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100 Scarves: Making T-Shirt Scarves for the Homeless

Posted in About me, Art and Crafts, Creativity, Environment and Ecology, Gift Ideas, Helping Others, inspiration, Recycling, Style and fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

T-Shirt Scarves

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Edward Everett Hale

This quote resonates in my heart and propels me to find ways to help others. A few weeks ago, I hit upon an idea that not only helps others, but helps planet Earth as well. I am but one person, but I am one person who can make scarves for the homeless out of clean and gently-worn t-shirts. To some people scarves are fashion accessories that lend a splash of color to stylish outfits, but for the homeless scarves are necessities to help them survive the bitter cold. My goal is to make 100 scarves from donated t-shirts that otherwise would be discarded and distribute them to the homeless via a local homeless shelter. I will continue to make scarves for the homeless as long as I keep receiving t-shirt donations.

You are but one person, but you, too, can help. Follow the easy directions below to make scarves and call your local homeless shelters to find out the best way to distribute your scarves.

HOW TO MAKE T-SHIRT SCARVES

YOU WILL NEED
T-shirts, the larger the shirt, the longer the scarf loops will be
Sharp scissors or rotary cutter
Cutting mat, if using a rotary cutter
Yardstick

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Lay the t-shirt down on a flat surface. Smooth fabric and make sure bottom and sleeve hems are even.

2. Cut the bottom hem off. T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

3. Starting at the bottom of the shirt (on the right side of the photo), cut 3/4-inch strips from side to side on the shirt (bottom to top in this photo). Do not cut through the last inch. Stop cutting rows when you get to the sleeves. T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

4. When you reach the sleeves, cut shirt completely from side to side. T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

5. At this point you should have a series of loops attached by a “spine.”T-shirt Scarf Instructions

6. Thread the spine through your arm and pull each loop to make the fabric curl. T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

7. With the remaining shirt, cut a strip out of it and pull it to make it curl. Tie a knot at each end. T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

8. Gather the spine in one hand. T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

9. Using the small knotted strip, tie a knot around the gathered spine.
T-Shirt Scarf Instructions

10. Et voilà, you have a t-shirt scarf! DIY T-Shirt Scarf

Now go and spread joy!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! 9/20/13

Posted in About me, Creativity, Entertainment, Gardening, Holidays, inspiration, Photography, Records, Style and fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Potato Flowers Purple flowers with yellow centers pose against a golden summer backdrop. These two colors sit on opposite sides of a color wheel making them complementary colors. In the world of color theory, they are a dynamic duo. Perhaps, a hopeful lesson for the world can be extrapolated from this theory: that despite being far apart (in color, beliefs, origins, etc.), entities can come together, work together, and bring out the best in each other.

#1 – Color Palettes
Color Palette Search Whether painting a piece of art, decorating your home, coordinating your wardrobe, or planning a wedding, choosing the perfect color palette can be difficult. There are many online sites that offer help. One such site is Design Seeds where you can “find the palettes you love.” Searches can be done by color value or by theme.

#2 – Make Music
Op Art Sound Matrix Click on a square on the Op Art Sound Matrix grid and you have the first note of your song. It is an entertaining and hypnotic little diversion. As far as I can tell, to create another song, you have to leave the page and come back.

#3 – Get Ready to Eat Fall Desserts
Fall Desserts Am I rushing things by sharing 35+ Fall Desserts with you? Not really. The autumnal equinox is only two days away! Stop drooling and click on the link, so that you can get to the mouth-watering recipes ASAP!

#4 – Life = Risk
If you can spare a minute, watch this motivational video. It may change your outlook on life and the way you view people.

#5 – Spread Your Wings
“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.”
― C. JoyBell C.

Have a lovely weekend!

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Grilled Fish Tacos

Posted in About me, Parenting, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2013| 2 Comments »

Grilled Fish Tacos If you raise children to have adventurous taste buds and you give them an appreciation for well-prepared food, most likely they will grow up to be good cooks. This little bit of parental advice may not hold true for everyone, but I’ve been rewarded in spades. All my children enjoy cooking good food as much as they enjoy eating good food. Not only do my children enjoy good food, they also share it. I’ve been the lucky recipient of some really wonderful meals prepared by them. A couple of weeks ago, my middle child and his wife treated me to delicious homemade fish tacos. Because they were so good, I had big-time cravings for them and had to make them for myself. These fish tacos are easy to prepare, moist, flavorful, and healthy. No batter or deep-frying involved. Fish Taco Fridays may become a regular occurrence in this household!

