Jananas

My friend Robot dropped by this afternoon for some vegan baking goodness. We made vegan ginger cookies, rolled in big crystallized sugar so they have that nice crunch. I like mine a bit on the spicy size so I added a lot of ginger, cinnamon, black pepper and a touch of nutmeg. Robot made some oatmeal everything cookies (flax seed, raisins & pumpkin seeds). The batch in this photo was made with jam as a binder. The second batch, which is in the oven right now, was made with ground flax seed + water.

I also decided that I wanted to make some vegan fudge. I have a super simple recipe that Jason told me about a while back. Today I added some raisins right at the vegan end, as it reminds me of the Cadbury fruit  & nut bars when you also use crunchy peanut butter in the fudge.

Vegan Fudge Recipe: 1 cup maple syrup, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup cocoa / 1.5 cups vegan chocolate chips. Melt together. Pour into 8×8-ish pan lined with waxed/parchment paper (makes for easier removal & cleanup later on). Refridgerate to cool. Cut into squares! The end result isn’t quite as hard as typical fudge, but is every bit as delicious.

I also made some vanilla agave nectar cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. However, they need to sit for another hour or so before I can ice them so pictures will have to wait! Actually, I’ll probably take pictures of them after we’ve had dinner – which is going to be vegan french toast made with the homemade bread from earlier this week & tofu scramblers. Man we eat well.

I have seven Akoha starter decks that Austin (their founder) gave me back in November at a conference. I got a little distracted by end of term school projects, exams, and holidays, but now I want to release these into the hands of the interested & positive world. I know that you can now purchase a pack at a low cost from Akoha and I don’t meant to detract from what they are trying to do by offering these for free. Really, I’ll be playing it forward myself as I’ll get a chance to play the “make someone something handmade” mission. I can’t promise that you’d get sweaters or afghans, but I do have a shelf of FOs – hats, scarves, etc. that need a home!

So here’s the deal. If you would like a free deck & a hand made gift, leave me a comment letting me know: why you think Akoha is innovative, or why you want to play, or why the world needs to play it forward. In order to leave a comment, you’ll have to register – but that’s a measure to reduce spam so don’t hate me. Each person who leaves a comment will get a deck and something I’ve knit in the mail. Alternatively, you can’t e-mail me – info@ my domain.

Updates: 7/7 gone! Excellent!!

I knit. I knit a lot. I regularly knit in class, on transit, and have even been known to knit in movie theatres. However, this might qualify as being one of the stranger places that I’ve knit. And yes, I am aware of how awesome my socks are.

I read a lot for school: textbooks, business books, course packages, websites, and electronic files (often .pdf’s). I rarely print off files to read, in part because a large portion of what we’re assigned to read isn’t terribly useful and I detest wasting the paper. Instead I read a lot on my computer, on my large but not huge laptop screen. Tonight I’m reading a document that is laid out in columns in a portrait format. Its frustrating because I have to scroll down to read the bottom part of the column, then scroll back up to read the top of the next column, repeat.

I understand that paper documents are formatted a specific way for print. Or maybe just because that’s the way its always been. I have to ask, why are electronic documents formatted the same way?  Is it that the majority of designers use larger screens and so don’t realize the salience of the ease of reading a document on different screen sizes? Is the assumption that the majority of readers will be printing off said documents and reading them on paper. If so, then having things formatted in portrait with long columns might make sense. However, if more people are moving towards reading documents on their computers wouldn’t it make sense to format the documents so that they are easier (which for me also translates into more enjoyable/less irritating) to read? Even if its as simple as breaking all vertical columns into two sections (i.e. so that each page contains as much information vertically, just that’s its broken down into two smaller sections – one for the top of the page and the other for the bottom).

Really, I’m sure that there’s a better way to solve this problem (integrate this!). I can’t recall coming across anything terribly great and more often than not spend time scrolling my life away. Anyone out there have any good ideas?

Jason and I were walking home from lunch today (at Cafe Bernate, one of my favorite local cafes) along Ossington. We stopped in at C1 Art Space, in part because they had an awesome window display and in part because they have the mustache handkerchief’s that I love so much. Even more awesome was that they currently have a 15% off sale on all items. I was sorely tempted by some of the amazing artwork they had.

I hemmed and hawed and eventually picked up a small watercolour by local artist Laura Vegys. Her website can be found here. After trolling through her galleries, I’ve fallen in love with her style. I picked up a small watercolour of a dead squirrel, which balances cute and morbid without being disturbing. Now to figure out where to hang it! Dead animals aside, I would love to have her artwork in a kids room.

Incidentally, C1′s vibe & selection of local crafts reminds me a lot of Wholly Craft in Columbus, OH. I’m appreciative of the positive changes that are taking place in Ossington & West Queen West.