Blueberry segmentS

Selfishness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sun, 07 May 2017 12:32:00 +0000

(via: Mobile Ghost)

I've been wanting a new shower head for about 2 years. The one we have since we moved here works, we can get showered ok, but the water flow is not good enough and it is getting destroyed. This is something I know would improve my quality of life at home, yet I haven't bought one yet, instead I have loads of other shit I've been buying since.

How is it, that if I've wanted a new shower head for 2 years, a handbag - that I don't need - seems more important or relevant than the shower head? What the fuck? I feel crap all the time for things like that. Why is it that in my brain, other things that I really don't need, but want, seem more important to something I know would be amazing...

I don't know. I'm on my period, cramping like crazy and sad. I know I'm selfish. I've been trying for a long time to correct it. I've tried so many things. Yet I find myself over and over again making selfish choices.

Do you think humans can stop being selfish?

♥

It's all me

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 08:49:00 +0000

- via The Rad Alien -

It doesn't make sense... to believe that someone, a therapist, a partner, a friend, a pill... will fix your life. That's what I've wanted, every time I've felt miserable, just for something or someone to fix me.

I told today my therapist... I feel like I'm floating, swirling around the main living plane. Just, imagine, the living plane as an infinite cylinder, well, I'm the satellite orbiting around it, just chilling, isolated, sad.

I haven't told many people but I feel disgusting. I've gained a lot of weight - "but you look fine!" everyone would say though. I've gained 10Kg in the past 6 months. For some it may not seem like much but I don't recognize my body. I don't recognize who I am anymore. I barely fit some clothes and mostly don't or feel terrible in them.

I've been living in my pyjamas for the past three weeks - literally, and I've washed them twice, yeah, only twice. At least they are comfy, but at the end of the week they all reek - a sign that I'm human at last.

I am lost in space and time, and the only person that can help me is myself - FUCK. But how can I help myself when I feel sad, miserable, useless and disgusting? How do I get back to any routine? Going to the gym for 15 minutes is already a torture, I feel every inch of my fat moving around and disgust myself yet again. My body aches, my mind aches... everything aches.

Also I have a sore throat, why not. But at least one positive thing has come out of this, I've rearranged and decorated my desk, so now I have a place to sit and feel comfortable. It's something.

I miss my other self, the one I once was.

♥

Just Skin

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sun, 26 Mar 2017 17:05:00 +0000

♥

I'm struggling

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 11:51:00 +0000

It's been a few rough months.

I'm in a very dark place. Most things don't make sense anymore. I'm lost in space, and it looks like there's nothing to hold on to whilst floating.

You can be loved, you can be praised, you can be social, you can be fake. I usually have a curtain, it's not to hide in but to try and fix myself. I love my normal (non psychologically affected) self, but it's been a good while since I've been her.

Floating isn't that bad... but I don't wanna float forever, I just wan to get my brain fixed, and function as the human I should be. But, what does that even mean? The human I should be? I still haven't even defined what I should be... everything is so unknown, so trivial, I'm lost.

I hope just writing some of my thoughts will help myself. Mostly not, but, I know there's at least one person out there who can relate... and it's fucking awful, isn't it?

♥

Starting ballet at 27

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 23:00:00 +0000

Eloooooo!

Long time no see. I've kinda forgotten about the blog for the past few months, too much work to do, too many worries... It's been a time of change again for me. I loved working at Lush with all my heart, loved the people, loved the place, loved everything but working 6 days a week, having a rotating schedule and being unable to fully disconnect. So I did what I do best, I kept on my quest for happiness, and thus, I quit.

Right now I'm just floating in universe, waiting for some injuries [that kept me on leave for two months] to heal. On September the 5th I started ballet. During my teens I fell in love with [specially] classic ballet, and I became obsessed. I managed to convince my mother, when I was 16, to take like a crash course with 6 year olds for a week. Ever since I felt like it's something I would have greatly enjoyed. At the time tho I was really busy with school and my extracurriculars. Now that I'm 27, sort of an stablished adult, I decided it was time to try it out! And so I did.

This is the first time, in my life, that I'm enjoying exercising... I've never ever enjoyed doing sport, until I tried ballet. Oh la la, it makes me feel amazing, I sweat like crazy, I'm getting strong and working on my flexibility, and I always want to train more! To me it's a really odd feeling, but I enjoy it despite.

I, in class, feel stupid some times, you feel like you're doing something beautiful... until you take a look in the mirror and realize you look like a fool XD But you can see improvements quickly, and honestly, after the first couple of classes all my fear and shame just went out the window, I was there to learn and be able to play something beautiful with my body.

Body confidence has also been big with this, I'm not that big, I think, but I'm the biggest in class, at least I'm not the oldest [by far] XD I've been battling with my body for the past 4 years, and I, at last, have found a form of exercise that I enjoy and want to do!

