Lilac Window

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Hey Everyone!

Its been a crazy long time since I posted here. I have lots of good things in the works, and perhaps a new website/blog in the new year. But for now I have been crazy busy getting ready for the Calgary Arts Academy yearly sale. I wanted to share some of the things I will have there as a sneak preview – seeing as I have not posted many of the stuff I have been doing recently. Facebook friends, you can see most of my drawings there, but I haven’t put them on here yet.

This year, I will be making more of the “AMAZING SALAD OF THE GODS” that has been so popular in the past. It will be $5 a jar.

In addition I have been making 2012 calendars. These are called “AutoCAD and vegetable print calendars”. I had so much fun making them. Since its a combination of technical work as well as kids-play creativity I think they are perfect for an office, where one needs to remember to play, even when the world need you to be rigid.

I spent all of September drawing illustrations for this little book. Its called “thy heart is My home”, and is inspired by a Hidden Word from the Baha’i scriptures. there are 7 images, and some simple poetic text to accompany. It took a long time figuring out how to print these things, and then when I decided to do it myself, it took a long time to print and assemble them. But once they were finished I am so glad I did. They are all wrapped up and ready to be gifted to someone wonderful.I am selling selected original drawings and paintings. I have them all tagged and hung to display. Most of these drawings have been done in the last few months, some are from the “Drawing/day challenge” I did this summer. All of the original illustrations for “thy heart is My home” are also there…Also, I made many gift-cards of my recent art work. This is a great, inexpensive way to take home an image you love. I got overwhelmed choosing images to print – so I ended up going with just 26. JUST 26!!! so there is plenty of variety to choose from!and last but not least, I am making “Art Kits”. I am so excited about this. I will be including all the supplies for a finished art project that can be kept at home or for a gift. I will be doing youtube videos to show how to use them, they can be completed by kids, toddlers and adults. Super Fun!

Its not rocket science. It seems everyone has a go-to quinoa salad recipe these days. Im putting mine here, because it was really yummy, it tastes great even after a week in the fridge (perhaps even better than when I made it, the dressing had a chance to really soak into the quinoa…) and is quick to make in a pinch. I wanted to record the recipe here for my self, and perhaps for anyone out there who would like to try a new one.

I will not tell you quantities, as I cant remember them. sorry. All I can say is that I used a large proportion of Quinoa per other stuff, and it tasted great and lasted longer! Also, if it tastes funny, you might need more salt. Just saying.

Cooked quinoa, (if you are making it to eat now, just run the hot quinoa under cold water to cool it)

fresh tomatoes

cucumber

tiny pieces of red onion

feta cheese

chopped kale

chopped fresh herbs (mint and thyme)

chopped, pitted  kalamata olives

Dressing:

white balsamic vinegar

lemon juice

salt

olive oil

Mix it, let it sit, or eat it now. Keep in mason jars and take it for your lunch!

Do you feel stressed?

At a sale’s party for a health product recently the thought occurred to me that I was feeling a deep sense of despair, almost panic, that my stress may be too expensive to treat.

I know stresses in life at this time in history are insidious and difficult to decipher. I know this because even though I don’t feel that stressed, my body is showing signs that I am. Dry skin, migranes, fatigue, low immunity, and other small, but definitely stress related issues, that pop up all the time.

Health care is expensive, but I know preventative health is by far the cheapest choice – even if it means $14/hot yoga class, $40 a bottle of health-juice, organic veggies, hiring a babysitter to spend time alone, or to have a good chat with a friend – or my spouse, wonderful multivitamins, beautiful anti-oxidants and xanthones that are miracle foods.  Even time to slow down, when I get paid by the hour can seem an expensive luxury – but its still cheaper than a doctor’s bill for a serious stress-caused illness.

So, I’m not arguing against any of these things. I am so happy when I have the resources to do them. But still. Why is cost part of this discussion? I don’t want to ever feel, no matter what my economic situation, that I can’t afford health – especially when I am already a healthful person!

I dont feel like my life is stressful. Honestly. I love my work, which has its ups and downs, but they are all manageable, and make life fun. I have my kids, which are great, and I love being a mom. (Granted, I do get a little wired up – especially around dinner time, when all are  hungry and the breakfast dishes are in the way.) My friends and relationships are only improving and in general life is good. I make consistent efforts to bring joy into my life, I paint regularly, I have a prayer/meditation practice, I love to cook and we eat healthy. I go out dancing (well, OK not that much – but last night’s DJD funk-party was great!) I enjoy nature and time with family and friends. I think I have many stress coping mechanisms in my life. Despite all this, there are underlying stresses that I am not dealing with.

