Horoscopes!

ARIES: March 21 – April 20: It isn’t as bad as it looks; life is relative and this is more about your perspective than anything else. Those of you who have enough of a sense of humor to laugh it off are beginning to see that this is probably a blessing in disguise. When things get this close to the bone the only thing that wards off disaster is the sense that it’s all being taken care of on some level. If your faith in the way life works is stronger than your fear that it never has and never will, you’re about to find out the miracles can come out of just about anything; every worst case scenario is full of them.

TAURUS: April 21 – May 20: You have a right to be feeling things a little more deeply than usual. It wouldn’t be so hard if you could come to understand that everything has its season – and the things that make life painful are as full of love and light as the things that give it joy. No one has the prescription for the hard stuff. The only thing we can do is enter into the experience and get far enough past the pain to find the love in it. You can handle anything. And as much as you have been programmed to believe that this is hard, bad, painful, or wrong, your soul will be refined and redeemed by it.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20: You just wish you could do this now instead of later. Your impatience is understandable. At the same time there’s something to be said for the importance of other people and the way your relationships affect the timing on everything. In the end you’ll be deeply grateful that someone needed to make you wait. Instead of wasting your time being pissed that you couldn’t have it your way start getting off on where things are at. If you could see past whatever you thought was supposed to happen and look at what you’ve created you’d be amazed at how awesome this is.

CANCER: June 21 – July 20: You’re in a gap that can’t be filled with the usual stuff. Recent changes have put you in a place you’ve never been in before. Don’t go crazy overanalyzing your deficiencies and do your best to love yourself through this transition. At this point many of you are in one of those dark nights of the soul that transforms your understanding of yourself forever. If it seems as if you’ve had to give up everything, or if you have some sense that there’s no way out, you haven’t lived long enough to know that it is only in darkness that we really learn to see. Try to see the light in this.

LEO: July 21 – August 20: Many of you are having a tough time taking ‘No’ for an answer. What point is there to keep going down this road when everything suggests that there’s nothing at the end of it? Before you continue you might want to ask yourself; is it pride, or some misbegotten need for recognition that makes you keep forcing the issue? When life doesn’t respond sometimes it’s better to let things be. And when you consider that your outer reality is nothing more than a screen upon which you project everything, it begs the question; what do these signals tell you about yourself?

VIRGO: August 21 – September 20: Don’t get all wound up about this. The art of letting things be would be well applied in this situation. At the same time, you can’t sit back and do nothing; so how does one get proactive without pushing the river? Before you do anything else, sit down and connect with your inner strength; because this has less to do with outer stuff than it does with your ability to stay centered. If you can manage to remain in the space that knows that absolutely everything is taken care of, your actions will serve to channel that knowledge into whatever you want to create.

LIBRA: September 21 – October 20: You have enough to contend with. It will serve no purpose for you to add to your stress. Others seem to expect more from you than usual at a time when you’re pretty much tapped out. There’s no way to tell you how to make things easier because all of you have different sorts of issues to clear up, but one thing applies as a general prescription; don’t make things worse by making a martyr of yourself and do your best to remember that none of this will work if you eliminate yourself from the equation. In simple terms; even if there’s no time for it, take care of YOU!

SCORPIO: October 21 – November 20: You could easily pass this up. Don’t think you have to jump on anything that takes you away from what you’re already doing. The impulse to expand in order to secure your future doesn’t necessarily require you to divert your energy. So many of you already have it made, it would be stupid to trade it in for whatever’s behind the curtain. Aside from that, you know as well as I do that it’s what money can’t buy that makes us happy. In these times branching out is a gamble. Look at your life and ask yourself if you really believe there’s anything to the next best thing.

SAGITTARIUS: November 21 – December 20: Maybe this is as good as it looks but you’d be wise to check in and see what your inner guidance has to say about it. The way things seem, everything’s in order and whoever this involves appears to be honest, but there’s something that just doesn’t feel right about it. You don’t want to appear suspicious and you certainly don’t want anyone to think of you as a wet blanket, but all of your signals have been going off for at least a week or two. If others are laughing at you now, they will soon be expressing their regret that they lacked the good sense to heed your warnings.

