I gots ladybug pupa on my guava tree!!!

Thanks to Kyle Meyer for tipping me off on what they are- I have a fear of anything with an exoskeleton (except for butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, and bees, to some extent) and probably would've allowed my parents to spray soapy water on them and wash 'em out. Here they are!


Well, thats only one of them, but multiply by two on one cute little leaf =) They will be ready to emerge in about a week!

We also have ladybug larvae in lots of different stages and ladybug eggs on a leaf or two. I'm really excited to watch the eggs hatch. How exciting! ... I'm getting excited over ladybugs. Typical =)

BUTBUTBUT some other insect has also chosen my guava tree to host its young. The eggs are everywhere! I'm scared that its some tree-destroying insect or a threatening species to Southern California. Can anyone help me identify?

omgosh this picture gives me the absolute heebie jeebies. that yellow egg looks alot like a lady bug egg, but those insects dont look anything like a ladybug larvae at any stage. seems like there is a larvae right in the midst of them, and seems like those little white things are eggs.. eggs that have been hatched out of?

I noticed one climbing over my hand after these pictures and stifled the 'scream and run' instinct to take a picture. My guava tree BETTER love me!



this one had lost one of its fake back *antenna*

HALP!!!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies! {featuring guest chef, Ms Elise Smith}

So, I have gone strict pescetarian, which means no milk, no meat, and no eggs. The only animal products I eat are fish and bee products. Its for environmental reasons, if you're interested, I will talk your ear off about it =)

But anyways. Most cookies, cakes, muffins are off limits for strict pescetarians + My main sweet tooth is for baked yumminess = Marilyn's face looking like :'(

so I crossed dietary lines and asked Elise to teach me her vegan cooking secrets

in case you're wondering.. there is only one because turned cookie monster on my batch before ever taking a decent photo

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon, however much you want
vegan chocolate chips (dark chocolate, fairtrade is delcious =) )
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup canola/veggie oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

1. Mix Dry ingredients
















2. Mix sugar and oil so that sugar absorbs oil (very important! or else you will end up with oily, thin, burned cookies! learned that the hard way..).

3. Mix in vanilla and water to sugar-oil.

4. Mix in wet ingredients to dry.

5. shape into cute little blobs on an ungreased baking pan.

6. Bake for 9 minutes in an oven at 350 degreees. You can flip them over at the halfway point, but mine were all squished and pointed and I wanted to keep them that way.


These cookies are of the drier, crispy kind- perfect for my cookie-dunking ritual involving soy or homemade almond milk. They taste like french toast plus chocolate when you dump in alot of cinnamon.


We began our sugar highs with driveway chalk art


and rode it out by teaching Elise how to ride my Arbor sustainably made longboard



fun day!

more breakfast: sweet and savory granola

i love me some quinoa, but when i'm running late in the morning the extra forty seconds it microwave it up could make me miss the bus. a bowl of over-processed raisin bran has to do =(

so i made granola =)

forgot to mix in the raisins.. whoops.

Sweet, Savory, and Nutritious Granola

1/2 cup shredded coconut (in bulk, whole foods)

4 cups rolled oats (organic, in bulk, whole foods)
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (in bulk, whole foods)
1/4 cup flax seeds (okay you can basically get this while recipe in bulk at whole foods!)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (^)
1 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (sunday farmers market)
3 tbsp sesame seeds (^)
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
large pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup honey (farmers market vendors)
4 tbsp grapeseed (or canola) oil
2 cups dried fruit (whoops, forgot this part..)

This makes for a really nutritious granola. If you're looking for something that tastes less like health food, drop the flaxseed, sesame seed, seame seed, and substitute 6 tbsp butter for the oil. If you want to feel invincible, keep this recipe as is.

1. spread coconut on a baking pan, toast at 300 degrees till golden.
2. mix dry ingredients in big bowl, melt together wet ingredients in small bowl. The oil and honey stopped repelling each other after 40 seconds on high in the microwave.
3. Drizzle wet ingredients on top of dry ingredients, mixing as you go (or else half of your granola wil taste sweet and the other half will taste like oats with nuts in it).
4. Spread on two large baking pans and toast in the oven at 300 degrees until golden.
5. Mix in coconut and raisins. Serve yourself a bowl of it with some organic milk or rice milk, and feel the nutrient-driven buzz. Seriously. I feel like jumping rope and pumping some iron right now.

