So I’ve been finding myself seriously interested in Tarot cards recently.  i’ve always had a fascination for them, and in the past have had a fear of them, but not until recently have i been seriously studying them, or at least dealing with them everyday.  

i have a card-a-day ritual, where i pull a card every morning, right when i wake up while i’m still almost half asleep.  that way i’m still not quite in this world yet and not fully conscious.  doing this everyday actually helps me to see what each card i pull is really actually about, because i’m able to learn by living the moments, seeing with my own eyes, and feeling the meaning of the cards.  i also had done an entire 2014, monthly card draw (back in Jan), and for the month of march, i’d pulled the 10 of Pentacles.  

so what does this card mean, and has the happenings of this month turned out to be reflective of it?  

well, since i’m still a novice in card reading, i had looked to some books for some insight.  10 Pentacles means massive abundance & wealth.  a cycle has come to an end and a turn to the more spiritual side of life.  a happy home card.  mundane but magic.  success, culmination, financial stability.  the card shows a gateway in the picture, a doorway into a city.  an entrance to the magical space between desire for abundance and its physical manifestation.  completion, an applause at the end of the show.  which of course means, you’re back to the beginning, of a new cycle.  coolio.

well, both joseph and i’s birthdays happen to lie in march.  so that in itself signified a 10 of Pentacles kind of march   one of my gifts to him was to take him to a wine and food dinner pairing at Le Jardin Du Roi.  we’d been there once before, and i’d ordered one of my favorites, salad nicoise, and it was absolutely delish, not to forget to mention the wine   anyway, this dinner happened to be on a tuesday, which we would normally not have gone to had it not been joseph’s birthday.  we were a bit tired, and it being a work night and all, i was wondering what to expect in terms of me being up for it.  but we went because i’d already reserved our spots.  and it happened to be the loveliest evening ever!  (although the wine flowed a little toooo freely, heh heh!)  i happened to be seated next to the nicest woman, and our personalities just totally clicked!  it’s like one of those situations where you meet someone and there’s an instant spark, and a knowing that your souls are of the same kind



anyway, we’d planned an impromptu getaway to California a few days before that dinner, and it happened that this woman always goes there, and i was able to take a handful of notes on where to go and what to do.  it was like she was planted there so she could help us have a lovely time in cali, since we’d literally booked the trip a little over a week before we were to go, and had no plans whatsoever besides a place to stay.  and somehow i don’t feel like this is the only reason we met that night   but that’s for time to reveal.



and of course, our trip to LA and Santa Barbara!  i’d just had it up to my head with the nonstop snow and cold weather, so i said, “i’d love to go to CA”.  so we went, it was as simple as that.  but really, i figure, life is short, why not just do the things you want to do?  not to mention, it’s on the list of my to do’s, and has been for a couple years already!  and really, yes there’s always, “we need to save money for this and that”, but i think that paying for memories, is an amazing investment.  also, it was our birthdays!!  annnd, we had already decided to go no matter what, but a little after the decision was made, joseph got a bonus from work, so i felt like it was a beautiful gift and a push from the Universe to go

and a wonderful time we had there.  we stayed in the most beautiful, artistic, funkadelic b&b ever, owned by the artists who made it that way.  i especially loved the bathroom window, there was a huge cactus right outside it!  we hiked and hiked, one of our loves.  we drank a million green juices and ate a ton of exotic foods.  we found my most perfect ever, dusty rose colored heart ring, also on my to do list.  (my word of the year is “love”, and i’d been looking for a heart ring to symbolize that).  i read the most beautiful book by Cheryl Strayed, “Wild”.  and of course, we visited the southern cali wine country and stayed in the town of Solvang, the area where the wine movie i love, “Sideways” was filmed.  it was magical…and of course the weather was delicious!!



the majority of my family happens to have our birthdays in march, yes, weird!, so we also had a few family birthday lunches out this month.  my family is the best!  and my friend Amber had a ceremony for her 6 month old, which happened in March as well.  definitely the family card energy here.

