Christine Chitnis: May 2009

Goal Ribbon

I have had a great couple of months... articles have been published, business cards have been made, a website is in the works. But I feel like I have hit a bit of a 'slow zone.' I decided to take some time on my birthday and do some goal setting. Since I tend to be a visually stimulated person, I decided to display my goals in a way that would remind me daily of what I am working towards. So I present to you the GOAL RIBBON. Weird, but it works!

Materials:
Felt
Thick ribbon
Pin backs
Pictures of your goals (for me it is magazines that I want to write for)
Laminate (or clear packing tape)

Instructions:
1.Cut a piece of felt that is slightly wider than your ribbon. Pin the ribbon to the felt, folding it over at the end so that the edges look finished (the back will be rough, but it will not show).
2. Using a zig-zag stitch, sew the ribbon on to the felt. Sew continuously down the side, across the bottom, up the other side and across the top.
3. Laminate your "goal pictures" with laminate or clear tape, whichever you happen to have laying around. Using a hot glue gun, attach the pin backs to your pictures.
4. Pin the pictures to your ribbon and hang. Prepare to be inspired!
I hung my goal ribbon in my studio, right in view of my desk. Let's see if I can make it happen!

Happy Birthday Blueberries

Today happens to be my birthday...the big 2-6! I feel like that is a somewhat un-exciting number, but nonetheless, it is cause for celebration. I decided to make myself a birthday treat and try out a raw recipe that looked very delicious... it was! I feel like this was a very healthy way to ring in my 26th year!
Raw Blueberry Tartlets

2 cups fresh blueberries
4 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup pitted dates

Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate. Using a food processor, pulse almonds until they resemble bread crumbs. Empty them into a bowl and set aside. Pulse dates with 1 tsp water in processor until they resemble a paste. Mix together the pulsed almonds and dates.

Divide the mixture evenly into four golf ball-size rounds. Place each ball between two sheets of wax paper and pres to form a 4-inch crust. Turn up the edges. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Place the crusts onto serving plates and fill them with with 1/2 cup of the berry mixture. Drizzle each with the juices from the bowl and ENJOY!

Stampede!

One of the coolest DIY projects Design*Sponge has featured in a long time...maybe ever! Ann Wood is the brains behind this amazing project. How much would I love a wall of stampeding horses in my studio. I can also see this being very cute in a kids room!

Handling My Business

I am super excited to show off my new business cards from illustrator Jess aka Vol.25! Aren't they just too cute?! I sent them off to the printer last night and I can hardly wait to see the finished product!

What do you think...would you hire me?

The Crafts Dept.

I hope everyone had a fabulous long weekend. I am a bit exhausted from our "restful" weekend, which involved several graduation events, dinners and ceremonies. I did manage to get a bit of gardening done on Monday, but unless you are interested in seeing pictures of all the weeds that I pulled...I am afraid that I don't have much to show for my efforts!

On a separate note, The Crafts Dept. (the relatively new Martha Stewart craft department blog) recently had a contest to design their new header. I submitted my entry, but unfortunately, it was not chosen as one of the top five, so I figured that I would post it here! It is a paper collage, with bakers twine for the flag string and transferable stickers for the letters. The sweet little chicken stickers are from the Martha Stewart craft line. I thought that the point was to incorporate some of Martha's craft items...guess I missed the boat. Oh well, I thought it was sweet. I mean who doesn't love chicks on parade!

Graduation and Such

Today is the start of commencement weekend here at Brown meaning Vijay and I will are going to be super busy with all the dinners, parties and dances. Tough life...I know! So I will be signing off to enjoy the festivities, but before I do...I wanted to thank all of my lovely readers for the thoughtful comments on my "Raw Food" post yesterday. Thanks to your encouraging words, I am going to give it a shot...I have a few weeks of planning and I have the whole raw food section of the library checked out. Never start a project unprepared is my thinking on the matter! Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the lovely weather!

(photos above from my trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens last weekend...more to come!)

