I’m back…I hope

So, four months. Long time no blog. We’ll see if I can get back into this…though right now I don’t feel like much of a domestic anything. The house is a wreck. It was a long, bad winter in Chicago.

So since I can’t share my own stuff, I’ll share an awesome blog. This is Joelen Tan, hostess with the mostest of my cooking club. Seriously, Joelen is amazing, kind, and knowledgeable. She’s also the coordinator for What’s Cookin’ Chicago through meetup.com. If you happen to live in Chicago, I cannot recommend this group highly enough. This past weekend we had a tea tasting slash potluck for which I made these chocolate covered strawberries (which Joelen kindly photographed). We always have fun, I’ve met some awesome people, and I pretty much want to be Joelen when I grow up.

And because I’m a little bit of a narcissist and really like this t-shirt, this is me learning to decorate cakes at another event.

 

Trash to Treasure

aka in which I demonstrate that I AM actually an environmental scientist

Sometimes I feel guilty that so much of this blog is about things you can buy.  Generally I do feel that we are far too consumerist as a society.  This self-perpetuating cycle of work hard buy stuff so you can work harder to maintain your stuff depletes our resources: both environmental and emotional.  I think that’s part of the reason I love Etsy so much.  The crafters and artists on there are small businesses making small batches of goods to support themselves.  Nothing (okay, most things, but that’s another rant) you buy on Etsy is supporting sweat shop labor or helping fund corrupt governments.  So today I present you with items that not only are made by Etsy artisans, but are also made with recycled (or upcycled, as the kids are calling it) materials.

Recycledtime makes clocks out of found objects.  I love this clock made out of an old speaker. It’s got a cool mod look and doesn’t appear like you just pulled something out of the trash to put on your wall.

cakehouse offers these downright adorable hand printed napkins made from secondhand pillowcases (and was actually the inspiration for today’s post)

I love the shop uglykitty…I always have.  The kitty is question is just so…cute ugly?  She also makes these nifty address files using recycled paper.  And I have to say, I love the idea of having an old school address file, what with cellphones taking over the world…

birdversusbird offers these affordable wallets made from recycled banners (which is awesome, plastic takes thousands of years to degrade)

I love board games and Clue is one of my faves.  So while I’m a little sad to see a dead Clue game at 2cheekymonkeys, I think this makes a great, eco friendly notebook.

Bringing a lunch every day is an economical option, but it can create a lot of waste.  Think of it – several ziplock bags into the trash every single day.  So this lunch kit from glueandglitter is not only upcycled (the cloth bits are made of recycled pillowcases) but it will help cut down on waste generation.  Plus it comes with 5 cloth napkins so you can just toss ‘em all in the wash at the end of the week (genius, pure genius…)

 

Shoes, of course

Okay, so what have I been doing in my time away?  Well, studying, yes.  And working…sure.  But also, of course – shoe shopping!!!  Much to my dismay, Zappos has changed their pricematch policy to only PM one pair of shoes each calendar month. Sad, but there are still great deals to be had… And because I love you (and because I already ordered the ones I want) I’m sharing the deals with all of you.

Bandolino Briet – derided as “too JLo” by one of my friends, but still.  I may have to get these when my one month has elapsed at Zappos.  Zappos price, 152.95 Amazon price,  44.99 (which is an awesome price, even if you skip pricematching).  Pricematched price 34.19.

Rockport Pomfert (I ordered these in brown).  163.95 at Zappos, 48 at Amazon – pricematched price 36.41.

Glaze by Me Too.  I ordered these too, since they’re available on Endless as well as Zappos.  Endless also price matches and as of right now they haven’t limited the number of times you can do it.  92.95 at Zappos,  26.99 at Amazon and 49.47 at Endless.  So after pricematch these are 24.74 if you  use Endless or 20.39 if you use Zappos.

The same friend declared the Treasure Hunt by Poetic License to be “horrible” but I dunno…I think they may be cute.  99.95 at Zappos,  27.88 at Amazon, for a pricematch of 20.67.

 

More adorable animals with wheels

I’ve posted about matsukake from etsy before.  She makes these adorable little squirrel on wheels pull toys.  Well my obsession with cute little animals on wheels continues with these derby critters from Wisteria.  Available in both original derby critters and forest derby critters, my fave of the two, (each $36 for 6 pieces) these would make great gifts for kids of all ages.

 

I’m back

So everyone, I’ve returned from my long hiatus.  Grad school is over and I could not be more relieved!

I have to share this recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff.  The recipe seems a little weird with adding no liquid to the chicken in the recipe’s first step, but go with it.  The only alteration I made to this recipe was to splash in about a quarter of a cup of red wine (which I think cuts the heaviness of the cream cheese somewhat).  Served over egg noodles this is a delicious, hearty winter dish.

 

Carrot Chile and Cilantro Soup

Winter has finally arrived in Chicago, after a relatively mild fall.  I hate most things about winter (the snow, the wetness, the cold, shoveling out my car, late night freezing walks with the dogs who inevitably decide to do some extra exploring on the coldest of nights, the dogs nearly dragging me to my death down icy stairs…I could go on and on) but I do love winter food (and winter clothes, but that’s another entry).  I especially love soups, stews and chilis.  Last night I made a fantastic carrot chile and cilantro soup I found on allrecipes.com.  I had really low hopes for this recipe because, come one, how great can carrot soup be?  But it looked relatively  healthy and I’m always looking for ways to fool myself into eating vegetables.  I made the recipe as is except I used extra cilantro.  As an experiment, in one bowl I splashed in some half and half to make a cream soup and I tried another one plain.  Both were really, really good!  Seriously, this is going in my favorite recipe rotation.  My only caveat would be that I didn’t find this particularly filling, so you’re probably going to want to serve this with some bread or as a first course.  One more caveat, for whatever reason mine didn’t look as appetizingly orange as the one in the picture – it was decidedly much more brown.

