my first day

today was my first day of massage therapy school. we don't have our books quite yet (and i can't wait until we get them). i just wanted to let all of my readers know that it went really well.

we talked about the history of massage and a few techniques. what i was happy about was that the instructor told us that we would find our own techniques and our own rhythm. i appreciate that because what may work for some may not work for others. she also said to keep moving - make the massage a dance. i love that! if you've ever had the pleasure of watching someone give a massage, it is like watching them dance.

i also wanted to thank you for all of your well wishes for my first day and all of your continuing support. i love you guys!

image credit ici

cadyn

happy birthday to my sweet little cadyn. today she turns 10 years old!! i love you poodle!!

cadyn is a miniature pincher - rat terrier. she is a southern belle from north carolina.

cadyn means "little warrior."

and she will always be my little girl.

sunday splendor

i am feeling so much joy, happiness and gratitude in the past few days. one can never have too much gratitude or happiness. today i am happy because:

* ryan and i sleeping in until 10am this morning.

* we had a lovely breakfast of banana pancakes with walnuts & mini chocolate chips. it was so delicious!

* my guest blog post on dirty footprints studio. thank you connie!! you truly inspire me and you rock chica!!

* receiving great feedback regarding the tea trade (keep your thoughts coming).

*waking up early one morning to see our sunflower chokes in the fog.

* having company over for dinner last night. ryan and i made stuffed shells, roasted sweet dumpling squash, the last of the green beans from my garden, and salad.

* our new screen door that has a full screen so i can feel the cool, crisp autumn breeze and the pets can enjoy the view.

* receiving a sweet snail mail package from lovely city girl.

* ryan bought me a bottle of sofia blanc de blancs.

* the squirrels that have been visiting in the yard.

* the chestnuts beginning to drop.

* the leaves beginning to change colors.

* and snuggling weather!

the next chapter - the joy diet - nothing

i am a huge fan of doing nothing. it really is an art.

tuesday afternoon i decided to grab a nice hot bath and soak my yoga-ed out muscles in dr. teal's eucalyptus spearmint "relax" epsom salts solution and read the first chapter of the joy diet "nothing."

after reading the chapter of nothing i was inspired to do exactly that - nothing. so i dropped deep down into the tub, water up past my ears, closed my eyes and practiced the art of nothing. it felt great!

reflecting back on this summer i realized that i did a whole lot of nothing. and like it said in the book it leads to joy. this summer i became at peace with myself and the new direction my life is going.

it's never to late to jump in on the joy diet band wagon and i hope that you do.

photo credit ici

gratitude

happy thrilling thursday to you all! i am feeling mucho happiness today and felt like sharing.

today i am happy because:

• sipping on a mug of tazo passion tea that i received in my tea package today from the lovely hilary! thank you so much hilary, i love my package!

• also receiving tickets in the mail today for mountain stage to go see regina spektor, yo la tengo, sonny landreth, will hoge, and the great lake swimmers october 4th!
  

• and speaking of tickets to shows, we have tickets to see david cross on october 10th!

• ryan has an interview for an better position within wvu later today. i see him getting this position!! positive thoughts everyone! keep everything that your yoga practice will allow crossed ;)

• i am joining an autumn swap. check it out, maybe you would like to join!

• i am starting my yoga certification training this saturday!

• looking forward to receiving my tranquilit pieces in the mail soon!

• i am truly thankful to all of my new readers! please stop by anytime and leave me a love note :)
  

hope you all are having a thrilling thursday. what are you happy for today?
photo credit ici

orientation day

paging nurse melita, paging nurse melita....
oh, you thought i was a nurse... nope.... but i have to wear scrubs to massage therapy school. this is my first ever scrub experience. before last week i'd never even tried a pair on before. meh, they are ok but i'd much rather be in my tranquilit!

thank you for all of your well wishes regarding orientation day. i am happy to say that it went really well. there wasn't too much to it. we went over a few things in the student handbook, spoke with the financial aid officer and signed our contracts.

i was hoping to get our books but we will get those around the first day of class. i'm so happy, i can't wait to dive it!

still flying high from my retreat

when we first got to the retreat we received folders with handouts explaining about our scheduling and what to expect, etc. there was a piece of paper in each of our folders from elasa and i wanted to share with you mine.

