livingfromscratch

[livingfromscratch]

#tbt just a few short weeks ago when I was in this beautiful place - #bimini ! And to 7 months ago, when I jumped off the deep end. I didn't know what was at the end of that plunge, but I think I'm landing in my feet and the universe is reaching out to break the fall. #gratitude #doyou #livethelife #travel #itsaboutthejourney #betruetoyourself

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Spoken 52 years ago, but holds true today

"There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, 'When will you be satisfied?' We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality... We can never be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one... We can never be satisfied as long as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote." That is an excerpt from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I hadn't ever listened to or read it until today, but I could not believe how immediate the words felt, how at this point in time, we face the same challenges. We should never be satisfied when we are, in many parts of our own country, still regarded as second-class citizens. We need these words now more than ever, because we need to fight on.

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Happy 2015!

Well it's a new year. And if you've been following along for awhile now, I'm about to sound like a broken record. I always resolve to blog more, but alas, life gets in the way. But this year, things are a little different. I will assuredly be a little scarce around these parts because I've got big plans.

First, I'm working on developing my freelance exhibits business. At the moment I'm working on building a website, even though there isn't much to put on it as of yet. But I feel that it's important to have a web presence and something to direct people to after I've met them or for friends to forward along to others they know. Second, I'm finally going to launch my etsy shop! If you go back through my blog, you can probably guess what for, but for now I'm going to keep it under wraps until it's all ready to go :)

I've also decided that 2015 will be the year of giving back. In light of recent events, I feel compelled to do more and to do better. I'm going to be more charitable, do a little more of paying forward. It's in my roots and I've making excuses for too long. I'm designing some fun things that hope to donate some of the sales to worthy causes, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Most of all, I'm really hoping to keep the momentum I've built over the last week going all year. It happens to everyone, I know. But this year, I'm going to try to get over the hump and really keep things peeling along. I've dusted off my inspiration notebooks/journals, my business planning materials and signed myself up for free online classes and tutorials, and hopefully I can keep myself motivated for a good while. Excited to share things here as they develop as well as my usual crafting, fooding and other fun adventures around Seattle.

Happy 2015 readers - I hope you have big plans this year too and I can't wait to see what you're all up to!

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Speaking of abundance in 2015, we made an amazing #newyear 's day ramen dinner in our slow cooker. It's.so.good. #ramenfordays #foodporn #yummy

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Christmas flowers, arranged by yours truly. I love white hydrangeas. And white arrangements in colorful vessels. (at The Animal House- Westbrook)

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I'm on the side of Justice and Equality

If you want to know who's side I'm on: I am on the side of Justice. I am on the side of fairness and equal treatment under the law, for everyone. I am on the side of Constitutional and human rights, to be preserved for everyone. I am on the side of Truth. I am on the side of respect for all people, and within all of our communities. I am on the side of Progress, Progress which benefits everyone and not the few. I am on the side of equal opportunity and equal access to opportunity for all people. Let it be clear where I stand, and what I stand for. I will not be silent.

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What would they be thinking right now?

For the last few years, as I have progressed into my 30s, I have begun to miss two very important people: my maternal grandparents. It was not until maybe 3 or 4 years that I began to realize just how much they have influenced the person I have become. They both passed in the mid-1990s when I was still a teenager, and I never had a chance to talk to them about what growing up in America in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s was like. I wonder what they would have felt the night Barack Obama was elected president. This last week has made me long for a conversation with them even more. What would they think of this past few week's events? My grandmother, in her retirement, became a TV news junkie, so I suspect she would have a lot of opinions and a lot to say. But my grandfather was more reserved. When he said something, he probably put a lot of thought into before sharing. Unless of course it was something funny - he was quick with jokes, much like I am these days.

But what I wonder is how they would react to the intense chasm that has recently been created by our failing failed justice system. My grandmother was born in rural North Carolina, the child of a black mother and white father. And in the early 1920s, that was still very much taboo. She lived through Jim Crow and the realities of discrimination in NJ, despite its promises of being a "free" place. I don't know much about my grandfather, who, from what I have been able to glean from photographs, grew up in a relatively mixed family as well. I do know that they both grew up in a generation that was driven and motivated toward advancement. They did not want their children to be trapped by the plight of black America. Neither of them had a high school diploma, but that would not stop them from guaranteeing the security of their children's (my mom and uncle) future. They knew that being black had limits for them, but it would not have limits for their legacy.

