I'm Back? Maybe? Kind Of?

Whoa. It's been a long time. Like a really long time. I'm sorry about that. I know it kind of sucks that I disappeared without saying a word. It was never my intention to do that. I fully intended on posting and coming back. Then the holiday season popped up and it sucked. Then January rolled around and it felt like it took forever. I started a new job that I originally hated. I also was just going out and living my life and being in the moment. It's been a weird, amazing and painful few months and I think I just needed some time off to process everything. I'm happy to say that while things suck right now (I'll get into that in a second) I'm doing ok and I've been missing you guys a lot and felt like it was time to come back. I'm sorry that I have not been keeping up with your blogs. That sucks and I'm really sorry. I am looking forward to catching up though. I also just want to say thank you to everyone that has reached out to me during this hiatus to check in. I really appreciate it and it means a lot that you care enough to take the time to do that. Thank you 💚

So here is a bit of an update on life. As I mentioned above, I started a new job at the end of December. I am doing insurance verification for a Physical Therapy office. I really hated it at first. I felt very stupid because it was just so confusing and so much to learn. Now that I've settled into it I feel better about it and a lot more confident. Of course now that the shit has hit the fan and we are in a global pandemic things have changed a bit. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to work from home starting two weeks ago. Unfortunately like many other businesses they've had to make a lot of cuts and while I'm one of few to still be lucky enough to have my job, I've been cut to part time for now. It's definitely a financial hit but nowhere near as bad as it could be so I'm counting my blessings that I still have a job and a paycheck and that I get to work from home. I work out of my brother's basement where he has an office set up and it's been working out well. Otherwise, as instructed, I "stay the fuck home."

The pandemic has been an emotional nightmare. As someone that struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder it is my everyday existence magnified by about a million. Add into the fact that I basically live in one of the hardest hit places in the country, the idea of leaving my house, touching anything, eating any food, etc. is absolutely horrifying. I'm living out of the pantry. The only thing I've done is place an order for pick up at the vegan market/bakery because I know they are being careful and they aren't letting people in. It's been a nightmare. As of writing this post there are 13,356 confirmed cases in my COUNTY. It's seriously awful and it feels like the apocalypse. How are you all coping with this? I hope that you are all safe and feeling ok.

As I mentioned, I haven't take a whole lot of pictures during this hiatus. I have a few I'll share a few random ones below and in my next post I'll share some pictures from an amazing meal that I had at a restaurant that I had been wanting to try for so long. I will also do a post with some art that I've created over the past few months as well.

These first two pictures are from an afternoon out with my friends before the pandemic. I want to say it was in January. We went to a restaurant that wasn't super vegan friendly but they had this amazing dish on the menu! I think I just had to leave off some cheese and then I had this really fresh, amazing meal. There was farro under all of the goodies and on top there was black beans, chickpeas, tomato, corn and avocado. 

After we went for brunch we went and painted pottery and had such a great time! We went back 3 weeks later to pick up what we had painted and I'm so thrilled with how mine came out. They even had it displayed in the window!

As I mentioned I've been working out of my brother's basement. My colleague here has not been pulling his weight. I've been thinking about reporting him to HR 😂

I mean seriously!

As I mentioned I'll be doing a post with some art that I've created over the past few months but I wanted to share two pieces today. They are both birthday gifts that I have made over the past month and I'm thrilled with how they came out. I tried to make them really personal and both recipients really loved them.

They are totally different vibes and I really love them both. 

Finally, here are two photos of me from the past few months.

Just so you know I'm truly ok 💚

I've really missed you all and I'm glad to be back. To explain the title of this post, the maybe kind of is really because I'm not comfortable committing to a specific number of posts per week or any specific days I'll be posting. I don't want to put pressure on myself and lets be honest, things are just weird in the world right now. But I'm here and I'm excited to start sharing with you again.

Please let me know how you have all been!

