The Nearsighted Owl's Fat Bitch Ecourse

I have been reading Rachele's blog for a while now, The Nearsighted Owl.  There are so many reasons why I really enjoy keeping up with her here are a few of my favorites:

Photo: Rachele, The Nearsighted Owl

Her tutorial crochet along bobble blanket... I haven't started one myself but I plan to, and damn if it's as cute as all this I'll be really excited!

Photo: Rachele, The Nearsighted Owl

Also her adorable DIY glasses display... I love her eye for color ♥

Photo: Rachele, The Nearsighted Owl

And then there's her passionate Fat Acceptance activity.  Damn.  I have to say that I first found her blog when I was googling pictures of fat ladies with short hair.  I've thought a lot about cutting all my hair off.  Like going all the way to the scalp.  But all those dumb feelings that come up with the pressures of beauty standards usually convince me that at the very least, I'm not ready to do it... YET.  So not only did I find this adorable picture of happy fat Rachele rocking short hair and being a total babe about it, but it turns out her whole post that came with this image was ALL ABOUT EMPOWERING FAT WOMEN TO WEAR SHORT HAIR!  And I've been following her ever since.  Just before starting the Fat Bitch Ecourse, Rachele was making "Shame-Loss" Ads where she would convert a regular advertisement into something that spoke truth and positivity to literally losing the same and stigma that Beauty INC puts on all of us.  One of my favorites:

Image: Rachele, The Nearsighted Owl

Every image on the previous ad that was in some way promoting changes that you could make in order to lose weight to find happiness BECAUSE OF THE LOST WEIGHT, Rachele pretty much took and made into a way that you can do WHOEVER YOU ARE with WHATEVER KIND OF BODY YOU HAVE to find happiness and feel good RIGHT NOW.  I think this image is incredibly powerful, and a million times more empowering.

So now for my homework for week one of the How to Be a Fat Bitch Ecourse!  Five things that I want to do (in the same vein as the messages in the above image) that are going to make ME, the fat human being that I am, happy... and what's implied is: against and in the face of the pressures and hate and discrimination that fat people experience everyday.  But seriously... I think that you don't gotta be fat to make yerself feel good.  Just do it.  I totes am fat and so this Ecourse speaks to me directly, the feels I have that the way I experience and process life as a fatty... so I guess that's my FYI for anyone who may read this and doesn't identify as Fat.  YOU SHOULD STILL MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY AND LOVE YOURSELF.  Unfh.

PS can I say another thing I love about this Ecourse is that Rachele has said time and time again that it's something you do on your own pace... I have been thinking about this post and planning and drafting it and I mean, I MADE the list last week, and have even done most of the things on it... (as you'll see) but damn if it isn't nice to not feel any pressure about squeezing out something in-between all the other fun stuff, work, and personal time that's been going on in my life lately.


FIVE THINGS I'MA GONNA DO TO GET THE HAPPIEZ:

1. Make macarons.  I have this calendar from Paper Source and everyday I stare up at this gorgeous picture of delicious MACARONS!!!  I want to make some beauties like this and put them in my mouth.


Beca at Tales of a Tumbleweed has been inspiring me to make them myself with these posts:

Photo: Beca, Tales of a Tumbleweed

And:

Photo: Beca, Tales of a Tumbleweed

These recipes are great, but they do require a lot of resting time for the moisture to escape the batter, start early and break often on a lazy day.

2. Quit Weight Watchers.  Even though I enjoyed doing it in the past because I felt it encouraged me with all of its numbers and calculations to make decisions that ended up making me feel healthier, recently I just felt defeated by the act of participating in a dieting-oriented system.  I mean, I struggle really hard with having feelings about wanting to be healthy and rebuilding my worth as a fat person from all of the trauma suffered from being told I didn't have any because of my fat... but THE MOST IMPORTANT AND FREEING THING I COULD POSSIBLY DO is to sever this connection and make my choices based on what I KNOW to be true about caring for my body and myself with fierce self love.  I really love the way Rachele says that you need to let go of the idea of "giving up".  I'm going to look at it like being healthy is a practice, a way of behaving and making choices... not my body as it is or as it will be if it goes through any changes because of my practice.

