Random Updates & My Parents Went to St. Lucia(...And All I Got Was Digital Photos)

I might be showing my age here...but does anyone remember when they were growing up and someone went on vacation and you either gave or received a T-Shirt that said 'so and so went to (insert location here) and all I got was this (insert adjective) T-Shirt!!  Well, my parent recently got back from St. Lucia and I'm so glad they had a great time eventho I was back here freezing my arse off!

They did, however, send me photos while they were away and I thought I would share some of them with you, too!  Up top, you can see a gorgeous sight, eh?  And here to the left, you can see my father.  Apparently, my parents went on a Pirate Ship Adventure and my dad was able to shoot a canon.  My mom opted to dance with some of the crew!

Not only did they send me photos they also brought home some coins from the island - as well as - Canada - since they flew out of Toronto.  I was greatly appreciated!  St. Lucia is one of the islands/countries that use the East Caribbean States currency.

Since we used to live right near the Canadian border I still had a few low-value coins from a while back but since travel to/from Canada now requires a passport and I still don't have mine it's been several years since I have been up there.

Since my parents know I'm a reggae and Bob Marley fan they sent me a photo of one of the Bob Marley inspired drinks they had while they were there.

I love the colors!

The first full day they were gone we had another snow storm.  Blah!

Other than that, yesterday and the day before were pleasant...the weather was in the 40s each day.  But today we are back to more snow and temps in the 20s.

Can you tell I was jealous of their beautiful weather and sightseeing?

In related yet additional news...DH was also out of town last week - Wednesday thru Saturday.  So it was pretty strange not having anything to do but, to be honest, all I wanted to do is be under warm blankets when I wasn't at work.

As you can see...Cricket had the same idea.

The last couple of days, DH has been REALLY sick.  He picked up some bug that he and at least 6 other people got, too, while at a convention.  I've been sleeping downstairs so I don't get it.

I think the furkids enjoyed the HOME TIME.  Paco has been burrowing under more than one blanket for weeks on end, now!

With all this cold weather, I tend to go into HERMIT MODE.  Sometimes I don't even feel like thinking about what to eat or make to eat for that matter.

One of my default foods is vegan nachos.  Sometimes I go simple with homemade vegan cheese and salsa.  Altho, not pictured here, recently I added some homemade vegan sour cream, too!  Sometimes I add veggies, other sauces, spices, etc.

About a week ago I did do a vegan grocery haul after watching The Vegan Zombie's take on it.  2 items that were not in his video that were also new-to-me items were these two soups you can see here.

As you know, I enjoy making my own soups, and you will see that I have done just that later in this post.  But, I also came across these two at my local Dollar Tree and thought I would give them a whirl.  For a buck - they come in handy at work - when I don't have time to make something else or get something downtown.

Both of these soups were clearly marked VEGAN, not once, but twice!  I tried them both and they were pretty good.  Heck, I would buy them again for a dollar!  Why not!

Here's the other one I found.  In addition to this thrifty vegan grocery shopping, I must tell you about another SCORE at the STORES, lately.  I had won a gift card a while back and wanted to see how many articles of clothing I could buy with it.

I went to our local Label Shopper and to my surprise, they were having their $3, $4, $5, and UP Sale.  I walked away with 16 shirts for a total of $57.  I bought one shirt for $6 but the rest of them were between $2 and $5 each.

This was great because a lot of what I was able to find I could layer for the extremely cold weather we have been having lately.  Which was something I was lacking in work clothes.

And finally, here is that soup I was telling you about!  It's a vegan Black Bean blended soup.  The swirl you see is homemade cashew cream or 'sour cream'.

Ingredients include 1 C Black Beans, 1 C Salsa, 1 Small Onion, 2 Cloves Garlic, 2 Cooked Carrots, 4 C Water, Pinch each of sea salt - cumin - cayenne - celery salt - cilantro.

And then I added some of the cashew cream and a squirt of Sriracha.

Flashback Photos from Erie VegFest & Looking Ahead with Changes

Erie VegFest took place back on September 24th and I'm embarrassed I didn't post these photos soon!  So sorry!  The Shimmy Shack was a food truck that drove all the way from Michigan to participate!  It was a pretty neat truck!

Once again my parents attended the FEST with me - neither of them are veg - but they enjoy checking them out and have always been supportive of me and my adventures.  My father had the Southwest Burger.

