Damn you Erika!

I just spent $25 thanks to you (not counting the other $40 in books that I had to get at the same time). I'd already given up cross stitching fifteen years ago, but no, I just had to pick up yet another hobby. The list of projects I currently have going:

- New cross stitch Black Eyed Susans
- Skew socks 50%
- Vampire BF socks 25%
- Wedding shawl (for wedding this saturday) 25%
- Sweater, 2" to be frogged
- purple spinning 75%
- new green spinning
- Swap #2 project, purchased
- Swap #3 project, purchased

not to mention the lotions I have to research.

[recipe] Bruschetta

This is what I'm having for breakfast today ^_^
Ok, nothing revolutionary, but damn is it good!

Previous day:
- four or five tomatoes on the vine
- a sprig of fresh basil
- balsamic vinegar
- olive oil
- salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Chop and mix, and let sit over night.

This morning:
- baguette, sliced on the diagonal
- Cabbots Seriously Sharp Vermont Cheddar, sliced

Place bread on tray and toast in oven at 400 for a few minutes. Meanwhile, slice the cheese, which is then placed on the toasted bread and stuck back in the oven to melt. When gooey, spoon tomato mixture on top. Nom. Try not to scrape your gumms on the toast, like the klutz I am.

Adventures in Smelly Hippie Land

Last night I managed to make deodorant! I started off with angry chicken's recipe, but omitted the cacao butter because the smell is too intense for me (and the vitamine E that I forgot to steal from Amalthea). So why did I have any desire to make my own deodorant?

• - I absolutelymotherfuckinghate scented deodorants. They nauseate me! For the past five years or so, I've been exclusively using Arm and Hammer Baking Soda's unscented antiperspirant, and it has worked for the most part. Except for
• - every once in a while, I will feel a sharp pain in my armpit, like a clogged pore or something.
• - Also, I will still smell after I exercise, no matter how often I reapply.

So what did I use?

• 1 TBS shea butter
• 2/5 TBS corn starch
• 3/5 TBS baking soda
• - melt in the microwave for 30 seconds, checking every 10 that it doesn't boil over.
• - mix well and place in fridge to set
• - a small pea size or less is enough per arm pit (I scrape it with the back of my fingernail and the shard is enough). It will melt very well with body heat.

So I think I put this through the ultimate test. I showered last night and cleaned off the spoon on my pits. I slept in a furnace, and ran many errands in a car that was hotter than deep fried ass. Afterwards, I played two hours of futbol in the damned sun.

Verdict?
At first, my pits felt a bit swampy. The shea butter was too greasy, so I will probably add more dry products next time. But the important thing is that I DON'T SMELL! Like, seriously! After all that, I feel awesome! Ok, now that it's been about three hours since my game, my armpits smell a bit, if I really, really sniff at them. Huzzah!

Things I want to make someday*

*but probably never will. Or it will take me several years to get around to them.

In Mexico, there is a gubernatorial agency in charge of consumer affairs (PROFECO) that analyzes products and grades them, and then offers recipes on how to make them for super cheap! (unfortunately, not all are from scratch, and go for an emphasis on cheap rather than hippie) I remember watching a show about ten years ago on how to make chapstick and lotion!

Here is a "short" list I just compiled of some of the cool things I want to make. Mind you, the links are in spanish. I plan on eventually adding notes, specifying if they can be made naturally.

- Cajeta (video)
- Dulce de Mango (video)
- Marmalade (video)
- Rompope (video)
- Soy Milk (podcast)

Personal product master list
- After Sun Cream (video)
- Antiperspirant (text)
- Bug Spray (video)
- Face Tonic (video)
- Hair Gel (video)
- Hair Wax (video)
- Liquid Hand Soap (video)
- Mascara (video)
- Shaving Cream (video)
- Shoe Deodorant (audio)
- Vick's Vapor Rub (video)

- Insecticide (video)
- Kitchen Cleaner (video)
- Play Dough (video)

Activism Powers Activate!

There are many causes I hold close to my heart: Queer rights, proper education, empowerment of children through music; pretty much anything that helps people be equal and responsible. I've gotten many comments from passersby that see me knitting that I should join Knitivism, but like I stated in an older post, I prefer to actually -do- something with my activism, not just lecture people on how they are wrong (or how people in some country they have no idea about are OMG suffering!!!!1!!one!).


Queue the tree-hugging. Having been born in 1980, I was a proud Planeteer (I know I have my membership card still in a box at my moms house). I wrote a paper for a competition in elementary school about how trash trucks should be divided so we can separate our trash (I wonder if it already existed back then, or if some high-up stole my idea... hmmm...) and I am militant when it comes to reduction of consumption and waste. If you come to my house, don't you dare ask for a paper towel, and you better have carpooled!

The reason I am so passionate about this is that this is something I am actually DOING. I am actively turning off all the lights in the buildings at school that I find not being used. I pick bottles out of the trash and put them in the recycling bin. I pick up trash (even a measly little rusted bottle cap) when I go hiking. I reuse dishes many times before washing them, much to the dismay of my friend Amalthea's mom, Judy.

Poor Judy. You do not want two treehuggers together, because Hippiness Increases Exponentially(TM)! Last weekend was Amalthea's brother's graduation, and we put Judy through hell buying the decorations. I love her dearly, but she is very much of the school of making a big show with tonnes of decorations. Did I tell you that Amalthea and I are a bit militant at times? We managed to convince her to buy very bland and boring compostable sugar cane plates and dissolvable corn starch flatware, and nothing else that was disposable.

So this last week helped me remember a slew of things "I've been meaning to do" for several years now, and since Amalthea started a hippie blog, I feel guilty and I kind of feel I need to step it up. So today I started no-pooing, and I should be making in a bit the deodorant that I found a recipe for several months ago through a slew of blogs. If I'm lucky, this weekend we'll start a compost ^_^ (Dan also planted an apple tree in the yard this weekend, which I'm sad because I was in NJ and couldn't help)

Wish me luck!