This is all for now, maybe next I'll show you my fave items for class as a beginner!

See ya later, alligators.

♥

Me Luna Menstrual Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 11:35:00 +0000

So, let's talk vaginas.

A while back, about 5 years ago, I tried my first menstrual cup, a Lady Cup. Lady cup only offers two different sizes, one for prior vaginal birth and one for afterwards. But... don't you think that really is limiting to women? I mean... is there only two sizes of vagina? Of course not, the vagina is flexible and stuff, but, 2 sizes? When I got my Lady Cup I got the smaller one but it was too tall for me! I have recently found that I have a medium-low cervix and that's why that cup didn't really fit me; it was uncomfortable and a bit was always poking out. I also have a neural condition in which the nerve endings on the opening of my vagina are really, really sensible, and so for me was even more uncomfortable and even painful due to the continuous rubbing - in case you're interested, it's called vulvodynia of which I have vulvar vestibulitis, just google it folks XD.

· M E L U N A, M Y S A V I O U R ·

Since the Lady Cup was ruled out for me and all the other brands only had 2 sizes too I assumed I would never be able to wear a menstrual cup! And so for the past 5 years I used tampons... But it looks like a brand thought about the fact that 2 cup sizes don't fit all!
Me Luna is the genius brand that came to that conclusion and thus have lots of combinations!

- packaging with a custom starter set -

They have 2 lengths, regular and shorty, 4 sizes, S, M, L and XL, 3 firmness levels, soft, regular and sport and 4 different grip options, basic, ball, stem and ring, that makes 96 different combinations, but going down to just length and size that's already 8 different sizes, if you take into account the firmness level that's already 24 different combinations.... WHICH IS GREAT!

- Sizing of all the Me Luna combinations via reusablemenstrualcup -

As I had trouble before with menstrual cups I just ordered a few based on what I knew: I have light periods and a medium to low cervix and strong pelvic muscles. Given that I first ordered one of each firmness, the soft is not pictured because my muscles just squished it right away. I got a soft small with ball grip, it was too long and too soft, so I gave it away, and my two shorty Smalls, both with ball grip and one in normal and another one in sport firmness, those two worked like a charm!

- L to R shorty S classic ball, shorty S sport ball, shorty M classic ball, shorty L sport basic -

So, once I knew that shorty was the way to go for me I tried them on my period. I have a fairly light period - maybe used 3 to 4 light tampons a day, I consider that pretty light - but for the heavier day of my period, which was day 2 or 3, I don't quite recall, I overflowed it in 5h whilst at work! it was no big deal, I went to the bathroom, cleaned up with some biodegradable intimate wipes and got it up again. But I wanted to be able to have it on for 6+ hours, at least 10, so I went back and I ordered a couple more from the shorty range.

- Differences in diameter between S, M and L in the shorty range -

I got then two more shorties, a Medium in regular firmness and a Large in sport firmness as it was going to be wider and my vagina really swells up when I'm on my period, so I wanted it to be squish free! Those two worked again perfectly! I've used them both, and as I know when I get more flow I just work with that. On my latest period I basically used the M and the L and it was great, no discomfort, nothing poking out and I was basically able to forget about my period! I'm also really glad that the L I got without grip - in the shorty range you have to custom request it if you want a basic grip - because it's as long as the S with the ball grip, which works out perfectly for me, because that's all the space I can afford XD

- Squish test between classic and sport firmness -

On the picture above you can clearly see the firmness difference between a normal one and a sport one! The sport one may require more experience to get in and out, but it's not that hard. Also, if you get a basic grip I really recommend practising and watching a few videos on how to do it without pain, as it's harder to get in and out. You may think that the grip is not that important, but it actually is!

· H O W T O G E T I T I N A N D R E M O V E I T ·

There are many methods out there on how to get it in, but my favorite folds are the 7-fold and the punch-down even though in most menstrual cup leaflets recommend the c-fold. The c-fold is the very first fold I ever tried and it was painful and hard! Since I've found out about the 7 and the punch down my life has changed for the better, that's for sure. They are the easiest to work with as it's narrower.

- Different folding methods for the cup via Bunnie's Choice -

And about the removing process Bree from Precious Star Pads has a really good video on how to effectively remove it without hurting yourself because as she states in the video it's really easy to force your urethra and that's the real painful part! You can check her video here and I'll just insert it here:

♥

Saving and OCD

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 07:30:00 +0000

The forever struggle

(via: lowohs' tumblr)

All my life, at least since I was a teen, I've struggled with saving. I had never known why, until I was diagnosed with OCD and it just clicked. I'm not trying to pull out an excuse or some sort of bullshit, but it was the main reason why. That doesn't mean I won't save ever, just that it's like hundreds of times harder than for other humans.

