A Belated Birthday Post - 32 Before 32

My 31st birthday came and went without much of a celebration. Shaun took me out for lunch and drinks, but we had to call it a day after half a plate of nachos and a few sips of beer because I felt so shitty. I spent the rest of the night curled up in bed with a fever of 102. My first and only birthday spent in Seattle was kind of a let down.

I did get to spend a lot of time planning my list while I sat in bed, but shit happens and I'm just now getting around to posting it. I'm only six weeks late. I'm pretty excited about it and hope you think it was worth the wait.

1. Run an 8 minute mile.

2. Photograph another boudoir shoot.

3. Reopen the monkandmao Etsy shop with all cat-related crafts.

4. Get tattooed, even if it’s something small.

5. Put music on my phone and organize some playlists.

6. Wear sequins.

7. Get a massage with Shaun, if it’s in the budget.

8. Go hiking.

9. Stay (mostly) sugar-free. No cane or beet sugar, agave, maple or brown rice syrup, or hfcs (obviously). A little piece of high-quality dark chocolate is fine. #nomoresugarmonster

10. Spend some time in front of the camera.

11. See Crystal Castles live if they do a U.S. tour.

12. Experiment with tofu. Use it differently in a meal.

13. Run another half marathon, either a real one or on my own.

14. Buy used whenever possible (clothes, shoes, accessories, furniture, dishes, etc.).

15. Go camping.

16. Donate to five Kickstarter campaigns.

17. Don’t drink booze for three (non-consecutive) months, just for fun.

18. Use Couch to 5K to increase running speed. Try 7mph, maybe even faster.

19. Play Cards Against Humanity again.

20. Type up and organize my recipe file.

21. Make a video tutorial and share it with the internet.

22. Read a Vonnegut book.

23. Take a class.

24. Teach a class.

25. Make pink pretzel hearts and give them to friends.

26. Visit mom, grandma, Ash, and Isabelle in Utah.

27. See at least 5 arty/crafty projects to completion.

28. Give my car interior a thorough cleaning.

29. Leave food on my plate if I’m satisfied, especially when eating at a restaurant.

30. Visit the coast. Any coast.

31. Take a picture of each letter of the alphabet. This needs a hashtag.

32. This is the big one. Above all else, stay focused on what’s really important. Even if the other 31 goals on this list don’t get completed by my 32^nd birthday, I will feel great if I can honestly say I worked really hard on this one.

Focus on...

-   ...school. I’m about halfway to B.S. in Accounting. I would be thrilled to take 10-12 credits a semester, but I’ll be happy if I take at least 6 and kick ass at my classes.

-   ...building and strengthening relationships. This includes my relationship with Shaun, family, and friends. Don’t flake on plans. Ask more questions. Don’t take people for granted. Talk less about myself and learn more about others. Make an effort to spend time with friends I want to keep in my life.

-   ...my health, both physical and mental. Keep up with running, lifting weights, and HIIT. Add yoga once guided classes are in my budget. Take care of issues before they turn into sources of stress. Keep writing To Do lists and go to bed with a clear mind.

-   ...cultivating my inner beauty. Sadly, I’ve spend most of my life worrying about my appearance and neglecting my personality. It’s never too late to change that. I will be compassionate, understanding, curious, giving, forgiving, authentic, optimistic, and kind.

So, after years of making lists that involve spending a bunch of money, I've learned my lesson. I'ma work on ME. I can do this. All of it. Can't wait to share my progress!

So that was 30, huh?

What a year. I lived in six different apartments/houses in three different states (Colorado, Utah, and Washington). It was a pretty rough year for us, really.

Shaun lost his dad six days after we temporarily moved to Washington to be close to his family. Now, my dad's cancer treatment has stopped working and he's quickly getting sicker. We're working on a plan to go home to Denver so I can be within driving distance of his place in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

So, yeah, things are kind of crappy.

On to more positive things. I still managed to cross a good number of things off my list.

1. Ride a motorcycle. The opportunity never came up and I did nothing to try to make this one happen. Shaun did get his motorcycle driver's license over the summer, so there’s a good chance he'll get a bike and we'll go for a ride one day.

2. Go to the teahouse in Boulder again. Blogged here.

3. Sew my own lingerie. Undies for sure. Possibly something else, too. Started this one, but I don’t have a sewing machine. Hand sewing stretched elastic sounds like a bad idea. I’m on the hunt for a cheap (thrifted) sewing machine and I’ll try to get these undies finished this year.

4. Try pad thai. We barely did any eating out this year, and I kept recipes cheap and simple. Still, I’m surprised I didn’t make this happen.

5. Go on a 90 day spending fast. I didn’t declare a spending fast at any point, but I’m positive I went at least 90 days without buying anything unnecessary. Still, I’m not crossing this one out.

6. Fire a gun. Finally did this and had a blast. I was really good and hit a couple small targets from 200 feet. Definitely something I’d like to do again.

