Feel Me, See Me, Read Me, Eat Me

Yep, I've amassed enough links to get a post out to you.  It's not that I don't find a lot of interesting things on the web, but many of them come from the same blogs I mention repeatedly here, so I try to come up with something new or maybe something from a blog you'd forgotten about.

First off, Michael Pollan is my intellectual crush, which should be common knowledge.  But before I fell for Pollan, I was all about Alton Brown.  I loved Good Eats and have them on DVD (oh yeah!).  My love was rekindled by this interview.  I hope there's no jealousy between Michael and Alton; not interested in that drama.

It's spring (or at least what they keep trying to tell us in Southwestern Ontario), and time to shift the menus to reflect the seasonal produce.  We get ramps at the coop and farmers' markets here, and I haven't quite maximized their potential.  Serious Eats has a guide for that.

But there's still time for comfort food, and I'm always in the market for a new banana bread recipe!

Check out this interview on the Alabama Chanin journal.  It'll explain Zero waste fashion design.  It's a concept whose time has definitely come although now I might have a hard time throwing out little pieces of fabric...

And finally, it's the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs!  Here's something to get you in the mood.

Happy Wednesday!

Combo Feel Me, Read Me, Watch Me, Eat Me/On My Mind Mondays - NYC Edition

Greetings from NYC!  It's spring here, which is so welcome after the couple of days of bitter rain and winds in Hamilton.

Read a great piece in the New York Times this morning.  It reminded me of the time my father and I needed directions while on our bike trip and the only person who was really willing and able to help us was cycling around finding recyclables.  Community counts!

Let's hear it for the Providence College Friars - the NCAA hockey champs! While I didn't stay long enough to graduate from there, I do have a special place for PC.

Finally, there's this great new campaign from the Canadian Fair Trade Network and ReThink Communications called The Label Doesn't Tell the Whole Story.  This series of photos features labels that highlight the dangers inherent in sweatshops and poor working conditions.

And I found out that April 24th is Fashion Revolution Day, which invites people from around the world to turn their clothing inside out to display the label, take a selfie and ask #whomademyclothes via Twitter.

Thoughts on Oscars Red Carpet Commentary - Part 1

I don't tweet, but I'm watching the E! network coverage of the Oscars' red carpet, and there are thoughts I can't keep back at the moment:

1.  Does Kelly Osborne actually know what ruching is?
2 a.  Why do we care what Khloe Khardashian thinks about the dresses?
2b.  Clearly Khloe has very traditional/conservative tastes.  Are you really saying that a beautiful light pink or peach couture dress isn't red carpet?  Is that why you're wearing red?  Can we say obvious?

I'm sure I'll have more comments as the evening goes on...

But here's the beauty of it all - during the commercials, I switch to the Rangers/Blue Jackets game.  The best of both worlds!

On My Mind Mondays: There's Always Something

Sure, Monday is winding down, but I've still got a little over six hours left.  Frankly, I'm just tired today, but of course, there are some things occupying the grey matter.

1. Injury:  First and foremost, I'm hoping that the MCL sprain I sustained in my hockey game yesterday heals quickly.  I've never had a knee injury before, and I don't need to start having issues now.  I've been working on upping my activity, and I'm not the most patient person when it comes to injuries; however, I also know that I'll only make it worse by rushing it.  Nonetheless, my physiotherapist didn't rule out me playing hockey on Sunday.
2. Why people do or don't read my blog:  Sure, I was going to say "Why people do or don't read blogs" to make it less personal, but who do we think I'm talking about?  This came up when the ladyfriend's mother, whom she recently visited, chastised her for not following my blog.  After reading a number of my posts (going all the way back to September...really?), she said, "You learn a lot more about you from your blog than you might in person" (says the woman I've been with for over 20 years).  I suppose I (kind of) understand why the ladyfriend doesn't keep up with my posts, but it is interesting to ponder what makes people, and my friends, stop by and either continue to read or not, and what they might be missing by not reading (sometimes pointed remarks directed at them - hah!).  I'm thinking about writing a piece called, "Why You Should Read Your Friend's Blog."
3. The ongoing refinement of my wardrobe:  I pulled one of my favourite books, Cheap Chic, off the shelf this weekend and fell in love with it again.  I had listened to Marketplace before that and they'd had a brief interview with Sarah Lazarovic whose recent book A Bunch of Pretty Things I Didn't Buy has just come out.  She was talking about what it meant to take a break from shopping even if one wasn't a classic shopaholic.  There were things that rang true for me, such as trawling eBay or Shopgoodwill for funky necklaces or vintage hats or whatever (definitely something I'm guilty of - ask my parents, where all my packages go).  But what I realized in both listening to her interview and reviewing Cheap Chic is that I'm not necessarily interested in whittling down my wardrobe to the bare essentials but in making the things I own work together happily and idiosyncratically.  I will probably always have a lot of shoes.  That's just the way it is.  I like shoes.  I like clothes, but what I don't like is mindless buying because it's a new season or I'm bored or I have money burning a hole in my pocket.  I'm into refinement, and the refinement continues.
   

