Handmade Nation!

I finally got to see Handmade Nation last night! I have been hoping this documentary would come to Baltimore and it did! Sarah and I went after work and it was a really good film. I felt like a craft groupie when I got there and saw Faythe Levine in person! The film is a great look into the craft movement.

I have decided I am more of a craft wannabe instead of a true crafter because I like the IDEA of doing a project much more than actually completing them. I have about 3 sewing projects in process, one knitting project and an idea for a new embroidery project. Just haven't been in the mood to dive in for a while.

I have been more focused on cooking recently, as you can tell from my cake post. We haven't bought bread in like 2 months since I taught myself how to make it. I have even made up a great recipe for herb bread and the secret is garlic salt (which should be the secret to everything). I am also into using our CSA produce in new recipes, tonight I created my own recipe for roasted veggie pasta primavera with vegan cream sauce and I rocked it out. May post it but no pics.

Handmade Nation made me re-think my crafts again and I just might get back to them. Artscape is this weekend and this is the second year for the DIY tents so maybe I will just shop handmade instead.

Happy Father's Day

Just want to give a shout out to my Dad because he is the greatest. That's him fishing with his father and here he is with me and my brother:


I just realized that I don't have many pictures with Dad because he was always the one taking the pictures. And I honestly don't know what is going on in this one.

There are so many great things about Dad, I always wanted to be like him because he seemed to know what's what. Still does. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful father and I am grateful every day.

It's CSA Time!

My favorite time of year - we picked up our first delivery of fresh produce yesterday. I should say Mark did. We chose to go with One Straw Farm this year instead of Cromwell Valley. We did this for several reasons. One - We really don't like having to volunteer on the farm because I hate nature. Two - It was a bit of a drive and when it was rainy and muddy it was not fun. Three - because we had to go there at a certain time and choose our produce, we quickly realized that we had to get there right when it opened or other people would take more than their share and leave only the broken and wilted produce. Getting there at opening was smack in the middle of a Saturday and totally inconvenient.

One Straw Farm drops off produce shares at various locations and one happened to be right across the street from us. It's also the location of a weekly farmers market which is totally awesome. Tuesday afternoon is our pick up time and because Mark gets home before me he is the one to pick up the share. I am a little concerned about this because I like to be in control and he gets to choose what to pick up. We get 8 items but they can be 8 different things or 8 of one thing or some combo. Someone said I should make him call me from the pick-up so I can help choose. Should I do it? I should just trust him, right? Maybe....

Mark picked up cabbage, kale, swiss chard, garlic scapes, strawberries, arugula and two lettuce. I decided to serve the kale and strawberries for dinner because the strawberries didn't look like they would last. After all the greens I ate last season I didn't think I would say this but I really was looking forward to cooked greens again. I became an expert in cooking kale and chard last year and this is how I made it last night:

Sauteed Kale
1 bunch Kale
2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
splash of white wine

remove stems and clean kale, set aside. Heat a pan on medium with the olive oil. add garlic and soy sauce when hot. Add the kale, toss with tongs and put the lid on, cook for about 5 minutes or until the kale has cooked down by half. Take lid off and add splash of white wine, replace lid. Cook another couple of minutes, its done when it is reduced and before it browns a lot.

This is my best guess for measurements, I just add what looks good, probably you should use less oil. Story of my life. You can drink the remaining wine while cooking, I usually do. Unless you are using actual cooking wine, I don't judge.

As you can see Miss Gimp preferres her greens raw and fresh. Yes she is on the kitchen counter; you can't stop a gimp cat, I've tried, it doesn't work, don't judge.

Road Trip to Bethlehem

Follow the Star....

Last weekend my co-worker and friend Sarah got hitched in PA. Let me tell you, I have never been impressed with the old state of PA, outside of Philadelphia and arguably Pittsburgh there is really nothing to see. A whole lot of NOTHING. But for Sarah I decided I would brave the drive and visit Bethlehem.

Now, asking Mark to go along seemed to be out of the question as he hates car trips, being bored and PEOPLE. So, I hitched a ride with Amy, another co-worker and friend and promptly asked her to drive as the old 1994 Cavalier might not make it. Especially since the Cavalier got into a wee bit of an accident was was still nursing a broken driver side door. Now, Amy loves road trips and PA so she decided to plan a whopper and this trip became the stuff of legends. Seriously, everyone at the reception was asking us how the trip went since it was going to be EPIC. We had big plans to visit the Yuengling factory, the Roadside America miniature village and a winery or two. My focus was on finding a drink since I heard the reception would be sans alcohol and while I am not a big drinker I am also not good in social situations where I know almost no one without a drink in my hand. At least drinking before the wedding seemed like a good compromise.

Plans were dashed as we got to a late start and the drive took forever and the tolls cost like a million bucks (srsly people, the value of entering PA is certainly not equal to the actual cost). No beer factory tour only gawking at road side signs like the

Balloon Artist

(these balloons were pure artistry, wish the pics were better!). We pulled into Bethlehem with only 30 minutes to spare and lunch on our minds. The only place we saw and therefore ate was the local McDonald gussied up like a real 1960's MickeyD

and very popular with the locals. I NEVER eat at McDonald's or fast food in general really so the apple and walnut salad with a side of fries was a new experience for me. I probably won't be back.

The wedding was in a chapel on the Lehigh University campus which is beautiful and we got lots of pictures of the church. Being a historic preservation major I tend to be interested in and take lots of pictures of buildings. Usually, after a vacation I have random shots of building interiors and have forgotten what they are AND nobody cares. The priest was very funny in a peculiar, crazy uncle kind of way which I was not expecting but did seem to spice things up. It was over quickly for a catholic ceremony and I did very much appreciate it.

