Yankee Peddler + Weekend update

I'm sorry I have been so quiet on the blog lately, not getting home until about 6pm and in between finding time for dinner and a workout before it is time for bed is not always easy.

One of the reasons for my recent absence is that I have fallen in love with Pilates. A friend of mine has a studio in northern Ohio and is an absolute wonderful teacher. I have been trying to get up there at least two times a week. Class starts at 7. I get off work at 5:30. I race home, grab my things and make the drive up there. I usually have a snack on hand before and after my workouts and make sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. On Pilates days I don't even have time for a real meal for dinner. But it is totally worth it. The results that I am already seeing and feeling are wonderful. Anyways this does not leave me much time to blog.

Now this weekend I went to a Renaissance Faire known as the Yankee Peddler. I have been to the Yankee Peddler a couple of times before in the past but T had never been before. I was very excited for her to experience this event. When we arrived the sun was peaking through the clouds and the air was fairly warm. We decided to do a walk around of the entire venue before buying anything. I mean what if we had found something better we wanted to buy later on? There was folk music playing, people in dress up, and the smell of medieval food in the air. After walking around, crossing bridges with Beware of Troll under bridge signs, and getting lost a couple of times we had walked the entirety of the faire.

By this point we were both getting hungry. But what to eat? There were too many delicious options to chose from. I chose a grilled ear of corn and a southern peach tea. I had had a big meal the night before that was rich in cheese and butter so I decided to stray from anything cheesy. I have also been trying to include less meat in my meals. Eventually I'd like to go vegetarian but I am not at the point yet where I can call myself a vegetarian. It would not feel right. T got Stromboli and a water.

After eating it was time to get our shopping on. This is when a light rain decided to grace us with it's presence, which put a damper on the rest of our time there. We didn't spend too much longer at the festival.

I apologize now for not taking more pictures but I had left my camera at home. I ended up having to use my phone but I am loving snapchat right now so most of my stuff ended up on there instead of me taking actual photographs. However I did snap a few interesting pictures.

This is a beautiful picture that I wanted to take home with me because I have a thing for moons. It was a little out of my price range so I opted for a small moon magnet that glows in the dark. Those are pennies by the way. What a clever use of the coin, since most of us probably don't ever use pennies and there are always so many laying around.

Yes these goats were fighting. This was a small petting zoo set up inside the faire. Among these fighting goats were a couple of donkeys, sheep, and a llama.

This guy was doing some blacksmithing which I found to be very cool partly because he was younger and partly because their merchandise was unique. I ended up standing and watching him for about 5 minutes. He probably thought I was crazy. But T was taking pictures of him too. *wink*

Through our shopping I ended up with a flower crown, that moon magnet, a pair of earrings, and a pendant made from sea glass wrapped in silver wire.

I had a wonderful weekend. Every day of it was great! Friday I met T at her place and we drove up to our friend's studio for a girls Pilates + Wine night. We spent about 3 hours at the studio working on different ailments plus gabbing a whole lot more. Saturday I did house work and spent my night in Cleveland having a delicious meal at Chinato. The next couple of pictures are from that night. After dinner we took a walk and found ourselves at one of the many bars located on East 4th street. After leaving there we got drinks at the casino and walked around. No gambling was done however I took in all of the sights and sounds. Music was blasting from the speakers all around us while people shouted, dice rolled, and machines clinked. The poker room upstairs was so quiet I could hear myself and the people around me breathing.

Yes absolutely!! I love tacos and I will actually be making them for dinner tomorrow. I have had the tacos from this place before and they are killer. Barrio is the name of the place, if you were curious.

Hello! Cleveland is slowly but surly stealing my heart away. I have a great time every time I am there, the company I find myself with there could also be a factor into that equation *wink*


xo

*Shine like Glitter*
I am going to try my hardest to post more.
No promises.
I just ordered 3 yoga books.
I hope to do more posts on that.
Once I receive them I will share them with you.
I can't wait to further my yoga practice.
Along with my new found love for Pilates.
Thanks for your continued support.
Love you all.
Namaste.

Purple Potion

No it is not some crazy hippie thing.
It's a juice I whipped up in my Ninja.
Well maybe it is some crazy hippie thing.
But just go with it.

Purple Potion 

Is made with:
roasted beets
frozen blueberries
and
carrot juice.

Now ladies I am addressing this post to you.
*This may get a little graphic so turn back now if you get queasy.

My yoga instructor told me beets are good for you. They are especially good for you when you are on your period. They contain a lot of iron, which your body needs to be healthy. During your period you are losing a lot of iron through blood loss.  Beets will help replace some of the iron loss you are experiencing.

This recipe calls for roasted beets but I used pickled beets. Let me just tell you right now that may not be the best decision. Ever since my yoga instructor told me about beets and their iron I have been trying to eat more beets. This is when I found that I love pickled beets. I went to World Market once and got ginger honey pickled beets. OMG. I normally put them on salads but have started to make pickled beet salads, one with fennel and one with spinach. But for this recipe I would recommend using roasted beets. My drink turned out pretty bitter and pretty tart. I only ended up drinking half of the drink and I am going to drink the other half tomorrow morning.