It all started with my first paycheck when I was 17. Up 'til that moment I had a savings account in which my parents and I used to put a bit of money each month so when I was an adult I had some money to spend and be more able to become emancipated. But then my first paycheck came and, as I had savings, I didn't mind spending it all in just shit. All sorts of crap I didn't need but wanted.

Over the years it became a habit, and I also started digging into the savings my parents and I had accumulated into my savings account. My obsessions grew without realizing, and from clothing to makeup to buying compulsively nail polish I eventually ran out of money. At that point I was 22 I think, I was working at my college and had a small salary, I was still living with my parents and I had almost zero responsibilities. I would be waiting for my paycheck to spend it all again in more and more nail polish, of which I only used - and got to use over the years - a really small fraction. Each month, for months, I would just desire to get paid so I could just order more and more online, and receive the packages, be uber hyped on the meantime thinking of all the packages that were on my way, and eventually got them on a box and never use them.

Nail polishes weren't always my obsession, but they were for a year or two, one of the most expensive and intrusive obsessions I've had. At that time I didn't really realize I was obsessed and that my need to buy desperately was unhealthy, instead I would just get upset if someone just opened their mouth about it.

Over the years I've struggled with some other spending obsessions, and recently have learned that is a usual trouble for people with OCD. Some things that help me save, or at least not spend all my money at once is just leaving my debit card at home, hiding my credit card and not being able to see it regularly, and withdrawing my monthly expenses cash every end of the month. In the beginning I had to have my bf carry my cards so I wouldn't be able to use them as I was scared of myself getting out of control. I asked him to change my paypal password so I couldn't use that either. Right now I'm at that better place where I can know where they are, I have full control of my paypal and my cards, but I just don't carry them. Carrying cash instead of cards is also such a huge help. When you have physical money it's so much harder to let it go! When I buy online it's so easy, I just have to get hyper and click some buttons and wait at home for a beautiful package to come to me, but with cash you touch the money, you get to see how much you're spending and what does mean.

All in all I would say learning how to save with OCD is a journey, a long ass journey, a necessary journey if you have spending compulsions. This doesn't sum up, at all, my journey. I've had so many ups and downs and in betweens it would take me posts and posts about it, but I think I draw the main idea. I want you to know, if you struggle with the same issue, that you're not alone, but it's essential that you are aware of it and try to take steps to improve.

♥

Start, purge, repeat

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 00:21:00 +0000

I want to change the world. I want to do it so bad. I've wanted to for so long, but I've never known how. I still don't, don't get me wrong, but I feel I'm working on the right direction.

I've been purging my life, my possessions, myself. I've been purging. And it feels, oh, so good. I've gotten rid of stuff, my mane, needs, inquisitive thoughts, unnecessary needs... I want to change the world, but before I can I need to change myself.

You'll see I've removed some (lots of) posts from my blog because... change. Change is the basis of everything, I'd say. That's what I think now, of course, and I haven't always thought like that, I don't know if I'm gonna think like that forever to be honest, but as for now it is.

The content I've removed I see unnecessary on my life right now, it doesn't make me happy, it doesn't really align with how I'm thinking. I know many people would just leave it there for the sake of memories and stuff, but I need to purge, I need to align myself and my thoughts.

Change is the only constant in life, and the past year I've grown so darn much. I feel like I'm finally becoming myself. I'm happier than I've been in so long, I'm doing things that make me happy instead of what I'm supposed to do or what society dictates is the expected of me. I'm disappointing my family - because of the latter point - I'm finding myself, I'm starting to feel comfortable in my skin, on my own, with my mind, with my loves (Eric and the girls). For the past 6 months I've only taken steps towards my happiness, although not everyone sees it like so, but I don't really mind, I trust they'll some day understand or at least accept it.

I consider myself a pretty ignorant person. I don't know lots of things, I get lost in so many topics, I have a short attention span and usually get distracted by myself with just my train of thought. I want to learn more about the world because I want to change it, for the better. But what does that mean? I want to reflect upon that and other things in next posts, so I'll keep you posted.

Change,

don't be afraid to change,

be your true self.

Today in a song:

♥

Life update

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 10:29:00 +0000

SO!!! Long long time no see you guys! A lot has been going on for the past few months, so here you have a little recap:

- I got really depressed through the summer, with my sprained ankle, no job, no motivation, no movement... I was pooped and sad.

- On August I finally decided to go vegan, and can't understand why I didn't do it earlier.

- On September I randomly sent my CV to Lush, thinking I wouldn't hear back, and I got a job!

- Since October I've been working at Lush, and I am OVER THE MOON. I've loved lush for SO long that, getting to work there is like a dream come true.

- This week I got a new tattoo on my arm! yay!

- I shaved my head.... yep, I did XD and it's one of the best decisions I've ever taken. It may not be the hairstyle that suits me the most, but it's so darn comfortable! I don't have to do a damn thing to it... I get to wash it every 5 days or so instead of every other day, no fuzz, no combing, no styling... it's amazing, and for now I'm enjoying it. I'm gonna grow it a bit tho to see other short hairstyles with my face.

