Modern Mountains

Lately I've been going nuts over redecorating my apartment (a hard task to do without being able to paint the walls, remove hardware, or replace light fixtures!) Last week I found a great mid-century marble coffee table with beechwood legs and matching side table for only $250. I'll post photos soon. But all of this leads me to my next problem, art. Bare white walls feel like a doctor's waiting room and everyone says putting up tons of personal photos is a designing no-no.
Not that I listened to that... there is still a bookcase here scattered with blurry travel photos taken by strangers asked to hold the camera and were in a hurry themselves.

Back to art. I hope to collage the wall behind my sofa with an eclectic mix of art and photos. While brainstorming on what kind of art I wanted to buy, I decided to make some of it myself since I had such a specific idea of what I wanted. What resulted is a new series of oil paintings called 'Modern Mountains.' Right now I'm working on one giant painting, but I also made a couple of smaller 6x8" panels as a study of color for the series that I've listed on Etsy here.

Jane is Dead

The only woman's interest mag I've found worth reading, Jane Magazine, abruptly had the plug pulled. Conde Nast made the annoucement here just today that August would be their last issue to ever see the shelves of my grocery checkout aisle. I'm up in arms because I just ordered my two-year subscription renewal and am still waiting on the first issue to arrive.

Maybe we could send the honchos at Conde Nast tons of peanuts 'Jericho Fan' style and save it. No?

Hello Kitty meets Finding Nemo

How come a store that calls itself the '$.98 Only' has many items that cost upwards of $40? I'm a cheerleader for the $.99 store because they never break that rule, AND I can get candy 3 for a dollar, talk about undercutting the competition!

So while walking around a $.98 store last week, I was even more astonished to find that they were selling knockoff Hello Kitty and Finding Nemo bath items. Ironically enough the Hello Kitty soap dispenser and soap dish said 'Made In China' on the underside, Sanrio are you listening? Your beloved copyrighted icon is being exploited for reasonable price. Japan is losing money because these are obviously "well crafted" items at a price we Americans can't turn down. Needless to say, no purchases were made that day.

And for anyone who remembers the movie, here is Finding Nemo, a few years too late. Notice that the soap dish has the dual purpose of also being a soap dispenser! For when you just can't decide. Both items also sport a tragically placed pump right on Nemo's face.

Lotions, and cleansers, and shampoo, oh my!

While living in Italy a few years back, I fell in love with the bath and organic body line Lush. They had shops everywhere in Europe at the time and would give me handfuls of free samples resulting in my addiction. After my return to the states, stores slowly started opening up here and now I get to indulge their products whenever I want! The one item I can't live without since discovering Lush year ago is this Sweet Japanese Girl cleanser. I have dry and sensitive skin but feel like nothing really cleans thoroughly AND moisturizes simultaneously. This stuff definitely isn't for oily skin, but if you have a regular to dry skin type it will leave your face feeling dewy and well-nourished and is perfect to use right before bed. Bonus: looks cute in your soap dish.

My second favorite item is their Solid Shampoos because you can fly with them and they don't count towards your carry-on liquids allowance! Plus they won't explode in your suitcase. They have a whole variety of the solids as well but my personal favorite is the Hybrid Shampoo Solid which also conditions (and since I try to cram as much as possible into one bag to prevent visiting baggage claim this frees up extra room.)

Best Soup Recipe - Cheddar-Ale

Finding that I had three completely different recipes for Cheddar-Ale soup and none of them were vegetarian I experimented with the best elements of them all and made a vegetarian version that has to be the best soup I've ever had. Dipping vegetables and bread into it like fondue was also a fun way to use the leftovers. Here is my recipe:

1/2 stick of margarine or butter
1/2 of 1 large yellow or white onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
3 carrots diced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups milk (I used 1%)
1 3/4 vegetable stock
12 fl. oz. of ale (approx. 1 bottle)
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 1/4 sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Put large pan over medium-low heat on stove. Melt butter and then add onion, celery, and carrots. Let cook (and stir occasionally) until softened, about 10 minutes. Then stir in flour and let cook for approx. 3 minutes. Increase heat to med-high and stir in milk and vegetable stock. Simmer until thickened (took me around 5 minutes) and stir throughout. Put this mixture into blender and puree until smooth.

