Lanterns for thoughts~

   Finally, after years of being in Korea and simply "thinking" about the Seoul Lantern Festival, I checked it out! I met up with some beautiful Seouls and we wandered around and checked out all these beautiful art sculptures that light up the Cheongggyecheon stream!

photo taken by VeganBeats~

photo taken by VeganBeats~

photo taken by VeganBeats~

photo taken by VeganBeats~

photo taken by VeganBeats~

     Admitted, this is a post using the festival to wander into other things that I am SO EXCITED about!! Next Saturday, I'm rolling stateside for a wedding, joining with friends, hugging family, snuggling Binger...
It can't come at a better time. My frustrations with Seoulside and in Korea has negatively influenced how I feel about myself, my current life position, and the energy that I bring with me. I am happy and thankful for and about so many things, but there's a definite trend of easily-triggered upset.
     I've been calling to the natural and chemical mood-lifters, asking my body to urge and motivate endorphin build-up. I've been active and engaging in physically pushing my body to feel that natural high, and while doing so, I do feel happier and my mind clearer. Art is becoming a growing trend and doing more things for myself, free of externally imposed guilt has allowed my parts to be more accepting of one another.
     I'm doing a little self-celebration right now~
     But I am also very aware that even though I'm feeling more positive now, there is more for me to explore and understand about myself and where I really must be.
     This past weekend, a friend expressed his observation of my energy, how he feels I am happier now more than ever. He then said that my sadness and general depression was annoying and a "pain in the ass." I appreciate his honesty, but this inspired a lot of concerns and questions...reflections in myself and those I do chose to surround myself with.
     A friend's state of being, in my idealistic world, is one to be accepted. Not criticized, there are always parts of you that find the parts in others to be distasteful or not enjoyable, I aim more towards accepting those parts and being patient in a way that~ my upset has nothing to do with them, it is my own parts reacting in that/this way.
     Returning, I then thought how unaware some people are. Claiming great observational skills and a keen eye for people's energy inspires me to laugh and snarkly deny those "statements." How unaware others seem to truly be and how well my parts work together to mask a lot of things that I churn in this bucket. I am now in a position where I recognize that in myself, even more so, I've been ignoring a lot of parts or just avoiding many of them.
     Regardless, next Saturday I will be back stateside and am confident some clarity will be found and I may start to feel a bit more ground.


A week~
   

Scotty Soul's Surprise

     October has been more than busy, stressful, emotional, and brilliant. It started off with the death of a brilliant man, upsetting family realizations, emotional roller-coasting, a draining wallet, and rounded off with birthday celebrations, party preperations, smiles, laughter, growth, an anniversary, new family members, Halloween jams, and November began with a SURPRISE!
     This is a silly side-note and apologies to my girl, but Hamlet and I celebrated two years together on October 26th! She has brought so much joy and love into my life! The nights I've ended snuggling up to her are immeasurabley blissful!

baby~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

     Anyways, Scotty Soul had his birthday on October 29th and since Halloween is on the 31st, it's been a bit neglected. For his actual birthday I made him a super veggie friendly but NOT vegan birthday dinner paired with a massive yummy salad~

up close, and not that pretty~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     When I was a little thrasher, my nanna used to make baked macaroni and my entire family and I would literally melt in it's scent. She would make a creamy roux, rich buttery smells and whole wheat flower, with soft cheeses, and baked with a crunchy ritz cracker and butter topping. Not healthy, but very comforting, and delicious. Scotty Soul isn't vegan, and I wanted to make something homey, comforting, and special...

     The non-vegan dish was a baked three cheese macaroni. The cheeses were feta, extra sharp cheddar (VT!), and pepper jack. The veggies I threw in were broccoli, spinach, kale, caramelized onions and bell peppers, and the topping was blended tortilla chips (less salt overall chyea)~ 

Scotty Soul's plate~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     The salad I made was chalk full of greens and all sorts of textured roughage. Iceburg lettuce, romaine, green and red leaf lettuce, spinach, kale, onions, broccoli chunks, celery, cucumber, and bamboo shoots! The dressing I made was my "friends with salad" dressing.
      One of the gifts I made for him was a custom deck~ Got a board, sanded it down (thanks to my neighborhood grocer for finding sandpaper for me~) and spent all night painting finishing touches while ruining four cakes...ugh

his deck~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

again~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

     But...BUT this past weekend a community that has nothing but love for Scotty Soul joined up at Braii Republic for a Surprise party! I still managed to ruin a couple cakes but eventually made two that I aimed to make! The first one was Jake the Dog from Adventure time WATCH THIS SHOW!!!

Jake the cake~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

     ...and the second was one of his childhood "dream" cakes!~ (Thanks to the goddess and stunning Carrie for helping me out =^ㅊ^=)..

dream pool cake~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     The Jake cake was a dark chocolate cake with white chocolate and cranberries with a coconut butter cream frosting with cocoa essence. The dream cake (the swimming pool cake) was a dark chocolate, cranberry, white chocolate, and peanut butter swirl cake with a dark chocolate and coconut butter cream frosting with raspberry and strawberry essence. The "pool" part was organic strawberry jam.
     The cakes themselves were vegan but the frostings weren't due to actual butter used (baked birthday dinner leftover ingredients) and the peppero sticks~