We spent the hour between in historic downtown Bethlehem, founded by the Moravians. I learned about the Moravians from a trip Mark and I took to a museum conference in Winston-Salem several years ago. We got a lot of comedy material from our tour of the historic Moravian settlement at Old Salem Museums. On the tour we found out that Moravians used to decide everything by drawing lots so if you had a question you would ask the council and they would draw lots to see the answer. One poor man wanted to get married and the drawing turned him down 7 TIMES. Moravians no longer draw lots. They do still have a special star and some tasty cookies. The best thing I saw in Historic Bethlehem was the Brew Works. That is where we spent the hour; trying the beer sampler and taking shots of beer in order to finish in time to get to the reception. It was really good beer, even the porter, not usually my favorite.

The reception was beautiful and Sarah even made the favors; ribbon embroidered bags with CHOCOLATE inside. We danced to some Jackson 5 and ate some cake from a real NJ Italian bakery. We didn't get out of there until later than expected and asked the bride for directions home to avoid tolls. Winding through the back roads of PA as the sun was setting we saw 2 wineries, lots of farm land and several Amish people riding strange looking bikes. The overall effect was surreal and we weren't sure if we were looking at the Amish on bikes or a group of Brooklyn hipsters with the plaid and the beards and the strange hand-made bikes. I didn't get a picture because my camera had already run out of battery life but if I did, this is what it would look like. All of the scenic distractions caused us to get lost twice and resort to a small stretch of toll road to get back on track. Got home late Saturday night and Mark and Gimp were glad to see me. Mark was especially glad to see the cookies I brought home from the reception in the paper bags printed with Sarah and Thomas' wedding date. MMMM... cookies. Gimp was less excited about the bubbles from the wedding, apparently the world's most fierce Gimp Cat is afraid of bubbles. Who knew?

Earth Day

Happy Earth day from Sesame Street and Paul Rudd.....and me!

Like most things in life, if you think about ALL the things you maybe should be doing it becomes overwhelming. I prefer to slowly incorporate small steps to change my ways and try not to feel guilty about what I am not doing. This year I have some new ideas for small changes.

Like this knitted reusable Swiffer pad because I love my Swiffer but need to cut down on my disposables.

While my attempts at knitting plastic bags did not go so well, I have new inspiration thanks to Modish but I probably won't attempt anything as ambitious as the world's first plastic bag billboard.

If you are anything like me you have about a million t-shirts around the house. Luckily there are about a million ideas for what to do with them. I am working on turning one into a skirt for summer weekends but I also like the idea of weaving them or even making a cool quilt.

Last but not least, I love the idea of using an Altoids tin to make a travel candle.

One last idea you might want to try, Meatless Monday!

Just remember one thing - Earth Rocks!

Happy Spring!

cherry blossom branches, originally uploaded by bethjc.

I'm not much for Easter but I do think it's important to mark the seasons and I especially love spring! We decided to celebrate spring by visiting the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. The weather was perfect and the trees were so pretty. It was such a great way to to welcome the season.

Now I need to change out my closet and go to the fabric store because I need some new spring skirts. I already have my spring shoes - new ivory ballet flats I got on clearance and have been saving for months.

Happy Women's History Month!

A little late, I know. I might not have referenced this month at all but I just finished a great biography of Ida B. Wells-Barnett by the Rutgers University history professor, Mia Bay titled To Tell the Truth Freely .

Biographies are some of my favorite kinds of books to read. I love history because it is the culmination of stories of people's lives. Famous people, every day people and extraordinary people. I devoured the biography section of my elementary school library and my favorite at that time was a book about Nellie Bly . It was the first time I really thought about being a girl and understood the challenges that have historically come with that. I also just love stories about people that fight, fight back, change the world and don't take no for an answer. Those are the people I admire and those people give me hope for human kind. Nellie Bly was that kind of chick.

The Progressive Era gave us many such women including Ida B. Wells-Barnett who was also a journalist. Ida was a trouble maker of the highest order, she was so "difficult" that she was never really given credit for all that she did accomplish. She wasn't difficult as much as uncompromising, unwilling to back down in order to make peace or scratch backs. She was never good at politics. My favorite story involves the suffrage movement . As much as I am grateful for the work of Susan B. Anthony and other suffrage leaders, the great shame of the movement is that they allowed segregation and outright racism in order to appease some critics. In the National American Woman Suffrage Association's suffrage parade on March 3, 1913
in Washington DC, Ida refused to march in the back of the parade where they had segregated the African-American suffragettes. Instead, she hid in the crowd until her state delegation, Illinois, passed and then she jumped in and marched under her state flag, integrating the parade single-handedly!

Another Progressive Era hero has been my favorite since I read her biography in college; Margaret Sanger spent her life working with poor women and came to believe that if they had honest information and access to birth control they could improve their lives and the lives of their children. She fought for that cause the rest of her life and founded the American Birth Control League which became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Her story is fascinating and worth a read.

Some women lead by example and Madam CJ Walker certainly did. Becoming the first self-made American woman millionaire the early 1900's she created a beauty empire. Her life story is worth the read and even the story of her daughter's life during the Harlem Renaissance is fascinating. For more on this amazing women I recommend the book On Her Own Ground : the Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker.

Just because it's almost April doesn't mean you can't pick up a biography of one of these amazing women, or let me know of a biography I need to read!