link party ♢ weekly wishes #3

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Time for Round 3 of Melyssa's Weekly Wishes link party!

My last wish was centred around an application I posted for an online Nutrional Therapy degree course that I want to dedicate the next 4 years to.

Guess what folks, I got an interview >.<

SO, I guess my wish this week will be that I prepare well and pull off the Skype interview so that they respond with a big fat "hell YEAH lady, we want you on our course, come on down!"

 Or a simple "your application has been successful" will suffice too I suppose!

While it is scary putting my personal goals and dreams out there for all to see every week, especially the prospect of being unsuccessful and looking like a failure,  it is at the same time a great push to get myself out there and try extra hard. If I kept this to myself I possibly wouldn't be as motivated, comfortable in the knowledge that if I don't get it then it doesn't make a difference because nobody knew about it anyway. Writing about it keeps me on my toes, keeps me hungry, gives me that extra little fight to really step up to the challenge and achieve something good.

It's not too late for you to jump on the Weekly Wishes gravy train, if for no other reason than to happen upon some really awesome blogs. I've definitely gained a few new additions to my Bloglovin reading list from clicking and commenting on blogs in this link up. 

Give it a try!

{{p.s ~ Google reader has officially shut up shop, so if you haven't made the switch already you can follow Stars in Jars on Bloglovin here ^.^}}

Buddy

I'd like for you to meet my new special someone.

This little fawn-colored pompom with legs is Buddy and he is the newest recruit in our household.

He was sold to us as a Maltipoo, the same breed as our sweet girl Millie who we sadly lost after only a week. However the vet seems to think he is half Maltese and half Shitzu. So what does that make him~ a Maltishit?? 

Oh dear! Well, whatever he is, we are smitten with him. 

My Dad wanted to name him Walter, so we would have Walter and Jessie like the two main characters in Breaking Bad, but my Mom vetoed it and we all settled on Buddy.

Jess is 5 months old now and a lot more sensible so she is being very good at tolerating this sassy little guy all up in her personal space. Buddy has a mean case of 'bite worse than his bark'~ he has the girliest little scream/bark but watch out for those piranha teeth- oosh!

I remember Jess was the same at is age, we all loved her best when she was sleepy because that's when you can sneak in a few cuddles before they get all squirmy and want to get to the toys on the floor.

He's proving much easier to train though and homeboy already has a good handle on peeing on the paper.

Does that really justify me making him dance for his supper though??

hee hee!

Buddy says "Happy Friday Loves!"

watched// read// listened

So internet, we meet again!

One of the caveats of living in the way back of beyond is an at best unreliable connection to the old "world wide".

At first I was aghast at being so rudely cut off. Unable to instantly check on updates, emails, comments and new posts...the horror!

Until I realized I was just having to suspend all of the "important" things in my life that are really, actually not so important at all.

I am an internet junkie, that's not changing anytime soon, I'm not making any grand professions to swear off facebook for life here or anything but I have learned a happy lesson from this; it's definitely a healthy practise to switch off, log out, forget what's going on in the world wide web and who 'liked' what Johnny ate for breakfast and focus on what's going on in your own day, in your own house, in your own life for a second.

I've been spending my wifi-free time playing with the babies (buddy + jess), stepping up my daily exercise (yoga, walking + jillian michaels kicking my butt) and going to an Alabama 3 gig in Belfast. It's been a low-key, relaxing, just enjoying my own company kind of few weeks. 

I've also used my free time to catch up on some summer listening, watching and reading that has fallen by the wayside due to to much time glued to my laptop screen.

Here's a little round-up of what I've watched, read and listened to over the past 2 weeks:

//watched//

The Perks of Being a Wallflower// I really enjoyed this movie even though I wasn't really expecting to. It's not your typical High School drama, it has much darker themes, great characters and a cool early 90's soundtrack.

I don't care for Emma Watson at all but that didn't spoil the movie for me. Ezra Miller is a highlight, I loved him in We Need to Talk About Kevin too, I think he is definitely going to be a rising star. Also I'd love to meet him on the street one day so I can, you know, congratulate him on his face.

Jules et Jim// I'm in love with French cinema and I have a huge back-log of French film on my hard drive that I am slowly working my way through watching. I loved this François Truffaut movie about the relationship between three sexually free-spirited bourgeois characters in early-20th century France.

//read//

Just Kids by Patti Smith// I'm mid-way though this auto-biography and if it's possible, I love Patti Smith even more. She is an artist through and through, all the way down to her beautiful descriptive writing skills. Reading this makes me ache for that era of 1970's New York, for Beat poets and punk rockers and kindred spirits falling in love.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn// Five pages in I thought I would hate this book. Fifteen pages in and I couldn't put it down. This is a very current and clever crime/mystery novel which masterfully builds and builds the tension and sense of brooding with every turn of the page and has more twists than a plate of spaghetti. Great, great summer read.

//Listened//

The National 'Trouble Will Find Me'// Something about Matt Berninger's voice just sounds like home to me. I've loved everything The National have done so far. They also scored the infamous Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones. Win.

The Knife 'Shaking the Habitual'// I've been a fan of The Knife since way back in the 'Deep Cuts' days (how is that ten years ago already??) and this new album has been very long awaited. Still absolutely digging their sound.


That's all folks!

link party ♢ weekly wishes #2

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Time for round 2 of Melyssa's weekly link party!

I'm pleased to say I did really well with last weeks promise to keep up with the daily yoga challenge I signed up for.
There's a quote I love from Joseph Pilates: "You are only as young as your spine is flexible".
  I love to see those pictures floating the internet of 80 year old women who are in wonderful shape and can still contort into the most impossible asanas~ proof of the truth behind this statement. I like to keep this quote and those images in my mind's eye whenever I feel like shirking my daily practise.

Today my weekly wish is based around a big brown envelope I dropped off at the post office today.
5 years ago I developed a keen interest in Nutrition which  has ballooned  into a desire to pursue it as a career choice. After 5 years of procrastination and talking about it I have finally bitten the bullet and filled out an application for an online degree course in Nutritional Therapy.
After much mulling over with my Mom about how this will eat up the next 4 years of my life and income I have decided the end goal is so worth it. I will be able to begin a career in something I am truly passionate about.

My wish this week is that the universe will send back a positive response to my brown envelope and send me down a new and exciting path in my life.

Fingers, toes and eyes crossed >.<

⋙⋙⋙currently⋙⋙⋙

⋙⋙⋙ planning⋙⋙⋙

Tired eyes and bed head~ I'm planning to sleep for the next 10 hours.

 We drove 8 and a half hours in the rain to collect this little sass-mouth today.

Folks, meet Buddy. The new man in my life.

 Just look at that belly.

Blurry photo c/o my equally exhausted mom.

Buddy post coming soon!

⋙⋙⋙ reading⋙⋙⋙

Currently reading this quirky little illustrated travel diary on my kindle.

 This is such a lovely little book, and proof that sometimes it pays off to judge a book by it's cover! 

⋙⋙⋙ watching⋙⋙⋙

Have you ever seen a wild rose? They are growing in abundance by our house.
They smell like beautifully clean sheets on a freshly made bed. 
I must pick a few to make some rose petal ice cubes.

⋙⋙⋙ eating⋙⋙⋙

I've been treating my sweet tooth here lately. In a clean way.

This week I made Almond Milk for the first time, with a few yummy flavourings thrown in. Perfect for making chai tea and pouring over muesli in the mornings.

The creamiest peach strawberry smoothie, I know it's twee but it's definitely more fun drinking them from a mason jar with a pretty straw ^.^

These ice pops were so yummy and easy to make~ just blend coconut milk, peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 banana and pour liquid into ice pop moulds.

⋙⋙⋙ writing⋙⋙⋙

I've been catching up on my letter writing this week. If your waiting for post from me, it's being sent this Monday I promise!

⋙⋙⋙ listening⋙⋙⋙

So excited about Fleetwood Mac's new single. It's all over the radio at the moment and I turn it all the way up every time.

⋙⋙⋙ learning⋙⋙⋙

the record collector

Ever since I was a little girl my Dad has visited record stores, fairs, flea markets and festivals collecting records and music memorabilia.

Americana has always been the cornerstone of my memory and sense of home...even in leafy suburban South London where I grew up.

In every house we've ever owned my dad has had what we all call his 'music room'~ a room where he proudly displays his thousands of records, vinyl, tapes and concert merchandise.

That's Willie Nelson's cowboy hat above which my dad caught when he threw it into the crowd at a show in the eighties.

Some of my earliest and most cherished memories are of flipping through row upon row of dusty vinyl stacked in boxes in our local mom n' pop new and used record shop near where I grew up. I'm sure that store is probably long gone by now.

To me there's no one cooler than my old man. With his music room and hippy heart and clock in the shape of his favourite state in all of America.

God bless 'im!

x

link party ♢ weekly wishes #1

I'd like to take a long moment in this post to introduce you to a purdy young lady I have had the pleasure of acquainting with through this funny ol' blogging world.

Meet the lovely Melyssa of The Nectar Collective.

I "met" Melyssa earlier this year when I came across her blog and instantly connected with her as she is a fellow expat teacher in an Asian country. Even though she currently teaches in Japan while I used to teach in South Korea, I instantly related to her blog posts about the struggles and breakthroughs of living, essentially, as an 'alien' on another planet.

Not only that but her blog is peppered with beautiful crafts, recipes, adventure stories and, my personal favourite, her 'Musings From Monja' series where she chronicles (hilariously) life as viewed from her cutie pie dog Monja's eyes and all the thngs that "really get my nub wagging".
 Leaves me rolling around in happy tears every. single. time. 
(I challenge you to go read about the poop barf and not chuckle)

Anyhoo, fawning aside, you should check the gal out. She wins the internet in my book.

Which is why I will be taking part in her Monday Link Party: 'Weekly Wishes'...

Each Monday Melyssa will host this link up over on her blog and she is inviting one and all to share their personal  wishes/goals/challenges/promises with each other. I can't wait to click through to some new blogs, maybe find a new favourite, and also read what goals people are making each week and gain some inspiration from them.

This will be my first contribution to the Weekly Wishes link up and I am going to start this week by challenging myself to be vigilant and keep up with the free 30 day yoga challenge I signed up for yesterday.

Apparently this Weekly Wishes has come at just the right moment in my life because it's personal challenges like this that make me hold myself accountable when I sign myself up for things and then end up not doing them. Case in point, I was emailed my first yoga video this morning and I still haven't done it ~.~

I was, however, very proud of myself for sticking to my one week raw cleanse which I posted about yesterday.

I had a bit of interest about my eating schedule since posting that so for any who are interested just leave me a comment or email me on tremblingstarz {at} gmail {dot} com and I will send you my 7 day recipe plan which I made to follow every day of the cleanse.

The plan breaks down the week day by day and gives recipes for all meal times; some  recipes are taken from the book I was following and some were from recipes found on Pinterest, including raw blended tomato and coconut soup and lemon chick pea avocado salad.

Just drop me a line if you're wanting to cleanse and I'll shoot it to you lickety split.

Peace!

x

RᐱW

Look at this array of rainbow foods~ ruby red tomatoes, perfect pink raspberries, vibrant green leafies and pop of yellow bananas. 
Food that shines and glows. 
Last week I finished a 7 day raw cleanse which left me shining and glowing from the inside out.
I loved every single bite, the abundance of energy and the feeling of lightness I was left with after the week was out and will definitely be cleansing like this once every few months ongoing.

Here is the cleanse template, a few snaps of my meals and a special smoothie recipe for any who are looking to detox, purge sluggish livers and revitalize their energy levels this summer:

7 Day Rejuvenation Cleanse

>>>>Your Daily Schedule<<<<

Every morning upon waking immediately drink 1 pint of water.

>>>Breakfast<<<

v 32 ounces Blended Green Smoothie AND

v Abundant raw fruits

>>>Lunch<<<

Your choice of:

v Fresh salad with seasonal vegetables OR

v Blended raw soup OR

v Raw entrée

>>>Snacks<<<

     vFruit v Herbal tea

   v Vegetable juice v Nuts + Raisins

    >>>Dinner<<< 

    Your choice of: 

v Life Cleanse Smoothie or veggie juice AND 

v Fresh seasonal salad AND/OR 

v Blended raw soup OR 

v Raw entrée

Raw entrée// Stuffed bell pepper

Seasonal salad// Grape + Mango 

Raw dessert// Almond Chia seed cup

Raw Green salad

<<<<< Coco Date Banana Shake >>>>>

{{Toss 8 pit-less dates, 1 ripe banana, 200 mls of light coconut milk, a handful of cacao nibs and a few ice cubes in to a blender and whiz into a sweet, frothy, coconut milky frenzy}}

The first 2~3 days of the cleanse were the toughest and I really was craving a hot meal or at least some grilled fish with my salads, I also hankered for my usual breakfast staples of oats or muesli.
However these cravings fell away surprisingly quickly and it was very interesting to realize how bloated I am by a lot of things I eat such as bread and pasta. I felt incredibly light and flat stomached by the end of the cleanse and I noticed a huge difference in the energy I brought to my work outs too.

None of this prevented me from rewarding myself with a huge bar of salted dark chocolate when the week was finished though ^.^

I signed up for the 30 day yoga challenge at Do You Yoga today. Can't wait to get started on it!

june bug

You know it's officially summer when you've taken your first lick from your first ice cream cone of the year.

June has arrived and blessed this damp little island with the bluest skies and a sun-kissed garden.

I've been padding around with bare toes and winter-white legs shamelessly out on display for all to see!

Dates with myself, a blanket and kindle have been on the Specials menu daily just recently and Jess can hardly believe her puppy luck with all the walking her little legs have been getting ^.^ 

Ice cream floats are also doing the rounds, as are red runny noses from the darndest hayfever allergies.

I can't even with hayfever. Streaming eyes and itchy nose for days.  Ack!

No matter. Swoony, sun-filled afternoons still shoot the moon. Balled up tissues or not.

Happy June sailors!

x 

print + paint

A week long sabbatical from the internet reminded my creative juices that they are still present and correct despite being redundant for some time so I set them the task of finally doing something pretty with the beach stones and shells I squirrelled away from my Donegal trip.

I love the results, especially on the shells. They look really lovely occupying tabletops and windowsills.

I also spent some time customizing a sad little multi-frame that has been boring me to tears on my bedroom wall for some time!

A pair of scissors, some washi tape and an afternoon on my bedroom floor doing some cuttin' and pastin' the old fashioned way has revived this frame and made it something a little more unique and personal to me.

My Mom brought me back this Parrot's tail feather last week after a trip to the Gardening Centre where she rescued it from the floor.

It's so beautiful and the other side of it is canary yellow. 

Being in the country birdsong, nests in our roof and watching for different species at the birdfeed in our garden has become part and parcel of our daily living.

We're even lucky enough to spy beautiful pheasants running through the fields surrounding our house occasionally. 

I'll be sorry to swap the sparrows and the starlings for pigeons when I move back to London!