Me and the Zombie Killer. My hair was so short!

7. Make sourdough bread (with my great uncle Ken’s recipe, if anyone still has it). I made quite a bit of bread this year, but no sourdough. Mom keeps saying she’ll get the recipe for me. It hasn’t happened yet. Maybe this year.

8. Buy new running shoes. I’ve been saying this for a couple years now. Although my five-year-old Nike Free 5.0 shoes started to get holes in the toes and the soles were obviously disintegrating, my broke ass had no plans (or money) to replace them. Luckily, my loverboy surprised me with a new pair for Christmas. Can’t wait to wear them when I’m over this cold and back at the gym!

9. Find jackfruit and make something out of it. Blogged here.

10. Wear red lipstick in public. Blogged here.

11. Bake (vegan) French macarons. Blogged here.

12. Go to yoga class every day for 30 days. Yoga classes are too damn expensive for a girl with my income. Bummer. Definitely plan on fixing this once I'm back in Denver and working somewhere awesome.

13. Learn how to can. Super simple! I haven’t canned anything because we haven't stayed in one place for more than six months and I don’t want to pack and move food. Maybe when we settle into a place this year, I’ll get on it.

14. Spend some time in front of the camera. Shaun took pictures of me on a few occasions. Even did a little bit of video. I’m still really awkward in when being filmed or photographed. I have plans to work on that.

15. Read at least 15 books. I’m really embarrassed to say this didn’t happen. Not even close. I read 1Q84... and a bunch of cook books. Those don’t count.

16. Make cupcakes for Marcelo. Didn’t spend enough time in Denver to make this happen, and cupcakes don’t ship well. Sorry, homie.

17. Fix the fan on my laptop... or just buy a new laptop. Blogged here.

18. Hang out on the beach. Blogged here.

19. Come up with a good veggie burger recipe. I now have a quinoa loaf recipe that can also be made into burgers. It’s delicious, especially when covered in mushroom gravy.

20. Go out to dinner by myself. Went to Shogun. It was awkward. I was the only customer in the entire restaurant.

21. Draw or paint a picture of my Monk and Mao kitties. I printed the photos I plan on painting. Unfortunately the canvasses stunk like mold from being stored at Shaun’s dad’s house and we had to toss them. I’d still like to do this.

22. Fix my broken chandelier. Blogged here.

23. Stop being afraid to say no. I did okay on this one. I could have done better, but I could have done a lot worse. I’m calling it a success.

24. Make raw cupcakes. I started experimenting with raw recipes earlier this year and found out I have a really hard time digesting large quantities of nuts. I made some great raw ice cream sandwiches for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately most raw cupcakes are nut-heavy. Crossing this off was not worth the bellyache!

25. Start learning Spanish with Shaun. Our course starts on January 22^nd! Yay!

26. Run 100 miles in one month. (That’s only 3.33 miles per day!) Spent less time running and more time lifting weights and discovering interval training. I finally added running back into the mix in the last few weeks, but not in time to run 100 miles.

27. Get my twitter lists under control. Blogged here.

28. Be happy in a bikini. I’m so glad this happened! I even bought myself a new bikini to celebrate since I had been wearing the same one for seven years. And, with the way I’ve been working out, I’ll be even happier in my bikini by the time summer gets here.

29. Eat a vegan corn dog. Blogged here.

30. Dance. Most of you probably think this is weird, but I didn’t dance at all. Not once. I don’t dance. Ever. I don’t get dancing. Music does not make my limbs flail about. Shaun and I want to take tango lessons, but that’s different. That’s art. Grinding and gyrating at a club? No thanks.

That's 18 out of 30. Better than last year!

I've been too sick and fevery to look at the computer for the last few days, but I'm getting better and my new list will be up soon. I'm doing things a bit differently on this next one and I'm excited to share it with you!

Happy New Year!

Jellyfish Cookie

Just another cookie I made for the Creative Cutters contest. A shimmery jellyfish made from a baseball glove cookie cutter.

Creative Cutters

Yeah, yeah. I know you haven't seen me here in a while. Sorry about that. Will you forgive me if I give you a cookie? I thought so!

Samantha at Flour-De-Lis and a few of her talented cookie-making friends are having a Creative Cutters contest. The objective is to use a baseball glove cookie cutter to create a cookie that isn't a baseball glove. Sounds fun, right?

 

I didn't have the cookie cutter, so I printed a picture of it, cut it out, and traced it onto a piece of paper a few times. Then I started sketching. This is what I came up with. I was inspired by traditional American Indian princess tattoos. I had no idea if it would actually work as a cookie, but I had nothing to lose.

Once the (hand-cut!) cookies were baked, I traced the basic outlines of my sketch onto tracing paper and transferred it to my cookie using a needle to gently carve around the edge of my template. The inside lines were then poked through the template onto the cookie.

Time to outline! This was done with my usual vegan royal icing and a number 2 tip.

