Indoor Urban Farm Coming to Big D - Good Karma, a t-shirt, free lettuce and more!

Good Karma, a t-shirt, free lettuce and more!

There is a guy in Dallas that wants to start an urban farm in Deep Ellum, and I want to help him.

I just backed his project with SEVENTY-FIVE of my hard earned bucks via Kickstarter, because I really want this to happen (and, I really want that tshirt and naming rights of a harvest!, not to mention a month's worth of lettuce - I know, right?)

You can read all about Jake's Terra Tech Farms and his plan to build an indoor hydroponic farm in Deep Ellum and provide fresh, sustainable, pesticide-free products to Dallas in The Advocate (I love this magazine!) or D Magazine's Side Dish. It sounds like the plan is to start on the farm before the end of summer. 

Wishing Jake and his team all the best! 

Now, LETTUCE get growin'!

The Greenville Avenue Food Truck Park - It shall be called Truck Yard

As most in Dallas, Fort Worth, The DeeEffDub and Austin know, Food Trucks and Food Truck Parks are all the rage lately. The concept has quickly moved throughout our urban landscape and generated quite a buzz for this creative niche market.

Over the last five plus years, the Lower Greenville Avenue area has seen quite a revitalization. It's been exciting to see all the new restaurants and boutiques open up around 1922House. For years now, the word on the street was that Greenville Avenue was getting a food truck park. Supposedly, it was coming around the same time as the Trader Joe's grand opening and would be close in proximity. 

Trader Joes is set to open in August.

As I was taking My Humps (Humphrey = World’s Largest Springer Spaniel) for a walk, I noticed some activity in the old Pearson Plumbing location (across from the Trader Joes parking lot). I went back to snap some pics and here’s what we found in progress:

Then, just a few days later an email from Eater landed in my inbox and here’s the Cliff Notes

It shall be called Truck Yard.

There will be a main permanent building that houses a restaurant, bar, restrooms (you know you were wondering! And as a resident of the neighborhood, I’m appreciative of this =), and possibly - an ice cream parlor.

There is talk of “tree-house” seating. Whaaaaaat? And I can walk to this place?!?! Right up the 1922House alley!

I’m looking forward to having such a fun place within walking distance of 1922House. Surely, one of my favorite food trucks, Easy Slider, will be one of the first to pop up in this new park. Why is Easy Slider one of my favorites, because they created the Sweet & Lowdown. This little slider is packed full of deliciousness = Angus beef, bacon, goat cheese, and wait for it....strawberry jam!

Wake Up, Drank. Workout, Drank. Be awesome, Drank.

#drank #healthy #applecidervinegar #tonic #kitchenwitch http://t.co/02bZOQVM0d
— 1922House (@1922House) March 8, 2013

I've always heard that raw Apple Cider Vinegar was up there with coconut oil as being a healthy cure all. When I was in elementary school, my mom had a book full of natural home remedies. I loved reading how to cure all sorts of ailments by things you could naturally obtain, grow or mix up on your own. I've always been a little bit of a kitchen witch.

In November I started taking supplements on a daily basis in addition to my daily vitamin. I chose a simple addition of Evening Primrose Oil, Turmeric and a Super B Complex. (And...really excited about this....This week I started using the Oil Cleansing Method.)

Since, I’m on a lifetime kick of being more awesome, I also decided to dive into some kitchen witchery and start consuming a healthy tonic with Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV).

Dr. Oz recommends using ACV as part of his Swimsuit Slimdown Plan, and although I’m not following that per say, I do have trip to Cabo coming up in only 11 weeks (what?! what?! I cannot wait!), so I thought I could incorporate some ACV into my “being more awesome” plan to see how that helps.

Reasons why I’m drinking up ACV? It is supposed to reduce sinus infections and sore throats, balance cholesterol, cure skin conditions, prevent muscle fatigue, strengthen the immune system, and more.

This week I added about 2 capfuls of ACV to my water for workouts and at work, I enjoyed a 2 capfuls in water with some organic grapefruit juice.

I was concerned I wouldn't like the taste, but it is pretty refreshing actually. This morning I added some lemon juice to my ACV and water – yum! The taste was a friendly reminder to myself to enjoy what good things I was doing to and for my mind, body and spirit.

I’m using Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (raw, unfiltered and it has the mother).

Here’s a Vine of what I was concocting this week before my lunches and workouts. Are you on Vine? Follow me as I post about living a loving, greener, healthier life in Big D. 

Let us MARCH

March is one of my favorite months!

March is the dawning of Spring, a time to sink my hands into the earth, a time to unplug and a time to celebrate the anniversary of getting hitched to my love.

March is also Women's History Month - yeah, go women!

Today, while checking out my facebook feed I saw Mashable's highlight on 18 Major TechContributions From Entrepreneurial Women.

A few of my particular favorites 6 (okay 8, well 9) out of the 18 are...

The Acorn System 1, an early 8 bit computer designed by Cambridge student, Sophie Wilson in 1979. Recently, I've been alerted to be aware of synchronicities, intuition and inspiration (let's just say the topic of this post is full of all three).

This little icon is symbolic with “saving” but at one time also represented the physical floppy disk much larger than today’s SD card, yet much smaller in memory. Along with several other iconic symbols, user interface designer Susan Kare created many of the early Apple icons. 

I can’t help but think Grace Hopper helped pioneered the way for Google Translate, since she created the program that transformed code written in one language to another computer language – and she did it in 1952.