I often tell people that I feel like I grew up as if I were the child of immigrants. It was imposed on me - in a way that I did not understand as a child - that I must speak the king's English. I was to dress appropriately and look presentable for whatever I was doing. I was to do well in school, no questions asked. I was never to talk back to an adult under any circumstance, especially an authority figure. I never understood this immense pressure at the time, but now I realize that I was pushed so much to be a pillar of achievement and social dignity because the didn't want me to become another victim claimed by an inequality they knew still existed. They knew that if I didn't work twice as hard, I would be left behind to be swallowed by a system that was never meant to support me, protect me, or help me succeed. They knew that if I didn't follow the "right" path to the letter, my future and any opportunities to escape would be lost.

But recent events have proven in some ways, that it doesn't matter. The black and brown man or woman with a law degree or a lab coat or a tenured university professorship is just as likely to lose everything as the black and brown man or woman who is a minimum-wage worker and lives in the projects because our justice system is rigged. I wonder how they would feel if they were alive when their son, my uncle, was killed in an accident, and they received the news that my cousin, their grandson, would be denied leave from prison to attend the memorial service because of semantics? I wonder how they would react, seeing that at the end of the day, things really hadn't changed for their children or grandchildren.

They endured so much so each successive generation would be one step closer to the American dream. The America that inspired them to name me after Jackie Kennedy. The America that allowed them to build a middle class life for their family. I am fairly positive that America is long dead, with no hope of resuscitation. But I do wonder what they would think of it all, what they would say, what they would do.

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This is in remembrance of our ancestors Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway And all that came before You opened up a door Because of you Change gone come - the beautiful songstress and soul, India Arie

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Thoughts on living in 21st Century America

My blog has thus far been about happy and fun things, a place to showcase my creative self and the life I have the good fortune to be living. But today, and on some occasions moving forward, I want to hijack this blog to talk about things that may not be so happy. About a part of me, a set of experiences and thoughts, that most people may not realize exists. But I would be doing myself and the small sphere of influence I inhabit a disservice if I did not share this part of myself with you. I am, after all a human being. And so I would like to share some of my human thoughts with my fellow humans.

I have spent the last week, as many of you have, pondering the state of America. I wish there were more positive things I could say. But yet again, we as a nation find ourselves at a crossroads. There are things happening in our backyards that are causing deep emotional reactions that can not necessarily be quelled with reason or logic. Believe me, I have tried to find rational language and I have failed. But I would like to attempt to provide some insight on what I have witnessed and experienced over the past week.

When I heard the news about the Wilson verdict, I began to cry. Why? As a person of color, it hurt me that yet another double injustice had been committed by a system that is inherently biased against my people. I cried because I felt a deep sadness for the Brown family, and for all the families that have stood in their shoes over the past few decades. To lose a child is tragic enough. A child. But to have the person that killed your son return to his day-to-day without penalty, well, I don't even know that I have been able to find the appropriate words to describe what that is.

Then I had a realization that made me angry. As American citizens, we have a constitutional right to due process. According to the 5th Amendment: "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..." That right was denied to Mike Brown, and countless other men and women of color. Whether or not he was guilty of committing petty theft, it was NOT for a police offer to determine that. Or as many have put it, a police officer has no authority to play judge, jury and executioner. I was not there to witness what happened between Officer Wilson and Mike Brown, but you have a right to stand trial and be held accountable for your crimes. Theft is a crime, and so is assaulting an officer of the law. And if Mike Brown was guilty of both, he deserved to go through the justice system like anyone else who stands accused of a crime. But he didn't. Yet some of the most horrific criminals in this nation - mass murderers (and white men, I might add) - stood trial for what they did, and accepted and paid the consequences. Mike Brown stole some cigarettes, got shot six times, and his body was left in the street like roadkill. If people understand that these two realities co-exist, and still honestly believe that the system is working properly, there is no hope for us.

