Upcoming Mother’s Day is stealing all the headlines, but this weekend is not only about mothers it is also about Fair trade.  Saturday, May 9th is the World Fair Trade day.

WFT day logo

According to the Fairtrade foundation website:

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South.

Big Bang!! is a chance to salute the people and organizations who have dedicated themselves to making Fair Trade a solution not an issue. To kick off the day, there will be a rolling programme of drumming events, starting with a solo drummer at dawn in New Zealand and continuing around the earth with indigenous people drumming in Samoa at sunset on May 9.

Links

In the last 2 posts we talked about green office organizing and green cleaning.  Today we are all about eco-friendly decorating.

Craft

Lamps are not only functional units but could be used as decoration.

Image: Better Homes and Gardens

Better Homes and Gardens have a simple tutorial of an eco-friendly beautiful twig lamp.  Collect fallen twigs and keep the natural look

by leaving the twigs as is; add a contemporary flair by spray-painting the twigs before you make the lamp.

In the second issue of PassiFlora we showed how you can make your own candles.  To make the jar candles unique and personal follow the instructions from Inspired Ideas

Image: Inspired Ideas

You can use leftover scrapbook paper, ribbons, buttons, or other embellishments.

White walls are by far the hardest thing to decorate. Alexa Westerfield (aka Swelldesigner) showed a fast and easy way to add color to your room decor

Image: Alexa Westerfield

Not only this wall mosaic is fun to make but since it is inexpensive you can change the colors (or the medium) very often.

Happy crafting!

Links

Twig lamp tutorial:
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/do-it-yourself/quick-and-easy-projects/diy-twig-lamp/
Candle making tutorial:
http://passifloramag.com/craft/candle-making/
Candle decorating instructions:
http://inspiredideasmag.blogspot.com/2008/08/wrapped-candles-project-using-paper.html
Easy wall mosaic tutorial:
http://swelldesigner.blogspot.com/2009/04/colorful-mosaic-wall-on-cheap.html

Better Homes and Gardens:
http://www.bhg.com/
Inspired Ideas:
http://www.inspirecompany.com/inspiredideas.html
Swell designer:
http://swelldesigner.blogspot.com/

Healthy and filling, today’s Dish Of the Week is

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Do not be intimidated by the long list of ingredients.  The mushrooms are easy to prepare.

And here is a cool way to turn stuffed Portobellos into a summer dish.  Grill mushroom cups on the barbecue (brush them with the mix of oil, garlic powder, soy sauce, spices) and then simply scoop-in the precooked stuffing.

For 4 serving you will need:

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
4 Portobello mushrooms
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled
2 medium size carrots
½ block of firm tofu
7 Cremini or regular white button mushrooms
1 cup of blanched almonds, ground to powder (optional, use to make the filling sticky) could be substituted with 1 cup bread crumbs or ½ cup wheat germ and ½ cup nutritional yeast
2 zucchinis
3-4 tablespoons Tamari (or soy) sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoon Herbs de Provence or a mix of basil, oregano, marjoram, and sage

Continue to the recipe …

Image: Eric Gloutnay

Veg*n

My mother send me an interesting link to a Healthy Herbs slideshow.

Image: Flannery Dean

Flannery Dean’s slideshow is about common herbs (basil, cinnamon, turmeric) and how

they add flavour to meals and can contribute to good health.

Craft

After yestrday’s office organizing comes cleaning and dusting.

Laura from We Wilsons has a great tutorial for a reusable dust mitt. Swetashirts, terry shirts, old hand towels could be easily reused to make a sturdy mitt.

Image: Laura

Laura’s tutorial has a link to a similar project, making reusable “Swiffer”-style dusters.


If you know how to crochet it will take you no time to make Linda Permann’s reversible Swiffer sock. The project is fast, useful, and will help you to rid off those acrylic leftovers in your yarn stash.

Image: Linda Permann (via CraftStylish)

And if you do not crochet the Swiffer sock will make a great first project. Linda’s detailed illustrated instructions are very easy to follow.

Links

Dust Mitt tutorial:
http://wewilsons.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-cleaning-dust-mitt-tutorial.html
Reversible Swiffer sock:
http://www.craftstylish.com/item/44816/how-to-make-a-reversible-swiffer-sock
Swiffer-style duster instructions:
http://www.craftycrafty.tv/2008/03/spring_cleaning_make_your_own.html

Five healthy herbs slideshow:
http://healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca/Galleries/healthy_healing_herbs.htm?feedname=PHOTO_GALLERY_HF_HEALTHY_HERB&pos=1&nolookup=true

Lindamade:
http://www.lindamade.com/wordpress/
We Wilsons:
http://wewilsons.blogspot.com/

Veg*n

Do you like waffles? How about vegan waffles? If your answer is “yes” then on May 25th you can join others in the world’s second multi-city vegan waffle party. If you never heard about this event, check the Waffle Party website. There you can get more information about the history of the party, sign up for hosting one, get recipes, tips and tricks on how to cook delicious vegan waffles, as well as join the Waffle Party Facebook group.