My mom munched on little things all day for the most part.  The truck had a simple yet wonderful concept of doing a basket of fries that was made up of 1/2 regular fries and 1/2 sweet potato fries.

I opted for the Indian Lunch that day!  It was HUGE!

Area and regional businesses participated, too!

Eventho they were not vegetarian eating establishments they did offer vegan options!

I wasn't able to try a lot of them because they were pretty large portions.

The first VegFest I attended was in Buffalo 3 years ago and this vendor participated from Ohio!  She made and sold her own flavored vegan cheese spreads!  I remember them well!  When I saw them at Erie VegFest I knew I had to stop over and mention it to her.  Dad ended up buying 2 of her cheese spreads!  The Blue Cheese with Spirulina was exceptionally awesome!

Oddly...one thing Erie VegFest did BETTER than WNY VegFest was that Erie incorporated a Farmers Market type vendor space.  It was a small Farmers Market Vendor space but still more than Buffalo offered.  As you can see here my dad in his TyeDye and my mom in the blue short in the front corner.

We did end up buying more produce that day than anything else.

The prices were good!  The people were nice!  I also found Erie to have more INFO available overall.  Erie did focus more on gluten-free stuff than Buffalo did, too.  However, Buffalo offered way more food options but that isn't surprising due to the size of the two markets and the population.  PLUS...this was Erie's first year and Buffalo's 3rd.  I will say that Erie had a WONDERFULLY IMPRESSIVE first year!  I hope both markets continue to grow!

A QUICK UPDATE:

I have continued to sleep different, wear different under garments, and take B-Complex, B-12, D, and Chlorella Tabs without missing a day!  I've tried to stick to 1 cup of caff tea a day instead of 6 to 8 and I'm upping my herbal tisanes.  I am seeing and feeling a difference over the last 3 days and I hope it continues to improve.  Thank you all for the encouragement!

More WINNERS and More Pics!

Hi gang!  The 7 days of giveaways has come to a close and I have a few announcements to make...

1st Announcement...the winner of the MyKind D3 Vegan Spray was Deborah!

2nd Announcement...the winner of the GRAND PRIZE Prize Pack  of 7 additional Garden of Life Products was Ashley!

CONGRATS to you BOTH!

If you didn't win or even if you are new to my blog be sure to stick around because I have more contests and giveaways coming soon!  Including one later this week!

You are going to LOVE it!

Now...on to some pics!  These were taken this past Sunday I went over to my parents house and their neighbor wanted to see Cricket and snapped some pics and sent them to me.

Due to my job/title change I don't wear jeans as much anymore so it was nice to wear them over the weekend.  I was also sporting one of my many Bob Marley T-Shirts!

Cricket was playing SHY for some reason!  I also took her to the fair grounds for about an hour and one of the guys there called her The Cricket Monster.  I think I will be calling her that when she does her 'zoomies' around the house!

I will most likely have two posts today because I want to share some of the goodies I got in the mail yesterday and today.  So be on the lookout for that!

Thank you all for participating in the giveaways last week!  It was FUN!

Weekend Roundup & Rooftop Garden Updates

A little bit of a "Weekend Round Up" as well as an update on the Rooftop Garden/Container Garden in this post!  This past weekend my mom, dad, sister, and I were with our Wildtree Products at Merritt Winery outside of Dunkirk, NY, for the 2nd time this year.  The weather started off not-so-great but it ended on a more pleasant note.  I was able to take a photograph of their vineyards before we left Sunday Night.

My sister and parents went on a little outing not too long ago and grabbed a drink or two at a Greek Restaurant and saved me this bottle.  WHY?  You might ask?  Well, because it has a Unicorn on it - of course!  If you don't already know - I've been a life long unicorn collector...I added this to my collection.  I posted this photo on InstaGram and noticed Mythos Beer is really popular overseas...I saw posts from Greece, Turkey, Italy, and other countries, too!  Pretty neat!  I made a spot for this empty bottle in my Craft Room.

Another thing I wanted to take time today - to update you all on - was some more Rooftop Garden/Container Garden updates!  On the right are two Dragons Tongue Bean plants BUT on the left is a container of Yard Long Beans that are crawling over and attaching themselves to the Dragons Tongue.  The Yard Long Beans are CRAZY HUGE!  They really can grow up to a YARD long!  Hence the name!  One of these days I will try and take a pic of me holding one so you can see just how long they really are!  They are so cool!

