Grey Eye Designs studio

The Scarlet Letter opens tonight!

2011-01-14T12:10:00.004-06:00

Hello!

I'm excited to report that The Scarlet Letter opens tonight at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Read my interview in yesterday's Tulsa World if you need to be enticed. Need a little something more? How about a $5 discount on your tickets! The code is "scarlet." Do you need even more?

Bam. Now THAT'S what I call hair and make-up. Check out the sexy Puritan black hanging in the background.

I hope to see some of you this weekend or next!

Discounted Scarlet Letter tickets

2011-01-03T08:48:00.002-06:00

Hey friends!

Things have been dead quiet around here for a while, thanks in large part to my, well, large part in Theatre Tulsa's The Scarlet Letter. We open a week from Friday. Yee haw!

Are you interested in seeing the show? Then I have great news for you. Today's LivingSocial deal is half-price tickets to see the play! Check out the deal here. I've used LivingSocial before, so I can vouch for it. There are no hidden fees, and you will actually get to use your tickets without jumping through a flaming Hula Hoop.

Here are further details:

What: The Scarlet Letter by Phyllis Nagy, adapted from the book from Nathaniel Hawthorne
When: 7:30 p.m. on January 14, 15, 20, 21, and 22; 2 p.m. on January 16
Where: John H. Williams Theatre of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Costs: $16 per ticket, or $16 for two tickets if you use today's LivingSocial deal
Why: Because you'll get to see me in my first starring role! And it's a good play.

I hope to see you there!

Thankful Thursday

2010-11-25T23:44:00.003-06:00

I missed this last week, and it's nearly the end of Thanksgiving, so I figure I better get my post up now. Here's what I'm thankful for today:

1. Family. Sometimes you crazies stress me out, but I'm lucky to have you. Thanks for being mine! This means you, too, taller half.

2. A good job. Work, too, can be a stressor, but I am so thankful to be compensated decently for doing something I enjoy.

3. Hobbies. They make the non-family and non-work part of my life even more wonderful.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I will post my advent calendar project soon.

Thankful Thursday

2010-11-11T09:17:00.004-06:00

I have so many things to be thankful for right now, so the following three are only a sampling:

1. Supportive friends. One of my nearest and dearest recently had her heart broken. I admit that I'm not always the best friend. I'm the one of my group least likely to show up to a gathering or to call everyone else. However, we all dropped what we were doing to rally around my incredibly amazing gal pal. I hope she knows we're always there, and I know she would be for me, too.

As another example of good friends, the members of my book club brought all vegetarian treats to our meeting this week. In fact, the charming hostess made vegan chili with me in mind. I was overwhelmed. This is not a group of ladies I know very well yet, and that they were willing to plan around my dietary needs was so thoughtful. You can read more gushing about this here.

2. Successful cooking experiments. I threw caution to the wind and made a baked rice dish with Brussels sprouts and beets, two things I'm still learning to like. The end result was love -- beet love:

The recipe is posted on my food blog here.

3. A wonderful not-really-my-family-yet. I got a friendly, out-of-the-blue letter from my taller half's sister yesterday. She just wanted to be friendly and send me some tea she had recently tried. Her thoughtfulness overwhelmed me. I'm lucky to be surrounded by non-relatives who treat me like family. I hope they know I love them, too.

Weekly Literary Meme

2010-11-08T13:17:00.002-06:00

My friend and former editor Emily of Red Fork State of Mind has started a weekly literature meme for us crazy bloggers. I couldn’t resist participating. I'm a little late because I gave this a lot of thought. Here is the inaugural topic:

All things being single, if you could date any five literary characters, who would they be, and why?
Go here to check out her answers. Mine are below, in ascending order:

5. Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest: I just like him. I find him whimsical and silly and foppish. I would like to take ether frolics with him in the bucolic English countryside before tea and croquet time.

4. George Emerson, A Room with a View: Socially awkward, yes, but he’s a good guy, and he loves Lucy the way she is. He doesn’t bully or bore her, and he’s open and honest about his thoughts and feelings. I like that in a man.

3. Nick Carraway, The Great Gatsby: In some ways, Nick’s kind of lame. He talks little of himself and was strangely fascinated by Gatsby. However, I like to think of him as somewhat humble rather than wimpy, and his affair with Jordan Baker clearly indicates he likes his women a little unruly. Plus, his handling of their relationship – hints rather than details – shows how respectful he is. My appreciation for his character may also derive from my wildly inappropriate childhood crush on Sam Waterston, who played him in the Mia Farrow/Robert Redford film.

2. Robbie Turner, Atonement: I just read the book this year, but I fell in love with this character. He is so honest and real, and I appreciate his ambitious nature and comfort in his own skin. He is also fearless, strong, and a friend to his crazy mother and the silly Tallis family. Even when things go really, really wrong, he handles himself with dignity and composure. And love, of course. The romantic in me is a sucker for enduring passion.

1. Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, Little Women: Laurie’s my ultimate dream literary character. He is smart, sensitive, loyal, artistic, and loving. He likes his women independent and strong, which was not exactly typical of the 19th century. He has a heart of gold, and he came out of his moody, pouty period full of strength and humility. Plus, his dark hair and eyes sound super sexy.

As much as I love Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, I would rather be celibate than date either of the male leads. I just wanted to throw that out there before someone mentioned that I forgot Mr. Darcy. Colin Firth is a hottie, but the character is so not my type.

I plan to post my responses to her second topic this week. I hope you'll play along!

Indie Emporium 2010 recap

2010-11-07T09:01:00.004-06:00

I've been remiss in posting a recap of Indie Emporium so far. My apologies! I've been busy, plus I was waiting for fashion show pictures to share. I have some, so excuses are gone.

Here's a photo of my booth on Day 1:

I tried out some new display stuff this time. Instead of my boring cream tablecloth, I threw down a thrifted sheet that I think was fun. On the far right is a small set of shutters that helped me display my new Murano glass pieces. The white busts in front did the same thing. Next to it is my favorite chest with rings displayed plus a new smaller chest I used for my earrings. The trays and busts are old, and you've probably seen the standing display before, but never with my scarves. I'm so happy with how they turned out! I sold two of the six I brought (only five are featured here because one wasn't quite ready for primetime until the following day).

Also, I'm a nutter, so I dressed up as Super Brigid: Crafty Crimefighter that night:

These are my angry eyes:

It's really the silver mesh cape that keeps evil-doers at bay:

The boots were thrifted for a few bucks, the pants are actually workout pants I won from Self Magazine, the top is my ballet leotard, and the cape is a scrap I have from when I was selling scrub gift sets. Fun!

The next day, I rearranged slightly to show off the scarves better:

I also dressed up again, this time as a red-hot member of the Red Hat Society:

That's commitment. Here I am behind my booth that day:

Then the evening rolled around, and the fashion show hit the runway. I modeled for three designers. Up first was OK Tees. I can't share this photo because it's protected, but check out me strutting my stuff here.

Next, I modeled an apron from Tuggin Apron Strings. Click here to see me (second from left) with all four of the lovely pieces. I am dying for the lemon one on the designer (in the middle)!

And finally I got all sultry in a gorgeous piece from UPC Fashion. You may recall me in a long white dress from her last year. This year I mixed it up with a short white dress:

Ham:

And one more from the back:

All in all, Indie was a fun show again. I have lots of goodies leftover, though, so expect an Etsy update as soon as I get my marbles together.

Beating the winter blues

2010-11-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

I’ve made my winter blues no secret on this blog. (In fact, I have an entire tag for the subject -- yikes!) Last year, I had a particularly bad case of them, and all of you came to the rescue with encouragement and suggestions for how to turn my frown upside-down.

This year, I’ve decided to stop them in their tracks.

I am decidedly a warm-weather girl, but instead of whining about the cold and – eventually – the snow and ice, I’m going to embrace it in 2010. Cold means sweaters, and I like my sweaters. It also means cuddle time, soup, roasted vegetables, and knitting. I like those things, right?

Right.

Anyway, I am now kicking off three big projects to get me through the beginning of November. I’m hopeful that they will keep the blues away.

1. Learn to bake yeast breads. I will make my first one this Friday.
2. Weed through boxes in the apartment. This will probably carry me well into December, too, and possibly the New Year. I have so much unnecessary stuff left over from childhood, college, and my pre-cohabitating days. It’s time to give or throw a lot of it away.
3. Make an advent calendar. I was raised in an irreligious household, so I’ve never had one before. I’m currently looking at patterns and ideas, and I hope to start the project next week.

What is your favorite way to welcome the cold weather?

A peak at batik

2010-10-27T18:13:00.004-05:00

I am excited to debut a few of my batik scarves at Indie Emporium this year. I don’t want to ruin the surprise completely, so instead of glamour shots of the finished product, here are a few behind-the-scenes looks at the process.

I like to think of batik as Easter egg-dying for grown-ups:

There are different application techniques, but they all involve natural fabrics, dye (which I mix myself), and wax. Sometimes you apply the wax and then soak the item in the dye; sometimes you paint the dye on post-waxing. The cups are small, but they can hold more than one scarf.

One important thing to remember is always wear gloves. Yes, the dye can burn your skin, but most importantly, it can make you look like a giant 5-year-old:
I spared you the shot of green on my leg.

Once the dyes have been applied, you have to let them dry. (Whoa, rhyming.) I opted for the laundry room:That’s wax you see flaking off on the towel. The details are obscured, but you can see a little of what the process does. I’ll have completed scarves available for purchase and perusal at Indie Emporium this weekend! I’ll also add a few to the Etsy shop sometime soon, after the show.

Indie Emporium promotion

2010-10-26T10:27:00.002-05:00

Hey friends!

Check out who is promoting Indie Emporium today...Funky Finds! Funky Finds is such a cool site, and I get really happy when I see something with which I'm involved promoted. Check it out.

Also, I will be on Good Day Tulsa this Friday around 9 a.m., I believe, promoting the show. You know you won't want to miss that. Good Day Tulsa is on KTUL, Channel 8.

Let's talk glass

2010-10-26T06:32:00.004-05:00

I’m struggling to decide how to talk about my recent trip to Italy. How much detail do you lovely readers want? A brief recap? A detailed description of each city? Please leave me comments so I know how to proceed!

In the meantime, I have some pretties to show you. One of my necessary destinations was the island of Murano for some one-of-a-kind beads. For those of you who don’t know, Murano is one of the most famous producers of beautiful, artisanal glass in the world. You can read a little about the history and such here.

I returned from my trip with some gorgeous Murano glass just begging to become beautiful earrings and necklaces. Just so you know, I made sure every piece I bought was authentic. I’ll have a nice little variety, all available at Indie Emporium, but here’s a sneak peak. The pictures aren't all that great, but I was in a hurry to show you the goods!

Memory-wire necklace with a Murano glass pendant.

Another necklace with Murano glass pendant.

This necklace is amazing in person! The center bead is huge and – yes – is authentic Murano glass. The little aventurine beads are elegant, and everything hangs delicately on sterling silver. I love it!

Two pairs of earrings.

Liz, the winner of my last giveaway, is the first owner of some of my Murano earrings (plus a coffee scrub).

I still have a few more pieces in the works, so make sure to come by Indie Emporium on Friday and Saturday to make something yours!

And here’s a little proof that I did, indeed, visit Murano:

Happy Monday, all!

Vegetarians: Don't Fly American!

2010-10-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

This is cross-posted from my Vegging out in T-Town blog, but it's something I wanted to share both places.

I am now going to do my first vacation update. No, really. Part of me doesn't want to start on a sour note, but part of me would like to get this post out of the way. So, I apologize in advance for the crankiness of this post.

Let's talk airplane food. I have no delusions of walking on a plane and receiving the best meal of my life. I know that airplane food will be slightly above edible. As a result, I always bring snacks. I did, however, expect the airline to fulfill my special meal request, especially since their website says:

Special meals are available on Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack and Breakfast Snack flights when ordered in advance.

Order at least 24 hours prior to the flight:

In First and Business Classes on transcontinental flights in the U.S.

In all classes to or from Europe and Asia

In all classes to or from Belo Horizonte, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador or Sao Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile or Montevideo, Uruguay.

And even after all the hoops I jumped through, yeah, not so much.

American doesn't allow you to complain by phone -- seriously. It's either fax, email, or snail mail. The email I sent to them to complain about the fiasco explains exactly what happened:

On October 1, my traveling companion and I flew on AA flight 36 from Dallas to Madrid. We requested vegetarian meals. I called two days in advance, as recommended, to confirm, and the automatic voice said that they were ordered. When we arrived at the airport in Dallas, we verified again with the employee at the gate, and he told us that our meals were ordered. I then also told the flight attendant upon boarding that we had vegetarian meals. When meal service began, we were informed that, though the meals had been ordered, they were not on board the plane. Two very helpful and friendly flight attendants helped to piece together something, but I was very disappointed by the situation. I went through a lot of trouble to ensure our requests were met to no avail.

On October 13, we took flight 235 from Rome to New York. To avoid the meal problem, we spoke with the woman at the gate who informed us that no request had ever been made. She later said the request was in the system but that it was made "improperly." They were unwilling to do anything. Then a supervisor arrived who told me, after being informed that I needed the meal for health reasons, that she would not let me fly. She changed her mind and then called catering to try to do something. Then she said the problem was solved. On board, the flight attendant said nothing had arrived, and again they cobbled a make-shift meal together.

I am very disappointed by this experience. How will AA try to rectify this situation?

So even after ordering my meal four months in advance, calling ahead, and speaking to two people in person, I was still stranded on board a 9+ hour flight with no meal. I mentioned that the outbound flight attendants were awesome and scrambled to give me something to eat. Here's the dinner we ended up with:

Two iceberg salads, surprisingly tasty dressing, a roll, "butter," crackers with Gruyere, a cheese-sundried tomato salad from the first-class meal, and a chocolate caramel brownie. I had decided in advance not to worry about eating vegan on this vacation. To make it easy on the airline (ha!), I chose the lacto-ovo meal. It's a good thing, too, because this was pretty artery-clogging. BUT it was food that I could eat, and I appreciated the flight attendants' hard work. For breakfast, we had:

Croissant, strawberry-banana yogurt (gelatin-free), more "butter" (which I never touch -- don't worry), and orange juice. This was acceptable. I can't complain about it at all.

The flight back is a different story, as you can see above in my letter. In fact, I was so livid after fighting -- in Italian, mind you -- with the airport folks that I didn't photograph anything. We ended up with mushroom lasagna, salad, dressing that contained anchovies (didn't eat it), bread, and some kind of cookie. The small meal at the end was pizza Margherita. The cheese had rennet in it, possibly animal, but I was so starving I ate it anyway. I wish I hadn't, but I could only eat so many granola bars without having a blood-sugar spike and crash.

American did respond relatively quickly. Their email has some kind of disclaimer about privacy, so I won't repost it word-for-word, but the gist is that they are oh-so-sorry to have disappointed me with meal service. Won't I please accept their apology with a $50 voucher? I decided that they deserved to know my answer:

This is in regards to your response to my previous complaint, #XXXXXXXXX.

I know that the attached flight voucher was intended to make amends for the major inconvenience caused by your company as well as the extreme rudeness by your Rome-based employees. However, a $50 voucher is nowhere near enough recompense to cause me to fly American again. My traveling experience made it clear that American Airlines has no interest in serving those with special dietary needs. It was only through the hard work of the flight attendants that I had anything to eat at all on two 9-plus-hour flights. It's a good thing that I do not also have a dairy intolerance, because the only things available were filled with cheese and milk. If your airline does not wish to accommodate vegetarians or those with religious restrictions, then you should not offer the option. As it is, I have no confidence that I would ever receive a meal that meets my dietary needs on your flight. As a result, I will take my business elsewhere and encourage my vegetarian friends to do the same.

In addition, I hope you will tell your Rome-based employees that blaming the customer for your company's mistake is not appropriate, and threatening not to let a vegetarian fly because you failed to provide the appropriate meal ordered four months in advance is terrible business practice.

No, American, I will not use your $50 flight voucher to let you screw me out of the meal I ordered again. I paid over $900 for my ticket; $50 probably doesn't even cover the meals I wasn't served.

Vegetarians: I urge you NOT to fly American Airlines, especially not on international flights. If you do, bring a lot more food than I did. I had six granola bars, an apple, and a sample packet of Justin's Nut Butter. It wasn't enough. I'll know better next time, in that I will pack entire meals, and I will NEVER fly American again.

I promise my next post will be happy and full of beautiful photos and delicious food!

Oh where, oh where can she be?

2010-10-22T08:16:00.005-05:00

I have some splainin' to do. I've been even quieter lately than usual. But there's a good reason, I promise. What is it? Well, on October 1, I flew here:

And then we spent some time here:

And then two days here:

And then four days here:

And yes, we had a blast.

I've been back in the State since October 13 and haven't known how to update. So consider this a pre-update. I'll give you the full vacation deets soon and promise a post of substance even sooner.

Grey Eye Designs at Pamper Me!

2010-10-01T12:51:00.000-05:00

Now through the holidays, you can find some of my items at Pamper Me, a fun boutique offering locally made bath and body products. Right now, my whimsy rings featuring Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz characters are available for $10 each.

I'll be adding to the inventory soon, though, so look for more updates. Please go out and support local crafters and a local business! While you're there, pick up some of the amazing lip gloss. I'm in love with mine. See?

Pamper Me is on Brookside at 3711 S. Peoria Ave. in Tulsa. Swing on by!

Thankful Thursday

2010-09-30T20:51:00.002-05:00

Here's what I'm thankful for today.

1. Nice coworkers. It makes the long work days so much more palatable.

2. Chain restaurants with at least a few veggie options. Cheesecake Factory ain't exactly a culinary heaven, but I was able to get a vegan lunch there with no trouble. It may have cost $16, but at least I could eat it.

3. My new camera. I still love it! It's so tiny and takes great photos. I feel like a permanent tourist.

What are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday

2010-09-23T18:08:00.002-05:00

I had an easy time thinking of things for which I'm thankful today. :)

1. Tom Petty! Oh, my dear friend, thank you for canceling your Dallas show and coming to Tulsa. I hope you make it last all night.