Image: Waffle Party

Please tell us [Waffle Party.com] about your party plans via the brief registration form, so I can email you the Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer. (It has several vegan waffle tips and recipes not found on this site.) If the budget is tight and your event adheres to their guidelines, VegFund may even be able to help you cover many of your party costs! The first multi-city vegan waffle party was a lot of fun!

Craft

If you like organized working areas but do not want to spend money on a new desk organizer of file holder, here are 2 upcycling tutorials for you.

Jennifer Clark (from Party of Five) makes beautiful office supplies organizers out of tin cans.

Image: Jennifer Clark

She posted a detailed tutorial on how to make them using tin cans, scraps of paper/fabric and hot glue gun.

Another easy office organizing idea comes for Martha Stewart. She has a fast and easy tutorial on how to make a magazine holder out of a cereal box.

Image: Martha Stewart

Barb (from Craft therapy) took this idea a step further to make a more sturdy holder out of a mailing box. She also posted an illustrated tutorial you can follow.

Image: Barb

Links

Waffle Party: http://waffleparty.com/

Office supply organizer:
http://jenanddarrellclark.blogspot.com/2009/04/tin-can-organizer-mini-tutorial.html

Magazine holder tutorial (Martha Stewart):
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=8c87608f8532f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Sturdy magazine holder (Craft Therapy):
http://craft-therapy.blogspot.com/2008/08/thrifty-magazine-file-tutorial.html

Party of Five blog:
http://jenanddarrellclark.blogspot.com/
Craft Therapy blog:
http://craft-therapy.blogspot.com/

This weekend’s read is about

Turnips

These fleshy yellow or white root vegetables have been known for a long long time (at least since 10,000BC).  The Greeks and Romans subjected the turnip to long slow cooking then pounded it together with honey, vinegar, grapes, and oil. It was also a popular vegetable in Britain and France, especially for the soups and the stews in the northern and coastal regions.

More about turnips ….

Fun facts

• A surprising vegetable low in energy with just 55 calories per one cup of raw turnip
• The turnips of certain parts of France have been famous for centuries.  Berlin turnips were praised by Goethe
• Turnips can be eaten row due to its distinctive flavour
• One of the Russian folk-tales is about a turnip

Image: Eric Gloutany

After a day of sickness and unsuccessful attempts to write a coherent post, PassiFlora blog is back with cool plastic recycling ideas.

Although plastic bags are becoming (hopefully) less and less popular and more shoppers opt for fabric totes we still end up with some plastic in the apartment.  Joanne from Craft Passion came up with a method of upcycling those bags into durable funky totes

Image: Joanne

The method of fusing plastic bags is described and illustrated in her tutorial.  It is a fairly easy project as long as you have:

1. a pair of scissors,
2. 2 sheets of blank white paper,
3. a thick towel,
4. iron,
5. plenty of thin grocery plastic bags, and
6. a well ventilated room

Joanne dedicated her tote bag to Earth Day since it is made of 100% recycled material (old jeans, old curtains, rice bag, and fused plastic).


Following a similar technique of plastic fusing Simone upcycled plastic bags into beautiful beads.

Image: Simone

Beads-making tutorial is available on The {NewNew} blog

a place for independent artists and crafters of the Metro NY area.

You can also visit Simone’s Etsy store here.

Another cool idea of reusing plastic bags comes from C. Jeanne Heida (via Associated content).  She uses fused together plastic bags to braid a sturdy dog leash.

Image: C. Jeanne Heida

If you have any interesting upcycling ideas using plastic bags, leave a comment or email us at passifloramag@gmail.com

Have a green weekend!

Links

Plastic bag fusing tutorial:
http://www.craftpassion.com/2009/04/recycle-your-grocery-plastic-bag.html
Plastic beads tutorial:
http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-turn-bags-into-beads.html
Dog leash tutorial:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/328037/recycle_craft_make_a_dog_leash_from.html

Recycled tote bag:
http://www.craftpassion.com/2009/04/tote-bag-made-from-recycled-material.html

Craft Passion:
http://www.craftpassion.com/
Simone’s Etsy store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5059326
The {NewNew} blog:
http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/

Green

Warm weather brings an abundance of beautiful fruits and vegetables to the local markets and stores.  Treehugger team created a slideshow to remind you about vegetables with the most pesticides.

