Ross spun some sick records, we ate some veggie burgers, and everything was beautiful.  I just wanted to take the opportunity (I meant to do this a couple days ago on our one month wedding anniversary but my family has been here for Thanksgiving and I haven’t had the time) to post some photos of the set-up from the morning of the wedding and all the work Daisy put in with her ladies to put it all together.

 

Now that we’re through the wedding, I wanted to take a second and post images of our invites. No fancy hand-printing techniques (except the seal stamped on the envelope) on these bad boys, but I still think they’re pretty gorgeous.

I’m not actually much of a hacker (one that repurposes or combines everyday items into something of their own design) but if the dozens of user videos are any kind of evidence, Sugru might turn out to be the biggest thing since duct tape. I’ve seen a solid variety of uses from building custom grips on a camera to repairing broken knives. My only real gripe with Sugru is the price at 18$ for a 12-pack of multi-color of 20$ for a pack of black and white, so I’ll probably stick with super-glue, epoxy, or grout for my home improvement needs.

Still. Impressed.

This first batch fed us for a dinner and two lunches (chili always gets better for leftovers after its had some time to marinate with the seasonings) for right around $5 worth of ingredients. I’d call that efficient, but that’s not all a good chili can offer. Variety is also key. Even just substituting chili beans for kidney — better yet using both — or cayenne pepper for chili powder can have a drastic effect on the final product. Our first attempt this year had white onion, tomato sauce, red beans, tvp (we’re vegetarians so this helps add some variety to the texture), green pepper, and corn.

You’re going to have to come up with your own suite of spices because I don’t think I could ever remember how much and what we throw in. It just comes down to oral and olfactory instinct. No matter what ends up in it, I love the scent of a simmering pot of chili wafting through the apartment on a frigid winter day.

Sunday night we roasted a squash to go with some spinach and mushroom pasta that we planned to take in our lunches the next day. I love having squash in the fall for a couple reasons. The first obviously is its price this time of year as a dollar or two worth is more than enough for two. It’s also mindlessly easy to prepare — it can take an hour or so in the oven but doesn’t need to be touched at all while it roasts — and its long, slow cooking makes it perfect for when the days start getting shorter and a chill falls over the kitchen.   This a pretty good photo for a his and hers dinner actually. You may be able to guess that the squash on the left is Daisy’s, with a slab of butter and loaded with brown sugar. Mine has a half-size slice of butter, seasoned salt, ground black pepper, and crushed red cayenne pepper. Sweet and savory, a lot like our personality’s.

Preparing the squash is easy enough: cut it  in half, scoop out the seeds, place seed-side down in a roasting pan with half an inch of water in the bottom, and leave in the oven at around 400 for a while.

And tomorrow: first chili of the season.

I pride myself in being a responsible consumer. I try not to buy more than is necessary in my life. I feel the weight in every purchase and its effect on my life as well as the world at large. I would prefer to do all of my furniture shopping with boutique-style retailers like CB2 and West Elm or even with individual craftsmen, but my budget so rarely affords such luxury, that I find myself time and again flipping through the IKEA catalogue, looking for the best solution to my needs.

This is my second year living in same apartment. I haven’t lived in the same place for so long since leaving home for college six years ago and thus have never had such a desire to improve and build upon what I already have. It may be this new perspective that has led to my overall disappointment in the 2012 catalogue, but when looking back at last year’s issue I can’t help but think the proportion of beautifully photographed, well-curated spaces has been taken over by page upon page of sterile images depicting the same bureau with a dozen different shelving configurations and finishes. My place is no longer a blank slate, and I’m no longer feeling so inspired by the IKEA catalogue the way I was last year.

My reservations concerning the catalogue are trivial in comparison to the paradigm shift I’ve recently experienced by finally re-signing a lease. I know I will find myself looking for inspiration through alternative venues. Apartment Therapyis a great place to find everything home (or smaller space) improvent. Spanning everything from DIY restoration to local listings for second-hand furniture and house visits, it’s an impressive collection of daily inspiration for how to use our limited space better.

Design Sponge focuses more on DIY projects but I’ve seen a lot of idea for textiles and decor that could go along way toward filling our small space with character, and Coolhunting is another all-purpose stop for good design and inspiring projects from a wide variety of media. It’s to these curators that I will turn my eye this year to make my home.

I haven’t done any finishing on the box yet, but I really like the combination of sealed pine and blue-paint in the second photo. I will probably end up with some combination of these finishes, but I’ll be sure to post more pictures as I work on it over the next week or so.

Between work, planning a wedding, and finding different work, I don’t have the time or attention to sit down and get through an entire novel in any kind of reasonable time frame. Luckily, I’ve been the recent recipient of a few outstanding books that lend well to my frantic home life. For Christmas, Daisy gave me a copy of ‘Grow Great Grub’ by Gayla Trail which is all about organic gardening with a focus on small, urban spaces. As the resident of a third floor apartment with almost no direct sunlight, I need to look for gardening possibilities in unlikely places. Our fire escape and windowsills are slowly filling up with vegetables and herbs, and I’ve been inspired to start building a planter to sit outside the kitchen window with some wood scraps scavenged from an old bed frame. Hopefully, I’ll have more on that project later. ‘Grow Great Grub’ is a wealth of inspiration for anyone looking to add some vibrancy to their household or wanting to take a giant step toward self-sufficiency. The book is organized by plant families, and the entries include: optimal growing conditions, tips for warding off pests, harvest instructions, and the occasional recipe. Trail challenges us to lead a socially (and ecologically) responsible life by limiting our consumption and maintaining a sustainable lifestyle regardless of our restricted space.

 ‘Lucid Food’, a cookbook focusing on seasonal dishes, by Louisa Shafia continues the themes of social responsibility and nutrition in a different way. Rather than focus on how we can distance ourselves from an over-consuming society, she offers tactics to decrease our ecological impact when making decisions at the market since so few of us have the means to completely remove ourselves from consumerism. As the title implies, simply being more aware of these choice can have a huge impact on the environment, your body, and your wallet. Buying organic has become a fix-all for many Americans wanting to do their part with as little work as possible, but the truth of the matter is that the Organic label only guarantees limited pesticide and fertilizer use. Instead, Shafia suggests that buying local and in season is a better way to promote a sustainable food cycle. When you buy in-season produce, less energy is used to transport it from its tropical growing place to your table and is always fresher (often cheaper) and higher quality. You’re also guaranteed more variety if you stick to seasonal foods because you’ll be forced to try new dishes when your go-to produce is on hiatus until summer comes around again. Lucid Food is full of delicious – and often vegetarian – recipes that are organized by season so you know what to watch out for at the market even in the dead of winter.

Farmer’s Markets will be starting up around Boston soon (some like the SoWa market in the South End are already open) which will make it even easier to find locally produced food. Buying from a local farm decreases the amount of fossil fuels used in transportation and is the most effective way to combat destructive industrial farming outfits. Showing demand for crops raised on small, family-owned farms will influence the industry toward more humane/ethical techniques. As an added bonus, family farms produce healthier crops that contain more nutrients. Even though it took me 3 months to read ‘The Road’, I zipped through ‘Lucid Food’ (Shafia) and ‘Grow Great Grub’ (Trail), each giving me insight into my role in a more sustainable future.