on the bathroom mirror, Portland, Oregon, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Monthly Archives: August 2010
You Will Always Look Pretty
August 31, 2010 – 10:38 am
Dream lab for Fall
August 26, 2010 – 2:46 pm
Jen and I had no plans for Dream Lab Fall 2010, but over the last few weeks we’ve noticed that our conversations are drifting more and more towards the power of courage, gratitude and community.
Courage. What if you knew you could be brave, right here, right now?
Gratitude. What if you believed deep down you already have everything you need?
Tribe. What if you didn’t have to do it alone?
We’re wondering if you would be interested in a Dream Lab course for Fall that focused on these three themes. Some elements of the Lab would be the same–how can we do Dream Lab without our Love Letters, for example? But we’d introduce some new features–like weekly dares, a special day for rituals as well as a shared space for community conversation and connection.
Please send us a big YES! in the subject line to [email protected] or comment below if you would be interested in a lab like this this Fall.
belly polaroids*
August 23, 2010 – 8:59 pm
belly polaroids, Manzanita, Oregon, photos by Andrea Jenkins (Hula Seventy) Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Delighted to see these polaroids of my belly that Hula Seventy took when we were in Oregon last month. She is a master with that SX-70!
In other news, really excited about all the people enrolling in the August 30th Mondo Beyondo course! We are going to have some fabulous new interviews interviews this time around with Danielle La Porte, Gluten Free Girl, Kelly Rae Roberts, Cami Walker and more… !
goin’ granola*
August 20, 2010 – 9:12 am
granola, berkeley, CA, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
I suppose it’s official. I’m a card-carrying member of Berkeley now. Just made my first batch of homemade granola! (Thanks for inspiring me Rachel Cole! She made me the best granola of my life)
Update: Since so many of you asked, here is the recipe! (Thanks again Rachel!) It’s sketchy and imprecise, because well, that’s the fun of it. You can put almost anything you like into it beyond the oats. Just check out the bin food section of your grocery store and see what looks good.
This is what I put in mine:
oats
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds
raw almonds
coconut shavings (big pieces, not the shredded kind)
(other options could be walnuts, dried fruit, flax seeds, etc.)
Preheat the oven to 350 or 375 degrees and when it’s hot, start toasting each item separately in the oven. That’s the real trick. Since they all have different cooking times, it’s helpful to toast each thing on a cookie sheet one at a time and keep adding them to a big bowl. (For example, the coconut took no time at all to get golden brown while the oats took the longest)
For the oats, I put several pats of butter in there and a a few sprinkles of sea salt.
Just keep checking on your cookie sheet and shuffling them around with a spatula to get them to toast evenly.
*My big complaint about store-bought granola and muesli is that they are WAY too sweet. And in the case of granola, too crunchy as well. This brew has no sugar, so for a bit of sweetness, I like to eat mine with some vanilla soy (or almond milk) or yogurt with some honey. (You can also put a bit of honey on the almonds as you toast them for extra yumminess)
Bon Appetit!
Mondo Beyondo One year later*
August 14, 2010 – 3:21 pm
Caterpillar, Inverness, CA, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
It has been one year since we launched our first Mondo Beyondo e-course And we are so proud of what has unfolded, both for ourselves and for our students.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Mondo Beyondo list, we make a list of the most outrageous things we can dream of having in our lives… Where would you like to travel? What would you like to learn? Who would you like to meet? What would you like to cultivate? Where would you like to grow? By stretching ourselves into new territory this way, we calibrate our sense of what’s possible and uncover dreams we didn’t know we had. The process is intuitive and inspiring and serious magic tends to unfold from these sessions. Real life magic.
Since the first session I have suggested, “have Alice Waters teach me to cook” as one of my examples of something outrageously wonderful to dream of. Her famous restaurant Chez Panisse is in my neighborhood and her renowned Edible Schoolyard is down the street from my house. We swim in Alice Waters so to speak. 
I was surprised when I wrote it down because I never knew that learning to cook was a dream of mine. It was one of those dreams that surfaced from somewhere deep in my psyche and I have been curious about it all year.
Lesson #1, Simple pasta, caramelized onion, garlic, olive oil, parsley, basil, Berkeley, CA, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
A year later, a wonderful new friend and I hatched a scheme. We would do a trade. She would get coaching and I would get a lesson in canning my favorite early girl tomatoes. This plan then got a bit more elaborate when she recently offered to come to my house to teach me the fundamentals of cooking, a curriculum she is building, and one which I am grateful to be the guinea pig.
As I grocery shopped for our first lesson yesterday, I remembered that she used to be a chef at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters restaurant. My Mondo Beyondo dream had come true! in an even better package: in the form of Samin and a wonderful new friendship.
nesting dolls, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
One of the things I’ve learned in the process of teaching Mondo Beyondo this year is that some dreams live inside other dreams. Ideas that might seem outrageous or unnecessary actually have deeper, more precious dreams living inside of them. I get the image of nesting dolls. Inside my more outrageous dream of cooking with Alice Waters lived my dream to learn to cook simple, beautiful food. Inside that dream lives a dream that is about community and connectedness, nourishing family and tradition, and having more simple joy and pleasure in my life.
This Mondo Beyondo dream of learning to cook is like a missing puzzle piece… and with it, I am beginning to see the larger picture of my life more clearly. I am creating home.
Ben’s happy toast, Berkeley, CA, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Our fall Mondo Beyondo session begins August 30th! We’d love to have you dreaming with us! You can register here.
And if you have taken Mondo Beyondo in the last year, what has unfolded for you? New jobs? other adventures? We would love to know how you are doing!
Congratulations Ben!
August 14, 2010 – 9:29 am
Ben, by Tara Whitney, Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Ben just graduated from his first year of preschool! This is the note that his teacher sent him home with yesterday. Call it hormones but it made me cry. Something about your child being seen in the world is profound.
Ben,
Thank you for always remembering the rules,
making up funny songs and being a wonderful dancer.
With love,
Sylvia
I have a feeling that even when Ben is a grownup, people will be acknowledging him for the same stuff. That and his extraordinary empathy and buddha wisdom. Just sayin.
Color Me Katie dances with strangers*
August 13, 2010 – 12:14 pm
dancing with strangers from katie sokoler on Vimeo.
I just adore this girl. Her blog, her photographs, her street art- it’s all pure delight. This video sums up what she does really well and is a great reminder that we must delight ourselves first and then others will be delighted. (I think SARK said that a while back.
Flying Lessons: Tips + Tricks to Help Your Creative Biz Soar
August 5, 2010 – 2:29 pm
Kelly Rae’s e-book is finally complete! If one of your Mondo Beyondo dreams is to start a creative business (or grow the one you already have) I highly recommend downloading her series called Flying Lessons. It has all the info you need for how to get started, market, social network the heck out of, and just generally take your creative business to a new place.
She is a generous and wonderful teacher and she is spilling the beans on all the wisdom and expertise she has gained over the years. I just got a copy and I am blown away by how much good stuff is in there! Rock on Kelly Rae and all you talented folks who are have creative businesses!
Leave the URL to your etsy store or web site in the comments so we can check you out!
Photos of Us by Tara Whitney*
August 4, 2010 – 7:30 am
Now I get it. I see the gift the photographer can bring. A way of reflecting your life back to you in a beautiful way, allowing you to celebrate the sweetness you might have overlooked. What a gift! Tara Whitney photographed us a couple of months ago when she was passing through the bay area and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. We will be covering the blank wall above the couch with enlargements galore. So excited to fill our walls with these images. Thank you Tara!