As I began to read other people's reactions, mostly on social media, I was disheartened even more. Not that I should have been surprised, but I primarily struck by the silence. Of people I know of all ethnicities. It is my hope that some of these people were in fact having conversations in real time, around their dinner tables, at the bar, in church. And I understand that not everyone has the courage to put their voice out into in a public forum. But I do and have always believed that, as the Holocaust has taught us, silence is ultimately consent for the perpetrator. It does NOT make you racist, for the record. But it means you are ok living in a country that continues to deprive a segment of the population of the rights and liberties it is due. No matter how this specific incident makes you feel, we will not resolve anything by shutting down and closing our eyes. You may feel that not getting involved is a way to keep from fanning the flames or encouraging more reactionary behavior. But the reality is that we need this cacophony of voices to be so loud that the right people can no longer tune it out. So loud that those with decision-making power can no longer ignore the problems we face. The elephant becomes a whale and starts to crush people under its weight. I, for one, will not be silent. It's taken me awhile to find a way to express myself, but I assure you this will not be the last post I write. I encourage people to share their thoughts. Write letters, sign petitions, do something. Because at this moment in time, doing nothing is not really an option.

I was also struck by people's lack of empathy. I will never purport to know what it is like to lose a child. I will never begin to understand what it feels like to have injustice delivered to me on a silver platter. But I have experienced racism and discrimination, and I have witnessed it. In fact, nearly one year ago, my uncle passed away suddenly due to a car accident. As a result, my family felt cremation was best and arranged a memorial service in his honor. My youngest cousin was serving out a prison sentence at the time (because he was simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time"), and he was denied leave to attend his father's memorial service - his own father - because, according to the prison administration, there was no body to bury, there was nothing to see. And that is enough to be angry. I have always believed that until you have been in someone else's shoes, you cannot fully judge someone's behavior or motivations. Are looting and rioting wrong? Yes. Is the motivation behind it wrong? Yes and no. There was probably a good 10% of those people who saw that particular moment as an opportunity to pull a media stunt, to steal something without consequence, to act on an impulse that was probably unrelated to what was happening. And that will always be the case. People will always want to take advantage of a situation for their own reasons. But the people - black, white, Asian, ALL of those people - who were rioting and looting out of anger and frustration in order to send a message, I believe they had good reason. Here is an analogy: if a poor person steals a loaf a bread to feed his or family, is it wrong? Stealing is wrong, yes. But what about the root cause? We should be more concerned about is what motivated these people and trying to fix THAT. The root cause is injustice. You don't have to experience injustice to have empathy for those people who have. You don't have to lose a child to have empathy for a grieving parent. I feel sorry for the people who felt that they had no other way of being heard but looting and rioting. Three and a half months of peaceful protest essentially did nothing. How do you go on after that? How do you really make people see that something is really wrong? I have seen people refer to looters/rioters as "animals." I have seen people say on social media that the protestors should get a life, and go home. Well, when people are treated unjustly in their own backyard (literally), how are you going to go back to business as usual? You can't. When your everyday reality is one that is dictated by extra surveillance, mistrust, and assumed guilt, how can you tell that person to get a life? This is not the life they asked for. This applies to people of color who are lawyers and wall street bankers living in the suburbs as much as it does to people living in the projects. Dammed if we do and dammed we if don't. Empathy is also not a zero-sum equation. I wish the hashtag that had been created was #BlackLivesMatterToo - because it's not that we want our lives to matter more. It is not that our tragedies are deserving of more attention. This is not about trying to one-up anyone, because that gets us nowhere. It is about equality. It is about fairness. It is about ensuring that the rule of law is applied equally in all cases, regardless of someone's skin color or ethnic origin. It is about ensuring that politicians are not abusing their power in ways that deprive people of color of having their votes count or their tax dollars spent appropriately. It is about facing the bias that has been built into our justice, economic and political systems head-on, and then working tirelessly, together, to remove it. When we fight to preserve the rights of the few, we uphold the rights of EVERYONE.

