summer in athens is time to be creative. it's time to read, garden, journal, yoga, and listen. it's time for myself and it's time for good company.  my lovely roommate and i just started driving yesterday and ended up with some fabulous shots in the country side. here are some of our favorites...

            henna.

    something about frolicking in a field is so very whimsical to me. we also did some henna tattoos the other day. tres magnifique! i think we are going to start working on a collaborative collection so we can have a gallery showing sometime this summer as well, mucho mixed media with lots of pastel-y color family pieces for sure. it feels good to have creative energy flowing all around you, i'm more productive that way. here are some tunes for the moods...

Intro - The XX
The Stroller - Jaill

    here is the article that i wrote in our sustainability publication about vegan cakes.  kind of interesting if you don't know much about vegan baking/cooking, definitely a different lifestyle, not for me, but adding some vegan in your diet can't hurt, it'll only help!

front page. bottom right.

written by moi.

    gah i'm finally done with this quarter, things have been wild but i'm finished! the plants for my garden are growing rapidly already i hope they make it until saturday so i can transplant them when i move! so much packing to do, but i'm going to have a lot of free time to catch up on my shirt making and projects. so here's something i started working on. it's a watercolor series of lovely ladies from each decade, dressed in the clothing from that decade. this is 1990. she's faceless. oops. but that will be worked out soon enough.

 i want her outfit.

    oil is still flowing strong down at the gulf. they are calculating that the flow won't be stopped until august. it was an accident produced by a corporation probably cutting corners and probably not giving a damn about anything else but the benjamins. it was bound to happen in some form or another.  i like to explain it as "the price we have to pay for industrialization and oil dependency".  tragedies like this happen, and they always will as long as we are using resources capable of polluting.  it seems as though everyone is hung up on drilling bp into the ground with the boycotts, protests and jokes, well you can run your mouth about it, or you can do something about it. i believe that we need to support bp in their clean up efforts as well as all other organizations and agencies involved. it's not going to get cleaned up on accusations and complaints, it happened, so now we need to come together and wait to play the blame game until millions of gallons of oil stop shooting into the ocean.  bp will get what they've probably had coming for awhile after the oil has stopped, but the matter at hand is clean-up, not politics, not rage. it's not rocket science that this is a serious problem, and i think i'm safe to say that every employee, down to the cashiers at bp stations, know it. there's nothing wrong with boycotts or protests but we need to support them now, and never let them live it down later.  this is a lesson on sustainability. learn from it and live it because we're stuck with this now, so what better time to start making change in our lifestyles? 

    is this rain every ganna stop? i'm enjoying it for now.  here are some tunes that will make any rainy day a little sweeter :)  or you could just make a milkshake. i think that's what i'm going to do next since colleen just showed up. mmm.  i really love the album leaf though because they're able create such beautiful music without lyrics, perfect for painting or just drifting away into your thoughts.

The Album Leaf - The Light
Kings of Convenience - Me In You
Mathemagic - Breaststroke

   wild week(end)- bicycled to jana's to eat lunch friday and had a delicious crab cake burger! all locally grown or organic food is used in their creations, delicious! farmers market saturday morning to get the ingredients for the mexican corn-tomato chowder and corn bread i made this morning, then hung out with some great people to end the evening!

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    that was last a weekend update.  and this week(end) was/is nutty bizzy. can't wait til it's over. roomie's birfday is this weekend and i am mucho excited to put on some sort of birthday extravaganza, vegan birthday cake? or birthday cupcakes? i have this wondrous recipe for them, gluten-free and all, tasty too. working on a new project, actually a few new projects, one of which you will soon have the ability to purchase... not to be revealed yet though. suspense.

    mmm. made some guac from scratch the other day. i'm in love with fresh cilantro, i use it in everything now.  here's the recipe:

      3 avocados, halved, seeded and peeled

      1 lime, juiced

      1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

      1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

      1/2 teaspoon cayenne

      1/2 medium onion, diced

      2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

      1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

      1 clove garlic, minced

   in a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

     in celebration of the rain, i firmly believe i need these three items...

(when did yucky weather get so darn cute?)

babushki as promised

.watercolor and ink.

hope this cures your 

case of the mondays!

  _____74_____

 if you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
if you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can't achieve.

trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter's place.
when you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chances are that you'll cut your hand.

-lao tzu
from the tao te ching

    some inspirational taoist teachings to get you through the day. it finally stopped raining and started sunning! weekend was fabulous, amy surprised me and came to visit! we went cabrewing, hiking,  ate fabulous food at casa and village bakery, drank fabulous drinks, and enjoyed fabulous conversation and company. should i say how fabulous it was one more time?
    i'm working on a babushka series, not quite done, it will probably be up tomorrow. the busyness is slowing finally, just to pick back up again next week, thankful for the week off at the office of sustainability though. reduce reuse recycle. i realized the other day, while taking the recycling out that i really enjoy it. i thought about the things that they'll make out of a plastic bottle i tossed in the recycling bin. kind of cool. it's one of those activities you feel good doing, not like taking out the trash, for example. it's stinky and won't ever decompose, it just accumulates, sits in a heap and produces methane. i feel better throwing apple cores and banana peels in the grass or out the window than in the garbage if i can't compost. that organic matter won't break down for decades in a landfill, weird and unsettling.
    speaking of sustainability, earth month 2k10 just wound down. it was super successful and i was honored to be apart of it. there were so many activities for free! clothing swap, michael pollan's presentation, vegan cooking workshops, planter painting, campus consciousness, vegan cake decorating workshop (which i'm writing an article about in the sustainability publication! excitement!), etc.

  here are some tunes for a day like today...

Lily Allen - Everybody's Changing (Keane Cover)
Ratatat - Alps