My First Video Blog: Sharing Some Great Sites!

Hey everyone!

On a whim today I decided to create a vlog-part wanting to play with my new Iphone and part just wanting to try something new.

I love when the bloggers I follow post videos of themselves-it's fun, it's different and you feel like you know the person just a bit more.

So I figured if I enjoy it maybe some of my readers will too! After the video I am sharing links to some really great sites that I enjoy. I do have one clarification-in the video I mention I don't get anything out of them but one is in fact an affiliate link (I forgot!). What I do want to say is that I haven't signed up to be an affiliate for any blog/site or program I haven't used and feel I can recommend because I truly enjoy it and see value in it. In the interest of full discloser though I wanted to let you know :)

Hope you enjoy the video! Be sure to check out the links below to learn more about the sites I mention in the video!

Sustainably Creative

Carolyn Elliott

Disrupting the Rabblement (this is the site with the No Self Promo Month)

Weekly Updates: My Poetry Book & My Radiant Goddess Course

Well if you can believe it (and I cannot) it's February. I like February, I like Valentine's Day-not the Hallmark stuff but the decorations are red and pink and I think the little Valentines kids give out are sweet. As for my husband and I we generally celebrate our anniversary (dating not wedding) on the 6th, avoid the crowds and the high-priced dinners and skip the mad tradition.

So while I may not buy into convention I do like the principle of the day. A reminder to tell those closest to you how you feel, a day to remind us of love and making people feel special.

With chocolates and $50 bouquets of flowers of course.

While thinking about my weekly update and the concept of love I realize that I need to extend that inward-self love and all around self-compassion. For you see, my Radiant Goddess Ecourse is not happening (unless you count my Goddess smoothies-YUMMY!) and my poetry book has sat untouched (until tonight).

I share this with you because while the Radiant Goddess Course is wonderful and I have no doubt in it working, I am not in a place where I can commit to it. So rather than beating myself up I take baby steps adapting a habit here, a meal there and let those small changes soak in.

I may not be radianting but I am sure there is a glimmer.

As for my poetry book I have been busy working on my Guided Meditation on Releasing Negative Energy (it's FREE to my newsletter subscribers!) and haven't had an opportunity to write much. Tonight however the house is my own with my little one asleep, and I plan on exploring and writing and maybe evening sharing a bit of it here with you.

I think it's important to share with you that while I set out with the best intentions things don't always pan out the way we expect or hope. It is new for me as I am not one to show the process and usually just like to hand out the results. It would not be out of character for me to say a year from now, "Ta-Da here is my poetry book," without letting on at all the struggles and bad thoughts that I internalized because I didn't "stick to the plan man!"

We need to be gentle with ourselves. And while I pride myself in my optimism and I want this blog to be an overall place of inspiration for my readers-who wants to read about the perfect person who never misses an aerobics class or a deadline? Who is perfection at everything she tries and never stumbles, doubts or second-guesses herself?

Not me.

So I will continue with my weekly updates letting you know how things progress-even if there is nothing to report!

Here is to a beautiful weekend!

My Guided Meditation is HERE!

Hello all!

I am so utterly excited! My first guided meditation has been such a labor of love! I personally enjoy guided meditations and have quite a few on my Ipod that I listen to when I need a bit of grounding.

When I decided that I wanted to create a guided meditation I had no idea what was involved and I have spent the past few months or so researching and learning. There was background music I needed to record (see photo to the left of the river that lends the background to this meditation :), I needed to decide on a topic, write the meditation, record it, learn how to edit and merge it all...well you get the idea.

And I LOVED each and every minute of it!

I am just putting the following finishing touches on it and will be launching it out this Friday-and here is the best part.

It is FREE!!

All you need to do to receive my meditation is sign up for my newsletter!
(If you are already a newseltter subscriber-thank you! You will receive it this Friday!!)

So what's it about? This meditation is all about releasing negative energy! I don't know about you but I can sure use this at times! (Tax season anyone? :)

So my gift to you , my beautiful readers is this guided meditaiton-along with my weekly newsletter. As a bonus you can also sign up for my weekly pick me ups! These 3 minute audios are sent out via email on Fridays and are just meant to offer you a little lift as you move into the weekend!

So THIS Friday is the day! I hope you enjoy it and I welcome any suggestions for other possible meditations as I plan to make more.

Lots of light for a beautiful weekend!

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Becoming Radiant

Another week-another program :)

If you are a regular reader of my blog-firstly thank you! but you may have realized I love taking on challenges. From my NaNoWriMo challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month (which I did-woohoo!). The 2012 Creating Your Goddess Year Workbook (completed and always added to or tweaked or played with) and the Creative Goddess Ecourse (which I am still working on). I really enjoy learning new things, in a fun way and stretching myself!