I was also deeply struck by the wealth of sheer ignorance and double standards. As a lifetime student of history, I know that we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes if we do not acknowledge and learn from our past. The tragedy of Ferguson is no different. People are quick to share links and post articles after just reading the first paragraph, and quote people out of context to support their arguments. People (and white people in particular) are quick to quote MLK and the nonviolent civil rights movement, and yet conveniently forget that Dr. King was shot to death by white racist. People are quick to make harsh comments about the looters & rioters (and as if it were only people of color involved), saying things like "White lives matter too and you don't see us destroying property," and yet conveniently forget about this little-known, insignificant historic event called the Boston Tea Party. It would take me several lifetimes to list facts, primary sources and historic events that have led us to this moment. We can't simply say "It's 2014 and we need to stop blaming what happened in the past for what happens today." We can't blame it, no, but we need to embrace it. We need to talk about it. We need to internalize it. And we need to fix it. The law told us to end slavery, and yet people of color were still treated like slaves. The law told us to desegregate and yet people of color were still treated like second-class citizens. As we have seen in our sad excuse for media, people of color are STILL being denied their right to vote. Do you think those denying those voters access to the polls just came up with that idea last week? Nope. Denying people access to power and to their rights is a way to stop progress. We as a nation constantly berate other countries for human rights violations and yet we can't seem to get it right ourselves. Educate yourselves, people. No matter what laws are enacted, people will still believe what they want or find a way around the law. We need to be more discerning citizens, and concern ourselves less with being ostracized for our actions and more with using our voices to make a difference. We need to stop believing that the media is delivering us the truth. We need to re-introduce critical thinking skills into our homes and our classrooms. We need to start having conversations in which our arguments are backed by evidence, not elementary school-level screaming matches. While we cannot and should not be held accountable for the mistakes of our ancestors, we have a responsibility to rectify them. We have a responsibility to stop passing the buck. We have a responsibility to change the bottom line.

The last thing I will touch on is something that, beyond the extreme expressions of hatred and childishness I've seen on social media, saddens me most is the lack of support that exists within our own community. Officer Wilson received $500,000 in donations to date, while Mike Brown's family and the fund created to provide financial support for those protesting on Brown's behalf have received maybe one quarter of that. I say this not anger my fellow people of color about Officer Wilson receiving donations, but to anger you that we have fallen short in helping our own people. While I believe that we need allies, and white allies in particular, to help us fight this battle, we need to start looking after ourselves. We need to start investing in ourselves again. In the first half of the 20th century, when people of color began boycotting the institutions that rejected them, they reinvested those resources within their own communities. People often went out of their way to support minority-owned businesses because they recognized that if they didn't support those businesses, no one else would. We have to stop waiting for other people to help us fix our problems. We have a responsibility to ourselves that I feel we have lost sight of. Part of the reason I believe we have arrived at this moment is the defeatist attitude we carry. I get it. As I have said before, the problem often seems so big and so burdensome that we aren't sure how to tackle to tackle it or where to begin. But when several bloggers I follow began to circulate the idea of a Black Friday boycott, they were shot down almost immediately. How can you know something won't work unless you try? Black Friday is arguably THE biggest shopping day of the year, and you mean to tell me that even if you put your wallet away for one day, retailers aren't going to feel an impact? There is a bigger picture here that people are missing, and it's maddening. We as a people had been deprived access to material wealth for so long that it has now become our burden. There are families that will buy X-Boxes and Jordans for their kids before they will spend a dime on vegetables and fruit to feed them or books for them to read. I feel as though our priorities have fallen by the wayside and this is the result. This goes far beyond educating our children to respect the law and to respect others. This is about valuing ourselves, and not contributing to the institutions, economic or otherwise, that continue to hold us back. Yes, corporations like Walmart likely employ a significant number of people of color. Yet, Walmart does not pay those people a living wage, nor does it allow far too many of its employees to work enough hours to qualify for company health insurance. We should not be giving our hard-earned money to these institutions. Think about where your dollar is going and what your personal values are. If you want to buy those Jordans, fine: do your homework and find a minority-owned retailer to buy them from. And if you want to continue shopping at Wal-mart, fine. But do something like donate money to your local library or homeless shelter, be a regular attendee at your local town hall meetings, volunteer at an after-school program. We can't keep wringing our hands, shouting racism and claiming we are always the victim when we don't follow our words with action, and when we undervalue ourselves. In any situation where your worth is at stake, if you don't ask for what you believe you are worth, you're going to get whatever someone else believes you're worth. And it has become abundantly clear that this is a gamble we can no longer afford to take. If want others to believe that Black lives matter too, we need to start believing in this - and practicing this - ourselves.

