Recently Danny Volk, an employee from a fabulous store in Chicago called Elements found my journals in my Etsy shop, showed them to the store’s buyer, and they bought 24 of my journals! It was by far my largest sale so far. And I’m just really excited about having my journals for sale at this upscale store in Chicago. Then a colleague of Danny’s loved my journals so much that she placed a custom order. So I’m very grateful to Danny for setting this all up and I wish Chicago was closer so I could go to the store! Check out the pics:

Faves:

1. Pumpkin Spice Lattes
2. Harmonica and/or piano in rock and/or folk music
3. When people ask me about my car and I get to tell them how cool it is
4. That Barack Obama takes the time to visit his Grandma
5. Elements Chicago bought 24 of my journals!
6. http://www.slickdeals.net
7. Bobby Dazzler’s pumpkins
8. My pumpkin
9. Headless Horseman Dog Costume
10. When silkscreening works (especially after you promised someone that you’d silkscreen them some stuff)

Unfaves:

1. That California voters can change the state constitution by signatures and popular [uneducated] vote (see #’s 3, 6, 9, and 10).
2. That UPS will deliver a mis-addressed package to your last known address without contacting you or the sender, nevermind that you haven’t received mail there for 4 years.
3. Yes on Prop 8 people
4. People who listen to public radio but don’t contribute during the pledge drives.
5. Spam comments on my blog
6. Yes on Prop 8 people
7. Driving
8. Shorter days (only 53 more until they get longer again!)
9. Yes on Prop 8 people
10. Yes on Prop 8 people

At the risk of coming off as negative, I’ve decided to share some of my unfavorites to go along with my favorites. Hopefully they will be more comical than anything.

Unfaves:

1. People who must have thought the signs say “Slow traffic keep left.” Oh wait, maybe they’re British. My mistake. Whatever. Move over!
2. Not having as much time to spend with my dog as he deserves
3. Inexperienced cheesecake politicians (thank you, Guphy, for coining this term) being selected out of nowhere for VP
4. Shorter and shorter days
5. Pebbles stuck in my car’s wheel
6. Not having enough money to retire tomorrow
7. Marginal ratings for an amazing presidential candidate who deserves the highest ratings ever. C’mon, people!
8. Being stuck indoors on beautiful days
9. Cyclists who disobey traffic laws (riding on the sidewalk is the worst, followed by riding on the wrong side of the road)
10. Internet Explorer and people who use Internet Explorer

Faves:

1. Gleanings part 2
2. 3 day weekends
3. Sun-drying figs and tomatoes
4. The petting zoo at the State Fair
5. Obama stickers
6. Google Apps
7. Winning 2nd place at the State Fair
8. The Mother Hips (as those who know me know, this is an all-time fave, so I thought I had to put it in here at some point)
9. seeing Burning Man cars going down the freeway
10. “…somethin’ fierce”

My journals are for sale in the Milkweed Mercantile online store! I’m excited to have my things for sale in stores other than my own etsy shop, and I think Alline did a great job taking pictures of my products.

1. The Kite Runner
2. The Good Earth
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns
4. My House of Memories
5. Born on a Blue Day
6. Freakonomics
7. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
8. Jarhead
9. A Long Way Gone
10. What is the What
11. The Da Vinci Code

1. Propositions’ role in the budget crisis
2. IKEA’s values
3. Michael Pollan enlightening me to the triviality of the Farm Bill successes I celebrated earlier
4. Loretta Lynn’s The Gospel Spirit
5. Tomato gleaning and gleaned tomatoes
6. Dead tree sentiments
7. Converting shapefiles into KMLs and making it work in Google Maps API
8. Book Mooch
9. Delicious Bookmarks
10. Good news for gorillas!

My boyfriend is the proud recipient of my most recent successful craft project. I made wheel bags (for his precious carbon bicycle wheels) from the billboard I acquired from CBS Outdoor last year, and I have to say, they turned out wonderfully! I just drew circles onto the billboard, cut the same size out of fleece for the lining, and sewed them together with a zipper in the middle. I think I’ll try to sell them (Lee has lots of teammates with expensive bikes…he he) for around $40 each.

When we were in Brazil we fell in love with this dish we called “Bubojuh” based on all we could understand from the pronunciation the locals gave us. Once we got one of them to write down the name of the dish, we realized that its actually called “Bobó de Camarão” and the “j” sound came from the word “de” (of) which, in Brazilian, is pronounced with a “j” sound. We still refer to it as “Bubojuh” because it stuck.

So, when we got back from Brazil I missed eating Bubojuh so I looked at some recipes and came up with my own variation. We think it turns out pretty good.

2 medium or large cassavas (aka yucca root)
1 lb shrimp (please buy wild caught)
1/2 - 1 can coconut milk
1 yellow onion
1 small or medium piece of ginger
1 red bell pepper
3 - 5 tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 lemon
salt
pepper
paprika
garlic salt
chives

1. A Farm Bill with an extra $1 million in nutrition programs (and of course the fact that Congress will override Bush on anything).
2. The listing of the polar bear (except for this part. I say use the ESA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions!)
3. Politics like these in California.
4. Politicians telling it like it is.
5. Browsershots

l have recently been inspired by certain collages (like this one and this one) and knew that since I have so many cool paper scraps it was only a matter of time until I tried creating one myself. The process involved a lot of self-doubt and subsequent cursing at myself for thinking I had skills that it turned out I don’t, but when it was all said and done, I thought it turned out ok. I posted it on flickr, added it to some groups, and anxiously awaited comments. And waited and waited. And I still wait. Whatever. I think its cool.