I was always a crafty kid. From clothespin reindeer with sequin noses to potholder looms to God’s eyes made with colorful yarn and popsicle sticks, I always had some sort of arts and crafts project going. Around the third grade, I taught myself to sew because I wanted to be Princess Leia for Halloween (though…
Month: July 2020
My Greenish Thumb
My Dad was an amazing gardener. He grew up in Hungary, and was taught very traditional ways of horticulture by his grandparents, who raised him on their farm. I remember him ordering ladybugs and praying mantis eggs as natural pest control when I was a kid, because he did everything organically. Seeds would be started…
Rosepetal Rhubarb Cardamom Shrub
When we moved into our new apartment that is blessed with a garden (a rare luxury in New York City), I dug up a rhubarb plant from my mother’s house that she saw as a nuisance. It was very hardy, and always got huge since it was just left untended. My late father was the…
The Prize in the Oatmeal Box
Lets talk about promotional items! When I was a kid, we were at the tail end of supermarket giveaways and consumer products including bonus item, like your jelly coming in a Peanuts character drinking glass. But I do remember my Mom collecting a set of enamel cookware, where there was a different piece available each…
Learn To Love Your Slubs
I met my now dear friend Anna over a decade ago while we were performing with a small chamber opera company named (in retrospect, rather prophetically) Golden Fleece. We had of course chatted during rehearsals but the moment where we really connected was when we were sitting in the dressing room and she got out…
Jersey Shore Style Fudge
We weren’t a big vacationing sort of family when I was growing up, since my parents were running a small business, so there weren’t a lot of opportunities to walk the NJ boardwalk (and honestly, we were a bit too far inland for that to be an easy trip). However, on the occasions when I…
How I Became a Thrifty Gal
When I was a kid, my Mom and I had a weekend ritual during summer vacation. On Friday, she would get the local paper and we would search the classifieds for yard and church rummage sales. This was pre-Mapquest (dating myself here!), so there was a lot of “oh, I THINK I know where that…