The weather, at least where I am, has finally broke! HALLELUJIAH. My apartment windows are open & I’m going to spend time outside the next few days to make up for all the hiding from the uber gross summer we’ve been having. Try to spend one day this weekend just having as much fun as you possibly can – it’s totally worth it!

» Tony Hawk is one of four people in the world who can do a 900. & he can still do it at age 42.

» Look at this crazy owl!

» Seven food trends on their way out. I do wish sliders were on that list. Aren’t you just tired of hearing about them? Although, for those of you who can still eat bread, Pioneer Woman’s mini meatball sandwiches are awfully cute…

» Motivational Posters. For the gaming & fantasy & general nerdiness inclined. I rather like this one.

» Speaking of the nerd ‘verse, this is what happens when you protest ComicCon. I just adore the guy with the “God Hates the Jedi” sign.

» Ree’s story about Daisy the cow has got to be one of the sweetest things ever.

» Chocolate brownies, anyone?

» How is it that I’ve never heard of Threadcakes? Being a fan of Cake Challenge on Food Network, you’d think I’d have know about it. Ah well – better late than never!

» Here’s a craft for your next super girly party – pink parasols!

This past Saturday, L.A. held it’s second Renegade Craft Fair.  I’m lucky enough to have been to three of these shows now… Both years in L.A. and earlier this year to Austin’s first Renegade Craft Fair.  Every time I’ve been energized by the creativity flowing through the air.  The fairs feature local crafting guilds, national and local sellers and live music.  From my experience seeing the fair in two different cities, even though a few sellers were in both locations, the event has a very distinctive vibe that it draws from its own local talent.

Sadly, not everyone has access to a nearby Renegade and even if you do, the vendors are always diverse, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite artists from this week’s visit so you can have your own Renegade party on your computer.

Bunny Butt Apothecary: With a name like Bunny Butt, you’ve got to love it.  They have a wonderful selection of tasty smelling soaps and lotions.  I bought a bar of their Mango Lassi, which smells just like… well, mango lassi.  It makes me want Indian food in my shower.  I also adored their Currant Obsession whipped cream body lotion and Swing Low Sweet Lemongrass soap bar.

fomato: There is always an abundance of paper crafters at alternative craft fairs.  I really like most of the playful cards they create, but I’m rarely compelled to buy anything.  Fomato cards is the first booth that broke me of the habit.  Their cards are whimsical and a little strange.  It’s not often you can send a birthday card that teaches its recipient to beware “herbal tea“.

Chez Sucre Chez: I’ll admit it… I don’t actually remember seeing these guys in person at the show, but as I was browsing through the artists on the Renegade website, I stumbled across these awesome embroidery designs.  I’m a sucker for anything with song lyrics on it and these simple pieces have lyrics from The Smiths and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.  Oh, she has reusable sandwich wraps and cross stitch kits as well, but I’m still drooling over the former.

In Timid Nation: Unfortunately she doesn’t have anything in her shop right now, but you can see a lot of her work on her blog.  Laura was displaying cuddly plush gnomes with removable hats and beards like these at the show.  Once you see them, it’s hard not to fall in love with the little guys.

Jenny and Jimbob: I bough a pair of cleaver earrings (dubbed Serious Cleavage) from Jenny and Jimbob at Renegade in Austin and wear them on a fairly regular basis.  They always elicit a reaction, especially when worn on first dates.  Even at Renegade L.A. a few people complimented my choice of ear wear.  Each set of earrings or necklace comes in a little homemade matchbox with a cute clever name and adorable graphics.

Late to the Revolution: So you’re listening to some jams on your iPod (or if you’re super retro cool, your Walkman) and you start thinking… there’s got to be something out there to make me even more awesome than my oversize headphones already make me.  If this happens to you on a regular basis, or ever, you should check out Late to the Revolution.  She makes crocheted cozies for headphones and even adorable crocheted hats with the headphones built in!  Is your mine blown yet?  Because mine was.

Make Shop Live: I saved my favorite artist for last.  Make Shop Live creates absolutely awesome stuff from recycled materials.  One of my favorite creations was a little address book made using those postcards tucked into magazines.  They already have the fields for name, address, phone, etc.   The covers are crafted from Metro Cards and expired gift certificates.  How creative is that?!  Their website doesn’t do their work justice so check out the events page and try to catch them in person if you’re on the West Coast.

Are you a craft fair junkie like me?  If you know of any crafters that get you excited, let me know in the comments.

I mentioned this waaaay back when, but I’ve recently gotten it off the ground. Simply Primal is where I’ll be yammering on about the virtues of a grainless lifestyle (or, you know, just posting lots of pictures of delicious food, & ways to make that food). Come check it out!