As you may have also guessed I truly adore and admire Goddess Leonie at GoddessGuidebook.com Her light and energy are so genuine and bright and I find her words, workshops and courses to be very inspiring, magical and almost always-just what I need. I signed up for her Goddess Circle which is so fantastic-allowing me to connect with bloggers all over the world as well has having access to all of her fantastic course materials!

Awhile back I downloaded the Radiant Goddess Ecourse-and never opened it. I suppose I wanted radiance to emanate from the folder saved on my desktop! We all come to things when we are ready.

Friday I decided to open up the workbook and see what all was involved-and it spoke to me. I am at a point in my life where I feel the cleansing of the food she talks about will really solidify my going vegan and also help mark the next phase in my life.

I am excited!

My plan is to start slowly, this coming week I am going to incorporate as much as I can of the menu ideas and start the meditations all the while being gentle with myself and taking note of what comes up for me.

Would you like to join me?

If you would also like to take the Radiant Goddess Workshop just click on the link and you can get started! You can also take part in the online forum or chat with me on Twitter and Facebook and let me know how it is going. I will share my story here each week so those of you who are also working on "Becoming Radiant" can check in and we can share how we are doing!

Here is hoping this is your most beautiful week yet!

Snow and Cookies

Today is a snow-filled day on the East Coast. We had a snow storm yesterday that just slowed things down a bit but has blanketed my little neighborhood with lovely fluffy snow.

I must admist I love snow!

When I don't have to go anywhere of course :)

Usually I make some soup and do some baking and enjoy hunkering down with the family. I feel so cozy and safe and warm-and blessed to have all those things.

Several months ago I started reading The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and it really motivated me to make the switch from Vegetarian to Vegan. It is a process and I am being gentle with myself making switches as I can. (Soy milk or Almond milk in my coffee and cereal, soy butter, no eggs etc.). The most challenging part for me is eating out, as it is difficult to find Vegan options and any of the Vegan restaurants aren't exactly ones that my family would enjoy.

I have written about how I have found an enjoyment in baking and prior to going Vegan I had perfected homemade chocoloate chip cookies. Ah, they were so yummy and the idea of giving them up seemed impossible.

So I didn't.

I researched and found some great Christmas Cookie Recipes (haven't tried them yet but plan to!) and I also did some research on Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, played around with my own recipe and found one that really seemed to work. By "worked" I mean it tastes good (no aquired taste needed) and I don't have to make a batch of "regular" cookies for my husband :)

So I thought I would share the recipe I made today. I may add a bit more brown sugar next time but otherwise they are delicious! I am making some ingredient recommendations below-I do not get compensated in any way for recommending these-they are just what I have found to be the best!

"Butter": I recommend Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks.
On a side note their buttery spread is so delicious on bread-you really cannot tell the difference!!!

Chocolate Chips: I am surprised how many Vegan recipes don't talk about the chocolate chips. I tried Carob chips and didn't really enjoy them, didn't like how they melted and really didn't like the price! After some research I found that you can buy regular chocolate chips that are Vegan without being marketed as such. One I found was Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips but just check the labels. I was fortunate that my grocery store had them on sale recently and I was able to stock up!

So here is the receipe-if you try it please let me know! Happy Baking!

Michele's Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4c all purpose flour
1 tsp salt

1 c Vegan Butter Softened
3/4c granulated sugar

3/4c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 3/4c Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375 F
Combine flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside
Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy

Add egg replacer one at time beating well after each

Gradually add flour mixture

Stir in chocolate chips

Bake about 10 minutes or until golden brown-cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Dreams Can't Wait

It seems you can't read a blog post or an inspirational article without hearing someone mention taking a leap of faith or about how they just decided one day to make their dream their focus and to just do it.

If you are anything like me I used to wonder when they found the time? Did they work a full time job? Were the independently wealthy or living off an inheritence? There was actually a time in my life when I thought focusing on your dream meant that was all you had to focus on and I could not see a way to make all these  big plans I had running around in my head a reality while still punching a time clock.

Then, one night over drinks on the porch with my husband I found myself saying that I was making my dreams a priority and it didn't matter to me if I had to get a job nights and weekends-I was still going to focus on this dream whether it paid $500 a year of $500,000-this was what I wanted for me! I followed that statement up with, "And any job will just be the thing that allows me to focus on my dream not something that takes me away from it."

He looked at me smiled, and didn't say anything.

He's good like that.

