Pink of Perfection

I am getting the distinct feeling that maybe y’all are a little burnt out on recipes. No? Am I being oversensitive? Are you just outside playing in the sunshine? Here’s hoping.

But in any case, I thought it was time for a little shake-up. Remember when we were all going on and on about morning pages last month? Well, when I found out that Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, was teaching a “Creativity Boot Camp” class at the Open Center, I figured it was a pretty good way to spend four Wednesday evenings.

Julia Cameron is a real trip, in the best way possible. She’s got these loose, luxurious blonde curls, wears deep red lipstick, and can somehow convince a room full of adults to sing songs with lyrics like, “your green heart is filled with apples!” In a word, she’s amazing.

In our first class, she did an exercise with us that I loved so much, I had to share it with you guys. So if you’re in for some creative, big-dreaming Friday fun, grab a piece of paper (or chime in in the comments) and let your imagination loose. Don’t spend too much time thinking about each list; just be loose and go with your gut.

1. Write ten things you love.
2. Write five things you would do if you knew you wouldn’t fail.
3. Write five alternative lives you would like to live other than your own.
4. Write four tiny things you can do in the life you have to bring you closer to those imagined lives.

Now, imagine an older, wiser version of yourself who has some advice to share.

1. What do you need to know?
2. What do you need to embrace?
3. What do you need to do?
4. What do you need to grieve?
5. What do you need to celebrate?

Happy weekend to you lovelies! As always, thanks for dropping in here, reading, and adding your delightful and insightful two cents.

Image via Valeriana Solaris

Quilting for Peace is, in my estimation, the best kind of craft book. It contains 15 simple, flexible patterns to get you piecing together a quilt of your own. But as creative people know, the magic of crafting doesn’t come from the simple how-to instructions but the stories surrounding the process. In the case of Quilting for Peace, these are stories told by quilters different in every way but united in “a firm belief in justice and people’s responsibility for each other; and a faith in patchwork’s ability to absorb the maker’s care, respect, and on occasion outrage, and to let whoever touches the quilt feel those as well.” To enter a giveaway for the book, click here.

How did you learn to quilt?

About eight years ago, my mom showed me the basics of piecing and tying so that I could make a baby quilt for a friend’s first child. After that I taught myself pretty much everything I needed to know with the help of a Singer machine-quilting paperback from the Eighties. I’m learning how to hand-piece now.

What inspired you to write Quilting for Peace?

A little bit of healthy competition with the knitters. I loved Knitting for Peace and wanted to show that quilters did just as much to make the world a better place. I was also inspired by an exhibit I saw at the New England Quilt Museum about nineteenth-century quilters who used their craft to provoke social change as well as to comfort those in need. They used their quilts, for example, as a way to participate in politics, work for social justice, and raise money for the causes they believed in.

You conducted interviews with dozens of people to write the essays in Quilting for Peace. What was that process like?

The quilters I talked to were so different from each other in many ways—women (and a couple of men) from ages 15 to 80-something, on four continents and in 14 U.S. states; quilters who are liberal and conservative, who live on farms and in suburbs, in city apartments and even on a houseboat, some of whom have been quilting for decades and others who have only recently learned to sew. And yet they share a remarkably similar way of looking at the world: a mix of pragmatism, hope, and determination, an instinct for what’s needed in the face of sorrow or tragedy, the resourcefulness to make things happen with little money and on short notice, a sense of humor, and a knack for rallying others. I admire them all a great deal. I wish quilters were in charge of everything!

Continue reading “Quilting for Peace with Katherine Bell” »

Every time I see this postcard, with its cheery ’70s style, I have to pick it up and give it a read, and each time, I’m charmed by its simplicity. It taps into the place in my brain that wants to live in Arthur Read’s neighborhood and grow up to be Miss Rumphius. So many of these ideas are great and seem especially relevant (and easy to accomplish) in the summertime. What do you do to create a sense of community in your life?

