Last weekend was full of outdoor activites. My friend Scott came to visit and we decided to take him to our favorite park for some hiking. I have featured Vedauwoo National Forest a few times on the blog already, view those posts HERE. Vedauwoo is like a playground for adults where you get to climb and jump around. Plus it has great scenery.
One thing I really wanted to do this year was photograph nature more. I am definitely doing that!
Scott attempting to move a rock, he failed of course.
JUMPING!!!
CLIMBING!!! (well, sort of.)
BEAUTIFUL!
I know I've been a stranger online. I've been visiting with friends and hiking.
I also got a promotion at work, which means more hours.
Which is good because I am making more money to save for my tiny house in the future. ;)
What have you been up to?
I had fun going around my house seeking out yellow and pink items to photograph. Surprisingly I don't have a lot of yellow stuff sitting around. The last photo with the Carebears has to be my favorite. They are just so darn cute! I think next month I am going to attempt to challenge myself to only take photos while out and about. The color scheme for next month is yellow and navy.
I have to say these cupcakes did not turn out how I expected them to. When you think of cupcakes you think of something with three inches of frosting on top in a cute little swirl. The recipe I used suggested making homemade icing for them instead. Also the original recipe is called root beer float cupcakes. I decided to use cream soda in place of the root beer. In my opinion these so called cupcakes were more like muffins. They still tasted amazing though.
The Ingredients:
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 cup root beer or cream soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl whisk applesauce, sugar, soda and vanilla together.
In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
The brand Virgil's is amazing. It's made with natural ingredients.
Slowly combine the dry and wet ingredients together, stirring as little as possible.
After placing the mixture into the baking cups, bake for 15 to 25 minutes.
Then put your icing on. I made mine using (lots) of powdered sugar, vanilla and almond milk.
I just kept mixing it all together till I liked the consistency. It turned out rather yummy.
Even though I couldn't taste the cream soda at all, these little cupcakes still were really good. They reminded me of cinnamon buns which is strange since there is no cinnamon in the recipe. Maybe it was the super sweet icing that I made. We ate some the next morning with our coffee. If you want to start your day off with a little sugar buzz then these cupcakes (muffins) are right for you! They do have apple sauce in them,....that's healthy right? These were a treat for us since we never eat sugar.
This is a harder one to post about because I don't have physical proof of accomplishing it, just my story. My entire life I have struggled with always wanting everyone to like me. I've always wore my heart on my sleeve and been hurt many times because of it. Over the years though I learned that when something bad happens to me, I just become a little bit stronger. Last year when my vegan lifestyle was more fresh and new to me I really had a hard time adapting emotionally. I didn't know how to ignore negative comments or reactions that I would receive from people. I didn't get what the big deal was. Yes, I don't eat animals, what's the problem?
I would seriously just fall apart. I know now that people are going to dislike me because of my values and beliefs. There is always going to be haters. It doesn't matter what you do or say. Over time I realized that people feel attacked personally if you talk about not eating animals. Some people view it as you are trying to be pushy and change them. I have never wanted to make someone feel that way. I just like giving information to people. Plus I just simply get excited when I talk about it. I feel like I am glowing and I have a smile from ear to ear. I get so happy when someone asks me questions about the food I eat and why. It's so nice when someone is curious and listens to what I have to say. I've learned to just focus on the people who are willing to accept me for who I am and not treat me like a freak or a crazy person. Why waste so much energy on those who don't care or show interest? This was the lesson I needed to learn and I feel like in the last 6 months I have.
I used to stress over influencing family and friends to go vegan. It's hard to influence the people I love since they live 1,200 miles away. The best way to prove to people that eating a plant based diet isn't hard is by cooking for them. Since I can't cook for them on a regular basis, they will never understand that I don't just eat tofu and carrots. When I post things about animal rights on Facebook they can just choose to ignore me. Which would cause me to get very sad sometimes. I could never understand why no one cared. One of the reasons Cody and I visited Ohio back in April was to hopefully talk to our families about adapting our diet. I didn't expect my family to want to go join Peta and become animal activists, but I would love for everyone to be healthier. Once I was there with the people I love I decided not to bring it up. It's like the saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink." One of my blogger friends said that to me once and it's stuck every since.
