Okay, okay...

I know, I've been bad. But it's hard to let myself post when I'm procrastinating on my honors thesis so much!!! I'll have a bunch more recipes on here soon, and some more bungalow pictures.

So, happy belated Valentine's day! Here are the tulips Dan got me and the flowers I got him:

Garlic Tofu and Japanese Eggplant

Ingredients:
-1 T canola oil
-1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained cut into 1-1.5" long strips* (see note)
-3 Japanese eggplants, cut into 2" long strips
-1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
-4 large cloves of garlic, peeled and pressed
-2-3 T Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki** (see note)
-1 T water
-1 bunch fresh basil, chopped

Heat the canola oil in a large non-stick skillet. Add the tofu and cook on one side until it is golden. Carefully flip over each piece individually and cook on other side for a few minutes until golden. When you're confident that the tofu won't crumble, add the garlic and onion and sauté until the onion is glassy. Add the teriyaki sauce and sauté for one minute. Add the eggplant strips and water and stir well. Sauté until the eggplant is thoroughly cooked (you should be able to bite through the peel). Add the basil, stir, and leave on low heat for 3-5 minutes. Serve with Jasmine rice.

*I used Trader Joe's extra-firm tofu and found it to be much firmer and tougher than other "extra-firm" versions I've used in the past, such as Nasoya.
**Other teriyaki sauces just don't measure up! This really is the only sauce you need: it has tons of sesame seeds, garlic, and ginger.

L'Occitane en Provence

"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want." Anna Lappe


I went into L'Occitane for the first time a few weeks ago with my mom. They were having a huge 30%-50% off sale, and we spent quite a while in there. I bought orange soaps...


beautifully intricate green tea soaps...


exfoliating almond soaps...


a beautiful lip gloss trio...


and my mom got me a French market basket that I use at the grocery store...



After spending about an hour in the store, I noticed that I didn't get a terrible headache from all the fragrances like I do in Bath and Body Works, Sephora, or Yankee Candle. I immediately understood that it must be because they use very natural ingredients, and decided to do a little research at home.


The company was started by Olivier Baussan in 1976. From the beginning, they have chosen not to test on animals (an issue close to my heart)--and why would they need to? According to the website, they...

- use plant ingredients, organic whenever possible.
-control both their quality and origin by buying from local suppliers who use sustainable harvesting methods wherever possible.
- use no animal products (except for beehive products: honey, royal jelly, and propolis).
-prefer to use plant oils, as opposed to mineral oils, in their face care formulas.
-limit the use of silicones, chemical sunscreens, and paraben preservatives (which have been shown to cause cancer).


All their ingredients from A-Z are listed on their website; there is truly nothing to hide from their consumers. You can learn more about the benefits and origins of many of their ingredients in their true stories. My favorite is the story about shea butter, and there is even an in-depth video with the women in Africa they buy their shea butter from, who keep all the money they earn from shea butter production for themselves, which is why it is called l'or des femmes, or "women's gold."



L'Occitane has even taken into account the effect of packaging materials, which no other major company that I know of has recognized: "Both our products and the materials used in our stores are designed to respect the environment. We limit the use of packing material and the cardboard, paper and wood that we use comes from sustainably managed forests. Our production factory also sorts and recycles its waste and limits its energy consumption."

L'Occitane also uses braille labeling on most of their products, with the philosophy that all of their customers should be able to make informed choices. I am so happy to have found a company I can feel good about giving my money to, and whose products I can feel good about putting on my body.

All images from L'Occitane.

Japanese bento boxes

My housemate, Alex, got the cutest thing I've ever seen in the mail today...


She also got her boyfriend, Timothy, a "men's" bento box:


They come with different compartments for rice and other food, as well as chopsticks. Naturally, I investigated the matter further on Ebay, where she bought hers. I don't need one right now, but I'm secretly hoping I'll need one in grad school. Unfortunately, they're rather expensive and small. I doubt most of them would hold enough food to fill me!


Seriously, is this not the cutest lunch box you've ever seen? It's also a lot bigger than the ones that follow...


"Yume Usagi"


"Akae"

Design for Mankind's E-zine!!!

