Freeday Post - Taking Good Care

From my little house to yours...

A recipe for wellness.

I think it is always an important reminder to take extra good care of ourselves during this time of year. Recently, I discovered this easy recipe for Revitalizing and Immune-Boosting Soup:

4cups vegetable stock

1/2 cup of brown rice

6 shitake mushrooms, chopped

1 scallion, white part sliced

1/2" piece of ginger root, finely chopped

1/4 tsp. dried red chili

2 sprigs of thyme, leaves chopped

2 carrots, finely diced

salt/pepper to taste

Place rice in a large saucepan and add the stock. Bring to a boil and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to simmer for 10 minutes. Serves 4.

I whipped up a little batch of this yesterday morning and had some for breakfast and dinner. It is a very nice light soup - great with a piece of crusty bread. And it is so good for you! I got this recipe from here:

I am loving this book! It is filled with great natural healing advice including more recipes. I hope you will take some time this weekend to rest, restore and renew and treat yourself to some revitalizing soup. Enjoy!

Freeday Post - With Love in My Heart

There is a lot of love in my heart these days. I don't think I need to explain it. I just feel it. I have been spending some time lately thinking about my goals for 2010. In 2010, I am going to spread the love around. More on this in January. But speaking of spreading the love around, I would like to dedicate this blogpost to gardenmama and her wellness tree. Please click on the wellness tree link to find out how you can support Kelly, a beautiful young mother with cancer, this holiday season. As Rainer Maria Rilke said,

Silent friend of many distances,

feel how your breath enlarges all of space.

Let your presence ring out like a bell into the night.

Please send some love and good wishes to Kelly this season.

Dear Kelly, wishing you peace and healing with love from Rosamund.

Dear Gardenmama, thanks so much for spreading the love around. xo

Freeday Post - Santa's Workshop Up and Running/Recent Vintage Finds

This is a zoomed in photo of the three scarves I made this week. Stitches in Play had this tutorial on her blog. Look for the "super simple scarf." It is truly just that - super simple and really beautiful. These are gifts for three lovely women in my life. I think it is a great gift idea. Thank you to Stitches in Play!
I bought this cupcake tree at Target for $15. I am in love with it. I purchased it with Will in mind - since he is the master cupcake maker in this house. We have used it for cupcakes and then I thought it would be great for little seasonal treats as well. I just used silver cupcake holders for the treats. Festive! If a four tiered cupcake holder exists, it would make a rather fantastic advent calendar. This one holds only seventeen cups. But fun - right?

I found this little vintage cushion at a thrift store for a dollar. I love the fabric and the way it looks on the seat of my sweet yellow chair. I thought Miss Kitty would love to venture a nap here but as it turns out, she is not the least bit interested in an adorable vintage cushion. Can you imagine that? If a couch or a bed existed with this fabric all over it, I would have to sleep on it. Or at the very least curl up with a good book.

Speaking of vintage...I simply must mention this etsy shop - jogioriginals. This is the shop of two women who upcycle vintage fabric into some really great creations. The above photo is a purse I purchased. The photo below is a bag for my yoga mat. These are also great gift ideas especially if you are going green for the holidays.

Peace - om!

Freeday Post - Birdie's Nest and A Garland

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I sure did. I spent some time in the Berkshires which is my favorite place to be. I took a hike in the woods/mountains behind my brother's house with my brother, Mister and five boys. Glorious! We crossed a rushing brook with slippery rocks - adventure! We climbed down a ravine - yikes! We collected pinecones and bittersweet - lovely! We just barely made it home before nightfall - living on the edge! Anyway, I had so much fun and I am aware these days just how much I have come to appreciate nature in all of its many forms. I am thankful for many, many things in my life and nature is definitely on that list. I created two items this week in the spirit of that hike. The first is this necklace which I have named "Birdie's Nest". It is made of vintage beads, a glass bead birdie, a small glass Asian bead, little vintage flowers from an old broken bracelet, lace ribbon and the blue beaded "nest" is a vintage earring. I will list this item in my etsy store today.

Tweet!

Next, I made this garland out of some of the pinecones we collected. I strung some chandelier crystals in between the pinecones and then I created one prayer flag with this quote from Anton Chekhov:

We shall find peace.

