July kaleidoscope

 

On Friday I shared a small collection of BLOGS that I discovered in July.  Today I will share interesting and fun websites:

• LITTLE ADULTS - photographer Anna Skladmann shows what it means to be young, Russian, and rich
• Really cool COMPOSITE STREET PHOTOGRAPHS OF NY via Flavorwire
• Not sure where I first saw the works of JANNE PETERS but I really like her style
• Writers, painters, artisits and politicians share their DAILY ROUTINES
• A SILLY JOKE a friend of mine shared via Google Buzz
• THE BURNING HOUSE project - what would you save if your house was on fire?

Care Takers by Peter Funch via Flavorwire

That's all for today.  Time for me to go and enjoy a slice of BREAD PUDDING.  Have an amazing last day of July - see you all in August.

Weekend colours

Image by Jose Villa via Style Me Pretty

July blogroll

 

On the last days of July I want to share my collection of fun, interesting, quirky, useful, amazing, beautiful and exciting links from all over the web.  I found SO many goodies this months that I will have to dived them in 2 parts: today it is all about BLOGS

• Julia Kolker's food blog YULINCA COOKS - all about Soviet and Russian cuisine
•  ASK ANNA any questions about cleaning, organizing or decorating your home - she is an expert of natural and inexpensive home-keeping
• ANNA'S RECIPE BOX - here is one more Anna who cooks (Uzbek food among others), makes jewelry, and takes pictures
• I was not sure whether I like WIT AND WHISTLE for their blog or for their paper goods.....
• Paper and bookbinding by RUTH BLEAKLEY ... me like a lot!
• An inspiring and interesting blog of the artist PATTY VAN DORIN makes me think of fairytales and Johanne Harris books
• MY NEW ROOTS features amazing vegetarian recipes, beautiful food photography and useful information from the nutritionist and chef Sarah Britton 
• And last but not least - LE BLOG DE SOVENA for everyone who gets inspired by vintage fashion photography, like this one:

Image via Violet

Stay tuned for more July finds from all over the web.

Monday ikebana

 

On Mondays, once every two weeks, I travel to the South-West of Montreal for my Ikebana courses.  Since I am blogging again I decided to share some of our "work" here.  By "our" I mean Mona's, Caroline's and mine.  Mona is the newest student of our group - she just started practicing ikebana a couple of months ago.  Caroline is the most experienced one - she is working towards her 3rd diploma and has been doing ikebana for over 5 years.  As for me, it's my third year and I am hoping to get my first diploma in October.  Our teacher is Josianne - a talented sensei and an amazing person. 

Here is a classical arrangement from KORYU SHOTO-KAI school.  We used cat-tails this time: 3, 5, and 7.

And this is my modern arrangement from the same day.  Aspidistra leaf, small lilies and two other plants, whose names I do not remember. 

Recipes from the web: Raw edition

Montreal is suffering (or enjoying) a heat wave.  It's way too hot and too humid to do anything, let alone cook.  Last weekend I decided to quickly sauté some veggies and 10 minutes later I was as wilted as my zucchinies and peppers.

What can you eat when thermometer climbs up to 40C during the day?  How about raw food? No, not just salads and smoothies, but a 3-course meal!!!
I have been experimenting with "cooking" raw for a couple of years now and here are my 

favorite easy raw recipes

First course is a bowl of raw broccoli soup.  As you may remember, I am not a big fan of broccoli but the creamy, cool, raw soup was recently added to my short list of favorite broccoli dishes.  I combined 2 recipes: Gena's RAW CREAM OF BROCCOLI SOUP and RAWDORABLY RAW CREAM OF BROCCOLI. The procedure is quite simple: soak nuts (cashews work great), add vegetables and spices, blend until smooth, and serve.

Image by Gena

Main dish - raw pasta with marinara sauce.  This is a very popular raw recipe and just like with regular marinara sauce, each cook has his/her little secrets.  My personal favorite is ANY PHYO'S VERSION.  The only problem is that no one can take a good picture of it - the whole dish is gone in less than a minute!

Image by Jamie Reed via Hello Yoga in Tokio

Weekend colours

Image from Tara Starlet

You can buy this and other vintage inspired clothes from the TARA STARLET website.

Gardening notebook

 

As you may remember from my PREVIOUS POST I have been taking care of our backyard this summer.  To keep track of all garden-related information I made myself a little gardening notebook.

What I really like about this project is that it is made with 99% recycled materials.  The cover is made from magazine pages cut into strips and weaved together.  I used different hues of green to create an interesting pattern.

