It's The First Thing I See When I Wake

In honor of MMJ playing at the Koka booth amphitheater tonight, today's YouTube Friday is my favorite song of theirs.  Have a great weekend!  Catch you on the flip side.

MoMA Cutting Board

$24

I just spied this over on the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) website, and had to share.  Remember that soup that I made a few days back?  Well, there was a lot of knife work involved, which meant that I was scraping lots of veggies off my cutting board and into a pot.  This would have been so handy to keep things from spilling over the side, I won't even think of making it again until I have this handy dandy FOLDING cutting board.  Cool kitchen gadgets get me every time...

Mother's Day Gift Guide 2010 Part II

So maybe your mom has a black thumb and is not the gardening type?  These gifts are great for any mom and are a welcome break from over-done carnations.

Who doesn't love a good L.L. Bean tote bag?  They now allow you to personalize the classic boat and tote bag by selecting the colors, strap length, and size.

Medium Bag $32

Mom's love tea towels.  This one is screen printed by hand!

$11

If the recipes are anything like what I ate during my summer spent in Italy during college, your mom will love it, and you will too when she makes something yummy from this cook book.  The photographs inside alone are worth the price of admission.

$39.95

Seda France candles are some of my very favorite.  Their scent is heavenly and they come packaged in a cute pagoda, what's there for your mom not to love?

$12.95(they are on SALE!)

Mother's Day Gift Guide 2010

With Mother's Day right around the corner (hint hint it's Sunday May 9th, yeah you are welcome) it's time to think about what to give to the woman who brought you into this world.  A phone call is nice, but I call my mom everyday, so this wouldn't really be anything special.  Flowers are great, and I and my mom would both tell anyone that flowers are THE perfect gift, but I'm seeking something out of the ordinary this year.  When I heard that Anthropologie had a joint collaboration with Styer's, a cafe/nursery/garden store, I knew that it would be the perfect place to find something really cool for my mom who taught me to love gardening.  Mom, I know you are reading this so please be surprised when one of the following items shows up on your doorstep (or maybe I'll be sneaky and choose something not listed!)

Feast your eyes on this Mother's Day Gift guide, and oh yeah, it's all under $40, because my mom taught me to be frugal too.

This bird house is so quaint and I know my mom would love it!

$38

 I want one of these so bad, and I think it's a sign of a good present if you want it for yourself.  It produces 1/4 lb. of shiitake mushrooms every 2 months for 4 years.  

$32

 Vintage French baby bottles would make the sweetest flower arrangement holders, don't you think?

$28 for a pair

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy...is oven and microwave safe, and can go straight to your table.

$28

Money Saving Vegetable Chowder

One of the pitfalls of living on your own after college is grocery shopping.  Aside from a few single-serving frozen entrees, we live in a predominantly multi-serving world.  It's even reflected in nature, I buy a cucumber, and unless I use it for a cucumber based dish I alone can't consume it fast enough before it starts to shrivel and mock me and my single-serving self from the vegetable drawer.  Sacks of potatoes, whole heads of broccoli, loaves of bread, and even some bags of lettuce are too much for my one appetite to take down without eating the same thing for EVERY meal.  They grow buds, wilt, or get moldy before I can come up with ways to throw them all together in some sort of amateur version of Food Network's "Chopped."  

It makes me cringe when I throw away food because all I can see are dollar bills in the trash can.  I personally don't have time to go to the store multiple times a week just to get a few produce items fresh for that day, a major dilemma for a girl who loves to eat healthy and have good veggies in my diet.  Or it was until I discovered this recipe, which can feed a large family for a night, or me for a week.  It's chock full of all things yummy and freezes well so you can have it at the ready in minutes during the week or a few months down the road.  Make substitutions for whatever vegetables are in season, or if you are just plain finicky about what greens go in your mouth.  Here is my version, I've made it for several years now and I still can't get enough.  

Money Saving Vegetable Chowder

adapted from Moosewood Cookbook

2 Tbs. butter

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. basil 

1 medium potato, diced

2 medium carrots, diced

1 heads worth of broccoli florets 

1 heads worth of cauliflower florets

1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped

1 small eggplant, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 cups frozen corn

2 cups frozen peas 

lots of fresh black pepper

1 1/2 cups water

1 quart milk (I use 2% for this recipe), heated

optional: minced fresh herbs, any other vegetable you would like I recommend trying lima beans and asparagus

1)  Melt the butter in a kettle or Dutch oven.  Add onion, garlic, salt, thyme, and basil.  Saute over medium heat 5 mins.  Add potato carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower.  Saute about 8 minutes.  Add mushrooms, corn, peas, bell pepper, and eggplant, plus lots of pepper to taste.  Saute another 10 minutes.

• if during the sauteing process the vegetable start to stick to the bottom of the pan and get too brown add a little bit of water to keep it from burning.  

2)  Add 1 1/2 c. water, cover, and simmer about 15 minutes, or until everything is tender.  (Make sure that the potatoes are done.)

3)  Stir in hot milk and remove from heat.  Serve topped with freshly minced herbs or let it cool and place it into tupperware to reheat at a later time!

