Getting creative with junk.

I thought my habit of using old envelopes for all my little notes & lists was quite brilliant, especially since last time I cleaned I clipped all my envelopes together with a binder clip to make a cool little "notepad." Someone is ten steps ahead of me, though: Tutorial: Recycled Envelope Pocket Books. How cool are those? I love the idea -- so many possibilities! Right now I think they'd make cool little advent calendar-type gifts. (I am a little obsessed with advent calendars, even though I usually forget to get one before the season starts and I am never prepared enough to make one.)

I've been seeing lots of incredible ideas for recycling old things lately. Here are some others:

• CD Case Photo Cube
• Drink Can Tinwork
• Junk Mail Art
• Gift Card Jewelry

What are some of your favorite ways to reuse old things?

Strays.

These are the kitties we have hanging around outside:


Aren't they precious? That picture's a few weeks old. The little one has gotten a little bigger & fluffier and the mama...well, she's either getting chubby or going to have another litter. We're trying to get them to trust us but it's not easy. As of now they eat the food we put out for them & they usually come into the garage when we open it for them at night, they sleep there, and then we let them out in the morning. It's certainly better than nothing but I hope we can get them to trust us more soon.

Puppies or research? Hmm, let me think...

Yikes, I almost forgot to post yet again! Let's just talk about how cool it is that I've made it through 18 consecutive days of posting. I only have 12 more to go! I'm pretty happy just to have stuck with it thus far. Long-term goals/projects aren't exactly my specialty.

Speaking of which, this is an interesting week for me. I have nothing major due in terms of school work, which is incredible. (I was supposed to have a presentation but it was pushed back, thank goodness.) The downside is that I have like a million things I should be working on now so I don't die later this month. I am dreading the first week of December -- I have 4 major projects/papers/presentations due within 3 days. So really I should be using this week to get some of that work out of the way, but am I? No, I am watching puppy cam and reading unassigned books. It's the end of the semester, what did you expect?

The hat I'm working on is coming along really nicely. If I can get a decent picture I'll show you tomorrow!

Lentils & Rice.

I very nearly forgot about posting today, oops! I did want to tell you about two great recipes I tried this afternoon, though. I finally tried this honey baked lentils recipe and the results were so, so much better than I could've expected! I used green lentils soaked overnight in water with minced garlic, some ground ginger (we were unfortunately out of ginger root), a generous pinch of allspice, a little honey & a little maple syrup. I love honey in everything & I'd just picked up some wonderful Michigan maple syrup at Eastern Market, so I couldn't decide between the two sweeteners and had to just use a bit of both! I also omitted the onions -- I'm usually the world's biggest onion fan but sometimes I overdo it and want to take a break from them; I happen to be in one of those phases now.

Anyway, I've tried preparing lentils various ways in the past & always had minimal success -- this way is SO much better (and easier, too)! The resulting dish is incredibly flavorful and I'm going to love finishing up the leftovers all week.

I also made baked rice along with the lentils, since it seemed too easy not to try. It came out perfectly! That'll definitely be my go-to rice recipe from here on out, and I look forward to experimenting with it a bit more in the future (and possibly using the leftovers to make butternut squash cakes soon...).

The only sad note is that the pita I was making to go with this deliciousness was a complete failure. I've had great success with the recipe before and I can't figure out what I did wrong this time around. It's driving me a little nuts, actually, but I guess you can't win them all, right?

Detroit Urban Craft Fair 2008.

The craft fair was a great success! I could not believe how many people were there, both shoppers & vendors -- it was tough to even see everything because there was so much there & such a crowd. That's definitely good news for all the people who put their time & energy into the event! I know some of you are pretty bummed you missed out, but luckily most of the vendors have websites (though so far most of the sites have a much smaller selection than I saw at the fair). A full list of the vendors is here and below are some of my particular favorites. Definitely consider doing some of your holiday shopping with these folks; not only do they deserve it, but the recipients will be overjoyed with their unique gifts:

• Boh Bon Soap Company: I bought one of their gift packs for someone on my list and a little bar of peppermint soap for myself. I tried the peppermint out today and I LOVE it! Next I want to get my hands on the tea tree mint shampoo bar.


• City Bird: Lots of beautiful city-themed gifts, from housewares to greeting cards. I picked up some awesome Detroit buttons for friends (like everyone else I met, I had a number of "Michiganders in exile" on my shopping list).


• Dang Argyle: Cute wallets, pouches, jewelry, and cards. I absolutely adore the Michigan mittens notecards.


• Wei's Open Secret: I loved their jewelry and I'm kicking myself for not picking up a set of the super-cute gratuity comment cards.


• Always the Forest: Great clothes, accessories, & other gifts. I got a really cool Michigan flora & fauna t-shirt & am hoping I might get another chance to buy one for a friend or two for Christmas (they're limited edition & not on the website, so my chances aren't so great, but I guess that's just what I get for being selfish when I should've been thinking of others).


• Glass Action: Makers of the famous stained glass Barack Obama & rockstar night lights! Too cool, though I really loved their Michigan charms.


• Amepix: I spent entirely too much time poking through all the stuff available at this table and eventually came away with some cute little gifts I know my friends are going to love (ok, ok, and a little something for me too). I love the focus on food!


• Bettula: Gorgeous accessories made from birch bark!! I have a weird thing for birch bark and am now coveting their cuffs and earrings.