The back page is also weaved, using slightly more "monochrome" pages.

The book is bound using Japanese stab binding technique.  I used leftover yarn from the CROCHETED PURSE I made a while ago.  The long string left after the binding serves as a closure.  It is also handy for tying up a pen or a pencil.

I used blue pages for the back cover.  The only non-recycled part of the book is the sticky plastic wrap used to hold both covers together.

Even the pages of the notebook are recycled: I used single-sided printed pages folded in two.

I really like this gardening notebook and looking at the pile of single-sided printed pages accumulating at my work I am thinking of making several more.  

Weekend colours

Image by Arseniy Semenov via Portrait Photos

Sister's photos

 

It's too hot to cook and too early in the day to craft. What should Anya do? GARDEN!!!

It's my first year taking care of our backyard.  My gardening adventures had some ups and downs and I am planning on writing more about it.  Today I am just sharing some photos MY SISTER took when she was over a couple of weeks ago.

I have planted herbs on the balcony: 3 types of basil, parsley, oregano, sage, marjoram and ....

Lemon thyme

It grows very nicely and has a pleasant lemony taste.  I have been adding it to SALADS and found some interesting recipes for thyme ice cream!

This pretty little bush was full of gorgeous flowers.  Unfortunately it seems like our balcony is not the ideal spot for azaleas.

Azalea which refuses to bloom

This poor guy (aka lemon tree)  has been through a lot: I got it several years ago from a girl whose apartment I was subletting.   It lived on the patio for the whole summer and was moved inside the house for winter.

Lemon tree

A year later it survived a move to another apartment where it was slightly neglected and even abused by my cat.  When I was moving (yet again) last year I was almost convinced to leave it, since poor guy was in a quite miserable condition.  Thankfully, I took it with me and it is now enjoying the sun and the rain and seems to be getting new leaves all over!  Who knows, maybe one day it will thank me with a tiny little lemon ... or two.

Lazy, hazy days of summer ...

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Those days of soda and pretzels and beer

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

You'll wish that summer could always be here

Just a couple of July snapshots featuring lazy animals and hazy-crazy humans

And how are you spending these lazy-hazy days?

Weekend colours

Image by Hazelnut Photography via Style Me Pretty

MIT

 

July is the month of outdoors: camping, bbq, picnics, garden parties ....   If you have a backyard, patio or a small balcony - here are some of my favorite tutorials on how to add more light and decor to the outdoor space.

I fell in love with these DIY GARDEN LANTERNS back in early March:

Image: Scott Phillip via Fine Gardening

If you are like me, you might have a collection of empty glass jars hidden under your sink.  Choose several small-er jars and make this cute OUTDOOR CHANDELIER

Image via Casa Sugar

This FLOWER GARLAND was designed as a part of Easter decor, but I believe it would look great as a patio decoration.  Unfortunately,  the original post is in Norwegian, but I found a similar tutorial over HERE (Esprit Cabane)

Image from this blog

A great way to reuse old light bulbs: turn them into SMALL VASES 

Image via Craft Organic

Cabbage salad

 

We were celebrating my SISTER's belated birthday this weekend and I decided to prepare her favorite cabbage salad.  This is one of the simplest salads there is; all you need is cabbage, onion, cucumbers, fresh dill, and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  The rest of ingredients are optional but you are free to improvise and add some of your favorite vegetables (I think radishes would work great).

For the dressing I used good quality extra virgin olive oil.  If you want a more complex flavor add a splash of lemon juice or some grated lemon rind.  You can also experiment with herbs: I added a little bit of home-grown lemon thyme in my salad but parsley and/or mint would be great too.

What you need:

1 small cabbage

1 small onion (I prefer the sweet varieties: vidalia, Spanish or red)

1 English cucumber or better a couple of small Lebanese cucumbers
fresh dill
2 tbsp capers (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper

 What to do:

• Finely slice the onion.  I first cut it in thin half-moons and then slice them in two.  If the onion is too strong, rinse it under cold water.
• A little trick: put sliced onion in the salad bowl, salt it well and mix thoroughly.  It will give a little bit of juice which is oh-so-good as part of the dressing.
• Grate cabbage: no need for any fancy tools here, just cut it in fairly thin strips.
• Cut cucumbers in thin half-circles.
• In a salad bowl, combine all the vegetables and add 2-3 tbsp of finely chopped dill.  Add capers and olive oil (or salad dressing) and mix.
• Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Tips and Suggestions: 

This salad is great for pick-nicks: it's does not get soggy and can easily survive a couple of hours outside of a fridge.

Weekend colours

Image by mscott218