Category Archives: blogs

Self Love. It’s Not Weird.

Posted in blogs, life by

photo by Karl Bolter

In the past year I’ve started reading a few new blogs by a few pretty rad ladies (The Morning Fresh and Campfire Chic). One recently made a big move across the country to do what felt right for her. Uproot your life? Sounds like a great adventure, but is it practical? The other mentions this idea called self love a lot. She does some how to get yourself motivated to blog again things and one writing topic is self love. I would read those two words and  laugh. Self love? That sounds straight out of a psychologist’s office, something you need to focus on if you’re in a dark place. I love myself, I take care of myself, I’m a happy human being.

The past six months I’ve been struggling hardcore with back pain. My mid back and shoulders are crazy tight. The chiropractor and massage therapist I see tell me to work on my posture, to be conscious of how I sit at my desk, to add 10 measly minutes into my morning and evening routines to open my chest and stretch my back. And I do, but then I don’t, and then my body becomes a wretched mess of pain for a few days, disrupting sleep.

This is not self love. This is the exact opposite of self love. This is making myself hurt because I’m not paying attention, because I’m not treating my body as it deserves and needs, even though I know better.

Self love. Now I get it. I’m not laughing anymore. It’s about being caring and aware and in tune with yourself. And how, with my brain packed full of yoga and recycling and and not eating processed foods and barefootedness, did I miss this? LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! LISTEN TO YOUR BRAIN! Maybe self love is about making time for those things that you know are good for you, physically or emotionally, about readjusting your schedule for yourself, not for someone else. Maybe it’s about taking a big, earth-shattering event and making a big and equally earth-shattering positive change in your life. For me, I think I’ll start small in building some self love routines. I’ll add them in by little bits to my days.

Maybe all I really needed was a new perspective, a quick conversation, to make me see something that I’d be staring at and scoffing at for months in a new light. Maybe that’s where this whole self love business starts, with a new perspective, even if it’s only a tiny shift, a tiny ripple.

 

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Recently one of my favorite ladies of the internet, Joy the Baker, was interviewed on The Every Girl. Among the many quirky and insightful things she said was advice to her 23-year-old self: You’re not the kind of girl who settles. Keep not settling.

That is rad and real advice, and the kind that a 23-year-old, myself included, could probably use.

Joy’s advice made me think … what would I tell my 23-year-old self? The one living recklessly yet so nervously in Raleigh who felt like her biggest life decisions were in front of her.

New Year’s Eve, 2007

1. Get a new perspective when faced with challenges, don’t run away. Don’t feel guilty about getting new perspective, and don’t call it running away when it’s what you need.

2. Do your own thing, be your own person, be confident in your decisions, and don’t let other opinions pressure you into going where you don’t feel you should go.

3. Enjoy that one warm winter you spend in Raleigh. It’s OK to forget what single digit temps feel like for a minute.

4. No regrets. None. Every single thing you do will get you to where you will be, and it will always be good and OK. Don’t wish things had gone differently. Be glad they went just as they did.

5. Get a real hairdresser, a real haircut, and some real, good hair products. Control the frizz.

6. Enjoy every moment you get to sit on a horse. Those moments will lessen.

7. Find a hobby that is less expensive than riding. Baking is good.

8. Break the feet-picking habit. It’s way gross.

9. Be present. Be positive. Learn the benefits of breathing.

10. Listen to the lyrics.

11. Get a good pair of running shoes! Your toenails will still fall off, but your running will improve.

12. Moving back to your hometown is a step forward, not a step backward like it may feel at the time.

13. Your boobs are bigger than you think. Consider that next cup size up. Consider showing off your cleavage sometimes, too. It’s cool.

14. Do not try Velveeta macaroni and cheese in the box. It will only lead down a slippery slope. Wait, on second thought, try that business. Your 28-year-old self can’t imagine life without it.

The Girls I Love

Posted in blogs, friends, Lola, Mira by

I have some pretty amazing girls in my life.

My Mira dog loves car rides. Pure bliss. She may have enjoyed the car ride more than our destination, a park in town with mountain bike trails. Us girls walked through the woods while Michael tore up the trails on his new cyclocross bike. You know how dogs are supposed to attract cute guys orgirls? Well, Michael’s bike seems to do a better job of that than Mira. It got a cute Irish guy to come over and chat up Michael after his ride. He ignored Mir, who was conked out in the grass. I’d take Mira over a cyclocross bike any day.

Lola kitty has an uncanny ability to make any item into a toy. The bathroom trash can is basically her toy box. We’re not phased when we find used cotton balls and Q-tips scattered around the house anymore. Lola got lots of amusement out of the box that Michael’s new bike came in. (Yes, that damn cyclocross bike again. Trust me, it’s popping up just as extensively in my life as it is in this post.) She played hide-and-seek with us from behind it for awhile.