Grilled Fish Tacos
Adapted from a Bobby Flay recipe

INGREDIENTS
Tacos:
1 pound white fish, such as mahi mahi, orata, tilapia, basa, etc.
1/4 cup canola oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
1 jalapeño, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
8 flour tortillas*

Garnish:
Shredded white cabbage
Hot sauce, tomato salsa, or pico de gallo
Crema or sour cream
Thinly sliced red onion
Thinly sliced green onion
Chopped cilantro leaves
Queso Fresco, crumbled

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

2. Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, ancho, jalapeño, and cilantro and pour over the fish. Let marinade for 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Remove the fish from the marinade and place onto a hot grill. Grill the fish for 4 minutes on the first side and then flip for 30 seconds and remove. Let rest for 5 minutes.

4. Place the tortillas on the grill for 20 seconds.

Serves 4

LINNELL’S NOTES
1. *I use corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas. I think they are a better choice for tacos and they are slightly healthier to eat.

2. If you don’t want to grill the tortillas, you can warm them up in a frying pan on your cooktop.

3. The Kachumbari Salad I prepared last week goes wonderfully with these fish tacos.

Enjoy!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (9/13/13)

Posted in About me, Aging, Creativity, Environment and Ecology, Gardening, Health, Helping Others, In The Kitchen, inspiration, Photography, Recycling, Style and fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Acorns and Potato Flowers Acorns dangle from oak trees to kiss summer flowers goodbye. With the weather still summery warm, it’s hard to believe that in nine days, fall officially begins. My backyard reflects the coming change. Summer vegetable plants look forlorn and have slowed down their production. Bird feeders require almost daily refills. Squirrels scamper back and forth on the branches of my Japanese maple tree, looking for food and breaking branches as they go. The seasons of my life seem to pass by faster and faster. I’m reluctant to let another season in my life go by, but fall approaches and it deserves to be fully appreciated.

#1 – Foiling Squirrels
Snack Bag Squirrel Deterrent If you look closely at this picture you’ll notice two shiny decorations. As mentioned above, the squirrels have been wreaking havoc in my Japanese maple tree. One night while watching television and eating Skinny Pop with my husband, I came up with an idea. Many snacks, like potato chips and popcorn, come in Mylar bags. Instead of throwing the empty bags away, I rinsed them out and cut them open along the sides. Using clothes pins, I fastened the bags in strategic places to my tree. Every couple of days, I try to outwit the squirrels and move the bags around. So far, so good – no new piles of broken branches on the ground. The only downside to this is trying to explain the “decorations” to visitors.

#2 – Ten on One Page
Infographics Infographics make complex or large amounts of information more understandable. Lifehacker’s Top 10 Infographics and Cheat Sheets That Make Life Easier provides information ranging from how to remove stains to what to do when you get pulled over!

#3 – Print Ads
Clever Ads Maybe I like these 24 Clever Print Ads because I know people in the advertising business or maybe it’s because I’m intrigued with the idea of communicating messages via images. Using the power of a single image, see if these ads grab your attention.

#4 – Do You Eat Store-Bought Cereal Every Morning?
enhanced-buzz-16162-1375889707-9 Well, if you do, you may want to think twice before you discard empty cereal boxes. As seen in this BuzzFeed article 31 Things You Can Make Out of Cereal Boxes, a little bit of cardboard goes a long way!

#5 – Take Charge
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”
Jim Rohn

Enjoy these last days of summer!

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Kachumbari Salad: A Kenyan Tomato Salad

Posted in Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 10, 2013| 1 Comment »

Kachumbari Salad: A Kenyan Tomato Salad Sweet vine-ripened tomatoes, the gems of summer, make the perfect base for salads. From Kenya comes this recipe that pairs tomatoes with red onions, cilantro, chile, and lime juice. Visually attractive and packed with flavor, this salad is the perfect side dish for summer entertaining. Tonight, those incredible flavors will marry beautifully with the fish tacos I’m serving!

Kachumbari Salad
Share: The Cookbook that Celebrates Our Common Humanity

INGREDIENTS
1 lb firm and ripe tomatoes, sliced or diced
1-1½ red onions, very thinly sliced
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 chile, sliced (optional)
1-2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
1. Place the tomatoes into a medium salad bowl with the onions. Stir in the chopped cilantro.

2. Drizzle with the olive oil and stir in the chile, if using. Season and gradually add the lemon or lime juice to taste.

Serves 4

LINNELL’S NOTES
1. One pound of tomatoes is approximately 2.5 large tomatoes. For this recipe I used about two pounds of assorted tomatoes (cherry, heirloom, and beefsteak).

2. I cut the cherry tomatoes in half from top to bottom, but the larger tomatoes, I sliced crosswise into rounds.

3. Because I sliced them into rounds, I gently mixed the salad in a large pan instead of a bowl. This salad is attractive when arranged on a platter.

4. I used half of a red onion instead of a whole one and I’m glad I did. Even with this reduced amount, there were a lot of onions in this salad.

