Cookbook Collection

Let's  call this a series. This post was originally published 15 September 2011 at folioleaves.wordpress.com.

A while ago I started my collection of cookbooks. It's not much yet. But I am proud of it. I particularly like 19th century English cookbooks, but I think it will be a while before I really am in a position to start collecting those. So, for the present my cookbooks are early-mid 20th century.

I find it absolutely fascinating to see how different (and yet the same) cooking practices and recipes were. I also think it is fascinating to watch the evolution of the cookbook over the centuries. I'm hoping that I can share more of my cookbook fascination with you over the ensuing months and years.

The beginnings of my little collection

 

Kool-aid--Did you know it's useful for more than just drinking?

Let's call this a series. This post was originally published 18 October 2011 at folioleaves.wordpress.com.

I have been waiting for a reason to dye paper for a while and due to some recent events (that I may or may not ever tell you about) I finally had a good reason to do it. So on Saturday I popped by Giant on my way home from errand-running and purchased the "dye". I had decided that I wanted to dye my paper red and I had thought of the perfect thing that I hoped would make the same kind of red on paper that it made on my mom's carpet when I was kid (It was my brother's fault--not mine). Kool-aid.

By the time I had actually started the dying process I'd realized that really my paper was going to be more pink than red and I was ok with that. And the light baby-girl pink that I ended up with I think will look fantastic in my next book. Though oddly enough the Kool-aid did turn my hands about the shade of red I had been hoping for on my paper.

 

Stowaway Magazine

Let's call this a series. This post was orginally published 22 September 2011 at folioleaves.wordpress.com.

Here is another super old post from the other blog that we're reposting here. Note to the world: I worked for Stowaway in the Fall of 2010--on the Winter 2011 issue.

About a year ago I worked on the staff of the a publication called Stowaway. It is a student produced magazine that is the culminating project in the editing minor at Brigham Young University. It is a fantastic project and I am thrilled that I had a chance to work on the Winter 2011 issue. My work was in design, but I also wrote several articles and provided a little of the photography throughout the magazine.
Yesterday I discovered that Stowaway has lately received several national publication awards. Check out the article here.

What should we do with abandoned warehouses?

I thought this was a very interesting idea--actually a pretty fabulous idea. Why not turn an old Walmart into a library? What could be better than a Walmart's worth of books?

http://inhabitat.com/msr-architecture-transforms-an-abandoned-wal-mart-into-a-sparkling-public-library/

 

Sometimes my life is pretty awesome

Recently I found myself with some extra time and I was catching up on some of backlog blog reading. I hadn't read very many articles before I found that I was feeling a little down on myself. Many of my friends are having lots of big life changes right now (like buying homes, or having kids, or getting married) and I felt a little left out--especially since it had been a fairly stressful week for me anyways. So, I thought I'd write a post about how awesome my life is. Because, let's face it. It's pretty awesome.

This summer, I worked two part time jobs. But since they are pretty flexible, I've been able to take time off to visit Chicago (for ALA), Maine (camping with Melanie), New Hampshire (to visit a friend), Rockport, MA (for kicks and giggles--and to try lobster), and Rhode Island (drove a friend to the airport). I'm in the middle of finding a third roommate (which is actually super stressful) for the new apartment that I'm moving into in the fall--which I found nearly all by myself. I have done all the leg work for the new place and even successfully navigated realtors and brokers and such.

I live in Boston, where there is always tons of stuff to do. Granted, many of my exciting plans have been rained out this summer (Shakespeare on the Common, Rear Window on the side of the Harbor Hotel), but hey, I'm no weather god.

As a library student I get all kinds of exciting opportunities to do cool things like work in two awesome libraries and have a *hopefully* awesome internship in the fall. I'm also helping the senior missionary couple in my ward to reestablish a lending library for the Institute library in our church building. I get to basically build a library from scratch (ok, maybe not quite from scratch--most of the books are already catalogued--but practically).

I've started shopping around to buy my first suit. And I'm pretty excited about what I've seen so far. I had an excellent experience with the sales lady today who knew way more than I did about the way the clothes were supposed to fit. There is something super refreshing about having a sales lady look at the skirt you have on (that you thought fit well) and say "that looks a little big, let me bring you a smaller size." And then you put on the smaller size and lo and behold, it fits way better.

What makes your life awesome?

Quotes of the day

For a brief period of time I thought that having a quote of the day would be a nice thing for that other website. Clearly it didn't last too long, but here are some lovely quotes.

--We'll call it a series.

"It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will." —L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)

 

"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." --Walter Cronkite

 

"A University is just a group of buildings gathered around a library. The library is the University." --Shelby Foote

Oh yeah, my daily quotations lasted real long...
 

Belonging vs. Fitting In

A while back I read Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. It was a pretty good book, though not as life changing as Susan Cain's Quiet. Nevertheless Brown made some interesting points. One thing inparticular that I liked where the responses (p. 232) that a bunch of 8th graders gave her to the difference between belonging and fitting in:

"Belonging is being somewhere where you want to be, and they want you. Fitting in is being somewhere where you really want to be, but they don't care one way or the other."

"Belonging is being accepted for you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else."

"I get to be me if I belong. I have to be like you to fit in."

I think they got it right. Do you belong or do you fit in?

National Book Festival

Welcome to part two of our "series." This a post from when I went to the National Book Festival back in 2011:

I went into the District on Saturday and headed the National Book Festival--2 days where the nation (or the DC Metro area at least) celebrates books. When I heard about the festival I thought to myself , "I like festivals, I love books, this seems like the perfect way to spend an afternoon." It was amazing. And I got a cool earth friendly bag. I can't wait to go again next year.