green: old shoes and gym gear

I've recently hit the end of the road with two pairs of shoes. The "leather" (I think it's pleather...) has cracked and is falling apart in places. Since one of the pairs is boots and I need my boots to be waterproof, this crack renders them essentially useless. But what do I do with them? I don't feel right giving them to Value Village. Why would anyone else want my nasty-ass cracked shoes? Well I found this website online, which gives suggestions on what to do with old gym gear. Since they mention shoes, I'm pasting the ideas here.

Follow Women's Health's recent tips on giving your gear a second life:
Recycle your shoes through Nike Reuse a Shoe program.
Recycle any Patagonia clothing.
Recycle or donate yoga mats through the Recycle Your Mat initiative.

Source: Fit Sugar

crafts: cutest bootie EVAR!

I just finished the cutest little baby bootie and I NEED to share it with y'all. Well, I don't know how many people read this, but I feel like putting it on a blog satisfies my need to run around like a crazy person showing it to everyone I know (which I have also done, actually...).
The lighting was bad with the photo, but checkitout!

I made it this morning. Now I need to spend some time perfecting the pattern so I can churn out hundreds. And, yes, I do want to make a larger version for myself. How cute would this be in adult slippers? I can't justify spending $70 on real chucks so I feel like this would be a pretty decent second-best ;)
You can read more about it on Ravelry, too.

recipe: nic & kyle's vegetarian chili

(Originally emailed Apr. 2, 2008)

our recipe!, by LG Weddings

I've added two new people to the list. Julie, from my lab (I've added you in case you find some recipes for your sis or for CR), and Dane who I know from Laurier people (hey, you said you wanted a recipe!). The background info: I (try to) send out a vegetarian recipe every week, seeing as Kyle and I usually try at least 1 or 2 new recipes per week, and I hope that someone out there actually finds something they like.

Today I will share with you my recipe for vegetarian chili. I grew up with my mom's chili recipe: simple, tasty, hearty, but full of meat. And it turns out that it doesn't work well as chili when you just omit the meat. I have tried time and time again to make vegetarian chili and it nearly always ends up tasting "off" and being overly liquidy. So I did some investigative work (including Wikipedia and some recipe sites), plus some trial and error, and finally settled on a vegetarian chili recipe I like. Kyle says it's the best food I make. I don't have a meat substitute in it (I've tried it and I didn't like it), but you could always try that if you wanted. I usually serve this chili with a dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheese. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll chop up some avocado and mix it with lime juice and serve that over top of the chili. I guess green onions would also work as a garnish. We make fresh french crusty bread for dipping.

Some comments from now me (as opposed to me writing in April of 2008). I was searching for this recipe today and I couldn't find it (can't find any recipes in our recipe box since I decided to "re-organize" it. Grr. Then I checked my second go-to spot: my blog! And I realized to my astonishment *gasp* that I haven't posted our chili recipe. As you've already read, Kyle and I developed this recipe together, but the other cool news about it is that we served it at our wedding! The caterer at the Toronto Zoo (Compass Canada) was really great about it and they made our chili for us. How cool is that?

Now as it turns out, Kyle and I have different methods of making this chili. And... his tends to end up better than mine. So I'll intersperse the Kyle Method below.

our recipe!, by LG Weddings

Nic & Kyle's Vegetarian Chili
Ease: 1 very easy
Time: 3 somewhat quick (quick to throw everything in a pot, but long time to let it simmer)
Ingredients: easy to get
Source: my mom, plus inspiration from various places

crockpot chili, by me

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 chili or jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• 2 large cans diced tomatoes
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 can black beans
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1-2 splashes red wine
• 1/2 tbsp oregano
• 1 squeezed lemon (or about 2-3 Tbsp of lemon juice)
  
• few grinds/shakes of black pepper

1. Saute garlic, onion and pepper in a bit of oil for a few minutes - until fragrant and onions are soft. But don't brown garlic.
2. In crockpot or slow-cooker, combine remaining ingredients and add onions and garlic.
3. Set crock pot to high until chili starts to boil, then turn heat down.
4. Boil for several hours. Throughout the day, scoop off the liquid that rises to the top and RESERVE. Do this before you stir it because it's easier. (Kyle method: don't scoop off liquid until the very end)
   
5. Before serving, mix some (> 1 Tbsp) cornstarch into the mug of reserved liquid and add gradually back into the chili until the chili is thick.
6. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, lime-y avocado cubes, etc. Also, fresh bread.
7. Yum.