5. Here are some tips from Craig Kielburger, the contributor of this recipe to the cookbook: If you prefer a milder onion flavor, rinse the onion slices in hot salty water before putting them in the salad. This will ensure the onion is less harsh on the palate. Squeeze the lemon or lime juice into the salad just before serving to avoid sogginess. If the tomato and onion are chopped more finely, this recipe also works well as a homemade salsa.

6. The chile is optional, but its heat adds a nice flavor dimension to the salad.

ENJOY!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (9/6/13)

Posted in About me, Art and Crafts, Creativity, Environment and Ecology, Gardening, Gift Ideas, Helping Others, inspiration, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Garden Spider Image Helen, named after the main character in a children’s book, makes picking cherry tomatoes and cucumbers in my garden a challenging experience. People with arachnophobia would avoid this task, since Helen, a large garden spider, has woven a three-foot by six-foot web around the plants. As I look at her work, I recall reading Be Nice To Spiders to my children several decades ago. The storyline revolves around Helen, a spider, who provides many useful services to a zoo. My quandary is what I should do with my new pest-guest and her giant web? Should I destroy it and relocate her or should I just leave her alone and let her do her job?

#1 – Time to Move On
Left undisturbed, Helen, the spider, moved on within two days of my discovering her. Perhaps it was the constant clicking of my camera shutter that annoyed her? How do most of us know when it’s time to move on in our lives? Marc and Angel Hack Life wrote an article titled 9 Reasons It’s Time to Move On that’s filled with insightful and motivating thoughts.

#2 – Chalk It Up!
DIY Chalkboard Projects Chalkboard paint projects are popping up everywhere, from walls to furniture to wine glasses. There’s no reason not to have fun with this product. Here are a few articles to rev up your creativity:

8 Easy Chalkboard Paint DIYs to Try
20 Ways to Use Chalkboard Paint
22 DIY Chalkboard Projects

#3 -Something to Smile About
Mona Lisa image Here’s a short and fun art history lesson by art historian Kathy Galitz. Watch this 3-minute video from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she examines the meaning of smiles during different time periods. We can never learn enough about the world of art, can we?

#4 – Mom’s Recipes
Hand-Written Dutch Apple Cake Recipe I felt like I had discovered lost treasure, when I stumbled upon this flickr site. Someone named Phil scanned and shared all the recipes in his mother’s extensive recipe collection. When I look at the images of handwritten recipes on worn index cards and yellowed newspaper clippings, I appreciate the slice (pun intended) of history and nostalgia that they represent. Plus, I’ve found a few more recipes to try!

#5 – Catching Love
“The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes.”
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Enjoy your weekend!

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Almond Butter Crunch Ice Cream

Posted in About me, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 3, 2013| 2 Comments »

Homemade Ice Cream: Almond Butter Crunch Ice Cream The subject line of an email to my husband read, “Make this for me.” The body of the email was blank, except for a link to an online recipe. Possessing a sweet tooth and being the thoughtful man that he is, my husband came home from work with a shopping bag filled with necessary ingredients. In our family, not only does he bring home the bacon, he makes the ice cream, too!

Almond Butter Crunch Ice Cream
The Noble Pig

INGREDIENTS
1 cup almond butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or regular vanilla
1 cup vanilla almond crunch granola (large almonds removed) or your favorite granola

DIRECTIONS
1. Add almond butter, sugar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Blend on medium speed for at least 5 minutes.

2. Add cream, milk and vanilla and mix another 2 minutes until fully incorporated.

3. Add cream mixture to the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Right before removing, add your favorite granola and let mix in. (If your granola has large chunks, just stir it in rather than pour into the ice cream maker while it’s running.)

4. Place into a container when it’s done and freeze for 3 hours in the freezer.

Makes 1¼ quarts

LINNELL’S NOTES
1. To me this had the saltiness of salted-caramel. Next time, I’ll ask my husband to cut back on the salt and we’ll see which version we like better.

2. I chopped up some toasted almonds that I had on hand and added it to the leftover granola. The additional nuts and granola made a great topping for this ice cream.

3. For those of you wondering if the granola remained crunchy, I can positively say it did–down to the very last spoonful!

Enjoy!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (8/30/13)

Posted in About me, Art and Crafts, Creativity, Health, Helping Others, inspiration, Photography, Recycling, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Night Driving Photo

The Big Y - Nightime Art If necessity is the mother of invention, then boredom is the second cousin of creativity. On a long drive home one night with my husband, I sat bored watching the dark scenery whiz by. But during one stretch of the highway, bright lights caught my attention. Taking out my camera, I started taking photos of interesting arrangements of lights. I worked quickly to capture image after image; there wasn’t even time to stop to adjust my camera’s settings. When I finally returned home and downloaded the camera’s memory card onto my computer, crazy and colorful images appeared. After fiddling with saturation and contrast levels, I found the results of my spontaneous creative burst to be unusual pieces of art. I can’t wait until my next late night car ride!