During my meditation today, the thought occurred to me that a feeling of kindness can offer a cure.

Pushing aside  ”buzz” and tension, even for a few seconds, can build the long-term muscles to cope with stress. When the dinner is cooking, and Emery is at my feet crying because he cant get his lego sword to work, I can stop. Push aside my anxiety and tension, and look him in the eyes with kindness and ask him if I can help. The benefit is all mine.

The effort it takes to push anxiety out is monumental. Even if for a second. Like working out at the gym, I’m starting with the small weights. Its the feeling of kindness and love that makes the benefit. I can be helping people all the time, be of service to the world, and be a mega-star in selfless sacrifice, but if I dont feel that sensation of pushing aside the moment to be with someone, feel love and kindness and offer my help, then I wont have the same rewards.

If I can feel this at every opportunity, I will be building psychological muscles for health. Pushing those walls of tension aside, and letting kindness flood in, whenever I have a chance, is my new health-regime.

And its free.

This is what I wrote in my journal today about this:

“1 cure for stress:

To stop in the middle of madness and chaos, a look with kindness into a child’s eyes and to sincerely ask him what he needs, and then, with love and full joy provide it for him, as a  lovely treasured gift.”

Baha’u'llah on kindness:

“A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It clotheth the words with meaning. It is fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding.”

In the next week I will be making double batches of:

Black bean muffins

kale tortillas (substituted for spinach)

walnut oat scones

almond pulp cookies

Cendrines nut free granola

nut-free granola bars

chewy granola bars

Quinoa apple cinnamon cake

olive oil muffins (with spelt flour)

I cant wait for my freezer to be full of yummy, easy, and mostly healthful treats for everyone. I will let you know how it all goes. Happy Spring!

After an outbreak of hives I am experimenting with removing Dairy from Emery’s diet to see if he is allergic. So. That makes breakfast a big question as we often have “Red River” cereal, a Canadian classic. (which we all adore with blueberries!)

Good thing Emery is happy with noodles for breakfast. I mean what kid isnt? My kids love noodles. I bought Brown rice fusilli, just to switch it up a bit. Always good to mix up the grains instead of all-wheat all-the-time.

I made a pesto sauce with no cheese. It went over well. So well in fact, I had some for my own breakfast as well!

In the blender I put:

Dairy-free kale pesto:

1T cashews

1T pine nuts

1 leaf kale

2 sm cloves garlic

salt to taste

1/2 lemon juice

and enough olive oil to get the whole thing to move.

Pour over hot noodles and enjoy!

(I should add that the measurements are very rough. I didn’t actually measure at all, and I always taste and add more garlic/lemon/salt to taste. ) Oh, and I used Kale because its what I had, but it would scrumptious with basil, or cilantro…

hmm. seeing these on the big screen makes me think I really need to get a better camera. Sorry for the photo quality. I hope you can just squint and hope to imagine what they really look like.

This devotional is short notice, due to the circumstances. I will have another one in April so please don’t worry if you cant make it – but I would love to hear from you either way

Hello Everyone,

These were inhaled.

So weird I have so many things to write about, but the only posts that actually get to the blog are recipes. I think thats because I dont want to loose the recipe and I figure this is the safest place for them! (Better than a greasy piece of paper that falls behind the oven…)

I have been making Almond milk. I am trying my best to make as many of our recipes from ingredients I can keep in cold storage, or in the freezer. I am not preparing for the end of the world. But I do detest grocery stores and so I figure if we can keep the regular purchases to fresh veges and fruit at the farmer’s market, then I dont really need to go to for groceries. Milk is one of those things that we need when we run out. I love that I can just whip some up in an emergency.

My recipe uses more almonds than many I found on the nets. That’s because I like it creamier. Feel free to experiment. There are tonnes of these recipes around.

ALMOND MILK

soak 2 cups almonds in water over night (8hours)

drain almonds and put in a blender. (you might need to make it in 2 batches)

Add 2 cups of water and blend together. Strain through a sieve into a bowl.

