magic onions!

So recently I learned through the Power of the Internet that if you put the white parts of green onions into a glass of water, they will magically regenerate and you will always have green onions. I figured it was worth a shot, so the next time I used green onions (for miso soup), I put them into a small glass of water. And lo and behold!

 I took that picture last week so the onions are even taller now and ready to be sliced up the next time I'm peckish. Never ending onions! Thank you, Internet! Now I have to ask...do those of you who have green thumbs have any other tips like this? Is there another vegetable that will magically regenerate if I put it in a glass of water? As crafty as I can be, I've never been able to get into gardening because I make plants die.

In other cooking news, I managed not to succumb to the siren song of sushi takeout, and made myself a quick soup. Can of white beans, onions and red bell peppers that were already chopped up and leftover from another dinner, a whole head of garlic (yeah, that's right), can of green chiles, veggie broth. Boil, simmer, eat. I like it when it's simple.

let's add some teal

The Great Moth Infestation has finally been handled. Any yarn that wasn't thrown out was put in the freezer, thawed, microwaved, rinse and repeat several times. Sweaters were taken to the dry cleaners. Blocks of cedar/lavender sachets/cedar and lavender sprays were purchased. The salvaged yarn (mostly acrylics and cottons) were re-wound with my swift and ball winder and put into ziploc bags. Take that, you little fuckers.

Quite frankly, my knitting corner was asking for it. I had yarn hanging out in baskets and boxes. Even with all of that gone it was still a mess. I had knitting/other crafty books spilling all over an end table.

Yes, they were filed away neatly at one point. Shut up! Know what else is a mess? Your mom!

Trench and I took a trip to our favorite little gem in Chicago, Nadeau, which sells furniture from India and Indonesia for WHOLESALE PRICES! We combed through the warehouse and finally settled on this beauty.

We moved the table off to the side and will most likely be getting rid of it. You can't tell under all those books, but it's an antique that I grew up with. I'm sad to part with it, but I'm hoping someone in my family will take it back. Otherwise I'll try finding it a good home elsewhere. Here's how the cabinet looks filled up with books and yarn.

It would be prettier if the yarn wasn't stored in ziploc bags, but unfortunately ziploc bags are now an indispensable item. I did try to organize by color (which wasn't hard because I mostly have purples and reds). I was shocked that almost all my books fit on the bottom shelf.

I don't think this would have held even half of what I used to have, but I think I was due for a purging anyway. I've decided not to add anymore to the stash until I get through some of what I already have. I haven't done much knitting in a long time, mostly because the old light fixtures we had were so dim, but we're replacing those too so things are better. I just cast on for a new project and I'm falling back in love with the craft.

Besides that, we also found this little table that we couldn't resist getting.

We almost always watch TV by hooking it up to the laptop so we can watch Hulu. The laptop would sit on a dining room chair. It was such a fixture that we decided the laptop needed its own table to sit on.

I'm liking the way this corner looks now, although in its natural state there are a lot more wires and such hanging about. Next on the agenda...a new lamp, ditching the old end table, and replacing our not-very-old purple chair that our cat Bowie decided to turn into a scratching post.

entre-vu

Trench and I moved into our condo almost two years ago. We had a fit of decorating/organization, threw a housewarming party, then promptly gave up. We're finally picking up where we left off and doing projects like putting our CD collection on itunes so we can sell the CDs (except for a few sentimental favorites), and organizing areas that have gotten cluttered. Today I fixed up our front entry way. We did a good job of decorating when we first moved in, but it's been starting to look a little shabby. I had a couple of nice pictures that were just sitting out without any frames. I decided to finally go buy some today. I went to the closest neighborhood with cute boutiques and couldn't find a damn thing until one furniture shop owner recommended that I check out Equinox. I did, and it became my new favorite store. There were shelves of cute frames! Big enough for my 5 x 7 pictures! Huzzah! It has all sorts of cute items for the home as well.

So here's a shot of my now much more put together front entry way:

The large picture on the wall is actually a stick-on decal from Blik. We've named her Matilda.

Blogging about blogging

I haven't updated this blog very much. Why is that? I love writing and when I do update I feel accomplished and proud of what I put out there. So why am I posting once every few months? And promising to post more, then not doing it?

The simple answer is that between work and school, I have a lot going on. Which is true...when school is in session there's a lot that I need to get done and anything creative is put on the back burner. On the other hand, I always have the time to check facebook. Why is it so hard to find the time to do something enriching instead of something passive?

It isn't that I don't have ideas. I love reading design blogs and craft blogs and food blogs and fashion blogs. I'm not opposed to incorporating a little of each of those into this. I've probably written more about food than anything else, so why not turn this into a food blog? Trench and I are getting back into the swing of decorating our place and have bought some new fixtures for it, so why not post some pictures of my new light fixture or new dishware? I love dressing up and I'm attempting to break old habits (like only wearing black and red). Why not post some pictures of outfits? I think that with each of those ideas, I get worried that no one would want to read about it. I worry that posting about trying to eat healthy would make people roll their eyes and think of me as an HTTH (Holier Than Thou Hippie), or if I posted pics of outfits that people would think I was bragging or vain. Suddenly the challenge becomes how to incorporate some self-deprecation into what I'm trying to say. There's also a fear of putting too much personal stuff out into the public.