CAPRICORN: December 21 – January 20: After a few months of non-stop moving around you can finally settle down and get into the things that you had to ignore while you were on the run. Decompressing will require you to chill out a little. Your tendency to always be on the case needs to be directed toward covering your own stuff – at least until you re-center yourself and gather the strength to take on the next thing. Others will continue to expect everything from you. Outside pressure to manage everything under the sun will be there too. For now, any and all demands need to be met with a firm “No”

AQUARIUS: January 21 – February 20: Too many things are converging for you to be able to say for sure how it will all turn out. The need to change the scenery is a big part of this. There are also issues that suggest that you have to balance the urge to move on with the fact that your livelihood seems to depend on staying put. Whether you know it or not, new opportunities are forming and within a month or so there is bound to be an opening that will allow you to blow this clambake and find yourself in a bigger, more comfortable set of circumstances. Until then, stay cool and remain open to all possibilities.

PISCES: February 21 – March 20: You have too much going for you to worry about whether or not anyone has a problem with it. If the fur has been flying and the gossips have been carving you up for dinner, you can take comfort in the fact that you aren’t at fault, and there is no basis to all of these ‘stories’. Underneath it all, the critics are jealous; either that or their need to scapegoat you comes out of the fear that the gossips just might find out what they’ve been up to. Life is crazy. People suck. If your lessons have been hard it’s because the truth came out and nobody wanted to hear it!

This or That?

Expensive house on the beach....or less expensive condo 10 minutes away from the beach?

Which would you pick?

Day 3 of the 20/20

Buy Flowers.

Days 1 & 2 of the 20/20

Ok... So according to the schedule I should have
1) Cleaned a Room & 2) Bought flowers.

Instead I tidied up all the rooms in my place... hung & folded all remaining laundry, and changed the sheets on my bed. My parents stopped in today, so my mom & I made a trip to the hardware store and bought a tube of caulk. We also stopped by Katie's and stole her caulk gun. Apparently the builder thought it was a great idea to seal the joint between my ceramic wall tile and the tub with grout, which, over time has corroded and some chunks have fallen out. So I chipped out the remaining grout and, with the help of my mom, sealed it with white, tub-ready caulk. Much better.

I also have been noticing some water damage of the floor boards near my dishwasher. So my dad & I pulled that out and noticed the copper water line fitting was leaking. A turn of the wrench and the leak should be fixed. I brought the fan over and let it dry up the floor for a bit then my mom sprayed it down with bleach just to ward off any potential for mold. Fingers crossed there are no problems.

So all in all, I feel all of that is way better than surface clean 1 room and buy flowers. My parents were a great help. I will buy flowers tomorrow.

Inspiration Photos! *Design Stuff*

Dream Bedroom

Fantastic Architecture

Not sure why I like this one.

So pretty.

What a cute little powder room.

20 Minutes for 20 Days

The 20/20 Cure Project at my condo starts Saturday, November 13th.. Inspiration from ApartmentTherapy. I'm starting a little later than I wanted, but at least I'm doing it.

How it works:
They post videos each day for a small task/project which needs to get completed that day. The purpose is to "In only 20 minutes a day for 20 days we're all going to make our homes beautiful, organized and healthy".

THE SCHEDULE

November 13th - December 2nd (might push a few days due to Thanksgiving)


1. Floor & Surface Clean 1 Room
2. Buy Flowers
3. Sit for 10 Minutes
4. Remove 1 Item
5. Buy or Replace Eco Cleaner
6. Floor & Surface Clean 1 Room
7. Buy Flowers
8. Find a Recipe
9. Cook Tonight!
10. Clean 1 Surface
11. Floor & Surface Clean 1 Room
12. Buy Flowers
13. Declutter Medicine Cabinet
14. Make List of 6 Home Needs
15. Declutter Books & Media
16. Floor & Surface Clean 1 Room
17. Buy Flowers
18. Media Fast
19. Hang Artwork
20. Take a Long Bath

