Spring in the Desert

 Arizona has a reputation for being a hot and dusty desert state full of tanned people exclaiming "it's a dry heat!" while they eat Mexican food and pass outrageously bigoted laws. But that is simply not the case. Arizona has a variety of terrain and climates, from the sweltering desert floor to chilly snow-covered mountains and pine forests. Also a lot of people in Arizona are very liberal minded and shake their heads in confusion and awe with the rest of the country at the few right winged extremists bringing the state into the headlines. We do have/eat a lot of really good Mexican food though.

Where I grew up, in Prescott, spring is very much like spring most places: budding leaves and flowers, fickle weather that can go from lovely to snowy in a matter of hours, and a slow, gentle and steady transition from the frigid winter to the glorious days of summer. I never really was much of a fan of spring, aside from my birthday occurring during it- the flowers and slightly warmer temperatures were nice but for the most part the weather was way too windy and unpredictable, the first half still felt wholly like winter, and the second half coincided with the stress and pressure of the final weeks of school.

Down here in Tucson though, spring is a bit different- with temps that hang around the 70s and 80s and sometimes peak in the 90s it feels more like summer starts in February. It's constantly the perfect temperature out with the occasional light breeze, only slightly chilly nights, and the scent of blooming flowers in the air all the time. By the middle of may and certainly by june it will be too hot to sleep with more than a sheet or walk more than 20 feet to your car, but the blissful months of february, march, and april are probably Tucson at its best.

We have a very small cactus garden in our very small yard, which I really really like. We moved in last August, so we didn't get a chance to see it bloom for spring. This year I'm loving seeing the changes every few weeks as new flowers show up, cactus fruits start to get plump, and things that were dried and wilted by the time we got here last year shoot up fresh and new. In the desert, just like everywhere else, spring is full of new life and plenty of colorful, fragrant blossoms :)

By summer, the old dead flowers will have fallen off the tops and the fruit will turn into gorgeous, wax-like pink and yellow flowers.

It's still the last few weeks of school, but the wonderful weather lessens the pain a little bit. When I first moved to Tucson, I was quick to complain about the heat and the grime- but over the almost 3 years that I've lived here, I've really come to appreciate so much about this cultured little city. It is really so beautiful and full of natural life and history! Plus, I love how you're never more than a short drive away from hiking trails, campsites, swimming holes, even skiing! As anxious as I am to graduate and continue on to some place new for the next chapter in my life, I'm going to miss Tucson... and I'll definitely miss the perfect Tucson Springtime!

Thursday Update: March is Here!

This will be a short update since I didn't blog much at all this week due to being out of town :)

This week:

This blog reached (and surpassed!) 25,000 views. That is pretty amazing! I can't believe people were still somehow finding and reading my blog while I was away... but I'm glad they were and still are! Hopefully that number will just continue to go up up up :)

I learned to ski! It was so fun, but exhausting! My legs are STILL sore.

I got my first concept exam for my Screen Artists class back- 90%! 10% deducted for not having a works cited page, but many of my classmates pointed out that it was not stated in the instructions so we can turn one in after spring break.

I kind of explored downtown Flagstaff for the first time, aside from an impromptu rainy day trip Stewie and I took there back in 2009. Apparently holiday lights all over downtown in march are a-ok there.I really enjoyed it though! We did the art walk (very similar to all other art walks) and ate at a cool local brewery.

I'm trying one of the many things on pinterest that may or may not be a complete waste of time (I have a massive love hate relationship with pinterest that recently has been mostly hate). I've been swishing with 50/50 mixture of mouthwash and hydrogen peroxide to see if it helps whiten my teeth. Hydrogen peroxide is supposedly the main ingredient in whitening strips? I read it on the internet so it must be true.

Photos:

Taking a break from skiing for lunch... Green Chili Chicken Soup and a Magic Hat Number 9 pale ale. yeah...I didn't take any pictures of the actual skiing. Just food.

While driving to Tucson from Prescott I passed this truck/bus/contraption and had to snap a picture... I'm not sure what exactly they do, but they're rather confident about it.

Coming up:

Spring break starts today! Hopefully that means some much needed time to focus on sewing/etsy stuff and also plenty of time to cook.

It's getting warmer and warmer in Tucson... it's supposed to dip a little this weekend but maybe sometime later this week we can head out to Tanque Verde Falls, Sabino Canyon, or one of the other Tucson swimming spots. Like the University Heights pool.

With any luck this week I'll hit my first weightloss goal... a 20 lb loss! What an incredible and rewarding feeling that would be.

Happy Weekend!

Love,
Em

Fitness Plans!