Repeat blending with more boiled water. Keep doing this until you get as much milk as you can without getting it too watery. I make about 4-5 cups of milk from 2 cups of almonds. Keep in the fridge. You can sweeten it with maple syrup if you like, but its sweet enough for us.

ALMOND-PULP VEGAN CHOC CHIP COOKIES

Now, the big question is what do with the pulp. I tried a few recipes, and this one turned out best. I doubled the recipe  and still have pulp. I think I’ll make more and freeze them. They are cookies, but with all those nuts, they are high in protein and fiber, so not THAT bad. Plus, I can make them without having to go to the store!! BONUS!

1 1/4 cup almond pulp

1 1/4 cup white flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbl vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup pecans

Mix dry ingredients, separately mix wet ingredients. Add coconut, choc chips and pecans. Mix. form into cookie shapes and spread onto buttered cookie sheet. Cook for 18 mins at 350 Degrees F. The boys LOVED these, but please note, Marcel would like you to know that he felt sick after three. Consider yourself warned.

This recipe was modified from this one and this one.

This photo is terrible. I am so sorry about that. Its really a bad thing to represent these things so poorly, because, in all honesty, after you make them, you will want to kiss me.

I wrote the recipe on the back of a school letter, which was copied from my friend (Jessica). Her version was on the back of a grocery receipt, because she copied it from her friend (Melanie), whom I contacted, and who, apparently got it from a friend. You see where this is going.

Its like a spell, that is so treasured and so valuable it is only passed down in secret. Or orally, or on the back of semi-important pieces of paper.

Its also like a magic spell because after you make it, you cant stop thinking “Man? there’s NO flour in these?” or “”But how are they so fluffy?” Magic is really the only logical conclusion.

If you don’t eat flour or gluten they will be a godsend. We all eat flour, but my kids have a certain chocolate thing. They ate almost two dozen of these, themselves, last week. These are good because they increase the legume intake by, like, 100%, without the kids knowing. I need to make more.

So. Thank you Jessica, Thank you Melanie.

Now, you can all thank me.

1 can black beans rinsed

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tsp oil

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp cinamon

blend all of it in a blender. Pour into greased muffin tins, bake at 350 for 20 mins.

sorry for the bad photo. I make this for breakfast, and its still dark then. but you get the point right?

I have been making this for the past few weeks. Whole grains are healthy and easy to use if you make a big batch at the beginning of the week. Once every one or two weeks I boil 1c. whole grain spelt, 1c whole grain kamut, 1c whole grain wheat. Boil in a lot of water for almost an hour. Test to see if they are soft to eat. Once a couple grains have exploded, the lot should be done. Strain, and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. I also add 1c cooked black-lentils to the mix.

I use this mix for many things. I include a cup in my bread, I use it in pancakes, salad, soups, stews, really anything I can.

For the breakfast I do this:

pat of butter

handful pecans

handful cashews

handful of whole grain mix (see above)

1T brown sugar (or any amount you prefer to taste)

sprinkle of goji berries

1/2 cup plain yogurt (or you can use vanilla, if you omit sugar in the grain mix)

To cook:

(Its not rocket science here, but I do find if I put the brown sugar or goji berries in too early they can burn, so watch that, and best to keep those till last.)

Heat a skillet on medium heat, toast your nuts in the butter until golden and smell amazing, Add the sugar, and allow to coat the nuts, and then add in your whole grains and let them all toast together. When all is warm add you goji berries. Eat with a  dollop of yogurt.

There are many ways to eat this, my mom makes a warm cereal with vanilla almond milk, you can add other nuts and berries. Let me know how your experiments go.

I am going to try to make almond milk and almond yogurt. I am fascinated by the whole idea of being able to make these products out of raw nuts I can keep in the freezer, and never have to go to the store for milk again. Apparently you can even make almond sour cream. I will let you know how that goes. (Husband already thinks Im “nuts” – no pun intended… for making my own yogurt, and bread, but this would qualify me for a whole new level of hardcore.)

I made this mobile today and it brought me much joy.

I haven’t been that into mobiles in the past, but for the last few weeks I’ve developed a minor obsession with them.

Something about the simplicity of their construction, but the incredible balance they represent, and the kinetic movement when they are hung. I can sit and watch this thing gently hover, turn and dance for ages. Its so delicate and entrancing. I can see why they are perfect for baby rooms.