Of course, I was having a flash back to conversations that occured on the same porch where, after a very poignant bitch vest by yours truly about how much I hated my job and how it took me away from doing what I loved, he had said, "you just need to see it as the thing that allows you to do what you love."

I believe my response was a waive of my hand as I could not even begin to acknowledge such nonsense and I went back to bitching.

And while I cannot be sure I believe I went to bed that night dreaming of the day when the stars and moon would align and allow me to focus on what I really loved.

In case you find yourself still sitting on the porch in my last example let me share with you some harsh realities:
The stars and the moon never align.

If you love something, if it is truly your calling, your passion, your drive-you do it. Period.

You stay up late and do it, you get up early and do it, you eat lunch in your car and do it-you make sure you fit it in because it matters TO YOU!

Of course we don't right? It is so much easier to push aside the things that matter to us, the things we dream about at night or keep tucked away in the back corners of our mind hoping someday the world will wake up and realize that we are worth having the time to focus on these things are so very important.

We dream about the day when our dedication and hard work will pay off and we will finally be allowed to live the life we want and deserve. We look with longing at the blogs of people who talk about how they made the leap and are now doing it! And we sigh and paint pictures of what they must have that we don't:

"She musn't have a mortgage, 2 kids, a husband, a sick family member, credit card debt, bad health, a demanding boss, etc. etc."

We instead paint the picture of someone who life has gifted with the opportunity to do what she wants.

And we feel like victims of our own circumstances.

I am here to tell you that we are not victims of our circumstances but rather we are the creators of them. If there is a dream you hold within yourself you need nothing more than what you already have to take a step towards making it a reality. And it's easier to do than you might think.

We have all heard that the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with a single step but let's apply that to making your dream a reality.

I look at my daughter who is just over 1 year old. She hasn't started walking yet-preferring to crawl around and stand and practice her balance. If you were to fast forward 20 years perhaps she is a prima ballerina performing in New York City Ballet. Yet today she is still working on finding her balance and her confidence to take that first step on her own. If she knew what she was working towards it would be overwhelming to think about all she has to accomplish between now and then but none of it makes that first step less neccessary.

If your dream is to write and have a novel published (one of my dreams) what is the one thing you can do today to make that happen? If you haven't started a book that's a great place to begin but I would urge you to go as small as possible. Forget how many words it has to be, or how to find an agent or how many hours a day it will take or how many months, years. Just write a word. Then a sentence. Maybe a page.

Do it every day.

Whatever your dream is, stop for a moment and think of one thing you can do today to move it forward. Can you find out if that domain name is available? Can you search out and find one supplier for that boutique you want to open and you look at what types of paint work best for the painting you hope to create.

Can you pick up a "How To" book at the library?

Can you make a list of what you need to do?

Do not let circumstances or in reality, fear, keep you from making your dreams a reality now! The truth is once you start making time for what really matters and calls to you-the universe recognizes this and you will be surprised how the stars and moon look so much different to you.

I look forward to reading your success stories!

Sharing My First Artwork

I am writing this while my husband takes a nap and my daughter fights her's :) We spent the day running errands and now, as has become my tradition on Fridays, I am enjoying some quiet time (for the most part see photo to the left of my persistant cat Salem demanding my attention) in my office. As you know I have been checking in weekly with how my Poetry Book is coming and sharing the trials and tribulations of creating, self-publishing and illustrating my own poetry book.

One of the main challenges is that I am not an artist. What I mean is that if you were to ask me to draw an apple you would probably see something that somewhat resembles the sun, or the moon not quite full.

Regardless of ability I feel that this book needs to be from cover to cover a full expression of ME and a labor of love through and through. So, I have decided to paint, draw, Etch-a-Sketch artwork to accompany my poems.

While I am most definately not an artist I feel I am creative enough to try things, see what works and what doesn't. One of my favorite mediums is watercolors and I am having a lot of fun with them. Today I am working on a painting for a poem I wrote that requires me to draw a girl-perhaps now you know why I am blogging instead :)

I did however think that in the essence of full discloser that I should share some of the work with you. I imagine many of these pieces won't even be considered for my book but I am proud of that fact that I am doing it. I believe it takes a lot of courage to tackle something new, something you know you aren't great at and then turn around and share.

Anonymously online :)

Alright, I will stop stalling, here is the first piece I painted-flaws and all. I painted it over the course of a few days to go with a poem I wrote titled "Moon's Call" and I have included a small snippet from the poem. I hope you enjoy:

"Silent the moon's light calls to me beconing through an old drafty window
it sings songs to me through the cold.
I sit still at my desk
wandering through a wall of pent up creativity
searching for a beginning."

 ©Michele Fischer