3. Listen to music alone.  This is one of the most peaceful and restorative things I like to do.

4. Meditate.  I have some notes on chanting meditations I've been looking to dig out and I would really love to get back into the regular habit of this.

5. Home-Made Yoga.  This is what I've always called my made-up brand of stretching that I do... like a cat.  I find the spot where I have the feels and then find a way to work it out.  I do know some yoga poses, so I'll work those in as well, and maybe watch some you-tubes to learn some more.

So in reflection, I've done all of these things this week and I feel great.  I even paused writing this blog post to go to the gym today because though I hadn't wanted to commit to going at all, once I pumped myself up with some ELO (Mr. Blue Sky you merry-making devil you!) I was totally amped!  I moved my body in a way that it wanted, and feels good about.  And now, I'm going out for a mimosa.

L.I.V.I.N.

♥-L 

Kitty Cat Meow! 1000 Cookies...

I'm really excited because I made some awesome cookies this last week.  Even though I love eating baked goods and am not a terrible baker, in fact I consider myself a master-baker, I don't often get in the kitchen to get it done.  Something about washing all the dishes and cleaning up flour puts me off... lol.  But luckily I had a good reason to make something delicious and relatively involved!  And to buy a rolling pin!  And a small, somewhat-inexpensive-on-sale-hand-mixer!  And that reason was Jillybeanz ♥  We split birthday responsibility in my department at work... names go into a hat and everybody picks one... you know the drill.  When it's your person's birthday you decorate their desk and procure a card and yummy snacks.  Thank you to our handy excel spreadsheet of likes, I knew that Jill likes sugar cookies.  I could have bought some pre-made at the store, and knew that this would be the most convenient thing to do... but NO.  I come from a cookie family.  We consume annually several large Tupperware-containers-full during the winter holidays.  We pride ourselves on our delicious cookies, the old recipes and the new family favorites (pretty much entirely concocted by my sister).  I think we all... (or this is just me... WHO KNOWS?) derive an extreme sense of family pride from their deliciousness.  For those new recipes it's almost as if we had more to do with it than simply stuffing them in our faces... buuuut yeah... I just stuff them in my face.  Thanks Sister Kristi*!

One of our about 12 different varieties of family cookie favorites is of course sugar cookies... and turns out since Sister Kristi was busy and Anonymous Mom was traveling far away from her recipe book I called Auntie Flo Flo to get the recipe.  Jill (like any awesome human being) loves kitties.  I had to call around, but I secured a kitty cat cookie cutter from Joann fabrics.  It appeared to be a Halloween leftover, but there were lots of them and it was less than a dollar so I was sold.  Also, their decorating sugars are less expensive than any of the grocery stores I had checked, on top of that you can use your freaking coupons!!  So that's the way to go fellow Sugar Cookie Makers for a good variety of colored sugars and fancy pearls and shapes.  Though I did find that there were some things missing that we've always had in the family... so I'm hoping that maybe the grocery store selection will be expanded closer to the holiday.

I quickly realized when I got to it, that I've only ever make sugar cookies while x-mas music is playing... so even though I didn't have any on, my brain fixed it so that Mitch Miller and the Gang played "Must Be Santa" INSIDE MY HEAD... and I'm still saying "ho ho ho, cherry nose" days later.  Also, because I only ever bake on a need to bake asap time-frame, I realized that may be part of why I refrain from doing it more often... there's nothing like standing in the kitchen shaking sugar and rolling out dough at 10:30 pm with half a batch to go- no plans for doing the dishes- and a partner on the couch snoozing to Arrested Development.  Methinks I need to do some more pleasure master-baking.  Getting started while there's still plenty of light in the day, washing up while I go, and rocking out to say, Cat Stevens or The Grateful Dead (you know... reeeally rocking stuff)... filling the house with yummy smells and then being able to put those yummy tastes in my mouth after all the dishes are done, and there is still light outside.

Okay so I've got to reel it in here... I'm totally fantasizing about being in the kitchen and I want to tell you the rest of Jillybeanz's kitty cat cookie extravaganza...

