Ceramics Workshop Posters

Today I successfully printed and posted 75 posters all around campus for my Ceramics Workshops (with the help of my friend Tami--posting posters is hard work!), and I've already gotten 5 emails from interested students! I always assumed that most people don't notice these kinds of posters, but these certainly seem successful:

The poster was created by Shahzeen, a fellow freshman at Haverford. Isn't it pretty? The border is especially unique--I certainly would not have been able to design this! 

I'm getting so excited for my clay class. I'll update you as the workshops get going. In the meantime, I'm coming home on Friday for Spring Break--can't wait to see all my friends and family!

Tidbits From a Month Without Posting

Hey Friends!

So I haven't posted for a month--with good reason. It seems I've had one major project after another--essays, applications, and workshops. On top of that, I was sick last week.

Okay, so I've been doing work. But that's so vague. So I'll give you a quick run down of the details.

In Computer Science class, we made websites for one of our labs. I really enjoyed it; I already had some experience in html/css coding so I got to write some more advanced codes to get extra credit. You can't really tell how fancy my code is by looking at the website, but I'm darn proud of it anyway.

Here is the homepage for my website.

Also, this website has a detailed version of my weekly schedule. So if your skeptical of my crazy college work schedule like Nancy (I know, it's hard to believe you have more work in college when you go to class fewer hours in the day) you can see my schedule here.

As you may or may not know, I was chosen for Haverford's Dining Center Development Committee. We were supposed to start meeting last November, but the director resigned before we could get started. So I contacted one of the managers, and eventually got in touch with Bernie, the head for both Bryn Mawr and Haverford.

We've met three times so far, and It's been great! We made a few positive changes and have gained a better understanding of the way Dining Services works. I'm so excited about this that I even requested to work at the Dining Center. Though I never thought I would work in food service again, I feel good about working at the DC because it will allow me to make the food I'm eating even better. Say hello to one of the newest DC workers!

I am also very excited about the ceramics workshop I will be holding at Haverford after spring break.

If you read my previous posts about James House, you'd know about my frustrations with there being no left-handed-friendly wheels and the obvious dirtiness of the studio. So I wrote a grant proposal to get a wheel and teach classes.

The picture above shows the room back in October. It looks a lot better now--it's been painted, and my friend Tami and I spent two hours cleaning it a few weeks ago. As soon as I get the room arranged as I like it for my class, I'll take an updated picture.

Lastly, I've been working hard on applications the past few weeks. A few weeks ago, my AMA application was due. What is an AMA? It's an Ambassador of Multicultural Affairs--I'd be a member of a team of upperclassmen designated to guide and befriend a particular freshman hall next year. Particularly, my job would be to teach freshmen about culture--at Haverford and in other contexts. It's kind of hard to explain in a short amount of space, but if you have questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

A few days ago, my internship application for the Weaver's Way Farm Education Program was due. This internship would give me the opportunity to work and learn on an urban organic farm. One of Weaver's Way's farms is at a homeless shelter, so I'd also get to teach the children of the families living there about farming!

This is a competitive program fully funded by Haverford. The college will even pay for my Summer Expectation, or the money that the school expects me to earn during the summer. In other words, Haverford would pay $2300 towards my tuition if I get the 10-week internship. Money is not the reason I'm applying of course, but I wouldn't get an opportunity to do such an internship without the funding. Most likely, I'd have to take a low wage job in something I'm not interested in and isn't related to social justice or helping the poor. I've been there and done that--I don't see the need to repeat the experience!

Whew! That was a long one. Enough about me--What are you up to?

A New Year and A New Semester!

I'm excited to finally be falling back into the rhythm of my school life at Haverford. The first few weeks of classes classes were extremely hectic, and here's why:

I pre-registered for these classes. . .

Foundations In Social Theory
Applied Calculus with Modeling
Introduction to the New Testament
Comparative Politics

They all seemed to work out in my schedule, and they were all subjects I hadn't tried before or wanted a better understanding of.

However, these are the classes I registered for and am now taking. . .

The World of Computing
Quaker Social Witness
Critical Issues in Education
Applied Ethics of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

I shopped eight classes total--I went to four classes a day for the first two days (The first day I went to class for six hours straight so I had to bring my lunch with me!). And slowly narrowed down the list of classes. Amazingly, all of the classes I wanted to take were lottery classes that I hadn't pre-registered for, so I wasn't in the initial lottery. These lottery classes had two lists of students: the students with a spot in the class and the students on the wait list. Because I just showed up the first day I wasn't on any lists--I had the lowest priority.

Luckily though, because so many other students are shopping too, there is a significant amount of movement on the wait lists, and I got into every class that I wanted. I don't know what I would do without shopping week. It's hard to imagine having to sign up for classes and go in blind--I'm obviously not great at predicting the best classes for myself!

I'm really enjoying my classes so far; so I'm sure I will write more about them later. Feel free to ask any specific questions about my classes. I'm happy to answer them!