2. A supportive network of crafters. I think you know who you are. Knowing you is a privilege. Thanks for everything!

3. The library. Since overcoming my outlaw status, I've become a constant user. I love how they forgive and forget, and how they keep me knee-deep in great stuff to read.

Now I'm off to get ready to see my friend Tom rock it out. Love you all!

WOW! Giveaway and logo winners

2010-09-21T16:48:00.006-05:00

Last week, I asked you to vote for my logo in this post, casually joking that I’d be open to someone making me a real logo.

Along came Matersum, one of my Twitter friends, and, apparently, an incredibly sweet and talented lady. She took my little problem and turned it into a logo. For free. From the kindness of her heart. Check out the banner-style:

And the little square logo that is exactly what I needed for Indie Emporium:
Can you believe it? Thank you, thank you so much! You are such an incredible person to do this for me. I would be more than happy to send you a gift package if you are interested. Just let me know.

Now, in the interest of the original post, the winner was photo #1.

Thank you everyone for voting! And I promised a giveaway, and darn it, I meant it! Random.org picked comment #6 as the winner and that is . . .
Yay! Liz, I will put something together and have my taller half bring it to you on Monday.

Thanks again for everyone’s feedback and especially to the thoughtful person who went out of her way to make something so wonderful for me.

Happy Tuesday, all!

Indie Emporium 2010

2010-09-18T08:36:00.003-05:00

It's official: I will be a vendor once again at this year's Indie Emporium!

I can't wait! Indie Emporium is one of my favorite shows ever, and if you attend, it'll be one of yours, too. Make sure to "like" it on Facebook. Here's my recap of last year.

In the meantime, I need your help! I have to submit a photo to represent my business by September 30, and I still don't have a logo. Someday, I keep saying. Until then, please vote for your favorite of the bottom four photos. To sweeten the deal, I will choose one commenter and send them a small surprise package. Just leave your vote by midnight on Monday, September 20.

1. Dappled in Sunlight Earring

2. Gilded Pachyderm Necklace

3. Lucky Turtle Bracelet (I used this one last year, too.)

4. Alice Ring

What do you think? Leave your vote in the comments section by midnight on Monday. And if someone is just dying to make me a real logo, I wouldn't turn them down. ;)

Thankful Friday

2010-09-17T10:02:00.004-05:00

I'm a big (well, little) stinky liar. I promised the return of Thankful Thursdays, and then poof, it was gone again. My intentions were good, but my memory was not, so I present a make-up Thankful Friday.

1. A sense of humor. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes things don't go your way. I try (try being the operative word) to take it all with a grain of salt and a much larger grain of humor. I need to buy more of this:

2. Vacations! Have I mentioned my upcoming trip to Italy? I can't wait! Here's a shot of me in Rome in 2005 wearing something completely ridiculous:

3. A nice dose of sugar first thing in the morning. I know how to start my day off right. (You can read about my homemade peanut butter cups here.)

Gettin' cozy

2010-09-15T20:33:00.006-05:00

I think I will officially have my cool crafter card taken away for admitting this, but I'm dying to make a tea cozy, irony-free. My search has begun for a knit or crochet pattern that is attractive, within my skill set, and fits my needs. There are a lot of choices out there, but most are, well, not quite me. Check out this crazy one:

My taller half suggested I make it a Cheshire Cat one to go over my Alice in Wonderland teapot. Cute idea, but I just can't see myself crocheting anything feline. Also, the spout comes out its, well, you know.

I am loving the look of this one:

But, again, I don't want an opening for the spout. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? The heat can still escape from there.

If I could felt, I would die to make this one:

Given my pickiness and skill set, I may be better off just topping my teapot with a hat, eh?

Tea party birthday extravaganza!

2010-09-12T10:46:00.002-05:00

(I apologize in advance if you see this post on Vegging out in T-Town, too, but I wanted to share it both places.)

Wow. My tea party birthday was such a huge, amazing pile of fun that I'm not even sure where to start. I guess I'll go chronologically. Beware: this is a long, photo-heavy post. And there's a lot of sugar and caffeine to go around, too.

I started drinking tea a lot more often in the past few months. I was interested in learning to dry my own mint leaves and such to make tisanes, and my research led me to look for a particular book on tea that my local library didn't have. Instead, they had Victoria magazine's The Essential Tea Companion, which is full of information on steeping tea, using fancy dishes, and throwing tea parties. My brain went, "click." This was May or June, I believe, and I quickly started searching my mind for a good reason to throw a tea party. I decided my birthday was a good choice. It was far enough away to plan, and I knew people would indulge me in honor of my ability not to die before I could ring in another year.

I spent a couple of months hitting up estate sales and thrift stores here and there in search of a hodgepodge of tea cups, cloth napkins, and other accoutrements. I had some early successes, but my search lagged towards the end. Luckily, the day before I had a great score at CMCA Thrift Shop (I would link you, but their website may be compromise at the moment -- the store is on Utica, right by Hillcrest). I ended up with 18 beautiful tea cups all within the basic color palette I had chosen (pink, blue, purple, and gold).

Taking a much-needed, pre-party bath.

That's enough background. On with the party!

My taller half and my mother helped me set up an hour before guests were due to arrive. We held the party at Chandler Park's gorgeous new community center. The room was perfect!

My major task the day before and the morning of was cooking and assembling food. Here's the result:

The rundown (from left to right): paper plates (more on those below); plastic cutlery, a stack of vintage cloth napkins; tea sandwiches: white bean (with chives, basil, garlic and onion) on top, herbed cream cheese (with chives, garlic, onion, paprika, and chili powder) below, and peanut butter and banana on gluten-free bread on the silver platter; two veggie trays, one with hummus in the middle and the other with ranch dip; berries; two boxes of cookies brought by my cousin; sugar cookies; pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes; tea cups; lemonade; assorted tea bags; honey; creamer; and the electric kettle (well, and the boom box).

Here's a close-up of the dessert/tea area:

I want to take a moment here to talk about the lemonade -- yes, the brown stuff in the pitcher is lemonade. Why is it brown?, you may wonder. Did you serve your guests rotten juice? Yes, we did! No, wait, no, we didn't. Here's how you take freshly squeezed lemonade (or any other lightly colored, homemade juice) and make it look like tea: when creating the sugar syrup, use raw turbinado sugar instead of the processed white stuff. Isn't that ingenious? No matter what everyone was sipping at the party, we all looked like we were enjoying tea. I dislike lemonade, but I heard tons of "yum!"s from the crowd, so I will let you know that the recipe came from The Joy of Cooking. The raw sugar was entirely our idea, however. The lemonade was lovingly squeezed by my gorgeous taller half.

Both of the desserts I baked were entirely vegan. The sugar cookie recipe is from the Joy of Vegan Baking, and the cupcakes are my favorite still from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Beside the desserts, I placed the tea cups so guests could choose their own. Then they could either enjoy the brown lemonade or one of the varieties of tea:

The electric kettle on the far right, barely visible, supplied the hot water. I also placed (coconut milk) creamer and honey for flavoring, but I apparently forgot to photo them. Here are the adorable containers:

In front of all the food, I placed little signs denoting what was available. I also placed an informational piece on how to make tea. Here is that and one of my favorite food labels:

My love set out three eight-top tables, at which we seated five each, and cushy chairs, all of which were included in our incredible reasonable facility rental. I didn't have appropriately sized tablecloths, but we made do. My mother did three gorgeous, springy flower arrangements. I know it's nearly fall, but tea party just doesn't scream deep oranges and reds to me.

When guests arrived, I asked everyone to wear a name tag since I had a variety of people there who didn't know each other: my family, my love's sister, high-school friends, and Tulsa Craft Mafia gals. After about 30 minutes of mingling, I unleashed everyone on the food. We ate and sipped our tea for about an hour.

This is Kayla, my friend since 9th grade. She is beautiful. She has a 17-month-old daughter who will one day be named the most drop-dead gorgeous creature that has ever lived on this planet. Kayla also knows how to pretty up some tea. Also, don't let that "Miss" on her name tag fool you. She's a married lady, so hands off.

This is my love with his sister. Check out her amazing hat. Can you believe my dark Greek man shares so much DNA with this fair redhead? Totally. Just look at their matching smiles and gorgeous faces.

Another reason I asked everyone to wear name tags is because I held a best-dressed contest. Everyone voted for their favorite outfitted party attendee or attendees, and I added up the votes. The winners were:

Holly, the crafty hottie behind Hollyrocks, in second place, and my little cousin Diana in first place. How amazing do they both look? For their efforts, Diana went home with a rubber ducky tea infuser, and Holly got a gift certificate to Tulsa's Dragonmoon Tea Company (which I'll have to review someday).

Let's check out Diana's full ensemble once more:

No wonder she won with 50% of the votes.

After I announced those winners, we briefly did some birthday things. My taller half kicked it off with a game called, Do You Know Brigid? Ten trivia questions separated the knows from the know nots. My mother won. I meant to exclude her, but my love didn't want to. She took home a prize she brought to give out to a winner. Speaking of Mom, here I am with her and her mother, too:

We don't look alike or anything. Afterward, everyone sang to me and I opened a few gifts, which included:

An amazing Alice in Wonderland teapot from my friend Nichole and these way-too-awesome cupcake baking molds from my cousin Charity. Yes, I put them to good use this morning and enjoyed a leftover cupcake and Earl Grey Lavender tea in one of my tea cups for breakfast. My love's sister also gave me a subscription to the awesome Ready Made magazine. My dad's girlfriend gave me a gift basket of homemade apple butter, peach melba jam, and a gluten-free, vegan pancake mix. So thoughtful. Holly gifted me one of her terrariums for my desk at work, which I've been dying to have. Uber-crafty Tara gave me Loop-d-Loop Crochet. Speaking of my Mafia gals, check us out:

Yes, it is hard work being this hot AND crafty.

And after two hours of eating, sipping, chatting, and playing, it was all over. Mom and my love helped me clean and pack up. We ended up with some leftovers, which is fine by me. We ran out of plastic containers after I threw a bunch away, so Mom took the rest of the baby carrots and broccoli home in a vase:

Clever and weird.

It runs in the family.

I want to thank all of my 14 guests, including my two super-duper helpers, for making this party a reality. I couldn't have had more fun dressing up and just hanging out with some of my favorite people ever.

Now, for a little honesty: I had planned to include a few things that I had to scrap after running out of time and money. First, I intended to use real plates instead of Chinet. However, not all of the tea cups came with saucers, and eventually I had to give up on finding enough that matched my color scheme and vision. I hate to be wasteful, but it saved my sanity. At least I bought plates made from recycled materials. I also intended to make flavored honeys and put out sugar cubes. These things didn't happen, and it was OK. I ended up with a nearly vegan tea party that fit my fancy fantasies without breaking the bank.

Speaking of nearly vegan, of the things I made, only the cream cheese sandwiches were not dairy-free. The cookies my cousin brought and the ranch dressing that came with the veggie trays weren't either, but I ate vegan during the party (with the exception of the honey, but I don't exclude that from my diet). I'm pretty proud!

And though this concludes the food portion of my food blog, I will now parade a few more vanity shots:

Me with Kayla and Nichole, two of my oldest friends and favorite gals. (I was wearing really tall shoes. In real life, I'm only about 1.5" taller than both of them.)

Cousins! That's us in age and height order. Notice that Charity is not wearing heels and towers over us anyway.

Me with my stepsister Kaity, my little sister Sarah (who is an 11-year-old giant), and Dad's girlfriend Jo.

And me and my love, AKA the best tea party co-host in the world.

I wish you a Sunday filled with peace, love, and half the amount of sugar and caffeine on which I ran yesterday.

The return of Thankful Thursday

2010-09-09T14:49:00.002-05:00

It's been a long, long time, but I'm reinstating this uplifting blog feature. Yay! So here's what I'm thankful for today, on this eve of my 26th birthday.

1. My taller half. I'm a little more freaked to be leaving 25 behind than I expected. Luckily, I have an understanding -- and decade-0lder -- man to put things in perspective for me. As Trudy said to Peggy, however patronizingly, on this week's Mad Men, "you know, 26 is still very young."

2. Silliness. I'm ringing in my second quarter of life with some tea-party fun. Expect a post full of pictures soon.

3. My bike, Marcello. I've been riding him a lot lately and having a wonderful time. I'm down a couple of pounds, and my legs have never looked or felt better. So if I start to feel aged, I can at least remind myself that I'm in better shape than ever.

What are you thankful for today?

Songbird in training

2010-09-08T11:39:00.003-05:00

Last month, I decided to enroll in private voice lessons. I’ve never been much of a singer, but that hasn’t stopped me from chirping my little heart out. In the interest of noise pollution, it only makes sense for me to learn how to do the thing I enjoy properly.

Tomorrow will be my fifth lesson, and it’s amazing to hear the improvement in such a short period of time. I’m tackling some Patsy Cline head on right now. I still feel nervous in class, as if the teacher would rather be working with someone a lot more talented than me. And honestly, that may well be true, but she’s kind and patient and always encouraging. I already feel a bit more confident, though I still have a ways to go.

I’ve wanted to take voice lessons since I was about 19 or 20 but was always too afraid. Same goes for pottery, painting, dance, sewing, and tennis lessons. In the past two or three years, it has been my goal to eliminate those silly fears from my lifestyle. None of these things could possibly kill me. In fact, in one way or another, they can only fulfill me and make me stronger. So what if I crash and burn? At least I tried. I will probably never be a professional singer, a ballerina, a seamstress, a ceramicist, or a painter, but I would rather fail at something fun than never try. I guess that leaves tennis on my list of things to attempt.

And there’s always the chance that I’ll find my calling. Look for me in soft focus on the cover of a CD, keytar strapped around my shoulders, and a wistful look on my face.

What have you always wanted to try? Have you been brave and gone for it?

Vegging out in T-Town

2010-08-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Hello, friends!

I did something silly this week: I made a second (ok, like ninth) blog. I enjoy sharing recipes here sometimes, but occasionally I worry that my food talk doesn't fit the theme of this blog. So while I promise not to deprive this place completely of my recipes and eatings, most of it will now happen over at Vegging out in T-Town. I will crosspost tasty treats but leave the nutrition and restaurant talk at the new venue. If you have interest in keeping vegetarian in Tulsa or just like to think and read about food, check it out. I will keep Grey Eye Designs Studio more focused on creativity.

Thanks! I hope to see you at both places!

Romeo, o Romeo

2010-08-26T12:04:00.000-05:00

So where has all my free time gone?

Right there, friends. We've been rehearsing Romeo & Juliet since approximately the beginning of time. Well, for nearly two months now, anyway. We go up on Saturday, and then I breathe.

So, if you're a local, come out and support this brand-new, awesome group of folks who want to bring more Shakespeare to Tulsa. And it's FREE! I play a couple of small parts, but the main folks are knock-your-socks-off good, so don't miss it.

Baby crafts

2010-08-25T17:32:00.005-05:00

I know I promised sewing pictures, and I will deliver. I am a little embarrassed to admit, however, that I've only completed two things from the course, and they are cloth napkins. I've been too busy, sadly, to devote more time so far. However, that will soon change. Instead, I bring you a couple of baby gifts I made recently.

Two of my coworkers are expecting little girls this October, and last week was baby-shower time. Below is what I made for my more immediate coworker: a hat and booties!

If the booties and the color scheme look familiar, it's because they are borrowed from a gift I made for my friend Kayla last spring. The hat is based on a pattern I found (and have since lost) online, though I did it with my own color scheme and added the girly trim. The Mary Jane booties pattern is here. They are dead easy and lightning fast, so I recommend them for any crocheter in the mood for some instant gratification.

The second gift I did was technically a sewing project and heavily inspired from my sewing class. However, since it's all hand stitched, I can't really claim it towards my goal of learn to use my sewing machine. Nonetheless, I'm in love with it.

Bunting! Here's a close-up of the D:

And the A:

just so you can get a feel for it. Isn't it precious? The only supplies are felt, embroidery floss and grosgrain ribbon. It was quicker to put together than I expected and required WAY less felt than I expected, so if you are interested in bunting of your own in brown and pink, let me know. :)

I will be back into the swing of regular posting soon. Sorry for my absence!

Learning to sew

2010-08-07T13:32:00.004-05:00

My goal for the summer was to make friends with my sewing machine before the end of August. A week or so ago, I realized I'd yet to make any progress. This made me sad and a little disappointed in myself. Then, about 10 minutes later, I stumbled across this link on FunkyFinds. What is it?, you may ask. Well, friends, it's an online sewing class. Yay!

The fun starts Tuesday, so if you're a novice like me who would like to improve her skills, then sign up. We can be sewing buddies.

I will post pictures of my projects, so be on the look out. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this photo (posted a while ago, too) of my most recently completed sewing project, which may or may not be from 2008:

Jeez, someone give that monkey a sandwich and remove his gag. The world needs more sock monkeys such as those made by the wonderful FriedOkra. Clearly I'm not there yet.

Theatrical ambition

2010-07-28T15:58:00.001-05:00

I did something crazy today: I mailed a headshot, résumé, and cover letter to a highly renowned, incredibly awesome theatre company. I can’t believe it. I’m unlikely to hear anything ever, but I had to take a shot. You can’t win if you never try. Now I have the bug, so it’s time to start seeking new places to submit!

When was the last time you did something crazy and/or ambitious? And do you know of any professional theatre companies that accept submissions from non-Equity actors?

Oh, and here’s a crappy scan of my headshot:
Not the world’s greatest picture of me, I don’t think, but hopefully it’s not too frightening. :)

Inception

2010-07-21T21:19:00.003-05:00

My taller half and I recently began doing video reviews of films. In case any of you are interested, here is our latest review of Inception, which we saw last night:

And in case you're curious, here is my love's take on the French film Micmacs:

And my take:

I hope you enjoy. :)

Anne Boleyn necklace

2010-07-17T09:33:00.003-05:00

If you are my friend on Good Reads (and please become one here) or ever click over on my widget on the right, you've probably seen several Anne Boleyn and Tudor books. In fact, I have a whole category of them ("those crazy Tudors," with 11 completed in 2010 alone). Like many others, I'm sure, I got caught up in Tudor history by the Showtime series, which I added to my Netflix queue on a whim. While I enjoy the show, I was absolutely captivated by the character of Anne Boleyn. Natalie Dormer's portrayal of her remains my favorite and, I believe, the most honest. I've since watched Anne of the Thousand Days (which I also read) and The Other Boleyn Girl (which I will begrudgingly read at some point). I also read five different biographies on her as well as three novels and one book on all the queens. And my list is still growing.