Catching Up

Hey everyone. I hope that you are all doing ok. I can assure you that it was not my intention to take a break. The reality is that things have not been great here and blogging was just the last thing on my mind. I have a lot going on and I just didn't have it in me to keep up with this right now. Things keep piling up and I am just incredibly depressed right now. The odd thing is that I've been keeping up with my social obligations that I've made. I'm trying to get out and not withdraw. It's difficult because all I want to do is be home in my bed but I go out. It's nice to spend time with friends but I just feel empty inside right now. Long story short, I'm struggling.

During my hiatus I've taken some photos of some meals that I've enjoyed with friends and a random Whole Foods haul. I figured I'd pop in and update you on where I've been and share the pics.

A few weeks ago a group of us went to Golden Star in Medford, NY. They have an extensive vegan menu and I started with an unpictured wonton soup (omg so good) and this is the vegan pork with broccoli. This is not something I would normally get but for whatever reason I went for it. It looked so realistic it was kind of crazy but it was actually really good and I'm glad I went outside of what I would normally get and tried something new.

This beauty has been a staple meal for me. It is a Greek style salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, Violife Feta and stuffed grape leaves. I dressed it with some red wine vinegar and pepper and it was delicious. I eat this quite a bit.

This is part one of my Whole Foods haul. I got some Earth Balance Cheddar Squares, Skinny Pop everything bagel mini popcorn cakes, key lime larabars (my fav flavor and so hard to find), a vegan chocolate chip scone and some bagels.

I went to Whole Foods because their Violife cheese was on sale big time. I got the feta and cheddar slices for $3.99 each and decided to try the WFs brand shredded mozzarella. I got two mango kombuchas and hummus as well. I tried to show some restraint and I think I did ok.

Up next was another meal at Little Fu's. My friend and I decided to grab a late lunch (which turned into dinner - we were there for like 3 hours 😳😬) and got a few dishes to share. We got the vegan pepper steak (I just had the onions and "steak"), chick'n with broccoli and veggie lo mein.

I also went back to That Pizza Place with my friends and brought some slices home to keep in the freezer. Here we have a broccoli mac n cheese slice, eggplant parm slice and 2 plain slices.

This is the only slice I've had so far but omg isn't it a beauty? This goes against everything I believe in, ha. I don't typically eat pasta and I really don't like pasta on my pizza but it looked so good I had to try it and OMG is it good. I make an exception for this. They added tons of garlic which was delicious and they make a cashew based cheese sauce which is delicious. It's so so good.

 

This was an Asian Chopped salad that I topped with a chick'n patty from Aldi's. Super delicious and a very quick, easy meal.

A friend of mine was helping out with a fundraiser for rescue pups and I offered to donate a piece of art for the raffle. I made this piece and I'm so thrilled with how it came out. I decided to customize it and add special details to make it more appropriate for the event and it turned out perfectly.

So that is the update I have for you right now. I am sorry I haven't been keeping up with your blogs but I will catch up soon. I'm not sure when my next post will be but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. I hope that you are all doing ok .💚

More Food and More Art

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was pretty good. The event was on Saturday and it was a really nice day! The weather was beautiful, it was a really nice size so there was a crowd but it wasn't super overwhelming, I had friends there and it was just a great, supportive atmosphere. I got some great feedback and made a few sales so I'm really happy. A really nice surprise was that one of the vegan vendors, a vegan baking company, named a cookie after Doug. He had tried it last year and loved it so much they wanted to honor him by naming it after him. It was a bit emotional but such a beautiful gesture. Of course I had to get one and I'll share it when I try it. I wasn't going to eat it but a friend pointed out that Doug would hate that cookie going uneaten which is a fair point.

First up I have some food to share with you.

Up first is this amazing soup I made to bring to work for lunch the week before last actually. It was SO DELICIOUS. I used the Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base (this stuff is seriously the best) to make my broth and added onions, carrots, potato, zucchini, cauliflower, white beans and spinach with garlic and pepper. It was so delicious, this will definitely be a winter staple!!

I love making chicken parm and chicken parm sandwiches with my Aldi chick'n patties and this meal was super yummy with some seasoned fries.

I went back to That Pizza Place on one of my days off to get some stuff for the freezer. I grabbed a few plain slices and an eggplant roll. This place is seriously amazing!

