A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #9

site of my temptation

It looks like late afternoon on a Tuesday.  My attention span is diminishing with the sunset over the Gantries in Long Island City.  A slight hunger mingled with fatigue sent me searching up and down Vernon Boulevard in search of – what?

Under the awning of the farmers’ market, a cascade of red radishes tumbled over the edge of the table.  On the side, the tops of crispy lettuces tousled like the tops of a forest.  I walk past a young farmer was offering samples of cheeses and instinctively pick up the reggiano parmigiano, sliced paper thin.

As soon as I tasted it, I knew.

It was time for the next step of the Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives and, by the way, my personal favorite:

9 Thank yourself

We work very hard – you, me and everybody who gives a thousand percent effort to what they do.  I have spent over a decade in the nonprofit arts world and the days where you are giving your all can fly by until suddenly something inside of you digs their heels in and demands to be fed.

I am not talking about your stomach and your prolific ability to consume chocolate.  I am talking about you and your inner underappreciated soul.

It is time to take a moment to show yourself some appreciation.  To say thank you in a way that is personally meaningful.

For those of you Restless Creatives just joining us, here are steps 1-8:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

6 Read like a writer

7 Stop the frenzy

8 Live artfully

Getting back to those radishes.  And the lettuce, the  garlic, the fragrant lemons.  Slowly the vision of a glorious Caesar salad to reward myself presented itself.

It was the beginning of a beautiful affair.  Just what I needed.

I picked up some farm fresh eggs, so important to my divina (Italian for fabulous) gift to myself.  I balanced them carefully in my bag with the crunchy romaine lettuce and those divine radishes that got me started in the first place.

The whole experience was a gift.  A gift of exhilarated expectation, of time spent working with the aromatic fresh greens, of delighting in the stolen tastes tau sic (Cantonese for noshing while cooking).

One deep whiff promised me a fragrant salad that would satisfy my expectations.  And one bite delivered the tasteful thank you my soul hungered for in an ideal Caesar.

Here’s my recipe adapted from Melissa Clark’s Green Garlic Caesar salad with Anchovy Croutons:

Wow! Caesar Salad

You will need:

1/2 cup olive oil

6-8 finely chopped anchovy fillets

3 finely chopped garlic cloves

2 cups day old crusty bread cut into cubes

kosher salt and pepper to taste

1 lemon to shpritz into the salad and to cut into slices for your seltzer

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I like the one with the seeds)

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 eggs

2 large heads romaine lettuce torn into pieces

2 large rosy red radishes sliced thin

1 cup grated Reggiano Parmigiano cheese

To make:

1. Croutons – Coat the bottom of a skillet with oil over medium heat and add half of the anchovies.  Cook 2 minutes.  Add half the garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add bread cubes, toss frequently until golden and crispy.  Season with salt and pepper.

2. Dressing – Whisk together remaining anchovies, garlic, add mustard, Worcestershire sauce, drizzle lemon juice and whisk in remaining olive oil.

3. Softboil 2 eggs, about 4 minutes in boiling water.  Rinse under cool water.

4. Place lettuce, radish slices and croutons in a serving bowl.  Add dressing and toss well.  Crack eggs into salad, toss well.  Sprinkle a generous amount of grated cheese.

Serves 2 – 4 or 1 tired executive director for 2 days.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

How to Be a Breezy Point Local

Joanne and Seth

There are block parties and then, there are beach block parties.

Mardi Gras in Breezy Point is none of the above.  It is an experience propelled by ocean breezes, big open skies, a parade and decorated beach walks dotted with partying locals on their porches and patios.  Local pride runs fierce and family driven.  Life moves at the speed of surf and single speed beach cruisers along the promenade except if you stop at the Sugar Bowl for a drink.

This time, Seth and I rode past the Mardi Gras madness and stopped by Joanne’s house.  From her lovely porch you could see the prize banner awarded to her beach walk for Best Decorated Walk.  This is a big weekend in Breezy Point and just like most homes, Joanne’s was filled with kids, cousins, sisters and brothers who were here for a glorious Mardi Gras/Labor Day weekend at the beach.

the prize banner!

Allie and me

Don’t know why but there are certain dishes that people will start international wars over how to make them.  Chicken soup, brisket, ribs.  I have been sworn into secrecy by some folks who consider their rib recipe patent worthy.

Allie, however, is not meshuganah (Yiddish for crazy) about her recipe and she is willing to share.  We got to her house around dinner time and sat around with friends enjoying ribs Allie-style, good red wine and a lot of laughs.

Being a local on a Labor Day weekend is wonderful.  Where did you spend your holiday?

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Where Do You Belong?

Eddy, Sky & Rob at the Beach 129th Street Block Party

We lived on Beach 129th Street upstairs from Sophie and her family before we bought our house on Beach 124th Street.

Our kids grew up with her kids.  The Laczynski kids and the Krakauer kids.  Somehow we were all family, all Polish – even me, and all Rockaway through and through.  Although we don’t live on there anymore, we are still part of the annual block party in August.

Beach 124th Street

Anyone who is anyone on Beach 124th Street will be parked on the beach under their own personalized beach umbrella.  I can catch up with everyone on the block, have pizza delivered from the boardwalk and feed all the kids, and even leave all my stuff and walk home to start dinner.

