BLISSFUL SEED

Bloom design t-shirt for women

Just thinking about going vegan sounds like a challenge because I love dairy.  But who doesn’t love a challenge?  I must love it because I launched my business in the middle of a recession.  Challenge? It’s more of a waiting game for me.  Just give it time says the optimist in me.   Time.  Hum.

So back to the dairy queen in me.  Okay that doesn’t even sound very healthy.  I think I’ve had that about twice in my life. Excuse me if I love the fat.  It’s a natural part of our food, fat.  So, let’s stop avoiding it  especially the women. Deprivation is good for only so long.   I know, it’s fattening and who wants to be overweight, right?  High cholesterol, heart attacks, obesity looms over this country’s health reports and let’s not even mention child obesity.  How did we get so far?  My theory involves portion sizes.  There is no excuse for the big glup or large than life sizes, but that’s consumerism for you.   No wonder the European women are so skinny.  It’s all those bit sizes and walking!!

For me it’s not about quantity but quality, says the foodie in me.   But maybe I’m looking with rose colored glasses.  Vegan for a week?  Maybe one of these weeks, perhaps with other vegans.  Who am I joking?  This is a personal decision.  I’m on my own.  Right now?  Back to selling those beautiful Blissful Seed t-shirts where all t-shirts are on SALE!!!  Order now and support Chicago artists, the American economy, and the environment.   Otherwise, you may see blank long sleeved tee for the fall…peace.

Blissful Seed photo shoot: (May 2009)

Torta Pascualina (Easter cake) my first time making a pastry from scratch.

As a naturally converted vegetarian, I have recently contemplated testing the vegan in me for a week.  Let’s just say I am still pondering that decision until I just naturally decide I’m ready.  That’s how I became a vegetarian.  Well, let me explain a bit further.

I never watched a movie on the meat industry.  It was a conscious decision but I really just lost a taste for red meat then chicken followed, then tuna, and then eggs.  Don’t get me wrong, I ate meat along the way but slowly but surely stopped eating it all together.     I was aware eating meat was cruel to animals yet I just didn’t crave the meat anymore. And I am a foodie!

I love food! I enjoy making the food, watching the food being made, and even taking pictures of food.  Note, my almost vegan (it has egg) Argentine torta pascualina (Easter cake) that I made for the first time last year.   I digress. So I love food.   I wish sometimes I could be a food photographer.   I love thinking of how to make more vegan pastries for my friends especially those who are trying to lose weight.  No just kidding, I just don’t believe in diets.

Anyways, it’s not a loss as foodie but more of a gain, not in gaining weight but in thinking of even more creative ideas and recipes for my vegetarian lifestyle.  So, I think of all of these ways to make dishes more healthy. I wish I can have more time to cook.  Either way,  I have make time because I don’t like frozen packaged food.  Plus, I grew up on very natural diet. No processes foods,  canned food, any junk food existed in my home.   Maybe there were chips for parties but it was never in my home on a regular basis.  But being a vegan sounds so interesting except for maybe one solid reason, no milk.

Yeah, milk was a staple in my home:  milk in the morning, milk at the night.  Then, as an athlete, milk and cereal at night as a snack became a staple, mostly because all of us athletes went through the snacks like crazy.  Milk with cookies, milk with tea, it was the best friend of this foodie.  How can I go vegan w/o milk?  Maybe rice milk?  Nope.  Soy milk?  Tastes not real, but maybe tomorrow I’ll try almond milk.  Boo.  No, moo.

Song

Oh! To be a flower
Nodding in the sun,
Bending, then upspringing
As the breezes run;
Holding up
A scentbrimmed cup,
Full of summer’s fragrance to the summer sun.

Oh! To be a butterfly
Still, upon a flower,
Winking with its painted wings,
Happy in the hour.
Blossoms hold
Mines of gold
Deep within the farthest heart of each chaliced flower.

Oh! To be a cloud
Blowing through the blue,
Shadowing the mountains,
Rushing loudly through
Valleys deep
Where torrents keep
Always their plunging thunder and their misty arch of blue.

Oh! To be a wave
Splintering on the sand,
Drawing back, but leaving
Lingeringly the land.
Rainbow light
Flashes bright
Telling tales of coral caves half hid in yellow sand.

Soon they die, the flowers;
Insects live a day;
Clouds dissolve in showers;
Only waves at play
Last forever.
Shall endeavor
Make a sea of purpose mightier than we dream today?

Amy Lowell

Thank you Amy Lowell for such sweet words.  So I dedicated this blog to poetry month and to earth day of course, but more than anything I would like to highlight our British counterparts on their endeavors with a beautiful design of a wind turbine in form of a flower.    Particularly, I would like to commend the architect, Tonkin Liu who thoughtfully made the wind turbine even more green.

This work of art is made out of sheet  metal and lights shine out of three mini off grid wind turbines with different shades of red depending on the speed of the wind.  Amazing and innovative.  It’s  frame and petals are made of galvanized steel and illuminated by LED lights.   How green and creative can it get?

It gets better.  This initiative hopes to creative 1,100 more jobs with modern business park initiatives.  Practical and beautiful, now that’s perfect to me.

Work of art for sustainable good