Catching up

Christmas was real nice ~

even with the last minute shopping.

As i mentioned in a previous post,

Jamie & I

purchased the Vitamix

that was *suppose* 2b

THE gift.

The only gift

to

each other this year.

Jamie went shopping anyway...

i found out last minute, so i ended up running out the day b4 Christmas eve.

The gift from him was a new

Nikon Coolpix S570 Camera.

Similar to the one i was going to purchase myself that week

but

he told me

"it was sold out."

I love this thing!

The video quality is SO much better than my old camera, and the

run time is like 90 minutes!

The photos are SO much nicer as well. 

:)

I'll have to take some new jewelery pics and post them soon.

My daughter had a few places to be that day, so she stopped here first.

She gave me a sterling silver blue sapphire pendant necklace

with  little white sapphires crawling up the chain.

I don't wear necklaces

but

once she put this one on me, i fell in love.

Something about it...

:)

i made.

her a chunky turquoise ring with a cigar band

~ she loved it ~

Other items we got her were for her new apartment.

A vacuum, towels, shower curtain etc.

I made 3 pr of earrings for family.

The Labradorite earrings i posted a while back

were for my sister inlaw.

The 2 pair below were for my nieces.

Both married with kids of their own.

Distressed & Oxidized

Sterling Silver

&

Red Brass

roughly 1" round.

 

 Both pics were taken last minute

(with my old camera)

and little time to edit
so
they're not great pics.
I do love the way the earrings turned out.

Wishing U all 

a wonderful

~ 2010 ~

Bet this makes ya smile!

Watch this lil kitty ~ so funny!

I hope ya'll had a 

wonderful holiday!

I'll blog a little about mine soon.

Right now

I am 

just plain tired.

Detox: A Fresh Start in 2010 | Crazy Sexy Life

Remove ~ Restore ~ Rejuvenate ~
Click Here

2 weeks tomorrow

(Thursday Dec 24th) 

since we began drinking fresh

fruit & veggie

smoothies every morning for breakfast 

&

eating healthy dinners every nite.

We tossed all 

"crap"

foods from our fridge and cupboards

when we started this;

 our fridge 

was almost empty.

Now it's FULL of organic fruits & veggies!

We added some *kale* to the mix this week

(that was new to us)

and like it.

A dark green leafy veg light in flavor

& 

very good for you.

There is no turning back at this point

~ we love it ~

:)

It does cost a little more to eat this way

but our quality of life 

is worth it!

I am still waking up feeling refreshed every morning.

I can't stress this enough!

I went from dragging my butt to the coffee pot upon

waking

feeling unwell every morning,

until we made this change.
I am also waking B4 my alarm
goes off every morning
which feels SO good!!!

As far as my "severe" back pain

I now know some is related to

hormones

& 

peri-menopause/menopause.

I did some research the other night, and found that

fluctuation of

 estrogen levels 

have an impact on the way joints and muscles feel.

So I'll be adding new exercises they claim will help.

The strange part of the pain is

it shows up

severe

about a week b4 my period
(when they decide to randomly show up)

and lasts roughly 3-5 days in.

So 

the day those are

OVER

hopefully 

will be the day

this horrible pain subsides.

We also bought some cocao powder

and made some chocolate sorbet tonight using

organic raw sugar

2% milk 

vanilla

and 

ice

it was sooo good!
Click here to read about it

Energy ball recipe - Update

I made these a few hours ago with organic, lightly roasted, unsalted peanuts in the vitamix.

The peanut butter when warm, was so smooth and even a little sweet & very yummy!
When cooled (which was very quick) it got thick (as it should)

i just wish i would have tossed the rest of the ingredients in while it was warm and smooth.

Anyway, I have no clue what "crispy oats" are ~

we looked all over the natural food store for them, but found nothing; 

so we bought a small amount of bulk granola with pumpkin seeds and a few other things

in it, to add instead.

I used ghirardelli  dark chocolate chips

which are a little large but worked fine.

I had a nibble off of my finger as i was forming them into balls.

my taste buds went *errr ummm i doa-nooo*

But once they stayed in the fridge to chill for 1.5 hours or so, they tasted better.

Not an *OHH YUMM* good, but OK.

If you use a sweet peanut butter like Jiff (is it)?

 they may taste better to some.