During our visit we fed people good vegan meals, they saw how happy we are and how healthy we have become,....done. All I ever hope to do is inspire people and lead by example. Conversations were started with family but ended fairly quick. It just proved to me that I need to let things be. Even though it's hard on me at times, I definitely learned from it as well. Things don't seem to be bothering me as much. I still struggle with watching people eat meat or even seeing it. I don't know if that will ever change, maybe just get easier over time. I do, however, not worry about what people think or say when I tell them I don't eat animals. I also will straight forward tell them why. Which leaves me with this video below. I stumbled across it by accident. This guy is vegan and he took the words right out of my mouth. I found it very inspiring. He speaks out about why vegans shouldn't be scared of speaking their minds.
Skip ahead to 2 minutes and 15 seconds. That is where he starts talking about vegans.
I speak my mind when it's appropriate and I'm never mean or pushy. That doesn't get you anywhere in any aspect of life!! I have always treated people the way I want to be treated. It's so simple yet very powerful. A few months back I had someone tell me that I was going to live a life of depression by being vegan. This was said to me because one day I was really sad over animals being killed for food. As if we don't all get sad about something that happens in the world from time to time. We are human aren't we? Those words were said to me as a personal attack.
Funny thing is, it did the opposite. It made me learn to "Ignore Haters" and I think I am stronger now. I am just going to keep being me. Which is actually a rather happy person I think. If I inspire some people along the way then that's just an added bonus. I hope that this post wasn't just another vegan one to you. I think we all have things in our lives that we are passionate about and wish that others were as well. Just lead by example and always wear a smile on your face. It's contagious. ;)
I've been enjoying lots of tea. My newest tea obsession is Sweet Coconut Thai (It's decaf by the way).
I'm doing pretty good with my caffeine/coffee addiction.
Down to only one cup in the morning and sometimes an extra on the weekend as a treat.
Glad to be wearing flip flops and hanging out on my deck.
The cats love watching me outside. They are so curious, but too scared to venture outside on their own.
Flowers are in full bloom in my backyard.
Getting some longer bike rides in with Cody. My absence from the internet is due to my love for my bicycle.
So far we are only doing 30 mile rides, which on average takes around 3 hours to do.
I hope to at least be able to do 50 miles in one day by the end of the month.
Not sure if we will have time to pull this off, but I can be hopefully. :)
Since I have been using my new clip in pedals I have crashed every ride.
I always have a little blood and a lot of grease on me. hahaha
One of our parks has a little box full of books for people to read and share.
Isn't that cool? I may have to donate a few. They are trying to encourage people to grab a book and read at the park.
There has been lots of cuddling happening with my fur babies. :)
Overall things have been good. I have been enjoying my new found freedom since blogging less. I think during the colder months when I am pinned up instead blogging is better for me. I'm also super busy painting our kitchen cabinets still! (BOO!) Hopefully they will be done by the end of the month and I can share some photos. How is your summer going? (I guess Fall for some of my readers?)
Recently Cody and I watched all five seasons of the TV series Fringe. It is definitely one of my favorite shows ever. Above is one of my favorite scenes featuring the character Walter. Walter is my favorite thing about the entire show. I decided to share this scene with you because Walter has a melt down at the grocery store over the ingredients in some toaster pastries. As Cody and I were watching it we looked at each other and said, "This is so us". We always read all the ingredient labels on boxes before placing anything in the cart. The show is really cool. If you like Sci-Fi and Government conspiracy type shows you should check it out. Visit the Fringe website HERE.
A blog that I really enjoy reading is Musings of an Unapologetic Dreamer, written by Keith. The above image is one that he shared on his blog in a post called Don't Let Yesterday Take Up To Much Of Today. Keith always chooses great topics to blog about. I love how inspiration his posts can be for me. He also keeps them short and sweet a lot of time, yet they usually make you "think". Visit his blog HERE.
Currently I am obsessed with building a tiny home, living mortgage free, downsizing and downsizing some more! I love the above video by IKEA about living in a small space. I always enjoy a trip to IKEA browsing all there staged rooms. IKEA is so great about providing storage solutions for all areas of any sized home. A few weeks back I shared a post entirely dedicated to Tiny Homes HERE. Ever since I have become a bit obsessed with them! For instance, the home below I am head over heels for. It is a little over 500 square feet and AMAZING....
It's amazing how some of these tiny homes don't seem tiny at all. Open floors plans, smart design and simple decorating make these downsized homes so appealing. I've been sketching floor plans, building Sims houses and doing a lot of research on the topic the past few weeks. It will be a few years before any of this can happen for Cody and I since he has three more years in the Air Force. Plenty of time to plan and save money! You can see all the photos of the above home HERE. Check it out, it's beautiful.
