the warmth.

It's amazing what a little warmth, a little light, can do for your mind-set. Nothing else around here has changed...still struggling with a lot of tightness/soreness in my neck, still curbing Hayden's weird six-year-old tantrums and attitude, still trying to figure out how to run an entire house from top to bottom for the first time in my life.

But how great is it to do your work all day and then step outside to that skin-tingling warmth? It changes everything.

Today I will take the watercolor's out to the patio. I will eat my grapefruit and be bothered by bee's. Hopefully a sweaty run later.

Have a wonderful Wednesday. <3

spring cleaning and busy-food.

Whew.

Our house has been a vacuuming, drilling (that would be the husband), teapot-whistling, scrubbing, choo-choo train-chugging (and that would be Hayden), coffee-pot-gurgling chorus. We're purging A LOT of stuff at the moment, not to make room for more, but just to make room for room. In between doing all I can--which I'll admit has been hard for me lately; I'm having several health issues--I've been in my studio/office, slowly organizing and pulling out long-forgotten treasures, and even fashioning a bare corner into an altar and meditation spot for my yoga. It's all turning out quite nicely.

Here's a truth: cleaning makes you ravenously hungry. It also makes you bone-tired. Which is why I've been making what I like to call "busy food"--good, wholesome food, done with short-cuts and downsized in scale. Which is where my Mini English Muffin Pizza's come in.

I make mine with some very expensive ham and ricotta cheese, but you can obviously alter the toppings to suite every person you're serving (an excellent bonus if you have children). And because they're tiny, they're fun. Why is everything more fun in miniature?

Mini English Muffin Pizza's



Ingredients:

- 4 whole-grain english muffins ( I actually really like Fiber One's )
- homemade pizza sauce ( I usually have some on hand in the freezer ) OR your favorite brand of organic marinara sauce
- 1 cup ricotta cheese ( fat content of your choosing )
- 3 spring onions, chopped
- one garlic clove, peeled and sliced in half
- about 3-4 slices of very high-quality ham
- olive oil, for brushing
- sea salt and black pepper

Preheat your oven to 275 F. Separate your english muffins and lay out. Brush with olive oil, rub with the halved garlic, then sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Place on a non-stick baking sheet and place in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Watch them closely--you're just looking to lightly toast them.
Remove from oven, and leave heat on. Chop the ham slices into strips. Top each muffin half with as much pizza sauce as you like, a dab of ricotta, a few strips of ham, and a scattering of spring onion. Place the pizza's back into the oven and cook for about 10 minutes, until the cheese is gooey, and the edges of the muffin and ham are browning. Remove and serve.
Serves 4 people two mini-pizza's each. (You can obviously up the amounts very easily, if needed.)



Nosh-nosh. :) Enjoy!

moments.

my zen master

art

surprise

 

Although it's once again rain and gloom here in PA, we haven't been taking the occasional sunny day for granted. The shoes fly off and we head outdoors, to dig, run around, or just lay in the grass. It's a slow process, spring. Or at least you think it is until one morning you walk outside and suddenly, EVERYTHING is in full bloom.

I've been feeling a little creatively jumbled lately. There is so much I want to do: make some new skirts, embroider pretty flowers, make herbal tinctures and tonics, alter all the curtains in the house, cook healthy meals, paint with my hands, get back into making jewelry. I can't choose and find myself frozen in place more often than not. Perhaps I'm feeling the dizzying effect of spring too?