Monday Mix #39: Stars Hide Your Fires

Last night's show

Hello hello all, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I finally got around to seeing How to Train Your Dragon (a-MA-zing!) and last night I went to the Mumford and Sons show!

I'd like to apologize in advance for how many times I will probably mention these guys over the next week. You know when you see one of those great shows and you just want to keep listening to their music over and over again? This was one of those shows. And I bet by the end of the week you'll love them as much as I do. Wickedly talented guys with great instrumentation and amazing vocals that put on an incredible live show.

The Middle East opened for them. I had never heard of them before but quite enjoyed them and bought their sampler CD.

Have a good week!

The Curse

This video for Josh Ritter's "The Curse" off his latest album was conceived and directed by drummer Liam Hurley of the Royal City Band (who also helped to create the puppets and sets). The song is a love story between an archaeologist and a mummy. There's a little blurb about the making of this video on NPR's All Songs Considered blog right here.

Lebanese food is good good

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On Wednesdays I meet my friend Anna after work downtown for dinner to catch up (at least until early June when she leaves for her internship with Disney!) so this week I picked Nuba Cafe at Main and 3rd in Vancouver. This was my first experience with Lebanese food but I had read really good things about Nuba on Ethnic Eats.

I think making cauliflower anything but bland is a pretty difficult task but my meal was a-ma-zing. I got the Najib's Special plate which came with baked cauliflower tossed in lemon juice and sea salt, pita, hummus, tabbouleh, and choice of potatoes or rice (sort of what is pictured below but I didn't want to be a big dork taking pictures of my food).

I'm now mildly obsessed with Middle Eastern food and was scoping out the parsley plants we sell at work so I can make my own tabbouleh.

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Wednesday wigwam

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There are no synonyms for "song" that start with W I tell you! And "wigwam" is such a magnificent word. (I kind of want to concoct a W monologue now a la V for Vendetta).

Blog has been quiet for a few weeks now, sorry. Here are a few songs I've been listening to over the last little while. Have a good Wednesday, everyone!

A library is not a luxury, it is one of the necessaries of life.

This tumblr is pretty much magical. (Plus it uses my favourite typeface).

via you are my fave

Pesto alla Trapanese

This was a quick dinner that I whipped up at the beginning of the week. Dad found the recipe from the genius team at America's Test Kitchen. So easy and so good.


PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE
(from America's Test Kitchen)

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup slivered almonds
12 oz cherry or grape tomatoes (about 2 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed (about 1 teaspoon)
**1 small pepperoncini (hot peppers in vinegar), stemmed, seeded, and minced
Pinch of salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 lb pasta

1. Toast almonds in small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until pale golden and fragrant, 2 to 4 minutes. Cool almonds to room temperature.


2. Process cooled almonds, tomatoes, basil, garlic, pepperoncini, salt, and red pepper flakes (if using) in food processor until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. With machine running, slowly drizzle in oil, about 30 seconds.



3. Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water; drain pasta and transfer back to cooking pot.


4. Add pesto to pasta and toss until coated, adjusting consistency with reserved pasta cooking water. Serve immediately.

** A half teaspoon of red wine vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes an be substituted for the pepperoncini.

"Just look at it. All so... f***ing green!"

Driving Lessons anyone?

Sorry my posting has been sort of spotty. First full week back working at the garden center and every night I seriously crash at 9:30 I'm so tired from running around all day at work. I rented three movies on Wednesday (Ponyo, Where the Wild Things Are, and Coco Avant Chanel) and I have yet to finish watching any of them because I keep falling asleep!

Here are a few things I spotted this week:

I've been hearing frogs around the pond at work for the past few days but didn't see one until yesterday. This little dude was hiding in a flat of pots that I was rearranging that wasn't even near the pond. I decided to place the pot beside the pond but then the frog didn't move for the rest of the day (at least a good solid 3 hours). I started to wonder if it was on some great trek eastward and I screwed up all his plans by moving him west to pond.

This coleus looks like it's from outer space. Love it.

I work in freaking Fern Gully. Seriously.
This is only a small small fraction of the garden center.
(Hi mom!)

A robin egg I found in a hydrangea bush.