New York Girls Weekend

I thought I would share some of my favorite shots of the NYC weekend...I can't believe it was a week ago now. Where exactly did this past week go? Anyway, the picture above is me (striped shirt) and Laura (big, cool sunglasses) working our way through the Brooklyn Flea Market. We didn't buy a thing except homemade pizza and gelato!
I thought this picture was funny, a picture of me taking pictures at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. That about sums up my garden trip...I think I managed to take pictures of every flower in the place!
This is me, my mom (right) and Mrs. T (left). We worked that National Stationary Show like it was our JOB...well, it is Mrs. T's job, so I guess that was the whole point!
This was my favorite sign in the whole city. I think I would like to learn to ride the bike pictured. That would cause quite a stir on the streets of Providence!Finally, dishware heaven, also known as Fishers Eddy. Oh, if only I didn't have to take the train back. I would have loaded up on cute dishes. This shop is a must if you are ever in the city. That's it for today...Brooklyn Botanical Gardens is up next, just have to sift through a million or so photos first!

Raw

In a few weeks, my husband will be traveling overseas. I was thinking of using that 'alone' time to try a raw food diet, since I know I couldn't get away with it with him around..."Enough with the rabbit food," would be his take on the whole thing. So I checked out a bunch of raw food cookbooks at the library and I am ready to start reading up on it, but I thought I would ask all of you for any thoughts or suggestions.

Have you ever tried going raw? Did you enjoy the experience? Did you find that it gave you more energy?

I am so curious to hear some real thoughts about this because obviously, all the books I have tout it as the best thing ever, but I am not quite sold...so please do spill!

Push This

I had big plans yesterday. I only worked for half a day, and I was so excited to spend my afternoon sorting NYC pictures and posting wonderful blog entries. Before I started my lovely afternoon, I decided to 'quickly' mow the lawn, which has not been mowed since the snow melted. I decided to do this with a push mower.
A little background on the push mower. I grew up in an environmentally friendly household. We composted, belonged to a food co-op, ate organic foods and grew our own veggies. My mom was a Master Composter and toured around town giving lectures on how to compost correctly. At one such lecture, my mom was approached by the local television station and they asked her if she could demonstrate how to use a push mower for a show they were putting together on living green. I guess they assumed that because she was an environmental crusader, she would probably be a big fan of the push mower. My mom agreed and a few weeks later, she dug out our rusty old push mower, slapped a big grin on her face and push mowed her little heart out for local television audiences. The push mower never saw the light of day again...and let me tell you why. Mowing your lawn manually is awful...period. Especially when it is about three feet high and resembles a thriving, lush meadow. My afternoon...three hours of it to be exact, was spent mowing. When I finished, exhaustion set in and my poor little blog was neglected.*Note: The chickens were witness to the push mower debacle. They really did not seem sympathetic, in fact, if I didn't know better, I would say they were laughing at me, in a way only chickens can.

Cape Cod Life

Another nice surprise...this time at the grocery store today! My article about Sarah Waldo Organics just came out in the June issue of Cape Cod Life, a local, East Coast magazine. It hit the newsstands yesterday. The article looks great, but never mind the writing, the adorable pictures steal the show!

NYC or BUST

Whew, I made it back in one piece from my whirlwind weekend in New York City. I think we walked every square inch of the city between shopping, scouring the Brooklyn Flea, catching a play, checking out the scene at the National Stationary Show, oohing and aahing over the blooms at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and stuffing ourselves with fabulous meals. I had to work today, so I didn't get around to editing all of my pictures, but I promise to share later this week.
A highlight of the trip was walking in to a newsstand and seeing the brand new, June/ July issue of BUST, which happens to contain an article by 'yours truly.' Very exciting! The idea for this story came from a post I saw over on Design*Sponge a while back, featuring the fabulous Lindsay Laricks and her magical, organic snow cones. I emailed Lindsay immediately and asked her if I could pitch her story to a few magazines. She agreed and the rest is history.
The craziest part of the entire thing, is that while I was cruising around the National Stationary Show (more on that later), guess who I happened to bump in to?

LINDSAY...working the Hammerpress Letterpress & Design Studio booth, which her boyfriend owns. She could not be any cuter and it was amazing finally getting to meet the girl behind the snow cone. Anyway, long story short, run out and grab the new issue of BUST...I hear there are some great articles!