Kult-cha! Art and Craft

On Saturday we stopped by Mauerpark, where a section of the Berlin Wall, known as the Death Strip, remains.  The old graffiti has been replaced by what seems to be a constant updating of tags and images.  In some ways, it makes the Wall feel like just a wall.  The artwork and tags felt like they had little to do with the history, and I'm not saying one needs to stay in the past, but if you've kept a section of the Berlin Wall, I think it would be safe to assume you did it to remember its signficance.  What was also amusing is that there was really no indication that this was, indeed, a remnant of the Berlin Wall.  Good thing I was paying attention.

One of our main destinations for the day was 25Books, an amazingly well-curated shop that features only photography books.  The name refers to the books that Hannes Wanderer, the owner as well as a book publisher himself, highlights each month - both on his website and on a long table in the centre of the store.  It also has a small exhibition space in the front, where our new friend Silke Helmerdig had work up.  We'd originally thought we'd go see the show, browse some books, and then head back home.

However, it became so much more than that.  Hannes spent over two hours showing us his favourite books and talking about art.  It was great.  The bookstore carries a range of books, many of them limited editions, and Hannes introduced us to a number of European photographers with whom we were unfamiliar but whose work deserves our attention.  One of the books we picked up was Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs's The Great Unreal.  We bought a couple of other books, including the one associated with Silke's show, but we could've easily bought more.  Nevertheless we're not worried; not only does he do mail order, we plan to make 25Books one of our frequently visited spaces.

The Run is Over, But the Love Remains

Dear New York Rangers -

Firstly, let me congratulate you on an outstanding season.  It was a thrill to watch the team really come together this year.  Perhaps the pundits were surprised by your success, but any Ranger fan paying attention knew that this was part of the overall plan.

Of course I'm mourning your loss to the Devils (of all teams!).  My hate for the Devils is only overshadowed by the pure love I feel for you.  I mean it.  You work hard, you're tough, and you're my team.  I love you when you're down, and I love you when you're up.  We're in it for the long haul.

I know that this summer will be tinged with disappointment, but I think we can work through this and come back stronger in the fall.  We have many young players and an amazing coach in Torts - and I'm proud to bleed Ranger blue.

To hell with the Devils.  I won't be rooting for an LA win but a devastating defeat of the Devils.

Love,
Claudia

Where's Claudia?

 Sometimes the blog is a little like that running program you were really jazzed about and started earnestly.  But then you slowly kept finding yourself on the couch at 11pm with nary a shoe laced to run  because you got sucked up into whatever variation of a daily grind you participate in.  You find yourself thinking up blog posts (or dreaming about runs) that somehow never get written, and there's both hope and guilt in that.  For me, it's kind of like writing letters - I generally feel like the recipient knows the contents of my letter just because I've written it (which is problematic if I refer to the contents of a letter that's still sitting on my desk).  When I think of blog posts, sometimes I feel like they've already been communicated.  My mistake.

It isn't a lack of interest - not in the least.  It's just a lack of renewable energy.  I'm pretty pooped right now.  Yes, the fact that we've spent the past two days moving our studio (thankfully only across the hall in the same building), were up celebrating a friend's birthday til 5:10am (daylight savings time) last night, and then played a hockey game this afternoon (in which we unsurprisingly sucked) has definitely played a role in this.  But what has made it even harder to do more than just above minimum is the crazy amount of travel that has taken place over the last month and continues into this one.

Excuse or reason?  It doesn't really make any difference.  I'm just informing, but in February I was away for 10 days, and in March I will be away for a total of 11 days.  I'm not talking about April just yet.

The next few days will be "Retro Days" where I will actually post some of the blog posts I made up in my mind.  Let's just hope they still make sense.