So, as any good Anne fan~~atic~~ and crafty chick, I decided I must possess her famous B necklace, and more importantly, I must make it myself. There are many portraits of Anna Bollina, but this one remains my favorite and the one I consider most likely to be representative of her:

See the lovely pearls and the B? Since my first name starts with a B, recreating it couldn't be more perfect. I decided to alter the color scheme lightly because I already have a string of (fake) creamy white pearls. Instead, I opted for this silvery grey color of glass pearls so they would still go with pretty much anything. Here is my attempt to copy her smile in the portrait whilst wearing the necklace:

A better shot of the entire thing:

And proof that I'm an Anne-loving goober:

I'm incredibly happy with the result. If anyone else out there is a Tudors fan -- or just wants a fancy-ish initials necklace -- I would be happy to recreate one for you. Hit me up to discuss pricing.

And if you are a Tudor-history buff, who is your favorite figure? I still have a lot of reading to do, but besides Anne, I'm intrigued by the evil Thomas Cromwell and Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, who married Henry VIII's best friend Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk.

That fairy just keeps on dying

2010-07-15T08:50:00.000-05:00

I’m a glutton for stress, so yes, I’m in another play this weekend! This will be my third appearance in Tinkerbell is Dead, a Theatre Pops tradition since 2004. The evening of contemporary monologues features a dozen actors each performing something two pieces. Some performances will crack you up, and others will have you reaching for the tissues. It’s a fun night not to be missed, but definitely leave the kiddos at home. Several ticketholders will also win free Tinkerbell swag. Tinkerbell is Dead…Free Beer! is a one-night-only performance beginning at 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 18. Tickets are $15. Buy ‘em online, at the box office or over the phone (918-596-7111). Don’t miss it!

Eating to Live: Tuesday, July 6

2010-07-07T21:07:00.004-05:00

In an effort to eat and feel better, I decided to try out Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Eat to Live plan. The creative Vegan Epicurean writes about the plan here and there, and her recipes reflect its tenets, so I decided to give it a go. I’ve been trying to incorporate the overall philosophy (basically to eat tons of raw veggies, steamed veggies, beans and fruit; some grains and nuts; and very little or no dairy, eggs, added fats and sugars) over the past couple of weeks. My mother had a health scare last week, and somehow it allowed me to convince her to give it a try. We are now doing it together – or as together as two people who lives three hours away can – so I’m giving it a bigger push. Here is my Eat to Live day of munching.

Tuesday started off with my new favorite smoothie technique:

Stacked in there, from bottom to top, you see a large handful of spinach, a banana, frozen pineapple, frozen peaches and frozen mango. Then I added the creamy liquid that makes it so much more delicious: hazelnut milk. Yum! The consistency is far better than when I make smoothies with water. I only use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup, so it doesn’t add too many calories. Plus, I am not counting calories on this diet, so woo hoo! Unpictured is the tablespoon of flaxseeds I always forget to throw in until the last second.

Beaming in all its green glory.

When I got to work, I brewed a cup of Choice Organic Moroccan Mint Green tea. I always mix in 1/2 to a full tablespoon of local, raw honey to my morning tea. It isn’t actually my favorite, and it does disobey the no-added-sugars thing, but it keeps my allergies under control. I’d rather swallow it than an antihistamine.

Then the lunchtime fairy bestowed upon me this glorious spread:

Ahhhh…I cannot even express how delicious this meal is.

The mushy mess in the bowl is red lentils cooked in garlic, a little veggie broth, a bay leaf and water. It is then topped with maitake mushrooms (from the farmers market) sautéed in veggie broth and more garlic. It tastes like heaven, seriously. The original recipe (from my beloved World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey) called for something like 1/4 cup of olive oil for four servings. Mine has none at all, and you wouldn’t even miss it.

Maitakes = drool.

On the plate is red leaf lettuce topped with my favorite dressing (a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and a healthy dose of cumin) plus a dash of balsamic vinegar. I should have added some other vegetables to the salad, but I didn’t. Oh well. It was still good.

A couple of hours later, I got fruity:

My friends the nectarine and the Cripps pink apple. (How nice that gangbangers are growing such delicious fruit these days!)

And now, let me introduce you to dinner:

Okra (from the farmers market) cooked in tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano and veggie broth; steamed zucchini (from a friend’s garden) and purple new potatoes (farmers market) topped with Italian seasoning and nutritional yeast; and black beans. The okra recipe is from Dr. Dean Ornish’s Everyday Cooking, and it is incredibly tasty. The prep work for this dinner was minimal, just a little chopping and dicing. It all cooks pretty quickly and with little supervision. Next time around, we will drain the juice from the canned tomatoes, because the result was a bit soupy, but it sure is tasty.

Then I proceeded to make dinner for another night. I tried to use this recipe. I say tried because, while the purple hull peas are perfection, I am a pancake-flipping failure. The batter that supposedly makes 8-10 corn cakes for me made two that looked somewhat fine, two that were burnt nearly to a crisp, and a bunch of runny, blackened garbage-disposal fodder. I ate the two blackened ones, doing my best to remove the charred, cancer-causing bits. I forgot to take a picture before I'd inhaled everything, so this is what you get to see:

The not-so-hideous side.

Oh no! Someone keep the carbon away from this girl!

To be honest, they were really tasty, even with the not-at-all-like-the-picture appearance.

That was my Tuesday in food.

Artsy weekend

2010-06-24T17:39:00.004-05:00

Hello, last second! I've been ridiculously busy the past two weeks, but I wanted to pop in quickly to say that this is my big weekend. Tonight, we open our production of The Misanthrope:

And Saturday is the Alliday Show:

Come see me! Lots of love!

Salad Challenge Day 7

2010-06-14T18:07:00.003-05:00

Sunday was the final installment of my Salad Challenge, and I pulled it off, despite Dilly Deli’s always enticing Michael Roy sandwich. Instead, I ordered the Rayzor salad and added a grilled portobello mushroom:

Nekkid!

Dressed.

I either misread the menu or they decided to give me a little extra somethin’ by sprinkling shredded cheese on top. Basic yellow fromage does nothing for me, though, so I happily picked the little pieces off. I should have photographed the resulting pile, which looked quite silly.

So, thus ends the challenge. Six of my seven salads fit the bill. Three were absolutely delicious, three were serviceable, and one I will not make again. I’m glad I did the experiment, and I may try it again in a couple of weeks – after play rehearsals are over. When I have more time to do prep work, I know the results will be more interesting. However, my overall goal of cleaning up my eating habits was mostly achieved, so that’s the good news. I do plan to carry that over into the rest of the summer.

Thanks for watching and for playing along at home!

Salad Challenge Day 6

2010-06-13T07:39:00.004-05:00

I broke my own rules today, but I'm OK with it. Let me rewind.

I won two tickets to yesterday's Wine, Women and Shoes event: "From Manolo to Merlot: Fashion Show, Luncheon & Shopping." (Have I before properly expressed my deep love for TashaDoesTulsa?) Like a truly hip, swinging twentysomething, I brought my mom. For several hours, we sampled different wines, tried on shoes, mingled and had a ball. We also shopped a little to benefit the YWCA. I'll be picking up a tasty bottle of cabernet sauvignon next week, and Mom and I both when home with even T-shirts and amazing shoes. I have another big event to go to Sunday, and somehow I ended up buying two new dresses, so I wore one today:

I love this dress! I won't annoyingly rub in exactly the amazing deal I got on this vintage-inspired Calvin Klein beauty, but it was pretty impressive. I also bought the shoes on sale at Macy's, and the "sash" is the last batik scarf I made with a brooch my grandmother gave me in the center.

Grey caught me all windblown. :)

Anyway, as a last-minute addition, I was not able to request a special-diet meal in advance, so when I saw the menu was a salad topped with chicken, I just asked that mine be brought out meatless. Normally I don't mind raising a bit of a fuss, but in a room full of people who paid $75 for their tickets and I feel like the kid who sneaks in, I decided to be grateful for what I got. Since I'm not actually a full-time vegan, I have chosen adaptability over pickiness in this instance. Here was the lunch salad:

The picture was not actually taken inside a cave, I promise. It was just dark in there, and I used my camera phone. It was Bibb lettuce, cherry tomatoes, black beans, corn, avocado, pepperjack cheese, and these delicious tortilla strips. There was chipotle ranch to go on top. I only used a very small amount, but it had a wonderful bite. I want to thank the waitstaff for getting me my chicken-less order quickly even though it was a last-minute request!

OK, Sunday is the last day. Look for more fancy-dress photos in addition to a final salad that will meet my own rules. :)

Salad Challenge Days 4 and 5

2010-06-11T18:25:00.006-05:00

I decided to be a bit adventurous with today’s salad. I had a salad shaker from Whole Foods a week or two ago that featured quinoa and black beans. I enjoyed it greatly, and thus this week’s entry was born. It’s not identical, of course, but I wanted to try cooking quinoa for the first time. Here’s what I came up with:

Before you is a combination of quinoa, black beans and corn topped with juice from half a lime, a drizzle of olive oil, what I thought was a ton of cumin but really isn’t, salt, pepper and, my exciting mystery ingredient: epazote! Anyone else who enjoys watching Rick Bayless cook from his impossibly awesome house has undoubtedly noted his affection for this Central and South American herb, which he gathers fresh from his impossibly awesome garden. I’ve always been interested in trying it, thanks to him, but had never seen it in any supermarkets or plant stores. On Saturday’s farmers market, it appeared! The grower said it hadn’t occurred to her to bring it to market until a customer mentioned she wanted some. It just grows crazily in her back yard. The moment I saw it, I knew I’d have to plop over the measly buck for a bunch of the stuff.

So, yes, back to the salad itself. This is not my most impressive concoction ever, but I like that it has a good amount of protein, a great dose of magnesium (which helps control migraines), and a wollop of fiber. The flavor is only a step up from bland – I should have bathed it in cumin and added garlic – with the exception of the bites containing epazote. It has such an interesting flavor. The bite is akin to parsley, but the actual flavor is vaguely licorice-y, but in a good way. It’s apparently an anti-flatulent, too, so it pairs well with beans. :)

As an aside, quinoa goes from a little bit of raw grain to enough to feed an army when cooked, so I had some last night topped with zucchini (from a friend’s garden) sautéed in garlic and olive oil and some Italian seasoning. That was pretty dern amazing, much better than today’s salad. I am a big quinoa fan now, and I’m currently looking for new ways to eat it.

And today I enjoyed one of my favorite salads at Tulsa's Dragon Moon Tea Co.:

Soba noodles, cabbage, red pepper, jalapeno, green onion, carrots and a dressing of peanut oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and some "mystery" ingredients formed this delicious thing. The cheese-coated things atop did not end up in my belly.

Just two more days of salad-y goodness! I hope some of you are playing along at home.

Salad Challenge Day 3

2010-06-09T18:06:00.004-05:00

My company has started a new wellness program. To be honest, I’m not sure anyone knows what it is going to be, but to kick it off, folks from one of the local hospitals are on-site today and next Wednesday to do health screenings. I got one done today, even though I knew I’d be ~~stabbed~~ poked with a needle. It was only a finger prick, though, and I was brave. There were no tears, no hyperventilation, and no amusing stories to tell about getting whiplash from passing out. The news is excellent: all my stats are normal! This was my first cholesterol test, and my total is 126 with my HDL being 58 (ideal numbers are <> 55 for women, respectively). As a totally-vegetarian-and-mostly-vegan eater, I assumed my cholesterol would be low, so I’m glad to see I was right. I’m gonna live!

Speaking of my eating habits, here is today’s response to my salad challenge:

Sorry, no n00dz this time. I dressed this puppy as I assembled it. Before you is a mostly local salad, containing lettuce (green and red leaf), broccoli and maitake mushrooms all from the farmers market. Last night, I sautéed the broccoli and mushrooms in garlic and olive oil. I also threw together my favorite dressing: juice from one small lime, about 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and a few healthy dashes of cumin. This dressing is incredibly flavorful, thanks to the nearly overwhelming mustard I bought this last time. Oh, and I also washed and cut up the lettuce. Today, I heated the sautéed goodies in the microwave for 30 seconds and put everything together on the plate. Quick, easy and delicious. It’s even better topped with a roasted portobello mushroom instead of the maitakes, though the latter are quite tasty, too.

Ah, the goodness of local produce.

Once again, I had fruit salad at tea, so I won’t bore you with more pictures of the same. Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to a salad involving two somethings I’m using for the first time. Here’s a hint . . . one component is one of Rick Bayless’s favorites.

See you on the flipside of Hump Day!

Salad Challenge Day 2

2010-06-08T18:39:00.005-05:00

For some reason, I woke up with an upset stomach, so I attempted to quiet things by only making half my usual breakfast. I made a good-sized smoothie but forewent my usual toast with cashew butter. As a result, my stomach got angry with my further starting around 8 a.m. I don’t know how I fended off stomach-eating-itself hunger until 11:30, but I did. Since Monday was another busy night, I got my salad on at Jason’s Deli today. Here’s the delicious beast:

Nekkid again. ;)

Dressed and tossed.

This delicious monstrosity features nearly everything a salad could ever need: lettuce, baby spinach, red and yellow bell peppers, baby carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, red onion, sunflower seeds, a dollop of hummus on the side, and the thing that makes any salad something to moan about: artichoke hearts. And lots of them. The whole thing was crowned by balsamic vinegar and enjoyed with two organic flatbread crackers (of which one is pictured). Yum! Seriously, this thing must have weighed two pounds. I did prefer this combination of salad toppings more when I was still using the Italian dressing, but it contains a milk product (I assume parmesan cheese), so I now opt for the balsamic, which is good, but it lacks some bite. I, however, lacked no bites today and instead ate every bit of this baby I could scrape from the plastic container. Scrumptious!

I did not have time to prepare a lunch today because, between work and rehearsal, I scarfed down the mock chicken salad sandwich I posted yesterday and made a tangy fruit salad. And guess what was my teatime snack today . . . yep!

This time, the mixture is two Granny Smith apples, a container of fresh pineapple (chopped by Whole Foods), a pint of strawberries, slightly more than half a bag of green grapes, and the juices of half a large lemon and a whole small lime. I like my fruit salad a bit sour, as you can probably tell, and I never add sweetener. Fruit is naturally sweet; I never understood the need to top a mix like this with sugar or honey.

So another successful day in my Salad Challenge. Did you participate today?

Salad Challenge Day 1

2010-06-07T18:16:00.004-05:00

I am a creature of habit. I follow a highly regimented eating schedule, largely to avoid blood-sugar crashes and the nasty migraines and crankiness that accompany them. Any given work day, I eat at the following times:

· 6:30 a.m. – breakfast (usually toast with nut butter and a fruit smoothie)
· 7:30 a.m. – tea with honey
· 10 a.m. – coffee (black)
· 12:00 p.m. – lunch
· Between 3:30 and 4 p.m. – tea with honey
· Between 6 and 6:30 p.m. – dinner

Today has been a whole different story. I signed up for a wellness check this morning at 8 a.m., for which I had to fast two hours in advance. So, I packed up my smoothie, a slice of bread and my homemade cashew butter to eat afterward. However, the city got caught in a crazy storm, which caused a power outage at work starting at 7:45 a.m. Needless to say, my wellness screening was cancelled. I finally remembered that I could eat at 8:30, so I drank my smoothie and then smeared cashew butter on my untoasted bread. The power went on and off for a while, finally choosing the latter for a while around 10:30. We were all told to take an early lunch until noon. A coworker and I headed to Panera, where I drank a ~~massive~~ large coffee (black) and ate 3/4 of a whole grain bagel (plain, no cream cheese) at about 11 a.m. So when noon rolled around, I was definitely not ready for lunch, which meant I didn’t enjoy my first salad of the week until 2:30. Sheesh.

Anyway, here is my first entry into my Salad Challenge:

Nekkid. (tee hee!)

Dressed.

It’s going to be a crazy week, so I will admit that I did not make this salad. It is one of Whole Foods’ salad shakers. However, the ingredients are all-natural and fit the bill. The salad contains brown rice, edamame, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, almonds and their no-oil carrot ginger dressing (carrots, mirin, agave, tamari, rice vinegar, mustard and ginger). The verdict: it’s tasty, though not particularly filling. I intended to serve it atop spinach I washed, spun and tore up previously, but they were pretty nasty by the time I got them out of the Ziploc. Given my particular non-love for spinach, it’s probably tastier without the greens, though the added iron and magnesium would have been nice. The dressing is great without oil; I love the ginger zing.

Here's some bonus salad pr0n:

OK, so there's really nothing salad-like about chicken salad. Mine is, of course, of the vegan variety. This post was apparently sponsored by Whole Foods.

(Not really. I paid for all of these items. Or rather, my love did, since it was his week to buy.)

Verdict on this one: tasty, though not life-altering. I'm not sure I've ever eaten actual chicken salad, so I have no basis for comparison. I will tell you that, last week, when my taste buds weren't working properly, nothing tasted as amazing as this sandwich. Today, I would not go that far, but I still enjoyed it.

Did you enjoy a nutritious salad today?

Salad Challenge starts tomorrow

2010-06-06T09:38:00.002-05:00

If you're joining me in my 7-day Salad Challenge, tomorrow is the start. I loaded up with farmers market goodies yesterday, and today we will take our weekly Whole Foods trip. I will be sharing my concoctions throughout the week. Please feel free to do the same!

See you on the flip side of Sunday.

