Pinz

I used leftover fabric from Christmas presents to make these hairpins for my sister. I think they're pretty cute. The tutorial, from Kayte Terry, is available here. I stuck pretty closely to the tutorial, except I didn't cut the top circle like she suggests.

Lazy Samoas

I keep telling myself I'm going to take a break from baking cookies. But then my mom went and bought me coconut oil...


The Lazy Samoas, like all of the cookies I've been making lately, come from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Cookies from scratch always taste better. No offense, Girl Scouts.

ATTN: Portlanders

I'm still not sure what i'm going to bake for the Vegan Bakesale for Haiti this weekend, but I'm pretty excited. According to Isa Chandra Moskowitz, $10,000 has been raised for Haiti through vegan bake sales worldwide. I think that's cool.

RIP Howard Zinn

The death of an author can be, in my opinion, a really beautiful thing. Death can be such a reminder of life; when we hear that someone like Howard Zinn has died, what do we do? Well, bookstores order more of his books. Many of us who never got around to reading A People's History pick it up. His words and ideas take over newspapers, the internet. Howard Zinn is dead, but the rest of us are provided with an opportunity to take his ideas and run with them.

It's amazing that he was still working so hard for a just world at his age. Just a few short weeks before his death he very effectively called out Obama on being not that different from the other guys. I was planning to see him speak in Olympia in a couple weeks. Instead, I am honoring his death and feeling inspired once again from reading a recent essay of his, The Optimism of Uncertainty.


"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don’t 'win', there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile....The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." -Howard Zinn

Drip drip drop.

Sometimes a mess of materials can be just as pretty as the finished project, don't you think?


I am sleepy after an evening of drawing and writing letters. I think I will probably fall asleep while watching my new favorite TV show, Glee.

My second hat!

Annie was knitting this hat when she came to visit me over New Years weekend, and she made it look like a cinch. My first time knitting cables. So easy! I guess a lot of these things are once you just try them out.


I knit this hat for my sister, who isn't allowed to wear it to school because apparently if you wear a hat at Camas High School you might be in a gang... But she did say she'd wear it to the bus stop and over the weekends.


The pattern is available for free on ravelry.

I can.

I saw this t-shirt at Powell's the other day and I kind of love it. 1...because double entrendres are awesome. 2...because I was reminded of the delicious canned fruits and vegetables stored away in the garage. I took them out today and in the dead of winter I am reminded of early mornings at the Bellingham Farmer's Market, and sunny days spent preserving food in the kitchen before going to Lake Padden for an early evening swim.
This week I am eating pickled cucumbers, pickled roasted peppers, pickled beets, and applesauce. Here's to food, especially the kind that grows around here.

Hey Buddies

I've become a big fan of sewing these days. I have found two quite lovely jobs in the Portland area that still leave me with lots of time to do things I enjoy, such as sewing (also: knitting, friending, eating $1 vegan corndogs, trying to find the perfect house, seeing authors I like speak at Powells). Perhaps I will show you what I've been doing someday soon. Meanwhile, I will keep posting cute pictures.

"Cookies Need No Introduction"

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar has kind of invaded my life. Cookie making is nice cause mixing everything in a bowl and baking it for ten minutes is so easy. And vegan cookie making is nice cause my mom keeps saying she can't tell the difference, which is kind of an accomplishment.

I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows first.

And then last night I made Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, which Buddy the dog really wanted to try. I don't usually tease my dog like this, I swear. I've kind of had a thing for Spicy Chili Chocolate Bars lately, and these are basically the same thing in cookie form.


Tonight I made the chocolate chip cookies. We ate them while playing speed scrabble.

Everyone was happy. Cause that's what cookies (and scrabble, and dogs) do. They make you happy.

End Petlessness

Dammit, Oregon Humane Society.

How can I not get a kitten after seeing that commercial?

Chocolate Avocado Cake with Avocado Cream Cheese Frosting

So, I'm 24!

It happened a few weeks ago. I ate some really good food and received some really nice presents and one of my very best friends came to visit. I felt like turning fourteen instead of twenty-four, so we made avocado face masks and later fell asleep watching Clueless on the rec room floor.


In addition to the avocado face masks, I decided to put some in my birthday cake. I know this sounds weird, but it's kind of amazing. Recipe inspired by one found here.

The Cake:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup soft avocado, extremely mashed (about 1 medium avocado)
• 2 cups water
• 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8-inch rounds and set aside. Sift together all of the dry ingredients in a bowl except the sugar. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, avocado, water, white vinegar and vanilla. Add sugar to the wet mix and stir. Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth. Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick passes the test. Let the cakes cool in pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting with the avocado cream cheese frosting.

The Avocado Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1/4 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 3 tablespoons very ripe mashed avocado
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (to prevent the avocado from turning brown)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together margarine and cream cheese until just combined. Use a handheld mixer to whip, add the confectioners' sugar in 1/2 cup batches. Mix until smooth, then blend in the avocado, lemon juice, and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.


Cover the cake in frosting and see if anyone can guess what it's made out of.

Important Occassions

The last month has been busy. December always is. My birthday, Christmas, New Years. This Sunday marks my three year anniversary with Joel, and I have a job interview that I'm very unprepared for scheduled on the same day.

It's been hard to find time to sit down, but I've been jotting down ideas and goals in a notebook that I keep in my purse. A few weeks ago, I challenged myself to think of twenty-four things that I want to do before I turn twenty-five. My sister, who also just had a birthday, wrote down fifteen things she's going to do before she turns sixteen. I was a bit jealous of her young age at first, thinking there was no way I'd come up with twenty-four things to do. Turns out...WAY easier than I expected.

My list:

1. start a vegetable garden
2. make a cookzine
3. sell something that i make
4. learn a new card game
5. take spanish lessons
6. ride my bike a long distance
7. make my own soy jerky
8. help someone else accomplish a life goal
9. take a photo every day for a year
10. send more letters and packages
11. knit socks
12. get good at remembering birthdays
13. write a song with my sister
14. paint on a canvas
15. make a fancy cake
16. become a bee keeper
17. sew a dress
18. make a short film
19. make another zine
20. follow a complicated tutorial from ReadyMade
21. have a cookie party
22. make an elaborate costume for procession of the species
23. sew my own underwear
24. barter

I like this list. Individual projects feel realistic and attainable, as opposed to the somewhat ambiguous "loose weight/get organized/be happy" resolutions I've gone with in the past.