Yes, there are big, big problems in our world that no one individual can solve. But pettyness is not going to help us solve them. Closing our eyes and ignoring those who are using their voices honestly to try to help is not going to solve them. Again, history shows us that when we are willing to listen, when we are willing to come to the table with an open mind, when we consider the facts and the evidence presented to us, we have then created a powerful tool to find solutions. Because there is no one right way to go. The problem of racial bias in our public institutions needs to be tackled from all sides. We need everyone's collective brainpower, experience, and expertise to make this work. We need to operate from a place of compassion and empathy, and speak mindfully and constructively to, for and about each other. I wish for a swift end to all of this, and I want everyone to stop hurting, to stop being so angry, to stop hating each other for no real reason. I want the media to start showcasing real journalism, to start focusing on the many many people who are on the ground doing things for our greater good instead of the few who aren't. In addition to spending my energy writing this post, I have also written letters, signed petitions, and made donations, and I encourage anyone who reads this to do the same. We need to start helping each other in whatever form that takes, and continue to do it as often and for as long as we have the means to do so. Do not return to business as usual tomorrow. Even if it means simply taking a moment out of your day to research a topic you don't know very much about, or buying your coffee from an independent shop instead of a major retail chain, a little change goes a long way. Think of what is possible when we all do our part. I am thankful for anyone that has taken the time to read this - I hope you keep reading. Until my next post.

[livingfromscratch]

If the bagel will not go to Muhammed, Muhammed will make a dang beautiful bagel himself!! First time attempting to make bagels! Whatever the west coast is calling bagels just ain't cuttin it. Hoping they taste as good as they look! #thegreat2014bagelexperiment #foodporn #makeityourself #imissbagels #oneofthefewthingsimissaboutnyc #westcoastliving

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Successful @ikeausa hack complete! Semi-customized Kallax shelf units for our book and such :) Love it when a project I dream up actually comes out as well as I imagined! #homedecor #DIY #getorganized #popofcolor

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we were jonesing for some fish so I stumbled upon this simple recipe by Mark Bittman for poaching a white fish in a curry broth. though we had to add a few more spices to make it less bland; I also threw in some chickpeas and sliced almonds, and served it with brown rice. all in all it was tasty! a fast, easy weeknight dinner! (swap the fish for tofu and you've got an excellent vegan alternative!) #foodporn #yummy #healthy (at the maison nouvelle)

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I can't even. Y'all, I am sooo excited for this trip and to be gramming some destination wedding goodness at you from Jamaica!! RG this post from @weddingsites: I am super thrilled to announce that Jackie @jackiep_citizenuniverse - my marketing manager, is headed to Jamaica this week and in addition to my daily posts on social media, she will also be popping in with what I can only imagine will be dreamy photos of Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is flying out tomorrow to attend the Jamaica Bridal Expo Experience Press Trip with 2 other bloggers. If you are planning a destination wedding to Jamaica or even a trip there for fun and have any questions, please ask as Jackie can likely find out the answer for you :)

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Yup. I live here. #nofilter #fallhappyplace #urbanhiking #beach (at West Point Lighthouse Discovery Park)

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Giggle Hearts is all about Crafting Childhood Memories. Find DIY Crafts, Recipes, How-To Videos, Party Ideas and even a Shopping Guide.

Excited to introduce Giggle Hearts, run by Brenda Bennett Maille of Brenda's Wedding Blog! I'm pleased to announce that I'll be marketing manager for both sites so please take a look and follow along!

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Saving #priorities #continentnumber4 #stillnotahipster #butilovepinball and #travel