Shoe of the Week: Wedge-o-matic

Yes, I disappeared for two weeks - traveled to see family and to play hockey.  But I'm back, perhaps a little spent, but a happy champion.  Yes, my team won our division, but let's save that for later.
  This week's shoe comes from my mother's closet.  We periodically borrow clothes and shoes from each other.  It's a "new to me" kind of thing, and then when we return said items, they're new again to us.  Bonus!

Time for a pedicure!

Failure of Imagination

As we're having a rather nontraditional Christmas (multiple Christmas events to include various family members), we (the nuclear family of three) went out in search of Chinese food and a movie yesterday.  We found Thai and Tron.

The Week That Was and Will Be

Here's the thing - I'm constantly thinking about things to bring up here, but I can't quite sit down and post them.  Then suddenly there's a backlog of conversations I'd love to engage in.  At this point the first idea feels old, but still interesting, and the next thing I know I haven't posted a damn thing, and I don't want to put up an epic post.

So a return to my favourite:  the list.

1. Most pressing - I run the marathon on Sunday.  (My shoe of the week was going to be my running shoes, but I can't find my camera - sense a theme here?)
2. Went to the Sabres' season opener and saw the Rangers kick their ass.  Oh joy, oh rapture!
3. Attended the workroom anniversary party with Celine and a blog friend of hers from France.  She has friends that she only knows via blogging & email!  It is the modern-day version of meeting your pen pal.  Sigh.

Not surprisingly I thought this list would be longer.  However, there it is in a nutshell.  Hopefully I can find my camera so I can post photos from my trip out to the bay area.  Maybe there will even be a triumphant one of me crossing the finish line.

Expanded Ventures

I finally feel like I'm in a good groove for the new season and semester.  There's a lot I want to accomplish, and there are a lot of things that I'm working on simultaneously like finishing my short story collection, paying down my debts (while still finding ways to do the things I like to do), and meeting my obligations.

Not that this is new, but I'm on a budget.  We're trying to go to Berlin in 2013, and our goal is to be debt-free when we go.  The budget has been challenging; however, on the best days, I treat it like a new way to be crafty because to live happily on a budget you have to be crafty.

Some of the ways I've cut costs as well as added funding have been:  playing hockey only once a week (instead of twice), reimagining my existing wardrobe (new combos and so forth), doing an "energy exchange" for my yoga classes, selling stuff on ebay (my user name is "hopespringseternal"), and working one day a week at the Melissa (read a recent review here).  Here I am in front of the store last December:

I'm really excited to be working there.  It started as a way to help my friend out, and now it's become (even before my first day in the shop) another creative outlet for me - dressing for retail!  Yes, everything is an opportunity for a new way to look at your wardrobe.  I'm sensing a lot of hats for this one.

In other areas - I'm less than two weeks away from the marathon in San Francisco.  I ran 21.5 miles last week, and it made me feel good about the whole thing.  I'm in the lovely tapering phase right now; my runs are getting shorter in preparation.  I'm still nervous, but I've taken pressure off myself by just focusing on the run itself and not my time or any of those other concerns.  Plus, I get to see 'the boy' (aka our son), which is worth crawling the entire thing.

And prep is another theme for me right now.  Not to make your eyes roll, but I am thinking about the upcoming December holidays.  As someone who tries to make the majority of her gifts, I need to make a plan so that I don't spend all of December in the "craftory" - the craft factory.  Prep is a way to maintain holiday sanity as well.

All in all, everything feels pretty good.  I hope I can find ways to expand that feeling throughout the upcoming months and beyond.

Game On!

Serious gardening day, even though it was unintentional.  Stopped at Whole Foods to buy some seedlings (okay, we had to get off the highway because the traffic was awful) and when we got home proceeded to get totally immersed in weeding, pruning, and planting.  It's great.  We finally got rid of the giant white soil bag on our front lawn.  (Our neighbors must love us.)
   I'm trying to be a little more realistic about gardening this year.  Rather than try to grow everything, I'm focusing on fewer, more essential items like tomatoes.  I've tried to grow things from seed, and have had modest success in the past, but for some reason often can't get them past the early seedling phase.   I put in a few seeds today, just to be optimistic, along with the seedlings (three types of tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and some herbs) we bought.  My goal is to give them consistent attention.
   Watched the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Let's Go Blackhawks!  By the way, anyone see the Chris Pronger/Eddie Haskell connection?