Erin over at Design for Mankind finally revealed her big project today: a monthly 20-page E-zine full of fabulous photos and inspiration. You should go over and check it out! It's the best thing that's happened to me all week. (Yes, my week was that uneventful. I have been catching up on a lot of schoolwork.)

Dried roses

I scattered some roses I dried from my grandmother's funeral along with some dried rose petals from a bouquet my mother bought me a couple of weeks ago along the top of my bookcase next to some tea lights I got at Target:



There have been a few other small changes and new objects here at the bungalow that I will show you tomorrow when I can take pictures in natural light!

Ollie's growing up!

I'm alive, I swear. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement the last few weeks; it meant a lot to me. Things are almost back to normal around here now! To get back into the swing of things here at Bungalow in Bloom, I think I'll show you all what my cat, Ollie, has been up to lately...

First, he spooned with my squirrel stuffed animal:


Then he stared down my new red panda stuffed animal that Dan got me:


Next, Ollie encountered snow for the first time! He's approximately three years old, you see, and he's lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, his whole life, where it hadn't really snowed since 2004. Unfortunately, he shivered the whole time (as did I, in my bathrobe!) and was happy to go back inside the bungalow:




Finally, he enjoyed hanging out with all his human friends that he missed over the holidays:



Now he's back to normal life at the bungalow, quietly observing all the madness that we crazy humans enjoy so much:

Rant: Zebra rugs

Today was the first day of classes and I should be doing homework, but I can't because my student loan refund check hasn't come in (even though UNC sent an email saying it would be deposited today...), which means I have no money to buy my books. So I have time to post something tonight.

I hate zebra rugs. They remind me of those sorority girls who wear frumpy gym clothes and North Face jackets while they carry stupid Louis Vuitton purses, as if they think their "classic" purse makes the rest of their outfit okay. Putting a zebra rug in your room does not make the rest of the room okay.

I associate animal prints with strippers. (Especially leopard print, but zebra print isn't much better.) So when I see a zebra print rug and, say, a Kartell ghost chair or some lucite/acrylic side table in the same room, it conjures up the image of a tacky-ass stripper with clear high heels and a zebra print G-string:


Image from Ron Marvin.

I also hate the idea of someone putting it in their room to make it more "exotic." Please. Killing an animal to fulfill your patronizing orientalist fantasy is hardly classy. And I don't care if it's a fake zebra rug, because then it's probably on a cow hide, and as a vegan I don't support that either.

Obviously, the huge zebra rug trend that's going on right now doesn't really do it for me. If you want to bring something "exotic" into your home, look to Morocco for inspiration (now that's drool-worthy, orientalism aside). If you want to bring "nature" into your home, get a damn table from ABC Carpet and Home made from salvaged wood from trees that fell naturally (also extremely desirable).

Here are some rooms that would be fabulous if only the zebra rug were gone:


Robyn Karp


Yep, even Jonathan Adler is guilty.


And you thought Domino could do no wrong.

Happy little bungalow

My glass candy collection. I started this when I was 8 or 9 after a trip to visit my relatives in New Orleans. My aunt had just been diagnosed with brain tumors, and she had a bowl of glass candies she bought in Europe on her coffee table. I became obsessed with them, and when we left, she gave me the pink, green, and red striped one. The glass hedgehog is just random; it's a cheap knockoff version I got in Prague of an authentic crystal one my mom has.


The mantle. Aren't you jealous of how ridiculous and random it is? When they came back out with My Little Ponies, I had to get one; the mirror is Shabby Chic for Target, which I bought several years ago.


The hedgehog. My flatmate in Germany, Arina, gave me this for Christmas. She got it from the Freiburger Weihnachtsmarkt, which we went to practically every evening together.


The motorcycle model. So random. It was already in the house when we moved in. I put it on the mantle as an ode to the bungalow's inherent manliness (real wood paneling in the living room and kitchen), despite the landlord's policy of only allowing girls to rent the house.


Le Petit Prince bottle. This handpainted--surely by a former tenant--wine bottle was also found in the bungalow.


The wine bottle shelf. The last tenants left some attractive wine bottles on the shelf over the kitchen sink window. It brings out the lush in me.