We dont have a TV in the living room, which is a good thing, but we also dont have a fire or stove, and sometimes we need something to gather around and just sort of stare at. right now I am staring at this thing.

The cool thing is we made it out of bits we had lying around. The silhouette animals I made a few weeks ago, and thought they looked really cool. I’ve also developed another obsession with origami. This obsession is reoccurring, I get it about once a year. I really need to get me some good origami books. Can’t wait until the library opens tomorrow so I can get all 70 of them from my branch.

Mark and I have been watching You Tube origami making videos on the apple TV, and making a few things. Its fun. Maybe not as organic as a wood stove, but bonding non-the less. The butterfly is from this video. I can actually think of nothing funner this winter season than huddling around the TV, making origami together. (Having made such a dorky statement, I must also confess I am not sure “funner” is a word.)

Anyways, the origami was lying around too, looking for a home. I can see myself making more of these. Perfect “new baby” gift. But it is a bit of a challenge making them with Emery around. He loves them a little too much.

In other random news, the boys got yet another board game for Christmas. “Richard Scary’s Busytown” (Thanks Margot for the idea!) Its perfect because its very simple for Marcel and he can play it enough to start to teach Emery. Well. “teach” is relative. Em’s already gone feral on a couple cards, but we have high hopes for the kid.

I’m thinking of doing a blog post on kids and  board games since we do a heck of a lot of that around here. Its not really within my scope, but hey, I can stretch.

Homeschool Art Class. For 4-6 year olds.
This class is an exploration in creativity, nature and artist quality materials. The classes run once a month, and provide guidance in mixing water colours, composition, technique, and looking at the world around us. I read stories about artists or relevant topics, and we work on a project together. It is a quiet and peaceful class, making art in a warm home environment. $20.00 per class/per child. Upcoming classes are Jan 7 and Feb 11 at 10:00 am. email me to register or for more info: angie@lilacwindow.com

these little drawings are not at their best in this format. sometimes it just doesn’t translate. Oh well. This is a simple pencil drawing about eating like a squirrel. fruit grains nuts and berries. we are doing fairly well with this still. We still eat much more whole grains since I started this kick. We are finding it hard to not eat a lot of cheese, or yogurt. but there are worse things. We also eat meat still – probably three times in two weeks or something. Thats a big change for us.

the calendar is getting more full. Marcel is done for the year. Mark has one more exam. things are slowing down quite a bit around here. And I’ve started 4 new paintings.

we’ve been obsessing over this calendar we made.

Its actually not done yet. I didn’t feel committed to the format and wanted to do a month before taping and making lines permanent. Though, I think its working out how it is.

In pursuit of a calendar for 2011, I realized we needed was something BIG. I was inspired by this one on etsy but its a bit too big. and expensive. but awesome non-the less.

My motivation was that I wanted to plan out our holidays in a way the kids could really participate and feel a part of the excitement. I also feel like Marcel needs to be more aware of what day it is, how long it is before exciting days (like his birthday) and also be able to plan out when he needs to do home-projects for school. We have a calendar on the wall, but the interactive nature of this makes it so much more hands-on.

I like the whiteboard idea, because it means the whole family can get involved. Marcel enjoyed gluing and cutting out the numbers for magnets, and we all have fun, staring at it, and thinking of little magnets to make for it. We have a few “Game night” ones, “play date” and a marker for “TODAY”. We have one, so far,  for “FEAST”, which we need to remember as its every 19 days and easy to miss. We are excited to start next month as we have Marcel’s birthday, and the Holy days in Feb, parties to mark out, and all sorts of skiing, sledding and skating adventures to draw and designate.

We shine a light onto it, and it has a prominent place in our kitchen, where we literally stand around and think about all the fun we are going to have over the next few weeks. I am now using it for meal planning, and am getting excited to make magnets for our favourite meals. Everyone likes checking to see what we are having for dinner. Its pretty bare now, but wait a couple months, Im sure it will be bright, and full, reflecting our happy and busy days.

Its pretty geeky, but we’ve been enjoying the process, and I think it will be a lovely focus to our holidays. It will help us mark out the important things we want to do, inspire us to make pretty magnets for important days and keep us on track.

It doesn’t take the place of the hundreds of gorgeous hand-made calendars I want to purchase of Etsy though. But it is more practical, and perhaps I’ll just get one of those other ones for myself.