Things to Do This Week

1. Make every effort to join in this FREE celebration: the first ever
Sustainable Holiday Celebration--tonight!
presented by Sustainable Midlands

Come one, come all, save gas and skip the mall!

Join us on November 30th at 5:30 PM at 701 Whaley to shop and socialize with friends while helping protect the environment and sustainably celebrate the holiday season.

Featuring:
Local and Sustainable Gifts
Sustainable Holiday Decorations
Great free food & libations
Hand-made ornaments by local school children

Please contact Ryan Nevius for more information at ryan@sustainablemidlands.org or 803-381-8747.

image via here

2. Go see Cold Souls, playing at The Nickelodeon;
last showing tomorrow night at 8 PM.

3. Go to the Shandon Presbyterian Church Alternative Gift Market and support local and global charities while getting meaningful gifts for friends and family. (I will be there representing St. Lawrence Place, which provides transitional housing and programs for homeless families with children).
Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:00 PM
Shandon Presbyterian Activity Center
607 Woodrow St.



4. Holiday Market! Fabulous place to shop for Christmas gifts--put on by
the Junior League of the Midlands.
The Junior League does great things in our community.
December 3-6
Americraft-Cantey Building
SC State Fairgrounds

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A Word for Wednesday

ynchrony: simultaneous occurrence; synchronism

Last night, while sitting on my couch watching Love Actually--my favorite contemporary holiday movie--I stated to my husband: "Listen to Peach [our dog] snoring...that's what I hear every night, except in bed it's you and him in synchrony." As soon as it was out of my mouth, both my husband and my friend, Rebecca, questioned the existence of the word. I assured them it was correct as I reached for the laptop to prove it by looking it up on dictionary.com.

I was right.

James and Peach snoring in synchrony

Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische

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Check out Etsy

If you have never heard of Etsy, here is your introduction....and if you know what Etsy is, read on for some of my favorite items for holiday gifts.

Etsy is an on-line marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of handmade and vintage goods. The Etsy website, etsy.com says that "Etsy is the world's most vibrant handmade marketplace. Etsy provides a marketplace for crafters, artists and collectors to sell their handmade creations, vintage goods and crafting supplies."

Here are some awesome things that I have found in their Gift Guides section:

Snowflake Glasses

via here

Needle-Pointed Belt Buckle
via here

World Map Vinyl Decal

via here

Fine Art Print- Golden Gate Park, San Francisco edition

via here

Happy hunting for gifts on Etsy!

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A Word for Wednesday

astion: anything seen as preserving or protecting some quality, condition: a bastion of strength. Dictionary.com also indicates that this can be defined as fortification or a fortified place.

I am most interested in the first definition. To me, there is a certain regency associated with the use of this word; for some reason I think anyone who uses it is insanely smart and cool. Don't ask me why.

I decided upon this word for today because I was watching some "rockumentary" about heavy metal bands with the hubs last night--I can't stand heavy metal, but marriage is all about compromise, you know--and one of the big-haired, washed-up, heavy metal musicians used the word bastion. I commented out loud "good word!"

via here

I also remember a song that I like by a pop-punk band out of Austin, TX called Cruiserweight; the song is called Goodbye Daily Sadness, and in it the lead singer sings "I'm a bastion of strength." I think it was the first real-world use of the word that I had heard at the time, and I really liked it. The song is off their album Sweet Weaponry; it's worth checking out. Click here to listen to Goodbye Daily Sadness.

Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische.

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Ode to the Obento!

As I once again sit at my desk on a Monday and make silent oaths in my head to "not drink so much next weekend," "only eat pizza once a week," and "definitely run more than once this week," I am inspired by the Bento lunch craze that has become increasingly popular in America...

I had heard the word "Bento" in reference to a lunchbox, but wasn't quite sure what it entailed...basically, it is defined thusly: a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bentō consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more vegetable, usually in a box-shaped container, (wikipedia.com). Obento, in Japanese, means "boxed meal," and is an art-form. Japanese mothers spend a lot of time making the perfect obento--a balance of color, taste, and texture.

