Most of us need the eggs

I happen to love Annie Hall, its one of my favorite movies. I think this is primarily because I think Diane Keaton is wonderful, independent and delightful but also because it has some of the best lines. I used to think that this made me a bit strange, but as it turns out my lovely friend Lynze loves Annie Hall also...that's probably why we lived together for so long. Love you Lynz!

The Week of Living Cheaply

I read in Time last night that the recent recession has folks embracing the green movement and volunteerism like never before. Apparently, financial hardship makes us want to do the right thing, who would have guessed.

So in a movement of my own, I've decided to try out a week of living cheaply. For Joel Stein that meant only buying things on sale (this was a bad idea, turns out just about everything you could never need is almost always on sale.) For me it means, only buying things of absolute necessity. Things that fall into the absolutey column, well, the only ones I can think of are food---for both me and the pup and gas. I'm sure as the week goes on, I will find others, but most definitely not on the list are clothes/accessories/shoes and decorations for the condo. I'm also going to try to find some areas to trim the fat ie my $140 cable bill, bye bye HBO.

Happy Halloweeenie

I don't have to say much...cute is cute!

Big City - Baby bye bye bye

One of the best lunch spots in SLC was Big City Soup. The tasty line-up of different soups were always delicious. And to top it off they would throw in a little bit of cheese and a great roll. Well, we knew things were getting tough when they started charging for the bread....a few weeks later, they began charging a quarter for the cheese. Until finally one day, they closed their doors forever....so sad.

So you can imagine my excitement when my aunt passed on a recipe for Big City's wild rice and mushroom soup. I spent half the day tracking down all of the ingredients, who would have guessed that crimini and shitake mushrooms would be so hard to find.

**As a side note, my search took me to Sunflower Market. They have the best produce at the best prices! Loved it!

But back to the story, I spent half the day shopping for the ingredients and then soaking the rice, cooking the rice, chopping the ingredients, until finally it was time to put it all together. Two hours laters, after following the recipe quite precisely, my soup was done and drum roll please....it was terrible. I was so disappointed. Granted I never actually had this soup at Big City when it was open (I had a hard time straying from the Thai Chicken Curry) but I can't imagine that they served anything close to what I ended up with. I put it in a tupperware and stuck it in the fridge because after all that work I couldn't stand to put in down the sink. Maybe it will taste better warmed up tonight, doubtful.

RIP Big City Soup

Dream Job

I started to think about my dream job today...While my "dream job" has fallen almost every where on the spectrum from dog whisperer to National Geographic photographer, today I'm in love with the idea of writing for ReadyMade magazine. And the reason I can talk about it here? Because most of the projects that fill its pages are green. Woohoo.

Thinking about the dream job of the day, made take a look back from where I've come from and what jobs I've had along the way.

First Job: Working at my dad's office where I stood in a closet all day putting patients files back into alphabetical order (boring). Watched grumpy old nurses complain about the secretaries and got horrible paper cuts from trying to shove files in to old storage boxes. I hope my dad never reads this because he always felt like I was ungrateful for the job and I humiliated him when one day I simply refused to go back...that is embarrassing, sorry dad.
Oddest Job: Handing out samples of Oregon Chai Tea to people on the street, which included wearing a keg on my back ("Rocket Man Pack") and squirting samples into tiny little paper cups. It usually went something like this...Me: Iced Chai Tea Latte? Person on Street: NO, I don't take drinks from strangers on the street! (Insert completely disgusted look here.)
Best Job: Waitress at the restaurant on campus at Utah State. I would cruise over after my morning class, work the lunch shift with all of my friends, maybe wait on 2-3 tables, while eating my free lunch, and then head back to class. Ok, it may not have been the best job, but essentially I got paid to eat lunch with my friends.

So how do I go from secretary/sampler/filer to project journalist extraordinaire? I guess I'll have to just keep finding projects like these to fill my spare time with. Love you ReadyMade.

Thank you Tori

I'm ashamed to admit this but here it is...I watched Tori and Dean this morning as I was getting ready. No, I didn't seek it out but I flipped on the TV for a little background noise and there she was, Donna the forever virgin of BH90210. I had no idea that she had her own reality show or that she's a mother of two, but quite frankly she's a pretty darling mother.

But the real point of this blog is a little tidbit that I picked up from Donna, I mean Tori. On the show she decided that she's going to start making her own baby food. Which I think is a really good idea, but she took it one step further. Because she wants to teach her kids the value of eating healthy, she had them help her plant a little veggie garden. I love this idea. And when I have kiddos I'd like to do this. I think its important for kids to understand where food comes from. I want my kids to know the importance of natural foods as opposed to processed foods. Hey kiddies, guess what? food doesn't come out of the earth in a crazy orange box with animated sea creatures on it.

Nana's Sock Monkey

Here is a little tribute to the creativity of my one and only MOTHER! I think I took it for granted when I was growing up because the creative force was always with my mom, Colleen. I didn't realize quite how extraordinary until later in life when I realized that not all moms recycled memorable old sweatshirts into blankets or hand stitch Christmas stockings. I've been called little Colleen since I was about 5, due to our extreme twin-ness. My hope is that I've inherited her creative gene as well as her looks! Her latest project is one of her greatest, and its been a huge hit...she makes adorable sock monkeys. So cute. She started out making just a few for baby shower gifts but quickly became enveloped in sock monkey mania and now has devoted an entire room to the monkeys...although my dad might tell you that honestly the monkies have taken over most of the house.