My grandmother's memory

2010-06-02T09:52:00.003-05:00

My coworker has a dry-erase board on which she displays a new quote every so often. The last couple of weeks, it’s been a modified version of this gem by Charles H. Spurgeon:

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were
helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered.
Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

It made me smile the first time I saw it. Since my grandmother died last week, it has made me smile even more.

My grandmother was a truly amazing woman. She was born in 1931 in Sallisaw, a tiny community even today in Oklahoma’s Cotton Belt, to Georgia and Benjamin Franklin Davis. They later moved to Muskogee, where she always considered home. She was married to my crazy grandfather for 40 years and, if not for his mental problems, would probably still have been with him to her last day. She got a two-year degree from Connors State College, where she studied literature. She raised two children while also working, certainly an anomaly for a middle-class woman of the time. After my grandfather served her with divorce papers, she picked herself up and kept living the life she chose. She went to work at several different doctors’ offices over the years, doing administrative work and assisting in physical therapy. She was an active member of her church, the guiding force behind her class reunions (which happened every two years), the family photographer and record-keeper, a reliable friend, and an omnipresent grandparent. She was also strong, independent, vibrant, hard-working (even at 78, she still occasionally went in to her most recent employer’s office to help train new physical therapists), reliable, loving, and big-hearted. She watched what she ate, got regular exercise, and had her hair done at the salon every Friday. She had a kind word for everyone, a smile even in the hardest times, and an unending supply of encouraging and supportive thoughts. The only time I heard her complain during the past year of hospitalizations was at the very end. I last visited her a week before her death, at which time she told me she didn’t feel like company. As much as I wanted to be with her, I preferred her honesty, and I knew she appreciated me coming.

My grandmother considered nine of us her grandchildren, though three were not related by blood (and one not even by marriage). Being a grandparent was one of her greatest joys in life, and being the oldest, I always felt a special connection to her. I was forever her princess. I never doubted for a second that she was proud of me or that she loved me completely. We all had photo albums, and thanks to my several years of precedence, mine comprised two separate albums. Her home was a photographic shrine to us all. In fact, she so often had her camera in hand that my little sister called her “Cheese” for several years. She had a sponge-like memory and could quickly recall funny things we’d said or did throughout our lives. She remembered our ambitions, our quirks, what sports we played, our friends’ names, what foods we liked, and what we called her (Meemaw, Grandma, Grandma Margaret, Cheese or Mother Goose).

At the funeral last week, I met and hugged people who loved her throughout her life. I saw family I hadn’t seen in years – some in two decades. I cried with my beloved aunt, her daughter, over her memory and what we’re going to do without her. I shook hands with members of her church who remember me as a little girl. I knew these people better than the rest of the family, and it made me feel privileged, like I was in an important part of her life that no one else was. Even the man who mows my grandmother’s lawn was there. When the preacher asked him before the service if she was as meticulous about her grass as she was about her appearance, he told him that she was the only one of his clients who never complained. “She treated me like the valedictorian,” he said. She treated everyone that way.

My grandmother, Margaret Jane Davis Vance, most certainly carved her name on my heart, as I know she did on the heart of anyone she ever met.

Saying goodbye is taking its toll on me. I won’t pretend that everything’s fine, but I will get there. I remember a line from a movie saying that you lose people in pieces, not all at once, and it’s true. I suppose I’ve been lucky not to have lost a grandparent until age 25, but knowing that doesn’t make the pain any less. I’m sad, because I loved her. I regret that she left us before any of her grandchildren married or gave her great-grandchildren. I’m angry that she – the most life-loving and healthy-living of my grandparents – was the first to lose her fight against time. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to see her again before her death, but I know you always feel that way. I’m still in shock, too, because we weren’t expecting the end to come so soon. I wasn’t ready to let her go. None of us were.

However, if my grandmother left a legacy, it is this: love with your whole heart, respect your body, embrace adventure, and never leave home without a dab of red lipstick.

You can read her formal obituary here.

Goodbye, Meemaw

2010-05-26T12:16:00.001-05:00

My grandmother died yesterday. She’s the one I wrote about here, here, here, here, here and here, as well as a few other places. She would have been 79 in a couple of weeks. There’s so much I need to say and do, but I’m not sure where to start. Her funeral is tomorrow morning, so until that’s over, I think I’ll just be sad.

I want to thank everyone who has called, texted, emailed, and sent their condolences on Facebook and Twitter. I appreciate it so much. I loved this grandmother more than I can say. I wasn’t ready to let go of her yet, but I’m glad her decline was swift.

I’ll be back soon to let you all know I’m OK.

Salad Challenge

2010-05-25T09:19:00.001-05:00

My eating has been weird lately. I’ll eat one incredibly healthy, balanced meal and follow it up with an emergency chocolate milkshake or half a jar of French onion dip. As a result, I’ve been a bit sluggish lately, and I’ve been more headache-prone, so it’s time to remedy the situation. In two weeks, I’m going to enter into a salad challenge. The idea was inspired by last night’s dinner, when I sautéed some sugar snap peas in garlic and a little olive oil and added them to spinach and radishes, topping it all with jalapeno hummus and lime juice. The result was delicious, healthy, local produce eaten in a way that is totally different from anything else I’ve made before.

Here are the rules for my salad challenge:

Must eat at least one salad each day for seven days. Imaginary ~~brownie~~ broccoli points go for two salads in any given day.
Salads can be of any healthy variety: veggies, fruits, grains and beans.
Pasta can be one component, but it must be overwhelmed by produce.
Only one cooked vegetable is allowed per salad (i.e. stir fry is not a salad).
Salads must be somewhat different each day, but they can incorporate several of the same elements.
No eggs, dairy or meat (duh) allowed.

This is me throwing down the gauntlet. I am waiting two weeks to start because I won’t be in town this weekend for the farmers market, and I’d much, much prefer to incorporate as much local stuff as possible.

So now I turn to my friends and readers for help: What is your favorite salad? What adventurous component should I try? I’m a picky eater, but I’d love to get some new ideas. Also, if you’d like to take part with me, let me know! Feel free to make up your own rules according to your dietary needs and preferences. The challenge starts Monday, June 7!

Blue Dome recap

2010-05-23T09:50:00.005-05:00

It's been a week now, but I thought I could finally say a word or two about Blue Dome. As you locals know, the weather did not cooperate -- and neither did the "organizers." I'm sad to say this might be my last Blue Dome ever, thanks to the new folks in charge. They were disorganized and did not communicate or give out consistent information. All the same, for the time I was there, I had a great time with the Tulsa Craft Mafia gals, as always! Here are a few pictures totally, shamefully jacked from Tara.

Me and Holly. She is so silly and so adorable!

Shopper with my rings in the foreground.

Booth shot! This year's layout was probably my favorite ever.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us! We will be selling at the Alliday show on June 26, so come out to the fairgrounds then.

Random Dozen

2010-05-19T09:08:00.002-05:00

I'm at it again!

1. What is one really fast, know-by-heart "go-to" meal to fix in a pinch?
When I’m in a hurry, I like to make whole-wheat spaghetti with sautéed zucchini, garlic, olive oil, black pepper and nutritional yeast. If I can wait 30 minutes, I like to whip up farinata (only without the rosemary, cheese and tomato -- I put Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper instead).

2. What is one item you won't leave home without. (Purse and license do not count.)
Chapstick! My lips crave it.

3. Where is one place you never tire of visiting?
Italy.

4. Share one factoid of your family's history.
My middle name, Kimery, is my mom’s maiden name. There are also Kimreys in the country. The story is that twin brothers named Kimery had farms next door to each other and got into a fight over fence lines or something. One of the brothers changed his name to Kimrey, and the two never spoke again.

5. Complete this sentence: "Once upon a time I ...."
…wanted to be a ballerina. (I still do.)

6. If you could win a one year's supply of anything, what would it be?
Endangered Species deep forest mint bars.

7. "One quirky thing you may not know about me is ...."
I cool my muffins and cupcakes upside down so the bottoms don’t get soggy.

8. You have one dollar in your pocket. What will you buy?
A small bag of Lay’s regular potato chips.

9. "One thing that always makes me laugh is ...."
The Apartment. I love that movie. “Premium-wise and billing-wise, we are eighteen percent ahead of last year, October-wise.”

10. What is one thing you could do today to help yourself reach a personal goal?
Go to the gym, but we’ll see if it happens.

11. What is one thing you could do today to bless someone else?
I’m going to visit my grandmother in the hospital. She’s back again and feeling down.

12. What is one thing you're looking forward to soon?
Planning a trip to Italy!

Random Dozen

2010-05-12T08:38:00.004-05:00

I’m playing along again!

1. Please share one memory of your high school graduation. Pics would be great!
At my high-school graduation, I was sick as a dog. I had a migraine with all the works: churning stomach, throbbing head, burning eyes, and the intense desire to lie down. Unfortunately, I was the valedictorian, so I had a speech to make. (I guess “unfortunately” isn’t a great choice of words.) I was also one of the students who had to sit on the stage, and because I was first in my class, I was between the principal and the superintendent of the district. Gulp. I also have a really small head, so my durn cap kept falling off my head. The whole ceremony was a blur of discomfort, awkwardness, and a major desire to get the crap out of there. That will be eight years ago on Saturday. Here’s a long-distance shot of me giving my valedictory address:
And here’s me four years later (and, fittingly, four years ago on Friday) at my college graduation (with my alphabetical-order buddy). I'm on the right, waving to my adoring public:

2. What is one "emergency use" item you keep in your vehicle at all times?
I try to keep a five-dollar bill in my car, but really, in an emergency, I’d be screwed unless CDs and trash could save me.

3. In your region, do you celebrate graduation open houses? Addendum: (If so,) how many open houses/bridal showers/weddings are on your upcoming events calendar?
I read that as “religion,” not “region” at first. Oy. We didn’t have open houses, but there was a party. I was sick, though, so I didn’t go to one. I have nothing on my calendar either since most of my friends aren’t in school, and I have no children.

4. Tell me one truth you believe about motherhood.
It will require me to gain more patience and operate on less sleep.

5. What was the last thing you broke?
I honestly don’t remember. It can’t have been that long ago, though. I’m clumsy. I broke the skin on my finger on Saturday getting something big into my car. Does that count?

6. On average, how many pieces of junk mail do you receive daily?
One or two.

7. Do you like to shop by catalog?
I like to look at catalogs, but it’s been years since I ordered from one.

8. Is lawn maintenance at your house a "his job," a "her job" or "his/her job" or "that's why we have teenagers" job?
It’s an “I live in an apartment complex, so it’s their” job. :)

9. Which room would you like to redecorate in your home?
Provided I was allowed to do things such as paint, I guess I’d choose the guest room/computer room/glorified storage closet.

10. Do you read a newspaper regularly, or do you read most of your news on line?
No, I quit reading the print version of the Tulsa World when they laid me and all my friends off. I rarely read it online either because their suckage has increased exponentially in recent years. I don’t really know how I stay informed.

11. Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
No, I think sometimes bad things happen to good people and vice versa. We control how we respond to such events.

12. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
I’m a perfectionist, but doing the right thing is definitely most important to me. That’s part of why I work for a nonprofit.

Get your art on

2010-05-11T08:33:00.004-05:00

Downtown Tulsa is getting its art on this weekend with three festivals! You could always go to Mayfest to eat a giant cinnamon roll, but high-tail it out of there afterward for the funkier fun and handmade goodness of the Blue Dome Arts Festival. While the bigger festival boasts vendors from pretty much everywhere but T-Town, Blue Dome embraces truly local artists in a carefree, un-homogenized atmosphere. There will also be fun local performers such as Wheat Penny taking the stage. Need another reason to head over to the coolest part of downtown? I’ll be there with the Tulsa Craft Mafia! Come look for us on Elgin, somewhere between 1st and 2nd streets. We’ll be the foxy young gals with the awesome goodies for sale.

Also on offer in Tulsa’s art-deco-filled downtown is the Brady Arts Festival, which is new this year. It will feature Living Arts’ fabulous Art Car parade. I look forward to stealing a few moments to check it out.

Here are Blue Dome’s festival hours:

Friday, May 14th from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday, May 15th from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday, May 16th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Make sure to come see us!

My history with food

2010-04-29T14:13:00.000-05:00

I probably think (and write) too much about food. I never meant to turn this blog into such an eating-focused venture, but the poll I did recently indicated you crazy kids like that kind of stuff, so I will keep on. Plus, food is important. I like it and I value it.

I’m not sure I’ve ever discussed this on my blog, but in my teens and early 20s, I had some problems with food. I never had a full-blown eating disorder, thankfully, but I had several years of what experts now call disordered eating. I say this not to elicit sympathy or claim some kind of bizarre bragging rights, but rather for some background. I think my outlook on eating has a lot to do with my past issues regarding food.

For those of you who don’t know, I did my undergrad at an all-women’s college (not a “girls’ school,” haters). It was a loving, open environment that encouraged discourse and success, but, as you can imagine, it also had a high incidence of eating disorders. I think my senior year, our student body was estimated to have twice the national average rate of anorexia, bulimia and EDNOS. It was fairly common to speculate about who threw up dinner, and it was sadly common for such gossip to be based on fact.

I don’t blame my college for this problem; rather, it was a result of the kinds of students it attracted (overwhelming upper- to upper-middle-class and white). It was also easy for stress to get the better part of any student, and sadly many young women deal with stressors through food issues. I wouldn’t say I struggled through college at all, but my course load was always demanding, as was the pressure to be as thin and perfect as the other 20-year-olds around me. In my Oklahoma high school, the number of perfectly toned and bronzed classmates was minimal; in Southern California, it was overwhelming. My pasty curviness no longer seemed ideal, and I had no idea how to deal with it.

I tried exercising like everyone else, but nothing seemed to change. I know looking back that my diet was largely to blame. At the time, I knew I needed to eat better. I read online about counting calories and protein and fat grams. I learned that a serving of grains is about the size of your fist, and one of meat is roughly equivalent to a deck of cards. I became convinced that The Zone would help me. One week, I decided to drink four cups of green tea a day to boost my metabolism – until the day my GERD rebelled and I threw up for an hour.

The summer I was 19, we got terrible news. My stepmother lost her battle with lung cancer. My dad was left a widower, my brother and sister were motherless, and I had no idea how I was supposed to feel. I still had my mother, but I felt the loss deeply, deeper than most people expected or realized. I mostly distracted myself with friends and my summer job at a day camp, but the following semester, I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere, including in my own skin.

Controlling my weight nearly obsessed me for those four months. Between papers and crying fits, I uploaded every morsel I ate into an online program and tried to go to the gym regularly. All the time, I couldn’t stop buying the cans of Pepsi, the Taco Bell tacos or the jumbo Milky Way bars. After a while, I realized that I could even them out calorie-wise by eating far less real food. Lunches became green salads and maybe a boiled egg. My weight fluctuated within a 10-pound range thanks to sporadic adherence to an exercise plan and my bizarre eating habits. My body was never deprived or near underweight, but this wasn’t healthy. I knew it then, and I feel it even more resolutely now.

The following semester, I took a plane ride to Italy for a semester study. I had been dreaming about it since I was 15 and just returning from my first trip there. In previous months, I considered calling the whole thing off (as I had considered transferring to a local), but ultimately good sense won out. In many ways, I had a rough semester there, too. I never made any good American friends. I refused to try very hard, since the vast majority was there to party, not to study or have a real cultural experience. At the same time, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I made a close friend in my Italian roommate and fell briefly in love with one of her friends. I spent most of the time around Italian people, not over-privileged Americans. I discovered wine and zucchini and spaghetti carbonara. I walked miles and miles each week. Though I was nearly broke, I traveled and ate delicious food. I was happy and never wanted to leave. Six months after my arrival, I returned to Oklahoma with tears in my eyes, a broken heart, and 10 extra pounds.

Though it made me overweight for the first and only time in my life, I still view those six months as crucial in my changing attitude towards food. Meals with friends were truly an event. Ingredients were fresh and local. I didn’t want to be seen as uncultured, so I ate pretty much whatever was in front of me. I even ate wild boar (cinghiale) twice in Tuscany. I tried to enjoy fish, but it never happened. Though I’d grown up considering only corn, potatoes and raw broccoli as vegetables worth eating, Italy taught me to open my mind. In many ways, I have Italy to thank for who I am now.

I spent the summer mending a broken heart and trying to find myself again. In October, I quit eating meat just because I wanted to. Though I spent most of my final year in college with the same problems I had four years before, things were transforming. I rarely counted calories any more, and I let myself have dessert when I wanted. I got into a regular exercise routine. An intense, unreciprocated crush made it difficult for me to see myself accurately for a time, but by the time graduation rolled around, I was healing. Within months of returning to Oklahoma, I lost five pounds and have never regained them. I blame happiness.

One thing I’ve realized from the pattern I’m glad to say I’ve left behind is that I enjoy thinking about food. Reading about it, planning out meals and looking forward to dining out are important to me. Trying to abandon this part of me would not help get past the disordered eating of my college years. Instead, I’ve learned to embrace the foods that give me strength, energy, and happiness. I never deprive myself of nutrition. I’d still like to lose five pounds, but I intend to do so through exercise, not a diet. My diet is the food choices I make every day, not some pseudo scientist’s magical cure. Usually it is heavy on the veggies, always meat-free, and increasingly devoid of animal products. I won’t encourage everyone to eat the way I do, but it works for me. It keeps me focused on treating my body with respect and love. That should always be the ultimate goal. Various religions treat the body as a temple. No matter what tenets you hold, this message should not escape you. Your body is in many ways the physical manifestation of your spirit. Treat it with the dignity you deserve.

And falling madly and passionately in love with someone who thinks you are perfect and beautiful just the way you are doesn’t hurt either.

Random Dozen

2010-04-28T09:16:00.001-05:00

My taller half’s mother always does the Random Dozen on her blog, so I decided to participate. Here are 12 more things you never needed to know about me!

