that i've seen her wear all my life, but suddenly this time i realized it was trendy! ha!

so i'm sorry all of my posts have been "fashion" lately... i had a lot of them to post (a month & a half overdue!) but the reason goes deeper. after my surgery, i had to eat super-lowfat, and i thought "hey, this is good! it's forcing me to eat how i want to be anyways!" but after a week or so of this, the doctor cleared me with the decree "no restrictions!". i took that and ran with it! nothing held back. all i'd been missing (for one week! how pathetic is that?? so many people go a lifetime with restrictions, and i can't go 2 weeks...?). i also couldn't exercise while i was recovering, and so it seemed to all "fall by the wayside". chick fil a? heck yes! i wasn't cooking while i was regaining my energy, and that all took a couple weeks.

so, all that to say, i feel like i'm getting back into the health groove. i went to the gym the last 2 days, and cooked today, and even ate an apple! ;) my heart is once again turning toward the desire to live whole and healthy and fully aware and alive.

it's funny how i don't (can't?) blog about this stuff until i've "made it past". like somehow admitting i failed is okay, but only if i've figured out a plan to get back on track. strive, strive, strive. reminds me of how i often treat God. when i am having a hard time in my relationship with him, i sometimes feel defensive, and only offer what i think he wants me to be, rather than where i'm actually at. until that magic moment where what i believe he wants, and who i truly am seem to coincide - THEN i can come to him with a truly open heart. but i was reminded today that he wants me. where i'm at. no matter what.

i'm a semifinalist...!

in the cloth paper scissors artisan 2012 contest!

in two categories!! one was the "art journal" category, and the other mixed-media jewelry... you've already seen this first necklace, but here are the other two that comprise my entry... now i have to send them off to massachusetts! i wore this top one today because it might be the last time for a year, and i'm gonna miss it! it's my favorite!

part 3 of 3 - we left catalina :(

this was the only day i got to wear this little shift number as a dress... 

as soon as i washed it (yes, as you can tell from some of the other pictures where the "store wrinkles" - you know what i'm talking about!! - are still in it, it had not yet been laundered...), it shrunk to shirt size... once again, a ross purchase, but i was thinking the other day... i know they're not quality, and sometimes they fall apart, but i stain or shrink them just as quickly! and if they were $5 on clearance at ross, i save a lot of money staining that over some fancy (high quality) store. just a thought. i also realized the other day that i have NEVER bought any item of clothing that cost more than $30. i realized this because i was at this estate sale where i found all this pile of amazingness (for $14!); and there was this GORGEOUS embroidered red silk kimono there that i REALLY wanted. but i could not bring myself to spend $30 on it! especially knowing that on Sunday, it'd all be half price! i thought "$15 i can do... i just can't shell out $30 for, well, anything!" that's when i realized how cheaply my clothing has come. mostly thrifted, ross, or hand-me-down. and, really, i don't WANT to own a piece of clothing that i'm afraid to ruin - i mean, really, i have a toddler! okay, actually, i'm usually the clumsy culprit, but we can blame it on him ;) the end of the story is, i went back on sunday, and someone had bought it for $30 on saturday. :( the lady running the estate sale was curious what i was going to use it for... uh, wear it? ha. if you saw it, you'd understand.... i did get this awesome little table for $5 though! :)

naughty, naughty horse... haha we got this little wooden rocking horse for a buck at a thrift store on catalina (they have those??! yep! it happened to be right across from our hotel! lucky for me! :) as a souvenir for joey, and took pictures all over town with it. this one's my favorite though.

nos vemos, catalina!!