DIY quote mug

There are a plethora of these DIY mug sites and I have been wanting to make one for myself for awhile now. So easy, cheap, and full of personality! I bought a mug on sale at Crate and Barrel for $2, but then saw some at the thrift store for 50 cents today, so do as you please!

First, I wrote out my quote with a pencil. I chose my favorite lyrics from my favorite Bob Dylan song. "We'll meet again one day on the avenue, tangled up in blue." I chose to go the route using a standard sharpie. Only problem I ran across was that it was a brand new sharpie with a really fine tip, so my letters were really thin. So I wrote over each letter 2 or 3 times which didn't turn out as clean or neat as I had intended, but I still think it looks ok. Next time, I'll wear my sharpie out a bit for a broader tip. Once it was fully dried, I rubbed my finger over the letters to remove the lead pencil showing in some spots, and it did rub right off and the sharpie won't smear. Then I popped in the oven on a baking rack at 350 for a half hour! This is such a cute idea, I really loved making it. :)

The simple things

  Ahhhh, it's been so long! I am absolutely shocked that it is already September, and that we are only a couple months away from Christmas again! My mom used to always tell me that time would speed up as I grew older. She was 100% right.
  2012 has not been my favorite year, but that is for me and my closest people to hear about. ;-) One thing I can say I have learned in the last 9 months though, is simplicity. I am in the midst of a fabulous book that I plan on blogging all about as I get more in depth, so I won't reveal it yet. I am learning things about myself and the woman I strive to be while studying this book... and I really like her! (The woman I'm becoming, that is). I'm finding myself more aware of the true fact that the important things are not "things", having 600+ friends on Facebook does not add substance to my life, and truly trying to live a life of simplicity, a life that God has intended for us long before social media had been thought of, is truly, truly invigorating. (And energized people usually live longer and happier lives!)
   2012 has been full of blessings in the same retrospect. My grandma had her 2nd PET scan today since she was diagnosed as cancer free. Every 3 months she has to get these done to see if the bad stuff has somehow crept back into her body. Every 3 months our family is on edge and full of anxiety. And today she was once again diagnosed with no evidence of disease! So she is off to Switzerland, France & England next week... and I am filled with excitement (and maybe a little envy...;-) .

Here she is gardening and trust me that thing was heavy:

  Hmmm, what else do I feel like touching on tonight? I really am excited to talk about the new book I'm studying. It has changed my way of thinking tremendously in the last few weeks that I've been reading it. We live in a world where everyone is living vicariously through everyone else. I'm absolutely guilty of it too, and I'm not even necessarily sure it's a negative thing. It becomes a downfall I think, when we start to judge and become jealous because we don't have those "things" or we don't "look like that in that dress", or we can't afford to take that trip or buy that house, or the artificial comments of how much you miss this person, but really do you even know this person, you only met once! No one truly talks anymore, instead Facebook has been used to leave insincere comments to people you could never pick up the phone to call. It's especially used as a place to post about what we "have" or the newest item we just purchased. I have literally scrolled down my friends list as I've seen ridiculous statuses and deleted person after person. I may sound dumb, but by not having the materialistic annoyances and the flashes of everyone trying to out-do each other, wow it has made my "news feed" much more enjoyable. And it really does narrow my life down to just keeping in touch and sharing my life with people that I truly do enjoy spending time with. Anyway, that might be enough for now. I'm drinking a Stella and ordered chinese food in tonight. Couldn't be happier in my 500 square foot apartment. "It's the simple things..." And it really is. :-)

2 yogi thoughts

First of all, how beautiful is this picture!? ^^^^^
While in yoga last night, my teacher was wrapping up her last words and finalized the night by saying... "In this room, much like life, you have very little control of anything." This was of course, followed by lots of laughs as she went on to say.. "Sometimes the room will be too hot or not hot enough, the person next to you may be having a wobbly night and distract your entire class, your teacher may be pissing you off. But you can only control YOUR reaction and how you CHOOSE to respond to these annoyances." (and yes, she emphasized the words in caps).
This got me thinking of course, and I know I have blogged about this in the past. The part about us having absolutely no control over anyone but ourselves. How amazing is this to know that we can choose our day to day mood because we have sole control over our OWN SELVES. I love this.
So it makes me wonder. Is your reaction over someone else's actions really necessary? Change and control your attitude as fast as you can into a positive one because you CAN. We naturally get caught up in others and how their actions imprint our lives. But why do we let them? This is to me letting go of things and people I can't control and focusing on this life that was preciously given to me. Focusing on the real and not the pretend. The love and not the hate. The simple and not the complicated... Because there are "very little things you can control in this room, much like in life." ~Ryan, best Bikram teacher ever! I love her. :)