I'm sure there are some more worth mentioning -- like I said, it was hard to even see everything with such a great selection! That's certainly a long enough list for now, though. Also, those of you who are sad you missed out shouldn't fret too much -- there are two similar events coming up in December: the Shadow Art Fair in Ypsi and the Holiday Baar Bazaar in Detroit!

G-l-o-r-i-a.

Yikes you guys, I am super late on today's entry! (In real life it's after midnight, oops.) My excuse is that I was at the DIA seeing Patti Smith: Dream of Life, which I absolutely loved. For tonight I'll leave you with the trailer:


Tomorrow you get to hear about the amazing Detroit Urban Craft Fair!

Detroit Urban Craft Fair Tomorrow + Other Great Upcoming Events!

Sorry non-locals, most of this post doesn't quite apply to you. I just wanted to make sure that both of my readers were aware that the The Detroit Urban Craft Fair is coming up TOMORROW!

I am hugely excited for this -- it should be a great way to get some holiday shopping done while supporting your local economy and lots of very deserving creative folks. You can see previews of some of the goods available (including handspun yarn!) here, here & here. I'm confident that there will really be something for everyone!

As if that weren't enough, my friends Gregg & Angela from the Detroit Evolution Laboratory are providing an amazing selection of their award-winning vegan food. You can view their mouth-watering menu here -- I'm going to have a hard time deciding what to get!

I hope you can all make it to that -- I'll be volunteering there for most of the day, so look out for me. Either way, here are some other great events coming up soon:

• Patti Smith: Dream of Life is showing at the DIA's Detroit Film Theatre all weekend. It looks like an incredible film and I'm really looking forward to seeing it.


• On a similar note, the 2008 Arab Film Festival is happening all weekend in Dearborn! I'm hoping to catch tonight's films.


• Finally, this coming Wednesday the 19th is the date of November's edition of Detroit Abides, a free monthly sustainability event put on by the Evolution Lab. This time around they're showing the excellent film The Future of Food. It's free, guys!

Finally, one that does apply to non-locals: If you believe in love & equality, you just might want to attend one of the many protests against California's Proposal 8 happening all over the country tomorrow. Find your location here!

Things I Love Thursday!

For those of you who don't know, Things I Love Thursday is an excellent little weekly ritual Gala Darling started. It's always a good idea to list the things you're grateful for, so I try to participate most weeks, but this semester I just haven't been up to it. As I mentioned last week, my Thursdays are long and after 12 hours on campus I usually can't think of much besides sleep. Today was actually great, though, and I am thrilled to say that I have tomorrow off from my internship, so I'm feeling lots of love! Here's some of what's making my week:

• Jack Lessenberry: He's a columnist and radio personality whose work I've enjoyed for years, and today he gave a great talk on my campus. The topic was the election: what happened, why, and what comes next. It was a wide-ranging and excellent discussion, mainly focused on the auto industry and the economy...so not really a happy discussion, but an interesting one nonetheless! Best of all, on the way out he passed me in the hall and said "What do you call those kind of boots?" I looked down kinda dumbly at my boots and replied, "I don't know...just boots?" and he said "Well I like them." Thanks, Jack! Also there was free food and you can't beat that.


• Linda: She's a very sweet school friend of mine who surprised me with a whole box of tea today! She works at Starbucks and gets one free every week, so she gave me some Tazo Refresh, which is made of peppermint, spearmint, and tarragon. It's absolutely perfect!


• Wait Wait Don't Tell Me: If you don't already listen to this, you should! It never fails to crack me up. My cousin told me he downloads the podcast at the beginning of every week and then saves it so it can cheer him up on a bad day. I think that's a great idea but I don't have that kind of self-control, so I rarely make it past Tuesday without listening.


• Honorable mentions: unexpected deadline extensions; bubble baths; the moon tonight; apple cider; chatting on Gmail with my aunt in California almost every day; Sandra Cisneros; puppy cam (!!!!); free food; those cookies I made the other day (they're even better if you add chocolate chips); exciting weekend plans; hot cocoa!

That was quite a bit shorter than I thought it would be, I guess because I am getting to the point where all I want want is to hop into bed.

What do you love this week?

Whoa.

This blog is a year old today! The date completely snuck up on me* so unfortunately I don't have any kind of exciting post planned (do I ever?), but...um...yay?

In completely unrelated news, I can tell you that I am officially visiting my friend Linn in Toronto over Thanksgiving!! I bought my bus tickets today so it's definitely time to start planning & getting excited! Mainly I'm looking forward to spending time with Linn and her friends, but if you have any ideas of fun things to do in Toronto I'd love to hear them.

*I realize snuck is not a word but "sneaked" sounds weird. :(

Mmm!

Today I made honey-peanut butter cookies:

The flavor is very different from regular peanut butter cookies, but still good. I think my own reaction was mirrored by my friend Linda, who looked kind of puzzled at the first bite, took another, said "it's pretty good," and then, as she finished the cookie, exclaimed "I LOVE IT!" It takes a moment to get over the fact that they don't taste the way you expect them to, but once you adjust to that you can just appreciate them for their own unique deliciousness. I'll be appreciating them for a long time to come, actually, because those four in the picture are the only ones I made today. The rest of the dough is still in the fridge.

Oddly enough, you can see a scan of the recipe from the cookbook itself here -- hopefully that link will work for everyone. I'm dying to try the almond butter version but it'll probably have to wait a bit. Honey is expensive!