And that's all I can think of as for now. I'll try and keep you posted! Expect some tattoo and other updates and posts soon!

See ya later, alligators!

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Mental Health Issues | My Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 11:10:00 +0000

I wrote these a few months back, I should write some updates, but for now that's what you get!

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Traveling solo (and injured)

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 08:57:00 +0000

At the end of June I had booked a weekend trip to go on my own to either London, Oslo or Stockholm through Waynabox which is a nice service we've had here in Spain for a bit! The thing is, one week before that I sprained my ankle pretty badly, and after a few days of desperation, crying and anxiety I finally decided on going! On my own, for a long weekend, to Stockholm, with my crutches and a backpack. BAAAAM!

(On my way to Stockholm!)

The idea of doing a trip on my own came to me as I was feeling better mentally on the past few months. In fact, a therapist I had a few years ago suggested it to me as a chance of growing and improving mentally, and it hadn't crossed my mind until this year. I'm a very dependent person, I love relying on, basically, Eric, and know that I have someone to lean on (literally and figuratively XD). This trip, although 3 days long, was a big thing for me, it was going to be my first trip alone, and ended up being my first trip alone with crutches, greeeeeeat.

The experience was diverse. The first day I was happy-sad, excited and anxious... there was gonna be no one once I got to Stockholm in which to rely on to how to get to the city, for example. I know it sounds stupid, but those things I didn't realize until I did this... Once I got to the hostel and everything I felt pretty realized and good, although tired of almost 4h of plane (the longest for me) and the hour from Arlanda to Stockholm center.

The first night I felt lonely, the loneliest I've felt in many years. But it was great after that first night, although with crutches I had a great time, I enjoyed so much Stockholm that I just wanna go right back. I decided to step outside of my comfort zone, and then did it again, and I can't even begin to describe how good it felt.

I highly encourage you to take a trip alone, even if it just for a day, or three, like I did, now I feel much more confident on traveling alone, I in fact want to, and learning to be on your own can be weird at first, but great in the end.

First sight of Stockholm from the Hotel

First meal! A vegan lunchbox

Inside of the City Hall

A cheerful cherub outside the city hall

Entering Djurgården

The Nordiska Museet at Djurgården

Pretty square on Gamla Stan

A kanelbulle the size of my head

View of Djurgården from a boat

Mandatory snack on boat ride - Stockholm, you've got delicious chips!

On my bus back to the airport :(

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Arrested development

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 21:37:00 +0000

For the past month I've been suffering of a really bad luck. After I got my new bike - a gorgeous 6ku nebula 2 - I fell off the first day I took it out... I was crossing the tram rails and one of the tires got stuck on a rail... so I went flying, got knocked out and saved by people around the crossing... that was at the end of May, just a few days before we went on a weekend trip to Milan... it was awful, got stitches on my chin, a burn on the knee from the asphalt and a pain on the shoulder that's still lingering, improving, but it still lingers... mada**ka

I got pretty anxious as walking was difficult due to the soreness and the swelling on the knee and we were going, two days after, on a walking trip... We managed to go tho, Eric, my rock, got me on a better state of mind and off we went to Milan! After that, June came by and I decided to quit my job to find my passion, and as a kick starter planned a weekend trip for myself alone to Stockholm the same week I was quitting.

So the weekend before, off we are to my parents house with the girls, on the car, when we just stupidly hit the front car... ours got pretty messed up - let's say we now don't own a car - but the other one was fine and we all were just fine as the collision was at a really, really, absurdly slow speed. Not a good starter but, well, shit happens. Now fast forward, the same day at my parent's house, I'm just walking down the stairs to the garage with my father to pick up the WiFi pass and I fell on the last step 'cuz I freakin' thought I had arrived to the main ground... but nope... instead my big step got my left feet onto the corner of the real last step and my ankle just twisted to the side doing the most terrible crack I've ever heard... afterwards lots of crying and yelling my ankle is swelling up like crazy, got a hematoma and I can't even use that leg. The result was a pretty bad ankle sprain... one month without walking... and the next week was supposed to travel, alone, to Stockholm, to again walk.