One can never tell what another will think...

i just figured i would add my thoughts on them. 

I do think the longer they chill, the better they'll taste.

~ UPDATE ~ 
 These were MUCH better today
(the day after)

:)

Energy Balls Recipe

I saw these on the 

Dr. Oz

show and thought i'd share.

They sound so 
yummy
& 
easy!

I'll add the 

dark chocolate 
along w/walnuts

(i can't live w/out nuts)
:)

Going to try and make this weekend.

* Click here for recipe *

A Treasury & More

A big thank U

to

doxallodesigns 

for including my

"Fresh Fallen Snow" 

necklace

in her treasury.

Thanks J!

:)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

New addition to my shop. 

I also made 

4

other pieces

for

Christmas gifts.

I would show you

but

i'm not sure who's

watching.

:)

I'll try to remember and post pics over the holiday weekend.

-----------------------------------------------------

Back pain has been horrible the last few days.

I wish i new what triggered this!

Seems to come more often as of late.

I stopped taking the muscle spasm meds 

(flexeril)last week,...

 started valium the last doc gave me; 

which helped for a bit,

but then seemed to do nothing so i stopped.

(I HATE taking meds)

even Tylenol.

I just took 2 valium

a total of 10mg.

(i was only taking 5mg)

Only because i can't take much more of this pain.

I will be in tears b4 i will take most meds.

Anyway...

for those of you who believe in 

the

~ power of distant healing ~

my body

could sure use some

♥

~ PS ~

a week tomorrow 
w/nothing but 
 lots of

 fruits

veggies

whole grains

nuts 

&

chicken breast/tenders

dipped in egg whites

evoo

&

 dipped in

crushed almonds.

Love this on my salad w/maple dressing

(which i need to find a healthy recipe for using Vermont maple syrup)

Jamie makes himself a 

 fruit & veggie smoothie

EVERY 

morning @ 5:30am

and is enjoying this new way of eating

as much as me.

Who-da thought it would have been this easy!

It's a great feeling!

;o)

Are you going with the flow?

I usually have a real hard time doing so.

This winter

I am going to do my best

to go

with 

the 

flow.

*.*

It's a Beautiful Thing

In the past, I would have said...
~ " only in my dreams" ~
but

it does happen; we're living proof. 
  
Eleven yrs later

Jamie and Me

STILL 

communicate through telepathy 

on a regular basis. 
Our meeting, was the first time,
we' together
experienced 
true spirituality.
Something him, nor I, had ever experienced
b4.

 It's a beautiful thing. 

:) 

 

Green Breakfast Smoothie

I went to bed last night at 3am 

(i get lost in this raw food research)

:o)

opened my eyes at 9am.

Got out of bed

went to the kitchen

where Jamie had just made 
fresh coffee,

and started pulling fruits & veggies together for our breakfast smoothie experiment.

The pitcher that came with our Vita-mix is a 64oz.

Filled it 3/4 full with fresh spinach 

added some fresh orange juice

(roughly 1/2 a cup)

two 1/2 moon slices of pineapple

1/3 cucumber w/skin

1 long celery stalk

1 carrot

1 large banana

3 tbs ground flaxseed

drizzled in a little honey

&

just enough ice to make it cold

once blended.

~ I must tell you ~

it's been years

(approx 7+)

since i've got out of bed ready to start my day

~ feeling happy ~ 
~ less stiff ~

 ~ AWAKE ~

&

just an over-all 

feeling of wellness.

The last 2 days

i wake-up feeling pretty darn good!

We totally stopped eating out at the

restaurants like  
TGIF's

over the summer.

ick

ick

ick

 

Found 2 
that we're on the 
"healthier"

side.

Now we are down to 
one

which we go to on Saturday nights.

They buy everything from local farmers.

(one being his uncles farm).

The owner/chef

is always there.

They're the best place
*to date* 
we've

found to eat out.

The last year has been a big struggle 

for both of us, as far as 
cooking & eating

was concerned.

It got pretty bad.

We hated the thought of going to the grocery store.

We ate "healthy"

only at these 2 restaurants.

but, that was getting expensive.

~ Then ~

we came across this guy in Costco

doing the Vita-mix demo.

It was a god-send

or 

what i like to think of as a 

mom-send

:)

i'm sure she is looking down on us

with a huge smile.