Here are some peppers we are having luck with now!  These are the Big Jim Peppers!  They are supposed to be mild to medium on the heat scale.  I think we will let them go a bit longer before picking because they can get to be between 7 and 10 inches long and I've read they also can turn red, too!  These are doing pretty well under our stairs in partial sun.

Questions of the Day...How was your weekend?  Do anything interesting?  How's your garden going and growing?  Any surprises there?  Have you tried Yardlong Beans or Big Jim Peppers?  What are your thoughts on those two produce picks?

Paco Update!

I have a lot to cover today at My Blissful Journey.  First off - I'm happy to report that Paco is improving!  Last week I mention he was diagnosed with IMHA which stands for Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.  BUT...in fact he's been diagnosed with ITP instead.  ITP stands for Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia.

They are similar diseases being that they both attack their own systems and that they are both immune diseases.  The difference being - in short - is that IMHA - is when the Red Blood Cells are being attacked and ITP is when the Platelets are being attacked.

When we took him in last Tuesday his Platelet count was at 9.  Thursday the count was at 3.  This is VERY bad.  Anything under 200 is bad.  We took him in for blood test again yesterday after him being on VERY limited activity for the long weekend while at home with us.  He was at the vet for 3 days prior to that.  His Platelet Count yesterday was 468.  YAY!!!!  Eventho he's 'out of the woods' he's still not up to par.  With ITP there is a long recovery time.  Right now they are shooting for 4 months on meds.  Maybe even 6 months.  OR...maybe even the rest of his life.  BUT we are VERY pleased that his counts jumped that much over the long weekend.  We could be more happy!  Thank you everyone for their positive vibes, prayers, thoughts, etc.  I believe they helped make a difference!  Thanks again!

Raw Gifts, Eye Detox, Dogs, Sleeping, and Other Updates

It's that time of year again!  The time of year when some of my favorite websites have giveaways!  The Raw Food Coach has been doing this for years.  I think the last 3 or 4 years I have signed up...and I just signed up again!  It's her 12 Days of Raw Christmas Gift Giveaway!  In years past most of those days you would get a nice sized eBook from various Raw Food Community Members and Healthy Living People among other nifty gifts!  If you want to check it out HERE is the link!  You even get 3 FREE eBooks from Karen right away just for signing up!

I mentioned a few days ago I was doing my best to fight off a potential head cold and I believe I did this with success!  I've feeling pretty good.  When I felt the mini sniffles coming on I pumped up on a few healing foods such as garlic, berries, Emergen-C, etc...

In addition to this I took out my contacts.  I fully admit I wear my contacts TOO much!  My eye doctor knows this and in the past as prescribed me with the most hydrating contacts available.  I've done well with them.  I haven't had any eye damage and he check that each time I go in.  The last 3 appointments I have had my sight has stayed the same...totally unchanged...up until 3 years ago...this has never happened...this makes me very happy!  So the other day I decided to take my contacts out for a few days and do an eye detox of sorts.  I do this every once and a while to give my eyes a rest.  I have to force myself to do this, tho, as I hate wearing my glasses.  I guess I just use my peripheral vision more than most people and I don't see as well with my glasses VS my contacts.  Another reason I did this was to prevent myself from touching or rubbing my eyes.  Many germs get to your system quicker while we rub our eyes and we do it without even thinking about it.  It's 2nd Nature. 

So all-in-all I'm feeling good and my efforts seemed to have paid off!  YAY!

Paco's been super cute with his poses lately...he's now enjoying the pillow I use while sleeping on the sofa.  Because Suzie was recuperating from surgery for about 3 weeks as well as my husband having his health issues I have been camping out on the sofa.  Suzie and Riley thought this was pretty cool and apparently no longer likes to sleep in our bedroom.  I'm still trying to figure this all out so I can return to our bed and SLEEP.  They will NOT stay downstairs if I'm upstairs so there lies the problem.  Maybe I will get them large dog beds for the floor and see if that helps.  In other news...a few weekends ago we bought a new bed topper and it's been helping Dale's back so that is good but I don't really know what it feels like because I've been on the sofa...sigh...