A lot of my ladyfriends have started blogs as of late. I would like to invite you to take a look.

Seriously though, they’re all awesome and all really different, which is one of the things I love about my friends, they’re unique!

That’s me, Tim, and Samantha at a Black Keys concert this summer. Samantha and her dude, Tim, blog over at 104days. There are 104 weekend days in a year, and Sam and Tim write about how they spend theirs. They do seriously cool stuff like visit Cape Cod, do the Warrior Dash, watch buildings explode, and camp. Oh and Tim skateboards and plays with his motorcycles a lot, too!

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This picture is a throwback to 2003, the first summer Bette and I organized drill team at Green Cove. We dressed up as pink princesses the day our campers performed the drill team. After this summer, dressing up in pink dresses became a somewhat regular occurrence for us at camp. If you are a horse person you should add Bette’s blog, Riding to B, to your daily reading list. If you are not a horse person, you should add it to your daily reading list. Bette has been riding horses basically ever since she could walk. She events, teaches lessons, trains whichever horse she is riding at the time, and helps to care for a barn of horses. She’s currently training a cute guy named Gus. Sometimes she writes about random things, too, like movies or weird fashion, and usually with a horsie twist. She’s a funny girl; check it out.

Days 24 – 28 – Photo time!

Posted in 30 Days of Creativity, baked, blogs, Lola, mini trips, Mira, photos by

I was out of town this past weekend. We drove to St. Louis to visit some of Michael’s family. No time to update the blog. Had to get creative with being creative! Oh my goodness do I love Instagram. If you have an iPhone, download this app. Between discussing Dick’s (and what it’s like to be inside one) with Michael’s aunt, uncle, and cousins, eating ice cream, playing kickball, and meeting grandparents, I was happy to have an easy way to be creative with my phone.

Day 24


Ted Drewes in St. Louis – delicious and apparently highly sought considering the lines custard.

Day 25 

I was missing my girls on Saturday. I took this picture just with my regular phone camera last week. On Saturday I played around with the various lenses on Instagram.

Day 26

We may have gotten a little turned around trying to leave St. Louis on Sunday, but I’m glad we did, because our detour took us right by the Arch!

Day 27 I made a pair of sandals, but I’m not satisfied with them just yet so no picture to show.

Day 28 I did some creative writing type work for the magazine. Yay work creativity!

And now you must do something for me. Go to HomeFries and download the Joy the Baker podcast. Do you know who Joy the Baker is? She lives in California and has a website where she writes about food she makes, her cat, boys, flashing people, and all kinds of other hilarious and awesome topics. HomeFries a project she’s started with a friend. The site has four podcasts, one of which is Joy’s. She’s joined by Tracey of Shutterbean, whose blog I only started reading recently. Anyway, Joy and Tracey talk about blogging, baking, and other random stuff like Pinterest (did you know I’m obsessed with Pinterest these days?) and work pool parties (a terrible idea!). Check out their podcast. It’s LOL good.

Raspberry Lemonade Cream Pie

Posted in baked, blogs, movies by

First of all, how did I just discover 101 Cookbooks? I’m going to spend the rest of my day reading over her entire site and absorbing all of her natural food and cooking information. OK, maybe not all day since I am at work.

Second of all, I watched Food, Inc. over the weekend (which was almost a week ago, I realize). A very eye-opening documentary about the food industry in this country, and it made me incredibly thankful to have local, conventional or organic produce and groceries, and grass-fed, local, ickiness-free meat at my fingertips. Thanks Farm Fresh Delivery and Goose the Market! You make me feel good about what I shove into my mouth every day. Tehehe.

Thirdly, make this pie. This pie, this pie. It’s all kinds of sweet-tart summery goodness. And the only oven-turning-on you have to do is to blind bake the crust! Which, let me just tell you, is a HUGE plus when outside felt like 100° for two weeks straight.

the lighting in my kitchen sucks, remember?

What you should really be paying attention to here is the crust. Remember how we made a pie in North Carolina with vodka in the crust? That’s the basic recipe I used here, but I changed one thing.

Meet the flakiest artery-clogging mothaheffah around

Oh yes. That, my friends, is lard. A tub of lard. I have a tub of lard in my fridge, just hangin out. I bought a tub of lard at Kroger (but I went through the self-scan because I was too embarrassed to let anyone ring up my lard). About this lard. It’s not vegetarian. Duh. It’s a tub of animal fat and not the best thing for you. But, BUT (butt) it makes the damn flakiest pie crust I’ve ever tasted. So, I suggest you give lard a chance if you can stomach it. You will be blown out of the water.

hi piggy tail

I probably will only use lard when my kitchen is too hot for butter, because all-butter crust is like a tiny piece of heaven. But I’m never going back to a Crisco-butter combo. Sorry, Crisco.