A couple classes ago, my teacher Mark, asked one of the students in class who needed to take a rest and kneel down.... "What are you feeling?" I thought it was a quite obvious question. The guy is totally hot and feeling like his heart is going to explode out of his chest. Ya know, he's probably thinking he would do anything to be drenched with a cold hose right about now. But his response was, (as he stuttered a bit) "I-I-I can't find the emotion." I loved this response more than anything because I feel like there are many times in life (and definitely in that yoga room), that I just can't find the emotion to describe how I'm feeling. But maybe I'm one of the only ones....?

No Cancer in this House!

 

My Grandma, me, & My Dad

In a prior post I was telling you about a family member of mine who was diagnosed with a very serious cancer. It was my 70 year old, traveling, hiking, nothing-can-stop-me-Grandmother. It was diagnosed as Stage 4 Esophageal cancer (it had spread to several distant lymph nodes), which was also inoperable because of the location the tumor was in the esophagus. (Notice how I'm talking in past tense!?) It absolutely rocked our family to the core when the doctor told us only days after she found out, that they expected my grandma would only have 11 months to live. When we heard that it was inoperable we all felt even more helpless, but the doctor did say they would try radiation but didn't feel hopeful because the tumor was already closing off 75% of her airway and the amount of radiation she would need to shrink something of that size, just didn't seem promising. Well, after 6 extremely scary months, the radiation worked, the chemo worked, and when our family took my grandma back to the doctor she looked at all of us both puzzled and excited. "There is absolutely no sign of disease in your body anymore. You're officially in remission." She showed us the newest PET scan, which only 6 months ago was littered with neon yellow splotches which show you exactly where the cancer is attacking the body. This PET scan was completely clear, with not a single dot of neon.
Esophogeal Cancer is one of the most serious because only 13,000 people in the US are diagnosed every year. This is not enough for our country to require yearly screenings, like we do for breast cancer. So by the time it is diagnosed, it is usually much too late for a positive outcome. Here's the esophagus in relation to the rest of the body, just in case you weren't 100% sure:

 

Absolutely everything passes through here, and the largest cause of this cancer is smoking and alcohol consumption. My grandma had quit both smoking and drinking 15 years ago. They just didn't realize the hazards that we do today, and it saddened us that even though she was trying to better her life, the cancer still was able to sneak in, over a decade later.
   With all of this being said, we are so grateful for the literal miracle that God has given to our family. We prayed several times a day, in big groups, in small groups, by ourselves. Friends of mine who had never even met her were praying with me. I have always believed in the power of prayer, but now I am even more convinced. ;-) Less than 5% of people live 5 years after being diagnosed. We knew all of the statistics but also knew that God is bigger than any doctor or any treatment. He is the largest healer and the bible tells us He WANTS to heal. I truly believe that our faith in God made this cancer disappear and I thank Him every single day for giving us more time with her. We are so happy and so thankful.
  With all of this being said, there are always possibilities of cancer returning. Again, we are not too concerned with the statistics because we have already seen something extremely rare happen while fighting this awful disease. So my grandma will take the precautions of repeating a PET scan every 90 days with the hope that none of the nasty stuff will return. And we will continue to ask God to keep the cancer out of her body. With these couple things, we are praying that she will be the healthy, active Grandma (who I grew up hiking and traveling with), always! Thank you for reading :)

A lovely little Friday

Two blog postings in one day! I'm laying in bed catching up on my favorite blogs, Matt Nathanson on Pandora, watching the rain fall. I love today and I have no plans of leaving this spot for at least a couple more hours. Yesterday, Em and I took advantage of the sunny day before the rain started. We walked to North Beach for beer tasting followed by wine tasting. One of the many perks of having Friday's off together!

 

Rogue is one of my favorite bars in SF with lots of yummy seasonal beers. We stayed here for a bit before moving on to one of North Beach's many cafes and sat outside for a glass of wine. After our friends got off work, we headed to OZ's jazz bar in the financial district then of course the Gold Dust to listen to more live music. It was a bar hopping Friday! Happy Weekend everyone. :)

Kale Kale Kale!

So I am a total health freak (although my cheesy bread below wouldn't prove that), and the hygienist I work with, Gina, is identical to me. We are constantly coming into work saying, "Did you see the new research on these foods.... Can you believe microwaving that plastic is leaking BPA into my coffee..... (And the latest), What do you think about raw veggies?" She was a Nutrition major so she gives me lots of awesome tips on all sorts of topics and I just find her so knowledgeable.

