Artisan's Market: The Met opens in London, ON April 30th!

A very exciting new edition to the city of London, Ontario celebrates the grand opening of The Metropolitan Market this weekend! Come and explore the newly renovated space of 140 Dundas St. courtesy of the 379 Collective. OPEN EVERY WEEKEND, vendors of various art forms and expressions will be available Saturdays 9-5pm and Sundays 12-5pm. This diverse DIY art showing and sale at The Met is surely going to enrich London's creativity core. You can catch Michelle Bezanson of Bezanson Dezign's creations there this weekend as well as that of myself, Eco Veg Footprint's recycled eco projects! You can read more about this and other local socio-cultural happenings at the most excellent indie media source London Fuse!

DIY Contact Cards

Passing Around An Environmental Message.......

Finishing up the first batch of personal business cards could not have been easier environmentally. Amidst the "debris" of a throwaway society is a plethora of materials and resources. This is an opportunity for all, in this case, DIY artists! Inherent in the Do-It-Yourself movement is an ethic of reusing, recycling and reforming "found materials" into creative and useful outputs. Zines, bookmarks, collages, postcards, letters (in the good old fashioned snail mail post), and picture frame borders are just a few of the ways to make use of scrap paper. By selecting an array of words and images and by cutting, copying and pasting (non-electronically) them, you can create a message that is artistic and ecologically friendly. This is how I've made contact cards - you and your friends should tooooooooooooo

Step 1

- using a typewriter, recycled computer paper or a simple writing instrument: cut out strips of paper with your various contact information (name, email, twitter account, etc.)

Step 2

-cut out card sized pieces of paper from a little thicker material such as used cardboard or bristolboard

Step 3

-glue personal info onto one side of the cards

Step 4

-after collecting images and words that suit you and your message, make a mini-collage on the other side of the cards. use your visual art drawing skills if available (in my case, not..!)

Step 5

-clean up egdes of cards with scissors and let dry

Step 6

- press into the pages of a thick book or place under a flat weighty object
(this is to seal the stray edges of scrap paper you see!)

DONE! Celebrate creativity, recycling, imagination and environmentalism.

DISTRIBUTE AND SPREAD THE MESSAGE!

Eco Response to V-Day!

Why is the common (standardized) conception of love overwrought with gold and glitter? Seems more than a limited concept of it to me. Love is dynamic and complex but also a simple and pure, very raw natural feeling. How did it get to be so expensive to be in love and why don't we find it immoral to buy it?
I think a more dimensional note on what Valentine's Day really is includes the overarching and blatant commercial and consumerism. Yes, as in people being fooled into thinking they want and need to buy pink and red trinkets, cards, chocolates to verify their love. Otherwise for those who can afford it, the bar is raised and epitomies of materialist extravagance take the form of precious stones, metals and gems. I suppose nothing says "I love you" than a blood diamond! The occasion also perpetuates the status quo by the assumption heteronormative gender roles. One answer to this has been a paperless online options such as Outgreetings.com

However, to celebrate love any day of the year is a beautiful expression that I think should be encouraged! I like to think of this as an opportunity for a creative and critical response that includes an environment friendly approach. Below are suggestions for how to manifest these concepts into genuine and thoughtful gestures as an alternative to "buying in" to the Valentine's Day extravangza. Personally, I mailed the (very dark and witty, If I may say!) ones I made out to friends! Yes, through the post - snail mail as its called.

Shouldn't a broader representation of love be accessible to children and students aswell? Adopt athe DIY ethic and include these projects in your own home and classroom to foster a creative and eco-conscious environment. Don't forget to recycle the already recycled items afterwards! Many recycled materials can be used such as paper, cardboard, paper-rolls, fabric, buttons, etc..

-make garland from recycled paper by cutting heart shapes or what ever sybmol makes sense for your idea of the day

-write a love poem on recycled materials

-draw subversive cartoons and images on cards made from recycled paper

-spark ideas of your own by taking suggestions from sites like Craftzine.com where you can check out the Subersive Vantine Cross Stitch patterns!

-make sock puppets of love...you get the idea yes?

HAPPY VD!

craftzine.com

Asian Hybrid Stirfry

In making this stirfry I spontaneously added various ingredients of south and east Asian cuisine to create a hybrid effect that was interesting and delicious!

Tossing a veggie medley into a frying pan and lightly dusting with curry powder (Ten Thousand Villages fair-trade from Sri Lanka to be exact) is what I did first. The oil I added sporadically while frying is roasted garlic grapeseed oil. Instead of rice I chose to add Japanese buckwheat noodles as a base which can be boiled for 3 minutes and added to the stirfry with additional oil so as to avoid pan-stick action! I added a chopped mix of coriander, basil and rosemary from my herb garden and garnished generously with sesame seeds, chopped mango and coconut sprinkles. I served this dish with crackers and the kiwi chutney that I bought at Windsor's annual Art in the Park that just passed.

After the health feast my friend Craig and I tried to make a vegan cookie/quickbread recipe and it was a complete mess/flop! Pictured below is my post-stirfry success and pre-baking disaster smile. Not all of the recipes I make up or get from other blogs work out of course and those go un-posted! I encourage all to perservere on the veg cooking journey because we all make mistakes and wow is it worth it when you make something new, interesting and yummy to add to the recipe book. And a DIY apron makes any cooking experience better!