It’s been a weird week for me, how about you? I had an absolutely amazing weekend, but then this week was just sort of… blah. Even though the weather was nice for a few days, even though I had a great time at Teen/Children’s book discussion, even though I got loads done – I just cannot get into the flow of things! Every morning I just wanted to sleep later & I watched the clock all day. That’s no way to live!

Somehow, despite the fact that I spent a good portion of my work week in front of a computer, I have no links for you. None! How crazy is that? Perhaps I missed the memo & didn’t take an Internet vacation, or perhaps I never really got around to web-surfing (& therefore link saving), but I’ve got nothing. Instead, have a post filled with gorgeous summer photos. Because hey, they are pretty fantastic, & I haven’t done a summer photo post yet. Enjoy!

What are YOUR favorite things about summer?

“It is helpful to know the proper way to behave so one can decide whether or not to be proper.” Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Tomatoes, ‘maters, reddish orbs of perfect delight. Whatever you call them, we can all agree on one thing: when they’re in season, every dish should revolve around them. Sadly, my very own Sam can’t eat them! He loves them, but like many other people, his body doesn’t like anything from the nightshade family – so that means no eggplant, no peppers of any kind, & definitely no tomatoes. Honestly, it’s bad enough to have discovered wheat & milk sensitivities; if I couldn’t eat my beloved tomatoes or peppers, I think I’d give up & eat nothing but watermelon the rest of my days.

Thankfully, I can eat them, & I enjoy every moment of mid to late summer here in Ohio, when tomatoes are at their prime & everyone has far too many. I mentioned on Friday that I had my first local tomatoes of the year, & it was like heaven on a plate. My favorite way to eat them is still with basil & mozzarella cheese, lactose intolerance be damned, but they’re also wonderful just sprinkled with a bit of salt & drizzled with balsamic vinegrette. YUM.

My tomato recipes:
» Chips & Salsa
» Easy Tomato Sauce
» Tomato & Basil Salad

Ones to try:
» Mark’s Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with Hardboiled Eggs & Avocado
» Pioneer Woman’s Roasted Ricotta Roma Tomatoes
» Raw Tomato Sauce from Elana’s Pantry
» Southern Living’s Watermelon-Tomato Sorbet
» Roy Harland’s Tomato Soup with a Twist
» Cooking Light’s Cheese & Olive Stuffed Tomatoes
» Whole Living’s Best Tomato Recipes

Here’s something quick for you to try that I whipped up this weekend…

Avocado, Tomato, & Bacon Salad
» 1 large tomato, sliced
» 1/2 avocado, chunked
» 3 slices bacon, cooked until perfect crispy
» bit of cilantro, to taste
» 1 slice red onion, chopped
» bit of olive oil
» dash of salt & pepper

Mix altogether, enjoy!

Now you have no reasons to pass on the staff lounge piles of tomatoes your co-workers are bringing in. Get cooking!

Hello, I’m BACK! I’ve kicked off, premiered, moved, & MARRIED. My new last name is Amazing, we’re all settled into our fantastic new apartment (I’ll take pictures soon!), the Eclipse party at the library was fun & actually quite easy, & Teen SRP 2010 is in full swing. It’s been quite a ride, but it was all worth it. Now my life is finally settling down, which is fabulous, because I miss blogging!

Next week I should be back to regular posting (3-4x a week), but I thought I’d ease into it by doing another edition of Fantastic Friday. If you’re new to these parts, Fantastic Friday is a mix of the typical “link love” you see on a lot of blogs and just talking about the fantastic parts of the week. April & I try to see the love & wonder in the world around us, & we want to share that with you!

» TOMATOES ARE IN FULL SWING. I had my first real local tomatoes yesterday, & oh wow. I love tomatoes year ’round, but thank goodness you forget the taste of a real tomato in mid-December, because it just cannot compare with the flavor of a real tomato that was picked perfectly ripe off the vine. My little tomato plants are nowhere near ready, but lots of local tomatoes are beginning to show up on produce stands in the area. Can I get an om nom nom?

» This is crazy old in Internets years (2004!), but I chuckled anyways: the Hipster PDA.

» From Cute Overload: How’d you like to look out your backyard to this?

» You’ve probably already seen this, but I’m posting it anyways: most perfect little white house ever? I think so. My favorite part is that she did it all for $3000. I want one to just live in forever!

» Simplicity by Sunny is my favorite simplicity blog. She’s just so very authentic & open about everything, & I completely admire her love of the outdoors. I cannot wait to live someplace I truly love! Most recently, she posted about her vacation bad luck, but prior to that, she posted an excerpt from the book she was reading. Inspiring, no?