"often time you wonder and worry about who is who and what is what, you are the who and the what of all things, see the other in you and you in the other, see the highest in the other and the other will see the highest in you. the real you is truth, the real you is all, the real you is perfect with perfect flaws, for this is no flaw that does not have beauty written all over it. offer up your humble gratitude for the other. yes you still are coming into your individuality and divine presence that will have its own unique expression, as this is simmering and steaming, hold your space as this individual light, own this power and the other will reflect the same, for in this movement to individuality of soul expression comes the vision of many around you doing the same, until you are then able to hold monadic presence."

don't you just love that?! it fit me perfectly. i am still flying high from my retreat.

image credit ici

weekend bliss soul retreat

i could not have asked for a better group of like-minded individual to share this past weekend with. we had the most fantastic retreat! i wanted to share with you a taste of my blissed out retreat.

we met at the klaer lodge in chestnut ridge park friday afternoon, each of us with our own baggage. by time time we left sunday we all were truly transformed. upon arrival we were each given a folder containing the events to come. we were each also given a specific chakra that we represented for the group for the retreat. i represented the yellow star point - solar plexus chakra (power). friday evening we shared a lovely potato soup and salad for dinner. i had a jin shin jyutsu session with lauren which was fantastic. we had a fire and retreated for the night.

i spent my weekend with these lovely group of people: from left to right and in order of the chakras: elasa - the source point, lauren - the crown chakra, elizabeth - the third eye chakra, tamara - the throat chakra, helen ann - the heart chakra, moi - the solar plexus chakra, amy - the sacral chakra, and chris - the root chakra.

we walked a labyrinth as a group and set our intentions for the weekend

proud warriors - heidi's good morning yoga workshop. from left to right: amy, moi, chris, danica

cooling down with a twist
assisted yoga workshop with mary jo. left to right: helen ann, tamara, elizabeth, lauren, mary jo
lauren assisting elasa to get deeper into her child's pose
mary jo and chris in beginning stages
mary jo doing a back bend while chris enjoys delving deeper into his child's pose
helen ann and mary jo demonstrating four gates

we had a silent meditative 2 mile hike in nature
after our silent hike through the woods we came back and drew our bliss bodies (intentions from here on out) and to show non-attachment we had a fire ceremony where we burned our drawings
and no blog post would be complete without pics of the food!! (you know me all too well):
vegetarian chili and corn muffin
polenta with roasted veggies
carrot cake and gorgeous green salad
fruit and cold carrot ginger soup w/ avocados

i want to thank each and every individual that i spent this weekend with. we were all there for the same reason and we all were different people by the time we left on sunday. i will hold each of you in a special place in my heart and i will never forget the wonderful weekend we shared together - thank you!!

kreative blogger award

my thanks goes out to the fabulous and awe-inspiring ellecubed for awarding me the kreative blogger award. thanks girl! you never cease to amaze me!

first, 7 things that i am loving right now:

1. the great response i have gotten from my tea traders. i am so thankful that such a wonderful group of women joined in this tea trade. here is to making it an annual event!!

2. sending thank you cards to all of my tea traders. like ellecubed mentioned about the pink heels post about project thank you, i think it's wonderful to show your gratitude towards others. it can truly turn your whole day around.

3. reconnecting with myself. as most of you know, 2009 has been a year of changes. some big, some small, some not expected on my end, some very difficult ones but i know that all of these changes are occurring so that i can become a better person. sometimes we have to go through many changes in life to see who we really are and where we are going. and despite all recent obstacles, i know i am on the right path. i am reconnecting with a melita that had been put on the back burner for many years and i gotta tell you coming back into myself - feels great!!

4. with number 3 in mind, i am extremely happy to be starting "the joy diet: 10 daily practices for a happier life." we all deserve to be happy and that is what i wish for every single one of you!!

5. i am thankful and grateful for the huge support that my friends have shown me on my new path. you all are the best cheerleaders anyone could ever ask for - thank you!!

6. i am getting so pumped for my massage therapy classes to start!! i have orientation sept. 23rd and my first class is on sept. 29th. i am incorporating meditation, reiki, yoga teacher training and massage therapy as the major components to my path of wellness but there are also other things such as looking inside oneself to see what is truly fulfilling and what is not and making the appropriate steps to let go of what is no longer serving your higher self. this involves lots of svadhyaya!!