 This blog has been spring, spring, spring lately! hope you guys aren't sick of it yet ;) luckily, this post is less about spring and more about summer! I'm all pumped to hit the gym even harder than I usually do and really shape up for bikini season. I'm going to the salt river with Stew and his bro Brian on May 7th as an early bday celebration, and so I want to be ready!

Here is the basic fitness plan I already follow. You can find a more detailed post here.
-30 minutes cardio 6 days a week, alternating treadmills and ellipticals. I'm averaging 2.25 miles on the treadmill and 3 miles on the ellipticals.
- arms and shoulders weights twice a week
-chest and back weights twice a week
-legs weights/exercises twice a week
-abs exercises 3 times a week
I also occasionally bike to school, although since stew has gotten his license back I've been doing less of that.

In the coming weeks the changes I'm going to make are:
-abs 6 days a week, rather than every other day
-1 or 2 additional leg exercises that especially focus on the backside ;)
-1 or 2 love handle workouts in addition to the chest and back workouts I do
-45 minutes of cardio 6 days a week
-hopefully 1 hike or other outdoor recreational activity a week.

I've also been slacking a bit on the diet front, going out for dinner waaay too much. I blame it on how busy my end of the semester schedule is! Get home from discussion section at 7 o clock and make dinner for two and then go to the gym and do homework? um, no. But all that has got to change! Feel free to join me with a couple of these- you'll feel spectacular!

-no alcohol. this shouldn't be too hard because I'm not the heaviest drinker as is. It just means more sober driving and less relying on stewie... and less buffy the vampire slayer/screwdriver marathons.
-no sugar! I've never done this before. I think it's going to make it really easy for the fat to just fall off. It's certainly not permanent, and there's no chance in hell I'll be using that aspartame/sucralose crap. vomit.
-no white bread or flour. I already do this, although occasionally I'll use white flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour when I'm trying a recipe for the first time. I'm going to try and not eat much bread or pasta at all though, and focus more on whole grains like lentils, brown rice, etc.
-no dairy. Easy peasy. the only thing I'll have to cut out is good cheese... which I'll miss, but it's not like I haven't lived without it before.

since I'm already a vegetarian, this means I'm basically reverting to my old vegan lifestyle with the addition of less flour/bread/pasta, no alcohol, and no sugar. Hellllo fresh fruits and veggies and grains and nuts that will make me feel SPECTACULAR!

so excited for this. do you have any goals for the upcoming bikini season?

hell yes spring

I'm usually not too crazy about spring... probably because in Prescott the weather is often temperamental... going from sunny and 70 degrees to can't-walk-straight-windy to 10 inches of snow within a few days of each other. This year though, I've got a bit of spring fever. Every day has been gloriously warm and sunny, flowers are sprouting up everywhere, the trees are turning green... and I've got a hankering to start cleaning everything in my apartment in preparation to move out and start my exciting summer.
All this springyness has been spreading across the internet too, and it's gotten me so excited for springtime and the summer months that follow! In fact, it has compelled me to create this list of reasons why springtime is awesome. It's not the BEST season, like autumn, but it's still pretty swell in its own right.

Reasons to Love Springtime
1. Flowers starting to push up from beneath the soil... especially tulips.

 2. Flirty, frilly, pastel spring dresses

3. Japanese Cherry Blossoms

4. That stretch of barren winter trees now has a tinge of lovely soft green

5. spring cleaning! time to clear out all the winter dust and clutter and get ready for the summer

6. chilled sweet pitchers of cocktails in pretty soft colors

7. porch breakfasts, potluck brunches, afternoon teas, twilight dinners with dear friends and family

8. Lemons and fresh herbs showing up in all the recipes across the net

9. Walks through the park or downtown, preferably with dear friends and furry loved ones

10. Celebrations like Easter and spring birthdays (I've got one^^) that call for pretty things and outdoor fun.

11. Long hikes in the cool spring mornings

12. Planning summer daytrips, excursions, parties, and all the fun to come

 13. Picnic lunches

14. The end of another year of school, or at least another winter.

15. warm breezes that seem to breathe new life into the world

happy springtime everyone. what's your favorite thing about this season?