It's all so silly, because the only people even reading this thing are my friends, who are the most supportive people in the universe. It's not like I have an audience. Then I get depressed because secretly I would love to have a blog that went viral and had a large amount of people reading it (or so I think anyway...the reality might not be as fun as I think). Years ago I started a blog about working in a spa. It was a really good idea, and the type of thing that probably could have gained an audience because there's nothing else like it out there. The flipside is that it meant writing about my job on my off hours, so it languished until I couldn't even remember what my password was to get in.

So I'm going to make the promises again about posting more. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be self-deprecating, it doesn't have to be that interesting even. It just has to be out there. I can even make a game where one week I pretend to be a design blog and another week I'll pretend to be a fashion blog. Who knows, eventually maybe something will stick. Till then, I'll just keep throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Review: Vapour Organics

Since I started working in a Major Cosmetics Boutique a few years ago, I have amassed a large quantity of makeup. In my teens and 20's, I used as much makeup as most girls that age. I even worked for a Major Cosmetics Store in my early 20's and had access to makeup and skincare that no girl that age should be able to afford. I fell off the makeup wagon while I was working at a spa, but now my makeup bag is bursting with primers and highlighters and liquid tints and powder blushes. However, my one consistent love has always been red lipstick. On days that I'm too lazy to wear anything else, red lipstick gives the illusion that I'm wearing a full face of makeup, even if I'm not.

One thing that the Major Cosmetics Boutique is not is organic. I'm the type of person who is concerned about what I put in my body, and as an esthetician I'm very concerned about what goes on my skin. So even though I love my products from the Major Cosmetics Boutique, I'd like to find a more natural alternative to it. Not to replace all of it, because I don't think you can get cancer from a cheek tint or an eyeliner. But seeing that I am a lipstick addict, and lipstick is the one cosmetic that gets ingested, I should probably be more concerned about what I'm putting on my lips.

And that is my quest. To find an organic lipstick that doesn't SUCK. My big problem with organic makeup in general and lipstick in particular is that it is mostly made for hippies. Girls who don't want a whole lot of color on their skin and think that pale pink lipstick is too much. Not to mention these companies usually brag about how moisturizing their lipstick is, which basically means that the color fades in two minutes. If I want my lips to be moisturized, I'll use a lip balm. Give me a lipstick that LASTS.

I discovered Vapour Organics by doing a search on Pinterest for organic lipstick (how on earth did I ever find anything before Pinterest? These days I almost prefer it over Google). They offer sample packs for $15 so I figured I'd try it out. You can get whatever you want, so I chose their Siren lipstick, their Atmosphere Luminous Foundation, an eye color, and a cheek/lip stain.

When I got their samples, I was a little disappointed at how small they were, just scrapings inside of small plastic sample packs. I just reminded myself that not every company has the cash to make travel sizes the way Major Cosmetics Boutique can. Also, it turns out the samples are so concentrated that I still have enough a week later.

Out of the four, I probably won't buy the eye color or the stain. Both were good, it's just that the eye color creased really bad. I have a couple different eye primers that would help it stay on, but what's the point of buying an organic eyeshadow if you're wearing it over a primer that has chemicals in it? As I said before, I'm not too concerned about using non-organic eye makeup anyway. I was "meh" about the cheek and lip stain too. It's good. In fact, if you're looking for an organic cheek and lip stain, I recommend it. I just like the cheek and lip stain my company sells better.

I really liked the foundation. It isn't cakey, it blends well, and it gives my skin a nice glow. I'll definitely buy a full sized version. And the lipstick? It's my organic lipstick dream come true! The red is perfect, it isn't too slick or too dry, and it last longer than any other organic lipstick I've ever tried. Hell, it lasts longer than the lipstick my company sells! I'm still using my sample, but I can't wait to buy the full size, and will probably get some other colors as well. I might even become a Vapour convert, because I know I'll try more. Other organic cosmetics company take note...it isn't enough that your products have natural ingredients if they aren't sexy.

For anyone interested in skincare/cosmetics that don't use toxic ingredients, here are all the companies listed in the Compact For Safe Cosmetics.

The Knitter's Nightmare

Years ago, in the few months of unemployment I had between esthetician school and my first esthetician job, I learned how to knit from Debbie Stoller's Stitch and Bitch. Like an army of other young women that summer, I fell in love with it. I bought plastic needles and soft acrylic yarn from Joanne's Fabrics and knit my little heart out. It especially came in handy when I started working, because I could knit a scarf in between clients. As the years went on, I bought nicer needles and pricier yarn made of natural fibers and worked on more complicated projects, like lace and cables and sweaters and socks. Knitting is a great hobby because it's portable enough to take anywhere, and it makes lazy nights in front of the TV productive. ("I just watched four hours of Buffy re-runs, but now I have a hat!")