We shall hear angels.

We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

Freeday Post - On My Mind - The View

Lately, I have been forgetting to take my camera along with me here, there and everywhere and I am full of regret. I have seen some amazing things in nature during the past week or so. I pulled out of my driveway very early one morning on my way to work and saw a whole herd of deer grazing in my yard. In that moment, I did not give a hoot about my plants. They were so beautiful and peaceful. Another day, I was driving down a long, winding farm road in a nearby village when I saw literally thousands of migratory red winged black birds grazing in the fields on each side of the road. I had to drive very slowly so as not to hit them and as I drove through them, they flew up in front of my car in the most incredible, beautiful flowing patterns. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. It was magical. And then just today, I was driving on back country roads and noticed amazing color contrasts - the sky crimson and lavender and orange; the fields a beautiful shade of yellow green, the pine trees a deep blue green and the mountains in the background a deep indigo blue. No camera for any of it. And so it exists there in my mind forever - these beautiful and amazing nature snapshots in time. I painted the above painting one night after feeling inspired by such a view here in the Hudson Valley, where beautiful views abound. I used acrylics but recently, I have discovered these:

I am in love with these paintsticks. Like jumbo crayons only better. Do they ever dry though? Mine are taking forever to dry on canvas. Maybe I am just not patient enough. Anyway, I highly recommend these.

Here's a scene that warms my heart... Will and Jack quietly doing homework - at the same table - no talking, no endless bickering. Lovely really. What a beautiful view!

I recently inherited my great grandmother's wicker rocking chair. I love having this chair in my home knowing that my great grandmother, grandmother and mother have all spent some time rocking peacefully away in it. My grandmother made the little doll for me when I was a little girl. It is Libby from Libby on the label. Does anyone remember her from the 70's? It is one of a few handmade items that I have of my grandmother's that I love and cherish. We had a fire tonight and I pulled this little cushion of happiness up to the embers to get all snug and cozy. Add a little hot chocolate and a handful of M&M's and that equals bliss.

I downloaded some Simon and Garfunkel onto my playlist tonight. When I was in college, and my roommate and I needed a little study break, we would put on some S&G and sit by the windows and watch the views on Brookline Avenue in Boston. The views were beautiful there too - just in a different way than they are here. We were feelin' groovy back then and there are days when I can feel pretty darn groovy now but in a different way - kind of.

Enjoy your view, whatever it may be, stay warm and snug and cozy and take some time to feel groovy.

Freeday Post - Life in Progress

I do not have a finished product to post for this week but I do have a few things in progress like this crow pose painting. I chose to post this because after not going to yoga for a month, I finally went this morning. I can't begin to tell you what happens to me when I go without yoga for such a long period of time but today I was reminded. Lately I have noticed a huge disconnect with my center, an internal and external chaos, a lack of balance in my life, an inflexiblility, an overall loss of energy and endurance to get through the days - all present in my asanas this morning. Also present were my fears and all of that garbage that I am aware holds me back and keeps me from moving forward. When I think about all of this, I am surprised that I no longer get discouraged. Rather, there is an acceptance of being where I'm at and a recognition that this is life - a work in progress. This is going to happen - I will miss yoga sometimes; I will get off balance, I will get disconnected and inflexible and chaotic... I think life is a continuous quest for all of this - balance, inner peace, flexibility, endurance, etc. All we can do is be aware when things are not in line and then work to get them back in line. Such is the ebb and flow of life. Such is life in progress.

Freeday Post - Peace To End A Hectic Day

So it was one of those days...I had to work all day and then returned home to a boy in need of an emergency room visit. Will tore a tendon in his shoulder - playing street football. Fortunately, nothing is broken and he should recover nicely.

I am trying to stay true to my committment to myself of crafting something every week - even if it is a small something - no matter what kind of curve balls I am thrown.

Tonight, I decided to make another mala. I needed some peace at the end of this crazy day and it is a truly meditative thing just to make a mala - and using one is even better!

This mala is made from wood beads, an asian inspired glass bead, and a vintage (mother of pearl?) heart all strung on waxed linen. I hope to post this mala and perhaps one or two other items in the store this weekend. Peace to All - Rosamund xo.