Oh, and because it's a new semester, I'd like to once again invite any of my readers to subscribe to my blog. This way, you get all of my blog postings automatically sent to your email account. That way, you never miss a post! Just type your email address into the Subscribe By Email Box in the right hand column of the page.

Food Waste Friday: Saving a Fork and a Banana

I haven't touched my blog in almost a week! After posting so frequently the week before, this feels very wrong. Anyway.

Today is Friday, and I wasn't planning on writing a post today. To be honest, I've felt overwhelmed this week, especially with getting my classes in order. I'm running into a similar problem I had last semester, and I thought it wouldn't happen again, so it's been frustrating. However, I was inspired tonight to write about my food waste after a few unique occurrences.

I went to dinner at the DC (Dining Center) with my friend Tami. Afterwards, they were having an a cappella concert in the lobby area, where I got to see my friend Miriam sing (I actually have two friends named Miriam who are both sophomores in a cappella groups--pretty awesome!), which I really enjoyed. As we walked towards our dorm after the concert was over, Tami noticed a fork sticking straight up in the ground.

Haverford students, why do you do such silly things?

We plucked the fork from the ground and returned it to the DC. While rescuing a fork isn't exactly the same as preventing food waste, it is preventing waste. Students are constantly removing cutlery, plates, cups, bowls--you name it--from the DC. This costs the school money, because they have to replace it. This requires the DC to spend money replacing silverware instead of providing food. Maybe if students stopped removing such items, the DC could increase the quality of food with the money they'd save. Just a thought.

After returning the fork, we set off once again. I had to stop by the library, and we saw something interesting in the entryway: a banana and a cup of cereal sitting on the floor. I find this very strange. I understand you aren't supposed to take food in past this entryway into the main library, but is it necessary to leave it lying on the floor? Put it in your bag, backpack or something. So I snatched it up.

The banana looked decent, so I kept it. Tami pretty much disallowed me from eating the cereal--and all her talk of bacteria convinced me. However, I did decide to sprinkle the cereal outside for the birds and squirrels and recycle the cup. Much better than letting this stuff go to a landfill.

When I got back to my room and read Kristen's Food Waste Friday post, I was inspired by an extra call to action she included at the end of her post, urging others to think about their own waste. I loved the analogy she used, commenting about how a snow drift is made up of millions of tiny snowflakes. Little things add up to be big things. Every action you take to prevent food waste counts.

I wasn't planning on mentioning my small food failures this week, but Kristen reminded me that small things do matter. I dropped a piece of my broccoli on the floor in the DC. I refused to eat a mushroom I found in my mixed vegetables. I bit into a rotten apple and had to throw it away. I had to toss that cereal. On their own, none of these things seem like a big deal. But picturing these bits of food in a pile,  it'd add up to a quantity equivalent to good sized snack. And thats just this week.

Some people have implied that it's silly I even bother to write about my waste--In comparison to many Americans, I waste very little. But to me, food waste matters. If even slightly alter one person's thinking on the subject, I will be happy.

Today I. . .

Today I went to Defiance with my mom. It was really cold, but it was a good day for taking pictures.

I got to see the ponies! This is Scooter (left) and Cricket (right).

I couldn't get Cricket to look at the camera, so I had to get creative. I took this one through a peephole.

Around the side of the barn, I was able to get a full body shot of Cricket! But the next one I tried to take, she hid her head behind the wall.

Can you see my dog in this one? She's running at me.

I tried to take one closer up, but she was too fast for me!

Bear never gets bored when we're here.

She likes to bother Cupid, a much older girl. But Cupid reprimands her when necessary.

 This is where the ponies live.

I really like this old log cabin.

Bear and Cupid sniff around by the pond.

A relaxing day--exactly what I needed before going back to school!

Food Waste Friday: Pantry Edition

A while back I noticed that one blogger participating in Food Waste Friday, liveandlearn, went through her pantry on Food Waste Friday, which I thought was a great idea! Kristen at The Frugal Girl also recently cleaned out all of her kitchen cabinets. So for this Food Waste Friday I'm posting some of our pantry waste.

I did waste some canned spinach, but I don't have a photo. It was a pretty small amount (there is never much spinach left after you squeeze out all of the water!) I've actually never eaten spinach from a can before, but I honestly thought it was awful. I attempted to make some spinach and artichoke hummus (I've made hummus twice quite recently), but I think the canned spinach ruined the taste. This might just be because I'm used to using frozen spinach in dips and other recipes. I'm also not a huge fan of vegetables from a can as it is, and the spinach rudely reminded me of this.

But on to the waste with pictures. . .

First I have cereal gone bad. The corn biscuits were bad when we got them--they expired in 2010. The Crispy Rice was opened quite awhile ago and had a funky taste, so I composted both of them.

This one made me really sad. I wanted to use some of this flour, but the "Best By Date" was July 2009.  It looks fine, and was stored inside another container, but I'd be scared to cook with it.

I know flour has a lot of uses aside from baking--I'd use it to make PlayDoh if I knew any little kids that'd want it, but I really don't. I've yet to compost it because I'd like to find some use for it. Do you have any ideas? I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have!