So at this point I got really really low spirits, I was just so utterly bummed out... it's like all my plans were getting ruined each and every time by injuring myself really painfully. I got a couple of crotches and after a few days without barely moving and not standing on that foot off I went to Stockholm... the utter adventure XD I was pooped, like, really pooped, the days before I was about to just blow it and stay home... but forced myself to go and have a good time, and I did! The crutches were a pain in the ass but got me a better sit on the plain at least XD

I don't know... after a month my ankle still hurts, I'm still on bed rest and using crutches when I need to move around and in two weeks start rehabilitation. This month was supposed to be my kick off month, the best month, getting active, enjoying the outside, doing lots of things... but instead got bed rest. I'm still trying to stay positive, but I'm so bored of being home, of having something that hurts... hope to improve with the weeks so I can achieve other plans, but for now... bed rest it is -.- daaaaamn

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My New Tattoo by Rebeca López w/ video

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Mon, 04 May 2015 04:30:00 +0000

Hi there guys, today I wanted to share with you my new tattoo and my experience getting it done! This is my third tattoo, and the biggest and more visible of them all! I am pretty stocked with how it turned out and really glad that this time I went for a specific artist instead of going anywhere to get it done.

The tattooer, Rebeca López, of which I spoke on my latest tattoo post is an amazing artist and I really enjoyed watching her work. It was a full on 4:30 hours of work hands on, we had planned for a 3h session to finish it, but when I arrived she came with the idea of the black leaves instead of detailed ones, and that's what took most of the extra time! Anyhow, we wanted to finish it the same day and we stayed 'til 9PM when the shop was long closed and we were the only ones in the parlour.

As we stayed up until it was far closed, Rebeca busted up some instrumental music that made the experience even nicer. By then we'd been on to it for three hours and a half and he was leaving the least painful details for least, so it all made it become a really pleasing end for this large and time consuming tattoo!

After it was done we were both in love. The peonies are her design with my measurement restrictions and the triangle figure is a shape I found on the internet about a babylonian cosmology interpretation and it got a deep transcendental meaning to me. As for the whole, the meaning will remain with me, but it has tons. I love my new tattoo, and will for sure be getting more work done by the amazing Rebeca!

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Cycling Barcelona . Looking for Art #2

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 05:46:00 +0000

I love cycling around Barcelona and finding little art gems around. It's so ridiculously fullfilling, when I find a piece that I really like! The two last ones I specially love, the first says "more sea means more sailing" and the last one is just amazingly delicate and detailed! I love how artists take over abandoned walls and make them pieces of art that anyone can enjoy by just walking around.

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Mental Health Issues | Sadness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 06:04:00 +0000

Sometimes I like to doodle about feelings and how I may feel or have felt in the past. It's weird how getting something graphically can really help you or at least make you feel better about it.

Hope you liked it and don't forget to keep checking out to see the rest of the series, at least this illustration/graphic is part of a 9 page doodle/text I did.

See you around!

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Cycling Barcelona . Looking For Art

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 05:30:00 +0000

I used to love photography and art. I still love them, but they are hobbies that with the media revolution I lost touch with, but lately I've been craving picking up my bike and discover every little corner of where I live trying to find some nice pieces of street art, which I love a good piece of. There's also some facades I couldn't resist. Enjoy.

· T H E S T R E E T A R T ·

I hope to find more gems around soon and keep exploring my city.

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OCD problems #1

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 05:30:00 +0000

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First Doodle Post

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 06:30:00 +0000

Sometimes I like to doodle around and make some sketches, drawings and stuff, and though it would be nice to post some of them in here! So welcome to my first post on the doodler's corner! This is one of my fave characters to work with, so I think you'll be seeing it more around.

Hope you enjoy seeing some of my drawings :)

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Mental Health

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 06:30:00 +0000

Sometimes it's hard to function, as a human being. Sometimes it's hard to focus. Some other times it's just hard to even be.

This WOT pretends to be beginning of a new kind of post. I've often thought about writing just thoughts I have. I like so many things and dislike so many others. But mental health is an issue I deal with on a day to day basis, and I think I somehow can contribute to something I think no one talks about... or at least not often... as with many other issues, that keep getting pushed away by the vanity and the pretty things...

With this I don't mean to make a depressing section on my blog, but to keep a light up to anyone who has a mental illness or suffers from any kind of mental issue. I like to write by hand some times, and some others I like to just illustrate situations that really frustrate me, so this section, which is going to have its own tab will have anything from regular written posts to drawings to handwritten text.

I know this is not the typical thing one would expect, and even less from the sort of content I've been writing about for the last year and a half, but I think this could be a great experience for me and for others to see mental health and illnesses as something different, common, that can be talked about, that has to be spoken about.

With this I will leave you with the intrigue of what's to come in this section of my blog, but expect something soon.

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5 Things: Currently Listening

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:30:00 +0000

· LANA DEL REY - BORN TO DIE ·

Ever since I heard blue jeans I fell in love with that song, but didn't really look more of Lana del Rey. This month I started looking for her music on Spotify and I hit jackpot! I love Born to die, even though I get scared of most of the songs and the vive alongside the album is really dark and creepy imo, but I love the melodies and her voice. In the list below you can find my faves! - a.k.a. the one's I usually keep on loop XD

· WARDRUNA ·

Eric introduced me to Wardruna last month, they are a - quoting wikipedia - musical project based on Nordic spiritualism and the runes of Elder Futhark, all in all is what I imagine vikings would be listening to! Each album is based on a set of runes and it's basically really good music to get focused or just relax! I've been loving getting them on background when at work.

