better late than never

Made a (late) Christmas stocking for Reagan the wild dog out of scrap yarns. I think it's pretty freaking sweet. Reagan sniffed it and walked away when he realized there was no stuffing inside of it to rip apart. But I'm pretty sure he likes it too.

 

Christmas Recap

Last year:


This year:


This year wins.

Sleepover with my niece

We are in Austin at my mom's for a few days before Christmas, and we had the pleasure of having a sleepover with my 4 year old niece last night.

Snuggling with Reagan in front of the fire... This girl used to be afraid of dogs. She said he was like a big furry pillow, and that he was much better at listening than Tiger (my mom's man-friend, Doak's dog). I told her to make sure she told Doak when she saw him.

 

Cuddling fireside.

 

It's a bird, it's a plane! She wanted to fly, and made sure we knew she was a superhero. I wish you could see her face in addition to the weird one I'm making. clearly we were both very excited.

 

clothes

I am bored of how I dress these days. I really wish I were one of those people who could go into a store, pick up something, and make it look current. I really do. But I have a problem where I compulsively choose the conservative clothing choice.

check out that sweet cardigan!


I think it started in college.... Duke is Preppy to the point that it's almost ironic. And sometimes excessive preppiness begins to look like "dressing like you're 40 for your entire life". like, a polo shirt (collar popped please!), a Burberry quilted jacket, and a Vera Bradley/ Herve/ Longchamps/ vineyard vines tote bag is the uniform. Which is great when you're 19 or 20 and you want someone to think you're old enough to buy booze. But when you're 27, it makes people think you're 35 if you dress like you're 40. Which is depressing.

how old is she? 20? 45? don't pretend like you can actually guess with any confidence.


So my new goal is to dress more funky fresh. I am a little limited in that I work in a HOSPITAL, which is quite a conservative environment, and I actually do quite a bit of bending over/ squatting/ moving people's limbs around in my training as a physiatrist. So my clothes have to be fairly low maintenance- in other words I can't worry about bending over and showing my bubbies.

There's also my addiction to anything with sailor stripes.


I currently have four shirts and a dress with this pattern... I'm just going to have to work with this problem, because it's not going away. And also, if anyone doesn't know what to get me for Christmas, that tunic would be well-loved.

my other problem? I'm 6' tall. with big feet, a very long torso and a moderately long legs. I am reasonably thin but not stick skinny. I am fine with what my body looks like, but it is a hard body to dress. the part of a dress that is supposed to curve out and leave room for your butt? ends up at my lower back. shirts struggle to meet pants. pants struggle to meet shoes. Cropped pants and bracelet length sleeves look ridiculous, like I grew out of my clothes.

So my clothing goal, I guess, is to ignore the little demon whispering "oooh there's a sale at Banana Republic" and try to branch out a little. or at least pick the wild and crazy choices at my trusty BR.

And yes, I realize that this entire post is potential fodder for white whine. I am lucky that my problems are of the first world variety.

Christmas spirit, part dos

Are you ready? because there's a truckload of it at the Losefast house.

Our tree-on-a-table. glass ornaments + happy Reagan wagging tail + occasional Fed-Ex deliveries (and Reagan attacking his designated $2.00 Ikea rug to show delivery man how tough he is) = disaster. So we put the tree on a table above tail and rug-thrashing height. problem solved. (and the added benefit of having a 5' tall tree go all the way to the ceiling. yay frugality!)

 

A smattering of favorite ornaments, collected on trips we've taken together (or bought at home goods just because they're pretty)

This one was from a Christmas shop in Fredricksburg. We took a day trip last year during my vacation. if there's one thing Germans do well, it's beer. If there are two things, it's beer and Christmas cheer.

 

This one is from Home Goods. It's a Royal Doulton crystal snowflake and it was something like $5. I like nice things. but I don't want to pay nice-thing prices because I'm a dropper. $5 shattered ornament > $30 shattered ornament.

 

Bride and Groom from our first Christmas together- this was a gift to us. I like giving heirloom ornaments as a wedding present because many couples start out with a mostly empty tree, and it's something special that most people won't buy for themselves. If we'd gotten married in December I would have asked for ornaments as wedding gifts.