The last year has seen a sharp decline in my knitting. We moved to our first condo, and even though one of the reason I like it here is because there is a lot of natural light, there is an unfortunate lack of unnatural light. Basically the light fixtures the developer put in are very fancy looking, but suck. They require expensive little spotlight bulbs that burn out in less than a week. So once the sun goes down, it gets too dim to do anything crafty. So I haven't really picked up the needles in a long time. I tried working on a sock over the summer, which was nice and reminded me of how much I miss knitting. Then I stopped when I realized I had messed up the number of stitches cast on, which is such a newbie mistake I was disgusted with myself. So I put it down and didn't pick it back up.

The other night, Trench asked me if he could borrow some yarn for the Halloween costume he was putting together. I went into my long-neglected stash to see if I could find something. As I delved in, I realized that something was wrong. All my little rolled up cakes of yarn looked rough, like something had been nibbling at them. For the last couple months we had seen tiny little brown flies around the apt. I didn't think much of them because it was summer, and bugs happen in the summer. I thought they were coming from the drains so I'd been pouring bleach down them. Could they be...moths? My suspicions were confirmed I saw a worm crawling on MY PURPLE MERINO.

I had Trench throw the entire basket out immediately. I rescued a sweater that had still been a work in progress...I only needed one more sleeve. Once the infected basket was gone, Trench and I went through the other boxes. (What, you thought I only had one basket of yarn?) All the natural fibers were toast. Acrylics and cottons still looked okay. I went into the closets to see if they had gotten any of my finished knits, and yes they had. I lost hats and scarves. Luckily the scarf/shawl that had taken me two years to finish was fine because I'd been wearing it. Same with Trench's gray scarf with the intricate DNA cable pattern I had made him years ago. We tend to throw our outerwear on the bed in the guest room rather than hang them up in the closet like we should. Laziness for the win! Sweaters that I've made didn't have worms, but did have webbing (re: cocoons) on them. I stuffed them into the freezer. From what I've read (and you know I was doing research as this was happening), freezing temperatures kills larvae. Heat kills eggs. My sweaters, half-finished sweater, and whatever yarn remains of my stash (because those little fuckers don't eat acrylic but could be hiding in it) have been in the freezer for a few days now.

Dry cleaning kills moths, larvae and eggs so I'm taking my finished sweaters, as well as a couple of coats from the closet that have traces on them, to the cleaners today. My almost-finished sweater is sadly going to be a casualty. I threw out the rest of the yarn that went with it, so there's not much point in keeping it, and it had been in the most infested basket. Tonight the rest of my yarn is going to get baked in the oven. Seriously. 110 degrees for 30 minutes (under careful watch, of course). I don't like the idea of insecticides, so I'm going to douse my closets and drawers with eucalyptus and lavender. (Thank the gods they didn't hit my wardrobe! Except for my knits I mostly wear cotton and acrylics.)

If you knit or crochet and have a stash of yarn hanging about, be aware of what's flying around your home. Clothes moths do not look like the normal moths you see flitting around light bulbs in the summer. They are tiny, about the size of a fruit fly, and look like a fleck of wood when standing still. From now on, my stash will be kept in ziploc bags. Once we get a new light fixture for the living room, I'm hoping to return to my knitterly ways, but now I'm slightly terrified of natural fibers. I might just knit with cotton blends for awhile.

Snowpocalypse! (old buried post)

Things To Do When You're Snowed In

* If you've had enough warning about the snow...like hearing about it three days in advance, down to a starting point such as 3pm on Tuesday afternoon, you'll probably want to hit the grocery store for essentials. Don't buy the entire store out in a panic, just get what you need...toilet paper, ingredients for food and some snacks, batteries for the flash light just in case, and most important of all, booze.

* Don't worry too much about your husband driving home that night. He will power that beat up little Honda Civic through the worst blizzard since 1967, screaming, "THIS IS AWESOME!" through the white out. That is the man you have married.

* However, when parking in the indoor parking garage nearby (good idea!), open the door to get your ticket because if you roll down the power window? It might not roll back up, and then your car will get filled with snow during the night.

* Nature can be awesome. THUNDERSNOW!

* If you work from home, my apologies. No snow day for you.

*If you're a student, you don't get an extra week to do your homework. Get it done, and email it in. Thanks technology!

* When you're snowed in, you will want to bake. Hopefully you bought enough ingredients to indulge this. Blueberry cinnamon muffins, mmm!

* Sure, there's two feet of snow on the ground, but that's not an excuse not to go out in it! Go explore. You'll find the happiest dogs and kids ever. Poor adults will all be shoveling out their cars. Sweeping snow from the interior is no big deal at all compared to that!

* Take pictures. Especially if you live by the lake.

Wow! I remember trying to publish this blog when the blizzard happened, but I thought blogger ate it. Turns out it was just hiding as a draft. No reason not to post it now, although I doubt anyone wants to think about snow at this point.