· WASHED OUT - PARACOSM ·

I first found out about this album at a store! I saw the album and I thought it was gorgeous, and that I might even like the music - without having an idea whatsoever of what it sounded like, haha, like when you see a book and think it would be really awesome just for it's cover!. Then browsing through Spotify one day I found that cover, and I couldn't but to open it, and I really loved it! Again, really good music with beautiful melodies to get focused on something or to just relax.

· UNISONIC - LIGHT OF DAWN ·

I am a lover of most branches of metal, but specially power metal - think barroque music meets metal, it's the best way I can describe it! Unisonic was founded by Michael Kiske - former Helloween singer -, one of my all time favorite singers and one of the first I listened to - through Helloween - when I discovered metal alongside with Stratovarius, Blind Guardian and Edguy amongst others. Their first album was more on the heavy metal end, but their last one - Light of Dawn - is a whole ode to power metal, and I instantly loved it!

· THE OFFSPRING - RISE AND FALL, RAGE AND GRACE ·

I've liked The Offspring since my mid teens, when I became interested in more punk rock music and found The Offspring and Blink-182, they don't disappoint! This past week I thought about them and was browsing through their latest albums - since I hadn't listened to anything new of them since 2003, and stumbled upon this album. I loved it, as it usually happens with them, but I specially got stuck with 'You're gonna go far, kid' and I've had it on loop for the past 3 days at work XD

What have you been listening to lately?

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The Easiest Most Tasty Vegan Spelt Banana Bread!

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 05:30:00 +0000

One of my baking obsessions is banana bread. I've loved it ever since I first found about it, when I was about 21 - 4 years ago XD - and it's the only baking good I've kept going even in the periods that I wasn't actively baking! For the past couple of years I've been trying to introduce more wholesome meals and ingredients in my diet, and some of the things I did was using whole spelt flour as my baking flour of choice.

For the past few months I couldn't really get a banana bread to be good in all its senses: moist, tasty, sweet with some flares of saltiness and fluffy! It was always too dense or too dry or poor in taste or something... that was up until a couple of weeks ago when I finally made my perfect recipe! And today I want to share it with you, because it's just too delicious! This banana bread tastes amazing and I can say that it's even better than the one's I used to make with eggs and butter and the whole shebang!

· INGREDIENTS ·

· 1 + 3/4 cup whole spelt flour
· 1/2 cup brown sugar
· 1 tsp baking soda
· 1 tsp baking powder
· 2 tsp cinnamon - I know it's a lot, but it's part of what makes it delicious!
· 1/4 tsp coarse salt
· 2 ripe medium bananas
· 3/4 cup sweetened or unsweetened almond milk - depends on your sweet tooth!
· 1/4 cup olive or coconut oil
· 1 + 1/4 tsp vanilla extract - again, up to your taste!
· 1 tsp red wine or apple cider vinegar
· My chunks of choice: 3/4 cup stevia sweetened chocolate chunks + 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

· DIRECTIONS ·

· Preheat oven at 350ºF/175ºC and lightly grease a loaf tin or mould with some olive or coconut oil.
· In a big bowl combine all dry ingredients (flout, sugar, baking soda and powder, cinnamolt and salt) and mix with a spoon or spatula! Leave the chunks of choice aside for now!
· Make a well in the middle of the bowl.
· Mush the bananas - by hand - in the well.
· Add on top all other liquid/wet ingredients (oil, vanilla and vinegar) and mix again with a spoon or spatula!
· Once everything is kinda mixed - mix roughly until you don't see dry ingredients around - add your chunks of choice and mix just a bit! This time I used 3/4 cup of chocolate chunks and 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts - last time I only used 3/4 cup of chocolate chunks and it was still delicious!
· Place the loaf in the oven in the middle rack and bake for 40 to 45 minutes! Check at 40 to see how it's doing.
· Once is finally cooked leave it in the oven at least half an hour with the door open or just leave it outside.
· Enjoy!

Try it and tell me what you think! Of course everything is customisable to everyone's taste, you can opt out the chocolate chips or the walnuts or both! Maybe add hazelnuts or almonds instead, or plain without any extra! It will still taste amazing, I swear!

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Coconut Oil Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe (gluten free)

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 05:30:00 +0000

So, it might be a new topic on Blueberry segmentS but I've always been a huge baking lover, in fact i usually make some sort of healthified cake/bread to have for breakfast and stuff - used to do every week, but now is more sporadical. It has been ages since I've made cookies and even though I have half banana bread from last week, I was feeling like cookies! I don't buy cookies on the supermarket as I'm trying to cut on refined sugars and also because I hate not knowing more than half the ingredients!