Just a small post the Friday before Mother’s Day to say thank you to all of you for reading and leaving comments that are hilarious, sweet, and inspiring. I get such a kick out of what you have to say. Specifically, I have to thank Rebecca for her comment on the ribbon bookmark post. She suggested that the perfect life-affirming spring book was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and she couldn’t have been more right. Reading it, I felt exactly as she did: “I did not want it to end. I would live inside the book if it was possible.” There is such a wonderful sense of community and hope in this book; if you are in need of either of those things (to say nothing of characters so delightful you wish like hell they were real), pick it up. Because of other recommendations on that post from Lisa and Bernie, I also have Joseph Mitchell and The Blue Castle eagerly waiting on my bedside table. Thank you!

I am traveling out to my mom’s house this weekend to make a springy (yet still somewhat undetermined) Mother’s Day dinner. I’m thinking salmon with an herby Greek yogurt sauce, sugar snap peas, and possibly a big snowy coconut cake. But more on that soon, hopefully. Selfishly, I intend to raid my mom’s lilacs so I can delight you with yet more pictures of these fragrant harbingers of spring.

Lastly, I woke up with this song in my head this morning. It’s a little creepy, true, but it’s also sweet and, well, I just thought I’d share. (And just for the record, I do not think you belong to me, but I am continually delighted, amazed, and grateful that you swing by.) Happy Weekend!

image via graygoosie

I have come to the conclusion, after a winter of scraggly, watery kale, bruised zucchini and abused swiss chard, that my cooking has suffered from its being beholden to the grocery store produce aisle. All grocery stores are not created equal, of course. But New York City produce is some of the saddest and mistreated (and yet still overpriced!) you will ever see. Then there are the fancy boutique style grocery stores with their flattering lighting and appealing packaging, but I can’t really cough up the cash to shop there regularly. True, there is the farmer’s market. But call it laziness or a love of sleeping in and puttering around, but I never seem to make it before closing time on Saturdays.

It has come to my attention, however, that a mere two blocks away, a CSA takes over a playground and lets its members chose the loveliest fresh fruits and vegetables. I love the idea of supporting a farm, and interacting each Saturday morning with people in my neighborhood. But members are limited, of course, to whatever arrives from the farm. Which means if you suddenly have a hankering to make a mushroom pizza, you’ll have to make a separate trip to secure your fungi.

(Aside: A mushroom walks into a bar and orders a shirley temple. The bartender says, “We don’t serve your kind here. The mushroom says, “Why not? I’m a fun guy.” Buh-duh-duh.)

So I’m asking for your input and opinions. Do you belong to a CSA? What are the pros and cons, and ultimately, do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? Should I go for it or resolve to hit the farmer’s market with more frequency this summer? Your sage counsel is requested.

via jazmyn

For the last 36 hours, I’ve been recovering from food poisoning (not suffered at my own hand, mind you, but a restaurant that will now receive my eternal scorn!). Not so interested, as you might understand, in chatting about spring soups. But I am mustering the energy for something else: Care Packages.

When I was in college, my sister sent me the best care packages filled with makeup and bath products. My mom would send her incredible chocolate chip pecan cookies, and on the receipt of either, I found myself overjoyed in the dark, subterranean mail room of my school. I sent my little brother my attempt at the best chocolate chip cookies. To a college junior who had probably had too much to drink the night before, they were perfection.

I had always thought of care packages as being relegated to the college years, until my friend Jenny once sent me a pair of magnificent gold sandals in the mail. The care package can really be giving whatever the recipient needs — like three kinds of chocolate to a hormonal friend or a bunch of yellow daisies to another who’s been down in the dumps. I enacted the “local care package” when a friend was working so hard and so tirelessly that he rarely stopped for lunch. He was getting noticeably thinner. So I put together a bag of groceries that could be kept on his desk and grabbed by the handful. Chock full of preservatives? Some of the snacks were (peanut butter Ritz cracker sandwiches are a favorite of his), but I also included cashews, wasabi peas, and dried mango slices.

There is a certain level of self-satisfaction when you give someone just what you know they need but which they aren’t, for whatever reason, providing for themselves. That’s when you, the ever perceptive friend, get to swoop in and save the day with bubble bath, cupcakes, and all the words of encouragement needed.

What are some “care packages” you’ve given, even if it wasn’t via the mail or was as small as a Hershey’s kiss?