Family Weekend

This weekend has turned out to be a great one. Now, I'm constantly amazed at how much I've changed in the last two years... Three years ago my idea of a great weekend would not have been baking & movies. Today, the thought of what I would have considered 'fun' makes me roll my eyes and sigh - so glad that's out of my system. This weekend I went south and spent some quality time with Mom, Dad, & Mike. Friday we went to Hamada for sushi & hibachi to celebrate Mike's birthday! Saturday, I had a wonderful visit with my cousin, Stacey, and her husband and new little nugget, Hunter. Stacey and I are as close to being sisters as can be, just without the DNA. It's wonderful to know I have a life-long friend. Mom and I went to Wal-Mart Saturday evening and did some grocery shopping, swinging by RedBox on the way home. The boys pulled together some hamburgers & homemade french fries while Mom and I talked about our plan for cinnamon rolls. We made the dough Saturday night while we watched "The Book of Eli" and Sunday morning, thanks to Daylight Savings, I was up at 6:50am ready to make some rolls! They turned out great - the recipe made 10 tins!! I followed the Pioneer Woman recipe exactly. Next time I'll halve the recipe and use a little less sugar, not in the dough, just in the layers. But the maple/coffee frosting??? OH MY.

Halloween Dinner - Beef Stroganoff

Halloween, in my family, is traditionally the day my Mom makes chili. I would have loved to make chili, but this brings back memories of a crowded kitchen, kids in costumes, and massive candy trading sessions. Since I will be spending the evening doing laundry & watching movies, I decided to go will something a little less nostalgic...Beef Stroganoff. I went to my favorite recipe browsing website - TasteSpotting, and came across this recipe. Now this may seem like something Paula Deen would cook because of the copious amounts of butter, but come on people...sour cream & butter...delicious.

Beef Stroganoff
•1 lb top sirloin, trimmed of fat and sliced into thin strips
•6 tbsp butter, divided
•8 oz mushroom, sliced
•1/2 onion, diced
•2 cloves garlic, minced
•1/4 cup dry white wine (optional, can use brandy, Marsala, etc)
•1 cup beef broth
•1 cup sour cream
•1 tbsp flour (if needed)
•1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
•salt and pepper
•12 oz extra wide egg noodles, cooked

1.Heat a heavy skillet over medium high heat until hot. Add 1 tbsp of butter and as soon as it melts and before it starts to brown add steak slices. Toss, then cook witout stirring for a minute or two or until well browned on one side. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2.Flip steak pieces over and brown the other side, about one minute. Remove steak to a plate.
3.Repeat with 1 tbsp of butter and sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle mushrooms with salt and pepper. Reserve to the plate with the steak.
4.Turn heat down to medium and the last of the butter. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft.
5.Add white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits in the pan. You can also use a small amount of beef broth if you don’t want to use alcohol.
6.Once wine has cooked off add sour cream and beef broth, stir and heat until smooth.
7.If the sauce seems too thin you can thicken it by removing a 1/4 cup of sauce and stirring in 1 tbsp of flour and adding it back in.
8.Add steak and mushrooms back into sauce. Stir and simmer until hot. Boiling the sauce heavily will result in the sour cream curdling but it isn’t so fragile that you can’t bring it to a nice simmer.
9.Taste and add salt and pepper. Stir in chopped parsley. Serve over egg noodles.

Hope

Happiness

the brief guide
less TV, more reading
less shopping, more outdoors
less clutter, more space
less rush, more slowness
less consuming, more creating
less junk, more real food
less busywork, more impact
less driving, more walking
less noise, more solitude
less focus on the future, more on the present
less work, more play
less worry, more smiles
breathe

Squirrely

So this is my first blog...and therefore, my first entry...ever. Don't get me wrong, I've had the diaries, but nobody ever read those, except for my nosey sister.

Today was a pretty good day. I left work at 3 and I can't remember the last time that happened. Here's the strange part though...were squirrels suicidal today? I had three of these guys jump in front of my car in a last ditch attempt to end their little lives. Once I swerved, once I slammed on the brakes, and the last time I just closed my eyes and prayed there was no 'bump'.

Anyways... I left at 3 for a specific reason. My condo association has recently switched management companies and they've asked that I supply my bank records for the last 27 months to show that I'm current on my association dues. Who keeps their bank statements that long?! Not I, thanks to my handy, industrial-strength shredder. Anyways, my bank wanted to charge me over $100 for these records...Eff that. The management company pulled some strings and got them to me for free. So I left work early to get to the bank before they close and then head to the management office to straighten everything out. I called Friday and asked their hours...open til 5. Perfect.

So I leave work in a rush... to get to the bank in a rush... to get to the management company in a rush... all the while avoiding squirrels who are in a rush to cross the street, and low & behold...the management company decided to close shop early. I was staring at a "Closed" sign & locked door at 4:30.

Squirrely, I tell you...squirrely.