Welcome Back “Potter”

Welcome back. To both all of us! Eight month hiatus(es?) being what they are I’ve been in the garage quite a bit fostering a new love of woodworking. It’s going okay, albeit slowly.

This interest stems from a few things including (but not limited to):

• Lack of money
• Natural beauty of wood
• Creative juices/not finding exactly what I like
• Seeing my parents build anything and everything instead of buying it (love you guys!)

Cedar Bench, front

A blog I’ve followed recently is Knock-Off Wood. Basically she’s a mom living in Alaska who does a pretty good job of emulating high-end furniture (from the likes of Pottery Barn, West Elm, and Restoration Hardware) and a GREAT job of inspiring people to start building things on their own.

I had actually built these benches shortly before seeing her post on making planters with the inexpensive cedar fencing from Lowe’s or Home Depot.

Cedar Bench, angle

The frame was the stringers from some pine pallets and the rest is covered with the cedar fencing and sanded. It’s not fancy, but they cost me $15/each plus some time. Cushions are next on the list. That, or a small deck over the rocky area next to the patio.

Surprisingly, redwood isn’t as expensive as I thought it was either. Thanks Anna for continuing to inspire.

 

Okra-homa

“…where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain…”

Literally as we’ve had some Monsoon weather recently. I’m not really sure why the Okra decided not to die but I’m excited! Here’s a few shots to show you that although things don’t seem to be happening, KEEP WATERING! You never know. It also helps when Jesus waters for you 😉

 

Busy

I’ve been so busy lately. School, work, trading in my car & the list seems to keep going. Eating raw has been tricky–and sometimes nonexistent.

Sleep has been difficult lately so I went to bed early last night. Darn it if I didn’t wake up at 4am wide awake! So I ate a banana and drank some lemon water while I took a bubble bath and read. Around 7am I ate a Bosc pear.

I made a green smoothie to take to work, but decided to stop by Whole Foods and grab a juice for now as well as some raw crackers and snacks to keep my salty cravings at bay.

Been snacking on some raw flax crackers and trail mix. I need salt & crunch so this is helping. Can’t taste the dulse it says is in it (red algae, see Wikipedia article), so yay for that. Wow, I’m digging the seasoning in lydiasorganics.com Savory Trail Mix!

Oh! The other day I dehydrated some mushrooms after adding a little bit of olive oil & garlic & salt to them & yummy!!!! Added ’em to my lunch salad yesterday & it made it soooo good!!! I took a picture for ya.

Lunch was a yummy salad like yesterday’s & a bunch of raw olives from sunfood.com. Love salty foods!!!

I’ve got a green smoothie in the fridge here at work that I’ll probably drink in an hour or so if I get hungry or snacky. If not, breakfast for tomorrow!

 

Produce Day

Another produce day and today was a HAUL! Peaches, Bosc pears, grape tomatoes, radishes, bananas, strawberries, red raspberries, broccoli, two huge stalks of celery, spinach, and leaf lettuce.

We also opted for two “tropical packs” which each contained a pineapple, a few kiwis, some limes, two mangos, a few unripe bananas, and a coconut.
Should be quite a week of juicing coming up!

 

Juicer

Still waiting for my Breville juicer to show up, so I stopped by Whole Foods juice bar again this morning. Today I had a spinach, carrot, & pineapple juice. So good! Then I grabbed a couple of nectarines for later.

Ate the pear because it looked like it wanted me too & some flax crackers are next. I kinda have munchies this morning. Wait, I really have the munchies.

Haven’t slept well the last two nights & it’s really effecting me today. I really want to go home & take a long nap. I have class tonight, so it will be another long day/night.

Dang it! I’m getting so bored with salads & I haven’t purchased any bulk nuts & seeds yet so I gave in to my nachos & jalapeno craving from Taco Bell. I feel so overwhelmed.

My mission this afternoon is to find a place to purchase seeds, nuts, & olives. Any tips or suggestions anyone???

 

Carrot Juice

Started my mornin out with an orange & carrot juice from the Whole Foods juice bar. I got a huge 32oz & have been chugging it all morning. Definitely keeping me satisfied & makes me think I could actually do juice in the mornings more often.

I’m so happy because just a week of eating raw during the day has helped me lose 4lbs! Sweet, huh? Makes me more motivated to continue on.

I am liking the raw till supper thing because I don’t feel deprived & for me that is always an issue when dieting. And I don’t want this to feel like a diet rather a healthier way of living. I always have cravings for random things so it’s been hard to hold out, but I can do this.

So mid-morning I had a banana. It was good & I’m surprised by how long I’ve made it. Yay!!!

Couldn’t get away from the office by lunchtime so I just ate a plum & have a pear that might get eaten next if I can’t leave soon. All in all today was great!

 

Weekends

Hmmm, the weekend was a bit tougher than I thought it would be to eat raw. My Vita-Mix broke. The piece that spins the blade broke, so we had to order a replacement part so smoothies were out. I ended up eating leftover pizza for breakfast.

Sunday I had fruit & some flax breakfast crips then lunch was the other half of my apple wrap.

I’m so having major cravings. Ugh! I don’t even like meat, but I can’t stop thinking about spaghetti & meatballs. I don’t even like meatballs! Soooo annoying. Got to find chip-french fry substitute.

 

Produce Day

The only down side of a food/produce co-op is that you usually have to pick it up at 7:00am–ON SATURDAY!

Other than that it’s a great deal. Today we got pears, apples, bananas, red plums, a honeydew melon, a single green and red bell pepper, four medium sized ears of corn, two bunches of celery hearts, two good handfuls of radishes, an acorn squash, a head of butter lettuce, bunch of red kale, and a brown paper lunch bag of yellow wax beans. Not too shabby!

The key now is to use it all before it goes bad 😉

 

Regular :)

Weird gross subject for starting out, but raw food rocks for making you “regular”! :). This has been an issue for me on a consistent basis, but even after a few days I’m really noticing a difference!!! I’m sure you all wanted to know about that, but I think most of us are used to feeling bloated all the time. It’s NOT normal!!!

 

Raw Update

It’s been 4 days now since I started on my quest to eat raw during the day. I’m pretty proud of myself. I caved Tuesday on fries (my weakness). I’m trying not to say I can’t have something as I tend to then want it more, so that’s helped.