The Guardian: Politics alla puttanesca
December 16, 2009
A British pespective on my surreal prime minister.
The Editorial on The Guardian, December 10th 2009
from the COP
December 15, 2009
As you can (maybe) see from the neon thermometer in downtown Copenhagen, it’s zero C° degrees here. And it started snowing – plus we now have a nice ice skate ring outside our door with snowflakes lights!
The city is full of people from all over the world coming here for the climate conference. We had our own Italian journalist guest, my friend Stefy, and headed to the alternative conference, Klimaforum 09, the people’s summit – aka a completely free forum with international speakers and NGOs, parallel to COP15…
The mermaid was there too. We went to see a talk with Vandana Shiva, the Indian ecologist and activist. She’s a wonderful speaker. Her last book is called Soil not Oil.
Stefy and I attended some eco-feminist workshops as well, and then she randomly went to some eco-conspiracy theory meeting, I wish I was there! I could only take a photo of the poster. Awesome…
Sharing my deep environmental thoughts during an interview at the Klimaforum…
Andreas gargoylefied, and here we are in the town hall square turned into the greenest eco-nightmare!
Waiting for Obama’s visit in the P of HOPE. (?) Ando chose the O. And here a nice article on Obama from the Guardian.
HOPE is trendy everywhere lately. But Hopenhagen just sounds so BAD! Even worst then the past city slogans: Copenhagen – You’ll Cope with it (pleaseeee), and cOPENhagen….buuuuuuh. We need a marketing manager!
At least the good Scandinavian traditions are still alive…
Santa Lucia! And a good squash soup in a small café. See you soon Stefy!
Paris Paris
December 10, 2009
I have some photos from our trip to Paris finally…Unfortunately I have not many pictures, especially not with my cousin and his family. But here we go!
we ♥ boulangeries and all their content. we also love night-tours on the Seine river
wait, more Parisian clichè-photos!
eating baguettes
eating crepes in a very nice little tea-room behind the Senate
being photographed by other tourists at the Louvre’s pyramid
gourmet-shopping with Francesco in Rue Mouffettard
we went to Paris right on the third Thursday of November, or the “Beaujolais Nouveau Day”. This is when the wine is finally sold and “celebrated” in restaurants and shops. We enjoyed the tradition.
Jardines du Luxembourg (I’m sure the spelling is all wrong!)
stretching+watching a photo show outside les jardines…
Merci Francesco and Sybille!
winter in Scandinavia: glögg time
November 30, 2009
And here the recipe for the Swedish glögg we were drinking at the party. It’s a different version of vin brulè (the Italian mulled wine), with raisins and almonds. I like how Christmas here really starts a month before in terms of celebrations!
home made body butter
November 29, 2009
I made my first home made body butter…and it’s incredibly easy. I found the recipe here on craftster. I didn’t follow the measurements in ounces (too lazy to convert), so I just mixed:
- 3 parts grated cocoa butter
- 4 parts organic virgin coconut oil (smells amazing!)
Melt the ingredients completely in a double boiler (or microwave), pour the mixture in a container with lid and let it cool. It’s ok to put it in the fridge so it cools down faster.
The container I used is a recycled body shop cream container. I usually save them, and now I can just start experimenting with more creams and lotions. I’m kind of sick of paraffin (Nivea) or glycerin based (Body Shop) body creams!
Next I’ll try with shea butter…and will buy some essential oils as well.
no impact for a year
November 27, 2009
art by ayumi piland - little otsu
Here we are, back in the land where the big COP15 climate conference will start soon. I don’t feel too positive about it, to tell the truth…
But luckily I found a more inspiring thing that I’d like to share, it’s the crazy adventure of the No Impact Man and his family. Colin Beavan, a journalist from New York City, decided to live with the minimum impact on the environment for one year. This meant renouncing to many things…
No electricity at ALL, no shopping (except for food, all locally grown and bought without plastic wrapping), no trash, no cars, no planes, no trains, only foot and bike. No cosmetics, no detergents for the house in plastic bottles…
Here you can find the very nice trailer of the documentary that is already out in the US. Enjoy!
And from his blog, a list of ways to reduce the garbage to almost zero,
recycled paper crafts
November 25, 2009
photo: design*sponge
Here, on the great blog Design*Sponge, a couple of ideas for reusing paper scraps. I decided that my collection of paper should grow even more…Besides paper clippings I also collect art postcards I find around, in galleries or in bars. Design*Sponge DIY section has another super easy project to make postcard notebooks.
photo: design*sponge
Vegetarian Thanksgiving
November 25, 2009
marthastewart.com
Tomorrow, Thursday, is Thanksgiving. Being an American tradition, I have never celebrated it before my stay in the US. But now that I live with an American I feel like we should maybe make a little effort and make a Thanksgiving dinner! On Martha Stewart’s website I found 2 vegetarian dinner menus for it, too. Below you’ll find one, with way too many courses… (just click on the names too see the recipe).
The amazing paper squirrel place card (full of chocolate hazelnuts) it’s also on her website, and the PDF in color to print is available here!
kickstart your project
November 16, 2009
tigerbuttah by Frank and Becky at Tiny Kitten Teeth
Kickstarter is a lovely idea for whoever is looking to raise money for creative projects.
If you have a project, but don’t have the money for it, you can offer products, services or other benefits (“rewards”) to inspire people to support you. You receive donations through the Kickstarter website, but only if and when the project reaches or exceed its funding goal before the time expires. (I especially like the TigerButtah and the Poorcraft projects).
Kickstarter supports artists, writers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, athletes, adventurers, inventors, bloggers, illustrators, explorers, curators, promoters, performers, and others. It work by invitation only.
The fun theory – Rolighetsteorin
November 16, 2009
According to the fun theory, something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. The project is sponsored by Volkswagen.
