Day six through eight.

 Day six: Something that makes you happy.

A cup of tea and some great conversation will make my heart soar each time.

Day Seven: Inside your closet.

Day eight: Something you wore.

Hello, favorite scarf :).

Until next time, be well.

Day five.

Day five - 10am

My morning, starring Art History and tea. Soundtrack courtesy of the Beegees.

Day two through four.

Minimalism so far has been a success, not that I thought it would be hard for the first couple of days. Luckily I have had midterms to distract me... You attempt to memorize the artist, era, and location of 100+ images and then tell me you aren't distracted! So all in all, no faulters as of yet!

In other news, here are my instagram pictures the last couple of days!

Day two: Hands

He had to finish his match first!

Day three: A stranger.

Day four: Breakfast

Onions, peppers, spinach, avocado, cheese and egg... yumm.

Until next time, be well.

Day one.

So far so good!

I figured in light of the 6 weeks minimalist challenge I am doing I would also join the herd of sheep in Instagram and do a photo challenge as well. I put a little twist on it though, instead of only doing February I will be doing a photo a day for all 6 weeks. I combined a couple different lists of photo-a-day pictures and this is what I came up with:
1. You
2. Hands
3. A stranger
4. Breakfast
5. 10 am
6. Something that makes you happy
7. Inside your closet
8. Something you wear
9. Your sky
10. Where you sleep
11. Water
12. Something you adore
13. Someone you love
14. Blue
15. Heart
16. Phone
17. Your shoes
18. Something you're listening to
19. Nature
20. Something you're reading
21. Something you made
22. Reflection
23. Light
24. In your bag
25. Something old
26. Guilty pleasure
27. Color
28. Sweet
29. Lunch
30. Happiness
31. Daily routine
32. Time
33. Handwriting
34. Something you hate to do
35. Front door
36. Favorite place
37. Dinner
38. Button
39. Money
40. Dinner
41. Something new
42. You, again

Since this is day one here is photo one:

Disclaimer: I took this one about a week ago.

Tomorrow is another day.

Be well.

Minimalist adventure.

Mindlessly putting away my laundry/tidying up my room in preperation for the week ahead of me it hit me - I have way to many "things".

Now, I am aware that getting rid of all of these things and attempting to live the strict minimalist lifestyle will be next to impossible. I do believe I should begin to seirously take stock of all the posessions that I have in my life.

Do I really need all of these "things"?

To begin I suppose I should admit a couple of things:
1. I am a self-confessed materialistic person.
2. I shop, a lot. When I say a lot I mean every second day (easily).
3. I like to have variety in everything (clothing, books, music, even blank notebooks!)

At this point my epihany was only taking into consideration all of the material things that I own so I began to think about all of the other things that I mindlessly spend my money on... Coffee, snacks at school (I have perfectly good food at home), junk food, magazines (I read them once - if that), and countless other things. Let's face it, this is incredibly unnecessary. So my challenge for the next 6 weeks is to attempt to live as close to a minimalist lifestyle as I possibly can. Clearly there will be exceptions and rules which I will lay out, and in order to stay accountable I will continue to update and those close to me in life will - hopefully - keep me in check.

Rules:
1. For the following 6 weeks I will not:
     - purchase any new or used clothing
     - purchase any new or used books
     - purchase CD's or DVD's
     - purchase food or drinks from the cafeteria at school.
2. Once a week am I able to eat at a restaurant and I must be accompanied by someone. If possible I need to make use to the coupon book that I purchased.
3. Tea is the only acceptable purchase when at Starbucks. Remedy is allowed a max of 3 times in the following 6 weeks.
4. Online shopping in unaccetable, regardless of when the shipment will be recieved.
5. I must take the time to go through all of my possessions and purge anything unused or unwanted.
6. Gifts for others are an acceptable purchase.
7. Everytime I cheat or faulter I must add another week onto the end of my challenge.
8. Instead of shopping I will spend my time drawing/painting/reading/crafting or anything else productive.
9. I will make a valiant effort to search out free activities to do in Edmonton.
10. Groceries are always allowed to be purchased, except for junk food. I will abstain for the 6 weeks.

I am almsot positive there are things that I am forgetting which I will gladly add during one of my many updates.

I vow from this moment on (for the next 6 weeks), I will live on the bare minimum. If for any other reason but to prove it to myself.

