Whitney Helms' Blog

A few weekends ago I went to a farmer's market while I was in Steamboat Springs here in Colorado. I love going to farmer's markets because you can find so many cool and unique things. I typically love buying local honey at the farmer's markets near where I live in Denver. This particular farmer's market in Steamboat had more than just food items, they had unique products like candles, jewelry, and art pieces. I enjoyed looking at all the art sections that they had there, I even bought a small card with a drawing of two whales on it. The market felt very welcoming and I enjoyed this fun Saturday morning activity.

After Monday's activity in class on September 28, I had never actually focused on my food before eating it. The point of this activity was to promote mindfulness in the simple things we do in our everyday lives. I am very grateful for food and often times appreciate the presentation it has. I went to a cafe this week and paid extra attention to the presentation it had. The cafe I went to takes pride in the presentation of their food and when I received it, the first thing I did was not eat it, instead, I took a few moments to appreciate the details the food had and the work they put into it. The prompt for this week's post mentioned something great, "Being mindful of what we are grateful for can help us be more attuned to what's happening in and around lives." After realizing how much more I appreciate my food after taking just a few minutes to study it, encourages me to now be more mindful of other things in my life!

  This weekend was my birthday and I went up to Vail with my boyfriend. While I was there the trees caught my attention. This idea of paying attention to something, in particular, was the main idea of chapter four of Tina Seelig's book, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity.  When I got up to Vail, the trees were so hard to not notice. All the trees in Vail are already changing colors, unlike the trees here in Denver. I took this picture from the hotel.  My favorite season is fall and so I always become so memorized by the sight of the trees changing. I feel as if I am a young child during this time of the season when summer is ending and fall is beginning and the trees are in their transitioning colors because I always become so mesmerized.  Coming from Denver to Vail, there was such a season shock. It was so much cooler and the trees were mostly already yellow and orange and so in this particular situation, paying attention to my surroundings and making observatio...

          Andy started out his career in footwear after he graduated from university 8 to 9 years ago. He went to Asia to work in footwear manufacturing, during this time he was having to travel a lot. He would always have to pack multiple shoes for short trips due to all the different weather conditions he came across. Then one day the thought came to him, why isn't there a shoe that does it all? Thus, now almost 10 years later, Andy is the co-founder of Vessi Footwear. A brand that has shoes that do it all. Vessi shoes are all, 100% waterproof, breathable, lightweight, and 100% vegan.  Vessi Website

  Often, people will correlate creativity and art together. That creativity inspires art. This is however a myth, creativity comes in so many different forms. For me, what inspires my creativity is food! I love to bake and cook. When I watch Youtube videos, cooking shows, or see a food post on Pinterest, I always get inspired to either recreate the food or just cook and bake in general.  I get creative with my recipes because I feel like I put a piece of my own inspiration in them. In the first picture above, I made spicy pasta. The recipe did not call for basil and parmesan as toppings, but I thought this was a nice touch for both taste and aesthetic purposes.  And in the second picture above, I made chocolate cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting. I got creative with this recipe by carving/hollowing out some of the chocolate cupcakes and filling them up with the cream cheese. So they then became strawberry cream cheese filled cupcakes! I then topped them off wi...

    I find that a lot of my creativity is inspired through artistic activities. I love art, especially ceramics. Most of my art is hands-on creations, rather than canvas work or drawings. During the summertime, I get very creative with gardening and to me, it's an art. I love creating fairy gardens and for me, this type of gardening inspires my creativity.  This past summer I have now been inspired to try something new. Bonsai gardening is a type of art as well and this summer I went to a bonsai class. I was a bit out of my comfort tone because it's a different type of gardening. With fairy gardens, you simply just decorate the area and select small plants that will look good in the garden. In a bonsai though, its more of a precise style. You must trim and shape the actual plant and as it grows, continue to trim the plant so that it maintains its shape.  Bonsai gardening is a bit more high maintenance than fairy gardening, however both of these gardening types inspir...

  With Spirulina on the rise, the "Spirulina Society" aims to create not only a power food but a sustainable and efficient system for cultivating an urban lifestyle.  Not only does spirulina have exceptional nutritional value in its raw form, but it would allow people to produce their own food, maintain their wellbeing, limit waste & reduce their ecological footprint! Before reading about the Spirulina Society, I had heard of Spirulina before, mainly only in skin care products though. I had no idea how incredible spirulina in its raw form was! Spirulina is known to reduce blood pressure, boost metabolism, & improve gut health.  The Spirulina Society is marketing its cultivation in such a neat and easily accessible way!  Free 3-D models of the tools: With these tools, spirulina can be grown indoors. They take up little space and require only a small amount of water! What I found to be the coolest thing about these tools is that, with optimal conditions, the sp...