Would you like fries with that?

This awesome awesome throw pillow set was featured in an Etsy newsletter I received today.

Did I mention that it's awesome?

Ole

Lame title, I know, but I have to leave for work in five. (Return of Monday Mix later!)

I was researching papel picados last week because I wanted to make some and found all of these beautiful pictures to share. Papel picados are my favourite summer decoration—so colourful, intricate and airy. Making them, however, is going to be another matter entirely.

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Clap your hands say yeah

It's Friday, thank god (but I work on Saturday so not really). Maybe I should keep this in mind tomorrow if I get stuck doing any particularly tedious jobs at work....

This amazing song was on a mix that Liz linked me the other day. It's music created by four postal workers in Ghana to pass the time while canceling stamps.

It's like a concert tour but with sketchbooks.

I read about this awesome project on Pret a Voyager the other day and am now eagerly awaiting my sketchbook in the mail! Basically, the skinny on this is that you order a sketchbook from a theme of your choice (but space is limited so be sure to get your butt over there to make sure you get the theme of your choice!) and can fill the pages with whatever you would like to go along with your theme. (I chose "Lights in the distance"). Send your sketchbook back by January 15, 2011 and they will go on a nationwide tour. You will get a tracking number so you can keep tabs on where your sketchbook is and how many people have viewed it.

You can check out this map to see who has already signed up and where they are from.

I'm back

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Boom baby.

What a show-off

Milwaukee is super dreary today but I just wanted to share this shot of my backyard from yesterday morning. It's kind of ridiculous how gorgeous it is right now.

See you soon

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Packing now.

Homeward bound soon.

This and that

Dear blog, I am sorry for neglecting you. But finals are over now and we can be united once again.

Sweet sweet summer vacation is here but I keep getting that nagging feeling that I have forgotten something and feeling guilty for being unproductive.

So, my friends know that I have a tab problem—a Firefox tab problem that is. I will open links in new tabs like nobody's business and then leave them there for days....or in this case weeks. But, I have good reason for this! I know that if I bookmark something, I will never look at it again. Out of sight, out of mind. So I will keep it open in a new tab until I have time to look at it properly. Hence, the extreme tab build-up over finals time—but now I have a bunch of cool things to share!

(Sadly, I have long forgotten which links were opened from where so I can't give proper credit. Sorry to the awesome people who introduced me to these things)

No Impact Man started out in 2007 as a blog by Colin Beavan about his year-long project to develop a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle for him and his family. The blog is still on-going and it was later turned into a film (on netflix instant watch!) and a book.

This illustration by Annika Backstrom is pretty much everything I love. Trees, tea, onion domes, and the ocean.

My French is absolutely terrible borderline non-existent but that has not stopped me from enjoying the world travels of this man.

Uppercase is a quarterly Canadian publication chockfull of gorgeous work.

This sketching generator makes it look like you've spent hours on doodles.

Plus some recently discovered blogs that I finally have time to stalk read:

Modish
The Dainty Squid
The Cherry Blossom Girl
Here's Lookin' At Me Kid
If Charlie Parker was a Gunslinger, There'd Be A Whole Lot of Dead Copycats
(the incongruous line-length of this drives me bonkers.....)

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Have a wonderful Sunday and a good Mother's Day, everyone! Mine will be spent doing some laundry and packing in preparation for being homeward bound on Tuesday.

Oh so close.

The end of the semester is within my grasp! Only two more days of classes and three more projects to complete before sweet freedom. And sleep.

Countless hours and sugary caffeinated beverages went in to producing these posters that I turned in today. I'm about 90% happy with them and plan to tweak them further this summer. I really love illustrating architecture, though, and plan on pursuing more projects like this.

Gourmet, how I miss thee.

I am so making this once strawberry season arrives.

(via abbey goes design scouting)

Hey come back

This illustration by Liz King made me laugh.

In progress

Haven't posted for a couple of days and just wanted to share an in-progress poster with you. This is part of a series for my mini-thesis that I mentioned a while back. It's a series of 16x20 travel posters and I'm getting really excited to see them almost competed.

It's my final week as a college junior. Bananas.