My Creative Space

Just a quick look into some of my sketchbooks:

Find more creative spaces here.

Wordless Wednesday

Recommended: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Pat recently picked up Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. He'd read good reviews on the book, but honestly I hadn't even heard of it. It sounded interesting enough & was a short, easy read, so I sat down & finished it in a day.

Am I ever glad I did! What a thoughtful read!

The gist of it is basically an interpretation of what happens when we die - a question as old as man. Albom's heaven isn't Paradise though, or a lush Garden of Eden. Instead, after dying, we successively meet 5 people who explain the meaning of our earthly life.

In the book, we live the last few moments of Eddie's life - a seemingly insignificant, dead-end existence as a small amusement park mechanic - and then we follow him into his afterlife, meeting the 5 people who explain to Eddie why he was who he was. Some of these people he knew & expected, like his wife, but others he didn't know. Still, they each shed some light on his path & granted him the answers he sought.

The tale is beautifully written & Eddie is a compelling, believable character. The best part was the idea - what if we do meet 5 people in heaven? Who do you think you'd meet?

I have another Albom book in my library - For One More Day - but have yet to read it. I'm looking forward to it though!

Weekly Forecast

As usual, I'm hoping for a productive week. I'm pretty happy with how last week went, though I didn't tackle half my ambitious list. I concentrated on my job search & some fun stuff, like blogging, sewing & sketching.

Here's what I'm hoping to get done this week:

• exercise every day: Angie set a 30-day challenge - exercise every day for 30 days. The goal is to get back into a routine, to be more active daily. The exercise doesn't have to be extreme - I'm aiming to get back into daily yoga.
• organize the kitchen: since taking everything out for Christmas baking, I need to reorganize my cupboards & pantry.
• once my kitchen is organized, I can finally bake the bread I've been wanting to try
• take lots of pictures
• update my sketchbooks & finish my Sketchbook Project

Another ambitious list, but I know I can manage. I just need to get up early & start the day off right with a yoga routine.

A few things I'm hoping to blog about this week:

• a look at my organized craft space
• an update on my 52 Lists & Sketchbook Project
• freshly baked bread
• a great book to recommend
• Project 52

Have a great week everyone!

Mosaic Monday

It's Mosaic Monday! I hope you'll join us - it's really easy! Just make a photo mosaic - you can use whatever photo editing software you like, or a website such as the mosaic maker & photos from Flickr - & then post it on your blog. Go ahead & pick a theme if you want, but don't feel like you have to. Have fun with it!

Make sure to include a link back to my blog so that everyone can participate. Then come back here & submit a link to your blog post (using the "add your link" button at the bottom). I'll be looking at & commenting on each one!

Here's mine for this week: handwriting. Because it's National Handwriting Day!

1. My handwriting, 2. Handwriting meme., 3. Handwriting Sample, 4. My Handwriting "After"

Here's the list of mosaics for this week. Once you've blogged, click the button below to add your blog post link.

Sunday Seven

A few small things I'm grateful for this week:

Sunday: football with the guys

Monday: scored a few things at a great price on ModCloth

Tuesday: fun sewing day

Wednesday: trying something new

Thursday: motivation to work out

Friday: a friend's healthy baby girl (so cute!)

Saturday: tasty burgers

What are you thankful for this week?

Project 52: 3/52

First - what do you think of my new Project 52 banner? I figured I'd make things a little more official looking, especially since I plan on blogging about it each week. I also created a button for my sidebar, so you can easily look back on all my photos with one click. I'm also hoping you'll join me in this challenge - but more on that at the end.

It snowed on & off all week, though there wasn't much accumulation. The flurries were really coming down on Thursday, so I took my camera out onto the balcony for a little change in scenery. The soft powder was lovely. And it enabled me to snap a photo for Project 52:

The snowflake bokeh is what sealed the deal for me.

Just as I was heading back inside after my photo session, I received some unexpected visitors:

The pigeons don't let a little snow get in their way!

As I mentioned above, I'd love it if you'd participate with me in this challenge! The more the merrier - I could use the encouragement! The rules are simple - take 1 photo a week, for 52 weeks. No theme, just a photo of something that sparked your interest during the week. We're already on the 3rd week, but that doesn't mean you can't start now (or go back through your archives & find a couple photos from the last 2 weeks)!
Feel free to use my Project 52 banner as weel. Either right click on the image above & save it on your computer, or follow this link & download it from Flickr.

Once you've taken your photo, post it online somewhere & add your link in the submission box below. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Firsts: Cooking with Shrimp

One of the prompts for 366Pages was to come up with a list of new-to-you things to try in 2012.

Wednesday night, I crossed off one of those firsts! I cooked with shrimp for the first time:

Granted, the shrimp I used were already cooked, but the principle is the same - I've never made anything with seafood before!

Mostly because Pat & I aren't fond of any type of fish or seafood... But I'm all about trying new things & this wasn't half bad, not too fishy. I chose a noodle recipe from one of my Thai cookbooks & it cooked up in minutes. The longest part was soaking the noodles. After that it was simply a matter of slicing & lightly frying the green veggies:

Then thickening a simple sauce:

I adjusted the sauce recipe a bit, omitting the oyster sauce I didn't have & adding some hot chili sauce & Thai spices. I found it very flavourful & satisfying.

Pat? Not so much. Not only does he not like shrimp, but he also isn't a fan of rice noodles (how that's possible, I don't know!) or trying new things... so he only picked at his bowl. Which is too bad because I still have half a bag of frozen shrimp that I'm determined to use!

Any shrimp recipes you'd like to recommend?