The Smittens got a mention on the needle for the crafty dolls on the cover of their new album made by my brother. Check it out. Wishing them good luck on their tour in the UK this week. I hope England is ready for a little revolution!
I just had to give a Rick Roll Cake a try for Jay’s birthday. It is well worth the effort as we are still laughing about it almost a week later. Make sure that you have a laptop nearby so that you can play the Rick Roll while the unsuspecting victim attempts to cut the cardboard cake.
The Boston Globe had a story today about the growth of Organic Cosmetic Companies. I was pleased to see that CVS has released a statement that it will remove products that contain chemicals that have been linked to health problems and replace them with safer alternatives. Manufacturers continue to claim that products such as parabans, mercury (often listed as thimerosal), and petrochemicals (which can be found in some shampoos, mascara, perfume, foundation, and lip balm) are safe despite warnings from environmental groups, so it is very encouraging to see the first cosmetic safety policy from a major drugstore chain in the US. Hopefully other retailers will make similar changes in the near future.
A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law (26 February 1937)
We went to an organic gardening class at the Natick Community Organic Farm sponsored by NOFA on Saturday and came away with a ton of useful information. The above quote was by far the most eye opening as to the importance of soil quality to society. Soil is a fragile resource that must be protected and improved in the coming years to maintain crops. Read on to access my notes from the day regarding Soil, Seeds, Composting, Planting and more. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are 50 Ways to Help the Earth via Wire and Twine via Shelterrific. I’m going to add using one less paper napkin and hanging clothes out to dry more often to my green resolutions.
Although this video does not feature the Frigidaire Flair specifically, it does focus on the Frigidaire Dream Kitchen of tomorrow. Also, Paul Lukas wrote a piece entitled Today’s “Kitchen of Tomorrow” on Fast Company website that focuses on the visionary corporate marketing films in the Fifties and Sixties and compares them to current research for the Kitchen of the Future at places like MIT. He points out that fifty years after these videos were produced it is clear that the “kitchen of tomorrow may be more about preserving the domestic values of yesterday.”
We were invited to an April Fools’ themed party over the weekend and decided to bring some fake grilled cheese sandwiches.
Ingredients: Store bought Pound Cake, Homemade Frosting, Yellow and Red food coloring
Jay grilled the pound cake so it would pass as bread and put the frosting inside the sandwich to pose as cheese. They were pretty convincing and tasted a bit like twinkies. Here are many other April Fools’ Day Food Suggestions.
World Water Day is on March 22nd and the Tap Project is a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible tap water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water to children around the world. Participating restaurants invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days. Boston is a participating city so I may have to donate during my travels tomorrow.
The Smittens were at the Lizard Lounge last night for a fun show. Since they were coming to town for a visit I made a Smittens Charm Bracelet for the Littlest Smitten. I used a permanent marker on some Shrinky Dink paper and attached each charm with 2 stars to the bracelet. To make the shrinky dinks I preheated a toaster oven to 325 and put the charms on wax paper on the toaster oven tray. I left them in for about 1 minute until they were flat. I did a similar project a long time ago when I made Smittens wine charms for my brother.
