I haven’t had much excitement for writing lately (obviously). This has been such a strange year. The absolute highlight was a belated honeymoon - 2 weeks in France.

I left the studio early today to enjoy a drop of sun. No gloves needed.

Somewhere around eight months ago, I went through a two-week rejuvenating cleanse. It wasn’t easy, but afterwards I felt invigorated and healthy! I emerged from the experience with amazing eating and living routines. Between moving and getting married, life has been pretty hectic and, unfortunately, my health and eating routines have gone from stellar to what can I grab real quick?. I’m ready to refocus!

I truly believe that cleansing is one of the most powerful routines one can embrace in order to become and stay healthy. So, beginning tomorrow, we cleanse again! We had a kick-off meeting last night and I am really excited about the couple weeks ahead!

When I first started planning our wedding, I had a few key thoughts in mind: local, vegan, artistic. And, it all came together beautifully. Unfortunately, I had thought that I’d have more time to write about getting ready for our wedding, but time just flew like mad towards the end. There are some key folks that really made the day for us and most of them are right here in Portland. Everyone should have a wedding they remember with absolute joy and these people really made this happen for us. I’d recommend every one of them fully!

• Jenkins Estae (in Aloha) was gorgeous. They’re about the one place we found that had an amazing outdoor wedding plan with a real rain plan that included a lovely fireplace. I’m happy to say that the day was lovely - not a drop of rain.
• Food in Bloom Catering made us an absolutely delightful vegan dinner. I’ll admit, it was pretty scary to invite all of our friends and family such a meal, but it was amazing. And, they’re really nice people as well.
• Sweet Life’s vegan cake was the talk of the evening. Rich, beautiful…
• If you want to feel like beautiful, funny, glamorous and happy, might I introduce you to the photographers Left Turn Studio.
• Our flowers were an artful creation that I’m still hearing about from friends and family!
• Our clothing designers were all local and amazing! I was delighted to work with Kate Towers, who created the dress I never realized I was dreaming of. And, shoes by Ese Carnal - their wedding slipper shoes are a decadent treat! And, Ray was dapper as all get out in his suit by Duchess.

So, there you have it. Months of scurrying around town summed up in a short list.

Ray has some pics up…more to come!

Could it be…next Saturday is the wedding!? With all of the big decisions made, this week appears to be all about entertaining, getting pretty and wrapping up loose ends. With a few dinners, a rehearsal and party to put on before the day, time is flying way too quickly! And, Ray and I just realized that we had to write vows. Egads!

Ray and I have been searching every nook and cranny of Portland searching out the perfect cake for our wedding. Luckily, finding a wedding cake means tasting a lot of cakes, which is actually quite fun. We wanted a square red velvet cake. Vegan, too. And, that’s where things became difficult. It seems that, if one wants to go vegan, they pretty much need to take what is already out there. That one vegan item on the menu. As one bakery told me (long after saying no to making a red velvet cake), Where else are you going to going to get a vegan wedding cake in Portland?

Luckily, there’s Sweet Life in Eugene. Not only do that have amazing vegan cakes, but they were up for red velvet as well. As a sanity check, I brought my non-vegan grandma and mom along for the tasting. Happy exclaimations of wow, it’s not different and this is soooooo good helped make the choice. Awesome!

Since this last cleanse, I have been eating more raw food than ever before and discovering a bunch of new recipes. One of the easy recipes is a raw herb encrusted mushroom steak (created by Rhio). This is the most savory, filling raw recipe I’ve made to date. I just loved it and Ray’s picture turned out beautifully.

The other recipe that has brought me much joy is one raw cinnamon rolls. They remind me of weekend breakfasts with my parents as a child! Once in a while, we would get a roll of orange cinnamon rolls (there were always 8 rolls and 3 of us) and I would spend most of breakfast hoping to get a third roll! Now that I think about it, that’s probably why I added the orange slices to the rolls.

This weekend, I have a goal of figuring out how to make raw lemon cookies. Not sure why, but I am absolutely craving them!

I’ve been feeling pretty good since our fast. More motivated to drink green drinks in the morning and have been enjoying gorgeous salads as well. Although I’d like to work on cleansing for a bit longer next time, I feel really good about the cleanse we did. And, I have been savoring healthy food like never before. The one meal I’ve had since the cleanse that was decidedly unhealthy (a quick bite at a mall) was a shocking taste in relationship to all of the health food that has been a party of life lately.
Last night, in celebration of life, Ray and I visited our old neighborhood by eating at the new Masu Sushi. It was an incredible vegan meal with quite a bit of raw ingredients. They even have a home made pickle plate and I’ll tell you - pickled eggplant is amazing. I’ve got to learn that one and pickling in general.

The past 3 days have been pretty strange - my body has alternately felt high and low. And, this is certainly the longest I’ve gone without solid food. I went from craving salads on the first day, then bread, then enchiladas and refried beans by last night (which was strange because I have been eating vegan for months now and never crave cheese).

Today will likely still be a day of liquids - I am excited to add orange juice to the mix! I believe we’ll try this again in 3 months or so and see if we are able to last out the recommended 10 days. I was pretty exited about making these few days on our first real run at this!

Mornings are the easiest with this cleanse. Wake up, all groggy and coated tongue, do some stretched, drink the salt water and then…reality. Another day of slight hunger and the tea. Good things are happening with the body, though! Definitely aware of cleansing activity just about everywhere and I’ve lost almost 6 pounds (half will come back after the cleanse is through). Not quite sure how long this will last, but am glad for the effort nonetheless.

Today is another full day of design, coupled with (another) trip to the store to return the Grade A maple syrup I accidentally purchased and get the Grade B. I also have oranges on hand for when I am ready to start reintroducing food, but have no other food to speak of here. Actually, before I can actually end the cleanse, I have to find it in me to go grocery shopping! Well, that’s incentive to keep going right there.