Source: My Love Affair With Blue
My Love Affair With Blue
Source: My Love Affair With Blue
Frozen Acai Treat (almost just like Brazil)
In Rio this frozen treat has the consistency of ice cream and is sold on almost every street corner.
Keep in mind you want it to be the consistency of ice cream. You should be able to eat it with a spoon to start.
Makes 2 4oz. servings
What you’ll need: A Blender, 2 SAMBAZON Acai Berry Smoothie Packs (sweetened or unsweetened). You can find in your frozen food section of your grocery store.
Honey to taste ( I use 4 Tsp. ) You won’t need any sweetener if you use the sweetened Acai.
4 oz. of water
Let packs sit at room temperature for 10-15 min.
Empty both packs into blender with water, you can add ice too – especially to make it thicker.
Blend and serve. Mmmm!! Delicious and refreshing. I didn’t even mention how good it is for you too! This Superfood is full of antioxidants and omegas.
Now put on some Bossa Nova and imagine you’re walking along the black and white stones of Ipanema…
Chill Out
Yes, it’s HOT! Duh, it’s the Southern San Joaquin Valley! This week we are enjoying a bit of a reprieve at 90 degrees; last week it was 106 – yikes. So, how does one keep cool when it’s this hot? Air-conditioning, swimming, and frozen treats.
I’m sharing a recipe for a delicious Strawberry Coconut Frozen Pop from Lisa at Sweet 2 Eat Baking. Click on the picture to get the recipe.
I’m a California native and could take the easy access to fresh produce for granted but I don’t. I treasure these hot days because they bring local fresh fruit. Amazing melons and icy cold sliced mango’s are my favorite.
Music to the ears and icy frozen treats for the rest of you… If you hear the bells from the La Rosa cart STOP and enjoy, a only in your hometown nostalgic trip. Since 1980 those campanas have been ringing through out The Streets of Bakersfield, bringing a little frozen joy on a hot, hot, day.
To be continued… more frozen treats to get us through the summer. My new favorite from my trip to Rio up next.
It’s About Rights
It’s about time. It’s about rights.
Marriage is a legal contract between two people and for many represents their declaration of commitment to one another.
How the people of this country have disregarded the constitutional rights of others over and over again for 200 years is beyond comprehension and unacceptable; That being said, today is a new day; although this new and liberating change doesn’t erase the fact that many people in this county have the audacity to believe that they have the right to decide what is right and wrong for others. This does, however, mean, that this country can no longer legally decide who the people of this country can commit their life and love.
Congratulations America! It’s About Time, It’s About Rights!
My Love Affair With Blue
I’m convinced that it happened over time and from a very young age. I LOVE Blue – every shade, every single one! Maybe, it was the Royal Blue shag carpet in my mothers walk-in closet; maybe, the blue of my Siamese cat Meme’s eyes; maybe, all the sky gazing I did in elementary school; maybe, all the time I spent in the pool in the hot California sun… I could go on and on and most likely I will – but another time and another post. For now, here are a few images that tell a little story about, My Love Affair With Blue.
This tote would be perfect with this room
Artifacts of a life lived
On a Sunday afternoon, in the middle of my hometown, there is a place where everything slows down; a place full of light and color.
Here, the earth touches the house and beats in a kind of union. There is something so calming about visiting a place where time seems to follow a different set of rules – ticking to some different beat; a place where you give up trying to make plans or control the outcome. The house, the earth that holds it, and the light that permeates through it, will instruct you. Looking through the photos I took, It seems my camera was influenced by my state of mind; calm and hazy, vague, indefinite, and maybe a little uncertain or entirely uncertain.
When there is nothing else to do but listen… It’s as if, the house is telling a story and it is. The images below tell just one, of its many stories. A few artifacts of a life lived as an artist.
Born Good
The Chinese character combination for color is 顏色
Today is my young friend Yi Ren’s Birthday. He is in Beijing – we have very limited communication and I miss him dearly. I wanted to celebrate this day with a special post to celebrate Yi and the color red.
Outside of a Confucius Church a Red Cactus Flower blooms. It caught the attention of my boyfriend because of the single red bloom. It also happens to be blooming in front of a Architecturally Significant building designed by, Chinese American Architect Eugene Kinn Choy (1912-1991). This building is down the way from my significant other’s business and he drives by often to admire this under-appreciated gem. So, of course he promptly drives me by to see the single Red Flower.
There it sat, a single red flower on a thorny cactus, in front of a mostly unnoticed church; noticed only by an exceptional few – a congregation, I have yet to see and one architectural enthusiast. I quickly took some photos and pondered as I do, the beautiful color – Vermillion. After a few days, I could see this encounter with the flower and the church was not serendipitous…
Chinese Red, Confucius Church, my friend Yi Ren and his birthday.
First, the color red, In Chinese culture the color red plays a symbolic and meaningful role. In the Theory of the Five Elements, Red corresponds with the Element Fire; The Planet Mars; The Phase Full Yang; the Energy is Expansive; the Season is Summer; Climate is Hot; Development is blooming.
It is also the color of happiness.
The Confucius Church, Confucianism is based on the belief that everyone is born good and is capable of growing better by cultivating virtue and living by a set of ethics. Which leads me to my friends name, Yi Ren. In the ethical practices of Confucianism there is the concepts and practice of Ren which translates as humanness or compassion and Yi is the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition to do good.
Yi Ren, Righteous and Compassionate.
There is a certain naivety a cynic might say about my friend, I find it refreshing. He does believe in the good in people; he is not naive and has experienced deep lows and knows the darkness that exist in the human soul. However, he did grow up with this Confucius belief system as it was passed down through generations.
I had to the pleasure of meeting Yi’s mother and father. His father and I discussed religion and philosophy; His father, a Buddhist, who subscribes to the Confucius Philosophy and Ethics. There was a calm, compassionate, yet fatherly chain of command about him. It is no wonder my friend in Beijing is a Vermillion Bird ready to take flight to the ever expansive energy of Red. Happy Birthday Yi Ren and Happy Day Red!
Manufactured and Homegrown
My weekend adventure took me to independent boutiques in LA such as, Otherwild; found in the grungy ultra hip Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park (an oxymoronic head trip). Echo Park, where the floppy Coachella hats and ironic facial hair collide with authentic Angelenos. I picked up a little handmade book there, titled – How to Not Always Be Working – $7.00. The weekend ended with a colorful jaunt to Little Tokyo and to Daiso – a nothing over a $1.50 (unless otherwise marked) Japanese dollar store. The difference is visible in the color palette from the found in nature blues, yellows, and reds at Otherwild, to the nowhere in nature colors, found at Daiso; where one can buy a sorta, kinda, knock off, Comme des Garcons wallet – for a buck fifty.
Weekend Adventure in Color
Masion Midi
We Were Barely There
The sun is so bright at the beach, it burns out most of the color. It is overwhelming; the way the reflective nature of the ocean, plays with the sun and sky, washing out the surrounding world. Only the brightest colors in the spectrum manage to bleed through. These washed out colors are nostalgic – water color, vintage oil paintings, and polaroids; they play with the eyes.
inspiration through color 