For years teaching workshops and doing private instruction (PI) in metal clay was a major part of my life and income. But it's been an age since that's been a regular part of my world ... no desire, no motivation, flat burned out. So it was a bit of a surprise that a woman tracked me down via an online profile on Creative Fire to see if I would be interested in doing a PI with her. If she had contacted me just 3 or 4 months ago, I probably would have declined, but I've softened a good bit and decided, what the heck.

Our workshop time was scheduled for yesterday and I was pleased to see that my standard operating procedures for setting up had not been forgotten. Most of the workshops I've taught at home were full day events and food always played an integral part of the experience ... yummy snacks, hearty lunch, usually a chicken enchilada casserole and salad, and of course plenty of caffeinated beverages and chocolate!

Now the thing to note here is we pretty much NEVER have snacky things in the house. An occasional bag of tortilla chips and that's pretty much it. Letting me loose in the grocery store with a snack purchasing agenda can be a dangerous thing and this foray into the middle isles of the supermarket didn't disappoint.

For yesterday's 4 hour P.I. I assembled a nice array ... mini croissants and tea, local humus and crackers and a couple of bags of crispy munchie things, including some terribly decadent little sweat treats called Coco Rolls ... Salted Caramel Coco Rolls to be more specific (+ they were on sale!) ... oh my goodness.

Turns out, my student stayed supremely focused throughout the 4 hours and barely touched the snacks ... meaning she had a really great workshop and now I've got a bunch of snacky things lurking about.

I had already been dipping into the Coco Rolls and knew they wouldn't last long. Then this afternoon after my errands, it seemed like time for a nice cuppa and, golly gee, wouldn't those Coco Rolls taste pretty dern good with that nice hot cup of tea ... oy! I came close to finishing off the (thankfully) small bag, but managed to leave a few for another time, probably tomorrow.

So all this got me to thinking about delicious indulgences and that, in my effort to stay on track for regular Tuesday posts, I needed to put up an entry for my Now journal and what else I could include or might be of any interest which lead me to my current reading list. Phew!

My shortlist ... I've been reading mostly fluff for months, a few volumes with a modicum of redeeming value thrown in on occasion. Here's what's on my table at the moment ...

delicious indulgences kathy van kleeck.JPG

The top is a sweet little find from the local used bookstore, Sara Midda's South of France. For me, it's not something to really sit down and read, more just a lovely dose of visual juice. Next is my new favorite author, Jenny Colgan's The Bookshop on the Corner. I blasted through The Cafe by the Sea and immediately read it again ... pure joy! The Bookshop is almost as good and I'm doing the same thing ... read through once at a pretty good clip and then turn around and read it again to really savor the writing ... is that weird? Dave thinks I'm nuts, but it's great fun for me!

Last in the short stack is a new addition to my woowoo/juju library, Crystal Muse. I got that with some Christmas money and am finding it a terrific reference as I work on my Ananda Bundles. That's it for my current reading list.

And for more books ... another thing I do for my home based workshops is haul out my fairly sizable jewelry book library for inspiration and perusing ...

While still a pretty good selection, it's much smaller than it used to be. When we moved down to Florida, I donated a huge collection of art and jewelry books to the Asheville Art Museum ... made everyone happy!

And my little plastic bins are always fun to paw through ...

Well, I guess that's about it for now ...

I've managed to put away the last of the Coco Rolls and just about finished my cup of tea. I finally have an idea for how I want to package the new ceremonial bowls and will be working on those tomorrow, that's been holding me up for a while now. I'm working hard to not be in a rush to do anything (except read Jenny Colgan novels) and letting my days unfold as they will ... such a challenge!

Deep breaths, lots of yoga and stretching and wonderful meditations, surrounding myself with burning beeswax candles and liberal dabs of my Awakening perfume oil ... delicious indulgences that have become an essential part of my daily life.

with deep gratitude ...

delicious indulgence ...