So ladies next time you are on your period grab some beets!

xo

*Shine like Glitter*
If you've never eaten a beet before.
Let me warn you now.
Before you go out and buy a whole bunch because you are currently on your period and want to try out this recipe.
Which reminds me if you want those other two recipes I mentioned let me know and I'll post them.
Beets taste like dirt.
This is no joke.
This isn't an exaggeration.
Beets taste like dirt.
Now don't let that get you down or defer you from trying them.
Like I said, I love them.

Saturday

Saturday.
What can be said about Saturdays?
They are for relaxing after a long work week.
They are for getting house work done.
They are for new adventures.
All of these things are true for what should be done on Saturdays.

I woke up Saturday with the thought of being productive. I had quite a few things on my To - Do list. I proceeded to get up and get ready. I put the final touches on my grocery list, did some dishes and thought of lunch. Today would be the perfect day to try out some recipes. I recently just finished reading Julie and Julia. You all know how I love Julia Child, so with the thought of lunch and Julia in my mind I grabbed my Mastering the Art of French Cooking of the shelf. I opened to the page for Hollindaise Sauce and for poached eggs. It was decided!

First stop was to Pat Catan's for art and craft supplies. I needed to get more colored pencils for my new coloring book. And a few other things for craft projects I've got laying around. Now the weather this Saturday was cold and gloomy it felt like a perfect fall day. I love this kid of weather and I had missed it terribly. My productivity level was slowly dropping. This was the perfect weather for a snuggle in bed with a good movie list in your jammies with junk food. With this being said my next stop was the grocery store. Not only was the weather gloomy I started to feel terrible. By this time the thought of being productive was gone. I was on my way to the store when peach pie came to mind, so of course I decided I was going to make a peach pie.

By the time I got home I was not feeling any better. I was actually probably feeling worse. I was still going to cook, no matter how I was feeling. I still needed to eat and was starting to get hungry. I read through each recipe and got all my ingredients together.

I started with the Hollindaise Sauce.

Then I poached my egg. It came out almost perfect the first time. At the same time I cooked up some kale in butter and lemon. I cut up some avocado to put on top of the kale, topped it with salt, my poached egg and hollindaise.

I ate my brunch. It was delicious.
I don't eat out much anymore.
Who could blame me?
With food like this.

I had been prepping my ingredients for my peach pie in between cooking hollindaise, kale, and poached eggs. But first I needed a break.

After my break I came back prepped my peaches some more and let them sit for an hour.
In that hour I watched Hocus Pocus.
I mixed all of the ingredients in a sauce pan until it was a gooey, bubbly mixture.
Poured all of that into my pie dough.
Put the top crust on.
Topped that with cut out pieces of extra dough.
And it was ready for the oven.

Baked that sucker for 50 minutes and it came out golden and flakey.

I let it cool for about 10 minutes and then couldn't wait any longer. I dug in. I topped the pie with some banana strawberry "ice cream" that I whipped up earlier.
That was a damn good delicious pie.

xo

*Shine like Glitter*
I pretty much laid in bed all day.
With The Twilight Zone playing.
I made some hot cider, which helped my sore, dry throat.
I ate more pie than I should have.
It was a wonderful day.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Stark County Fair

The Stark County Fair.
I remember going there as a child.
The fair would come around. I would get excited and look forward to the day.
I can say to this day I had this same feeling of excitement. I am a few years older now but I get the same kid like feeling about the fair. When I found out the fair was set for the first week of September this year, I knew I wanted to go.
Something you should know or maybe not... but something I'm going to tell you anyways. I check my mailbox every morning when I clock in and every evening when I clock out.
One evening I was checking my mailbox before I left and found two orange tickets inside.
What were the tickets for you ask?
Well the fair of course!
My work gave all of their employees two complimentary tickets to the fair.
I was ecstatic!
I said thank you for the tickets and made it a point to say that I would definitely be going.
I was then told what to expect now from the fair. I guess it had changed since the last time I was there.
I found out the fair has slowly gone down hill over the past couple of years. What a disappointment.
Who cares, now that I had free tickets I was going to go.

Sunday evening T ventured over to my side of town. When she got here I gave her a quick tour of the house and then headed out. The sun was still up but it wasn't as hot out anymore. Which I was quickly thankful for. After parking the car we found the horses, said our hellos. They were all so beautiful!

It was on the fair... As we were walking in I saw pot belly pig racing. We quickly found seats. The show was to start at 6.

Ham Bone Express Hog Racing! What a name?!

After a short introduction the races began. There were four different races with four different groups of pigs. Each group of pigs getting cuter as we advanced. I mean these pigs were small and fuzzy with the cutest noses and little curly tails. Not only were these pigs cute they are smart. After being let out of the truck they ran down the ramp and right into the racing pen. 