I have been such a bad blogger this week. I vow to do better next week, that is, when I get back from my big weekend in New York! That's right, another weekend away! My mom and I have been planning this mother/ daughter weekend for a while now. We are going with one of her very good friends from Michigan, whose daughter happens to live in NY.The four of us have a full itinerary, including an afternoon at the Brooklyn Flea Market, a day at the National Stationary Show, a play (not sure which one, it's a surprise) and plenty of shopping (Purl and ABC Home top the list). After a nose-to-the-grindstone work week, I am looking forward to kicking back in the company of my favorite ladies!
Here's wishing you a wonderful (early) weekend!

*lovin' these Polaroids*

Brimfield Antique Show

I arrived at work extra early this morning so that I could take some time in the afternoon and drive up to the Brimfield Antique Show with a friend. It was a rather gray day and I was not overly impressed with the selection, not to mention the fact that all the vendors are very crabby about picture taking...which would be why I have no pictures to show you. What saved the day was this one tucked away booth full of neat little packages of vintage-y paper items. I have no idea what I will do with any of it, but how can you pass up angry paper roosters?

Naked Jaybird

I might be the only one overjoyed by this discovery, but I figured I would put it out there and see if anyone else is as easily amused!
I walked out my front door this morning to see a mother bird had made her home in the pine tree in our front yard. The nest is right at eye level when you are standing on our front stoop. I was so excited by this discovery that I thought about it all day at work. When I got home, the first thing I did was run over to the tree for a peek...and lo and behold, mother bird had gone off for a snack break. I peeked over the edge of the nest and...
Little naked jaybirds!! They look so strange, I really can't tell which end is up, but I am so intrigued. I can't wait until they sprout some feathers and actually get a bit cuter.
I told you this was an odd post!

World's Greatest

Sorry I have been absent for the past few days...besides working quite a bit, we flew home this weekend to surprise my mom for Mother's Day, which also happens to be her birthday. It was such a wonderful weekend. I am blessed to have the world's greatest mom!

Back to regularly scheduled posting tomorrow... promise!

Golden Accents

I discovered a very cool way to photograph buttons. It involves a white background and a bit of editing. I found these buttons at the antique mall today...love 'em!

Elephants on Parade

Before:
After:
Besides my love of these chairs, one of my favorite accessories in the living room are the elephant pillows, which I actually made out of tea towels. The most fun part was pairing up the tea towels with a coordinating print.
I cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of the company that makes these amazing tea towels. If anyone out there recognizes them, be sure to let me know so I can name the source!

Garden Tour

Today started off as a dreary, overcast day and then randomly turned into a sunny, beautiful afternoon. I quickly made my way outside and got to work finishing up some gardening projects. I think the garden is ready for a little tour, although there is still much to be done, including putting up a nice cedar fence, as opposed to the ugly chained link one that is currently surrounding our yard.Anyway, the veggie beds have been built (that was a long, painfully slow process with my wimpy drill), filled to the brim with rich manure and soil, and carefully planted. The one above is filled with lettuce and a few strawberry plants. The second bed is where all my seedlings will be planted.Next, the chicken coop was built. I bought it from a lady who sells them "Ikea style," meaning I had to put it together myself. I even brought my little ladies outside today, for the first time. They were hilarious. They huddled in the corner of their pen, refusing to move and chirping loudly to broadcast their unhappiness. Can you believe how much bigger they are...my babies are growing up!Finally, I found some free pallets behind a dumpster and used them to construct a compost bin. Now, all that is left is the planting of my second veggie bed and the construction of the fence. Once that is done, I will be sure to give you a panorama of the garden in all it's glory!

Living Room

It has been a while since I debuted a renovated room, so I thought I would take today to show off our living room. The previous style was outdated, and the paint color was very flat. We painted the room a daring blue and scavenged Craigslist and a few local secondhand stores for the furnishings. I think my favorite piece in the whole room is the vintage boomerang table. Well, it is a tie between that, and the amazing Danish chairs that I found on Craigslist and re-upholstered with Hable Construction's green dot fabric.

The only new piece in the room, well actually in the whole house, is the bookshelf, which I got on clearance at Arhaus Furniture. It is built with reclaimed wood, so it fits the vintage vibe of the room perfectly.

The last picture is a little sneak peek into the dining room, which I will officially debut tomorrow!

Before:
After: