After much consideration over the past few years, I've decided to start blogging. It will most likely become something therapeutic for myself and a way to keep track of my thoughts. But it will also be a way to share my thoughts, ideas and photos to those around me. I wanted the blog to be called "Happy Belly." I've said for years, if I ever have a restaurant/bakery/food type store I wanted to name it that because that is what food does for me. It makes my belly happy. But that was already taken and I also knew the entire blog is not going to be about just food. Having said that, I'm 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and have a very happy belly even though I'm currently quite hungry, so it still would have applied. But since I didn't start the blog when I found out I was pregnant (which is what I should have done, looking back), I decided to go with something else.
Cook, Create, Do & Love will be about many things. First off, I love pretty much anything having to do with food. 1. Growing it. We've had a garden for 5 years now and I love stepping out the back door to cut fresh herbs or cut lettuce for a salad. 2. Buying it. I love grocery shopping and will happily spend hours browsing the aisles at the grocery store, weekly farmer's markets, international markets, etc. 3. Cooking it. Both Donald and I love to cook. I'd say I cook a little bit more than he does, but food is definitely something that occupies much of our time. I've also taken up canning and preserving so I will touch on that a bit. 4. Eating it. Whether that's done in my own house or at a restaurant, we love to eat. We plan entire trips based around food and discuss what we want to have at our next meal as we are stuffing our faces with the current meal. So I'm thinking the Cook portion will be about making tasty food from what we have growing in our garden, ideas on fixing recipes with stuff from the garden/grocery store/markets, and making favorite and/or new recipes which are my own or taken from magazines, tv, friends and family or Pinterest.
Create will be about satisfying my creative side. I've always loved arts and crafts. I remember growing up making paper mache bracelets with my mom, puffy paint shirts and scrap-booking (before it became the expensive & all time consuming thing it is now). I also love to decorate and rearrange things in my house to make spaces seem like new. I would say about half of the stuff in my home came from yard sales, Goodwill, thrift stores and the like and I wouldn't have it any other way. One of my favorite things to do is to peruse the aisles at Goodwill seeing if I can find anything that was once someone else's become my own. So Create will highlight things I'm doing around the house whether it's incorporating a "new" item I've found at Goodwill into the home, a project I've been wanting to make (most likely an idea from Pinterest) and things along those lines.
Do is going to be about doing things and visiting places around the city, traveling, trying new restaurants or attractions. My dream job would be to travel the world and photograph it the entire time. Last year I put up a giant world map in our bedroom and bought map pins. The idea is to pin places we've been and want to go. I haven't done that yet, but I love lying in bed thinking of places to visit. I've also always wanted a globe. My grandparents had one and I remember spinning it around and around thinking about new countries. I finally got one about 2 weeks ago from Goodwill. It was $6 and all it needed was a tiny bit of superglue to fix the equator from continuing to peel up and some Goo Gone to remove a sticker from the base. Both Donald and I love trying new restaurants. Even though it involves food, I think it fits in better in the Do section rather than Cook.
Love is talking about the things in my life I hold dear: my soon to be baby girl, my awesome husband, Donald, my 4 legged child, Bandit and my wonderful family & friends. I've been a stay-at-home-mom-to-be for almost 3 weeks now. Some days have been spent running around town with errands or doctors appointments for myself. I'm trying to knock out all that I can before the baby comes. Other days, like yesterday were about readying the nursery. I hopefully have a few more weeks before Stella arrives. I'm not "over" being pregnant like a lot of women get towards the end. I'm having such a wonderful pregnancy and I'm thoroughly enjoying every kick in my belly. I let my mind wander yesterday thinking about how our different but exciting and even more lovely our lives will be in a few short weeks. Change can be scary since we are stepping into the unknown, but I think we are ready and it will be even better than we could possibly imagine.