The announcer got the crowed excited! We were all ready to see these pigs race around the track. I know I was full of excitement. The count down began and the pigs were off.
They ran around the little track, running past one another to reach the prize first.
What was the prize?
An Oreo cookie.

After the race we decided to see the animals first, since they were probably going to bed soon.
But on our way their we found the agricultural building first. Where the jarred products, produce, desserts, and flowers were housed.

There were many different types of flowers all very beautiful. We saw large pumpkins and odd shaped gourds, hay and wool all on display in the hall.

Next we finally found some animals.
Cows.

Then rabbits. And so many rabbits, probably 100s.

All kinds of rabbits. Each one in a little cage. Some of the rabbits were even for sale.

These were the biggest cows I've ever seen.
Then onto the goats.

This guy was so adorable. This took many shots. I couldn't seem to get a good shot. And when I was finally going to give up, I got one.

Cuddle buddies.

Sheep!

We finished wandering through the animal barns and realized our tummies were rumbling. Here I had thought it was just the cows mooing.
I knew what I wanted.
Stromboli.
I had it the last time I was at the fair and still remembered it. I had to find it. And I had a hunch on where to look, hopefully I was right!

And I found it! T decided she wanted to try the stromboli as well.

Veggie Stromboli! Yum, just as I remembered it.

T and I found a baby horse and his mommy both Clydesdale.

We were walking along and realized we hadn't gone into the arts and crafts building yet. We had seen the 4-H projects but not the crafts.
If you've followed my blog at all for awhile or know me personally you know that I love crafts! I had to see the crafts. One of the first things we saw was this piano bar and a giant Jenga. There were antiques, quilts, crafts, drawings, etc.

I recently purchased an adult coloring book with peacock designs. I absolutely love it. I spend most nights coloring in it with of course Revenge on. When I've had enough because I'm tired or back really begins to hurt I get into bed and watch The Twilight Zone. When I am finished with one of the coloring pages I'll put it on the blog.

xo

*Shine like Glitter*
First I want to apologize for the picture quality. I didn't want to take my good camera to the fair and had to use my phone.
Plus the lighting in these buildings wasn't the greatest.
Even though the fair wasn't as great as I remembered it to be.
I still had a good time with my best friend.
Have a great weekend everyone.

Yoga for headaches

The first thing everyone reaches for when they have a headache is medicine and we all have our favorite, mine is Excedrin Migraine. I've been working to using a more holistic way to treat my headaches, though it's not always easy since I work with children and they constantly need watched. This being said I can't be stopping to do Yoga routines. But I have no problem busting into a routine anywhere else, especially in the comfort of my own home.

Yoga has many benefits for your health and wellness. Yoga is a great way to relieve stress and tension in the body. And I bet most of us could use a little relief every day. I know I can, like I said I work with children. Try working on Yoga a little every day, it doesn't even have to be for very long and you'll soon begin to feel and see a difference in yourself and your body.  I know when I practice Yoga continuously I can definitely feel a difference.

However, the past week I've been suffering from headaches just about every day. Finally on Tuesday I decided to work on a Yoga routine for headaches that I found on Pinterest. I am an avid Pinterest user and love finding information about Yoga on it. I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to a Yoga lifestyle. You can find it here. This routine I found on LoveLifeSurf blog consists of 6 poses that aid in helping headaches. You can find the routine here.

Child's Pose

The weather has gone from hot to chilly to extremely hot over the past couple of weeks. There is also no air conditioning downstairs in the building I work in. And as I mentioned I also work with children, 5 days a week 8 hours a day. All of this combined has led to these head aches. Try as I might to drink enough water it never seems to help, but I continue to drink it throughout the day anyways. After I've popped a couple of Excedrin at work because I just can't seem to get rid of the darn thing and drinkk about 6 cups of water I come home do my nightly routine. I then retire to my bedroom where I work on these yoga poses, more than likely with Revenge playing in the background since it is my current binge show I am watching on Netflix. I tend to throw in a couple of other poses as well like rag doll, lying on my back on the floor and stretching my whole body, and butterfly pose while bending over and stretching my arms out in front of me.

A few of these poses I've already shared with you, but next time you are feeling a head ache coming on try these 6 poses in sequence instead of reaching for the meds.

xo

*Shine like Glitter*
Remember I am not a certified Yoga instructor.
Please consult a certified instructor or doctor before beginning any routine.
I have been practicing yoga for over a year and I know my own body and my limitations.
I may be able to do things you cannot and you may be able to do things I cannot.
I am passionate about Yoga and love sharing with you my journey.
Work was rough today. I wanted to scream.
I went in with a pretty bad headache, that I carried with me throughout most of the day.
I tried rubbing some headache soother by Badger on my temples, behind my ears, and under my nose. I drank so much water I was using the bathroom every 10 minutes. Still nothing was working. I finally broke down and took some Excedrin.
After work I came home and baked red velvet cupcakes, for a work shower, and drank honey mead.
And eventually worked on my headache Yoga routine.
Namaste friends.
I hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend.
What are your plans?