I was excited to try to make the feathered headdress look feathery, but I didn't take the time to thin my white icing. Big mistake. At least I learned that wet-on-wet doesn't work when the icing dries really fast. Bummer.

I filled the other sections with my chosen colors, and ended up denting the blue and the skin color because I wasn't being careful. Luckily both dents were in areas that were going to be covered once the details were added. I let this dry for almost a full 24 hours.

The next evening, I was ready to add the details. I traced her face onto the paper template from the day before, poking needle holes in the lines as a guide, and transferring the pokes to the cookie. Then I made the black icing. I spent a good 30 minutes getting it to a good piping consistency. I wanted her face to look amazing! I practiced piping on a piece of tracing paper placed over my drawing. Once I was happy with the way it looked, I moved on to the cookie. This was done with a number 1 tip.

More linework, freehanded based on my drawing.

Finally, I filled the braid and headpiece, and piped her lips.

My original drawing included red shading across her nose and cheeks because I saw that in a lot of the tattoos I used as reference. I was too lazy to go to the store to get red luster dust, but I'm still pretty happy with the way she looks.

What do you think? Would you do anything differently? I'm still new to the cookie world, so any advice is appreciated. Hopefully I'll win the Creative Cutters contest and have more cookie cutters and goodies to practice with. I can't wait to see the other entries!

Makin' More Progress

I've accomplished a few more things from my "30 Before 31" list.

9. Find jackfruit and make something out of it. 

This wasn't really photo-worthy. I found jackfruit at Pacific Ocean and turned it into "pulled pork" for tacos. It looked really meaty. The taste was pretty boring. That's what I get for following a random internet recipe instead of just winging it. I should know better. I might try again one day, but I wasn't really impressed with the texture or anything, so it's not high on my list of priorities.

11. Bake (vegan) French macarons.

I had plenty of free time while I was in Utah, so I thought I'd give these a try. I used the recipe from Hanna Kaminsky's Vegan Desserts. The cookies almost worked, but they spread too much. They tasted like egg replacer. I didn't bother making the filling because the cookies were crappy, and I really have no desire to try these again.

18. Hang out on the beach.

Shaun and I ran off to San Diego back in February. We needed a trip to the beach. $80 round trip tickets to San Diego? $60 beachfront hotel room? Um, yes.

I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy practicing my beach bum skills. I'm not sorry about it.

22. Fix my broken chandelier.

I dug it out of the box to fix it. Turns out it wasn't really fixable. Bummer. Off to the thrift store it went.

29. Eat a vegan corn dog.

I was SO excited for this one. I ended up at Sputnik one night and saw that they had tofu corndogs. I giddily ordered one. I dipped it in mustard, stuck it in my mouth...

...and was really disappointed. It was flavorless tofu dipped in flavorless batter. At least I can cross it off my list. And I have an awesome new twitter avatar, thanks to Becky.

I have some pretty cool stuff coming up. Most likely opening the Monk and Mao Etsy shop again. Doing some gypsying. Hanging out with cats. You know. I'll try to blog about it. Not that anyone actually reads this. Buttholes.

Mmm. Tea.

2. Go to the teahouse in Boulder again.

We took a little trip up to Boulder on New Year's Day. We planned on hanging out at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse just for some tea-drinking, but I was really excited to see that the menu offered vegan options so we ordered food, too. I had the Persian Chickpea Kufteh, which was chickpea balls with herbs & spices, a really delicious Persian tomato sauce, sautéed spinach and a pomegranate reduction. It was good, but too much of the same thing. SO MANY BREAD BALL THINGIES. I think if I ever ordered it again, I'd ask for more spinach and fewer balls. 

Ha. Fewer balls.

Gettin' Shit Done

I've knocked a couple more things off of my list in the last week or so. I'm really, really, really excited about number 17.

17. Fix the fan on my laptop... or just buy a new laptop.

After a little bit of research, I was able to take my laptop apart, fix the rattling fan, and put the laptop back together. The best part? I used duct tape to fix the fan. Yeah, really.

27. Get my twitter lists under control.

This was actually fun once I got started. I have lists for Denver people, vegan friends, and a couple other private lists. The private ones seem to be the lists I pay the most attention to, and I think my interactions with people have improved since I started using lists. That was the point. Success!

I've been working really hard on making "28. Be happy in a bikini." happen. I haven't been running as much as I'd like to. It's cold and snowy outside, and my treadmill went to treadmill heaven. BUT! I went back to practicing yoga! Classes leave me too sore to start thinking about taking daily classes... yet. I'm also participating in the BodyRock.tv 30 Day Challenge. It's kicking my butt and I love it. Most importantly, I'm doing it all with the help of Claudia Lailhacar. Her emails have already made a big difference in the way I train and the way I fuel my workouts. I'm eating really well and working hard. I can't wait to see where I'm at in a month, and I'm pretty sure I'll look AMAZING by summer!

This year has been productive already. What have you recently crossed off of your To Do list?