» I’m proud to say that during the move, Sam & I got rid of tons. Because we didn’t register for the wedding, we didn’t replace anything. & you know what? I don’t think we miss anything! I think we were most surprised at just how much we had that was lying about in closets, drawers, & etc. I mean, we still have a lot of books & dvds, but otherwise, I think we’ve pared down to the basics in most everything. We have this extra little room that we’re still unsure of what to do with – although we’ll probably just line it with more books. What can I say? English teacher/writer & librarian – some people love their gadgets, but we love our books.

» Christina Hendricks, currently GQ’s sexiest woman & star of Mad Men (a show I don’t watch), was on FIREFLY! Yes, the geek cred is coming out full force, but you have no idea how excited I was when I realized that she’s YoSaffBridge from Our Mrs. Reynolds. Yay for Joss Whedon alums! Ahem. Anyways, she wrote this fabulous letter to men in Esquire, (I’m not really sure why watermelon is so sexy, but whatever!), but I have to say that I agree with just about everything she said!

» I adore the whole Shabby Chic aesthetic, & I love Rachel Ashwell. Look at her garden! I can only imagine how great it must smell with all that lavender. I could just smell it for hours…

» I totally have to agree with them on this. What is the deal with this weather? Will it never break, or does this promise to be one of the grossest NEO summers ever?

I know I post this ALL THE TIME, but I think mid-summer heat & all my summer crazy being over & done with demands a Celebration of Silly™.

Noodlehead has this tutorial for turning cargo pants into a messenger bag.  I just so happen to have a pair of cargo pants with an inconvenient rip that would look odd even if I mended them.  I absolutely love the look of the patterned bias tape she uses on the front flap.  The pattern adds a pop that the solid stuff just can’t do.  So last night I pulled out some fabric I’d bought in the remnant section of Jo-Ann’s and tried out the bias tape tutorial.

Now, this isn’t just a review of the tutorial, because that worked just wonderful.  I want to share a tip I discovered on my first try making bias tape ever.  It started with a little gadget envy.  In the tutorial Jaime, zips through drawing perfectly spaced 1 7/8 in. lines on her parallelogram with a bias tape rule.  I started spacing dots on my fabric with a regular old ruler and after the first few dots I realized:

a) This was really tedious.

and

b) I cannot consistently find 7/8 of an inch on a ruler.

The combination of these two dilemmas almost convinced me that I needed to wait until morning and buy a spiffy bias tape ruler.  Luckily, inspiration struck.  I’ve made a habit of keeping cardboard shapes in different sizes around so I don’t have to measure again if I make a project several times (because of problem b).   I figured I could just use this same technique to make my own bias tape ruler.  I measured a strip of cardboard 1 7/8 in wide and then cut on a diagonal 1 7/8 in from each end.

I even diagrammed it for you.

You can make different rulers for different bias tape widths.  That wonderful bias tape tutorial tells us the formula, so for single fold 1/2″  or double fold 1/4″ bias tape, you’d want your ruler to be 7/8″.  See…

Single fold bias tape (1/2″): 1/2″ x 2 – 1/8″ = 7/8″

Double fold bias tape (1/4″): 1/4″ x 4 – 1/8″ = 7/8″

I still haven’t ironed mine closed (cue longing for that beautiful bias tape folder), but if you’d like to keep that on the cheap as well, check out this tutorial.

Even though this was a four-day week it feels as though it’s dragged on forever. So I’m super-excited about the weekend.  For me, Summer usually means visits from friends and vacationing with family, both of which will be happening soon.  This weekend is kind of the calm before the storm (but a good storm).  I’m hoping to hit the farmer’s market, maybe a craft fair, watch the World Cup finals and relax as much as possible.

»Let’s start off with a couple items of health news.  You’ve probably run across the news about Orthorexia.  It’s identified as a new eating disorder in which the afflicted avoids food perceived to be unhealthy, including things like artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup and GMOs.  I’m not arguing that some people may become concerned about the foods they eat to a fault, but more likely that’s a function of a psychological imbalance that just happens to assert itself through diet.  What I find more concerning is that a focus on  whole foods is seen as a disorder while mindlessly consuming processed fast food and pesticide-laden produce is just part of the Average American Diet.  I think Food Renegade’s post on the matter, with the laundry list of Orthorexia’s evils, does a great job of picking apart the disorder.