I went to Little Fu's with a friend for lunch on one of my days off and got the veggie chick'n with mixed veggies and it was DELICIOUS.

I know it seems like I ate like trash the entire time but I promise I wasn't! These were just the most fun meals and I wanted to share them with you.

In addition to the yummy eats I have some more of the pieces that I made to share with you.

Susan requested to see the mermaid bookmark with shimmery bubbles so the only way to do it justice was to boomerang it! The whole thing has a blue tone to it so sorry about that but I think you'll get the point!

So that's what I have for you today! I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you back here on Friday 💚

Family Birthday Dinner, Stuff I Ate and Some Art

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. We made it through another week. I'm so exhausted, I'm looking forward to just relaxing a bit this weekend. I'll finally be able to catch up on your posts. I'm so sorry that I've been absent, it's just been so much happening at the same time. On the plus side, I have a lot to share with you, including some new art that I've made.

I chose a Turkish restaurant for our family dinner for my birthday and got these amazing veggie kebabs with some green salad. It was so delicious, I love this meal so much.

For my birthday treats I got a Rocky Road bar and an Cookies n Cream whoopee cookie. I have been enjoying those for the past few days!

I don't know why I forgot about avocado toast but I did. I had some this week on sourdough bread with some strawberries and it was a quick and delicious breakfast!

There was a lot of quick snacky stuff going on because I've just been feeling off. I enjoyed these veggie chips so much!

We are getting into apple season and I loved my first honeycrisps of the season! I had a root canal done on a tooth a few weeks ago so I'm going to hold off on biting into an apple until I get the post and permanent filling so I cut this beauty up and brought it to work with me.

This is how I love my baked oatmeal! I will either heat it up and eat almost like a dessert or I'll add some almond milk and heat it and turn it back into regular oatmeal. Either way it's so damn good.

And now onto some art! I have been playing with inks and stamps lately and I am LOVING the aesthetic. This is very much me and my style and I'm going to be working on a lot of pieces like this to start selling!

I made a few pieces as little gifts as well. They were personalized for each recipient.

This piece is my favorite piece I've ever created. I love the message, the imagery, the colors and composition. I'm so proud of this piece and I think it really captures who I am as a human being.

This is just a close up of the sentiment and the fucking amazing moth. I love it so much,

So that's what I have for you today. I'll make sure to catch up on your blogs this weekend and I'll be back with a new post on Tuesday. Have a great weekend my friends 💚

Vegan MoFo 2019: More Stuff I Ate and some Art!

Hi friends!! Welcome back to another MoFo post! For today, I have another round up of delicious meals that I've eaten over the past week or so. I love these types of posts because I always get ideas for meals that I'd love to try and I hope that this will inspire you as well! 

For this meal I enjoyed a chick'n parmesan individual pita pizza with some roasted cauliflower on the side to make me feel better about myself 😂 This meal was DELICIOUS.

Anyone that has been reading my blog for a while that this is my favorite and staple meal, particularly to bring to work for lunch. I have stuffed grape leaves, grape tomatoes and baby carrots with some roasted garlic hummus. Such a great, quick meal to put together for a work lunch or easy dinner.

For this meal I made a chick'n parmesan sandwich and some curly fries. I was feeling super junky that night and this was perfect.

I had a sweet, snacky dessert type of plate with some graham crackers, strawberries and an individual cup of chocolate hummus. This chocolate hummus was even better than the original one I tried from Aldi! It is so chocolatey and fudge, so delicious! It was awesome paired with the strawberries too, my favorite pairing so far!

As I mentioned back in my Introduction post, I am really passionate about mixed media art. I started creating pieces a few months ago and it has been something that has helped me through difficult mental health periods as well as my grief. I'm incredibly grateful that I found this outlet! I can't believe I haven't shared any pieces with you yet!

When I first made this piece I HATED it. I wanted to try something new and juxtapose the pretty florals with the industrial looking cardboard texture and gears. It's been a few weeks since I created this piece and when I look at it with fresh eyes I actually really love it!! I'm really happy with it and glad that I went out of my comfort zone.

