What I might not be able to justify

40% off at NAU- I have a coat problem!
Might be a little too wintry for my Spring trip...
Maybe I'll buy it for him...I'll wear it until I find him in Florence! My husband will soooo not buy my plan...also where in the world does that fit into my "packing light" scheme.....ah decisions!
Dead sexy though, isn't it?

Reduce plastics Reuse bags Recycle material

I made a commitment this month to try as hard as possible to avoid any new plastic to enter my life. This is ridiculously difficult. I knew, though, that if I didn't try it in extremes I wouldn't be able to significantly reduce my habit. Frozen artichokes...my favorite? What to do? They come in a nifty and wasteful frozen food package....do you know how long it would take to process that many artichoke hearts and freeze them? I shudder at the thought. Alternative fiber....the search is on.
I have slipped a few times...mostly in just not noticing all those ubiquitous little plastic items like a tiny straw in my vodka tonic, the cellophane in a bag of candy, LIDS!
It's funny, some times the anti-plastic choice might not be the most healthful choice or the lowest waste option or certainly even the least economical. Milk cartons vs. plastic gallon? I guess I need to subscribe to milk delivery...we have raw milk services around here...
Also salad bar in a clam shell plastic container from the grocery store or a sandwich from subway wrapped only in paper? Carbs? Can I bring my own bowl to the store? How would they weigh it? I'm not trying to ought eco anyone... just trying to get my waste into check.
Some things are easy: ice cream in a cone not a bowl and plastic spoon...I remember being confronted by this choice over the weekend and then opting out of both and settling for a bite of my kiddos dessert.
I'm a chewing gum nut...yikes. Will I be gnawing on fresh mint from now on?

So for my little person's lunch...I refuse to have anymore little disposable baggies...the guilt is too much. Waxed paper only works for a few items and is not re-usable. I thought about reusable oil cloth containers....of course ETSY had them! These oil cloth bags from Rickrack Queen are exactly what I was looking for...perfect for turkey or cheese slices, edamame, apple slices, anything slightly moist.

hmmm...maybe not edamame out of the pod...they might escape. Or juicy blackberries....

Love these from Evelynfields
the plain ones in packs of 10 are very affordable. It reminds me of Laura Ingalls and their little lunch pails and cheesecloth wrapped sandwiches...so sweet.

there are quite a few larger commercial bags out there too...not a huge fan of nylon...but these could work for some items.

The nasty trash pool in our beautiful Pacific ocean....I don't want to add to this grunge.
Plastic is not sustainable...especially when we toss it out. I must funnel my creative energy into alternatives! Not being preachy, just letting you know what obsession has struck me lately. My wastefulness is really ugly.

gross!

Deconstructing music, art, and my kid's skirt

Have you heard the KCRW's Guest DJ Project? FANTASTIC. The premise is having non-musician type celebrities share 5 of their most influential songs...I think most guests come in with 20 or so and have to painfully whittle away at their list until they get it down to 5. Great project, great stories. Jennie Lewis and the Watson Twins are featured on Ms. Silverman's list and Loretta Lynn's "The Pill" is on Sarah Vowel's.
What would yours be?

My favorite guest DJ's are 1st and foremost, Sarah Vowel and her hysterical and smart musical choices, then Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and even the oh-so-cutey batootey John Cusack, who can take himself a tad too seriously.....

On another note entirely.....

Bettina Hubby , who I read about originally in the New York Times Magazine, makes the most amazing clothes/artwork. I especially love her deconstructed jackets. She did a necklace made entirely of designer clothing tags. From her site:

All of Hubby's work is one-of-a-kind. Each piece is made from a garment that
already exists. She works primarily on a project-to-project basis and enjoys the
challenge of presenting work in new ways. Hubby’s practice revolves around
recycling loved garments from her client's wardrobes and reinventing pristine
vintage and concept for her collections.

I recently finished making an A line skirt for my daughter that is so bad it's good...it's still pretty because she is bewildered by anything other than that. The teenage girls at her school, "the tall girls" as she refers to them, sometimes wear clothes that don't match and that are often "humongo." She keeps asking me why in the world they do that! To her they are pretty girls who CHOOSE to wear tight brown leggings, sneakers and greenand black tops...some of them even wear preposterously small pony tails in short hair! Her favorite babysitter would be perfect except that she insists on sporting holes in the knees of her jeans...can you imagine?

I surprised her by bringing out a few photographs of my outfits from the eighties...oh the horror! She liked the prom dress but that's about where it ended.

These days you should see the joy in her eyes when I actually wear a dress...it's almost worth the trouble.