These are some of the early monkeys made for my two little nephews {this is why I call them Nana's monkeys, because my mom is Nana to all her little grandbabies.} My very clever cousin Heidi had the idea to use the monkey to measure her little baby girl Sadie's growth. And the trend caught on because my other cousin David is doing the same thing for his baby boy!


Look at how adorable these monkeys look next to these little darlings!

AIGA Re:design Vinyl Bags

Last weekend...ok maybe it was two weekends ago...I volunteered with my old friends of AIGA {I served on the board for about 3 years and miss it mucho} at the Utah Arts Festival.



AIGA:slc and the genius of new President Kevin Perry decided to reclaim giant billboard vinyl and let Festival goers create smaller works of art with it! How very saavy, how very green!

The project was a huge success. We sold a ton of pre-made bags and had hundreds of people make their own, no-sew vinyl bags at the booth.

Recycled Puppy!

I grew up with a darling little golden retriever pup named Aspen. Aspen was adorable plain and simple. She ate razors under the piano, stole junior mints from under the tree, brought dead snakes in from the field...but she also broke up fights between siblings, kept watch over sleeping babies and laid her head in your lap at exactly the right moment.

Despite my great love for our papered pure breed golden, I always said I'd get a dog from the pound when it came time to get a pup. There are so many wonderful dogs already out there, why encourage over breeding and puppy mills?

I know adopting a dog can be a little nerve racking but in November of last year, my dog hunt came to an end. One day as I browsed through the classified, I spotted her, a white lab that had been rescued from an abusive home and was living with a cute little family in Heber. They needed to find a forever home for this 2 year old white lab. 8 months later, I couldn't be happier with my little Miss Kayla, the recycled puppy!

Kayla {one of the drawbacks of getting a pre-owned puppy is that you can't pick the name}, Kayla is great with kids, loves other dogs, and is as obedient as they come. In Kayla's case, her neglect actually made her easier to train because she lives for love and she's easily trained with praise. Here's Kayla watching her friend Lenny the weiner dog puppy sleep.

She's so well behaved that she comes to work with me...just another long day at the office!

Buy Local

Living downtown has its perks to be sure. One of the great things about living on Broadway {yes, I live on Broadway in SLC} is all of the great businesses within walking distance.

Here's a pretty obvious one, walking is good for the you and good for the environment. So living in a place where businesses are within walking distance...double plus.

One of my favorite restaurants just a few blocks from the condo is Oasis Cafe. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes local, organic food isn't quite as awesome as a burger and fries at Five Guys. But Oasis has some amazing dishes, including the absolutely amazing The Mediterranean:
Grilled Yukon Gold potatoes, roasted red onions, kalamata olives, tomatoes, feta cheese and hummus, served over field greens in a roasted garlic vinaigrette. Yep, this is as good as it gets. You need a picture to truly appreciate this dish...which gives me an excuse to walk around the corner and eat there. Stay tuned.

I'm also happy to report that Oasis is part of the Buy Local First project. I love frequenting local businesses and I also happen to love their logo. A+ for good design.

Ivy of Ivanhoe

The beauty of this blog is that I am now accountable to my readers {Ben}. When I hop in my SUV and drive to work rather than walk, I feel like I'm letting down more than myself. Which I hope is a good thing, because lets face it, sometimes you need someone to keep you honest.

So speaking of walking to work, I thought an appropriate topic for todays post would be to explain why I love love love my little condo in downtown Salt Lake. And why I feel it makes me a little more green.

The condo, lets call it Ivy since its part of Ivanhoe, was built in 1908. I adore the old character of the building and think the renovation was simply stunning.
Buying in city centers helps to create sustainable cities and promotes quality growth...building up instead of out. I also feel good about buying a conversion property rather than new development. Granted its not as though I'm building out of garbage like this very cool article suggests, but I'm doing something rather than nothing. Right?
Oh, and as an aside, there happens to be a condo for sale in my building. Check out the pictures.

Welcome Greenies

About, oh, two years ago I read an article in the NY Times about No Impact Man. In a few words, No Impact Man is a guy who asked his obviously adoring wife to live a no impact life. I was intrigued and inspired, but after reading the plan I realized quickly that I didn't have the time, the will power or the bank account to make it a reality for me.

In other words, no impact was a no go.

But since that time, I've been able to make small changes to my life that ease my conscience and help me feel like I'm doing my little part.

I love the snowy tips of the rocky mountains in my native Colorado. I love the gorgeous flowing rivers of my once home Montana. And I love being able to grab the pup and be in the hills in 20 minutes in my now home Utah.

But lets face it, I'm not a no impact kind of girl, I'm a city girl. I live in a darling condo downtown, I love new shoes, and I live for travel, music, and time with my rockstar friends...usually at a good restaurant. I'm a downtown girl with a big green heart.

So I've decided to devote this blog to the little things that make us green. And yes, I know, green is a relative term. To me, green is living a healthy, happy life while doing those things that lessen our impact on the environment. General statement? Yes, but the details will come!