 

This one is a Very Fancy ornament my parents bought me when I was born in 1984. They wrote a letter to future me and put it on the inside of the box, and then gave me the ornament as a gift when I was in my teens. I think this is SUCH a sweet idea and one I will be carrying on whenever baby Losefasts come around (not I'm not prego)

 

Our crystal decided it needed some bling. I obliged.

 

We found this wooden nativity at Oktoberfest in Addison at a Christmas booth. despite the pouring rain and too much beer, I managed to keep it intact that night and bring it home.

 

A fuller picture of our decked-out sideboard

 

And the REALLY big picture. including crocheted circle garland I'm making out of scraps. I keep adding to it with spare bits of yarn left over from other projects, and expect that one day it will be long enough to decorate our tree!

 

hopefully we'll get another freak snowmageddon in Dallas this year! It's a long shot, but I'm STILL dreaming of a white Christmas. The week after Christmas will also be acceptable as it will likely allow me to miss some work days.

Jalapenos

We really like them around here. On most things.

So we bought a ginormous can, probably intended for use in a Mexican restaurant.

 

(shown next to regular sized can for comparison)

 

That's right. 6 pounds of delicious. We may have gone a leeetle overboard here.

Maybe we should think about opening our own vegan taco stand. I would call it El Taco Regio and we would give a stack of jalapenos with each order. You know, if this medicine thing doesn't work out.

Christmas Spirit

One of my favorite things about the holidays is the fantastic spiced drinks. Store bought cider is fine if you're in a pinch, but my absolute favorite thing is Glogg (also known as spiced wine, vin chaud, or gluhwein). It is best served with some ginger cookies, from a mug.

 

I am of Swedish descent (thus my decision to call this drink glogg over any other name), but sadly my mom didn't make this when I was growing up. She obviously had no idea what she was missing out on.

Ethan has combined a few different recipes into what I think is the perfect combination. we've tested it a few times, and it's definitely a success.

Glogg:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
6 cinnamon sticks
10 cardamom pods, hulled
12 allspice berries
12 whole cloves
juice and zest of one orange
1 cup kirschwasser (or liqueur of choice... we had this leftover from making black forest cake)
2 750 ml bottles cheap but decent wine (we've been using Beaujolais)
3/4 cup raisins.

To make:
- combine spices- the flavor is better if cardamom, allspice, and cloves are lightly bruised or ground in a mortar. If you don't have time, it will still be good.
-combine sugar and water over medium heat in a sauce pan to make a simple syrup.
- add spices and simmer over low heat 10-15 mins
- add orange zest and juice and simmer for another 5-10 minutes (your house will begin to smell AMAZING!)
- place syrup mixture in a pot large enough to hold wine and kirsch.
- add wine, raisins, and kirsch.
- bring to a very gentle simmer but do not boil.
- be careful if you're standing over this while it warms- the vapor rising off contains ethanol and you can get tipsy from inhaling it (personal experience!)
- serve warm in mugs (traditionally clear glass ones), preferably with gingersnaps.

For children, pregnant ladies, and those who just don't drink alcohol, the syrup and spice mixture would also be great added to a plain apple cider.

Word to the wise: this stuff is stout, folks. a couple of mugfuls can make a grown man giggle. fair warning!

two pictures from my phone

This is how Reagan Losefast sleeps. He gets half the bed, and we are allowed to use the other half. seriously. And I'm still not sure how he ended up in our bed in the first place...



These are my nails right now. They are sparkly and pink, which I think is totally appropriate for doctoring. The color is called "Teenage Dream" by OPI... I'm going to pretend that doesn't refer to the age of the target audience. it just sounds nicer than mid-20's dream.

Awesomeness

I learned about the Hubble Telescope images from Michelle Armas' blog... These images are so amazing.





This is how I imagine Heaven. not as an island or fluffy white clouds, or a man with a beard, but as returning to the primordial soup from which God created the universe, and finally understanding what this life is all about.

I want to get one of these blown up to large size... the images are FREE but unfortunately large-format printing is very NOT free. I'll be shopping around for a good deal somewhere and saving my pennies.

my life lately

A non-poisonous garden spider who set up in between our overgrown tomato plants. She eats tomato horn worms and we've named her Charlotte (yes, we're very original there)

 

A delicious vegan feast: spaghetti squash, avocado hearts, roasted tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, and nutritional yeast. Covered with fresh cracked pepper and Celtic sea salt. Spaghetti squash is one of my new favorite things to eat. Every time we make it I get excited about seeing the flesh go from a solid squash to little strings of spaghetti. I think it's cool. I am a dork.

