Friday, October 26, 2012

There are some blogs i follow where every post seems well planned out around one central theme, beautiful photos and art that all evokes a mood... This post will not quite manage all that as i am just going to throw my whole week at you in one big jumbled lump....
There...
here's my week the haphazard way it happens...
Cluttered mind commencing...
Blam...


Mandal making
In the sun for no purpose
It needed to be

Then, i have been sketching, or rather watercoloring like crazy in my sketchbook that i carry everywhere...
Yesterday i showed my seagull sketches, today it's leaves and mushrooms and cemetaries...
There's always cemetaries!
I haven't felt like starting in pen, or outlining in black at all, which i used to try so hard not to do but then just had to do it anyway. Now i suddenly like it better without!






I was loving the color brown... I had planned an ode to all the beatiful shades of brown, tan, burnt sienna, burnt umbre, raw sienna, hazelnut, walnut, russet,( i had to look that up in the dictionary by the way), Linen, auburn, the dreaded beige...And i have photos as well as sketches, from places i go on my lunch hour... The cemetaries, the fish hatchery, etc. Loving the last of the fall color!







Then since i started talking about my vegan diet and a few people acted intersted i have a vegan update for you... If you could care less what i ate then skip this paragraph...


My husband and i stuck to it all week except for last sunday when we went out for lunch. Living in a small town area it is hard to eat vegan out at a restaurant unless you just get a salad  and then it's even hard because some places already have cheese on there, or whatever. Anyway, i ate 6 shrimp last saturday and some cheese on my salad, other than that i was totally vegan for 3 weeks. I haven't lost only another few pounds after the first quickly lost 8 lbs. But yesterday we decided it was just too hard to stick to: the older kids at home don't want to eat that way, my youngest is on a gluten free/caseinne free diet anyway but eats alot of meat,  which is hard enough to deal with without adding vegan for us. We tried some really good and some really  bad foods...tempeh was horrible, we added it to a chili type veggie dish but even my 17 year old son, who will literally eat anything said "throw that stuff out". Then we tried some things from the new sushi area at wegmans, which does have some good vegan stuff, but "rice balls with bean jam" is not one of them. Again my 17 year old tried it and said "that is the wierdest substance i have ever eatten" it was horrible and also got thrown out. The seaweed salad was edible barely. We tried tofu and turk- y. I could live without most of that stuff. The home made larabars were a huge success though. I love Odwalla drinks and larabars but both are expensive so I make my own green smoothies and now we made our own larabars. you can google how to do it but it is very easy. We just seperately ground up equal parts  cashews and dates. and then knead them together with your hands then shape them into bars & wrap. I love them.
 So last night we had regular old pizza and it was sooo good. My goal now is to be just 80-90 percent vegetarian. We'll see how that goes.



I had planned to tell a great story about my son as well , nothing monumental, just a small moment that felt huge... but if I do, I will be late for work so I will save it for another day! happy paint party friday and see everyone at Haiku my heart later today!




31 comments:

  1. Great photos and awesome illustrations. :) I'm actually fed up with mushrooms. Even my mom can find loads of them this year and she's really bed at spotting them. :))

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  2. I love this post - your photos are beautiful and your paintings from them are wonderful - you're really good at hands by the way, such a difficult thing to master!!
    I must've missed your post about going vegan as I would definitely have been interested. It's a shame you felt it was too restrictive and not for you. I've been vegan now for just over a year after being veggie for 8 months before that and I can't imagine going back to eat milk or cheese now far less ever eating meat again. Although as for weight loss - I actually put weight ON when I went vegan! I think because as I discovered things like crisps and chocolate bars that I could actually eat, I therefore felt like I MUST eat them, and lots of them!! I've now started to cut out all the processed veggie food and junk food and eat a proper vegan diet with plenty of salads and winter veg. I agree it is hard to eat out - Ireland isn't especially advanced when it comes to cuisine that doesn't include some type of animal product! Anyway good on you for trying and being 80-90% veggie is 80-90% better than eating animals!! ;0)

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  3. I loved walking through nature with you this week. Beautiful photos. I think your pages are just lovely. I kinda believe that if you watch what you eat and do the 80-90% vegan thing that you will be happy with the results. Sometimes the 100% thing is just too hard to adhere to and its really OK to customize things to what fits with you. Good luck. Happy PPF

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  4. Just look at all that glorious colour! Bliss :)

    Bravo for you trying the vegan thing - at least you gave it a go. I know what it's like with families though. Everyone likes different things!!

