December 30, 2009

Milk in a Bag = EcoMilk



When I was in the fourth grade Sea Road Elementary School, our lovely and ever so eco-friendly janitor went on a mission to change the world to be “more green.” Some might say he was a true visionary. Along with recycling bins, he brought us “milk in a bag.” No longer would we suffer through the complicated process of opening a cardboard carton: the bags were here. They were a combination of Capri Sun and Ziploc bags… and weird looking. “Milk in bag” was a lot less wasteful, easier to ship to schools and virtually indestructible. Our eco-janitor proved this by throwing a milk bag across the cafeteria as a demonstration. You can imagine the faces of a few hundred fourth graders when we discovered a new water balloon would be provided every day at lunch. Needless to say, the milk bags didn’t last very long at the elementary school. Or anywhere else for that matter.

But being eco-friendly is in now. Most of the commercials on TV talk about two things: Saving the Economy/money or saving the planet. Recycling has never been so trendy. Design is reflecting a cleaner, simplistic look and organic colors like brown are in again. Little fact: last time the color “Champagne” was the most popular car color was during the recession of the late 70’s. Look on the road now. You’ll see a lot more tan cars.

And back to my odd little story. I recently came across this European production company called Ecoclean (http://www.ecolean.com/) that has essentially redesigned “Milk in a bag” The design has been hugely popular in the design community and was give 4.28 stars out of 5 from Dieline.com. It’s not only eco-friendly, but also cost efficient. So will this come back in style and the efforts of my elementary school janitor not wasted? I’m not sure we’ll all be pouring milk from a bag on our morning cereal anytime soon, but it does make us think about the cost of production on our environment.  And new ways to design while being eco-friendly.




December 27, 2009

The embroidered pillow I made for my mom.


Here at our house, I like to make a few gifts. So this year, I got the design from Andrea Zuill's amazing blog, Bad Bird, and made this pillow. Part hand embroidery, part sewing machine magic. Removable seams for taking the pillow sham out for washing as well.

Some of my own original designed patterns will be coming up soon!! 

The Muddy Warrior Mask Mixture

My organic "mud" mask recipe:

I know it looks absolutely disgusting, but I promise it's amazing.  And easy. And you're welcome for yet another girly moment.

2 tablespoons of coffee grounds.
3 tablespoons of baking powder
1 tablespoon of natural honey
1/2 tablespoon of sea salt.

Mix and now you have a face mask that makes your skin feel awesome. 

The film, Valentine's Day = Love Actually 2 with bad cameos.

Ughhhh... Why must Americans copy everything the British do well? Love Actually was pretty good, but this movie just looks like too many overpaid actors each with their own sub-par sub-plots. And let's throw in Taylor Swift AND Taylor Lautner because those two are so IN right now. Vampires are in too. Want to add a Vampire storyline in too?

To say how I feel about this movie from only the preview could accurately be described by the reaction of my most recent movie theater audience. This is a true story.

Scene:
Audience sitting patiently in the cramped movie theater. While chewing on popcorn and sipping on pop, the lights go dark and the preview begins.
Audience doesn't laugh at "funny" moments in preview.
After the narrator announces each of the names of around 100 or so semi-ok actors and a C+ actors... the audience sighs.
Obviously overwhelmed, the audience is annoyed by the over-casting and starts murmuring:
"Definitely a rental."
"Ugh... Jamie Fox was good in Ray. What happened here?"
"That's a lot of salaries."

I probably won't be seeing this Oscar winning piece.



December 25, 2009

And this was from the weird fortune cookie...

Merry Christmas,

  This was in my fortune cookie. Yes, we had Chinese on Christmas. Yes, we went to the movies. No, my mother is Catholic.

A Christmas Story Chinese Restaurant Scene

This Christmas, we went to the movies and had Chinese food. One of the top Christmas memories, besides shooting Champagne bottles at the weird neighbor's house.

December 22, 2009

Santa is a little creepy.


My mom keeps this picture up year round. I was probably 2 years old? And terrified. 

Happy Festivus to Mrs. Russo


Some hardcore Christmas fanatic put this in the local newspaper. I'm 1) amazed that someone spent the money to do this and 2) contemplating sending her a menorah.

a seattle agency's holiday card

Wexley's little white elephant gave me a picture of David Hasslehoff!

Click here to play!

December 20, 2009

My wish list.

Besides world peace and the ability to fly...
 Here are a few of my favorite things (that will not be under my tree unless I buy them myself.)

I don't necessarily want this thousand dollar harmonica, but a harmonica would be nice in general. And red one piece long underwear is just essential for the holiday season anyways. I love plaid. And chia pets. And a vintage cat clock would go great with my 50's style bar stool.

December 15, 2009

My love for Eric Hutchinson

Two years ago, I got hooked on this great musician named Eric Hutchinson.

I saw him play at this bar in Atlanta two years ago and he was amazing. It was small, no one knew who he was back then and it was fantastic. It was so amazing and fantastic that I actually did something I never EVER do: I messaged a "famous" person.

Let me first say that the last time I tried to contact a famous person was in Mrs. Harvey's sixth grade class. We had an assignment to write to a famous person. While some kids wrote to the president and to Blossom, I wrote to Danny Devito to tell him that I still appreciated his acting ability regardless that he was in Twins.  DeVito never wrote back but some kid in my class got sneakers sent from Magic Johnson. (By the way, Click here to see the Blossom Intro in Spanish)

First let me say that I think its wicked lame when people try to contact an entertainer. Don't @Obama or @MeryllStreep.  They're busy.  But at the time, I wasn't really liking Atlanta (at all) and his music was what I listened to ALL the time. So I wrote him to say thanks for writing great music.

And he wrote back. Wrote a wicked nice message.

Not going to lie, it was pretty awesome. And further made me like this musician even more. Taking time for the fans? Pretty sweet. Now he's probably too big for that, but it was still great.


And I thought I would write about this today because on three separate radio stations and at three separate times, his song "Oh" played.

December 13, 2009

TABITHA

whenever I feel like I need to "go to the mattresses," I channel my inner Tabitha.

She's amazing. Wouldn't want to be on her bad side though.

December 11, 2009

JMU Flash Mob Rave Party at East Campus Library 2009 (HD)

Ahhh college. I love how JMU takes finals week and makes it into the best party ever. Only the dukes can do that.

December 10, 2009

Fabutext: Awesomely written technology

Message from Caroline:
9:12 pm Thurs. December 10:
Phyllis is Santa.

The decade according to 9 Year olds

My favorite is when the kids have no clue what an internet dial tone sounds like...


Watch here.

AWESOME.

December 7, 2009

What I do in the 20 minutes of free time I get a week...


I made a flyer for a local dj here... just because he's pretty good. And while the rest of Maine thinks that Kanye's Graduation album just came out, this guy actually plays some relevent stuff.

I love these illustrations... and they're from a cookbook.

You think Rachel Ray's books look like this? Probably not.

December 4, 2009

My bum finger.


Today at work, I sliced my finger with an exacto knife. It bled for 25 minutes. Nevermind the chipped nail polish please.

No worries- my hand still fit in my mitten so I was able to get all bundled up and go sing christmas carrolls for Prelude Weekend in Kennebunkport.

December 1, 2009

What's the difference between....Thoughts of the day.

Portland, Oregon vs. Portland, Maine....
the Snugglie vs. the Slanket
Cheerios vs. Weird organic stuff I stupidly bought in shape of O's
The apartment on the West End vs. The apartment on the East End


hmmm.