1. Have you ever been so lost that you were really afraid?
Oh yes. My junior year of high school, I was a member of Youth Leadership Tulsa. I turned 16 on a Sunday, got my driver’s license on Monday, and drove myself to our monthly event on Wednesday. It was on the other side of the world (i.e. in Broken Arrow, a suburb to the southeast), so I relied on directions from one of the organizers. Unfortunately, the exit I was supposed to take was closed for construction, and I had no idea where I was going. Over an hour, three towns and several thousand tears later, I found my way. I vowed never to drive in Broken Arrow again. Ask me how long that lasted!

2. Have you ever been to an island?
I’ve been to Sicily, Coronado Island (off San Diego), and the UK – that counts, right?

3. Are you more of a thinker or feeler?
I’m both, though my Myers-Briggs score puts me as a feeler (I’m an ENFP). At work, though, I’m highly analytical, and I like to think that I’m pragmatic.

4. Do you tend to see issues or situations in life as black and white or shades of gray?
Shades of grey, and shades of Grey. ;) I think it’s good to see things this way, though it does make one indecisive.

5. If you were stuck on an island, what book would you hope to have with you (Let's pretend the Bible is already there, so you can't say that.)
If it happened today, I’d like to have The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, because I’m looking forward to reading it.

6. What are you most afraid of?
Needles.

7. Would you rather lose all of your old memories or never be able to make new ones?
I like to think life just gets better every day, so I’d take the present and future over the past.

8. Pretend I'm looking at a scrapbook page about you. There are three spaces for you to drop in individual pictures. What are those pictures of, and why did you select them?
I have three photographs that would be perfect: one of me as a baby making a silly face, one of my mother and me in Italy, and one of me and my taller half. I’m still silly, I love traveling and Italy in particular, and my boyfriend and my mom are my two closest friends.

9. If you were re-doing your wedding, what would you do differently? (If you're single, tell me one thing you would do if you were planning a wedding OR huge party.)
I’m as yet unmarried, so it wouldn’t be a redo. I do hope to make my wedding inexpensive and totally us. I’m not very traditional, so my guests should expect vegetarian food and no big white dress.

10. Tell me one thing you know/believe about forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a release and a relief.

11. You're waiting in a doctor's office. What is your favorite way to pass that time?
I read a magazine and/or listen to my iPod.

12. If there were a clone of you in a parallel universe what is one way you hope she/he would be the same as you and one way you hope she/he would be better?
I hope she would also be committed to volunteer work and serving her community. I hope she wouldn’t have had the food issues I did as a younger woman.

Do you kombucha?

2010-04-27T08:48:00.001-05:00

I’m not cool. I’m usually in bed by 10, even on weekends. I was briefly a cheerleader in high school, yes, but I was also captain of the academic team and valedictorian. In college, I never hooked up with a stranger or got less than a B+ in a class.

So, like I said, not cool at all. If I discover something “new,” it’s likely been all the rage for months, at least. The item of the moment for me is kombucha. I’ve been reading about it forever online, but I did not encounter it myself until Saturday at the Cherry Street Farmers Market. The lovely chef from Pure Raw Café now makes the fermented tea herself and sells it locally. According to the blogosphere, kombucha is imbued with magical powers that will make you grow five inches taller, improve your IQ by 30 points and cause a flock of angels to follow you around singing dreamy ballads of love and happiness.

Well, that may be going a bit far, but I’ve read that kombucha improves your mood, your hair, your stomach ailments, and your mental clarity. It also reportedly removes heavy metals from your system and helps ward off the ickies thanks to probiotics and antioxidants. And some of you think it’s delicious. When offered a free sample, how could I say no? I’ll be honest: my first sip was interesting. I dare say I even liked it in all its apple-cider-vinegar-flavored glory. I was feeling spunky that day (I blame the tie-dyed skirt), so I bought a bottle. Shall it cure all my ills? That’s the goal.

I tried kombucha again on Sunday, and my taste buds rebelled. This tastes like apple cider vinegar, you freak!, they said to me, lovingly. They’re right. It tasted like it Saturday and every day since then. I’m not sure why I found it pleasant one day and eye-watering the next. But luckily, I’m nothing if not stubborn, so I’m keeping with it, at least until the bottle is empty. It’s an experiment, I’m telling myself. I’ll never know if it will make me prettier and able to fly unless I drink it. (Did I mention the bottle had an Alice in Wonderland-inspired “Drink Me” tag? Have I learned nothing from that cautionary tale?)

Honestly, I do feel a little energy boost every time I choke down a couple of ounces of the stuff. I haven’t had any acid reflux this week, which sadly I experience regularly. The jury’s still out on the rest of its promises, but I will keep chugging along and taking note. And any way, just saying I own a bottle of kombucha (locally produced at that) must earn me some cool points, eh?

Do any of you drink and – gasp! – enjoy kombucha? Am I doing it wrong?

Creative weekend

2010-04-25T20:41:00.007-05:00

It's a lovely Sunday evening, the perfect end to a perfectly delightful weekend. Here are the highlights of my hippie-fied three days off from work:

Taking my pooch to the farmers market, where I bought radishes, watercress (guess who's making tea sandwiches!), asparagus, salad greens, a raw vegan brownie, and locally made kombucha.
Later taking the fur ball to the herb show in Jenks, where I bought Amish-made apple butter, a new cherry tomato plant to replace the one I murdered, some of Stephanie's Fabulous (chocolate-peanut butter) Fudge, and a 10-minute chair massage.
Going to a TOMS Style Your Sole party at my elementary school whose board I'm on. Check out my handiwork:

And here they are on my pigeon feet:

Have I mentioned before I'm into trees these days? I'm no artist, but I do love drawing my trees.

Back to Saturday. The fun continued with a trip to Gardner's (where I bought two more books on British history), a massive salad at Jason's Deli, and a viewing of A Prophet at the Circle Cinema. As long as we're admitting things, I did all of the above while wearing a beautiful tie-dyed skirt. I intend to reach full hippie-dom in the next half decade or so.
And then came Sunday and a batiking session with my madre. Here is my piece halfway through:

Here's Mom hard at work (I told her I'd use the "thin lens):

And a close-up of one section of her scarf:

And this, my friends, is some hot wax action:

Cali-freakin-ente. I'll make sure to share the finished product with you all.

Well, it's time to remove this facial mask (the term "She-Hulk" was used) and walk on my dog. Happy Sunday, one and all!

Day in the life of this blogger

2010-04-13T16:56:00.003-05:00

6:10 a.m. Realize the obnoxious radio DJ is beckoning me to awaken. But it’s dark, and I don’t wanna. I hit snooze for my love.

6:13 a.m. OK, fine, I must get up. I’m still not convinced it’s really after 6:00 since it’s dark. Unfortunately, I can’t see the time on the clock, so I get up. Into the shower I go. Afterwards, I put in my contacts.

6:35 a.m. Time to make breakfast. I blend frozen strawberries, frozen peaches, a banana and some water for my smoothie. I also toast some bread from Whole Foods that I call “birdseed bread” and top it with a lovely dollop of peanut butter.

6:53 a.m. After I clean my dishes, it’s time to get ready for work. This involves taking my vitamins, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, putting on moisturizer and make-up, and doing something to my hair.

7:12 a.m. Out the door on time. Woo hoo!

7:29 a.m. I arrive at work and walk up the stairs to the fourth floor. It’s time to have my morning tea. Today is Choice’s Irish Breakfast.

7:40 a.m. I catch up on email and read blogs. I alternate between feeling awake and asleep.

8:30 a.m. I get the bright idea to record what I’ve been up to today, even though nobody asked. You can blame the Voracious Vegan, one of my favorite bloggers, for her post.

8:34 a.m. Time to get some work done since I’ve been here an hour already. On the agenda is editing some grant narratives I’m working on, creating two online applications, and sorting through some old email. Meanwhile, I guzzle 27 ounces of water.

10 a.m. Coffee break. I drink coffee every morning at this time. It’s one part ritual, one part desperate desire to stave off hunger as long as possible. Sadly, nobody made coffee this morning, so instead of making it myself, I steep some of Allegro’s Happy Tummy tea (mint and ginger) and refill my Klean Kanteen.

10:03 a.m. Awaiting my tea to finish steeping, I flip open my employee handbook to see if I can get my company to pay for Spanish classes. Verdict: I don’t think so, according to the manual, but I email my HR person just to check.

10:20 a.m. Time for a book break. Current read: The Challenge of Anne Boleyn by Hester W. Chapman.

10:56 a.m. Meet with my boss briefly and then respond to some more emails. Try not to think about my growling stomach.

11:15 a.m. Dive back into my book.

12:01 p.m. Email from my taller half asks if I knew about a Dar Williams concert (!!) in Springfield, MO this summer. No, I did not.

12:05 p.m. Time for lunch, blessedly. On the menu is Amy’s black bean vegetable soup. Usually I prepare something to bring each week, but we were too busy this weekend. Whilst enjoying it, I do a little research on Springfield.

12:28 p.m. Head out to get my oil changed and then to the library. I return two books (Princesses and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) and get four more (Avalon, My Lady Suffolk, A Passage to India and The Scarlet Lion).

1:22 p.m. Get back to my desk and start checking emails again. Refill my water bottle, then dive back into my book. I want to finish it tomorrow.

2:05 p.m. Suddenly fearing I may fall asleep, I close my office door to make some phone calls for a work project.

2:29 p.m. Now it’s time for a yoga break. Today’s routine: Yoga Download’s Episode 24a: Moon Salutations Flow #1.

2:55 p.m. Yoga is done, so I get back to dealing with emails and reading.

3:40 p.m. It’s time for me to take tea. Yes, I’ve begun referring to my afternoon snack as teatime. You can blame all the British history I've been reading. This week, it’s a honey crisp apple and Harney & Sons’ White Christmas tea (white tea with vanilla and almond). Meanwhile, I contemplate what to bring for lunches next week. I’m thinking foul medames (Egyptian fava beans), baba ghanoush, whole-wheat pita and some kind of fruit.

4:30 p.m. Refill water bottle halfway. Make some quick corrections to a document I created and then try to hammer out 25 more pages of reading before I leave.

5:30 p.m. Time to mosey and try to avoid road rage.

5:47 p.m. Arrive at my apartment complex. First stop by the office to pick up a package (batik supplies!), then go in my apartment to leash up my dog. Walk on the dog.

6:01 p.m. Start making dinner. Tonight I'm enjoying whole wheat spaghetti with sauteed zucchini and arugula (the latter from my garden), raw garlic, black pepper, crushed red pepper and nutritional yeast. Words cannot describe the deliciousness. Afterwards, I have two pieces of peanut butter blondies from the above-mentioned Vegan Cookie book.

6:45 p.m. Depart for a board meeting with my 18-oz Klean Kanteen full of water.

7:12 p.m. Meeting actually starts. We have the lofty goal of being done by 8:30.

10:29 p.m. Meeting actually ends. I am dead. Have I mentioned I'm not a night person?

10:43 p.m. Arrive home, sit with my taller half for a few minutes, and then head to bed.

11:00 p.m. Enter dreamland.

So that was my Tuesday. I'll have a garden update to share soon!

Garden Week #5

2010-04-06T19:22:00.004-05:00

Some day soon I will again post about something other than my garden. Today is not such an occasion. What can I say? I'm excited! Away we go . . .

First up is my main container. Not much has changed, but the basil is finally starting to recover.

Now let's talk about the blueberry plant. As a whole, it looks the same. But look what it's now covered with:

Blossoms! Beautiful unbloomed blossoms. I love them.

The potato awesomeness continues. Watch them grow!

And now for the slightly tragic part. I kinda-sorta completely forgot about my tomatoes and marigolds, which means they did not get the proper amount of (read: any) water. Oops! I transplanted them into their new home anyway. Look at the patheticness:

The good news is that they are recovering after a vigorous watering. So is everything else that looks droopy in these pictures. I rearranged the complete patio set-up. I like:

Today I got home to find a note on my door from the complex folks telling me I needed to remove the "metal cans" on my porch to help keep the apartment complex "looking beautiful." Since my neighbor has a cardboard cut-out of Smokey the Bear on his porch and another had a plastic snowman hanging from a noose for more than a year, I called to complain. The management just said they "didn't know" what was in the containers, so they assumed they were junk. Nevermind that I live on the first floor and a one-second glimpse into them would have revealed beautiful flora. All is now settled, though, and my plants are here to stay, until I forget to water all of them.

I hope the weather is beautiful wherever you are!

Garden Week #4

2010-03-31T17:55:00.004-05:00

I have excitement from the ol' garden!

First and foremost, MY POTATOES ARE GROWING! (Yes, caps were necessary.)

Aren't they beauteous? I need to plunge my hand in there to figure out how big they're getting. The plants are sure looking sturdy.

There hasn't been much change with the blueberry plant, so no picture.

The trough-like container is flourishing, for the most part. My poor little basil is not enjoying the insane, gale-force winds we've been experiencing. I'm hoping he'll rebound. The mint and parsley are doing well. The arugula is crazy. I've eaten from it twice, and look how bushy it is.

My cilantro seeds are adorable sprouts:

As are my spinach seeds:

And look at my first two snapdragon blossoms! Apparently this plant makes white flowers.

Here's the whole patio area in the way I've rearranged it.

I also bought some marigolds and two tomato plants (Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes and brandywine, an heirloom slicing variety) to put in the other trough. I plan to put them in this week and then add another tomato plant that I will purchase from Herb Day on Brookside, coming up on April 10.

I still need to plant a couple of squashes (I'm thinking zucchini and pattypan) and my carrots, but I fear I may need to acquire another container. Methinks another trip to Atwoods is in order.

My crazy grandfather

2010-03-22T14:50:00.001-05:00

When I talk about my crazy grandmother and my crazy grandfather, I mean two very different things. The former, my mom’s mom, is eccentric. She is a product of her generation, location and experiences. She started out life on her grandmother’s farm before moving in with her mother and stepfather at age 5, relocating often, eventually marrying young and then becoming a widowed mother of three children at age 36. Her often tragic life has morphed her into the off-beat, bird-loving old woman who can’t pass up a deal or throw anything away. This woman is the grandmother who recently broke her leg after hip-replacement surgery and is currently (but – fingers crossed – temporarily) in a skilled nursing facility.

My crazy grandfather, on the other hand, is actually crazy. My dad’s father is a World War II vet of the U.S. Navy. Sometime in his life, he developed an addiction to some kind of medicine. I think it was a pain killer, but it might have been some kind of antidepressant. A quack doctor kept him on it for years – decades – longer than he should have, and when another finally took him off the drug, he had a break with reality. When I was six, he and my grandmother divorced. (Incidentally, this grandmother – whom I often dub my “nice grandmother” – is the one who was in the hospital last year with heart problems.) He spent quite a while wandering around, including stints in Malaysia and Singapore, trying to escape people who probably were never looking for him. For years, he has had certain bills sent to my father’s house out of his bizarre paranoia. I received sporadic birthday and Christmas cards from him briefly – usually with my named misspelled – and then nothing for years. He stayed somewhat connected to my aunt and father while he relocated frequently within this country. Maybe about three years ago, he settled back down in the town where he and my grandmother had married. I’ve seen him twice, I believe, in the past 20 years. As a teenager, I determined it was impossible for me to maintain a relationship with him, and ever since I tend to forget he even exists. I know how awful that must sound, but it’s the truth. My mom’s dad died 14 years before I was born, and this one has never been present, so in my mind, I have two grandmothers and no grandfathers.

My crazy grandfather is 83 years old. As my two grandmothers descend into predictable patterns of ill health associated with aging, he, too, has begun to deteriorate. He has actually taken remarkably good care of himself for years, remembering to test his blood sugar and not falling victim to any diabetes-related complications the lonely and elderly often do. Recently, however, he has grown more and more forgetful. Last week, my dad received unpleasant news: my grandfather – whom I called Pa Paw in the days before – is declining. A recent illness kept him from his regular visits to the VA to get his pills organized and, as a result, he hasn’t taken them in days. He also doesn’t remember to eat all the time. He lives alone in a town an hour away from the rest of us, so tending to his needs is no easy task. My aunt and father are trying to figure out the best way to take care of him, but it isn’t as easy as having someone drop in to check on him. Though in most ways his mental condition is leaps and bounds above what it once was, he remains an old man with a bad memory and a looming paranoia that makes him distrust many people and entities that are designed to help him. My dad and resourceful aunt are making calls in an attempt to get him some help (from the VA, Adult Social Services, Meals On Wheels, etc.), so hopefully things will stabilize soon.

I suppose I’m lucky to have made it to 25 before my grandparents began declining. It’s unfortunate it should happen to all of them at once, but that’s life. Right now, I’m trying to figure out the best way to be useful. I’m happy to drop in on my grandmothers, but I cannot do that with my crazy grandfather. I doubt he would recognize me or let me in the house, and I honestly don’t want to see him. There isn’t a way for me to send money except for well-concealed cash, which doesn’t sound like a good idea. My dad asked me to make myself available to do some sibling wrangling in case he or his girlfriend need to pay a call on my grandfather. You never have to twist my arm to spend time with the kids, especially if it helps my dad take care of his own father. I guess that can be my contribution until I figure out something more proactive. I want to be a good granddaughter – did I mention I’m the oldest, but the one in which he’s shown the least interest? – but it’s hard to be dutiful to someone you hardly remember.

Garden Week #3

2010-03-21T10:01:00.005-05:00

Gee, Brigid, your garden is looking a bit . . . funny . . .

Well, the first day of spring brought a very special gift of snow and sleet, so I had to move my tender baby plants indoors to shield them from the sub-freezing temperatures. Please try to ignore my apartment's terrible lighting and focus on the lush greenery of my container garden!

I can't believe how much my arugula has taken off! Refer to this post for comparison. And wait, what is that I see?

Tiny spinach sprouts! It'll be salad time before I know it. There's still no considerable change with the taters or the bloobs, but my fingers are still crossed.

I hope you're all keeping warm this weekend! The hideous weather, which came in on the tails of the year's most glorious 70-degree day, rescheduled Saturday's UnBirthday Party for Friday night instead. Mark your calendars, because it's still going to rock your world!

Poll results

2010-03-21T09:48:00.002-05:00

Thanks to everyone who took my poll! I was actually very surprised by the results. Almost unanimously, you all love recipes best, followed by daily eats, crafting, giveaways and gardening. I had assumed my readers were not interested in my food posts, so I was going to move those elsewhere. I guess that would be a mistake! Instead, everything will stay right here. If I start feeling industrious, I may open a second blog anyway, but I won't remove any of the content you like the best.

So stay tuned for a very special gardening post coming your way shortly.

New poll

2010-03-16T09:08:00.002-05:00

Hey friends!

When you get a chance, please pop over to the upper right side of my blog to vote in my poll. I'm considering starting a second blog to focus this one more on art, crafting and things of that nature. But first, I wanted to see what my readers like about my current blog so I don't relocate content you enjoy. The poll closes on Friday, so if you could give me your opinion this week, I'd greatly appreciate it. Please check all answers that apply.

Thanks for your help!

A Very Merry UnBirthday

2010-03-15T10:05:00.003-05:00

Hey fellow Wonderland lovers! This Saturday, prepare to fall through the rabbit hole into ArtBeat Magazine's totally amazing UnBirthday Party.

It is a celebration of art of all kinds. Alice-inspired works in a variety of media will adorn the walls, and the evening will be full of sponatenous performance pieces. You won't want to miss it! Need one more reason? I'll be there in a silly costume. :) I've been one of the volunteers since the beginning of the year, and I can't wait to watch it take shape.

Come for the art, stay for the company. There will be DJs, dancers, freaks, weirdos, and sweet little ladies like AudreyEclectic. If you're interested in volunteering, just let me know! We need help the Friday before and the day of to set up and get everything movin' and groovin'. Put together a fabulous costume, and hang out with us. Visit ArtBeat's web site for all the details.

Watching my garden grow

2010-03-14T10:08:00.005-05:00

A week ago yesterday, I planted Phase 1 of my container garden. I've decided to take pictures every week to monitor how she's doing. Check out what I've done so far:

Here is my complete "garden" on Day 1. The container nearest the blue chair is empty but will be filled with tomatoes and peppers when the weather warms up. Here it is at the end of Week 1:

OK, so it pretty much looks exactly the same. Let's take a closer look.

This container is the most fun so far. On the far left you see arugula. It is already yummy. Next to it is pineapple mint, which I couldn't resist buying. I've read that I should probably grow it in its own container, but, well, clearly I am not. In the center is a snapdragon plant that will begin flowering soon, I hope. In the empty space above will grow spinach, and below will be cilantro. The seeds are in, so it's just a waiting game now. The darker greenery to the right is half a dozen small strawberry plants. I've been dutifully removing the flowers as the instructions said. Below it is a little basil plant. And on the far right is curly parsley. Here's the same container a week later:

Not much has changed, but there is a little growth.

Here is my blueberry plant. I couldn't find the little bushes recommended to me, so I decided just to go for it with the larger plant. As you can see, it's leaning kinda crazy, so I need to work on that. It came that way, but I think I can fix it. A week later, we have:

It's subtle, but can you see the little red pre-berries (yes, clearly that's a technical term)? I know my taller half will enjoy this dude.

Lastly is my totally unimpressive potato container. No, you can't see anything on Day 1...

Or at the end of Week 1. However, you will all be mightily impressed when I am able to consume purple and russet new potatoes. Bwah ha ha!

So that's my garden so far. I will post more pictures throughout the process.

Brigid Does Tulsa

2010-03-05T07:40:00.003-06:00

Hey folks! Head on over to Tasha Does Tulsa's fabulous blog to see my guest post. Yep, it's about clay, but it's fun, I promise! Here's a sneak preview:

At 5’3”, I’m almost too diminutive for the pottery wheel. My arms aren’t quite strong enough to overpower a large mound of clay, and my hands are a bit delicate to endure the scraping of the metal wheel as I attempt to transform a two-pound, wet mass of earth into a mug for my morning tea.

Now click here to read the rest!

My sister

2010-03-03T11:50:00.001-06:00

Most people do not get phone calls from their father’s girlfriend telling them that their little sister is in the emergency room for eating toothpaste and a blood pressure patch. Most people do not have sisters with autism.

My sister does some bizarre things. In the past, she has eaten entire packages of uncooked hotdogs, her own feces, a balloon, and probably a whole host of other things I don’t want to know about. The older she gets, the more noticeable her autism is. As a five-year-old, it was easy to think she was just a goofy kindergartener with some speech delays. Now at 11, she just isn’t like other kids her age. She stands out, and not only because of her height and big grey eyes.

It is hard to relate to Sarah. She doesn’t pay much attention to others, at least not in a typical way. It’s hard to tell if she’s heard what you said or is just mindlessly repeating something she’s memorized. I struggle to get more than one-word answers out of her, unless the question is something that interests her (dinner being the major thing). She still sucks her thumb whenever she isn’t instructed not to. If she isn’t watched carefully, she will eat anything – absolutely anything. She is also curious, loving, and hilarious. Her imagination is boundless. She knows how to coyly deflect or offer criticism with a little smile and a funny comment. (She once asked our dad, who had just woken up from a nap, “What are you doing with your hair, Dad?” Another time, when Dad asked if Sarah had taken his glasses, she retorted, “The case of the missing glasses, by Sarah Vance.”)

It’s easy to write off autistic kids as slow. However, the truth is most have above-average intelligence. Sarah fell far behind in school because special ed teachers let her. I’m usually the last to criticize educators, because I know how hard they work with so little. In my sister’s case, though, their failure was un-ignorable. They decided that her outward disabilities indicated a lack of cognitive skills and development. They told my parents repeatedly that Sarah would never be able to do grade-level work or behave well enough to be in a “normal” classroom. She takes after her big sister in her ability and desire to prove people wrong. It’s been slow going to ease her into a “normal” fifth-grade classroom, but that is where she spends her days. At the end of the first semester of the current school year – the first in which she has spent whole days in her own grade save kindergarten – she received all B’s. My sister who cannot read (“she memorizes and repeats”), do basic math, or understand story construction received above-average grades doing a full semester of work meant for “normal” kids of her own age. Straight B’s would be enough to make many parents proud, but mine in particular should beam. Sarah has proven them all wrong, catching up almost completely on the four years of education stolen from her and shown everyone how smart she is.

None of this is to say that she is “normal.” My baby sister is far from a typical kid. She experiences life through a lens that most of us do not. She cannot stand loud noises. She has impulse control problems. She gets stressed out very easily by things most people do not notice. But she offers me these amazing moments of humor and insight that are indescribable to anyone who has never loved someone with autism. She is warm and friendly. She has a beautiful smile and the funniest laugh I’ve ever heard. It is hard to call her my friend the way our brother is, but she is something special to me. She’s my goober. She’s my ray of sunshine. She’s my little sister.

Planning my little garden

2010-02-28T09:02:00.003-06:00

Yesterday my mom and I took a container gardening class at Tulsa Community College as part of their Continuing Education program. My mom has been gardening her entire life, as has her mom and my great-grandmother before she passed away. Green is in our blood, though it wasn't until about a year ago that I cared to dig around in the dirt myself. What can I say? I was a prissy child.

A month or so ago, I made an ambitious list of plants to grow, though recently I've been rethinking it. Can I really grow that many kinds of vegetables? I've decided that I can. The class made me feel like I'm ready for it. We'll see if the joke will be on me later.

One of our handouts is a nifty list from Oklahoma State University's Extension Service detailing when to plant everything in our temperamental Oklahoma weather. So here's the plan so far:

Next week, I will plant:

Spinach
Potatoes (yep, I'm going for it!)
Maybe carrots
Strawberries
Herbs (I'm thinking parsley, basil and dill)

In April, I will add:

Bush beans
Peppers
Tomatoes
Summer squash

I'll also do a couple of flowers, but I haven't decided which ones. I really enjoyed snapdragons last year. I'll probably pick up whatever looks pretty and could cohabitate with everything else I've picked out.

I've been convinced to do a couple of very large containers instead of several small ones, though I plan to keep the potatoes separate. All I have to do now is buy everything! I have Friday off work, so I plan to get rolling then. I can't wait to have everything growing and hopefully avoid some of the problems of last year.

Who else is doing a vegetable garden this year? Let me know what you're growing!

Most important rule

2010-02-24T20:49:00.002-06:00

Piggybacking off my February 4 post, here is the #1 thing I've learned from pottery class:

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Okie Blog Awards

2010-02-14T09:15:00.001-06:00

If you are an Oklahoma blogger, today is the last day to vote for your favorite fellow Okie blog keepers. Go here for all the details! Don't forget to vote for the Tulsa Craft Mafia and our good friend Tasha Does Tulsa!

Happy Valentine's Day! I have an actual post ready as soon as my computer decides to read my memory card.

My illustrious acting career

2010-02-06T08:55:00.002-06:00

You may or may not know that I did a good amount of acting as a youngster. I wasn't in anything big and famous, but if you lived in Tulsa in the early '90s, you may well have seen me in a local commercial (or four), a video at St. Francis about getting your tonsils removed, or a church video that featured Carman concert footage. I also did voice work in a couple of informational cartoons, one for the United Way and one on fire safety. My biggest claim to fame, however, was most certainly my starring turn in a music video by Bruce Carroll and Ricky Skaggs. I have a beat-up VHS copy that I've been hoping would last through the years. Various Google search turned up nothing -- until today. Some wonderful person has put my music video on YouTube! If you can't watch the embedded video below, then click here.

My dad played the homeless man, and the dog was my actual pet, Belle. I think I was 7 when we made this video. I bawled before we shot the last scene when they told me what would happen. Oh, and for the record, those were my own clothes. I picked out all my favorite outfits to bring to the shoot. Don't judge.

If I find any of my other work, I'll post it here, too. Happy watching!

Go ahead -- ask me

2010-02-06T08:10:00.002-06:00

A lot of my bloggy friends have set up formspring accounts to allow readers to ask anonymous questions. Since I've been so bad at posting lately, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. So, please, ask me pretty much anything. I will do my best to answer everything honestly. My only restriction is that, since family reads this blog, the questions shouldn't humiliate me or be TMI for my loved ones.

So please ask away! I'll answer them there on the site, and if anything sparks me, I may blog about it, too.

Things I have learned from pottery class

2010-02-04T15:39:00.000-06:00

Things are still a little nutso around here. The good news is that my grandmother is being moved into a skilled nursing center (NOT a nursing home, the different of which is unknown to me, but whatever). This makes us all breathe a sigh of relief because things did not get better at the hospital. She was not happy – actually, she was convinced the nursing staff hated her. No one should be made to feel that way, especially not an old woman in a lot of pain.

Anyway, rather than dwell on my anger with them, I wanted to present the following list.

Things I have learned from pottery class:

1. Lifting weights is a good thing. Throwing pottery on the wheel is an art and a skill. It’s also a workout. A pound of clay might not look like much, but it takes a lot more pressure than you’d think to move it around. There’s pulling and pushing and lifting. There’s also coordination. You’ll often have both feet controlling the spinning and both hands beating the mound into submission at the same time. All the while, if you’re as petite as me, you’ll be using your abs to pull yourself forward and your thighs to bear down. And then you’ll wonder why you quit going to the gym.

2. Bruises are badges of honor. I appear to be the most battered member of the class. I have scratches on my pinky fingers from the wheel head. I have bruises on both knees from pulling forward against the wheel’s body. After my first week, I had a bruise on both halves of my booty from the way I have to angle my diminutive frame on the bench. (For the record, “diminutive” refers to my height and not the size of my big ol’ rumpus.) The latter was the worst, but it’s gone now. Everything else I wear with pride. They wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t busting tail (literally) in pottery class.

3. It isn’t wonky; it’s organic. When I’m finally able to share shots of my handiwork, it will not look like the polished, beautiful items one might buy from an actual professional (such as my teacher). I haven’t yet figured out how to make everything look contoured and textured rather than lumpy. But you know what? I don’t care! I made those three bowls with my own two hands. No, they’re not perfect, but I think they’re pretty amazingly wonderful and “organic” rather than smooth. And anyway, lumpy is still a texture, right?

4. Short nails are sexy. You should never attempt pottery with long nails. I keep mine pretty short anyway partly because I used to bite them as a kid, but also because I don’t like long nails aesthetically. They remind me too much of the Victorian ideal woman who would never lift a finger in her life and could therefore wear her fingernails long and lily white. My own issues aside, long nails are a big no-no in the world of pottery. They scrape your pieces. They tear on the wheel head. They get all kinds of ickiness trapped underneath them. Basically, don’t do it.

5. Messy jeans are essential. Because I have tiny, short legs, I have trouble finding jeans that are the right length. I refuse to have them hemmed or wear them too long, so I only buy petite or short sizes. This means all my jeans are from Express or American Eagle. Neither of these are particularly expensive brands, but I consider them clothing of some value. Since losing a few pounds/inches/whatever, the pairs I’ve had since college are mostly too big. I hate to waste perfectly good jeans by not wearing them, but the truth is that they do not look good on me anymore. The solution: cover them with clay! They are baggy enough to be comfortable, but I don’t have to worry about ruining jeans I wear all the time. Smearing that first swipe of drippy clay across my left leg felt so freeing. Next up, maybe – gasp! – paint.

6. Letting go. Some things in life are never – or at least almost never – past the point of repair. Most of us have friendships that can go to the brink of devastation only to recover as if nothing happened. Cleanliness is like that, too. Sure, a house left unscrubbed for an excessive period of time is no easy cleaning task, but it’s never impossible. Other things are like throwing pottery. You start with a lump of clay, and at that moment, so much is possible. You center it, you shape it, you make it taller and shorter, but eventually you can screw it up past the point of redemption. It’s actually a pretty dern easy thing to do, which results in a big ol’ stack of wet, discarded almost-bowls or nearly-vases. You learn pretty early that there is only so much you can do to save what could have been the Greatest Mug Ever. Then you either scrape it dramatically from the wheel head or play with the ugly beast until you’re ready to remove it. The good news is that your result may not be a bowl, but it’s still clay. After it dries out a little, it could be a bowl another day.

Bird

2010-01-31T18:26:00.001-06:00

Oh, Robin.

I just adore you. Thanks for warming my heart today.

Crafty Vegan Food Adventures #4

2010-01-30T09:20:00.006-06:00

I was a cooking fiend yesterday. I love throwing things together on the fly, especially when they turn out as delicious as my Friday Snow Day spree. I didn't take pictures of most of what I consumed because I was a ravenous beast. However, everything I made was so quick and delicious that I wanted to share.

For breakfast, I had a bowl of steel-cut oats with cinnamon and maple syrup. This held me over for about 45 minutes. Something about the cold makes me constantly hungry. Nevertheless, I waited until noon to throw lunch together.

I carefully considered what we had in the apartment (minus the emergency rations since big mean boyfriend wouldn't let me touch them :P) and decided I needed to use up my portobello mushroom, spinach and avocado. From there, I came up with a spinach salad topped with roasted portobello and a dijon dressing, my favorite go-to. I marinated the mushroom in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a clove of garlic before roasting it on foil for about 10 minutes in a 425 oven. To make the dressing, I mixed together a little olive oil (around a teaspoon), about 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar (it's also delicious with lime juice instead), about a tablespoon of dijon mustard, and three dashes of cumin. Just cut up the mushroom when it's done and top the spinach with it and the dressing. On the side, I had guacamole and whole wheat tortilla chips. I rarely make guacamole at home because my love is allergic to avocados, so I didn't have all the ingredients. So, I mashed up the avocado with the juice from half a lime and a couple of spoonfuls of chunky salsa. To make the chips, I used SnackFace's method from two whole wheat tortillas (365/Whole Foods brand). I topped with salt and cayenne. The whole meal was delicious!

Almost immediately after, I decided to make a vegan cappuccino in my French press. I read about the process initially on Hungry Hungry Hippie's blog, but then I read somewhere else that you don't even need a special frother -- a regular French press works. So I made my French press coffee, cleaned out the press, heated some almond milk for one minute in the microwave, threw it in the press, and pumped. The result was surprisingly authentic. Now, non-dairy milk does not froth up as much as the cow variety, but it's close. I topped with a dash of cocoa powder and a little sugar. Delicious! I'm making another one today.

And I actually have pictures of the rest of my food! I bought chickpea flour recently to make these insanely good Brussels sprouts and have wanting to try something else with it. I have Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook, which I love to read but barely use. She has a super-easy recipe for farinata that I decided to whip up for dinner. Oh my goodness, it was ridiculously easy and insanely good. Basically you sift together 2/3 chickpea flour and 1/3 teaspoon of salt, then slowly combine 1 cup of water to remove all the lumps. Let it sit for 30 minutes. The basic recipe doesn't have any spice, but I added a teaspoon of Italian seasoning here. Preheat the broiler. Now put a tablespoon of olive oil in a 12-inch, oven-safe frying pan (mine was only 10-inch but worked great). When it's hot, pour in the batter. Then top with black pepper and another two tablespoons of olive oil. (I only used one more because we were out. Tragic!) It'll cook about 4-5 minutes, until it starts to firm. Once this happens, transfer it to the broiler for about four minutes, until it's golden and gets a few brown spots. Eat it as soon as you can get your hands on it! The recipe says it serves 2-4, but I ate six of the eight pieces all by myself. Here's a picture taken in my kitchen with terrible lighting after I had eaten half the farinata:

I topped it with crushed red peppers for a little more kick. I think it would be awesome with some sun-dried tomato and cheese, if you're so inclined. A blurry close-up:

If I hadn't made it myself, I would have sworn it was full of eggs. It had such an interesting, frittata-esque quality.

My taller half and I needed -- yes, needed -- dessert. I'm low on a lot of supplies, including white sugar, chocolate chips (totally out), and vegan butter (also totally out). Luckily I found a cinnamon coffee cake recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking that worked with what I had. I'm not going to reproduce the whole recipe here, but you can find it by using the "search inside this book" feature on Amazon. Anyway, for a cake with no butter in it (canola oil instead), this sure tasted rich and buttery. The topping was my favorite part, though I omitted the walnuts because my love is not a fan. Check out the first two tiny pieces I ate:

Mmm . . . so good! I actually preferred this room temperature to warm. It was even better as breakfast this morning with a mug of Choice Irish Breakfast Tea. (And you gotta love our Paris map plates. They're from Target.)

