SkinnyTaste.com

One of the best websites I have found for healthy, flavorful recipes is skinnytaste.com.

Created by Gina Homolka, this website is full of beautiful pictures, tons of recipes, step by step directions and can be searched by food type, by Weight Watcher values and more. There is a recipe box tool that allows you to save your favorite recipes in one place right on her site or you can print them in .pdf version.

Another way to follow Gina is on pinterest. You can link to her pinterest boards through her website.

So far, every recipe I have tried has been delicious and my family loves when I am making one of her recipes!

Enjoy!

Fall into Fitness Challenge Goals

I am a little late to the game but here it goes:

My Elemental goals

Earth: I plan on focusing on eating a balanced, natural food diet. I want to eliminate some of the processed foods that I eat. This will be a gradual and ongoing process

Air: I will be adding Yoga into my exercise routine on a regular basis. Yoga is great for the mind as well as the body and I believe this will be a great benefit for me, helping me to lessen the effects of everyday stresses as well as strengthen my muscles.

Fire: I plan on earning 150 broom points - minimum! I try to get to the gym between 3 and 4 mornings each week and work out for about an hour each time. In addition to this I will be working on my Etsy Shop as well as my other artistic endeavors, Art is my passion and that is something I will be focusing more on in the coming months.

Water: I will be upping the amount of water I drink and eliminate that darn Diet Coke. I know it is full of chemicals, I know it is not the best drink for my body so I will be saying goodbye to my longtime favorite beverage so that I can improve my health - I believe it will be totally worth it!

Spirit: Achieving the above will nurture my mind, body and soul. Meditating on my goals, working towards them and achieving them is what I consider my holistic approach to this challenge, encompassing all of the elements in my goal to be healthy and fit.

In addition to the above elemental goals I have another, measurable goal, I would like to lose about 8 pounds by the end of November. I believe in losing weight in a slow, steady and healthy way.

As you know if you read my blog regularly I am a current, sort of practicing, member of Weight Watchers. I have been slowly focusing on this program in a more serious way and am starting to see progress on the weight loss front. Weight Watchers is not a diet, it is a way of life, a healthy way to look at food and exercise that you can actually live with regardless of the lifestyle you have. I refuse to eat diet food. If it isn't full of flavor what is the point? Check back tomorrow for one of my favorite online healthy recipe sites.

Fall into Fitness Challenge 2012

I am so happy that Serenity Raven of Get off Your Broom is hosting the Fall into Fitness Challenge. Her challenges have always been thoughtful and focused on total health and fitness rather than on just losing weight!! I am a late joiner but am looking forward to the challenge.  This time the challenge will be focusing on the elements. Click on the picture above or the link to the right to get more information on this fantastic fitness challenge.

My Zombie Doll has Arrived

My Zombies in Storybook Land swap doll has arrived and all I can say is - I’m not worthy J. She is amazing. My swap partner chose to create Cinderella in Zombie form and since I have no words that are adequate enough here are some pictures:

The Box

Cinderella Zombie - She's holding her leg!! How cool is that!

Fantastic, Amazing, beautiful!!

The whole package of goodies I received!!

That cool little box in the back is full of gummy fingers and chocolates!

Coolest Journal EVER!

Thank you to my amazing swap partner Sarah of Sarahella After Midnight for a stunning doll and an amazing box of goodies!!

Tomorrow I will share with you the Little Red Riding Hood Zombie I sent to Sarah.

My Favorite Time of Year

As the wheel of the year slowly turns towards the fall and the season of harvest I find myself in a whirlwind of activity!

This month my oldest son moved into his own apartment. This is bittersweet for me. I am so proud of him yet I miss my little boy all the same.

 I just returned home from one business trip (Las Vegas) and will be leaving on another one on Friday (Panama City, Florida this time).

I am putting the finishing touches on my Storybook Zombie doll, she is so cute, AND I am working on my Circus booth plus a couple of other posts for the blog.

Working out is good when I am home and not too tragic when I am away – yay for do-in-the-hotel room Yoga! My fitness level is going up and my weight is slowly going down –and it is about time the healthy living has finally started to pay off!

By the end of this month I will be done with all of my current commitments, yippee, skippee! Then I am looking forward to a month of nothing except Halloween and harvest celebrations. That is really all I am going to focus on in October. Of course that is plenty if I want to do it right - which I do.

This year my family is hosting a costume party. If you’ve read some of my previous posts you know that I am all for playing dress up with my friends. I’ve been to the Faerieworlds in Eugene, Oregon and danced in a spiral dance with hundreds of people while dressed as one of the Faerie folk, my close friends and I do costumed parties and my man and I do costume beer crawls as often as possible, in fact, not too long ago we did the Super Hero pub crawl. The only costume I had at the time (that I was willing to actually go out in) was a pirate outfit so I went as… Cap’t Morgan :0) Such fun! I can’t wait to share the fun of this party with you. I have no idea what I’ll be wearing this year … maybe I’ll drag out the old hat and broom, Halloween always brings out the witch in me.

This summer has been so very hectic and I am really looking forward to cooler weather. No more business trips (at least this year), plenty of fresh picked apples, fields of plump, ripe, pumpkins and the glory of orange and rust colored mums.  Yeah, as I catch up from the last trip and prepare for the next one my mind is already turned towards the change of the seasons.

Since I try to live each day as best as I can I’ll be enjoying this last month of hot weather as I begin my preparations for fall. Yep, this is my favorite time of year… I’ll bet you could kinda tell that huh

Autumwind

Zombie Storybook Doll Sneak Peek… Kinda, Sorta

This is a cross post for the Zombie Storybook Doll Swap being hosted by Yarnigras.

 I am having such a great time with this swap! I love dolls, all kinds of dolls and fairytale/storybook dolls are such a delight. There are so many interpretations of their stories that you can really let your creativity run wild when you are creating one and when you add in the zombie aspect… well how can you go wrong??

Since I want my little storybook doll’s new mama to be surprised I am only going to show you a couple of pictures, we can’t have her miss the thrill of discovering the doll created specifically for her.

Something I’ve found quite enjoyable is that as I have been creating this sweet little doll I didn’t have to worry about the “pretty” factor. Usually I am trying for something feminine, and that doesn’t always work, this time I have the Zombie factor to work with and boy has it been fun! Blood and gore, no worries about a crooked, well, anything. Whatever I do works! I am almost finished costuming her and then I get to zombify her clothes, what fun!

I can’t wait to show you what I’ve done… here are a couple of pictures to show you a little bit of the work that has been going on…

some of the supplies

Making a pattern

She really needs a new manicure

My family is a little worried about me, lately when I am working in the studio they overhear crazy laughter and mumblings of blood and bones, torn skin and braaains…

Thanks for checking her out, I’ll post a picture of the complete doll at the end of the month once she has arrived at her new home.

Autumnwind