A Note of Encouragement: The Struggles of a Jalapeno Plant

When I was away at school, my mom did a lot of rearranging. One of the new things I noticed was a plant in my bedroom--a scruffy-looking jalapeno pepper plant. It came from the garden I planted last summer, which was mostly destroyed by our puppy Bear in early September.

Just in case you've never met her before. She's a sweetheart most of the time, but in the past when she's gotten bored or frustrated she's been a bit naughty and done things like. . . well, tear up my garden.

Anyway, this jalapeno plant went through some rough stuff. When I got home, it looked beat up and dying. But I've been caring for it and watching it. Slowly, it is coming back to life.

Watching this plant grow has been an unexpected source of encouragement for me. At first, I was skeptical that it could be saved. But day after day, I've been amazed as it continues to recover. If plants can survive such trauma, perhaps we as humans are more durable than we might think. Maybe a little bit of patience and time could do wonders for our seemingly never-ending struggles.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Comment below! 

Kitchen Experiment #3: Homemade Yogurt

Did you know you can make your own yogurt?

Before I started reading The Frugal Girl's blog, I had no idea that people made their own yogurt. The thought just didn't occur to me. Growing up, my mom always bought the store bought stuff--the single serving flavored variety. Though my taste for yogurt has varied over the years, I've always loved smoothies. In the past year, I've made around 3-4 yogurt smoothies per week, meaning I required 3-4 single serving yogurts per week.

All of those little yogurt containers add up to be more than you'd think. Each serving is 6 ounces and costs about $0.65. The single servings cost about 10.8 cents per ounce. On the other hand, homemade yogurt costs about 2.7 cents per ounce. A gallon of homemade yogurt is about $3.49. An equivalent amount of single serving yoplait would cost about $13.87. Since I eat so much yogurt, I could certainly save a lot of money by making my own!

The reason it is so much cheaper is because yogurt is essentially fermented milk. All you need is one gallon of whole milk to make one gallon of yogurt. Initially you need a starter of active cultures (one cup of unopened store bought yogurt), but once you make this initial investment, you can use your homemade milk as a starter.

We bought a quart of plain Dannon to use as a starter. It cost about $2.50, or $10 per gallon. While cheaper than single servings, homemade is much cheaper still.

I didn't think the homemade yogurt was too difficult to make. I followed this recipe from The Frugal Girl. She uses photography to illustrate her recipes, which I found extremely helpful.

I only made 3 quarts worth because I was worried we wouldn't be able to finish all four (plus the dannon we had bought) in one month. 

Boy, was I wrong. I absolutely love the homemade stuff--it is richer, creamier, and more healthy than the kind you get at the store. I feel good when I eat it because I know there are no artificial colors, sweeteners, or any other additives. Just milk.

Do you have any suggestions for my next kitchen experiment? I don't think I'll be making crackers like I planned (we have a surplus right now) and I'd love some more ideas! Leave a comment below!

Winter Break Update

So this might not be the most exciting post for you readers, but I've found that keeping a To Do List is extremely motivating. Whenever I got bored or wondered what to do this week, I checked my list for ideas. Making this list also helped me to remember other smaller things I needed to get done, encouraging me to get them out of the way so I could work on my list. I think the fact it's public pushes me to become more efficient. Anyway.

Here are the goals I listed about a week ago, along with a quick update on my progress.

Practice wheel throwing and finish some artwork. Since I will be teaching some ceramics classes in the spring, I need to get as much practice in as possible. I went the entire first semester without throwing, so I need to get back into the swing of things! I spent a lot of time this week wheel throwing! Though I didn't get as much accomplished as I would like, I feel a lot more knowledgable about what I need to work on. This will definitely help me transition to wheel throwing at Haverford.

Find homes for my artwork. I have a lot more artwork than I can handle. I'd like to find good homes for my sculptures, bottles, and pots. When I'm selling or giving away my work, people always ask me, "Well don't you want to keep that?" As much as I enjoy making the work, I could not possibly display and store all of the artwork I will make from now until eternity. . . I've looked through what artwork I have, and I was pleasantly surprised that I have less than I thought. I talked to my art teacher from high school, and I'll be able to display/sell some of the pottery I have left. What I want most is to find homes for my sculptures though. We'll see what happens.

Finish knitting my scarf. I've been working on the same scarf since Thanksgiving, and I'd like to finish it soon so I can start learning to knit more complicated things! I haven't made any progress on this one since I posted about it. I'll definitely work on it soon!

Practice my sewing skills and make more bags. So our sewing machine is getting taken to the shop, and I've been using the one at my Nana's house. Hopefully ours will get fixed soon--that will make it a lot more convenient for me to practice! We got the sewing machine fixed, thanks to my Nana. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but I will!

(This picture is really dark because my basement has horrible light. Sorry!)