Love,
Em

cleaning out my phone gallery

As a blogger, I have a tendency to take pictures of random things- food mostly, but also good hair days, cute outfits, pretty sunsets, and a whole lot of other stuff in an effort to document my life and build up photo content for this site. This inevitably leaves me with a gallery on my phone that consists of a whole bunch of really random pictures that don't exactly form a coherent post... and so I end up making posts like these, where I just unload a few mismatched pics from the last 3 weeks on you guys. Fun, eh? anyways, here are some things that I've been up to/have caught my eye recently:

Don't you just love how vain bloggers are? We just love to take pictures of ourselves. this is me driving to pick stewie up from school before leaving for phoenix/prescott for spring break

One of my favorite things about going home- my parents always have a ton of delicious, healthy food. This is leftover grilled zucchini from dinner the night before and portobello ravioli all sprinkled with crumbled sheeps milk feta. so yummy. I wish I had a grill... I could seriously live off of smoky, grilled veggies.

Another thing I love about going home- lunch with my mom! We always try to set up a lunch date every time I'm back in prescott for a few days, and I just love it. It's a tradition that goes all the way back to when I was 6 or 7 in elementary school and she would pick me and my sister up on alternating wednesdays and take us out to lunch. My fave place to go back then was fazolis (so sad the one in prescott closed!), but now my tastebuds are a bit more mature. We decided to go to pangaea this time, a wonderful little bakery/lunch place. I got a sandwich with fresh mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, and a balsamic reduction on baguette, and my mom got a super yummy brie and fig sandwich on sourdough. so delicious!

This was my super awesome st paddy's day- george killian's irish red beer and sandwiches made from leftover irish soda bread, colcannon, and vegan corned beef and cabbage out in the beautiful forest outside of prescott. Stew and I went car camping and lots of our friends came along to hang out...we took a hike up the hill to look at the amazing view (I didn't take my camera to catch a pic... oops!) and sat around a campfire having a grand ol time.

Speaking of car camping, stewie and I did a fair amount of it over spring break. I know it looks really haphazard, but it was actually very pleasant. My subaru's back seat fold forward, providing a nice long bed, big enough for two people. stewie had a little trouble cause he's taller, but for me it was perfect and very comfortable. love it!

I've got a fave spot in prescott- a couple actually- that is perfectly hidden away so that you wouldn't really even know it's there unless someone showed you. it's up a long, steep driveway between a gas station and a carwash, and at the top there's a wonderful spot to park your car, open your windows, and gaze over much of prescott. I came up here a couple times over spring break, this time because I had time in between plans and the cleaning ladies were at my house so I needed someplace to go.

While I was up there, I read one of my fave magazines, ReadyMade. It still gets delivered to my parent's house, so every once in a while when I come to visit a new one will be sitting on my desk. It's a wonderful DIY magazine full of projects, recipes, and stories about really awesome people. This was the cover this month, and I think it's such an awesome idea! Inside that camper is a stove, a bed, and some other cool things. My friend and stewie's older brother Brian has a white honda civic, and I totally think he should trick his out like this one.

Whew, gallery cleaned. More posts later! I've got a test this afternoon, so wish me luck :)

<3
Em

Hello Spring!

So, I was scrolling through foodgawker, as i do probably at least once or twice every day (foodie much?), and I came across a picture of a pretty little bowl of soup. It was golden brown, and creamy, and garnished with walnuts, and had the word cheddar in the title, and I thought to myself:

"What the hell? It's not fall, people, you can't go around posting decadent cold weather soups. Sheesh."

Gasp. I involuntarily dissed on my fave season. But seriously, the time has come and gone for fall food and dare I say winter food as well! March 21st is around the corner and that means springtime baby. Yeah I know it's probably still frickin freezing up north... But down here the weather is glorious. In fact, so glorious today that I convinced stewie to cut class and go swimming in our (non heated!) pool. sunny, breezy, wonderful!

Usually I very much dislike spring, but thats probably because everywhere else I've lived it takes FOREVER for spring to decide to actually exist- it'll be beautiful and 70  degrees on a wednesday and be snowing by the weekend. frustrating! But down here in tucson we had only a very brief (albeit awful- have you ever biked to school at 9 in the morning in 20 degree weather? no fun!) cold spell that quickly dissipated into 60, and then 70, and now 80 degree weather. I know by late April it's going to start getting a bit too hot for comfort, but for right now it feels like the most perfect late-spring early summer weather. I'm all ready for barbecues and pastel flowered dresses and pool parties and camping trips and easter and yay! Haha. I get way too excited about the changing of the seasons.

I posted a list of reasons why autumn is the best season, but I don't see any reason why I can't post a list of reasons spring is still a good season sometime in the next few days. I will be up in prescott which will mean slightly cooler temps... but maybe I can snap some pics of budding deciduous trees and sprouting tulips... both of which Tucson pretty much lacks^^

anyways, hooray! hooray for spring time, the time of growth and rebirth and the end of school and perfect weather! It's going to be a great season :)

<3
Em