her real world

Feeling blue-ish green

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. The hardest part has been staying positive. As for the most part I know it’s going to be alright, but sometimes it’s hard to believe yourself when everything seems to be going completely as not planned. So not only have I been a bit depressed (blue), I’ve been feeling under the weather (green around the gills).

Financially things were stressful (I have a blog post all queued up on that in general), an expected check or four didn’t arrive at all. He and I got to spend Valentine’s Day weekend eating cake (which was awesome) because that’s what I had the ingredients in the house to make. When I ran out of icing sugar I tried making a frosting that used flour as a thickener, quite good and much less sweet. I’ll blog about that too.

These few weeks of freedom from work were supposed to be stress free and time to recharge. I had it all planned out, I had enough money saved to be able to make it for a while without having to stress out about finding work. Instead I stressed out about having to find money for groceries. Plus I was PMSing. And PMS for me brings hormones galore and headaches and insomnia and….

Bless Him.

I’m almost done a bit of work on a website (for lovely ladies), but sitting at the computer sometimes amplifies my headache. I’m supposed to be done a scarf for my Dad and socks for my Mom (Christmas presents no less!), but I’ve not had the ability to concentrate. And then I start feeling guilty about all of the things I’m not doing and then…gosh.

So why am I telling the wild world of the Internet this? Because we all have down days. I want to be as open and honest here on my blog about mental health issues and it wouldn’t be fair to any of us if I always painted a rosy picture. Will I go into detail about the panic attacks? Probably not, but if you want to know about them you can ask and I’ll find a way to talk to you. Because everything isn’t always bright and sunny and full of sweetness and light.

Sometimes things things are blue-ish green.

I’m a little obsessed with picnics right now

I’m a little obsessed with picnics right now.

This photo doesn’t really inspire the kind of picnic I’m thinking of right now, but it’s a picnic table and I work with what photos I have. But this is the picnic table where my family and I have shared countless meals. Everything tastes better outside!

I’m going to confess: I’m a picnicaholic. There is something about eating alfresco that makes me quite gleeful. One of my all time favourite shows on the Food Network is Oliver’s Twist, and my favourite episode is where Jamie prepares a picnic in a tiffin tin. I have yet to find a tiffin tin that I like (when I went to Crate & Barrel there was a yellow one that I wasn’t very fond of), but I may have to turn up the heat on my search. Because picnic recipes are out in full force.

Because I’m not able to make a picnic *right this very moment*, I thought I’d share some of the lovely and inspiring recipes that I’ve found recently.

To me, a picnic has to be portable and not messy. Sandwiches, salads and cookies are pretty standard fare for me, unless I have access to a grill. But today I’m thinking about a secluded picnic on a rock near a lake, so nothing too messy or fancy. I also adore fresh herbs and the fact that I finally have all my little seeds in the ground makes me quiet joyous.

So here is a list of things I’d take with me on a picnic tomorrow, hopefully you find some inspiration to have a picnic of your own!

Drinks: A bottle of sparkling water with mint or lemon and lime or perhaps a bottle of nice wine. Or both!

Sandwiches: ahi tuna wraps with avocado, dijon-cilantro tuna salad sandwiches, any sandwich with green chili mayonnaise, bacon egg salad sandwiches with fresh basil

Salad: sour cream cucumber salad with mustard seeds, French potato salad, potato salad with radishes, cucumber and dill,

Dessert: coconut macaroons, lime meltaway cookies, white chocolate strawberry oatmeal cookies 

So who wants to come on a picnic?!