 

Nori wraps I made for my lunch one day. I filled them with a black bean spread, leftover brown rice, matchstick carrots, spaghetti squash (obviously, because it's awesome), and julienned cucumbers. They were awesome. and actually pretty easy to make if you've got leftover brown rice and veggies on hand.

 

Two pictures from the rehearsal luncheon- the ringbearer passed out and so we took turns with him while he slept. It was very cute.

 

 

I'm on vacation this week. We haven't gone anywhere yet but I'm enjoying just being lazy at home. I took two naps yesterday and another today. it was awesome.

Wedding weekend

This weekend we had the pleasure of seeing Ethan's brother marry his bride. The wedding was beautiful, and the couple share so much love with one another that it radiates. It was rainy and cloudy all day until about an hour prior to their ceremony, when it gave them a perfect break. Almost as soon as they had finished their vows, we started feeling raindrops!

Here are my two attempts at artsy-fartsy pictures:

 

 

Here's my handsome husband in his tux:

 

Me and Ethan:

 

The bride with her father. She had the most huge smile!

 

During the ceremony.

 

The stormy weather made the setting even more beautiful (especially for all those guys in tuxes standing up front!)

 

I had to make my mark on Ethan. He thought it was funny and never wiped it off.

 

We danced all night... to the point that I am REALLY sore today. like difficult to move. I was tearing it up, y'all.

 

One more picture of that beautiful stormy sky

Vegan? Vegan!

About a month and a half ago, Ethan asked if I would try a vegan, low-fat diet with him. I responded with a loving, but skeptical, "I guess we could try it". I am so not a hippie. I feel no moral obligations to cows that prevents me from eating them or their milk. But I do have a very strong family history of heart disease, and there is pretty good evidence that a plant-based, low fat diet is the healthiest possible for prevention of heart disease and multiple kinds of cancer.

And the surprise? I actually like it. The first couple of weeks were tough. I was craving fat, salt, and cheese. I am fine with eating almost no meat, but cheese was a BIG deal for me. and Ice Cream. I have a major sweet tooth. But after a couple of weeks, the fat cravings went away. We have been trying out new recipes, and trying foods that I had never eaten before in my entire life (Kale,mustard greens, turnips, parsnips, nutritional yeast, new kinds of peppers). We have explored Indian and Chinese grocery stores and found new kinds of seasonings, and different kinds of lentils and beans. We have tried out grains that I haven't ever had before.

The best part? I can eat as much food as I want. I can eat until I am completely full and I don't feel bad about a single bite of food that goes in my mouth. I don't count calories, but I have lost about 4-5 pounds since changing my diet, and my body feels like I have lost more (Ethan's looking pretty good too, added bonus!). Meals take a bit more planning. I can't just decide I'm tired and I want to go out for a burger and a beer. But I don't feel deprived at all. We both have more energy and we've both noticed our skin clearing up.

You may wonder, "what on earth do they eat?"

Here are a few of the things we've made:

Texas Caviar

 

Asian Slaw with rice vinegar, tamari, and a tiny bit of tahini, over radishes, carrots, parsnips, and cabbage.

 

Home made corn tortillas- SO much better than store-bought if you have the time!

 

Vegetable Fajitas. I'm not sure exactly what Ethan put on them for a marinade but they were the best veggie fajitas I've ever had in my life.

 

We both started taking a vitamin with B12 to keep our bases covered, but we're converts.

Here are the resources that helped us to change our minds:

Forks Over Knives (also on Netflix)

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (Also on Netflix)

The China Study

Pumpkinfest

We spent a little bit of this morning at the arboretum. It was kind of busy because they just started their fall pumpkin festival- but so worth the crowd. They used pumpkins and gourds to make mosaics, and to cover small buildings.

 

There were dozens of Monarch butterflies. Watching them made me feel like a little kid again

 

Sometimes I have to sneak up on Ethan to get his picture. This is him at his happiest- caffienated.

 

So many gourds! The pictures really don't do this justice.

 

 

And of course, I had to get a picture of myself in a pumpkin patch. Happy Fall!