Image: Robin MacDougall (via Treehugger)

The slideshow has beautiful images, and tons of useful information, including scientific data and links to the recipes.

Craft

Warm weather also brings flowers.  No wonder flower theme is so popular for spring decoration and with the upcoming Mother’s Day these projects can be used as little tokens or gifts.

FamilyCorner has several tutorials for making flowers out of …. coffee filters.

Image: FamilyCorner

Projects (daffodils or a flower bouquet) are easy enough for little kids and will make a good excuse to use up all those oddly-sized filters.

Another kids-friendly tutorial comes from Jessica Okui, a talented lady behind Zakka life blog.

Image: Jessica Okui

These decorative flowers take no time to make and use up old catalogs and magazines.

The fairly light garland could be used to decorate a patio, a balcony, or even a dinning room.

Image: Jennyb

Bring out your eco-friendly Christmas lights, multicolored scraps of paper, scissors, and follow the simple tutorial at Apartment therapy.

And if you have any spring-themed tutorials, recipes, or ideas, email us (passifloramag@gmail.com).  We’ll make sure to feature your projects in our blog.

Links

12 vegetables with most pesticides:
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/04/12-vegetables-with-the-most-pesticides.php?page=1

Coffee filter flowers tutorial:
http://www.familycorner.com/family/kids/crafts/coffee_filter_flower.shtml
Daffodil tutorial:
http://www.familycorner.com/family/kids/crafts/coffee-filter-flower-daffodil.shtml
Big decorative flowers tutorial:
http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2008/11/flower-garland-tutorial.html
Fairy lights garland tutorial:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/at-australia/how-to-make-flower-fairy-lights-melbourne-067715

Treehugger:
http://www.treehugger.com/
FamilyCorner:
http://www.familycorner.com/
Zakka life blog:
http://www.zakkalife.blogspot.com/
Apartment therapy:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

Veg*n

May 17th , 2009.  What’s so special about this day?  This is when New York’s Veggie Pride Parade will take place.  Last year’s first installment of the parade was so successful that the organizers decided to do it again.  The parade will launch

in Manhattan’s Olde Meat District (where 9th Ave., Gansevoort St., Greenwich St., and Little West 12th St. intersect) at 12 Noon. Line-up will begin at 11 a.m. and culminate in Union Square Park (northern end).

Veggie Pride Parade is much more than just walking.  The event has an extensive program, including guest speakers, best costume competitions, musical performances, naming ceremony of human baby vegetables and fruits, offspring (small children in costumes), and much more.  For more information visit Veggie Pride Parade website or follow Parade’s blog.

Craft

To continue yesterday’s children topic here are tutorials for sewing baby-girl skirts.  Do not be intimidated, both tutorials are suitable for beginners.

Image: V and Co

First one is a bandanna skirt from V and Co.  The skirt would fit 2-3 year old girl and makes for a great use of your old bandannas.

If you never wore bandannas, here is another upcycling sewing project.  Tracy (aka Amazing Mae) wrote down her verson of the tutorial, adapting it for an older girl (3-4 years old) and using cloth napkins instead of bandannas.

Image: Amazing Mae

Both tutorials have lots of pictures and are very easy to follow.

Links

Veggie Pride Parade:
http://www.veggieprideparade.org/
Parade’s blog:
http://www.vivavegie.org/prideblog/index.html

Bandanna skirt tutprial (V and Co):
http://adayinthelifeofthechristensons.blogspot.com/2008/12/tutorial-bandanna-skirt.html
Cloth napkin skirt tutorial (Amazing Mae):
http://amazingmae.blogspot.com/2009/03/napkin-skirt-now-doesnt-that-sound.html

V and Co:
http://adayinthelifeofthechristensons.blogspot.com/
Amazing Mae:
http://amazingmae.blogspot.com/

Here is a recipe for an Iranian style eggplant dip.  The original recipe, Mirze Ghasemi, uses eggs to thicken the dish.  Not only we replaced eggs with tofu but also added a little bit of vegan mayonnaise to give the final dip creamy and rich taste.  If you are looking for a more authentic variation, feel free to omit the mayo.

This dip is great with raw vegetables or spread on warm bread.

Iranian style eggplant dip

For 4 servings you will need:

8 small seedless eggplants
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
6-8 oz of firm tofu, shredded
2 medium tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper

Continue to the recipe

Image: Eric Gloutnay