I took Coulinary Couture's "Perfect Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies" and made them with my own twist - as per usual when "following" a recipe, hope you know what I mean! It calls for plain white flour but instead I used rice flour, I used more vanilla, a bit more of salt - plus a bit more for topping - didn't use the granulated sugar and substituted for a bit of vanilla liquid stevia and for the chocolate chips I used my stevia sweetened 70% black chocolate!

Also, I don't usually follow the recipes per se, I tend to just mix by hand the wet ingredients and then mix in the dry ones, I hate using more than one bowl if I can't avoid it! - yeah, lazy ass. They came out really really good. They really filled my cookie craving! They were fluffy yet crunchy, kinda chewy and with the perfect amount of saltiness and sweetness!

*By the way, have you seen my new silicone heart shaped spatula? It's from tiger and I love it! Really handy to take the cookies out of the baking sheet and to make me happy*

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar

10 drops vanilla liquid stevia

1 egg
2 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup stevia sweetened dark chocolate chunks

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC

- Prepare a couple of baking sheets, preferably with parchment paper - I didn't have so I rubbed some coconut oil on my one and only baking sheet that I reused once the first batch was done!

- In a large bowl mix the coconut oil, egg, sugar, stevia and vanilla extract with a whisk.

- Once whisked add baking soda, baking powder and salt and whisk again.

- Slowly add the flour - I did it at 1/4 of a cup batches - and mix it with a spatula (don't use the whisk as this mixture is about to get thick and sticky!).

- Chop the chocolate and add in the chunks to the mixture!

- Add scoops of 1 tablespoon to the baking sheet, leaving at least an inch between dough balls.

- Bake for 9 minutes - or until the edges start to brown.

- Let them cool a bit on the sheet and then transfer them to a wire rack - I used my oven rack.

- Preferably try not to eat them until they're cooled off!!!! Hardest task of them all, hahaha.

Let me know what you think if you make them!

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Random Loves | Board Games

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Hello my lovelies!

So playing "role" based board games is one of my all time favorite entertainments! Today I wanted to show you my top 5 games that I usually want to play over and over again. If you've never tried this kind of board game you're truly missing out! (Well, maybe you won't like it, but most of board games have sections where you can try'em, so it's nice to go look around and try some).

I started playing this kind of board games when I was 16 and my school friend group shifted, and so my new group introduced me to Risk. It was a whole new world to me, and I fell in love. Later on they showed me Bang, and I Bought my first role-playing board game called Zombies!!!. It was amazing finding out about this kind of harmless, easy and super fun entertainment whilst What all my "ex"-friends and other colleagues wanted to do was going partying and finding people to make out (like... what?), I was nothing like that and that's one of the main reason of my rift.

So here is my favorite board games!

Carcassone

A must! This one I could play all day long - no kidding - my boyfriend is sick of me just wanting to play to this. Also we have like a bazillion of the gazillion expansions it has and so it's even better! This one main objective is to build a town/country between all players, being each player looking for their wealth (a.k.a accumulating points) or trying to make the rest get less. It's really nice and you go on building castles, abbeys, roads and farm land! The concept is pretty simple but this game never gets old!

Munchkin

Oh la la, this game is HILARIOUS. The illustrations, names and monsters in it are all absurd and so darn funny! In this game you go "exploring" dungeons in which you can find monsters you'll have to fight, curses, instant attacks, etc... and you can also win treasures by killing the monsters and other special cards. The thing is that wins the one which reaches to 10 lives - you start with 1 and win them by killing monsters and with special cards - and you can have a class and a race with special features! To get to 10 lives is a simple concept, but as you approach them all the opponents will try really hard for you not to win! And so it's really fun and exhilarating all the time.

Mascarade

This is the newest one we've gotten, and it's already in the top selection! - just sayin' - This is mainly a game of confusion and memory in which you have to accumulate 13 coins to win. You start with 6 coins (I think) and a random card with a character, in the first round everyone shows its card and that's the moment when you have to make sure to know where every character is! In the next rounds players can switch their card with another player's (mixing them first so no one except him/her knows what's going on), look at their own character or announce they are a certain character - in which case may be told they are not by others making the announcer and themselves show the card they have - in order to win coins as their role states. Overall is quite an intricate game, but if you're up for it it's amazingly entertaining! Also the number of players can be between 2 and 12! which is amazing because you don't have to worry because you are too many to play! (what's more, the more players the better, at least is what we've experienced!)

Saboteur
In this game you play as a dwarf! Each player takes a card in which can be a "good" dwarf or a "bad" dwarf (a.k.a. a saboteur!), and the game consists in digging through a mine (building paths) in order to get to one of the 3 possible goal cards! Only one of the 3 possibilities hold a big chunk of gold (yeah, you know dwarves) and in between the "path" cards you can find prohibitions to construct which you can throw at other players, "release" cards for those prohibitions and explosion cards! The goal of the saboteur/s is to make it impossible to the good dwarfs to get to the gold! This game is super fun, and again never gets old!