The New York Times recently did a story on Bentos, Bento Boxes Win Lunch Fans. Bentos can be cute, but don't have to be, and are great for help with portion control. Here are some super-beautiful and creative Bentos...maybe when I have kids I'll attempt one of these...

via here

via here

Until then, maybe I can try making one more like this:

via here

And here are a few Bento accessories that I would love to have:

2-tier Bento box
via here

Mini-animal soy sauce bottles
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Bento divider cups

via here

I'm going to experiment with Bentos soon...I'll post the prototypes.

If you've ever tried making Bentos or if you're inspired, please let me know and post pictures. Here are some Bento-inspired blogs:

Adventures in Bentomaking
Lunch in a Box
Leggo My Obento

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Fat Albert on a Sofa

via here

Please check out my cat, Fat Albert, featured in Desire to Inspire's weekly blog post: "Monday's Pets on Furniture."

Fat Albert is a rescue kitty from the Animal Mission here in Columbia. His back-story is that he was owned by an older woman, and when she passed away her family gave him up to the pound. He was approximately 10 years old when we got him, so he is about 16 now.

He has used up numerous lives, besides being on "death row" before we plucked him from the pound, he also had a limp from his former life--a broken back leg that had never been set and healed wrong. It causes him no pain now, I am assured, but he still has a pretty mean limp that my husband and I affectionately call his "pimp walk." Three years ago he was diagnosed with cancer; ;luckily the tumor was all encapsulated in one kidney, so they simply removed the kidney and he's been fine ever since. He also escaped from our house a year or so ago; (Fatty is a strictly inside kitty, as his lack of front claws, the aforementioned limp, and his sizable girth would make it hard for him to escape predators of any kind). He was gone for over a month and I was heartbroken. He finally showed back up in our next door neighbor's back yard...he had evidently been living under their shed for most of that time. He was skinny and scared, but really no worse for the wear. And don't worry he has ballooned back to his "Fat Albert" weight, and then some.

Thanks to the Desire to Inspire folks for including Fat Albert's picture in their weekly post, and if you're thinking of adopting an animal, please consider getting one from your local pound or rescue organization.
Happy Friday everyone!

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Rain, rain here to stay

Well, it's been raining in fair Columbia for three days now, thanks to the remnants of Ida, and though most people are complaining and chanting "rain, rain, go away," I am loving it.

Overcast and chilly--a blessed day in my book--throw in some cold rain to boot and I am in heaven.

I have always romanticized places that are defined by their dreary weather--London, Seattle, San Francisco, (I know, SF does have months of really sunny and mild weather, but the year I lived there it rained all winter).

London

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Sample Seattle Weather Forecast

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San Francisco
via here

I think this love-affair with gloomy weather stems from a couple things: first, I adore wearing scarves, hats, coats, sweaters, jeans...pretty much perfect clothing for wind and rain. Second, in my mind this type of weather connotes a thinker's sort of dark and broodish, but highly creative environs. I always feel super-productive and sharp and creative when it's cold and dark. And finally, I love drizzly days because I have a peculiar fondness for umbrellas.

As a student at Washington & Lee University I took an Asian art history class* that introduced me to the influences of Asian art, particularly Japanese woodblock prints, on western art. Some of my favorite woodblock prints, and in turn, pieces of later western art, included umbrellas. In fact, I wrote a research paper comparing the use of umbrellas in Japanese woodblock prints and western art...

Hiroshige woodblock print
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Kiyonaga woodblock print
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Leonetto Capiello's Parapluie Revel
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Claude Monet's Woman with Umbrella
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Maurice Brazil Prendergast's Umbrellas in the Rain
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*Sadly, the professor who taught the two Asian art history courses that I took at W&L passed away recently. RIP Dr. Joan O'Mara.

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