»On the other side of our topsy-turvy food culture, Pepsi-Co was supposed to be hosting a blog called “Food Frontiers” on the Science Blogs community.  Yes, that’s right.  A blog on nutrition.  Written by Pepsi.  *pause*  Hey!  Did you guys know that high fructose corn syrup is nutritionally the same as sugar?  *facepalm*  Luckily, Science Blogs listened to their outraged readers and will not be hosting the controversial blog.

»One more fun nutrition-related “nugget”…  All those chemicals that make Silly Putty so gosh-darn fun?  They’re in chicken McNuggets, too.

»Okay, enough about food, especially after I spent Fourth of July stuffing my face with it.  How about a autotuned remix of that double-rainbow guy?

»I know that any time I spend an afternoon outside I just feel happier and healthier.  Tiny Choices  shares some info on the phenomenon, which the Japanese call “Forest Bathing”.

»I tend to think of myself as a pretty law-abiding gal.  The word “criminal” is not one that I would self-apply, but after reading this essay, I might just have to.

Hope all of you on the East Coast are staying cool!  I’m still wearing a sweatshirt in the evenings and enjoying a few raindrops in the morning.

I had a bunch of this Beatles fabric leftover from a project for a friend and I just love the look of the gathered front.

Inside view:

This was my first time installing a zipper, and it went surprisingly well considering I realized after installing it, I was holding the fabric on the wrong side of the presser foot.  I’m a little sad that you can’t see the zipper tabs since they were cut from another Yellow Submarine fabric and featured all four guys in their psychedelic get-up.  Ah, well.  I’ll find a better way to use that next time.

This project came from Noodlehead’s Gathered Clutch Tutorial.  The instructions were super easy, especially with all the pics she provided.  It also introduced me to her whole collection of equally-alluring tutorials.  I think next up is the Li’l Cutie Pouch or the Messenger Bag from cargo pants (I have some sitting in my sewing box in need of repurposing).  All of them are simple and creative, so if you sew, take a look!

»We often hear the heartwarming stories of individuals going off to far-away places to help improve others’ quality of life, but should we be spending our time doing good more locally?

»I cannot get this song out of my head, but at least it’s better than listening to actual vuvuzelas…elas…elas.

»After you read this, you’ll realize you knew that all along.

»I love these images from Stuff No One Told Me (But I Learned Anyways).  Some NSFW language.

»Alright, ladies, it’s time to dust off your bicycle.  Turns out that bicycling movements often begin with women.  Why?  Men see how amazing we look riding around town, saving gasoline and getting exercise and want a piece of it, too. :)

»I love this recipe website from an organic produce delivery service.  Simply choose the veggie or fruit that is currently overtaking your fridge and you’ll see a ton of great recipes to use it all up.

Have a great weekend and wish all the Dads (or Dad-like stand-ins) in your life a Happy Fathers’ Day!

Gooooooooooaaal!  The World Cup starts today!  I have to admit, I’m a fair weather fan of most sports.  I’ve been watching the Lakers / Celtics playoffs (even though my beloved Cavs are out) and I can’t say I watched more than one or two games during the regular season.  Same with soccer football.  Except I don’t think I’ve seen a game since the last World Cup.  It’s all just very exciting to feel like a part of something that brings people together.

»My friend recently returned from New York City with pictures of the Muppet Whatnots at F.A.O. Schwarz, but you don’t have to go to the Big Apple to make your own Muppet, you can do it online!

»When you’re changing your eating habits, it’s really easy to spend your meals lamenting the foods you’re restricting yourself from.  We all know why we’re choosing to make these changes, but it’s human nature to want what you “can’t” have.  Unless you change your philosophy of can’t.

»I have dreams one day of living on a somewhat ample property surrounded by trees with a place for a garden and some manageable animals.  This report suggests that it may be better for the environment if we all got a little cozier.  Okay, a lot cozier.  Did you know the entire U.S. population can live (albeit probably  a bit uncomfortably) in New Hampshire?

»Or, instead of New Hampshire, we could start exploring somewhere else a little farther away…

»119 Journal Prompts

»Anyone else excited for the True Blood season premier on Sunday?  I know I am!  And so are NPR and the Wall Street Journal.

»The BP Oil Spill is pretty depressing news and even more so with all the crazy ways people have visualized the data.  One site, If It Was My Home (not sure about the grammar on that…), allows you to place the spill over any location in the world to compare its size.  I plopped the spill on top of Cleveland, OH and was taken aback.  The spill about covers Lake Erie.  If that info gets you fired up enough to want to boycott BP, you might want to try another tactic.

» I don’t want to leave you on such a sad note.  How about some librarians singing Lady Gaga?

Have a fantastic weekend!