7. i am happy i'll be spending all weekend at a yoga & mediation retreat (complete with bodywork and energy work) and the local wine & jazz festival. yay for hanging out with like-minded individuals.

instead of passing this onto 7 other bloggers i want to hear from all of you, what are you loving right now?

the next chapter - the joy diet

hello friends!! i am excited because today starts the beginning of the next chapter by the fabulous jamie ridler! you all remember what a blast i had with the wrecking of my journal. in case my new readers missed out on the fun of that, here was my the final chapter of my wrecking fun. (trust me, i saved the best for last!)

this round of the next chapter is something a little different. this time the featured book is "the joy diet: 10 daily practices for a happier life" by martha beck. this is perfect for me right now because of the path of wellness that i am on. when i first picked up my book i randomly flipped to a page and the first thing that jumped out at me was this "uncomfortable truth #1: you are always responsible for creating your life, whether you like it or not."

we could all use a happier life and that is exactly what i wish for everyone in the world. by nature i am a happy person. but as a human being, even i have things that get me down from time to time. unfortunately that is part of life. but what i think is key is taking the things that disappoint you and turning them around for the greater good. take those lemons and make some lemon meringue pie :)

it's not to late to join in! why don't you come and join us and live a happier life!

to my tea traders

i wanted to send out a big thank you to all of my tea traders. we had 24 lovely ladies to join and participate. i am happy to say that we had tea traders from all over the united states and we were even lucky enough to get one in france and two in the united kingdom! how exciting is that?!

in addition to the tea trade i had a giveaway. congratulations to heather! heather won a tin of tai ping hou kui green tea from teavana's emperor's collection. your tea is in the mail!

i wanted to thank you all again for making the tea trade so much fun. if you didn't get to join in on the tea trading fun hopefully you can join us next time. i am thinking of making this an annual event. this is the perfect time to trade teas because the weather is starting to get cooler & cooler and the days shorter. what perfect way to enjoy a crisp autumn day but with a mug of hot tea.

photo credit ici

i heart moop

my nerdy boyfriend and his friend were planning on going to the comicon in pittsburgh and they invited me along. while i love my nerdy boyfriend, comics aren't exactly my thing. so i debated for a while about going and finally i said yes. yes to pittsburgh, no to the comicon. i had other plans for my day in pittsburgh. i was going to moop!!
moop is a husband and wife owned company that hand makes bags for women, men and children. they truly have a bag for every need and every budget. when visiting moop i talked to wendy downs, the wife of the operation, about the bags and a little bit about the process of their business. wendy was incredibly sweet and kind. she showed me around and let me take pictures. i had a fantastic time!
moop has been getting a lot of blog coverage lately and i'm glad to join in that crowd. joanne goddard of a cup of joe did a moop giveaway recently. of course i entered but so didn't over 1500 other people! naturally nina also did a post recently about her obsession for bags and put up the moop market bag. there are even more examples here, here, and here.
you can learn more about the moop handmade process by visiting their website or the moop blog. and finally, here are the beauties i took home with me... the organic market bag and the clutch. i heart moop!

authentically you

i've been going over and over this post in my head for weeks now but recently i've been more drawn to finally put it out there. i've spent most of my summer in svadhyaya (self-study). i'm becoming truly me and it's such a powerful feeling.

i get ideas from all of you. i see you as like-minded, kindred spirits and role models. but there is one thing that i will never do - i will never copy what you do or who you are because that is not authentically me. like-wise, i would not want someone copying me because that is not authentically you. we are all brilliant, unique individuals with unique dna and individual paths in life. i encourage you to find your unique path live your most authentic life.

be proud of who you are and remember as oscar wilde said "be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

photo credit ici

happy anniversary

photo march 2007 -seattle, wa

today is bitter sweet. we all know (and will never forget) what happened 8 years ago. but 4 years ago ryan and i started dating. as all couples do, we've had our ups and downs (thankfully mostly ups). in 4 years we've grown and matured as individuals and we've grown as a couple. i am grateful to have ryan in my life and wouldn't want it any other way. happy anniversary baby!!

thai yoga massage

today i indulged in my very first thai yoga massage from mary jo over at bliss bliss bliss. it was fantastic! if you've never had one before, it's like having the best ever yoga class only you don't do anything. you just lay comfortably on the floor and the thai massage therapist does all of the work for you. you get stretched out and massaged all at the same time. seriously, i can't recommend it enough!
these are examples of some of the poses that were included in my massage today. but this is something that you have to experience for yourself!
photo credit ici, ici, et ici

charleston in photos

i had a lovely time visiting my best friend in charleston, wv this past weekend. here's a glimpse into our weekend...

vandalia grille
first watch (um there would have been a pic of my food but i was too eager to eat it and forgot)
the peanut shoppe (with fully functional old school peanut roaster)
taylor books
art & architecture