green soup with ginger

by juli

so, tracy (fellow slow life blogger) wanted to make dinner last night and i was, admittedly, a bit of a laze and wanted to dine out.  she talked me into it with this delish green soup and ginger recipe from the cookbook, "love soup" by anna thomas, found via 101cooksbooks.  tracy loves to cook and alas, i like to either photograph food or eat it.  i aspire to be a cook sometimes but my kitchen is ill-equipped and i kind of keep it that way by spending all my money dining out.
anyhow, what a great winter stew!  it is all vegan and healthy.  the only adaptation we made was to add soy sausage which added a bit of a kick with some protein.  yum.

book sniffing

my daughter and i share a great love of books.  so much so that we both have stacks all over the house.  new books, old books, books from the library, books from friends...sigh.  so many books to be read!

anyway, i'd like to share a great find, "animals should definitely not wear clothing," from our recent trip to the library.  the book was published in 1970 by author judi barrett and illustrated by ron barrett.  the simple story and ridiculous illustrations make my daughter laugh each time she reads the book. 

felt soaps from soFino

how cute are these handmade felt soaps from soFino?!  i need some of these bright colors in my white tiled shower!

deer felted energy soap, $18

blue heart with a seahorse felted white magnolia soap, $16

set of 18 heart felt soaps, $64

dogs + photography = love

courtesy of martin usborne via ZUMA

the sweet, longing faces of dogs photographed while waiting inside cars for their humans is one of my favorite essays at the moment.  see all of "waiting for godot" by martin usborne on ZUMA's pictures of the day.

merge records

arcade fire photo by anton corbijn

so i guess by now everyone in the world knows about indie rockers arcade fire winning the grammy for best album. this was especially exciting to us because arcade fire is on durham's home-grown merge records. merge is home to so many great artists - spoon, richard buckner, camera obscura, destroyer, the rosebuds, she & him....ok i'll stop now. well, i can't forget superchunk. members laura ballance and mac mccaughan started merge in 1989.

superchunk photo from mergerecords.com

one of my favorite newish merge artists is telekinesis. their new record 12 desperate straight lines was released today! you'll be hooked, i promise! listen at npr.

check out this video for dirty thing, a song that appeared on their 2010 release parallel seismic conspiracies. i am ready to go on the road!

the new warby parker collection...

i am a lover of warby parker frames.  i own a pair and i tell everyone i know about them because they are well-designed, only $95, and they give a pair to a person in need each time a purchase is made! they have rolled out their  2011 collection with 14 new frames.  yay!  i've got my eyes on the monroe style below.  simple goodness.  mmmm.

courtesy of warby parker

the treehouse

in 2009 a little idea started unfurling about what would become my daughter's first bed.  i looked all about and disliked everything i saw until i ran across an awesome post by blogger joanna goddard of a cup of jo about a treehouse built indoors from mathy by bols.  now you see, i have always wanted a treehouse so i thought any child of mine would also want one.  i did drawings inspired by this post and talked a friend of mine, who is good with numbers and owns power tools, to get involved.

tula mirth picked out the paint with her wise two-year-old sensibilities: orange on the outside and eggshell blue on the inside.  she even helped paint it in her little diaper.  i love hearing her tell the story of making her bed. 








and so, tula mirth has a treehouse bed.  we built it in 2009 and it has survived a move and a large birthday party with boys leaping from it's steps.  i look at it and smile.  it is good memories and i enjoy how everyone, no matter how large, wants to climb inside.

 

all photos by juli