Yay Obama!

So it's been awhile since my last post, we have a new president! Yay! I'm very relieved that Obama got elected and looking forward to the inauguration. A bit before the election I was getting into this show on Air America, the Young Turks. It's a liberal good time! www.theyoungturks.com.

And on another note, this past Tues I checked out Ladies' Lotto over at Brooklyn Adorned, the Brooklyn version of NY Adorned. Ladies' Lotto is this group of women entrepreneurs that hold these events for networking and they always have an inspiring speaker talk about how they grew their business/project ect. They have them in several different cities once a month.

Halloween & Voting!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I'm almost done making my costume, this year I'm going as Princess Leia! Yay sci-fi geekiness! : ) I'll post a pic of my outfit later, when my camera's finally fixed.

And on another note, I was looking up info about Tuesday's election. Usually I have no idea what's going on for the Senate and House of Reps races so I end up doing eeny meeny miny mo for everything besides the presidency. : P This year I can actually make a somewhat informed decision on the local stuff. If you're in NY you can find good links about who's running in your district ect here.

Also, I found this site courtesy of No Impact Man's blog, it's the League of Conservation Voter's site. You can find out about candidates' positions on environmental issues there.

The Latest on The Atlantic Yards Proposal

The Atlantic Yards Proposal is this crazy idea developer Bruce Ratner has been trying to push through for years now. It's a huge stadium/shopping complex that he wants to plop down in the middle of one of the most traffic-heavy neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It's nuts! The pic above shows a computer rendering of what it would look like.

The following is the latest from www.developedontdestroy.org

Atlantic Yards: A Lot of Changing Facts

The facts have been changing a lot with respect to Atlantic Yards. But our “dogmatic” Mayor hasn’t wanted to change his mind and leave the mistake behind.

Our economy changed; not the Mayor’s mind. . . . The megadevelopment’s schedule changed by decades: The Mayor seems to like parking lots which might conceivably be there until he is six feet under. . . . . The project’s cost is up (Beyond what the New York State PACB approved.); by more than 50%. . .. . We’ve gone from a hypocritical Governor Spitzer to Governor Paterson, who has a history of opposing eminent domain abuse. . . . .The flimsy theory of the arena’s tax-exemption was blown.- But the Mayor is willing to embarrassingly have the city unconscionably lobby the IRS to grandfather loopholes and fake real estate tax appraisal figures to try to salvage it. .. Remember: There is no legal or binding obligation for the city or the Mayor to go through relentless gyrations to prop up the project against the public’s interest.

What does it take to change the Mayor’s mind about an acknowledged mistake? Is there no line that the Mayor would not cross in pursuing such a mistake?

Is the Mayor’s inflexible conduct in the face of change what the Mayor means when he talks about `dogmatism’ that makes a person “not very practical or effective”?
...

sign the petition! Visit http://dddb.net/php/petiton.php

DIY Friday- Fused Plastic Bags!

So after a good couple years of having a blast playing with plastic bags I finally got around to fusing them! I don't know what took me so long I guess just having too much fun weaving them. The tutorial on the etsy blog is great, you hafta check that out.














This time around I tried a super simple coin purse. It's convenient to use the plastic sleeves newspapers come in if you're making a teeny little bag like this.














Once you cut the sleeves open and lay them flat you can fold it into little rectangles 8 layers of plastic thick. I tried using less layers like 3 or 4 and it ended up shriveling up and getting holes in it so I'd say go with the 6-8 layers they recommend in the etsy labs how-to.















Another possible reason why my first one shriveled up is I had the iron set too high. I changed the setting to nylon, folded it a few more times and voila success! : )

Recycled Art Series- Joel Spivak

I had a booth at Greenfest Philly earlier this month and had the good fortune of being located next to the booth for the Please Take Materials Exchange. Michael from Please Take was manning the booth and he gave me a list of really great artists who have been connected to the whole Please Take project. (It used to be called C.A.R.P. and i totally forgot what that stood for) So I'm going to do a series of posts on all these inspiring artists. I got to meet Joel Spivak at the fest that day so I'll start with him. : )

Here's some of Joel's latest pieces. They were up at the Bike Part Art Show put on by the Spokes People. This piece is called "My Favorite Shirt"















"Boy Meets Girl"

Friday DIY- Yummy Choclate Chip Zucchini Bread!

Wow it's been awhile since my last post! Since then i got a new job, had my booth over at Greenfest Philly and helped out with my friend Tiffany's (she has a company called RePlayGround) recycled crafts booth among other things keeping me super busy. : )

My new part time job is pretty exciting, I'm working for the 400 Showroom. It's a showroom for several really great sustainable clothing and accessories designers including Bahar Shaphar (one of my bosses :) ), Del Forte, Lara Miller and Ashley Watson just to name a few. I mostly work with the materials library so I get to find out about how all these amazing sustainable textiles are made, including some really innovative materials such as Ingeo and Milkofil. This weekend we're getting ready for D&A so it's been ca-razy busy over there.

Oh and in other news, I'm trying make a shift to being vegetarian. It started out as a bet with my boyfriend to see who could go the longest without eating meat. It wasn't quite fair because he went to visit his mom and grandma three days after we started and his grandma (abuelita Goya :) ) cooks some amazing and meaty dishes. So he lost right away. I haven't had the chance to visit them in awhile, I know when I do it'll be tough to pass up her awesome lomo saltado!



So anyway, let's get to this week's Friday DIY: Choclate Chip Zucchini Bread!


I got this recipe through a link on lime.com.





Ingredients

* 3/4 cup sugar
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup applesauce
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
* 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups finely shredded zucchini (about 1 medium)
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* Cooking spray




Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Stir in applesauce.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, beating just until moist. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack, and remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.





































Nutritional Information

Calories: 161 (29% from fat) Fat: 5.1g (sat 1.6g,mono 1.4g,poly 1.7g) Protein: 2.9g
Carbohydrate: 27.3g Fiber: 1.4g Cholesterol: 27mg Iron: 1.2mg Sodium: 145mg Calcium: 12mg

Yield
16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Saturday Inspirations- Light!

Stuart Haygarth has been designing lighting from colleted and repurposed objects since around 2004. It took 1020 pairs of prescription spectacles to make "Spectacle".

And the "Tide" Chandelier was made from man made objects that washed up on a certain bit of coastline in Kent. http://www.stuarthaygarth.com/



























Michael R. Parent makes interesting art pieces involving steel, fiber optics and encaustic paint.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5683524 Night Sky Fiber optics