Clean up the backyard and tend to my compost. Before Fall Break, I said to my mom, "I wish I could come home. I'd rake the entire yard for you!" I enjoy yard work. Though my mom wished I could have come home (and not just because of my offering of yard work), it wasn't feasible. When I came home for Winter Break I got a surprise--my mom left the entire back yard untouched. So I get to rake up all the leaves for my compost. Yay! My mom and I raked up and mowed over the majority of the leaves. In the past, we've always paid someone to come and haul our leaves away. Using the mower breaks them up so they can be quickly and easily condensed into a manageable pile and dumped on the compost.

(Sorry for the photo's blurriness. The sun was actually in front of me, though the clouds obscured it! The quality of my photos is pretty off today, huh?)

Clean up the garden. Enough said. I did as much as I thought was necessary. I didn't worry too much about all of the weeds because it is still winter. I got the tomato plants and trellises out though!

Finish "The Tightwad Gazette II". The trouble with library books is that I can't take them back to school with me. I'd like to finish this one before I go back. About halfway through. I checked out another book though so we'll see if they both get finished!

Go to the Value Village monthly half off sale. Since it's winter, I can't go to garage sales and I've been itching to go. The storewide half off sale once a month at Value Village is almost as good. Hopefully I'll find some cool furniture for my mom to refurbish! Apparently I've been away so long I'd forgotten which Wednesday the monthly half off sale was on. It's not the first Wednesday of the month--it's the last Wednesday. Oh well!

Cook up some recipes I've been wanting to try. I want to try recipes for making my own crackers and other items people typically just buy from the store. I didn't make crackers, but I did make hummus and yogurt! I'll fill you in on my yogurt making experience soon.

Research internship opportunities and apply. Haverford pretty much has more resources than they know what to do with. I want to take full advantage of them. I found a program I am interested in and emailed the contact at Haverford with some questions. I'll tell you more about this later too!

So that's my list. I'm happy with how many things I've accomplished lately, both on and off my list.  I can confidently say making this list public has helped motivate me and organize my time. How do you help yourself get things done? Post a comment below!

Another Kitchen Experiment: Hummus

I know I write a lot about food and cooking, but I'm enjoying having access to a kitchen. At school, the only appliance freely available is a microwave on our hall. So I'm taking advantage of being at home--I find the stove, oven, blender, and freezer all very exciting. Seriously.

I find that when I cook up a homemade dish it is often fresher, cheaper, and more rewarding than the store-bought convenience food version. This is why I decided to try making my own hummus.

Hummus is actually extremely easy to make--you just blend the ingredients in a blender or food processor until well blended. However, you may not be familiar with all of the ingredients. One of the most important and obscure ingredients is tahini.

Tahini is a nut butter (kind of like peanut butter) that is make from sesame seeds and is often used in middle east cooking. It has an extremely strong taste, so you only need a small amount in your hummus, and one jar will last for several batches.

Tahini is considered an ethnic food and can be difficult to find at your typical grocery store. I could not find it at Schnucks and Shop n' Save only had a 2 lb jar for almost ten dollars. However, the Sappington Farmer's Market had three different kinds. This 16 oz jar was around 5 dollars. While 5 dollars might seem like a high price for an ingredient that is only used for hummus, I think it's worth it since I eat a lot of hummus. Store bought containers of hummus run between $3.50 and $5 depending on the store. After making a few batches, the tahini will pay for itself.

The rest of the ingredients are simple--garlic (cloves, crushed, or powder can all be used), lemon juice, and garbonzo beans (chick peas) create the base. The recipe I followed is located here. However, I deviated from the recipe, starting by adding less garlic and lemon juice, then adding more. This way I could make it as strong as I wanted.

After that, you can add whatever you want. My first batch, I added black and green olives. For my second batch, I added canned artichoke hearts. I personally preferred olives, but there are so many other combinations to try! Both of these flavors were inspired by similar store brand varieties. Other store brand flavors include things like roasted red pepper or roasted pine nut.

Have you ever made hummus? What other foods do you make from scratch that other people typically buy at the store? I'd like to hear about your own kitchen experiments. Comment below!

Experimenting in the Kitchen: 5 Minute Fudge

Before Christmas, my sister Nancy made really great fudge for my Nana's Christmas Party. I'm pretty sure she used an adaptation of a recipe on the side of the Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme container. This recipe calls for one 14 ounce can of evaporated milk. When my Nana bought the ingredients, she accidentally bought sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk. This is an easy mistake--both come in a similar, same-sized can.

Nancy didn't realize the mistake until after she opened the can. Though momentarily frustrated, she eventually obtained the evaporated milk and made her delicious fudge.


However, one problem remained--what could be done with the opened can of sweetened condensed milk?


To be honest, I wasn't even quite sure what sweetened condensed milk could be used for. On New Year's Eve, I researched uses for the milk. A lot of my initial search results were from websites like about.com and e-how. While those websites are sometimes helpful, I don't always trust their cooking advice.


But then I found a blog post on sweetened condensed milk by Lydia Walshin at The Perfect Pantry. Walshin is a writer and a chef who blogs about the ingredients in her pantry and how she uses these ingredients in her recipes. I find her concept of blogging about ingredients and what they can be used for--rather than just blogging about recipes--particularly useful for my sweetened condensed milk situation. I think her site will be a good tool to help me prevent future food waste, because I often find myself with this general problem: "I have X ingredient, it will go bad soon if I don't use it, and I have no idea what to use it for!"

Anyway, in addition to including her microwave recipe for Dulce De Leche, she links to a few other recipes that call for sweetened condensed milk. Since my goal was to use up ingredients I had--not buy more ingredients--I chose to make this 5 Minute Fudge Recipe. While fudge is not particularly healthy, I was intrigued by the idea of comparing this recipe with Nancy's recipe. Because hers was more time consuming and contained more ingredients, I assumed it would be better. I wanted to prove this hypothesis, so I tried it.


The recipe was extremely easy. It only has two ingredients--chocolate and the milk. But because there are only two ingredients, it definitely requires quality chocolate to make it good. Quality can be defined in many ways, so I won't tell you what kind to use. It's whatever kind of chocolate you like. Because I'm so waste conscious, I was excited to get to use up two different kinds of chocolate that I wasn't even aware we had until my mom pointed them out. One of them was some good baking chocolate, while the other was a ziploc bag of unidentified chocolate. I wouldn't necessarily suggest using random, who-knows-where-it-came-from chocolate for the best results, but I'm not picky. My main goal was just to use up what we had.


One thing to be aware of--the fudge turned out a bit hard around the edges. I'm not sure if this was because of the chocolate I used, or if it is just a result of the simplistic recipe. I'm glad I didn't cut the fudge up into smaller pieces. Because I left it in one large chunk, the middle was still soft and good. The hard edges might be rectified by covering it when you refrigerate it, or wrapping individual pieces if you decide to cut it up.


I'd show you a picture of the final product, but most of it has been eaten up. One of my mom's friends enjoyed it so much they wanted some to take home to their family. I also really liked it, but Nancy wasn't a fan, and my mom doesn't like sweets at all. It's probably not the best fudge recipe, but it was the best recipe in for my particular needs. It also would be a great recipe for my fellow college students, because you really only need a microwave to cook it!


Do you have any good fudge recipes? Have you discovered any new recipes recently in an attempt to use up unwanted ingredients? Comment below!

Making the Most of My Winter Break

I can't believe my winter break is almost half over! Now that I've had ample time to be with friends and family, there are a few things I want to get done before I start my second semester. Here's a list of some of those things. I'm hoping that making it public will help get me motivated!

Practice wheel throwing and finish some artwork. Since I will be teaching some ceramics classes in the spring, I need to get as much practice in as possible. I went the entire first semester without throwing, so I need to get back into the swing of things!

Find homes for my artwork. I have a lot more artwork than I can handle. I'd like to find good homes for my sculptures, bottles, and pots. When I'm selling or giving away my work, people always ask me, "Well don't you want to keep that?" As much as I enjoy making the work, I could not possibly display and store all of the artwork I will make from now until eternity.

I also really love the thought of my artwork making it's way into the homes of family, friends, and strangers across the country. I have artwork in Philadelphia, Virginia, Kansas City, and St. Louis (obviously). How cool is that?

Here is  one little guy that needs a home:

Finish knitting my scarf. I've been working on the same scarf since Thanksgiving, and I'd like to finish it soon so I can start learning to knit more complicated things!

Practice my sewing skills and make more bags. So our sewing machine is getting taken to the shop, and I've been using the one at my Nana's house. Hopefully ours will get fixed soon--that will make it a lot more convenient for me to practice!


Clean up the backyard and tend to my compost. 

Before Fall Break, I said to my mom, "I wish I could come home. I'd rake the entire yard for you!" I enjoy yard work. Though my mom wished I could have come home (and not just because of my offering of yard work), it wasn't feasible. When I came home for Winter Break I got a surprise--my mom left the entire back yard untouched. So I get to rake up all the leaves for my compost. Yay!

Clean up the garden.

Enough said.

Finish "The Tightwad Gazette II". The trouble with library books is that I can't take them back to school with me. I'd like to finish this one before I go back.

Go to the Value Village monthly half off sale. Since it's winter, I can't go to garage sales and I've been itching to go. The storewide half off sale once a month at Value Village is almost as good. Hopefully I'll find some cool furniture for my mom to refurbish!

Cook up some recipes I've been wanting to try. I want to try recipes for making my own crackers and other items people typically just buy from the store.

Research internship opportunities and apply. Haverford pretty much has more resources than they know what to do with. I want to take full advantage of them.

So that's my list. Hopefully typing it out and making it public will help me get more done! What's on your To Do List?

Simpler Christmas Giving

Happy two days after Christmas!

I know these days after the holidays can be a drag--especially for parents and grandparents, the ones expected to buy all of the gifts, host the holiday parties, bake the christmas cookies, and make the holidays extra special for their family and children. This year, as I watched my mom stress over what presents to buy, as I went from store to store with my exhausted Nana (my grandma) to buy supplies for Christmas dinner, I felt sorry for these overworked women. The holidays had become a time of tiredness and anxiety for them. There must be a better way to do this, I thought.

For the past few months, as I have been reading frugality blogs and books like the Tightwad Gazette, I've picked up a few tips and tricks for making the holidays more simple and enjoyable. Since I'm not at a point in my life where I have to host parties or parent kids, but I do enjoy giving gifts, the concepts I learned about gift giving stuck with me the most. I'll share with you my refined process of gift giving this year.

I decided I wanted to change my process in these ways:

1. Simplify my gift recipient list. Instead of giving presents to a lot of people, I wanted to give a few, meaningful presents.
2.Plan ahead. Instead of doing all my shopping in December when I got home from school, I wanted   to start early. That way, I would have more time to spend with my family and friends during my short month break.
3. Look out for sales and coupons. I wanted to get quality presents while saving as much money as possible.
4. Be conscious of where my money is going. Instead of sending money to large factories in China that under pay and exploit their workers, I wanted to support businesses and causes of integrity.
5. Avoid making extra trips to the store, specifically for buying gifts. Shopping trips waste time and energy which could be expended in better ways.
6. Give a gift the recipient will actually appreciate. Oftentimes my siblings get gifts and want to return them. This also wastes energy and time. I want to give gifts that are cherished, not rejected.

In summary, I wanted to be thoughtful about my gift giving. In my mind, this is the most important part of gift giving, yet it is often lost in the frantic shopping around the holidays. Gifts become thoughtless obligations. In following the listed guidelines, I thought I could renew the thoughtful meaning behind gift giving and make it a more simple, enjoyable process.

How did I do? I'll let you be the judge.

For my mom, I bought these "Infinite Dance" earrings from Novica.

Novica is an organization associated with National Geographic that supports artisans around the world, providing them with fair compensation and loans to build their business. Some of the products on this site are pricey; however, they are quality handmade products. I feel good about supporting these artists in need, as opposed to sustaining large corporate factories. The jewelry is also much more unique than anything you can find at department stores, so I got to get my mom something really special!

Because Novica jewelry isn't cheap, I looked around for deals all through the fall season. In October, The Frugal Girl posted an awesome Novica coupon at Living Social Deals--buy the coupon for $20, and get $40 towards your Novica purchase. Though I didn't know what I was going to get my mom at the time, I knew I could find something for her at Novica in my price range thanks to the coupon I found. Instead of paying about $48 for the earrings, I paid only $28.

I was a little mad at myself for not looking around for more coupons when I made this purchase. A few days later, I saw a $5 off coupon. Though not a huge savings, every little bit helps!

For my sister Lacey, I decided to buy silk long underwear.

While this might seem like a boring or too practical gift, these are quality garments and a necessity in the cold Minnesota winter she has to endure at school. They are also more expensive than she or my mom could typically afford--at prices of about $50 for the top and $50 for the bottoms, totaling a hefty sum of $100.

If you know me at all, you know I would not pay full price for these. While she really needs them, I can't really afford $100 presents. Just when my mom had given up on this gift, I found that Lands End was having an awesome before christmas sale--40% off your entire order plus free shipping. In addition, certain colors of these silk long underwear were a reduced price--the lavender was $25 instead of $50. Though Lacey would have preferred black, she completely understood my choice of lavender when she found out it was half price! With all of these discounts, my total ended up being about $31--a savings of almost $70! This was by far my best Christmas steal. The only downside was that the product was Made in China from an unknown source. I didn't realize this until after I bought it.

I left Nancy's gift a little more open ended. In November, a group at Haverford had a fair trade sale, selling products from an organization called Serrv (similar to Novica). Again, I could feel good about supporting artists who were hand making their products and getting fairly compensated for them. At the sale, I discovered this elephant puzzle box:

I was immediately intrigued by it--I couldn't open it! The puzzle has four separate parts. Since Nancy loves elephants, this was a no-brainer. Though it isn't practical, I thought it was special and a good price at only $15. Before I wrapped it in my homemade cloth gift bag, I put a note inside redeemable for a $15-20 present that she really wanted but didn't get for Christmas. I think this made the gift a little more fun and interesting. It also helped me achieve my goal of spending similar amounts on each family member's gift.

I think I did a pretty good job of addressing my goals--to simplify my recipient list, to get gifts ahead of time, search for sales, know where/how the gift was made and feel good about it, avoid extra time consuming shopping and return trips, and most importantly, be thoughtful about my gifts. This has definitely been the most enjoyable Christmas giving experience that I've had. Next year, I plan to start my gift search in January--to maximize my thoughtfulness, conscientiousness, and savings!

What process or system do you use for gift giving? How do you maximize the quality of your gifts while minimizing the cost? Comment below!

A More Sustainable Christmas

Hey everyone!

I've been home for over a week, and time has flown by. I've been busy seeing old friends, going to church, working on art, being with family, and cooking my own food. I'm really glad I started thinking about my christmas presents before I got home, because I've had so many other things to do. I can't tell you what my presents are, but I can tell you I thought a lot about how I wrapped them.

I never thought of wrapping paper as wasteful. We only use it  once a year, so it never seemed like a big deal. But if you think about how many presents in the world get wrapped in paper every Christmas, the amount of paper waste is likely astronomical.

This fall, I read about making cloth gift bags on the Frugal Girl's blog and in Amy Dacyczyn's The Tightwad Gazette. It made me think about all of the packaging that is thrown away at Christmas. Even if you wrap gifts in reusable bags, many bought products come in cardboard boxes, plastic, and styrofoam. Wrapping paper is waste that can easily be avoided.

Though I didn't have much time or convenient access to a sewing machine (ours is broken), I managed to make and use one good cloth bag. My other three presents are wrapped in bags too--bags that we'd saved from years past. While they aren't cloth bags and they do require tissue paper, the bags can be reused by the recipient. Because two of these paper bag presents are for my mom and sisters, they will just stay in our family.

Out of all of these bags, the gold cloth bag is my favorite. I think cloth is just a little more classy--I've seen some really beautiful cloth bags by other waste-conscious people. These bags are also really easy to make--I was learning to use a sewing machine while I made this bag. If you have any experience at all, or even no experience, you can do this too!

Before you set out to buy that wrapping paper during after Christmas sales, why not try making some cloth bags instead? For a good set of instructions, check out the Frugal Girl's blog post on cloth gift bags.

How do you prevent wrapping waste? Comment below!

Coming Home!

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be coming home in four days! As much as I love Haverford, it has been a long semester. I don't think I've ever worked harder academically than I have this past week. I've completed two classes so far, and I have two more finals to finish.

As I frantically finish up my final work, other things have fallen by the wayside. . .including the state of cleanliness in my room. I'm posting this picture of my room on fall break (1) because it makes me happy and (2) I'm pretty sure I haven't even shown my mom what my room looks like!

Right now it's hard to believe my room once looked like this--I decided to shield you from an updated photo. However, I plan to clean it before I leave--I can't stand leaving a mess behind! That will probably happen on Tuesday, along with a load of laundry.

Today, I need to study for my statistics final. After I take that (hopefully on Monday) and turn a rough draft into a final draft, I'm free!

Tomorrow, I'll be attending Renewal Christian Fellowship. I attended last week, and I really enjoyed the service! There are also a lot of other college students who attend, a few from Haverford, so I'm getting to meet a lot of new people.

I didn't intend for this post to be a rough outline of my schedule, but I really am constantly going through the list of things I'll be doing before I go home. The fact that I can list them off reminds me that I'll be back in St. Louis very soon!

What's your schedule like? Has the holiday craziness started yet? It's hard for me to believe it's December already! Leave a comment below.

Food Waste Friday: Storage Issues

With all the craziness of the holiday weekend, I made few blunders when it comes to food waste. Before I went to Virginia, I got a couple of bagels and kept them in my room for when I got back (I got back Saturday evening but the Dining Center didn't open until Sunday evening). Though it is hard to tell in this picture, the bagels actually molded between Wednesday and Saturday. I have no idea why--normally bagels keep at room temperature, but maybe I should have refrigerated them. Or maybe I should have kept them in plastic containers rather than plastic bags. I'm not really sure.

I also attempted to freeze these bananas in my mini fridge, but they never quite froze, and eventually they just turned bad. It has worked before, but for some reason it didn't work this time. I think my best bet is just to do this at home in a regular freezer.

Most of my problems this week were misjudgments relating to storage. Do you have any suggestions for me? Any similar stories about food waste? Comment in the box below!

Thanksgiving in Virginia

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, but the semester is coming to a close, and I'll be coming home Wednesday, December 14th!  As much as I love Haverford, I really miss St. Louis and all of you family and friends at home. I've been working very hard too, so I need a break. It's truly a blessing that I get to come home for a whole month!

Because I couldn't come home for Thanksgiving break, I went to Blacksburg, Virginia to visit my Aunt Felicia, Uncle Dick, and my cousin, Galen. I'd never been to their house before, nor have I been to Virginia, so it was pretty exciting! My dad, Grammy, and Papa all drove from St. Louis to come for Thanksgiving too.

On Thanksgiving, we went for a relatively tame hike in the mountains, and I saw some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

I brought my camera, but I forgot to take pictures. Uncle Dick had a much nicer camera anyway though, and this also meant I actually got to be in some of the pictures.

This is just a snapshot of my holiday in Virginia. I also learned how to knit (I accomplished a substantial amount on my scarf) and tried Yoga for the first time (What a workout!) I had a relaxing enjoyable time; I hope you can say the same for your holiday!

How was your Thanksgiving? Where did you go, and what did you do? Leave a reply in the comments box below!

Ceramics in the Family: Recent Art Projects

Happy Sunday!

I recently got an email from my former art teacher and Nancy's current art teacher, Ms. A. She sent me a photo of Nancy's latest work of a art, a little boat.

Isn't it awesome? I'm so proud of her. She made this using slabs, a hand building method that I never use. It's much too difficult for me. The first slab project I attempted warped and the second one cracked like crazy. Apparently Nancy has this down pat. Not only does her boat look beautiful, but the form is neither warped nor cracked.

This photo was definitely a shot of humility! I worked in clay for seven semesters in high school and took classes at Krueger Pottery. Nancy is only halfway through her first semester and her slab skills are ten times better than mine. The kid has so much talent. I love it.

Things like this make me itch to get my hands on some clay. What have I been doing art-wise lately? If you read my post about James House, you'd know that the pottery wheels only cater to right handed people, so I can't use them. I've done absolutely no ceramics at Haverford so far. Well, I wrote a proposal for The Students Arts Fund, a grant of $5,000 distributed for student art projects by the Haverford Humanities Center. I wrote up plans for running a six-week ceramics workshop series, and budgeted for a Brent B wheel, clay, and some new sponges. The cost totaled to about a thousand dollars, so I was unsure if the Students Arts Fund thought my project would be worth it. A few weeks later, I got an email notification that they decided to fund the workshops and the wheel, and I'm so excited!

So I'll be teaching four lucky Haverford Students all about wheel throwing. I wish I could teach more students, but we will only have five wheels, and the funding is for wheel throwing workshops, not hand building.  It's possible I could teach hand building to a larger group later on, but we'll see.

Have you been working on any art projects? I love to see photos and hear about other's work, so comment below!

Food Waste Friday: Mushrooms and Positive Change

Happy Friday!

It's been a hectic week for me as I've been catching up on work that I didn't have time to do last weekend on the HCF retreat. It was totally worth it, but it did require exercising my time management skills!

This week I had very little food waste--just a few mushrooms from my pasta sauce last night at dinner. The mushroom pasta sauce looked better than the plain sauce; however, it was really silly for me to get the mushroom sauce, because I don't like mushrooms. I think the sauce just reminded me of my mom's wonderful sausage spaghetti, because mushrooms appear deceptively like meat sometimes. Nevertheless, they didn't taste like meat, and they tasted absolutely nothing like sausage. Oh well.

On the bright side, In about one month I'll get to go home and eat my mom's food. Yay!

On a related note, our Dining Center is creating a new Dining Center Development Committee. Six students will get to be on this committee, and hopefully they will bring some positive change to the food and waste management. Students waste a lot of food at the DC (Dining Center) and it all ends up in the trash. It's a very sad thing to witness, but I have a lot of ideas to rectify some of these waste issues. So I applied to be on the committee. Whether or not I get the position, hopefully I can still present all of my ideas to the committee!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day--I'll be back later today or tomorrow with other news!

What I Learned: About Suffering

Hey everyone!

I know I just posted about the HCF Retreat, but I wanted to share with you a little more specifically what I actually learned.

In an InterVarsity bible study, you look extremely closely at one specific passage.

We had several sessions in which we did this; however, this particular passage, John 11:38-44, we looked at during a personal reflection time.

By breaking this passage down, I was able to truly apply it to my life. Consider the first verse. Jesus was "deeply moved" by the suffering of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He didn't just pity them or feel sorry for them. Their sorrow deeply moved him. Often times I find myself filled with overwhelming sorrow, and I think to myself, "No one cares that much. Or at least they don't really know or understand what I'm going through." But Jesus is deeply moved by my pain. I can share it with him. How reassuring is that?

And he's not just moved metaphorically. He's moved to act. He goes to Lazarus' tomb. Jesus isn't just emotionally disturbed my pain. He does something about it too.

However, he requires us to accept his aid. Jesus says to the mourners, "Take away the stone." And Martha doubts, "But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." Though I oftentimes will pray to God for help, sometimes instead of giving me what I think I want or need, God will respond calling me to some sort of action. I'll reject it, saying, "You want me to do what, God? That's impossible! I can't change that."

But God's command is always what I need, and I'll end up doing it eventually anyway. Jesus replied to Martha's doubt, saying, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the Glory of God?" Essentially, he's asking, "Why don't you trust me? You know that I know what is best for you." Depending on his command, I may struggle against it for awhile, but I will do it.

And when I follow God's solution to my problem? Everything works out. The mourners rolled away the stone, and Lazarus, once a dead man, was alive once again. Though my life won't be perfect (Lazarus' life wasn't perfect--he's later condemned by an assassination plot), I can find joy in the Lord.

In reading this passage, I found myself asking: "Jesus could have just snapped his fingers and resurrected Lazarus. Why didn't he? Why did Lazarus have to die at all? Jesus could have healed him." Essentially, why let the suffering happen?

Because the mourners eventually did what Jesus asked, "many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him." Lazarus was alive and well, and the mourners had found a new hope in Jesus Christ. Though I don't know the personal stories of these Jews, they probably were struggling with their own issues. However, Jesus used the pain of one family--Mary, Martha, and Lazarus--to transform not only the family, but the lives of many others as well. This is purpose enough for suffering in my book.

The Jews, Mary, Martha, myself. . .We all need time to choose. We need time to believe. We need to learn how to ask for help, be receptive to God's response (even if it requires effort on our part), and work through our sufferings. Because they do have a purpose, even though sometimes we can't always see it.

What are your thoughts on this story? Please post a comment below!