so yes, i’d say it was a wonderful month, full of the 10 of Pentacles energy.  and i do think i’ve entered a gateway of some sort, that happened this month.  i can’t really put it into words just yet, as it’s still just a feeling.  but again, time will tell.



and lastly by the way, today’s card of the day happens to be the Knight of Cups.  i pulled this the last time Joseph came home from NC, leading me to believe that he represents this particular knight, especially when coming home.  but i feel i also pull it when i’m supposed to do something besides waiting for my life to become even more resemblant of my dreams, when i need to take action of some sort.  i pulled it the day before yesterday when i felt the need to write, but that didn’t happen.  so of course it appeared again today, telling me to take action yet again, and this time i did!  by writing this blog today.  woohoo!!

i’m not so big on commercial holidays really, but i wanted to share about my Valentine’s Day this year i just realize that i’m so very grateful for the life and love i have today, and i don’t want to ever take it for granted although i know i sometimes may. i also want to keep it in mind even more so, because i realize this day can be a difficult one for many people, both single and coupled. single, because you can feel lonely especially if you don’t have a date, and for everyone, because there can be so much expectation involved. so i just wanted to acknowledge my gratitude that i have the kindest guy by my side, and we enjoyed the day, just like it was any other day, no matter what came our way

last year joseph surprised me with flowers before Valentine’s day, and it really did surprise me this year, however, it snow stormed and we were stuck in the house, and everything was closed! luckily i had bought some bacon chocolate (yes, i said bacon and it’s delish!) earlier for joseph, and had written my card for him during the snowstorm. and i had woken up to a beautiful hand made card, with the soundtrack to “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”, a show that we had just watched and enjoyed in NYC, on my iPhone!

we had agreed on no presents and just dinner, but on the day of, it was pretty icky out and joseph left the house saying he was going to get some fresh air and listen to some music. hmmm, now he never does this ever, so i knew something was up, heh heh and he came back with some beautiful roses for me, and they smelled DIVINE! and i pressed some of the petals like i usually do for my journal, and dried some whole roses as well. and they made me happy cuz flowers always make me happy!

later we ventured out because we had made reservations to a wonderful restaurant, Mint, and oh my goodness was it worth it!! i was even able to check off one of my “to do”'s (i have many, and will hopefully get around to writing about them soon!) for 2014, which was to try foie gras! it was so amazing and seared and melty on my tongue-y, and the caramelized pears under it was so perfect with it, oh my goshhh!! they also gave us some complimentary salami, my favorite kind, some truffled brie, and some amaaaazing smoked paprika aged cheddar.

although we try to eat vegetarian at least half the time, special occasions call for something separate from the norm, so i ordered a lobster tail that came with a roasted acorn squash stuffed with parmesan & lobster risotto, and i was in absolute heaven. joseph ordered a ribeye steak that ended up being bigger than his head, and he literally looked like he was on some planet in heaven when he tasted it

for dessert we often times like to get creme brûlée, but decided on a strawberry shortcake, and it came out and was heart shaped! the whole dinner, paired with some prosecco made the evening special and we had such a lovely time! and i must say, one thing i particularly love about good food and wine is that when you are enjoying it, you can honestly say that you are truly in the moment.

i guess another way we were able to truly enjoy ourselves was that we didn’t try so hard to make it perfect. and it ended up being so because of that we knew that no matter what happened, it would be good because we just WERE!

to end i wanted to leave you with a quote, because this quote came to me twice within a few days, from two different sources and i found that slightly eerie, but in a good way. and i took it to mean that i should pay attention to it somehow, or maybe get it out there somehow. so here it is,

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself” ~Anna Quindlen

Love, Roses, & Prosecco,
Kiyomi

Groggy, with a gray cloud encompassing my head, is what i felt when i opened my eyes today. It was one of those mornings that could ruin an entire day easily, where the goal would be to just get through it, go to sleep, and hopefully wake up to something better. I’m sure part of it had to do with my loss of my beloved FREEDOM, after my delightful 2 week holiday-relaxing-plenty-of-free-time vacation, and i also am a creative spirit, and we creatures like our boundaries to dissipate sometimes so we can fly anywhere we please at anytime we want

i, however, did not want to squander away a whole, potentially glorious day, so i pulled out my list of “Things To Do When Everything Sucks”!!