Another quick note. If you’re a bit nervous about rolling out pie dough because it’s sticky and whatnot, this vodka recipe is perrrrrfect for you. Who’m I kidding, it’s perfect for anyone making pie crust. The vodka makes the dough so malleable and easy to work with that you’ll think you’re rolling out Play Doh. Plus you can drink vodka ice teas while you bake.

OK, so on to the pie recipe. Continue reading →

Songs of the Week

Posted in blogs, concerts, food, North Carolina, song of the week by

Where to start…? With a list!!

1. I am now the proud owner of the domain name piebelly.com. Ooooh, right? Now can someone design me a little Buddah rubbing his belly and holding a piece of pie for a logo?

2. I took a trip to North Carolina to the mountains last Thursday through Sunday. Coming back is hard. The mountains are my home. They’re full of wonderful people (and one terrible person). I cooked so much amazing food with my friend Renée that I could cry happy food tears. Just need to upload my pictures off of my camera and then I’ll post all about pies, pastas, porch swings, and gazpachos.

3. To make up for serious slacking in the Song of the Week area, I’m going to post three today.

Firstly, there’s Guster. Last week I got the most wonderful and much-anticipated e-mail in my inbox. Guster announcing their new album – title, release date, and first … single I suppose. Also TOUR DATES! October 10 at the Egyptian Room right here in Indianapolis. This will be Guster concert number 11 for me. So after much very restrained squealing (I was still at work when this e-mail arrived), I listened to the first song. Then I downloaded the song. Then I listened to the song 10 more times. Then I memorized all the words. It’s called “Bad Bad World.” The album is called Easy Wonderful and is due out October 5. Here’s the track listing

1. Architects & Engineersv 2. Do You Love Me
3. On the Ocean
4. This Could All Be Yours
5. Stay with Me Jesus
6. Bad Bad World
7. This Is How It Feels to Have a Broken Heart
8. What You Call Love
9. That’s No Way to Get to Heaven
10. Jesus and Mary
11. Hercules
12. Do What You Want

And here’s that first song.

Bad Bad World lyrics

I would like to dedicate this song to the amazing women who I hung out with this past weekend. Bette, Renée, and Jennifer, this song is for you girls. And maybe also Officer Jesse Durham, as a thank you? Heh.

Secondly, U.S. Royalty. I discovered this band last year at the Forecastle Festival in Louisville.

U.S. Royalty, Forecastle Festival 2009

I guess you could call them Americana, or folk-rocky. I like them either way. This song is called Raincoats.

Thirdly, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at Bele Chere

I heard of this band sometime over the summer, but now I’m not sure how it was. Either way, I saw that they were playing at Bele Chere, this big street festival in Asheville that we went to this past weekend, and I was determined to see them. And holy awesome they did not disappoint at all. In fact they were incredibly amazing and I left the show with two of their albums. One of my friends described them as a sort of throwback to the 70s and the lead singer as a Stevie Nicks. I like that description and I’m going with it. They’re a nice blend of blues-y goodness and rock.

This is Goodbye Kiss from their self-titled album that just came out this year.

And this one is called Paris (Oh La La) on the same album.

Up and Moved!

Posted in 717, blogs, friends by

After three lovely years using Blogger for all my blogging needs, I decided it was time to move on. After exploring WordPress a bit and reading really great things about it from other bloggers, I made the move here. So far so good, I think. This feels….more grownup somehow? I suppose I’ve made a natural progression from LiveJournal to Blogger to WordPress. So anyway, look around, tell me what you think, I like feedback!!!

As my first official post, I’d like to recognize some of my amazing friends who have recently started their own blogs. Check them out. They’re great writers and very insightful.

Some Restrictions Apply
I met Heather through work. She’s hilarious and has serious willpower. Read her blog and you’ll understand. She’s trying out different diets, just to see how it would be to live as, say, a vegetarian, or on a gluten-free diet, because she’s curious. Heather also shares my love of cupcakes.

I’m the Dandy Highway Man
Samantha and I have known each other since sixth grade, though we really became very good friends in college. She’s one-third of the 717 and one of my best friends. These are her observations on life in general I would say. Get inside her head.

Cold As Ice Cream But Still As Sweet

I know Jen through Samantha. They are not entirely sure how they met, but it might have something to do with Bloomington. Jen has become one of my close friends since I moved back to Indianapolis. She’s a baker, too, and we’ve made a few cakes together. They’re always tasty, and not always pretty. She blogs about culture, art, fashion, Indianapolis, and maybe food.