Vegan Sushi 101

Fish and I are not friends. It's a very sad state of affairs, but I trudge along. Sushi is probably my number two envy food, hearing the stories of folks laughing and enjoying their deliciously light sushi for lunch or how excited they are to try a new place. It makes me cry a little inside.

Thankfully for me, I have amazing friends who brought amazing vegan sushi to my house. And then offered to teach me how to make it!

We used nori, aka sushi seaweed wraps, brown rice, and a smattering of vegetables and sauces like yellow peppers, avocado, fennel, carrots, kale, tahini and Ume plum vinegar. Then we really got the creative juices flowing and decided to make "Mediterranean" sushi using olives.  

Making the rolls were a snap. Using simple bamboo mats you roll the ingredients into the nori, let it sit for a few minutes and the slice. Voila! 

Even though it's "sushi" and "vegan" it doesn't mean it's hard or scary. It was super easy and fun to make using many ingredients you probably already have. I've already purveyed my bamboo mats (they were under $10) and am concocting ideas on how to make an Ume vinegar substitute using local plums. 

Now it's your turn to get out there and taste something new. 

Yet another TARDIS

Can one really have too many? Probably not. For those who don't know, my husband built a full-size TARDIS, in front of which we pledged our love.

Then it was smushed by the tree that fell on our house with the Snowicane of 2010. No worries. We'll rebuild one of these days. 

So it should be no surprise that I decided our kitchen needed its own Van Gogh-esque exploding TARDIS painting. I mean really, as a Whovian, how can you not have one? 

So armed with a day off, I created one. As an accent wall. 

The wall was already a pale yellow, so I reversed engineered it to take advantage. I free-handed the outlines onto the wall first using an image in the web as a reference. I did use wall paint by using those nifty wall paint samples you can buy. All told the project was about $20. 

I am not an artist. But I did this and so can you. Start eyeing your own walls and go create your own amazing.

Special thanks to my friend, Bobby, for reminding me that I originally had this idea back in the spring when I was painting the cabinets that beautiful blue. I had completely forgotten I wanted to do this. 

Cosplaying Strong Women Characters

One of my ideas of fun is to challenge myself with costume-making ideas and see how well (or not-so-well) I can execute them. Thankfully, I'm surrounded by creative types, including my Makers in Manchester group. I live in a place that holds events to dress-up for, thanks to my local comic shop Double Midnight Comics. 

Recently for Free Comic Book Day, I dressed as Antonelle "Toni" Chu from an obscure-but-awesome comic called Chew. Toni is a smart, loyal, funny and amazing female character. And she wears normal clothes. No tiny bikinis or princess ballgowns. Just a NASA t-shirt and some capris. 

And quite honestly, it was refreshing. 

Oh don't you worry that this is some judge-y feminist, political, insert-your-activism-here piece. Un uh. No way. Move along, nothing here to see. I've done fitted costumes (love my Wonder Woman so much it's my Twitter pic) and beautiful gowns (see my beautiful Firefly wedding dress) but to be representing a kick-butt female who wears clothes? Somewhat priceless. 

Kinda of neat to live in a world where we can dress up like inspiring real women or those characters who inspire us.