Friday Random: Al Fresco Dining

Here in Arizona the temps have been high enough for outdoor dining for some time. In fact, we are nearly approaching the time when eating outside sounds like torture.

I've really been in the mood for whipping up my backyard space. Maybe because I know I will forced inside under the comfort of AC soon.

I recently purchased a snazzy old table and spray painted the heck out of it. I love it. It's nothing fancy, it's bright, and it's just what I wanted. Plus, it holds my food when I eat outside. No more teetering my plate on my knees.


I've been browsing the inter-webs searching for some nifty ideas for my outdoor eating dreams.

Source: Decor8

First of all I think my new open air dining room needs one of these gauzy floating curtains. It would block some morning sun and just feels so dreamy.

Source: Apartment Therapy

While we're talking dreamy how about a wood fired oven? I've seen some DIY ovens but I'm fairly certain that whilst cooking my first pizza the stove would collapse and I'd be very upset that I ruined a perfectly good pizza.

Source: Apartment Therapy

This is a fantastic desert feel that I need. I'm running to make a succulent pot today!

Source: Design Sponge

I don't know where or how, but I love this. I would love this wall in place of my ugly cinderblock wall.

Thanks for dreaming with me. Have a good weekend!

Wednesday Raw: Limits

To say my raw challenge has been going smoothly would be a pretty big lie.

My best intentions were taken over by busy life and a completely raw day fell to the side and was taken over by shakes and such.

Eating for comfort isn't entirely bad in my opinion. I think everyone vilifies eating for comfort as a quick road to other eating problems.

I'm not saying that eating out of boredom, or for comfort is an all together "good" thing, but it can bring something much needed to a human.

Why am I discussing this during raw day? Because I think it's important to discuss. I think all manner of eating can be dangerous when it's taken too far. But I fully believe that food has many healing properties.

A raw diet can be completely healing and wonderful, but it can also be dangerous, and stressful. Eating for comfort is soothing until it goes on and on then it becomes dangerous as well.

I needed that time of shakes and burgers. I needed to relax and enjoy my kids and something fatty and yummy. I knew that one of these meals a day was all I could handle and a few days of it was plenty. Anything beyond that would have sent my tummy in a state and made things much worse.

I knew that while the food made me feel happy while eating it, the stress of everything needed to be dealt with too. That 5 Guys burger wasn't going to make it all go away. Personally I need prayer, and family, and rest to feel better physically and emotionally. Everyone needs to find their sources.

You have to know limits, your limits in all diets. Just as my comfort food binge was good and bad, I learned that sometimes my raw diet has stipulations. I needed to remember to eat enough.  Some mornings I would eat my fruits, sip my tea and head out only to be dizzy and in need of food an hour later. I've been learning not to stress about staying on my goal.

My raw days have been spread way out. I've now taken the theory that I eat raw when I can. Knowing that perhaps my next meal may not be packed full of veg or raw, I eat a huge salad when I can. I've even found a way to eat a more sustaining raw breakfast.

I made a quick sunflower butter out of raw sun flower seeds. I think I did use some honey. Again, I'm not freaking out about every single thing being raw.

The butter really fills me up and is delicious and I don't find myself starving and looking for anything to shove in my mouth.

I wanted to post this to remind myself and others that diet should bring happiness. That goals are to make you aware and deliberate. That we are humans and need comfort and strengthening. There's a time for all these things and it's easy to forget that and forget what your limits are.

The Shoulders Of Giants

I did some remodeling, spring cleaning, and just changing everything all around.

I'm really in the mood for simple. The family starts hiding their goods when I get in this mood. Nothing is safe from the donation pile.

While I completely simplified everything here on my blog, that's not to say that this sort of thing is easy. In fact, there's been times when I've spent days revamping my "look". This time, I turned to someone who is far beyond me in making blogs spiffy.

Perhaps you've heard of her? Pugly Pixel? If you have not you are missing out, and so is your blog!

Go Big

   

I decided to get back in my kitchen this week and putter around.

I've had this idea for frozen yogurt for some time now. I think I was just waiting for everyone to be ready for something frozen besides the snow falling.

I was also a little worried that all these strong flavors together would amount to a bowl of confusion.

Thankfully it came out just as it was dancing around my head, and it is delicious.

Not So Random Friday: Positive Negatives

    

I contemplated how to approach this post way more than any other post. I thought about not posting anything at all about my life the past 2 weeks. I mean, it's a food site, why get so deep?

I didn't want to just blab my life away in order to explain some few and far between posts, because really, it's just a blog about food.

Then I realized how much I think about this blog or food in general  and how that really got lost in the mix of life. How I missed dreaming of new recipes or reading endless blogs with really good ideas, or pictures or tried and true meals.

Life Is Still Sweet is where my brain wanders when everything is running adoringly smooth, and life just isn't always that smooth.

Planes Vs Kitchens

   

My husband had to leave on a business trip recently. It was hard. We aren't used to being apart.

But I also didn't realize that we are very much not the seasoned travelers. We aren't those people who can check off far off lands that they've visited.

At first I was thinking "What a shame, we don't get out much." Then it sort of hit me - why is that such a bad thing?

Friday Random:Nothing and Something

   





This Friday I have few bits of not much and one bit of good substance.

The not much:

Juvenile nail polishing - yay or nay?



My husband laughs because he says that my color choices for nail polish are that of a 12 year old. I can see how this may be true seeing how that yellow is one of my favorite colors right now. Obviously the man hasn't never seen Pinterest. If he did he would see the countless boards of grown women 'pinning' way more tween like colors than this. (the marble nail polish trick is the most fun ever)!

Pinterest gives me conflicting feelings. I want to live in my boards and at the same time delete them all. I I delete them maybe I'll feel better about my decor and the fact that I spent more time then necessary "pinning" things.