ezra inspired

happy spring!

Hello to my dearest readers!!  I hope you are enjoying the beginning of spring.  Just wanted to pop by and let you know that I am retiring this blog (at least for now.)

However, I would love love love it if you would pop on over to my new blog, my balcony garden, where I will be writing about my adventures in gardening throughout the spring, summer, and fall.  I am very excited about my new venture, and I hope to see you over there!  (I could use some gardening tips).

Take care!

Rachel

moments of contentment

There are moments each day, where I stop and acknowledge my inner happiness - no matter what the day has brought me, and no matter where I am heading.  I call these times - 'moments of content' (and yes, these little moments are completely possible for me, even when I am not sitting on the beach in Po'ipu, Kauai.  ah, that was quite the moment of content, though, now wasn't it...)

Even though I am always striving to accomplish - yearning to be the very best at each task that I undertake, ever now and again I allow myself to stop for just a few minutes, and feel gratitude.  

When I lug my heavy suitcase full of legal case files up the Metro escalator that isn't working, I feel (yes, anger, annoyance, rage), but also, behind all that agitation, gratitude that I CAN pull this heavy suitcase.  That I do indeed have all four limbs, and muscle strength, and that I am physically able to wear myself out lugging this monstrosity to work.  Oh, and that I have a place to call work - a place that I love to call work, in fact.

That same feeling also applies when I am dancing my booty off in my 'just dance' cardio-hip hop class at the gym.  I shake it like Brittany to Lady Gaga, because I was blessed with a working, fully functioning body to do so! (watch out Dancing with Stars, here I come.)

And, lastly, because these kinds of posts have a tendency to go on and on, I know, I feel moments of content each night, as Jesse and I lay in bed, watching a snippet of a junkie television show (can you say Millionaire Matchmaker anyone?), I am very aware of the contentment in those moments.  That after a long day, a happy day, a challenging day, a day where I have learned - here I am, in a safe and cozy place, smiling and laughing, with my kindred spirit.

Oh yes, and lastly, each and every time that I practice yoga.  Of course.  Of course.

rubber stamp prints

I finally got around to properly framing these lovely prints by the amazing Geninne Zlatkis, (rather than having them sit in the rather make-shift Ikea frame they were sadly inhabiting before.)  Geninne is such a talented artist, with a really wonderful eye for design, I am always in awe of her work.  She just completed three more rubber stamp prints, so tempting!...

podcasts to keep me company

My thirty minute commute on the Metro to and from work in the city - well, its not my prized time of the day.  The Metro makes me motion sick, and it is often super duper crowded.  Although I largely consider myself to be a rather peaceful and laid back person, the Metro can really get under my skin.

(Thank goodness that I have the wonderful privilege to work from home three days a week, oh joy!)

But then, once aboard, I hastly plug my earphones into my iphone, touch the screen and scroll to my ipod.  Pressing play, I am quickly transported a little further away from the chaos.  Listening to the lovely voices of my favorite podcasts, namely Molly Wizenberg's Spilled Milk, and This American Life, provides such a nice relief from the mad rush of work comers and goers.  The familiar voices tell lovely stories and I gain wonderful tid bits of knowledge.  They help to return the smile to my lips and uncrinkle my brow.  A nice bit of solace in an otherwise hectic and uncomfortable moment.

a blog confession

 

Here is a confession:

Most of the time, I see my blog as a great way to motivate myself to be creative - a way to get off my butt, cook something, craft something, think something, and then showcase it on my little piece of real estate carved out on the internet, otherwise known as - ezra.inspired.  

Though, I must admit that sometimes I become pretty frustrated with the process.  There are times when I wonder if I have readers, and if I do, who those readers are.  Or, I wonder how I could possibly attract more readers, like so many wonderful blogs that I know, and I tediously research articles on problogger and other places to determine new techniques to attract like-minded people, for minutes and hours at a time.  

But, then, after I have tired myself out with such research and exploration, I rub my eyes, look up from the computer, take a deep breath, and turn a different page.  Instead, I begin to wonder why I care so much about attracting readers, anyway, because after all that is just my own ego.  I blog - for myself - first and foremost, right?  I blog because I feel the inner desire to do so, because clicking that "publish" button, after crafting together the post that appealed to me in that moment in time, a post that took a little bit of what goes on in my own mind and shared it with the world, just feels so good. 

But, then, after that initial elation has passed, I wonder - will anyone read this?  Will they comment?  (In other words, the cycle begins again.)

So, tell me, what inspires you to blog?  How do you attract readers?  Have you found the community of like-minded individuals that you were looking for?  Or do you blog just, and totally, for yourself?

Garden grow

All winter, I have looked out my window at the straw-like strands of "dead" herbs, a reminder of what my small and meager balcony garden had been, only last summer.

But, yesterday, while chatting on the phone with my awesome and amazing sister, I noticed a different texture to the ghosts of my oniony-salad enhancing chives past.  There, amongst the tumble of overgrown stalks, was the beginning of green life.  New chives!  I exclaimed to myself.  Unbelievable - how a plant can sense the hint of spring air.

Such events egged me to finally purchase the transplants I had been browsing at seed savers, an heirloom and organic company.  I got myself the tomato sampler, purple viking potatoes, and Vermont cranberry beans.  All to be shipped in late-April. 

Oh, but that is just the beginning, my friends!  Just the first phase of ordering for the garden of my dreams.

recipe cards

Oftentimes, when I find a recipe on the interweb, I grab a plain index card from my day planner, click my blue ink gel pen once, and hurriedly jot the recipe down in rather pathetic shorthand - my eagerness to get into the kitchen and create the dish gradually overtaking me.

Then, in the aftermath of licking our lips and patting our tummies, I seem to forget to tuck away that recipe into a safe place, for future meals.  Or, I do, but then I don't include the actual name of the recipe, and so when I pull it out of my filing cabinet many moons later, I am left to guess what exactly 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 2 eggs create ... (something undoubtedly disgusting since I just made that recipe up). But, you know what I mean, I hope.

Though, as it turns out, there are many lovely craftsman making many lovely recipe cards in the creative world, like these, and these, and these, for instance. 

Recipe cards that, when placed inside a vintage recipe box, create a rather sweet space to save and share many many recipes in the future.

orange kitty at work

While I am at work, kitty sits here, on the brown couch, propped against the green pillows, in the warmest and sunniest spot in the apartment.  Everyday, he sits here - all day.  Then, at night, he sits instead on the living room sofa.

We all have our comfortable patterns in life, this is true.  Only his daily pattern is really -quite- comfortable, wouldn't you say?

happy orange cupcake to me!

A vanilla-orange cupcake.  This was the first time I split open and scraped a vanilla bean, and boy was that fragrantly-yum!  And, since its only a few weeks until my one year blog anniversary, I will blow out the imaginary candle and say, "to another year!"

flashes of orange and pink

"The hyacinth is blooming!"  I exclaimed upon waking this morning.  So quickly, too, as we just planted this one on Friday.  I urged Jesse to stick his nose in the pink blossoms and breathe.  Such a sweet scent.

I think I must be attracted to bright colors amidst the dreariness of the last week of February.  As I worked today, I let the orange slices simmer in a sugar syrup.  To make candied orange slices is surprisingly simple!  And the left over syrup will be very delicious mixed with a little homemade sparkling water tonight.

These will top cupcakes soon enough, thanks to Martha's Cupcakes.