pretty things

I've fallen into a new semi-obsession. For lack of a better term, I'm calling it "looking at pretty things". I'm not quite sure when it started happening, but it hit me full force last weekend, when I spent hours browsing craft, design, fashion, and photography blogs and adding them all to my Reader (and again, when finding images to use in this collage, I just spent another good 2.5 hours). I can trace the factors in this obsession (thrift-store finds & Anne-Marie, wedding-planning, Offbeat Bride, Etsy, crocheting, America's Next Top Model, quilting & Michelle Dobrin, watching hours of Colour Confidential, my new years resolution to "dress better", my yearning to be a real photographer, Buzz, Reader, & the blogsophere), but still the obsession itself kind of snuck up on me. And last weekend when blog-browsing, I was unreasonably excited about skimming through these blogs. I've fallen in love with cotton candy colours and old-fashioned photography, I suddenly care about fashion, and I *need* to redecorate our apartment.

I've created a place for me to store these pretty (and strange and/or interesting) things I see scattered over the web. I'm creating it for myself, not for anyone else, but if you want to check it out, you can.

french: the strangeness of learning a language

[untitled, by me.]

Learning a new language is such a strange experience. It's like, I'll be sitting there listening to something my teacher is saying, and even though she's clearly speaking French, I can understand her. My brain is ill-behaved and tends to try to translate everything word-for-word, which is apparently a bad way to go about learning a new language. But my brain doesn't listen to me when I tell it to stop translating. And despite the attempted word-for-word translation that my brain keeps trying to do, sometimes when I'm listening to French conversation, I just understand what is being said, before my translating brain can catch up. So I'll find myself nodding agreement even as my brain finally proudly announces that it's decyphered what's being said.

Strange.

Have you experienced anything like this, or am I the only one?

green: eco home

click on the photo for the original source.

I loved reading about this home, so I'm sharing it with you. Check out the cool supplies this guy uses to build homes with. I'm in awe.

From Interior Design

Bakker's commitment to recycled or recyclable materials gets a full workout inside, too. Since interior partitions aren't load-bearing, he could construct them with structurally flawed concrete blocks found abandoned in a field, where they'd acquired a patina of weathering and stains. Only the drywall fails to meet his exacting eco standards. "Magnesium-oxide board wasn't manufactured yet locally," he explains. Which is why the ceiling and floor sport expensive Australian plywood rather than a much cheaper but dubiously sourced Chinese import. Cabinetry, shelving, beds, and the front door are made of heavy-duty plywood once used to crate mining equipment. "It's so beautiful, with branding marks and stenciled numbers all over it," he says. He adds that many of the house's plywood surfaces were sealed with store-bought soap, "an old technique from Scandinavia."

Reading about this really makes me wonder what it takes to accomplish something like this. Money, obviously. But initiative, land, know-how, connections, influence, skills of persuasion, what else? Is it possible for a "normal" person to build a home out of reclaimed materials, or do you need to be a Big Name?

crafts: recent finished objects

If you haven't already joined me on Ravelry, you should do so. And for those of you who haven't, I wanted to share some of my recently finished objects. I'm very much into "practical crocheted items" right now, so if you noticed a theme... you're not imagining it. Click on a photo for more info about the project & some more photos.

External Harddrive Case for Kyle


iPod Cozy for Kyle - I'm really proud of this one!


Neon Nuclear Blanket for Jack Borrelli


Cutlery Case for Moi


I've almost finished my first baby quilt and I'm not happy with it. I'm not a good quilter. Quilting requires patience, and precision, and the proper equipment. Quilting sans those things = bad.

A bit of self-appreciation for a moment: my craftiness was featured on my favourite(only) wedding blog, Offbeat Bride.

I also discovered Craftster.org, which I've only spent about 1/2 hour exploring so I'm not sure if I like it more or less than Ravelry. Either way, I've found a bunch o' ways to waste time/procrastinate... and it's going to ruin me (or at least my PhD). I did find a SWEET idea for what to do with jean hems (I now have a reason to appreciate my short legs), and I also found a sweet article on what to do with old jeans, which makes me a happy camper.

Jean Hem Skirt = AWESOME (note: that's not me, and I didn't make that skirt. That's simply my inspiration. Click on the photo for more details)


And the last thing I will share with you for today is: a nifty little program that traces your mouse patterns (dots indicate periods of inactivity). I find it pretty exciting to turn it on during a particular activity and then try to figure out what was going on during that activity. This image was me blog-browsing for 1.5 hours + a shower.