One of my all time favorite foods on the planet is Kale. I am so happy it's a super food because I am literally obsessed with it. I will eat it any way, raw, steamed, or slightly pan fried.  This organic gardener says eating a bit of Kale, all 365 days a year, is a huge health benefit and cancer fighter. I believe it! But what is the best way to eat it? Gina and I both went home and did some research because she "remembered learning something about raw kale and it being hard on the body to digest." But I have heard repeatedly that cooking collard greens will leak out most of the nutrients. So which is better?

Turns out, it just depends on the vegetable and how you cook it. But overall, the pros and cons of raw vs. cooked is still not clear cut. The majority of the literature I found on this said it's important to eat a mix of both. But it looks like Kale (and other collard greens, which are members of the cabbage family... broccoli, brussel sprouts, & cauliflower, for example) are healthiest when only lightly steamed. This makes it easier for the body to digest, but still keeps it's high level of Vitamin K in it's leafy leaves. :)

This blogger really sums up the research in her "Calling out Kale" entry, going as far to say that kale literally "helps put up a force field around your colon" and helps kill potential cancer cells before they have a chance to do damage on the body.

In summary, I am not sure I learned much from doing the small research I did, and I realize I'm not bringing a lot of new thinking to today's post. But I will continue to eat Kale both raw and steamed, every day of my life if possible! My entire bottom drawer in my fridge is packed with Kale, I buy it every single time I shop because clearly, you can't eat too much of it! It can be a little bitter for some people so I squeeze lemon juice over it whether it being raw or cooked. I usually add sunflower seeds as well with a little salt and pepper, sooo yummy! One of my girlfriends makes baked kale chips, but again I am not sure if that would be removing important nutrients? Hopefully this has sparked some "kale-eating" in your near future. ;-)

Friday thoughts

Fridays' are my safe haven because thankfully, I don't have to work. :) These mornings always include me sleeping till around 9, or until a cat jumps on my head asking to be fed. Sun is almost always shining, (our apartments gets the most light around this time), and after sleeping at least 10 hours I perk right out of bed and walk to my coffee press. Mmmm it smells so good in here. ;) Today, I woke up to this:

San Francisco, like most of the country, got off to a late Winter, and I am so glad it's here. It's a perfect day for blogging, pinning (love the fact that this is a new verb!) a facial, mani/pedi... all before we head on a plane home tonight for my best friend's engagement party! Here's what my morning looks like:

My SLR has unfortunately broke. To my luck, it wasn't even at the bar. I dropped it on my hardwood floor and now it won't focus. Let this be a lesson to spend the extra couple hundred dollars for the warranty, which I did, and it lasts 5 years. That is currently being fixed so my flip phone will have to do the trick for now. ;) I don't really have a point for this blog today, I have been slacking so much on writing and maybe that's why I've been on more of an edge lately. This is so therapeutic for me and I need to set the time aside to write more. While pinning this morning I read this, and it sparked something I wanted to tell you about:

There was a study done at UCSF that Adam was recently telling me about. It somehow proved (I will need to find the literature for this, but all in all it's a great concept), that people who started writing down a few things per day that they were grateful for, were all around much happier people. Usually when we have a bad day, our thoughts are so overpowering on that "bad day". Throwing these vibes into the universe "this was the worst day ever", or even repeatedly coming home in a bad mood after work, can really bring negativity to homes and relationships. Vibes are SO powerful, I mean, I can instantly feel people and the energy they bring into a room. It can change an environment right away. Anyway, this study shows that even in the midst of an awful day, come home and write down a few things that you can choose from that day, which made you happy, even if only for a second. So, Adam and I started a Gratuity Journal (we each have our own sitting on our night stands), and we write down 3 things each night that were thankful/grateful for. Of course we all get beyond stressed at work sometimes, but those negative thoughts again, will overtake most positive ones, leaving people really bummed out and irritable/sad/depressed/you name it. The study showed that people who did this (not sure the period of time yet), were overall much happier. I found that it allows me to dig into the really important things and remember that life is much, much worse for a lot of other people. The mind, I believe, is our most powerful tool and it's exhilarating, isn't it? That we have this much control over how our mood, our day, and our life, will be. Here's a small example of mine, this was the day I got home from Denver... a lil blurry, but you get the idea:

I hope you'll start one too!

Happy lazy Friday!