keeen-wah!!! (i.e. breakfast quinoa)

i love quinoa- its a slightly crunchy, all-purpose grain (but its not a grain..) that i used to pronounce kee-no-a

yummy as a complement to beans and such, but with some honey and raisins, it'd breakfast HEAVEN



here is my recipe:

Breakfast Quinoa


1/2 cup quinoa (whole foods bulk section)
1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 tbsp honey or other sweetener (farmer's market)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup dried fruit (raisins from sunday farmers market)
1/4 cup nuts, toasted and chopped (not pictured because they successfully hid from me)

1. Rinse quinoa. I rinse by pouring it into a fine mesh sieve and pouring some water over it.

2. Bring water to boiling and dump rinsed quinoa into it. Carefully. No burning yourself.

3. Cover and simmer over low heat until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is translucent, has the little ring around it, and is just a little bit crunchy.

4. Mix in the honey and vanilla extract and stir to distribute evenly. Sprinkle in cinnamon in small amounts, stirring until absorbed. Mix in raisins and chopped nuts (you can also put in the raisins about five minutes before the quinoa finishes cooking in the water, which makes them plump up almost like grapes).

Makes for about two servings of breakfast at one cup each!

eco-adventure of the day: lotion making!

I was looking for a recipe to make my own conditioner and stumbled upon a recipe for homemade lotion. The ingredients were oil, beeswax, and water and my mind began spinning on the possibilities of locally sourced, chemical free, fully customizable body care...

There's an olive oil booth at my sunday farmer's market, but I wasn't sure about local beeswax.. so I made like a geek and researched it.


Found it at Honey Pacifica and almost jumped off of my floor cushion when I realized their warehouse was two blocks away from my school. It smells so strongly like honey that I nibbled off a piece to see if it tasted like honey too. It tastes like wax.

ooo pretty ingredients and vintage brooch in there for no good reason

My mom got interested in the mess I was making at this pont, and she took over by throwing things into the microwave and ugly bowls in bad lighting, so there are no more ingredient glamour photos =(

Lotion/ Cold Cream for Dry skin

1/2 cup Olive Oil
1 tsp Jojoba Oil
2 tbsp Beeswax
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp borax (optional, I didn't mix it in. no chems, please..)
*you can probably substitute other oils or waxes in with no problem, just puh-lease stay away from fossil-fuel based ones (mineral oil, paraffin)

Grate beeswax block until you have two tbsp. Melt beeswax into oil in microwave or in a water bath on a stove. Heat water to almost boiling in either of those two methods. If you are using borax, stir it into the water. Pour oil/wax part into either bowl or blender. Add a few drops of water at a time while you whip the oil, do not add any more water until the drops added are invisible. Whip for another ten minutes after all water is absorbed. If you want it to have a scent, add a few drops of essential oil to the mixture while it blends. And, ta-da! You will have beautiful, locally-sourced, customized lotion! Play with the recipe until its the perfect lotion for you.



*homemade olive-oil based lotion in a re-used glass mason jar from the Treasure Hunt thrift*

i made a 'le sac' dress =DDD

copied from an american apparel design

this piece of fabric had been floating around my craft room for about two years in the form of a thirfted skirt. i had no idea what to do with it until i picked it up last night and said, Gasp! "Le Sac!"

i love sewing. 38$ dress for like.. $4

oh, procrastination, you Siren, you...

-_-

i am coming to the end of my twentieth trip around the sun on wednesday, which means that i will soon be in my twenties. i dont feel prepared.

i love watching myself change over time, so for my future self reading this, or for friends who stumbled upon my blogs/notes, here are some realizations and wisdoms i came across since "april 22nd, 2008"

romantic love is not a object. 'love' is a dedicated action AND a state of mind and heart. {thanks, hope for creating/ relaying this philosophy and ken for being the primary guinea pig for it =P. love y'all

no, you don't always have to be the best of the best, or even 'better'. the rat race makes you trip over your own feet, and plus you'd rather be hiking some forested mountain than running in rubber gravel circles.

the purpose of your life is to try and save humanity from the environmental apocalypse it is ensuring for itself

get over yourself. other people may have it more figured out than you. allow yourself to learn from them!

the world isn't as mean as you thought it was. sometimes its meaner. but it can't do more damage to you than you would do to yourself if you were to paralyze yourself in fear.

when good people are waiting with open arms, don't be stupid. accept their love.


that last one i'm still working on. "nineteen" was most definitely the best year of my life. sometimes it seems too good to be true.