I have lived in this beach community for over twenty years and to some locals I will always be “the new girl”.  But I too, have sand in my shoes all year round and share a fierce pride in wearing my flip flops way into December to show how beach proud I am.

This is a small town in the sense that friends and neighbors don’t move away.  Seth’s family and our neighbor Mrs. Murray, the crossing guard, have known each other for close to four generations.  My kids have friends they have known since they were 18 months old.

I feel grounded here with a sense of place and identity.  One generation ago, my parents left that sense behind them when they stepped foot into this country and slowly recreated a life for themselves and for us, their children.  Perhaps the pragmatic approach to living should be the acceptance of place as something you create for yourself no matter where you are.  Place then becomes internal.  It can be projected outwardly with your personal energy which inevitably influences your immediate environment.   I am very aware of what I bring to the everydayness of my Rockaway life and consider it a privilege as well as a responsibility to honor my place here.

So, every morning that I drag myself out of bed to run on the beach I think to myself,  “You are in your beautiful space.  Enjoy the sunrise you are so fortunate to see.”

Where do you belong?  Where is your beautiful space?

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #8

Common wisdom says, “Mind over matter.”

Now exactly what is that supposed mean when we are talking about artful living, the goal of the next step of the Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives?

How do you live artfully?  If your brain is artful, does that make your body artful too?  What does that look like?

So glad you are asking such fei cheong (Cantonese for extremely) fabelhaft (German for fabulous) questions.  There is absolutely an art to living well and the key to that is creating a healthy lifestyle mindset.  Without the right attitude and behavior, diet and exercise are a dreary duo to live with.  If you feel like you’re running on empty energywise and inspirationwise, here are some simple ways to follow:

8 Live artfully

- the next step in the plan.

Drink water in style

Toast your day with a glass of water in the morning.  Continue throughout the day to prevent dehydration which causes fatigue.  I like to drink water in a fancy glass with ice and a slice of lemon.  It creates the illusion that I am having a cocktail and it fools my system into thinking it is full.

Imbibe an infusion

Fancy schmancy way to say “drink tea”.  However, it is a well known fact that chamomile will soothe you, jasmine increases beta waves, which make you more awake and alert and peppermint will aid in digestion.  There are many herbal teas with a multitude of benefits.    Enjoy a cup after a meal and before going to sleep.

Embrace exercise

Burn calories!  Daily exercise, whether you are running 5 miles a day like yours truly,  taking the stairs whenever you can or walking, increases your muscle tone, diminishes your appetite and brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment.  You try getting out of bed at some unGodly hour to be out running by 5:00 am and see if you don’t feel like you’ve done something.  Trust me, your body will love you for it.

Listen to your food

Stick to foods that are good for you, eat reasonable portions, finish eating dinner early.  Balance your food intake so that your body does not have to work so hard to break it down especially later in the day.  If you feel your creative energy ebbing away, especially between three and five when most people feel a need for a doughnut and coffee, go for popcorn or a piece of fruit.  Remember what they say about databases is true for diets;  garbage in, garbage out.

OK, all of you Restless Creatives who are jumping on board, here are the steps you missed:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

6 Read like a writer

7 Stop the frenzy

And for the rest of you, just remember, today is the first day of the rest of your body.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Twice as Much in Half the Time

a notions store on 39th Street

These last few summer days are kite-tailing into September with cool backhanded breezes and I am tangled in my lists of summer reading, new marinades to concoct, my next knitting project.  Letting me loose in the garment district with time on my hands can only mean more stuff, less closet space for Seth, and even more designs for artful living.  But as I headed home, I began feeling that there is so much more on my list that I haven’t done.

Did I have a full summer experience? When am I going to take surfing lessons? There’s still so much sunblock!

What about you? Are you angsting over your late summer goals? I hope it isn’t just me.

I wrote a post a while ago about doing less with more, something I believe in deeply. You can check out my video on the art of doing less, too. While this may seem at odds with me frantically waving a fistful of lists, it really isn’t. Doing less of what is not important and doing only what is always results in a short list. Now if you do things in a way that yields double results, you really win! Here are a few examples from my not so short list:

Lose weight, gain closet space.
Clean closets, gain space.
Write 2 posts instead of one.
Say no, hear yes.
Hear no, see opportunity.
Accept the invite, write the thank you.
Write when you’re up, rote when you’re down.

Adapt excellent design, become adept.

Speaking of getting things done, here is Gideon Shalwick in a video about productivity that I like very much for his way of simplifying priorities for multiple projects without freaking out about having the perfect shiny tools to do so.

I read a great opening line for a recipe remake by Amanda Hesser.  Can’t remember what the recipe was for but here’s what she wrote, more or less:

“Trends arise not from inspiration but from indignation.”

For me, the following adaption really nails it:

“Artful living arises not from inspiration but from indignation”

Is that great or what?  I find myself in a state of indignation most of the time, when it comes to well thought out life design.

Are you indignant, inspired?  If so, I am asking for your suggestions to add to my short list.  Do you have a creative way to live artfully?

Please let me know!

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?