My pencil cup. My little brother sculpted and glazed this in a pottery class he took about ten years ago, and I've used it to hold my pens, pencils, and pinwheels ever since.


My honeypot. I know I'm vegan, but maybe I'm more of a sweegan, since I drink honey in my tea constantly. I got this at some kitchen outlet store in southern Georgia about a year ago.


My giant window-style picture frame. I saw this in a JC Penney's about a year and a half ago with my mom and remarked at how much I would like to have it; she actually bought it for me and gave it to me as a surprise a couple of weeks later. I have meant to put pictures in it for so long, but I've become somewhat attached to the babies and old people that came with it, especially the grandma on the motorcycle:


Finally, the vintage Life magazine cover staircase:


Alex's room is in the basement, more private from the rest of the house. Leading down to it is this staircase, which only adds to the bungalow's appeal to college girls.

2008

After a sad week in Georgia, I'm back home at the bungalow. While I was gone, all the leaves outside magically disappeared, but unfortunately, not all of my magazines have arrived that should have. I changed my subscription address several weeks ago, and I'm worried that they aren't sending me the Jan/Feb issues.

I'm going to spend the next couple of days before classes start decompressing and maybe, just maybe, finishing some things around the house that I've been putting off for far too long. Between the stress of grad school applications and my grandmother's death, I really need a break even though I finally have internet access again and am able to blog. Ironically, the longer I'm away, the less motivation I have to blog anymore. Catching up on all the other blogs I read makes me feel quite inadequate both in the quantity and quality of my posts. I'm not sure what 2008 will bring for this blog. Hopefully it's just the grad school- and death-related stress that's getting me down; it could blow over and I'll find more things to say and post. But right now, I feel like there's always something preventing me from blogging about what I want to blog about. For example, Dan and I got a few art prints to frame, and half of them are being framed right now. I wanted to take pictures of them, but we had to leave to go to Georgia before they were ready, so framed or not, they're all in New Jersey.

The point of this blog was to post about the house I live in now, the bungalow, the prototype with hand-me-down couches before Dan and I move in together when I graduate. Yet it seems that all I have to blog about is things I don't have, just admire; things I think someone should have. I'm only 21, a college student. With my age, schedule, and budget taken into consideration, I probably shouldn't be expected to have a perfectly executed house to blog about. However, I have many things which I love and make everyday life happier for me. I think over the next few days, I'll blog about some of my favorite possessions which make the bungalow my home.

So much for posting...

My grandmother is about to pass away, so I'm going to be in southern Georgia for about a week. Have a happy new year...tomorrow is her birthday.

Chinchillas and red pandas

On Christmas Day, Dan and I stopped in FAO Schwarz in New York City. Bad idea--totally crowded. But we did come out of it with an inexpensive ($14) yet high quality squirrel stuffed animal made by Hansa:


Let me preface the rest of this story by saying that one of my and Dan's hobbies is looking at pictures of really cute animals together online. Cats, dogs, squirrels, hedgehogs, raccoons, bunnies, dolphins, parrots, ducklings, llamas, more wild animals--we like them all. We tend to do this for hours at a time every few weeks, and buying the squirrel stuffed animal inspired another round of it.

Two animals I'm absolutely obsessed with are chinchillas and red pandas...


I was literally pawing at the screen, whining and squealing about how much I wish I could have a chinchilla except Ollie would eat it. After seeing this picture, I decided to settle for a chinchilla stuffed animal to go with the squirrel. Unfortunately, realistic ones are nearly impossible to find. As are red panda stuffed animals. I am upset. But here are some more cute pictures of chinchillas and red pandas to appease me (and possibly you):






All images from Wikipedia.

Normal Room

I read about Normal Room a long time ago, and meant to go searching through the galleries from the beginning, but didn't until yesterday. There's so much inspiration! Here are a few of my favorite photos:

From Chameleon in Massachusetts:



From Peanutbutter in Finland, who has a renovation blog. I love the Designer's Guild fabrics!




From greenshoot in the UK:




From Barnbaby in the UK:



From Julia in Finland:




From hb92646@earthlink.net in California: