Finders Boutique

Do You Hulu?

My husband now occupies only about a six foot by six foot space of our home, where he sits in front of his computer tuned in to hulu.com.  He comes downstairs for drinks and to heat lean pockets and mix up some mac 'n cheese, but mostly, he lives in that chair in front of the computer watching episode aftern episode of t.v. shows he's never seen, movies he's seen two a three times already, and more episodes of t.v. shows. It's free and they have entire seasons.  Shows from network television, the Discovery  and History channels, and movies a handful of movies.  Have you seen "Raised in Arizona" lately?  How about "Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind?" If you missed "24" from the very beginning, here's your chance to catch up.  If "Lost" was lost on you, here's your chance to find yourself.  You may be a few years behind the times, or maybe you don't want to tune in at the "same time, same bat channel" every week because you have a social life and people like you and besides you're in really great shape because you bike twenty miles every night instead of plant your a$$ in front of the t.v. all night.

Phfew. Okay, okay. I'm okay. 

Well, it's time to give your skinny butt a new kind of workout.  Plant it in front of your computer and catch up with pop culture.  You can do ten-count butt squeezes while you watch.

Dangerously Delicious

Every once in a while I get the craving for rhubarb pie.  Usually it's the cool, crisp fall weather that conjuries memories of that tart, savory flavor, but yesterday's post that brought me back to the garden and canned jam has me thinking of rhubarb.  I grew up in the midwest where rhubarb grew wildly (at least within near proximity of my childhood home), but now live in the south where the warmer climate makes rhubarb a less common find.  So, if you're craving rhubarb pie or have never had rhubarb pie, give  Dangerously Delicious a try.  They'll ship homemade pies to your doorstep!  Here's their description of the mouth-watering pie. (My mom likes the strawberry-rhubarb pie, which is nice if you like a sweeter pie, but if you like a tart explosion of flavor, straight-up rhubarb is the way to go!)

Rhubarb Pie: "Rhubarb is regarded as THE PIE PLANT. I once found this stuff growing in between my grandparents garage and the fence. I proceded to make the biggest mess you ever saw, but it tasted out of sight. I mix Rhubarb with just about any fruit you like, but just plain Rhubarb kicks butt. Think Sweet Tarts and Jolly Rogers. Gets your jaw right by your ear holes."

Easy Green Living

If you want to get on with living green, but are finding it too challenging to get there, this is a good guide.  She makes it simple to get started with suggested cleaning, beauty, and every day products most of us use.  There are even make-it-yourself products.  Renee Loux is also a raw foods chef and embraces whole foods living.

The simple living, whole foods living, eco-friendly conversations that have really gained momentum over the past few years really take me back.  When I was a kid, we had a huge garden.  Every year we planted and grew potatoes, green beans, peas, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet corn, pickles, tomato, lettuce, cabbage, and, much to my dismay, turnips and squash.  (It wasn't until I moved to the south that I learned how tasty squash could be dressed up in brown sugar and pecans.)  Some nights when mom was getting ready to start preparing dinner she'd say, "can you go to the garden and dig up some potatoes," or "can you let the peas out of the pod?"  I loved to do it, too, it wasn't work to me, it was fun.  Then, a couple of times during the season we had a weekend canning and freezing ritual.  We packed and froze beans, peas and carrots.  Mom canned jams of many flavors and we packed pickle after pickle into the mason jar full or fresh garden dill.  Out in the garage, dad boiled huge roasting pots of tomatoes which were streamed into jars and served as juice with breakfast all winter long.  The cabbage was turned to sauerkraut, and zuchini breads of various flavors were baked and frozen.  It was like a summer foods festival.  Today, it might be called simple living or whole foods living, but back then, for my family, it was just every day living.

Then my grandmother would show up with her homemade lye soap, and her all-cotton quilts.  Every holiday season, grandma would show up and she and mom would bake homemade bread, coffee cake, and endless dozens of cookies.  Me and my brothers would enjoy hot buttery slices of fresh-baked bread and help decorate the cookies.

These childhool backflashes inpsired by this book make me long for those days a little, but also inspire hope in the simplicity of making changes toward healthier, safer living isn't far out of reach. 

 

Redefine Normal

There's this paper/magazine I like called, Skirt!  You'll find it in cities across the country.  You'll find intelligent insights, banter and wit, alongside ads for fashion boutiques and plastic surgeons.  It embraces the strength of women -- the curiousity, the vanity, the insecurity.  It's fantastic. 

At any rate, they have a weekly email list called "The Morning Muse" that comes each friday with a special surprise.  One day, a link to the "Redefine Normal" bracelet at 37 days came.  I clicked and pulled out my credit card immediately, and now proudly sport my bracelet almost daily.  The leather bracelet is available with other sayings such as "Become You," "Dance in your Car," and "Get off the Ship" as well as the option for your own custom saying.

Hot Hawaiian Heaven

I had my first hot stone massage.  Ever since I moved to Charlotte, NC a few months ago, I must have passed by the Urbana City Bar and Tea Spa a hundred times and wondered what it was like inside.  I finally found out. It's like a peaceful paradise.  The minute you walk in, the lights dim, the music calms, and the sleek, sparse decore begs you to relax.  I was offered a bottle of Voss water -- I love those bottles, some how it just tastes better drinking from that snazzy bottle -- and I sat down on a couch, propped my feet up and filled out my paperwork.  I marveled at the line-up of a thousand teas (which may only be a slight exaggeration) and daydreamed about spending my lunch hours there over the next few months.  I stared up at the overhead light, a beautiful piece of architecture that doesn't blind, but rather soothes.  The top shelf was lined with an array of ceramic tea kettles of muted colors and varied shapes and sizes.  I wanted to move in.

Shortly thereafter I passed through the heavy bead entry way into the little tranquil room where my stones were heating.  The heat relaxed my tense muscles and insisted that I slip away into another world, in spite of my brain's insistance that I remain hyped up and preoccupied with my frustrations and worries.  I slipped in and out, finally more out near the end.

Björk and Sigur Rós Befriend Nature with a Concert

Two of Iceland's music icons team up for a free concert to support the environment June 28. Björk is currently touring Europe and Russia, while Sigur Ros has a new album due out June 23rd entitled Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.  (Dude, I don't know.  I put it through a free online Icelandic-English translator and got this "Með suð í pectoral fin við playback eternally."  Well, that clears things up.)

Read more  about the show and plan your trip to Iceland.

If you want to read a lot more, just google Björk and Sigur Rós and you'll get a bazillion articles and opinions on the show.

Simple Ways to Save Earth

A revised edition of "50 Simple Things You can do to Save the Earth" came out in April of this year.  I bought my first copy of this book in 1991-2, ever since I've had a gallon jug full of water in every septic tank in every bathroom of every rental apartment and purchased home I've lived in.  It's truly a simple thing that saves gallons and gallons of water a year.  I've also had the water-saver shower head, very easy to find, easy to install.

Back in those days, me and my roommate used to compete to see who could generate the least trash to haul to the curb each week.  Then I lost it.  I still recylce, but I've lost track of these simple things I can do and I'm so happy to see an updated version of this valuable book.  I've never been an environmentalist, just someone, who as a young girl, was touch by the famous t.v. commercial dubbed "The Crying Indian Commercial"  with Chief Iron Eyes Cody.  From the moment I saw that commercial, I never littered again.  I freely heckled adult who tossed cigarette butts, kids who tcareless threw the tabs off of their old-style pop cans in parking lots, yards, river -- wherever they happened to be at the moment.  "Litterbug!  Litterbug!"  I shouted it, and I meant it.  I was serious about not littering.  And still don't litter, and now politely scold those who do.  I've never been an ardent environmentalist, but have generally been considered an "earthy girl" on a number of levels.  I need that back.

If you have kids or know kids or have occassion to interact with kids, there is a nice companion book called "50 Simple Things Kids can do to Save the Earth." (A revised edition is due out March, 2009.)  Maybe this book can take the place of "The Crying Indian" for today's youth.  Or, perhaps, the ad agency that put together "The Truth" Campaign," can have a go at recapturing the emotional impact of that very short commercial from many years ago.

One thing about this book, an electronic edition of this book would be ideal, and save a lot of paper. 

Strange Girl to Hit the Big Screen

I'm no comic geek, but I have a couple of friends who are, one of whom worked at a comic book store for a short time.  So I ended up subscribing to a comic I found rather amusing: Emily the Strange.  She's a dark little 13 year-old, but not creepy.  Guests like Ozzy Osborne and Joey Ramone cameo in her comics.  Ramone teaches math in her rock issue - "1,2,3,4, that's all you need to know," he professes. Frank Zappa tries to introduced more advanced math involving elevens and sevens, but Joey insists "1,2,3,4..." And Thomas Dolby teaches science; he's "blinded by it" and the students reply "yeah, we know, we know."  It's amusing, a good escape at the end of the day.  I admit I've even purchased a few products from the website, including the strange mug.  When it's filled with a hot drink, smoke shows on the mug -- well, you know, decals that look like smoke.  When it cools, the smoke disappears.  Cool.  Plus, it came with a free little lunchbox of "sin-amints."  Further more, she kind of looks like me when I was 13. 

On the website, you can join the S.O.S. (Society of Strange) and get updates on goings ons as well and participate in some quirky online community.  You can get stuff for your MySpace page, listen to Emily's music picks.  She's a fan of musicians like Iggy Pop, Marilyn Manson, Ladytron ,and Siouxsie.  For sale, she has tees, and tanks, and hoodies, even Strange intimate apparel, and a bowler hat (everything is "strange").  There are some cool messenger bags, CD cases, and a lightning guitar handbag.  My most coveted item is the skull socks or the Strange is Not a Crime Thigh Highs, kind of jailbird socks.  I'm known amongst friends for my sock collection, I admit it.  When they return from vacations, they bring socks with koala bears, argyle patterns, snowflakes, jack-o-lanterns, and every Christmas, I get  green and red socks with wreaths or bells or pine trees from ma.  In Minnesota, there's a store called Socks Appeal, nothing but socks. It's heaven.

But I digress.   

What I started to say was -- Dark Horse Comic comic book teen, Emily the Strange, is about to star in a new film.  Mike Richardson, who was producer for Hellboy and The Mask has signed on as director.

Spirit Berries from the Amazonian Rainforest

Açaí berries from the Amazonian Rainforest pack a huge punch of anti-oxidants.  And they are tasty. One afternoon I was hanging out at a Caribou, surfing the web and enjoying the music when I was offered an açaí smoothie sample.  "Huh?" I responded eloquently.  "It's a Brazilian berry and it's really high in antioxidants." I slurped it down and immediately founded the Açaí Berry Lovers Foundation (This is not true).

But the powers of this berry just keep getting better.  Research has shown that the bottle of organic Veev Açaí Spirit pictured at left, has the added benefit of "turning your happy hour into healthy hour"  (No sources cited*).

Fantastic. I recently saw my thighs in a swimsuit and was looking for a new path to health and Eureka! I found it on the Internet.

Veev Açaí Spirit also elevates social awareness and spiritual well-being -- with each bottle you purchase, $1 will be donoted to the Rainforest Action Network and Sambazon’s Sustainable Açaí Project.  Not to mentioned, Veev's distillery is powered through renewable wind energy, and all of their packaging is recyclable.

Salud!

* Information is not intended to imply that Veev or any other alcholic beverage provides any health benefits. Please drink responsiblity. 

Eco-Style

Whether you have been a long-time supporter of eco-friendly initiatives or just getting up to speed, taking care of the environment is now stretching further into our daily lives, including our sense of fashion.

From Canada, eco-handbags.com brings us totes, messenger bags, purses, and more that are created from recycled or organic-friendly goods such as cigar boxes, candy wrappers, 35mm slides, art banners, movie posters, magazines, books, soda pop-tops, men's ties, inner tubes, jute, hemp, cotton...and the list goes on.

One of my favorites is the "Don't Push Me Around" handbag made from a cigar box.  Okay, it looks more like a large lunchbox, but who really cares, this is cool!  Vintage, authentic, modern, socially conscious, and it looks good with a pair of jeans and a cotton button down.

Looking for something more night-out-on-the-town friendly?  You're covered.  You may have heard about the candy wrapper hand bags by now. A neat idea and they look cool too. They take old-fashioned basket weaving techniques, unused candy wrappers from manufacturing plants and little real life talent, the voila! You have a stylish handbag that comes in a wide array of colors -- as colorful as any candy wrapper.

Eco-fashion now extends well beyond handbags and donations to environmental causes from high fashion designers, on into "real life."  Thanks to twenty-somethings Callie Smith and Ursula Stahl, who started the forward-looking business, Envi, in Boston in 2006, sexy environmentally conscious women don't have to trade in their sense of style for a hemp poncho (but keep that for weekends!).

Pictured here is the Bella Dress, from Envi.  Pair it with the Botero-Black candy wrapper bag above and you're set.