Enjoy!

Birthday Candles + Street Food + Fish Bowls

Did you have a good weekend?  I sure hope so.  Here are some snapshots of mine.

oh curry, you were so good.

Thanks for the cupcakes Meg!

a blonde, a red head, and a brunette walk into a bar...

mmmmm.  Poole's Diner mac and cheese.

stormy downtown

Sprite + Grease = Best Hangover Cure

Holy hangover Batman.

I feel like the Bernstein Bears book "Too Much Birthday" right now.  It was a fun one though, our kickball team tied our game and I scored my first run!

I'm going to be curing myself with a huge icy sprite and some Bojangles, because birthday celebration round #2 is on Saturday!

Enjoy today's YouTube friday, nice and soft hangover listening.  Love this song.


Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for making my birthday so special!

24 (not Jack Bauer's show, sorry!)

I just finished making 48 red velvet cupcakes on this Kitchen-Aid mixer that has made all of my birthday cakes for as long as I can remember.

It is my last day as a 24 year old and it has made me reminisce over the past year as birthdays have the tendency to make you do.  I may not feel any different when I wake up tomorrow, but regardless, this past year has changed me in some very gradual and some very sudden ways.  It has been a year filled with joy like I have never known and sorrow that brought me to my knees.  So while I may not feel any different tomorrow, time and life have made sure that I am.

In honor of my turning a quarter century tomorrow I want to take stock of 24 things in my life that I am thankful for.  Without further ado, my homage to my 24th year in no particular order.

1. My family and their unending love and support.  My parents and brother who are my very best friends.
2. My friends, who are my chosen family.
3. My health.  Without this, I have realized that nothing else matters.
4. The way that my dog, Lewis, greets me every day when I come home.  He can't contain his happiness and his whole body wiggles.  
5. This blog, sounds corny I know, but it has been a distraction when I need it and a great creative outlet for me.
6. The fact that my parents are only a car ride away.  When the fit hits the shan they can be here quick, and when I just feel like going home for a visit I can.
7. Sheetz made to order sandwiches.  McDonalds ice cream cones.  The Cupcake Shop. Delicious.
8. I am thankful for all of the bullets that I dodged this year.  It might not have felt like that at the time, but things happen for a reason.
9. DVR.  What did we do before this?  Glee, Lost, American Idol, Project Runway, East Bound and Down, True Blood, Modern Family, thanks for always entertaining me.
10. My employment.  I feel blessed to have a steady job given the economic situation in America today.
11. Music, it is the cherry on the top of life's sundae.  Secondarily in this bullet point I am thankful for the cd's my friend Betsy makes me, she has fabulous taste in music and they have been a great soundtrack this year.
12. My ballet classes.  I have reclaimed a love that I lost a while back.
13. My kickball team!  May we win the game tomorrow!
14. When y'all leave me comments on here, they make my day!
15. Being asked to be a bridesmaid in two of my good friend's weddings and seeing them find happiness.
16. Seeing my little brother go off to college, way to go Ben I am SO proud of you.
17. Good Books.
18. The coffee that gets me through the day.
19. My new garden.  
20. Bargains and thrift stores.  Getting a deal puts me in a good mood.
21. The new places I have seen in the past year.  Irvine, CA, Maine, New Hampshire,  Pennsylvania, Annapolis, Todd, NC, and all of the old favorites down on the NC coast.
22. The conversations I have with my mom when I'm driving all over for work.
23. Learning to love cooking and trying new recipes.
24. And finally, that I have yet another year to look forward to and the knowledge that no matter what comes it's just going to keep on getting better.

Goodnight 24, I am good and ready to put you to bed.

All the Plastic, None of the Surgery

So to round out this little recycling series we are ending on plastic.  Truth be told, it has been the trickiest category yet to find blog-worthy, recycled items to share.  Remember the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where the dad was adamant that every english word was derived from a Greek word (and that Windex could cure anything, but that's beside the point)?  Well, he would be pleased right now because little known trivia fact, the word plastic is derived from the Greek word plastikos, which means fit for molding, and all of the following items are fit for molding, and much more!

Retro Doily Clock.  A must have.

$28.50

Not made from recycled plastic, but these plastic re-usable sandwich and snack bags are very eco-friendly not to mention aesthetically pleasing!  Pack a lunch and stop buying zip locks and your wallet will thank you too!

$6.75

This one really blows my mind with its coolness.  This tote bag is made from plastic grocery bags.  Imagine how easy this is to clean and how great it would be to take out on the beach this summer!

$35

Tomorrow will be my last post as a 24 year old.  Check back to see my list of 24 things I have learned in the past year and things that I am thankful for!  That is if I get around to writing them down with all the cupcakes I'm going to be making tomorrow...

Paper with Panache

In lieu of a recipe tonight I thought I would continue with the Earth Day trend and move on to recyclable material number two (who does Number Two work for?), PAPER!  This is not your everyday Starbuck's coffee sleeve made from x% post-consumer recycled materials, these are way cooler.

This is a Friend Ship popup card, I can't resist a good play on words.  Complete with recycled envelope.