I created this piece as a gift for my friend. I was supposed to go to a concert with Doug in the beginning of August. She messaged me a few days before the show and asked what I was doing that night. I told her that I was supposed to go to the concert with him so I wasn't sure how I would be feeling that night. She told me that he had inspired her to get tickets and she had an extra one and she felt like it was right for her to reach out to me and invite me. I accepted immediately and was able to enjoy a really beautiful and EMOTIONAL (I cried through half of the show thanks to the setlist that I am pretty sure they created to make me cry 😂) experience with a new friend. As a thank you for inviting me I made her this piece on a CD because I felt like that was appropriate fitting the whole concert theme. I'm so grateful to have that experience and I'm 150% sure that he was there with us enjoying that show and the fact that he brought us together.

So that's some stuff I've been eating and creating! I hope you liked this post and stay tuned, tomorrow I have a really special post for you 💚

Random Stuff before MoFo!

Hey everyone! I hope that all is well and that you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was pretty rough but I'll get into all of that later on. This post is a random mix of things so I can get ready for MoFo! I can't believe it's already here, I feel like it just snuck up on me! I forgot how intense daily blogging can be (which is why I'm taking weekends off) and I've been tying really hard to get ahead of everything so I can stay on track through the whole month. Anyway, let's catch up on the last few days!

Of course we had a lazy breakfast bagel, ha! This time I went for plain and of course there is entirely too much tofu spread but I guess better to have too much than too little (they charge A LOT for this so I am happy to remove some and use it later, ha!). Super good, as always.

On Sunday I attended a party for my Sister in Law. She and my brother are celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary this year (in August) and we were also celebrating the fact that she finished her chemo treatments which she responded to well. I know I alluded to it here but never gave specifics but that is something else that has been going on behind the scenes here. I have to say she is such an inspiring woman. She has handled it with such grace and bravery. She always has a smile on her face and always sees positivity and light. She is a genuinely good soul and I'm so lucky that she is family and so grateful that she is doing well. Her surgery is tomorrow so the next phase will begin then. It was really nice to celebrate her though.

My brother made sure that I had some delicious vegan food to eat and I got this special grilled veggie plate that was delicious! I really enjoyed it, especially because A) I'm not going to grill veggies myself (someone will always do it for me 😂) and B) I needed some fresh veggies in my life. It was delicious and I'm lucky to have a brother that is supportive and always makes sure I'm taken care of.

Can we talk about this view?! The party was on a hotel rooftop in Long Island City and the view was stunning. It was a beautiful day but it was pretty damn hot. I do love this view though.

The day was really nice as we got to celebrate my sister in law and her and my brother's relationship but it was also a little bit difficult for me. It made me miss Doug a lot. He should have been there with me and I should have been introducing him to people rather than receiving condolences. It was also a reminder that I don't get these relationship milestones, moments and memories with him and it is still really difficult for me to process and accept that. It feels really self absorbed to feel that way but it's just the way I feel. I've really been missing him so it's been a little bit of a struggle.

On to some happier stuff, I have wanted to build a little bit of a stamp collection to use for my art pieces and once I saw the Visible Image stamps I knew I needed to start building a collection. They are a bit pricey but they were having a summer sale so I decided to do the impossible and pick out 2 sets to purchase to start my collection. I knew I needed the Glimmer of Light set (that is the one I saw first and brought me over to their website) but selecting the second set was nearly impossible. I decided on the Wings of Change set and I love it and I'm so excited to use them! I'm also excited for the next sale so I can purchase some more! 

I also wanted to bump up my collection of metal pieces, gears and cogs and other pretty embellishments so I went to Amazon and purchased a few inexpensive lots to build my collection. I'm really happy with what I selected and do you see those skeleton hands in the bag furthest left (of the metal pieces)?! I AM OBSESSED and I can't wait to figure out a way to use them! I also got some pearly looking dots to use as embellishments and ink to use for my stamps.

So that's what I have to share with you today! I will be back on Thursday to start off MoFo! I hope you all have a great few days and I'll see you back here soon 💚