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  5. Gorgeous autumn watercolor paintings!
    Especially love the mushroom painting.
    And wonderful photos of autumn in nature, too!
    ♥♥♥
    Happy PPF!!
    Mary
    Mixed-Media Map Art

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  6. Terrific journal pages and loved reading your post. My nephew has been a vegan for 2 years, cooking for him is a total nightmare as am so tempted just to throw a salad on the plate.......... Happy PPF, Annette x

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  7. Your pages are so sweet and beautiful with a wonderful autumn feeling and that nature mandala is awesome!

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  8. Journal pages are delightful ~ very creative as well as the pinecone mandala ~ (A Creative Harbor) ^_^

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  9. I especially like the hand that you drew. Those can be so tricky! I'm so excited to see what everyone is up to this week. I love all the inspiration....feeds my soul. Lucky to have you guys!

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  10. Absolutely beautiful - both the photographs and your journal watercolours... just lovely!
    Alison x

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  11. oh my gosh... the watercolor lettering -- i love!!

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  12. your journal work is just beautiful, you ndo such a beautiful job of the hand and leaves, I have difficulty with hands and fingers!! You made me laugh when you said your son told you to throw that out,We have been down the vegan road but ended up back eating meat and diary not a lot but we do, its fun to try new things though,

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  13. Love your paintings of nature and the

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    Replies
    1. Photos as well I have been vegetarian for 6 years now. I am vegan inspired as I have very little dairy or eggs unless I know they are from humanely kept cows and chickens. It's hard though to live in the world and be dairy free. So just do what you can!

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  14. awesome illustrations... love the painting of the hand...xx

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  15. I went vegetarian first for two years before I recently went vegan. Have you ever tried Quorn brand for (fake) chicken and hamburger? Really decent. I missed meat once in a while until I discovered Quorn. No problem now. My son and DIL (meat eaters) will eat it, too, and say it's good.

    I think it's hard to make huge changes fast. I would rather ease into them a little at a time. ;)

    Enjoy your weekend. Love the pics and sketches! :)

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  16. What beautiful paintings! I adore Autumn colours.
    So happy you've been with us on the Blogtoberfest12 ride... can you believe we're almost done?
    Kat xx

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  17. Your sketchbook entries make me feel like a total slacker and non-artist....haha! Really! I'm so in awe of your total immersion in your creativity :)

    Oh...and those trees *swoon*....no change of colors like that here in So. California :(

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  18. Glorious autumn sketches - and such a treat to find fungi incorporated in a blog. I am always hunting for them - both actually and virtually!

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  19. Lovely pages, and I so love that watercolour writing.

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  20. Your green and brown paintings are beautiful. I need to spend a day painting in the cemetery before all the leaves blow away.

    I love your mandala, it's purely brilliant.

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  21. Awesome illustrations! Loved hearing about your three weeks being vegan. I know we are just graduating to a majority of vegetarian meals. My family would miss the cheese most of all! My daughters egg allergy has forced us to rethink our baking. Many people seem to be evolving away from meat as their main source of protein!Interesting the weight you lost!!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Hugs Giggles

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  22. Terrific Autumn Inspiration throughout your post!

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  23. Your work is great, the hand holding the blade is so real ... congratulations. Saludos

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  24. Wonderful sketchbook. You've been busy!
    Happy Painting.

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  25. I like your sketchbook paintings you really made a common leaf very interesting and pretty.

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  26. Your sketches/paintings are wonderful...even without the black outline! I love the mandala at the top too!

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  27. Great post - i liked seeing the photos and what they led to.

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  28. I love your natural mandala !!! The fall gives such treasures...
    I am actually sitting in my studio right now with the wind battering all of the trees around my house. Sandy is upon us, and though we are about 30 miles inland, we are getting pushed around by this lady.
    Still, so many things to be grateful for !
    Be well this week, Lovely Andrea !

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  29. Loved being able to walk through your week with you in this post...which does have a theme...the beauty of fall! ^_^ You have one gorgeous sketchbook, I've been totally pants at keeping up with my own sketch book...ignoring it for weeks now. You took some lovely photo's. Have a happy week. xox

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  30. Your stump is the perfect plater to serve up a mandala! and I am in love with your sketchbook, such lovely offerings and remembrances of your days. I applaud anyone who tries to go vegan. A difficult but admirable thing to do. I, myself have a sweet tooth that makes the tooth fairy and all major holiday promoters orgasm at once. So, good for you and your husband for sticking in there!
    Have a great week!!
    Peace~
    Dawn

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