 

Still more Etsy finds

The weather in Chicago was completely miserable this weekend – snow, freezing rain, and windy.  So I stayed in for the most part and did little but browse the net.  Bad for my studies, good for you – here’s some new stuff from Etsy!

I really like this floorcloth from aok1979 (which, incidentally was a fantastic year – yeah, yeah, it’s the year I was born).  It’s coated with polyurethane, so it should be able to withstand your own freezing, wet weather.

These handblown glass vases from SolosGlass are sort of mesmerizing.  They also have very pretty Christmas ornaments – presents, anyone?

I have no idea why I love these pull toys from matsutakeso much, but I do.  They’re just so freakin’ cute.  As a bonus, the paint in these toys is non toxic, so no lead hazards for your little ones.  However, I’m 28 and I’m thisclose to ordering one of these…. UPDATE:  Somebody bought this cutie!  Fess up, was it one of you guys?

Ever since I’ve started reading the Martha Stewart magazines I’ve become strangely obsessed with owning a cake stand.  She uses them for everything!  This one from whitneysmith is extra pretty.

My friend has a piece very similar to this one by sarahogren.  It’s cute and actually works much better in her shabby-chic space than you might imagine.  Plus, for $20 these come complete with cool vintage frames!

 

The cutest dog bed ever

…that I can’t use. I just had to share this with you all, I found this on HGTV’s Decorating Cents website (for those not in the know, Decorating Cents is a show where a room in a home is renovated on a tight budget). The problem of dog beds is a tough one for home decorating enthusiasts because most of them are, frankly, ugly. I love, love, love this idea of turning an old nightstand, or other piece of attractive furniture, into a lovely bed for Fido. Unfortunately for me, my dogs are huge and I’d need like, a credenza for them. Fortunately they prefer my couch to any bed, anyway.

 

Deck the condo

with…well, nothing at this point. I have to confess I haven’t gotten my tree up yet. Since this weekend marks the beginning of December, I don’t figure I’m running all that late, though I had planned to put up the decorations during my (all too brief) Thanksgiving holiday.

I’ve been getting inspired by a number of holiday decorations from all over the place, though.

So I’ve documented my struggles with floral design pretty extensively. However, I’m seriously tempted to try to make this arrangement from Better Homes and Gardens. It shouldn’t be that hard, right? And it’s so cute and festive! I would definitely recommend gluing the canes to some sort of can or vase, though.

Though this, also from BH&G would be a whole lot easier (there’s a smaller vase inside that big vase to hold the water)…

Again from the BH&G website.  This would totally help me justify buying the cake plate I want for no good reason…I believe I’ve seen some really large ornaments around if you don’t have a gazing ball (which I don’t) – just hide the hanger in the greenery!

This is a picture from my Wisteria catalog, so I apologize for the quality.  For some reason I can’t find this image or these snowflakes on their site.  Anyway, I love glitter and sparkle so I really like these snowflake ornaments hung from beaded garland.  This stuff tends to be expensive, though, so this might be a post-holiday clearance purchase for me.

This is from Blueprint magazine.  I’m really tempted to get some neat see through ornaments and string them for pretty ribbon to hang in the window.

 

That girl is thrifty

I love shopping.  I love deals (in other words, I’m cheap).  Therefore, I adore thrift shopping.  Where else can you leave with a bag full of stuff for under $10?  And what wondrous stuff it is.  From the kitchy to the beautiful to the downright bizarre, you local thrift store has it all.   

Aside from satisfying my stinginess, I think the other part of thrift shopping I really enjoy is that it’s like a treasure hunt – you never have any idea what you’re going to find on any given day.  And, at thrift store prices, so what if you don’t “need” an item, per se?  So I’ve bought random items I never would have picked out in a traditional store, and wouldn’t you know it, it looks great in the house.  And, if it doesn’t?  It gets re-donated.  My home is filled with lots of thrifted items, with more being added on a weekly basis. 

So where do I thrift?  My favorite thrift store is the Brown Elephant Resale Shop.  All proceeds from the Brown Elephant benefit the Howard Brown Health Center, which provides health and wellness services to the lesbian, gay and bisexual community.  That’s also the organization that gets all of my donations (when you buy as much as I do, sometimes you gotta purge). 

So what have I found lately?  So glad you asked.

These handpainted salt and pepper shakers are hands down my favorite recent find.  It’s hard to tell from this picture, but they’re tiny, tiny, tiny (about 2 inches tall).  These came from more of boutique resale shop (higher end stuff, proceeds still go to charity) but cost me only $4.  The owner of the store had several of these and told me they’d been donated in a set.  She believed they were for dinner parties and that each guest would get their own individual salt and pepper shaker.  These cuties currently live on a shelf in my kitchen.

This is an example of one of those quirky items I debated buying until I realized it was only $1.  When I got it home, I loved it.  It’s a painted tile with the mysterious message on the back, “To Louie, Bayeaux.”  Who is Louie?  What’s Bayeaux?  The mind boggles.  Besides, I think every house needs a viking ship.

And while we’re on the topic of weird tiles…This is another item I almost left the store without, but, again for $1 I took it home.  It’s an owl with a blue hat.  Why?  I have no idea.

 

Sometimes the things you find at a thrift shop require a little imagination to look past their flaws.  I found these cute, but very waxy and messy candleholders for 50 cents each.

A tip – to remove wax from candlesticks, especially very detailed ones like these, blow a hairdryer on them (set them on a rag first).  The wax will melt and run right off.  These now sit on my dresser.