Last night, after a particularly grueling workout, I was craving stir fry. With only $12 left in my weekly grocery budget, I knew I would have to make some compromises. I had to swap the tempeh I initially grabbed for tofu, resisted my favorite short grain brown rice in favor of a cheaper long grain. Even still, with the shoyu and rice wine vinegar, I knew I would go over my budget, but damn it, I wanted what I wanted. And stir fry seemed like such a little thing to ask.

It was a ridiculously crowded time of day at the grocery store, and I got in a line with only one person. Unfortunately, that one person was a woman with a towering grocery cart. As she pulled out imported honey, French feta, and free-range chicken and placed it on the conveyor belt, I could feel my jealousy rising. Her mountains of fresh leeks and herbs and organic dark chocolate represented everything I wanted to buy at the grocery store and just couldn’t afford. I coveted her cart. Now, how low is that? After stewing for a few minutes, I changed lanes.

Continue reading “Highs and Lows at the Grocery Store” »

One of my favorite things about blogs, hands down, is how you can feel like you can count people as your friends who you might never get the chance to meet in real life. Amber Karnes, of the super fabulous My Aim is True, has long been that for me. Her craft room is a site to be seen, and I’m constantly inspired by a life that seems to be a flurry of friends, good food, creative fun, and lots and lots of colorful, meaningful beauty.

Amber (looking the happiest) with super cute hubby on the last day of her honeymoon

Tell us a little bit about your blog and what the name means.

Well my site is sort of my life in notes and photos, if that makes sense. I talk a lot about crafting, cooking, my grumpy dog, music that I like, stuff like that. The name is a line from an Elvis Costello song called “Alison“.

How did you first get into making, crafting and cooking? Any particularly memorable flops or successes?

I was homeschooled for most of my life, and my mom always encouraged creativity and artistic pursuits. We made a lot of crafts when I was younger, everything from teddy bear bread to a heck of a lot of t-shirts covered in puff paint. I guess I grew out of it for a while, then after college I decided I wanted to learn to knit, just out of the blue. I showed up to a stitch ‘n’ bitch night, and the rest is history. I love teaching myself whatever new thing I want to tackle and making things myself so it was a great fit. I taught myself to cook mostly by experimenting, then from cookbooks and the internet after I went vegan in May 2007. Vegan cooking is a totally different game.

I think my most successful DIY projects have been things around the house. I can follow a craft pattern pretty well but I feel like I’m more creative with interior design and making just so-so things into really special things.

Flops? Ask my husband, I’ve cooked some pretty awful things. A lot of it involves eggplant. Why are those suckers so hard to cook properly?
Dude, I hear you. The craft scene in Norfolk seems really vibrant. Tell us about the 7 Cities Crafters.

The 7 Cities Crafters are a group of crafters and visual artists who sort of represent the indie art scene in the area. We’ve been a group for a few years now in one form or another. We’re a pretty diverse group, most of us are in our 20s and 30s but we have had everyone from high schoolers to 70 year old women come to our get-togethers. We have a monthly meetup where we bring food, hang out and craft together. We also host free skill-sharing workshops where one member of the group will hold a demo and teach the rest of the group a skill like knitting, photography, whatever. They’ve been very popular and we just scheduled several more for the next few months. I got the group going out of a totally selfish desire to meet more creative people in the area, sort of bring them out of the woodwork, and it worked!

What do you think the significance of the crafting movement is particularly for young women?
I think the coolest thing about the crafting movement is the information sharing. I am a big advocate of knowledge sharing, skill sharing, making or doing something and then getting the word out about it so others can do and enjoy it too. One of the
things that makes the DIY/craft movement most appealing is that someone can look at something I did and say, “Hey, I can do that too!” Then they might take the technique I used and put their own awesome and unique spin on it. I love that! I think the craft movement has been a great outlet for young women to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I am going to have a hard time articulating this, and I’m sure some women’s studies major could do a much better job, but I feel like young women have a hard time bonding with other women a lot of times. Men seem like they are just born to support each other or bond with their “bros” but girls are bred by society to compare themselves to one another and compete with one another. I feel like the craft movement has been one way for young women to find their own voice, express themselves creatively, and be a “team” with other girls just like them.

I think you hit the nail on the head — and very articulately, I might add! So what most inspires you?

Continue reading “Amber Karnes of My Aim is True” »