Birthday Recap!

 

Happy Friday! I almost forgot to post my birthday recap! August is almost here. Wow! where did this month go? This has been an amazing month and I did some fun things for my birthday. I am so grateful that so many people blessed me in amazing ways. And now, lets look at my birthday highlights!

The photo above is from my rooftop celebration!

Although my official birthday was on July 1st, on June 26th, my family surprised me with a birthday celebration at my mothers house. I did not see this one coming! I don't know how they were able to keep this a secret. The whole weekend we visited with my mother, I had no clue something was brewing:-) My son  was so excited about the birthday cake!

We had a great celebration.  I was so happy to see my family, enjoy some good food and got to enjoy being showered with love and spoiled with some great presents! When I got to the part when I opened my birthday cards,  me and my son opened them together and each time my son would see a gift card he would say: "Mommy, we get to share these, right?" And of course my response was: "Yes sweetheart!!! My son is so adorable:-)

By now, many of you know how much I love buttercream frosting and since I always love the slice of cake with the rose on it....here is a photo :-)

Every woman loves to be pampered and thanks to a dear friend, I got to enjoy a reflexology treatment at the spa!

I love afternoon tea! Another one of my birthday celebrations was a friend taking me out for afternoon tea at the Beverly Peninsula Hotel

My son thought that we should go out for his favorite food to celebrate my birthday...LOL, so of course we went out for pizza! We had such a good time:-)

And of course, me and my little one went out for ice cream too! I had the sinfully reach birthday cake remix!

So there you have it, some of the highlights from my birthday. There were some other celebrations, but I won't bore you with those:-) What I love about birthdays, is that it is a day for you to be celebrated by those that love you.  My birthday was amazing and what made it amazing was the time I got to spend celebrating with family, friends, former colleagues and even warm wishes from those near and far. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about my month long celebration! When your birthday comes around, and not only that day, but every day, I wish for you, more happiness than your hand and your heart can hold...

Happy Friday!

Orange Glow

 

Hi Sweeties! I hope you are keeping cool in the summer  heat. The weather is scorching! Orange and black is typical Halloween colors, but you know what? I still like black and orange together. So I thought this flirty little skirt and orange halter were perfect for a hot day. Going through a lot these days, but sometimes you have to smile in spite of. And laughter is good for the soul. I am so glad that I have wonderful people in my life that keep me smiling and laughing. How was your weekend?

 

Flowers make me happy!

Deuces! Peace! This is all I have to say to those who bring negativity. So just throw those deuces up and keep it moving:-)

 

 Don't ever take life for granted. Stop, smell the flowers. Admire God's creations

 I want to share the lyrics to a song I love by Leann Womack

"God Forbid love ever leaves you empty handed"

I hope you still feel small when you stand by the ocean

Whenever one door closes, I hope another one opens

Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the chance to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

Have a wonderful day beautiful ones. I HOPE YOU DANCE!

Indian Bohemian

 

Happy Friday! Today my look is a mix of Indian and Bohemian. I love Indian Jewelry and accessories and the casually cute Bohemian look and I combined elements of both looks and brought the two together. I dug deep in the back of my closet and found this beautiful Indian Handbag I got in Little India years ago and I thought it went perfectly with my Indian Bracelets. Do you ever have items in the closet you forget about?

 

Vibrant Color!

 

Beauty exists everywhere. Can you believe I got this gorgeous ring at Shell gas station for 99 cents? 

 

Have an amazing Day!

Rise

 

This dough has been worked over real good. 

I have slapped it

 

Punched it down and beat it until it was flat

And then I finished it off with a prison pounding

And then I put it in a dark corner and this dough 

said to me...."F***" you. 

Now watch me rise

Watch me Rise

Life is a lot like that too.There are times I have been beat down and flattened, but something magical happened. Something spirtiual that made me transform under the pressure. 

I rose and you will rise too.

Even after all that pounding and flattening, heat made me rise even more.

Your enemies will think you are done and then you will rise and become so fragrant. They won't even know what hit them. 

You won't even look the same.

I said you won't look the same

Who ever thought that baking bread would have such a powerful metaphor for life. I have been baking bread since I was a little girl and now I bake bread as a mom with my son by my side.  Baking bread is a labor of love.  When you feel flattened by life, think about this metaphor. I bet you will never look at a loaf of bread the same way.

I hope I have inspired you. And now I want to encourage you to try my bread recipe. Ready? Here we go! 

Rosemary  Bread

Ingredients

2 ¼ teaspoon yeast

1 ¼ cup warm water

3 ¼ cups flour

¼ treapoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

Melted butter mixed with olive oil  (Approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter

Stir yeast in warm water and let stand for 5 minutes.

In large bowl, beat 1 cup of flour with yeast mixture, adding salt, to make a smooth batter. Beat in 2 1/4 cups of remaining flour and herbs. Dough will be stiff.

Turn onto a floured board, and knead for 10 minutes. Slam the dough down onto the counter at least 6 times!

Form dough into a smooth ball, and place in a greased bowl with a lid or plastic wrap. Cover and allow it to double in size (90 minutes). Punch dough down and form ball again. Cover. Let it double again (60 minutes). Punch down dough. Roll into a flat big ball.

Place on a greased baking sheet or use parchment paper. Cut into the top 4 shallow cuts, forming a big X.

Cover with a cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Brush with melted butter, and olive oil, sprinkle with dried rosemary

Bake at 375F for 30 minutes.

*Using parchment paper allows the bread to just slide off the paper and pan right onto your cutting board. Also, put covered bowl into oven with light on, and it will rise better.

Baking bread is so much fun! My son loves playing with the dough and then enjoying the warm bread fresh from the oven. I hope you have as much fun baking this as we did:-)


And remember, like bread, YOU WILL RISE.

 

Peacock

 

Hello Beautiful Ones! I hope you had an amazing weekend! First, I want to thank those of you who responded to my post "Member of the Club."  It was a very difficult post for me to write, but was very cathartic for me. I was touched by the outpouring of love and support from all of you through your comments and your private emails to me. Thank You!

This weekend was so much fun! I went to a food festival. attended a special service to see a close friend become an ordained minister, and squeezed in another birthday celebration at Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel for afternoon tea. I am blessed to have an amazing circle of friends and family who have made this birthday extra special. I will post a recap of all the fun things I did for my birthday at the end of this month. I have a few photos towards the end of this post from the "Eat Real" food festival in Culver City. I will spare you the ghastly photos of me shoving food in my mouth...LOL

Enjoy the photos and be sure to swing by on Wednesday. I have a special post in store for you and...pssst, I think you're gonna like it:-)

Maxi dress: F-21, Purse, Los Angeles Fashion District, Flip Flops: Stein Mart, Bracelets, New York Street Vendor, Earrings: Claires

Yes, I do wear flats!!!!!

I know I look ugly eating this, but this was the best ice cream sandwich ever! Key lime ice cream and coconut cookies...YES PLEASE!

Lavender Jelly....Absolutely Amazing!

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!! Yes, somebody went there...LOL

Watching You