So that's my Friday cooking adventure. The snow stopped falling, but not before it left us several inches (4-8 is the area report -- I'm not good at estimating). Still, we're hoping things will clear up enough for us to get out this evening. We have tickets to see August: Osage County tonight, so here's hoping we won't be snowbound!

My Broken Grama

2010-01-29T14:06:00.002-06:00

It's snowing. Again. We don't normally get this many storms in the winter here in northeastern Oklahoma. My office closed today, so I'm enjoying a day off. I can't complain about that. However, in between bouts of cooking (spinach salad with roasted portobello mushrooms and dijon dressing, guacamole, homemade whole wheat tortilla chips, and a vegan cappuccino in the French press), I've been bummed about my grandmother.

No, not the one who was in the hospital before with heart problems. This time it's my mom's mom, who lives here in Tulsa. She had a hip replaced in the fall. She had her other one replaced last week. She has been having a much rougher time healing this go, but it didn't seem too bad. My older cousin is playing caregiver, and they aren't getting on very well (not that they ever did...), so my mom drove down Wednesday night to offer her company and assistance. Thursday morning, my grandmother attempted to make coffee and peel an orange. Unfortunately, she fell and fractured her leg. She had surgery yesterday, and the break is bad enough to require some extensive rehab.

It only gets worse from here. My grandmother is on so much pain medicine that she's not responding to anyone's questions. So, instead of a normal rehab facility, they may have to put her into a nursing home to complete her therapy. She hates nursing homes. My mom is worried that my grandmother won't put forth any effort to feel better and, therefore, won't recover. On top of it all, she can't get anyone to talk to her. My mother is my grandmother's next of kin AND power of attorney, and even still, all the nurses seem to have no idea what's happening nor any inclination to find out. My mom has still never seen the doctor. She had to throw a fit yesterday even to get him on the phone. My car is covered in ice and snow, so I don't think me venturing out is a great idea. Instead I'm fretting and trying to talk my mom through it. If any of you watched Gilmore Girls, my mom gets things done about as well as Emily Gilmore. If she can't get a nurse to answer a question or take care of the IV that made my grandmother bleed all day yesterday (oh yeah, forgot to mention that), then I can't imagine who could.

All I can do now is hope things improve, hope my grandmother starts responding, and hope my mother can talk some sense into the folks at the hospital. I'd really appreciate any positive vibrations the rest of you can send.

Oh, Brigid, where are you?

2010-01-23T09:48:00.003-06:00

I've been quiet around here. Sorry folks! My new job has stricter internet policies, so I'm still trying to find a balance and schedule for keeping my readers updated.

I don't have any pictures yet, but this week, I started a pottery class. Remember the metalsmithing class I took, wow, almost two years ago? The pottery class is at the same place. For only $100 (plus $25 in supplies), I get 8 weeks of instruction by a really funny, talented dude. It's only been one class so far, but I am in love! No, seriously. I expected to enjoy plopping clay onto a giant wheel and watching the magic happen, but I left class just elated on Wednesday evening. After at least three comments on my diminutive status, it appears I'm a bit smaller than the average potter. As a result, I had to sit strangely on the bench. This has left me with two giant booty bruises. Only today is sitting not uncomfortable. Hopefully I can prevent them this time, but we'll see. I made two bowls in my first class. They probably suck, but that's two more bowls than I've ever made before!

I'll return again soon with more proper updating. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thankful Thursday

2010-01-14T16:50:00.002-06:00

It's time for another Thankful Thursday!

1. My new job. It's going well. I'm settling in nicely. :)

2. Love notes from my wonderful boyfriend. There's nothing like coming home from a long day of work and non-work-related meetings to find little Post-Its all around the apartment. That brightened my whole week.

3. The weather. It's not exactly spring, but we are temporarily saying goodbye to whole days below freezing. It was 55 yesterday!

What are you thankful for today?

Employed again

2010-01-12T10:02:00.002-06:00

I started my new job yesterday. It's going well, and I'm happy here. However, my office is a big, beige, blank slate. The lighting is a little inadequate, and my walls, desk and bookshelves are crying out for some TLC. I already have my lovely painting from Audrey Eclectic, my pincushion-turned-wrist-rest from Noodle Salad, my handmade mug from Forever Tuesday, and my coaster from Mason Designs. I need to buy a calendar, datebook and tissues as well as bring some more photos. Everything else I want to make myself. This is a short list of things I want to create:

Pillow for my desk chair and other chair
Pen holder
Paper weight
Some kind of wall art
Decorated lamp

That's all I can think of for now. So, who has some ideas, advice or links to share? I need inspiration!

Art around the house

2010-01-08T08:51:00.009-06:00

Sorry for my silence this week. I believe I mentioned before that I was taking this week off from working, and I've been trying to keep myself busy and away from the computer. I made a to-do list unthinkably long for anyone on vacation, but that's just how I roll. Despite a minor illness derailing some of my efforts, I've gotten a lot accomplished. Yesterday I finally bought nails to hang up some lovely art we've collected over the past three years. Check out my handiwork!

Let's start with the living room. Above the TV, you will see my beautiful trees:

Close-up:

On the left is fabric art by Art by Bethany. I was admiring it at Indie Emporium, and my lovely mother snatched it up for me for Christmas. On the right is a piece by Laura Nugent. The painting was my taller half's and my first big purchase together from Mayfest 2007.

On the opposite wall hangs our Audrey Eclectic Sexy Librarian.

She oversees our bookshelves, of course.

Catty-corner to the trees hang two family photos. My mom bought me the floating frames for Christmas, and I knew immediately who to put inside.

The top one is my love's family (including both of us), and below are my siblings. I took that photo shortly before Christmas 2008.

Over in the dining area hangs this lovely young lass by Cydney Grossman.

I purchased the charcoal at the Saturday Flea Market for $4, so I don't know much about it except that it's really, really pretty. See?

I don't know if it's a print or an original. I just had to have it! (Sorry these two photos are so dark. Our dining area gets no natural light, and the artificial light is pretty poor, too.)

Finally, in the bedroom, I put up this little thing I did a while back.

My taller half is crazy about it, but I'm not, so I thought the bedroom was the right choice. We can admire it, but nobody else has to pretend to love it. :)

I haven't put things up in the spare bedroom/office/studio yet. I will post pictures when I do.

Happy Friday!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T08:54:00.004-06:00

It's time for the requisite New Year post. I sadly spent the last day of the year (and the last day at my job) with a pretty bad migraine. In addition to head pain, for me this includes clumsiness, foggy vision, nausea, sleepiness, and -- my personal favorite -- excessive drooling. SEXY. Anyway, I was not up for a lot of celebrating last night. Instead, we lounged around, played some Trivial Pursuit on the PS3, and popped the champagne cork. I look forward to sipping champagne on New Years Eve, oh, pretty much the who year. Conking out at 11:00 and only finishing 2/3 of a glass was not what I intended to do, but down I went. My taller half woke me just before midnight for the required smoochin', and then I passed back out. So I'm up bright and early today. :)

I'm not a resolution-making lass, but I do take the first of the year as an opportunity to dream up some goals or wishes for the coming months. Here's what I wrote last year. I did well enough on those goals. I started selling consignment -- a big, scary step for me. I learned new skills, though the sewing machine and I are still only cordial. I think I improved the Disciples of Etsy team some, and now I'm stepping down as leader. My studio remains an untamed mess.

Here are my plans for 2010:

1. Try new things every month. I'm already signing up for some classes (details in another post). I want to experience more wonderful things.

2. Get braver with my business. I want to push myself in some way. This year, I will approach more stores, apply to bigger shows, launch new products, etc. It'll never grow unless I plant the seeds.

3. Do more crafting for me. I tend to focus too much on "can I sell this?" Sometimes it's OK to make art just for the sake of making art.

4. Organize! Oh, to be an organized person.

5. Run a 5k. This goal won't go away until I do it, dagnabbit.

6. Write more for me. I get paid to produce sentences. I used to do it for fun. I'd like to devote more time to creating sentences on my own time.

7. Eat more vegan meals. I feel better when I do. Plus, it makes me feel more creative in the kitchen.

8. Do something amazing. I'll just leave it at that.

What are your plans for 2010?

Thankful Thursday, New Years Eve style

2009-12-31T12:06:00.002-06:00

Today is the last day of 2009. It's also my last day at my current job. I'm full of bittersweet feelings today. 2009 and this place both treated me pretty well, but I am boldly moving forward towards a better year and position. This is what I'm thankful for on the precipice of this new adventure called 2010:

1. Memories. I'm not a live-in-the-past kind of gal, but memories are still invaluable to me. They remind of us of what we've done, who we've known, and who we've become. They are little treasures.

2. Hopes. Despite my recent grumpiness, I'm an optimist overall. I know that things can always get better. It helps me look forward to new experiences. I like to start the New Year with my eyes, arms and heart wide open.

3. Experiences. Good or bad, I thrive on experiences. I love to try new things. Whether they bless me or burn me (quite literally sometimes -- I guess lampworking isn't for me), experiences expand the limits of what we can do, what we believe in, where we've been, etc. Just as "the unexamined life is not worth living," I think a life empty of risks is only half-full (see: still an optimist). I know 2010 will bring a whole new array of experiences.

I'm wishing a joyous New Year to you all! I hope it's a celebration that prepares you for a beautiful 2010.

Crafty Vegan Food Adventures #3

2009-12-29T10:04:00.003-06:00

After a long, snowy, not-so-healthy weekend, I was dedicated to getting the week off to a good start. Here's what I ate yesterday.

I started the day with my breakfast of choice for the past couple of weeks: whole wheat bread with peanut butter (please excuse the missing bites!). I also had a mug of Moroccan mint green tea at work.

I had a morning snack of a banana -- a little yellow-brown for my taste, but still good.

For lunch, I wanted a huge salad, so I headed to Jason's Deli. The result:

It was so good! What you behold is several kinds of lettuce, yellow and red bell pepper, broccoli, baby carrots, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, red onion, a little bit of bean salad, hummus (upper left corner), cherry tomatoes (which I didn't eat, but I tried), and sunflower seeds topped with Italian dressing. I also had one of the organic flatbread crackers and four apple slices. So, so good! Artichokes are officially my new favorite salad topping.

For an afternoon "snack," I made some French press coffee. Here it is right after I plunged it. (Not the sexiest term, eh?) And yes, I did make that hot pad specifically for my French press.

Dinner was a bowl of chili made using Glue and Glitter's recipe and some TLC crackers.

We upped the spices, as always, and it was quite tasty. I think we'll add even more beans and tomatoes next time 'cause that's how we are. It was such fun to use my slow cooker again. I really need to make more stuff with that little baby. It's so convenient, and boy the apartment smelled good.

After dinner, we watched the American Masters documentary on Louisa May Alcott. It was so good! For dessert, I sliced up some pineapple and had some Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea. I totally neglected to take a picture, but I think you can imagine it.

It was a good eating day, and I feel back on track. Tonight we're making baked potatoes and crossing our fingers that the snow doesn't fall too heavily again tonight.

A very snowy holiday

2009-12-28T11:31:00.004-06:00

I had planned to share photos of all the handmade gifts I made this year. Unfortunately, a blizzard (yes, a blizzard in Oklahoma!) majorly altered our Christmas plans, so I haven't finished distributing everything yet. The sleet and hail started in early on the Eve, and by 4:00, a blanket of snow began to cover the city. We had planned to see my mom's half of the family for a while that afternoon but quickly rethought our plans. Mom and her amazing guilt trip brought us across town for a brief, hour-long visit, which, given my crankiness about the holidays in general, was probably perfect. Since my grandmother hosts but is badly in need of a hip replacement, my mom, uncle, taller half and myself did all the cooking. Between all of us, we had a delicious, stress-free spread of -- believe it or not -- totally vegetarian fare. It was perfect.

The snow continued to fall and fall. The official count is 5.8 inches in Tulsa, but there were drifts several feet high. Our part of the state actually got the least of it, too. I'm always the last person to be excited about the fluffy white stuff, but I have to admit that this was one of the best holidays I've ever had. We were stuck inside -- just the two of us -- from about 3:00 on the 24th until Sunday. We did venture out to walk the dog, but our cars stayed firmly in place. (As if we had another choice. Oh, the joys of apartment life.) I'll do a better rundown of some of my loot in another post, but I did want to share a couple of cell phone shots. First is our now-traditional Christmas breakfast:

Yep, that is a plate full of homemade (by me!) buttermilk biscuits and vegetarian white gravy (crafted by my beloved). The meal was decidedly un-vegan, but I'm back on the bandwagon today. We had coffee and fruit on the side. I wish this picture was representative of all the biscuits-and-gravy consumption but, well, there may have been seconds. And we may have barely put a dent into the fruit. Oh well. Next up is some snowy aftermath downtown:

It cracked me up that the plows moved the snow into a giant pile into the middle of Denver, a busy downtown street. I bet it won't be there for long. The work week is once again upon us.

I hope you all had a safe, warm, happy holiday. I also want to show some love to Hollyrocks, who is getting hitched today. Yay! I'm so happy for the newlyweds-to-be. Send them your good thoughts, and let's hope Eureka Springs welcomes them with open arms. :)

A gift for you

2009-12-25T09:15:00.002-06:00

We got a blizzard in Oklahoma last night, which shortened some Christmas Eve plans and cancelled everything today. Here in Tulsa, we have six inches of snow on the ground. That's insane for this area! I'm not a fan personally, but the creature in my life who hates it the most is my tiny dog. I took this video this morning of her attempting to go get through show piles nearly as tall as her. I hope you enjoy!

Christmas Questionnaire

2009-12-23T09:42:00.002-06:00

In yet another attempt to get into the spirit, I'm filling out this questionnaire I just read on She So Crafty. Feel free to fill it out, too!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I cannot stand egg nog, so hot chocolate. Also, hot chocolate contains chocolate. What's not to love? I like mine with cinnamon.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
I'm 25 and no longer believe in Santa Claus. I don't think I'll tell my children there is a Santa either.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
My two-foot tree has its own multicolored lights.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
I never have, but it could be fun. I don't really need an excuse to kiss my taller half. ;)
5. When do you put your decorations up?
Whenever I experience a moment of grinchlessness. I believe I put the tree out on Monday.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Generally it's mashed potatoes. However, we're starting a new Christmas morning tradition of vegetarian biscuits and gravy. He loves my homemade biscuits and has perfected the meatless gravy.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Hmm . . . I'm trying to remember. I had a lot of good holidays as a child. Oh, I know. There was a Minnie Mouse doll that laughed I really wanted when I was 6 or 7. My parents couldn't find one anywhere, so I guess they had one of the stores put it on order. On Christmas morning, I got some other toys plus a letter from "Santa" written on my typewriter that said I would get Minnie later on. I thought that was the coolest thing.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think one of my mean older cousins must have told me. I was 7. That should probably embarrass me.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
That was our family tradition when I was a kid, but my taller half and I no longer do.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
I remove it from its box and plug it in.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I am vehemently anti-snow. I don't like being cold and damp.
12. Can you ice skate?
Decently. I haven't been since I was a kid, though. I really want to try again.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I remember my mom giving me the complete works of Shakespeare when I was 11 or 12 and feeling super grown up. I don't really have one specific favorite gift, though.
14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Um, getting through them without exploding.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Used to be pumpkin pie. I guess it still is.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
I'm looking forward to making new ones.
17. What tops your tree?
Most people's trees. Oh wait, you mean a tree topper? Nothing at the moment.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving. Even though it stresses me out, I love making gifts for people.
19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
"Patrick Swayze Christmas."
20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?
I like them but can live without them.
21. Favorite Christmas Show?
Little Women (the one from 1994). It's not really a Christmas movie, but it's close enough, and it's AWESOME.
22. Saddest Christmas Song?
I guess I don't know any. I have had "Where Are You, Christmas?" from the Grinch movie in my head for days. That's pretty sad.

Today is my last day this week. Then I just have four more next week before my time at this job is over. Crazy!

Last-Minute Shopping Party

2009-12-22T09:50:00.004-06:00

Tonight is the Tulsa Craft Mafia's Last-Minute Shopping Party at Fresh Roast! All our merchandise is 10%. Plus, you can enjoy great coffee and free baked goods while you shop for those last few gifts. Come out and join us!

I'm Brigid, and I'm Funky

2009-12-18T09:11:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm experiencing the blues. You all gave me some wonderful advice on how to cheer up. Thank you so much! One thing I decided to do was reclassify myself: I'm in a funk, so I'm no longer cranky, I'm funky. That at least made me smile. I also did two more things to help lift my spirits.

1. I tried once again to brown my hair:

Getting closer. I may actually be my natural color again one of these days.

2. I tried doing something creative. Holly, my favorite bride-to-be, posted a fun-looking tutorial last week on making polymer clay candle holders. I had some left over from her fun lollipop workshop on December 5, so I decided to do a couple of my own. Of course, I had very few of the necessary supplies (i.e. the clay and the candle holders), so I had to improvise. I ended up combining her tutorial with the class we had taken. Here's the result:

They're not perfect, but I love them. See the sweet little candy cane?

I'm going to buy some seasonal candles to put in them.

Today is my final Friday lunch with the man I love. It's been our tradition for almost two years to have lunch together every Friday. Since the next two are holidays and my new job is in another part of town, today the tradition ends. I'm a little sad but also looking forward to savoring the experience. Then this weekend we have Christmas with his side of the family. I also have a wedding shower and a friend party. I shall not lack for distractions.

I hope you have a great weekend planned!

Thankful Thursday

2009-12-17T15:06:00.004-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post about my winter blues, I'm a very lucky gal despite my funk. I wanted to make sure to acknowledge that with a Thankful Thursday post. Here's my three:

1. Job security. Actually, I just signed on to start a new job. My last day here is two weeks from today, then I get a week off, and then I start my new position. The pay is a little better, and I think it'll be a good fit.

