making juice being bipolar and keeping it together

A couple months back, I was lucky enough to find a second hand Greenstar twin gear juicer. These machines are amazing, and on the professional juicer scale. Along with making fresh juices from grasses, sprouts, fruits, and vegetables, they also make delights such as sorbet, nut butters, soup stocks, and nut and seed milk. All from whole foods, with no additives.

The two main things I'm using mine for right now are vegetable juicing, and nut milk.

The juices I make are almost all vegetable based because, let's face it, vegetables, especially dark leafy green ones, contain many more times the minerals and nutrients of fruits, without the sugar factor. A typical juice for me would include:

grapefruit

lemon

parsley

chioga beets

kale

spinach

celery

cucumber

dandelion greens

and chard

juice samples from various batches

Nut milks are so easy to make, and I find grinding them in the twin gears pulls out more flavour than blending the nuts with water and then straining the mixture through a nut milk bag.

Soaked organic unpasteurized raw almonds and brazil nuts getting ready to be juiced along with 4 cups of alkaline water.

Awesome whole food nut milk. It's interesting knowing everything that went into the milk you pour on your morning cereal.

My diet has been fairly alkaline for the past 6 months- with no caffiene, alcohol, fermented foods, dairy, meat, processed sugar, wheat, or fruits high on the glycemic index. Basically, it's a cleanse diet, but one you'd stick to for life. If you're interested in finding out more, please check out the alkaline food chart provided by the most amazing, Alkaline Sisters. The reason I took up this diet is because it was recommended to me as a supplement to medications, exercises, and therapy I already partake in for treatment of my Bipolar 1, which I was diagnosed with a few years back. This diet is recommended for numerous other ailments such as depression, excema, psoriasis, rosacea, acne, cancer, and GI tract issues, where it has shown that, if followed rigorously, has many benefits.

On the alkaline diet, sweets are quite shunned, but I have managed to find some okay replacements that are quite healthy and still lower on the glycemic index; these being fresh, organic figs, dates, dried sour cherries, and dried cranberries. Frozen berries are also a nice treat. Coconut water, coconut cream, coconut milk, and extra virgin coconut oil, also make great additives to smoothies.

shop sale

autumn shop update

Hi! hello, how's your fall going?

I've got a little etsy shop update for you.

All of these items are currently in the shop, and there's tonnes more to come.

Happy Thursday!

shop update

Some simple and elegant pieces I have recently added to the shop

vintage 1950's algo taupe lilac party dress

vintage 1940's caramel cream mink stole

vintage 1950's bright white jonathan logan party dress

vintage 1970's cream crochet crop top

vintage 1960's snow white mod blouse

vintage 1950's cream and sugar peter pan collar blouse

tattoo family

For the past month, I have been getting tattooed weekly, about 3 hours per session. We are working on my second sleeve, and I say we, because this is a husband and wife collaboration. I have been married to one of the country's top tattoo artists for the past five years, and we have been working together for the past three. I am what is known as a tattooist's assistant, meaning I set up the stations, take down the stations, get the machines ready, and do all the sterilizing. It's a neat job in the sense you get to meet a lot of interesting people and get to see a lot of different art projects.

I thought in this post I would take a second to show all of the lovely tattoos I have been collecting. It is super nice that they are free, but trust me, I have to do a lot of work to get them going, because being the wife of a tattoo artist is not an easy job- we are always the last to get work done!

My most recent work is my second sleeve- my right arm all the way from the back of my shoulder blade down to the top of my hand. We have fully outlined and shaded it, and just last week started the colouring process. It's full of giant peony flowers and song birds. Here is the first splash of colour.

Tiger with a dunce cap- over the front of my knee, shin, and the front of my thigh. I actually got this done by the talented Dave Cummings of PSC in Montreal. This is the only word I have tattooed on my body, and the only word I will ever get. It is a special tribute tattoo to our silly pet cat.

My right leg is covered in various pieces, both large and small. You can see the full tiger over my knee cap. I also have a rocket ship, the jantzen diving girl, a heart with an empty banner, and some more on the back of my leg.

Yeah, I think the secret is out. I really love tigers a lot. There is a white tiger at the SF zoo named Oden. He swims, and I think that is just rad. Trevor and I go down to Sf a few times a year, and so the last visit we did in March I got this tiger head done by Scott Sylvia of Black Heart Tattoos.

And then there is the snake and roses. This tattooo was a pain, FOR REAL. The back of the calf and the pit behind the knee are no fun. I tried getting drunk and being tattooed for the outline of this piece and it didn't work for pain at all. Please don't try it- it'll only make the pain worse, ha! Anyways, Trevor managed to zap this guy in in 4 sessions.

venomous snake head close up, upon finishing.

My next pieces include a full back piece of a tiger, a large lotus on my throat chakra, and more peony flowers over my bum.

I hope you enjoy tattoos as much as I do.