Jungle speed
This game I have to warn you... it's kinda violent! XD You have a totem in the middle of the table and each player has an equal chunk of cards upside down. Then the players start getting cards from the top of their decks which have geometrical forms and combinations, when two players have the same figure in the card they have to reach for the totem! The one who got it first gives his/hers discarded cards to the one who lost the "combat". The goal of the game is to be left without cards! All figures are tricky and try to fool the eye so you have to be quick and a good observer! The violence part is, at least for me, that I always play with guys, and so... they reach REALLY hard for the totem, like in "I'm gonna slap your hand really hard" kind of way XD but it's super fun and I love it! just warn your friends to take off any rings and to trim their nails beforehand!

And these are my top 5 board games to play with my friends and family! I hope you got to know any new games or that this served as an introductory guide to fun and amazing board games!

Do you have any favorite board game to play with friends/family? Please tell me about it in the comments!

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DIY Watercolor mugs a la Poppytalk

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 05:00:00 +0000

So, a few days ago on Poppytalk I saw these amazing watercolor mugs! I really loved that it was so easy to create something so unique and cute! So I grabbed some nail polishes, a couple of white ceramic mugs I was still on hold of to draw on (never happened XD wanted to do it since last Christmas), a plastic dish and went ahead!

All you need is:
- White ceramic mugs
- A container you don't mind staining
- Nail polish in your favorite colors!

How to:

I filled a plastic dish with warm water (ended up using a pyrex platter in which I was able to pour on more water), then poured a couple of drops of nail polish, waited for them to spread out and dipped the mug on it! Then pat dry the mug with a paper towel and voila! A couple of hours to dry and then you can use the mugs!

I messed up several times and so removed the polish with regular acetone free nail polish remover (what I had around) and a cotton round.

As you can see I used different colors and layered the polishes. In my case I used some old Pretty&Polished thermal polishes (in Day Trippin' and Candy Corn) as well as regular polishes - Essie Watermelon and Orly Goth. As I used thermal polish for one side of the mugs as soon as I pour anything warm inside the mug changes color, and so is even more unique!

I haven't washed them on the dishwasher yet, but by hand they were OK! And even if I ruin them I don't mind! I guess I could remove the remains and re-apply more nail polish in the future, so even more possibilities :)

Have you tried any mug DIY before? If so, which one?

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5 Things: Currently Listening | Chill times

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Jo) — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Hello my lovelies!

I am a real music fanatic. A day doesn't go by without listening to anything. I've always loved music (and studied music for 10 years) and so it's a fundamental part of my life. My music taste is very extensive and I like lots of styles, but most of the days you could find me listening to power metal or electronic/alternative music.

Today I'm gonna focus on the music I listen when I wanna focus, get motivated or leave the world behind and just relax. At the bottom of the post you'll find a little playlist so you can listen to the songs. All these songs are basically instrumental and amazing, so keep that in mind ;)

01 - deadmau5 - Strobe

This song is one of my favorite deep focus songs. I usually play while having rainymood open and it relaxes me to a superior level. I've had this song in loop for weeks at work, and I'm still not tired of it :) As for the rest of their songs, I haven't really dig too much around, but for what I've listened to this song is the only one I like, at least to get focused.

02 - The glitch mob - Fortune days

I found out about this band a month ago at most and has quickly come to the top position of my most listened to! I absolutely love all their albums, but this song is something above, it's such an amazing composition, I've also had it on loop (yeah, I'm that kind of person XD) and it's a great focus/motivation song to listen to. I highly recommend all their albums!

03 - Ratatat - Shempi

This is another group that I found out this year, and ever since have been loving. I love all their albums and they keep my ears satisfied and my brain happy. This song is amazing, but I repeat, all of their songs are uber amazing, relaxing if you're in the mood to relax yet focusing and motivating if that's the mood you're in.

04 - Explosions in the Sky - Your hand in mine

I found this song through a "deep focus" list on Spotify and ever since have been loving it. It's gorgeous to listen to, the harmonies are so well found, it gives me goosebumps every single time! As you can tell I really enjoy me some music. Explosions in the Sky used to make their own instrumental albums but recently have been making (awesome) soundtracks.

05 - Chrome Sparks - Marijuana

Chrome Sparks is a band I found out through one of Sammi/beautycrush's videos last year, and have been in love with them ever since. Their music is complex, inspiring and relaxing. I've used it on my bike to speed up and in bed to relax, and never fails. I highly recommend almost all of their songs (I've got a couple that I don't enjoy, but just a couple!).

I've added a couple songs more I thought you might enjoy! Let me know what you think :)

What do you listen to when you wanna relax, focus or motivate yourself?

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