1. take a bath


2. go outside on a walk


3. drink a raw juice


4. yoga or work out


5. meditate


6. hang with boys (my nephews!!)


7. write in journal

i contemplated what moves i’d try as i sipped my morning herbal tea, checked my emails, and read the blogs i follow. well, taking a bath was out, because that would entail scrubbing the tub, which was definitely NOT something i was in the mood to do. go outside for a walk…well it is the dead of winter so that didn’t feel very inspiring either. drink a raw juice - i had just made and drank a huge batch yesterday, so was raw juiced out. yoga or work out - i literally yoga-ed last night before bed (quite a vigorous DVD, actually, and also a great one by Sadie Nardini), and i didn’t feel like dragging my ass to the gym. meditate, yes i could do that. hang with the boys - well, they are at school now, so of course, no. and finally, write in my journal - i could do that.

SO, the first thing i did was pull out my journal. and of course everything that first came out were complaints, blah blah blah, about how i feel depressed and blue. but of course at the end of it, i knew that this is a very helpful process in trying to turn things around for the brighter. writing it all out helps you to literally empty it all out of you onto pages through your pen, and it somehow ends up making you feel better. and in the process, you come to realizations, or insights to helping you out with whatever you need at the moment. so on a "crappy day journal entry", it usually starts out complainy and whiny, but by the end it ends up being more hopeful.

by now i felt a little better, so decided to try meditating for 10 mins. i chose an uplifting one, closed my eyes, and was soon in another zone that left a smile on my face. while journaling for me, releases energies and sometimes gets all the junk out while bringing me some calm - kind of like talking to a really good friend, meditating often times helps me with inspirations to do things, and gets me to listen & receive somehow. well during today’s, i was particularly inspired to write this blog, and found myself jotting stuff down in my notebook, points i wanted to cover

and as for the rest of my list i “couldn’t” do today, i decided to think outside of the box. well, no bath? long hot shower! and scrub myself with my new moisturizing honeysuckle bath gel! (i usually favor fruity, or sweet, warm scents like chocolate or ginger, but i thought i’d try something new!) And then slather myself with my current favorite - Josie Maran body butter in the apricot vanilla scent, which is so light and creamy it’s like covering yourself in whipped cream!! (i have an absolute obsession with body creams if you haven’t noticed, and already have my eye on a couple more i want to try after this runs out )

after my shower, i was starving so i nourished my body with a bean & kale minestra i made yesterday, a recipe i got from a Moosewood cookbook. Moosewood is an amazing vegetarian restaurant Joseph and i ate at while we were vacationing at the Fingerlakes in NY. highly recommended. this dish is one of our favorites and a staple meal now in our house. the broth is thickened with pureed beans to make it thicker and heartier, and is flavored with sage and is oh so good!

and as for the exercise? i decided to get my hand weights and do sets of 6 different arm workouts, then my crunches, then my butt lifts. yes, i said butt lifts. there’s nothing like working out to immediately make you feel better

i then lit my green Aloha Bay tapers (made with palm wax which dissolves instead of dripping!) which i LOVE, sprayed my entire work space with an essential oil blend spray i made, consisting of: water, chamomile oil and lavender oil for calm, clary sage oil for clarifying, and lime oil for brightening. and now i’m sitting in this lovely cloud of magical scents, typing away

blogging always lifts my mood no matter what, so now i’m truly and officially in a good mood, and can more easily notice the things that make me happy right now, like all the continual traffic i’m getting on my website (thank you soooo much!!!), and the ornament my cutie pie nephews made for me for christmas!! (i couldn’t visit the boys, but i could look at something they gave me - think outside of the box, wink wink, nudge nudge) It’s a heart, which i thought was perfect since my theme for this year is LOVE, and to make it more sweet, it says “I Love you Kiki!” on it, awww, how special is that??

am i a lucky girl (lady??), or what? and a happy one too, thank you very much!