2. Health. I get allergies and migraines, but I've had no serious illnesses or injuries in my life. It's as much luck as it is hard work.

3. Things to look forward to. I know sometime in January, I'll start feeling better just because the holidays are over. When that happens, I'll have a new job, crafting, fun classes, time with friends, vacations, and so much more to keep my occupied. As much as I hate the cold, the first part of the year is one of my favorites. It just teems with possibilities -- and the chance to relax. :)

So there are my three, as begrudgingly as I produced them. I hope you have a reason to be thankful today. (Also, please feel free to go back to my last post to give me more ways to cheer myself up.)

Edited to add this picture to fully demonstrate how whiny I am these days (or at least how I would look if I were this whiny...IN SPACE):

Winter blues

2009-12-17T09:37:00.002-06:00

I try to keep my boo-hooing out of this blog to focus on crafting and cooking and all those fun things. However, I'm suffering from a bad case of the winter blues this year, and right now, that's the only thing on my mind. Something about the cold snap and the holidays turns my smile upside-down for a month or so. My creativity dries up, my motivation wanes, and all I want to do is watch bad TV while curled up on the couch. I'm pretty good at handling my own stress, but the blues are always a challenge for me. I spend much of the year upbeat. Dealing with the downs is something I'm still figuring out.

I'm incredibly lucky, so being blah makes me feel guilty on top of everything. So, I am appealing to my blog readers to lend me a hand. How do you cheer yourself out of a funk? I'm willing to try almost anything (within reason, of course), so let me have it. I'll post about anything I try.

Thanks, my lovely readers!

Deluxe recap

2009-12-15T11:44:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone! I meant to post this Deluxe recap yesterday, but I was under the weather again. I think it was just another allergy attack, but man were my taller half and I out of commission this weekend. The poor guy has been sick for over a week now, too. Bummer.

Anyway, Deluxe was fun, if not a big financial success for me. I always enjoy seeing my lovely fellow crafters (three cheers for being back to back with the delightful Sweetheartville once again), doing a little shopping and passing out some business cards. I shared space with Tara of Mason Designs (her new and awesome venture). We went for colorful and happy but not overtly Christmas-y. Is my Grinch showing?

The whole booth:

Here's our brightly colored table designed to lure in the shoppers. Did it work? Eh, a little.

Here's the table in the middle, which underwent several transformations after this photo was taken.

And the long table with most of our stuff. Doesn't our jewelry go well together?

Oh! And the best part of all. Briana of Sheez Krafty came by to say hello. Her keen eye caught sight of this little visitor shopping for Wizard of Oz rings:

Little ladybug, you are welcome any time.

Even though the shows are over, I'm keeping busy. Between two custom orders, two sales overnight and a bunch more family gifts to make, I better get back to it. Stay well (and warm), everyone!

And the scrub winner is . . .

2009-12-11T16:21:00.004-06:00

I used random.org to determine the winner of my giveaway. There were 14 comments, and the winning number is . . .

Holly, number 5! I'll be in touch to give you your lavender and rosewood scrub. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Grama's Christmas Present

2009-12-11T10:43:00.006-06:00

I've been having a crafty winter so far. Between shows and commissions and holiday presents, I've had a lot to do. I am almost done with a gorgeous piece that I can't wait to share -- only I have to, since it's a gift. I'll show it off soon, though.

In the meantime, I completed a hat and scarf set for my grandmother's Christmas gift. I feel safe putting them up here since they're for my grandmother who doesn't even touch a computer. I based them on a pair of patterns from Crochet Today's holiday edition but modified them for my preferences. Here's the scarf (photo taken a couple of weeks ago):

As you can see, I added a slot to pull one end of the scarf through. I thought it would be practical for my gardening grandmother. Check out the hat:

And here they both are together:

I am madly in love with this yarn from Loops! It's Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton yarn (all organic) in Caribbean and Lemonade. I may have to make myself a scarf from it next.

I need to assemble a few final things tonight for Deluxe tomorrow. If you're in the OKC area, don't forget to come shop!

Deluxe on Saturday

2009-12-08T15:37:00.002-06:00

My final craft show of the year is this Saturday. The lovely Tara and I will be sharing space at Deluxe in Oklahoma City on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The show will be packed with tons of amazing artists. You don't want to miss it!

All Souls Recap

2009-12-07T10:58:00.002-06:00

I admit that I woke up a bit cranky on Sunday morning before my craft show. I had gone to set up the day before to discover that my space was half the size of the previous two years. That was annoying, but was really irritated me was that some people had full-size tables while the rest of us did not. And we hadn't been informed in advance. That wasn't cool. Then the start was slow, which didn't help my mood. Luckily, things picked up, and I remembered why it's one of my favorite shows of the year: sales are pretty good, the time commitment is teeny (9 until 1ish), the booth fee is minimal (10% of sales), and the company is great. However, because of my crankiness, I didn't take my camera, so I snapped this horribly blurry shot of my table with my cell phone:

Sorry about that, folks. Anyway, despite the constraints, I thought everything looked nice. I actually sold out of my new lavender scrub -- amazing! I will be making plenty more this week before Deluxe, which approaches quickly, as in this Saturday. Yikes! I have some more work to do.

Giveaway!

2009-12-04T14:48:00.003-06:00

In celebration of my new scrub fragrance, I've decided to hold a little giveaway here on the studio blog. The winner gets a 4 oz. jar of one of my scrubs -- your choice which scent. The four available fragrances are Caffe Vanilla (coffee grounds and vanilla extract), Orange Spice (sugar scrub with orange, cinnamon and clove), Rosemary Peppermint (salt with, well, rosemary and peppermint) and the all-new eand Rosewood (sugar with, yep, lavender and rosewood). All are made with natural oils, spices and wonderfully moisturizing safflower oil.

There's the new scent on the block, in all its pure-white-as-the-driven-snow glory.

Here's how to win:
1. Leave me a comment telling me which scrub makes you want to draw a hot bath and light a candle. Make sure to leave an email address or some way for me to contact you.
2. Tweet about the giveaway and comment here with the link.
3. Write a blog post about my contest and leave me a comment with the link.

Yep, that's three ways to win. The contest begins today and runs until Friday, December 11 at 4:00 p.m. Oklahoma time. Good luck!

New scrub!

2009-12-03T11:44:00.004-06:00

I want to thank everyone who voted in my poll about scrub fragrances. It was a close call between two of the categories, but relaxing/calming won out. So last night, I got to work creating my newest fragrance. I was going to be all sensible and wait until tomorrow to announce it with a giveaway, but, well, I'm too excited! The newest scent in the line-up is Lavender and Rosewood. The two essential oils complement each other wonderfully. They are soothing and
lightly earthy, perfect accompaniments to a relaxing bath. I mixed them into a sugar-and-safflower-oil concoction. I can't wait to debut them this weekend!

As for the giveaway, it will have to wait until tomorrow since I didn't manage to photograph anything last night. Make sure to drop by this blog Friday to get in on the fun!

All Souls Arts & Crafts Fair

2009-12-03T09:58:00.003-06:00

This Sunday, I will be set up once again at the Arts & Crafts Fair at All Souls Unitarian Church. I look forward to this show for a couple of reasons. First, all the vendors are members of the church, and all are extremely talented. For some reason, the denomination attracts creative, artistic folks. There will be great pottery, knitted items, kids stuff, and a whole lot more. The fun can be had between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

It's also a very nostalgic show for me because it was the first one I ever did back in 2007. That means this year's will mark the beginning of my third year on the circuit. So fun! Here's a not-so-great photo from that first outing:

Wow! You learn so much for the first show. My booth set-up has come a long way. I'm looking forward to a new display piece I have to offer this time. I'll share photos soon.

Crafty Vegan Food Adventures #2

2009-12-02T08:50:00.004-06:00

These are the tasty vegan treats I ate yesterday.

I often start my morning with a delicious bowl of oatmeal, enhanced by pecans, maple syrup and lots of cinnamon.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit to photographing today's breakfast. I forgot to take the picture yesterday, but it was identical.) Oatmeal is filling, warming and healthy first thing in the morning. Yum!

I often go out for lunch, so I decided to hit up Big Al's. It's one of my favorite places. The food is healthy and easy to veganize. I opted for the avocado sandwich, minus the cheese. (It also had lettuce, tomato, sunflower seeds and onions.)

And I got a delicious pineapple-strawberry smoothie to go with it.

I had to eat a little later than usual because of an all-encompassing morning project, so I didn't end up needing a snack. For dinner, I roasted up fingerling potatoes, a pound of asparagus and two portobello mushroom caps. All had garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I added rosemary to the potatoes and mushrooms and balsamic vinegar to the latter only. Check out this mouth-watering plate:

If you've never roasted veggies before, all I did was preheat the oven to 425˚, clean and chop the veggies, drizzle olive oil in a 9x13" baking dish, move the veggies around to cover them with oil, and top with tasty things. Twenty minutes later, I had dinner. I now have the rest of the asparagus and another mushroom for tonight's dinner. There are no potatoes left because I ate the first half of them Monday night.

While preparing dinner, I had one piece of Endangered Species chocolate (the dark chocolate with orange flavor). I had another piece after dinner. I ate these too quickly to photograph, but here's a picture I stole off Photobucket:

Around 9:30, I needed one final snack, so I had two clementines, arranged as artistically as I can because I thought it would make a nice picture.

They were sweet, juicy and delicious -- a perfect dessert. I may be a little obsessed with them at the moment.

So there's where my calories went yesterday. After a long weekend of dairy, processed foods and sodium, my body has been craving veggies and fruits. I am really looking forward to tonight's leftovers.

Wish List

2009-12-01T15:41:00.003-06:00

Every year, I update my Amazon wish list before my birthday and Christmas in hopes I will receive something I actually want (as in, not a set from Bath & Body Works or a gift card to Walmart). This works occasionally. Of course, most of the things I really and truly want aren't on there, but I find it difficult to get folks to use my Etsy favorites. I'm always curious what items other lovers of all things handmade are tempted to buy, so I thought I'd do my part by showing you a few things on my list.

First off is this pouch by CutOutAndCollect featuring a unicorn on a purple background:

I definitely need this awesome, Alice-inspired ring by pocketfullofpoesy:

I've been eyeing this totally non-vegetarian-friendly apron by snappyshop since, like, forever:

And last is an iPod case with a bunny on it (of course) by stitchkitsch:

What's on your wish list?

Home again, home again

2009-11-30T16:44:00.003-06:00

We had a safe, fun trip to and from Louisiana this weekend. It was both low-key and exhausting, just as a good family weekend should be. I'll get back to my regular posting tomorrow, but today I just wanted to share three things:

The main difference between school craft shows in Oklahoma and Louisiana is the insane number of women selling jalapeno jelly in the latter. (Yum, by the way.)
My cranky, anti-consumerism post is now up on Tasha Does Tulsa's blog.
I was lucky enough to be included in my love's family photo, even though I'm still just an accessory. Doesn't he come from beautiful stock?

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

Shopping ethically

2009-11-26T16:30:00.003-06:00

I warn you -- this is as much educational as it is a rant. I don't mean to offend anyone who shops at the big box stores, but I needed to get this off my chest.

In light of this weekend's Black Friday shopping craziness, I've been reading lots of opinions that people have a duty to get out there and shop for the holidays. One even went so far as to say that not consuming means you are injuring the local economy. This opinion really ruffled my feathers. Though my feathers are fairly easily ruffled, I just found this statement to be biased and unfounded by research. So I decided to combat it by writing this post. :)

Blind consumerism is not good for anyone. Sure, every purchase made at a store sends some money back into the local economy, but there are limits. The 3/50 Project has some good information that I will poach for my purposes: "For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home." Of course, it depends on what you buy in a local store. If you pick up a Tulsa-made item in a Tulsa-operated store, more of your dough will stay in Tulsa. If you buy a trinket from a local store that is manufactured in a Salvadoran sweatshop, then more of your money will go elsewhere. (I would also argue that there is one exception to the online bit: if you shop locally on Etsy, some money does come back to the community. You can find Oklahoma sellers by searching OKEtsy Team.)

If you buy all your holiday presents from local stores, then yes, you are doing a great deal for the community. You are supporting mom-and-pop businesses and putting a good chunk of change back into the local economy. I would commend you for that. But how many of us will actually do this? How many will hit up Target or (gasp!) Walmart for 50% or more of our purchases? Yes, it's convenient and cheap, but at what human cost? There are countless articles online detailing the unfair labor practices of the big box stores -- just hit up Google. (That doesn't even include the horrible treatment of the sweatshop employees in third world countries who produce most of the goods we consume. Do some research. It'll break your heart.) There is also a ton of information about the adverse environmental impact of major corporations. Those are not gifts I want to give on Christmas Day.

To insinuate that it is my American duty to consume like there's no tomorrow is just insulting. I pay sales taxes pretty much every day. I eat out more than I should, I buy ridiculous amounts of craft supplies, and I get 99% of my groceries from the overpriced Whole Foods. The State of Oklahoma receives plenty of money from me and my meager income. None of us should feel guilted into overspending at the holidays. It will only lead to feelings of guilt and debt. Seriously. How many times have we spent far more money than we could afford because we believed that's what we're supposed to do? That's not what the holidays are supposed to be about. The consumerist spirit, I believe, is dangerous. It encourages us to buy more than we should. All those products must come from somewhere, bringing with them jobs, yes, but also hideous working conditions and a growing hole in the ozone layer. Consumerism also teaches our children that they should want things when there is so much more to life than having the biggest pile of Barbies.

To insinuate, too, that I should shop for gifts instead of making them really makes my blood boil. I buy the vast majority of my craft supplies locally, many from independent shops (The Bead Merchant and Loops, just to name two). So in essence, the items I make are purchased locally. I just don't need to spend a bunch of money on questionably manufactured items to get great gifts. Plus, I get the satisfaction of a job well done, and the recipients know that each thing they receive from me was lovingly made just for them. You can't put a price on that.

Of course, most people aren't ~~as crazy as me~~ apt to handmake most of their gifts. That's totally fine. It's fun for me, but I'm not like most people. What you can do is support independently produced and ethically traded goods. It's not as hard as it sounds! Every time you buy handmade items from people in your community, you are paying sales tax as well as giving money directly to the artist, who in turn puts his or her earnings back into the community. You are also taking a stand against items mass-produced potentially under horrible conditions and questionable morals. You can also give items from any of the many locally owned businesses. If you live in Tulsa and don't know where to start, let me know. They are every where, and they are the soul of this city.

In sum, consumerism is not going to save the world. Any flow of local sales tax is a short-term asset, but don't let anyone else guilt you into overspending this holiday season to express your love. Buy from independent makers or independent stores if you aren't inclined to make something yourself. Show loved ones your affection by quality, not quantity. Save your pocketbook and your sanity. Remember: just because you have plenty doesn't mean you have to give thanks by tossing it at every Black Friday sale. If you live in Oklahoma and would like to hit up some great, super-ethical Black Friday sales, check out the list here.

Thankful Thursday, Thanksgiving-style

2009-11-26T12:04:00.000-06:00

I'm sending another Thankful Thursday your way ... FROM THE FUTURE! Yeah yeah, I guess it's actually from the past since I wrote this before the day you'll actually read it, but FROM THE FUTURE! sounds so much cooler than FROM THE PAST. Anyway, here is what I"m thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:

1. Time with someone else's family. Is that bad? Thanksgiving has always been a stressor in my life due in part to having divorced parents and then attending college far, far away. I'm enjoying spending time with my taller half's loved ones this year.

2. Long weekends. I'm enjoying three days of vacation thanks to the holiday and one day of annual leave. Did the printed materials I ordered for work arrive safely yesterday? I don't care! I'm on vacation!

3. Having someone to share all my holidays with. I love you, baby, and I'm always thankful for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On the road yet again

2009-11-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

My love and I are making the drive today to visit his family in one of Louisiana's bustling metropolises. No, not that one. Not that one either. Oh OK, so it's not exactly a great big city, but I just got back from Durant, Oklahoma, so this will feel like a major metropolitan area. ;)

I can't wait to see his family and celebrate Thanksgiving at his parents' home. I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful holiday. I'll write about our trip when I get home. Look for a couple of scheduled posts from me over the long weekend. Happy Tofurkey Day!

Jingle Bash Recap #1

2009-11-24T10:40:00.000-06:00

Mom and I had a wonderful time at Jingle Bash. It was unbelievably crowded when we arrived at straight-up 1:00 that we decided to grab lunch before heading in. Neither of us know Dallas well, but we soon determined that the area surrounding the show -- Deep Ellum -- had lots of food offerings. We selected Lemongrass. The food was tasty, but the service was iffy. We ended up waiting more than 15 minutes to order because the waiter struck up a conversation with one of the three other tables there for 10 minutes or more. Not cool, dude.

Anyway, after we finished eating, we made the short drive back to the Sons of Hermann Hall. The place was packed! We each did our part to support handmade this year by buying a few gifts for others and plenty for ourselves, too. I'm going to unleash it on you in small doses. First up is my new purse from the wonderful Rachel Elise. Have I mentioned I'm really into trees lately?

Check out the lovely lining (and proof that I've already put it to use).

Seriously, the tree is just precious.

Next up is my new headband from Enju.

She explained that the embellishment is all-natural, Texas-grown cotton that she hand-dyed. Neat, huh? Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a silly picture of me modeling the headband, now would it?

And now we have my cute new cardigan embellished by Midnight Snack.

It's partly sunny on my chest today! Wait, does that sound weird? Probably not as weird as I actually am.

I'll send some more your way after I return from Louisiana!

Whimsical rings at The Felt Bird!

2009-11-23T10:43:00.005-06:00

I'm finally sending some more whimsical rings to The Felt Bird today. They've only been requested for about a month now. Way to be on the ball, Brigid! Anyway, hopefully by Black Friday, you'll be able to purchase more Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz goodies in Enid. Can you spot some of your favorites?

I'm sending 20 designs this time, including plenty of Alice herself:

And some adorable Dorothies, too:

Avoid Black Friday craziness by shopping The Felt Bird. They open at 11:00, and I read that there might be some tasty treats, too.