$8

Are you serious, a recycled Candy Land board game notebook.  Queen Frostine, Plumpy, and that crazy old bat Gramma Nutt made this one of my absolute favorite games as a little girl.  

$15

I couldn't resist showing you this notebook from the same designer because I'm sure there are some other Scrabblers out there like me.  I may or may not know all of the words involving Q that don't also require a U,  qat, for example.  Don't test me in Scrabble, I'm down right dirty.

$15

I love this print made from recycled paper because it is a great daily reminder, but if you are a history buff you can appreciate it for yet another reason.  Apparently King George the VI commissioned this propaganda poster in 1939 to sooth the worried minds of his people due to the looming war with Germany.  He had them distributed all over the country upon the outbreak of the war.

Comes in a variety of colors.

$14.98

Bridal Shower + Outdoor Dining + Gardening + Wine

 Snapshots of my weekend.

bridal shower.

The final magazine gift bow and gift wrap made from magazine sheets.  The gift's card was written on the back of the Vogue "business reply mail card."

Annnnd IIIIII....

I am sorry to have not gotten around to a post last night but I was distracted by a kickball victory and the flip pong that ensued afterwards.  However, I wanted to be sure that I didn't miss YouTube Friday this week because I am in awe of this video.  This Taiwanese boy speaks NO english, but aside from a few accented words you cannot tell the difference between him and Whitney Houston.  I'm not sure if I'm amazed or jealous, because no matter how many times I have tried to sing this song I can't for the life of me come anywhere close to hitting those notes.  Fist pump to you, Lin Yu Chun, fist pump to you.  Now it's time to start the weekend, hope everyone has a good one!

Glass with Class

When I hear the word RECYCLING there are a few things that come to my mind.  Curbside collection. Saving trees.  Biodegradable waste.  A way to find out which of your neighbors had a party and which drink too much (come on, you know you do it too).  Some aspects of recycling are not so pretty, google "compost pile" and you can see what I'm talking about, but some parts of it are.  Without trying to sound like an after school PSA, I have found some really neat recycled items that put a definite cool spin on this Earth friendly trend.  There are three recyclable materials that have been ingrained into our brains since kindergarten; glass, paper, and plastic and tonight I am delving into the first of the trio.

I love these recycled wine bottle glass tumblers!  The fish graphics are awesome.

Set of 2 for $20

Don't ever let it be said that I don't give guys a little love on this blog.  These Red Stripe beer bottles from YAVA glass have a finished rim and belong in only the coolest bachelor pads.  I think my brother needs a set for his b-day.

$10

One of several bottle coaster designs

$10

I'm geek over this green amber cheese tray made from a large recycled wine bottle from San Fran designer Bottlehood.

The best part?  The feet of the tray are corks.  I know, I want it too.

$10

This is a splurge-urge, but this coat rack from The Green Glass Company is the cat's pajamas. 

$72.50

Recycled Magazine Gift Bow

The season is upon us, and this time I'm actually not talking about Spring. It's wedding season, and as a post-college working girl this means that a million and a half people that I know (and their sisters and cousins) are getting married this year. It's a very exciting time, you get to go to Bachelorette parties, throw showers, and let's not forget the copious amounts of alcohol that, if you are lucky, is included in an open bar. However, most of these events require gifts, and getting some swag is a great way for the happy couple to start out their new life together, but when you add it all up it can get expensive. I'm attending a shower this Saturday and I already have the gift, but wrapping it and making it look pretty is a different story. The paper, the ribbons, and bows can easily add extra dollars to your gift total, times that by the number of gifts I will be giving this season, and it is a good hunk of cash. I found a project over on Design*Sponge that inspired me for several reasons: it's thrifty, it's personalized, and in the spirit of Earth Day which is coming up on April 22nd (which by the way is also the birthday of yours truly), it is eco-friendly. Find out all of the deets on this DIYer below!

RECYCLED MAGAZINE GIFT BOW

You will need:

scissors

magazine pages

ruler or measuring tape

a stapler

brads OR needle and thread

1. Find a colorful or interesting page in a magazine and tear it out so that it is as intact as possible.

2. Measure across the top of the page horizontally to divide it into 9 equal segments and draw vertical lines down the page at each measurement. I did all of my measuring on the less pretty of the two sides of the page so that my ink marks wouldn't be seen on the outside of the bow.

3. From the top of the page measure downwards 1 inch and cut out three of the strips at this point. Repeat with the second set of three strips cutting them off 2 inches from the top of the page. Again do the same with the remaining three strips at 3 1/2 inches from the top of the page.

4. Take each strip and twist it to form the shape seen in the picture below. Secure with a staple.

5. Arrange the largest pieces on the bottom like so:

Then place the medium pieces on top of them:

Repeat with the smallest pieces on top.

6. I chose to punch a hole through the center of the bow with my scissors. If you have a brad handy use it to secure all of the pieces together. I forgot that this was a vital part of the process and had to improvise, so I sewed all of the pieces together.

7. You now have a pretty magazine bow topper! Play around with different pages and see how the combinations of different colors and texts can create different looks!