Be well.

12 at 12(ish).

I found this idea on a friends blog (thanks again Arianne). Since I haven't had time to come up with a legitimate blog for the last little while I thought that I would put together this, just to stay updated.

I understand the idea here is to compile a list of the events occuring that aren't quite enough to fill a blog on their own.

1. I finally converted to an iPhone. Yes I realize this may make me a hypocrite but I will publically recall everything heinous I ever said about iPhone's and touch screen phones in general. Getting an iPhone was one of the best life decisions that I have ever made. It is much more simple to use than anything else I have ever owned, not to mention it's is much more pleasing to the eye.

2. We had a mini fire happen in our house this past week. Turns out the electrical in the majority of the complex that I live in is shoddy. The 1970's did not have a strict code in which to build houses and so the electrical fails on a regular basis (a large portion of the time ending in a fire.) We had no power for a couple of days while we had an electrician go through our home coating all of our electrical outlets and lights with a material that should prevent anymore fires from breaking out *fingers crossed*. I'm a little confused as to why they don't renovate properly and bring the bulding up to code.

3. I had the opportunity a couple weekends ago to photography a large U of A business conference that my brother hosted. Officially it is called JDCWest, when I told people this I recieved countless blank looks and so I have resorted to just taking the time to explain what was happening in full. Basically, business students from across western Canada come to Edmonton and compete in a variety of activities. Some were debates and mock business presentations (at least I believe they were mock) as well as sports activities, and I joined them for the weekend to witness everything happening. Interesting to say the least, and it exceeded every expectation that I had for the weekend. Surprisingly I learned a great deal (I also realized how little I know about business practices) and I met some pretty interesting people. Here is one of my favorite shots from the weekend!

(Yes I may be biased when it comes to the school.)

Don't mind the black bar impeding in on the photgraph, I learnt pretty quickly you take the shot when you can get it, things move pretty fast that whole weekend.

4. I have started frequenting the gym (again), I've realized I am a much more pleasant person when I have endorphins running through my body. Healthy = happy!

5. My new craft idea is homemade bracelets, hopefully this weekend I have a chance to take a stab at them and see if I can work my hand at some pretty jewllery.

6. Spaghetti squash was cooked in our house for the first time and we all realized how much we love it. I have a feeling it will become a staple in our diets.

7. I discovered Instagram (just as everyone else with a iPhone apparently) and I have become slightly obsessed. I like to photograph everything, why not share it instantly?

Ok so I couldn't think of 12, and so for now I have stopped at seven. Maybe there is something others can add?

I have a large pile of reading that is not doing itself and so I should tackle some of that.

Stay lovely.

Homemade Baklava.

Although I didn't really see myself as someone who believed in the idea of resolutions I have infact seemed to have made a large amount of them this year. And yes I do intend on keeing them all.

So, two more resolutions I made were to be more creative with my cooking (mainly trying new recipes, or recipes at all for that matter.) Since I have no classes on Tuesday I figured it would be an excellent adventure day. I am determined to try something new each and every Tuesday that I am able!

Last Tuesday I attempted Baklava (legit one of my most favored things in all the world).

My initial conception that the task would be hard was proved wrong pretty quickly. The whole idea of Baklava is simple. It's phyllo pastry, nuts, cinnamon, butter, honey and sugar water (with a little bit of vanilla.)

Step one: Melt a block of butter (one block of butter was enough for 2 9x13 pans)

Step two: Butter the pans, and by butter I mean BUTTER. Slather it on, and when you think it might be enough add little more.

Step three: Add 2 sheets of pastry then butter again. Continue this step until you have about 8 sheets down.

Step four: Then you continue the previous step, but add in your nut mixture. Continue until you run out of nuts.

Step five: Top layer should be done the same as the bottom layer (but only about 6 sheets of pastry).

Step six: Stick pastry in the oven for about 50 mins at 350 degrees. Pull it out when it is a golden brown color.

Step seven: Do this while the pastry is cooking. Boil water, sugar and vanilla add the honey, then simmer for 20 mins until the mixture thickens.

Step eight: Pull the Baklava out of the oven and immdiately spoon the sugar water over top and let sit in fridge over night.

The end result is delicious, and I am very proud to say that I managed not to mess it up.

I also apologize for the lack of pictures throughout the blog thus far. I am still figuring out how the whole blog idea works.