Put puree into stockpot and set over medium heat. Add ale and mustard then let simmer for 5 minutes. Stir grated cheese into mixture 1/2 cup at a time slowly. Serves 4-6
Enjoy!!

LOST Season 3 Finale

Still reeling from the season finale 'Through the Looking Glass' LOST aired last week I decided some wardrobe updates were called for. To my luck, a stack of canvas grocery bags have been sitting in my home looking drab, and a bottle of unused black paint was hiding in a corner cabinet. So after printing out the Dharma Initiative logo, I created a makeshift (and rather flimsy) stencil and got to work. The Others would probably be down with my bag (or not.) At least I'm keeping busy this weekend.

Needing more of a fix I searched Flickr to see what other people created in homage to LOST. What I found was the most amazing cake featuring the polar bear, black rock, Dharma shark, and more all on the island surrounded by water. Also these great fish biscuit cookies with instructions on how to make your own fish biscuits here: LOST Fish Biscuit Cookies Info

Kiel Mead Necklaces

Brooklyn based designer Kiel Mead creates jewelry inspired by everyday objects. I came across this necklace fashioned after a matchstick and couldn't believe it was only $40.00 over at Areaware! All of his items are handmade and some of his other designs for sale include a gold retainer necklace (my favorite but slightly more expensive), forget me knot rings, and car key rings.

Growing Business

Creating a clever and unique business card is a common goal we all share. So imagine my glee when I found these green cards from Inhabitat today. They look like a standard card, but add water and they start growing alfalfa or cress from the side opening. I would love to have one of these guys growing on my computer desk. The company also sells a Landscaped business card that grows in a mini-garden pattern across the face of the card.

New headboard, well first headboard

My bedroom looks pathetic at best. In the past year I've been purchasing furniture to fill out the living room and dining area (since it is a small apartment and barely fits a two person table) and avoided spending any time in the bedroom. So now I need a headboard, which has been difficult to find because not only do I have a full size bed, but I don't want anything wood or metal (the metal is flexible since I've found some nice modern headboards made of steel.)

West Elm has a pretty good selection of headboards that are not to steep in price. I'm really liking this handwoven rope headboard (only $329). Someone was selling the exact same headboard on Craigslist months ago for $100 and I was reluctant to buy it since I was building up the living room at the time. Talk about 'buyers remorse' reversed! Every day I check Craiglist to see if someone just happens to be selling the bed but its been a futile effort so far.

Etsy Everywhere

If you haven't checked out the website Etsy yet, you don't know what your missing. But you should! It's a place that sells all things handmade, and the makers of the goods are the ones selling directly to you. Each artist sets their own prices, which are usually far below retail, and you get a deal on photography, art, jewelry, clothes, handbags, dishware..... (the list goes on and on.)

My Etsy store, TomorrowGirl is full of original art and one-of-a-kind penny necklaces. The necklace idea started after a visit the Dixieland Stampede (Dolly Parton'sBranson, Missori) where I got my first souvenir penny. The penny sat around for a year until I decided to give it a purpose and refashioned it into a necklace. After being asked where I got it by too many people to count I decided to start making more. In the next few weeks you'll see penny bracelets starting to appear in my shop as well!

Cheap framing

I've been meaning to get around and frame this giant french Smashing Pumpkins subway poster that I got on ebay a year ago. But it was so big. And I didn't my apartment to look like my room in college.

Then I saw this picture when flipping through a CB2 catalog:


I headed over to Michael's to get some LP frames but I found some scrapbooking frames on super sale (they were only slightly smaller than the LP frames).... and voila!