So we have 11 people in our department and there are about as many people adjacent to us who would be welcome to stuff their faces... and anyone who walks through our department is welcome... so I made two batches.  At first I thought I had WAY too many, but it turned out just right, as the last two cookies were eaten 10 minutes before the end of the day.

I totally recommend that you make some to stuff in YOUR FACE!!  Here is the recipe!

From Auntie Flo Flo: World's Best Sugar Cookies

2c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c butter

1c sugar

1 egg well beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk

• Using just 1 1/2 c flour (reserve the other 1/2 c for later) combine with baking powder and salt
• In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar with mixer until light and fluffy
• Add egg, vanilla and, milk
• Gradually add dry ingredient mixture
• After that is mixed, use the reserved 1/2 c of flour to add until the dough is stiff and not super sticky to the touch, but take care to only add as much as you need.  Auntie Flo was very serious about not adding too much, but I can say that I did end up for these batches using the whole amount and nothing was ruined... so don't worry if you find that's the case.
• Let the dough chill 30-50 minutes
• Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick for chewy cookies, or 1/8 inch thick for thin and crispy ones ♥
• Decorate if you like
• Bake @375 for 8-10 minutes on an uncreased cookie sheet 

I think I just might make a few more of these posts about our family recipes.  This time of year is when we eat all the foods... and they are soooo delicious.

XO-L

*Knight Ranger reference definitely implied

PART 2 of Parts Of My House That Are Clean And Attractive

Dreams of crates for shelves coming true!  Also... check out that little toilet!!!

Gratuitous close-up of sexy dream shelves

THE HOUSE OF POLISH



Parts Of My House That Are Clean... And Attractive

On the wall with the hanging lamps will go our family pictures

Flowers from Marissa and Jon on the mantle. Working out what to put on the walls on either side of that painting.

Door knobs that I used for curtains in my apartment in the parking lot with Laurie re-purposed to coat hooks.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but what I'm trying to capture is HOW GOOD the leopard bench looks on this butter colored wall.

Clean kitchens DO exist.

They are RREEEAAAAAALLLLLL!

As are sexy laundry machines.

A WoW Balanced Diet

Sooo I'm listening to Straight Outta Compton while I'm writing this (for a good reason that will reveal itself...) but I'm also considering making a really bad ass mix to listen to while I play World of Warcraft.

I was talking to my friend Amanda this weekend and we were catching up and she asked me what exciting things had been going on in my life since we've last hung out... and I was underwhelmed except to talk about the wedding stress things that were most present in my mind... and I kept thinking... NOOOOooo... there's GOT to be SOMETHING else besides wedding and D&D in my life that I've been up too... I mean it's been a WHILE since we've seen each other...

OOoohh, riiiiight... I remember now.  It's WoW.

Tonight I came home from work while KC went out to dinner with his department and I crawled into bed and checked the Tumblers and closed my eyes when Hieratic called me back to say... WoW time? So I got my butt out of bed and sussed out some battle gear and decided I needed to get some dinner in me.  KC and I haven't done a whole lot of grocery shopping and soooooo...

Toast and Clyde Drexler

This is the first time I've used this gadget KC's mom got me for x-mas... it vibrates and stirs for you! Really cut down on the bubbles...

macncheeze in my hand-painted Cap'n Sisko History Special which declares... "the dinosaurs were reeaaall!  THEY WERE REAALY REEEAAAALLLLL!!!!!"

Voilaaa!! Toast and macncheeze. While I was making the m'n'c... I poured the milk into the pot and couldn't resist knuckling back the gallon and taking a deep drink straight out the carton. That's when I repeated that phrase to myself... over and over to the tune of Straight Outta Compton.

This is me, in game.

This is me IRL in my battle onesie... sooo pretty much the same.

So I'm decked out in my battle onesie and ready to earn some sweet xps. Mom, I know this won't make a whole lot of sense to you, but my friend Meghann and I will be doing some of this...

...only together.

♥- L

*edit- I forgot to mention that for dessert... I'll be having trader joes oreos... it's nice to have milk in the house... "straight out the carton"