 

Anyway...

Jamie loved this 
'green'smoothie...

YIPPI!

as well as 

ME.

Organic is the way 

we will continue to eat.

I love how everything we purchased

the 2nd half of last week

is STILL 

as fresh as when we bought it.

I'd like to thank Dan

(liferegenerator)

from youtube

for sharing his info

that is helping so many others.

He's the first person i found when 

starting my research.

& 

a special thank you to

Janice

over 

@

http://doxallodesigns.blogspot.com/

for a gift that is coming in very handy 

♥

And all of the wonderful people over on facebook

who are sharing their info.

I'll keep ya'll posted.

~ PS ~

I had just got out of bed and ran for the fruits & veggies

and started washing and tossing into the VM

and

4got

to take photos

(i was hungry).

it was just 

~ green ~
~ cold ~ 
&  
yummy.

it made two

16oz glasses.

Jamie downed his.

I drank mine 

8 oz's

@ a time.

It was D-lish!

 

FYI

I'm offering free shipping

on

everything in my shop this weekend.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/StormyNiteDesigns

The Package

finally made it!

Yesterday evening.

On his way home tonight ...

Jamie stopped at the organic store

(i forget the name)

and picked up ...

*grape juice concentrate*

*frozen strawberries*

*bananas*

*cabbage*

*red seedless grapes*

*spinach*

&

*pineapple*

for
sorbet.



~ After dinner ~

we washed everything

and

tossed a little of
this 
&
that 
into the

Vita-Mix

~ no measuring ~

 

It was SO GOOD!!!

You would NEVER guess in a million years

this had veggies in it!

Chakra Cleansing

If you've not tried anything

like this

~ b4 ~

i highly recommend

giving it a shot.

'Hero'

The Makepeace Brothers performing 'Hero'

New Work & A Special Photo

Canadian Jade

(chain was changed on 5/20/10)

~  now in my shop  ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My birthday was Nov 23rd.

Jamie took me out for a nice dinner

&

bought me a great pr of hiking boots

that will be put to use starting this weekend.

:o) 

gave me a beautiful bouquet

of 

flowers.

Three of the flowers were

white iris.

I have never 

seen an iris

in white.

I snapped some photos a few days in...

i captured this one

that will be

filed and framed.

I love this photo!

Oh My My ...

I was just checking my 

facebook account and 

saw this

"just like cheesecake"

recipe.

- by Emily Lee Angell

We are going to my brothers

on

~ Christmas Eve ~

I think this will be perfect 

to bring along.

It sounds divine!!!

Crust:
2 cups raw macadamia nuts
1/2 cup dates, pitted (I use medjools)
1/4 cup dried coconut Cheese:
3 cups chopped cashews, soaked for at least 1 hour
3/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup coconut oil (I only use Virgin coconut oil )
1 teaspoon vanilla (I use raw organic, alcohol free)
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt (optional)

 Raspberry sauce:
1 bag frozen raspberries
1/2 cup dates

  Directions:
To make the crust, process the macadamia nuts and dates in the food processor. Sprinkle dried coconut onto the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch springform pan (found in Target). Press crust onto the coconut. This will prevent it from sticking.

  To make the cheese, blend the cashews, lemon, honey, gently warmed coconut oil (do not use microwave), vanilla, sea salt (if using), and 1/2 cup water. Blend until smooth and adjust to taste. Pour the mixture onto the crust. Remove air bubbles by tapping the pan on a table. Place in the freezer until firm. Remove the whole cake from the pan while frozen and place on a serving platter. Defrost in the refrigerator. (I've never defrosted fully)

To make the raspberry sauce, process raspberries and dates in a food processor until well blended. (Do not use a blender for this or the raspberry seeds will become like sand.)
As with any recipe, you may want to play with it until it suits you.
Makes: 24 slivers

ENJOY!

Finished Opal Necklace

It started out with a square backplate

then i dropped the pliers & left a couple

marks so close to the bezel i couldn't remove

them or do anything with... so i cut it away.

It's a Koroit Opal 

 

 I'm going to have to spray-paint my

mannequin head/bust, or something

because

the color is no good for photos.

It's a skin tone color

(sort of)

but something messes with the pics color

&

it drives me 

~ K r A z Y ~