Thanks to Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Alexis Maybank, subscribers receive membership rewards and the inside scoop on luxurious merchandise sales from their 2007 e-commerce creation, Gilt Group. Also listed in Mashable's 18 are Birchbox founders Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp.

You like listening to Spotify while checking your Twitter feed between surfing Youtube channels? Well,  "you’re welcome," says Radia Perman (take that Al Gore), who created the Spanning Tree Protocol in 1985. The same year I was introduced to the flex capacitor and thought it was just Hollywood science fiction, ha.

And then there’s mathematician and space scientist Katherine Johnson who is responsible for calculating the trajectory Apollo 11 took to the moon in 1969. Kind of a big deal. 

Way to be awesome, ladies. 

Challenge Accepted: Create a Bucket List

So, today I was challenged to create a Bucket List: Write down 5-10 things you’d like to accomplish or experience in your life and why. 

We’ll, I’ve always believed in the importance of writing your goals down. I heard a long time ago that if you write them down your are more likely to achieve them. Maybe it’s because you are putting it out there for God or the Universe? Perhaps putting it in writing is like creating a contract with yourself? 

I’ve written down some goals in the past, and I’m happy to look back at those things that were once just a thought and today, and achievement. 

I told myself that I would accept this challenge without over thinking it (something I tend to do. I love to ponder, to process, to evaluate all the possibilities…). I was only challenged to write down 5-10, so here are the first ten things that came across my mind. 

Ten things I want to do in no particular order:

1. Travel to Europe (I have some specific spots in mind)
2. Travel to Asia
3. Write a book (non-fiction)
4. Write a book (fiction, most likely a children’s book)
5. Raise chickens
6. Buy a beach/lake house
7. Start a foundation/non-profit
8. Own my own store (gotta sell all those eggs, right?)
9. Go on a ghost hunt/stay overnight in a haunted location
10. Attend a Native American sweat lodge ceremony

November is a time for GRATITUDE!

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. - Denis Waitley 

Happy November! 

A campaign very close to my heart, BodyImage3D's challenge this month is to start a gratitude journal, and since one of my goal's  this month is to publish at least two blog posts I thought this would a great opportunity to...well...double dip and send two birds out of the park. The questions came from BI3D's November Challenge. So, what are you thankful for this month? Here are the my answers: 

What are you thankful for? Why? My family. I was blessed with kind, loving and supportive parents. A strong brother that grew into an honorable man who chose a wonderful woman to marry, and together they blessed me with a niece and two nephews that light up my heart. I am so grateful and thankful for my husband. I’m thankful that he knows me so well and still loves me. I’m thankful he’s such a hard worker. I’m thankful for all the fun we have together. I’m also thankful for my friends, my great job, my old house, and each blessed moment I have with them all. 

What can you do this month to give back to your community? This month I donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. They are pretty amazing. No St. Jude patient pays a dime for any of their treatment. I wish I had more dimes to spare. 

Where do you see yourself in five years? Five years huh, I hope it goes by like molasses on a winter day.  I’ll be 38. Wow. That number seems un-exciting, but I know my life better than that. It is always full of excitement, sometimes known as change, sometimes not as welcomed but looked back on in reverence. I hope that G and I will be living in either an updated version of our house, or are renting out our updated old house and are living in something a little more modern. I expect us to be in the same area, since we both seem to like it so much and since it’s been home for over six years…establishing roots.

By then, I hope 1922House blog has many more posts.

What opportunities have you been given today that will help you get there?

MANY! I have so many to thank the Good Lord for! My husband (not my husband at the time, but I knew he was pretty special =) believed in me and us enough to invest in our property and took on many years of construction and challenges.

My parents paid for my education. They not only financed and facilitated some of the best years of my life, but left me with zero debt to pay when I graduated. I know it was a gift many parents only wish they could provide for their children and for this, I am ever grateful.

I’ve been given the opportunity to work for a wonderful employer that pays me to do things I love to do which in turn allows me to play house, play in the dirt and live my wonderful life. 

What do your friends and family do to help you be better?

I’m blessed to have such a support group around me. My friends and family encourage me when things are rough, and they laugh and cheer me on in times of joy! 

What are your best qualities?

I think my some of my best qualities are my sense of humor (which can also get me into trouble sometimes), my ability and eagerness to teach. Once a teacher, always a teacher I guess. I still enjoy it though. My resourcefulness and ability to FIGURE IT OUT (or at least try). I don’t traditionally consider myself a risk taker, but looking back on the last 10 years, I have been. You’ll never know if you can fly if you don’t jump, or flap your wings when pushed out of your comfortable nest.

To Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge: Open Sesame

Via my morning and afternoon commute to from Dallas to Arlington and then back, I've been watching the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge go up. Anxiously awaiting it's opening. Not because I'm a bridge architect buff or because I'm passionate about the redevelopment efforts the Bridge supports (although it does interest me). I'm looking forward to it for merely personal gain - and hopefully that is to gain a few minutes back from my morning commute. I spend several minutes of my M-F routine just a few hundred yards from where these pictures were taken. Yes, I took them quickly while driving. Yes, there's a cop in front of me. What can I say? I live on the edge.

At a family gathering this last weekend, a cousin (that also works for the City of Big D) brought up that he's shocked that it hasn't been vandalized yet. Evidently, so it The Dallas Morning News.

Stay tag free Bridge! Crossing my fingers for smooth commute.