#1 – Urban Art
Urban and Street Art Art comes in many forms. Street art and urban art offer both whimsical and interesting perspectives of the world. Check out these creative examples of Cool Street Art & Inventive Urban Art.

#2 – Re-purposing On a Large Scale
Hotel Im Wassertum Who says only small items can be re-purposed? The Top 15 Converted Hotels photo series shows examples of large scale re-purposing. Wouldn’t it be fun to stay overnight in a medieval fortress or a bullring?

#3 – Use 3 Coupons, Provide a Meal
Coupons for Change If you’re a coupon clipper, you might want to check out the site Coupons For Change. This organization offers online coupons that can be printed and redeemed at stores. For every three coupons used, the site donates a meal through its partnership with Feeding America. Coupons for Change’s “current initiative is to fight domestic childhood hunger” and its website shows that at this very moment “1,365,710 meals” have been provided.

#4 – Add Calm To Your Life
Busy moments in life need to be counterbalanced by calm moments. If you’re looking for ways to calm down and to release stress, visit a site called Calm. Everyday, various calming images, such as waves on the water or sunlight streaming through clouds, appear on your computer screen and soothing music plays in the background. You have the option to choose between guided calm or self-guided calm and you can select the amount of time for your session.

#5 – Live Life Creatively
“Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.”
Alan Alda

Create a fun weekend for yourselves!

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The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift

Posted in About me, Creativity, Gift Ideas, Handcrafted Cards, Helping Others, inspiration, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2013| 2 Comments »

DIY Gift Book Life is a series of bridge-crossings. We come to points in our lives where chasms, sometimes shallow and sometimes deep, appear before us. Questions swirl in and around our souls. Do we dare cross to the other side or do we stay in place? Will we be okay if we cross over to the unfamiliar and the unknown? Do we have the resolve and strength it takes to step onto the bridge? To cross a bridge is to make a commitment. It means we’ve decided to let go of where we stand and move forward.

As I watched a friend deal with back-to-back life-chasms, I witnessed the exhausting decisions she was forced to make. She bravely crossed one bridge after another, until she came to a big one: to sell her home, to leave behind memories, and to start anew. Knowing that this was a monumental step for her and knowing the memories that the house held for her, I gave her the only thing I could think of – a “bridge” book. My concept of this book was to link her memories with inspiration for the future. I accomplished this by taking photographs of beautiful and meaningful areas surrounding her home and paired them up with inspirational quotes. After informing her real estate agent about my project, I took most of the photos during an open house. On occasion, when I knew the lighting would be perfect in her garden, I’d sneak into her yard and snap a few more! With my friend’s permission, I’d like to share a few pages of her Bridge Book with you:

The Bridge Book: A n Inspirational Book for Moving On

Introductory Page

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift For Someone Moving On

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift For Someone Moving On

The Greenhouse: A Husband’s Hobby

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift For Someone Moving On

Liquid Amber: A Father’s Gift

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift for Someone Moving On

The Bridge

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift For Someone Moving On

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift For Someone Moving On

The Bridge Book: An Inspirational Gift For Someone Moving On

Closing Page: A New Beginning

As we cross the bridges that lie before us, may we remember to always move forward and to only look back for inspiration.

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (8/23/13)

Posted in About me, Art and Crafts, Creativity, Helping Others, inspiration, Photography, Recycling, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Yellow Pilgrim Rose Through my camera lens, leaves and a stem frame a single yellow bloom. In fact, it’s the only blossom blooming on an old woody rose bush called The Pilgrim.  Mother Nature did everything she could do to make sure I didn’t miss this beauty.

#1 – Let Go, Be Happy
When I first stumbled across this article, I thought to myself, “Not another self-improvement list!” But when I actually took the time to read the 20 Things You Need To Let Go To Be Happy, I was glad I did. Some of us get set in our ways and fall into negative thought and behavioral patterns. The points in the article serve as good reminders of ways to keep life in proper perspective.

#2 – The Wheels on the Bus

Old School Bus Transformed Into Mobile Home

Justin Evidon

The wheels on this old bus still go ’round and ’round thanks to architecture student Hank Butitta’s efforts. After purchasing an old school bus on Craigslist, he renovated it into a mobile home – complete “with beds, tables, storage and social areas, and a working sink and toilet.” He’s now taking it on the ultimate road test, a 5,000-mile cross country trip!

#3 – A Bit of Whimsy

William Kass

William Kass

Combining food with miniature toys would seem to result in an odd art form, but not in the hands of photographer William Kass. In his photo series Minimize, his choice of materials inspired him to create whimsical scenes. It’s an imaginative way of viewing the world.

#4 – Villages
Whether or not you believe in the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child,” you will still enjoy taking an armchair stroll through some of the Most Beautiful Villages Around The World.

#5 – Know Your Worth
Know Your Worth

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!

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