Vegan MoFo Day 4.5: I'm Home!

I'M HOME, YAY!

It is SO excellent to be back home. Toes in the sand. Cats on the bed. Not sleeping crumpled up on a chair, instead I'm sleeping on my own bed (yes, still crumpled up but only because of cat issues, and I have NO complaints about that!)

Today's video follows below. This recipe is basic and great for making it "your own" by changing extracts, mix-ins and oil of choice. Thanks for tuning in! Did I mention it's GREAT to be home! Thank you for your well wishes! xo

Vegan MoFo Day #4: Are you F'ing KIDDING Me?!!!

As a video blogger for MoFo 2014, I'm frustrated. I shoot videos, go to upload, and then there's problems with them. Out of 4 days of MoFo, I've had problems on half the videos, NOT a good track record. Tonight my issue is with YouTube. I've again shot video, and it will NOT upload. We've gone into chat rooms, and discovered we're not the only person having this problem tonight.

Apologies, the video is not being posted by midnight for today. Plans are for 2 videos tomorrow… I WILL get today's video posted no matter what, and I will also do tomorrow's planned post.

The best news though is that I'm home. Home sweet home. With my animals who were missed so dearly. They're sticking like glue to me, especially Princess. Not a bad thing, and helps lower any rising blood pressure which comes about as a result of not posting my video.

Thanks for your patience, and understanding. I suppose things like this are inevitable for me being so behind the times with technology. I look at some of the other bloggers, and am amazed how polished, how professional their posts are. How do people do that? How do they have time? I work a vegan B&B full time, do the artisan vegan baking part time, and volunteer gobs of time to charitable organizations. I thought video blogging would be so simple; the Universe really got one over on me this time. No worries though, tomorrow is another day, and a promise is a promise.

See you soon!

xo

Vegan MoFo 2014 Day 3: Still In Hospital... the Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Oh Vegan Month of Food, how do I love thee?! Still in hospital, but MoFo marches on! Kiss kiss hug hug, here's today's video!

Vegan MoFo in a Hospital

Talk about things not going as planned......

Vegan MoFo 2014---I'm in!

Kiss, kiss…. hug, hug. I've joined VeganMoFo 2014, and will be a video blogger for you. Official posts begin 9/1, but here's a sneak peek. I promise to do my best to make this fun, interesting, and educational without me having a breakdown about being in front of a camera.  I think I'll dig my tripod out for the sanity of us all…. thank you so much for your support! Let's get ready!

Goals

When it comes to setting goals, I excel. Goal setting is one of the things I've steadfastly done pretty much my entire life, even as a child. I've been setting many new goals lately. As a goal setter, I found that I had stopped setting concrete goals, and I think I began to let my circumstances guide me instead of taking charge more like I'm used to. But no more!

I think I'm going to revamp this blog. Although writing the blog is something typically I actually enjoy, you and I both know that when push came to shove, the time wasn't there, and this blog is not updated as often as I'd actually like any more. I was really good about posting so regularly for so long. Then last September after VeganMoFo I just lost the love…. lost the desire to have a goal of regular postings. Instead, I've begun videotaping things (does anyone else still call this videotaping?) I may exclusively  move to an all video format, or I may just embed some video images here on this blog. I've also been told by more than a few people that you guys out there want to see us, and maybe learn more about us. How is it even possible to learn more about us, if you look back at my posts, often you'll see my soul poured out right there for all to see. Regardless, this is what I've been experimenting with. I like raw footage better than slick produced material. Anyone else ever stay for the credits at the end of movies? I always do! I love the outtakes at the end, those few moments are sometimes better than the whole movie.

I've set a goal to either resurrect this actual blog, or move to a better format, within a few months. This gives me the time I need to become more comfortable on both sides of a video camera.

Today we went out on the little boat. It was I'm guessing about the 3rd time this year since we've been out on the water. There is something about being at sea that helps me prioritize so many things. I've set some new goals for my personal health, for my hair (yes, going to dye it purple for reals), for my business (if only I could clone myself since I have so many other projects I want to do for our beautiful Florida Keys community!) and for my emotional well being. One goal that I've hit and exceeded is the power of the word no… that magical word has allowed me to spend much more time on some personal things that are near and dear to me, including spending time with our animals.

Goals. They're a good thing.

I promise I won't disappear on you again! 

A New Addition

I suppose maybe I should offer up some lengthy explanation about my lack of blog entries, but that's not gonna happen. The fact of the matter is, I got busy, super busy, and I've had to choose some things over other things. I actually really do like blogging. It's cathartic to an extent, and helps me imprint certain experiences better. We've had a very busy Winter, and now Spring is here. Over the last few months, we've made some new friends, reacquainted with some old visiting friends, said goodbye to others who have moved out of the Keys (always tragic), and found ourselves absolutely at our personal limits of how much we can actually do with the meager 24 hours allotted to us daily.

One of the happier things that has happened is that we have a new addition here at Deer Run. A new 4 legged, furry heartbeat happened upon our airspace. She quickly moved into our hearts and home.

One night just a few short weeks ago, our bedroom windows where open. This has been rare this season, as we've had such a hot winter, with a lot more humidity than typical. So, we had this one night where it was glorious outside.... cooler, no humidity, and exceptionally windy. My bedroom is 2 walls of windows, I love it. All these windows were open, and over the very low volume of my all night television, I heard "mew mew mew." It was about midnight or 1 o'clock in the morning, so it took a few minutes for me to realize the plaintive meowing was coming from outside. I thought perhaps Elsa was in distress. I jammed my feeties into nearby slippers and went outside to investigate.

Oceanside outside of the Atlantis Suite, I saw a little dark figure seated on the ground. I called "Elsa! is that you?" and before I knew it a very small cat was running to me, and jumped into my arms. She was someone I had never met before, and very small. I held her and asked who was she? She had a collar and some bells on, but no identifying tags. As I ran my hands over her tiny body, she began to purr. I felt her and she was covered with lumps. At first I was horrified thinking she was covered with tumors, but the reality is that she was covered with massive fur mats. I carried this tiny, matted fur ball upstairs to my deck, and gave her food, which she devoured. Lather, rinse, repeat with 3 more bowls of food and 2 bowls of fresh water, and she eventually began to groom herself on my deck. I sat with her for hours that night. I went back to bed eventually, thinking about her as I tossed and turned. By 5am, I was up looking for her, and there she was, exactly where I left her. She rushed to the door when she saw me.

I was in deep.

Through the next day, I spent long hours with her, gently brushing her mats. She was so patient and tolerant with me. By the end of the day I had gotten every mat off her, leaving huge bare spots of her skin exposed. She kept purring.

Over the next few days, my life revolved around her, well ok, at least my "spare" moments did. I took her to our vet to have her scanned for a microchip (she had none, not surprisingly), and then had an appointment to have her tested for any infectious diseases, and a full physical exam.

She passed with flying colors.

At the appointment, I had her microchipped. Last week I registered the chip to us.

I would like to introduce you to Princess Glitter FancyPants. We tried a few names on her, including Princess Glitter Dreadlocks, but she has lost the dreads (mats are all gone, yay!) and well, FancyPants suits her, trust me.

We now have 6 official cats, or should I say 6 official cats have us. As I write this, Princess is on my lap. She has become exceptionally attached to me very quickly, and I admit reciprocity exists with myself. I adore her and she adores me right back.

Princess Glitter FancyPants.
She loves to stick her tongue out.
Adorbs!