I don’t know about the rest of the world but I feel as if I have never seen so many flowers blooming in the spring as I have this year. It’s beautiful! Especially since the weather has finally evened out. So pretty!
Life has been a little crazy lately, hence why my absence on my blog. 

I am almost positive this was the most beautiful tree in Pittsburgh this year.

Found this sweet skull on a street trashcan. I can now say I have a collection. I have two!

Emma is just being Emma and being cute and stuff.  She is finally accepting her dog bed. 

I flew home to be in my best friend’s wedding. I was a co-best man or maybe just best woman. Such a fun wedding! I think Joshy and Bethany are just great together. All the fun photography was by Mark.

It was great to hang out with friends and catch up. House shows and bonfires are the best ways to spend  time with friends in my personal opinion or just bonfires will do.

Loving on little kiddos and experiencing what it is like to hold a baby koala. haha What a snuggler.

Oh and Dylan flew out to Missouri and showed up in my parents backyard with a ring.

I said yes!

Full story to come soon. I promise.

-Zon

This next friend that I’m sharing with you is hilarious! This post is also a fun way to raise awareness of his art and a fundraiser he is doing for a trip this summer. I am happy he is allowing me to share his artwork with you and the awesome exhibitions he has been a part of. 

I definitely feel my art serves a purpose. I generally am trying to be positive. To be a beacon of joy is a goal. Community has always been a big part of creativity for me. I like the idea of educating. I think we are all teachers and have practical skills.

I want to see more expression and less process in the future. I have always favored quantity and want to continue producing more but in more accessible way to wider audiences.

I would probably advise everyone to take risks. Reduce the overhead of your living expenses. Devote time to art and to other artists and people in general. Be honest in life and in your work. Take good care of yourself and start eating right.

I am currently working on a limited edition three color screen print to fund my trip to Chiapas Mexico.  Gotta get my cake up. Oddly enough I have been writing descriptions of courses that I feel my friends could teach. Writing a little bit of prose type stuff I guess. My whole life is a project  so I am really trying just to get organized and become more mobile and less tied down so I have more time to create this summer. Gotta get the magic while it’s there.

Seth is doing a special fundraiser campaign to help with his trip to Chiapas, Mexico this summer with our church. The above print is what he is selling through his indiegogo and I think it is absolutely awesome!
He explains it a little more in the video below. I was recently watching his fundraising video and dying laughing. He’s just a funny guy and super nice.

Please consider helping him out by going here to support his art and his desire to serve this summer in Chiapas.

To view more of Seth’s work you can visit his website.

They collaborated together to share this fun DIY on amberZonbie today and I am tickled to share it with you.

MASON JAR PLANTER DIY

Supplies Needed:

3 Wide Mouth Mason Jars (Quart Size)

4’x5.5″ piece of wood (We used pine)

Drill

3 Screws – 5/8″

3 Potted Herbs (We used Rosemary, Parsley, and Leeks)

Extra potting soil

Pipe Clamps

Rocks for draining

Step 1 – Drill a pilot hole through the pipe clamp and wood. The screws will not go through the clamp without this pilot hole.

Step 2 – Screw the pipe clamps into place.

Step 3 – Place the mason jars in the clamps and tighten. This will give you an idea of what size your pipe clamps need to be. It will make things easier when the time comes to put the planted jars in! Then loosen just slightly, in order to take the jars out.

Step 4 – First plant the rocks, then the extra potting soil, and finally the herbs.

Step 5 – Place the planted jars in pipe clamps and tighten!

Extra tip – Our Dad suggested putting in a safety peg to help support the weight of the plants. He drilled a hole in the wood, directly underneath the jar, and hammered a wooden peg in place.

How to hang – There are a few different ways to hang this planter, but we chose a rope and wall hook. Make sure your hook is strong enough to support about 50lbs., to be on the safe side. We drilled two holes at the top, fed the rope through (back to front), tied a knot in the rope ends, and cut off the excess. It was a simple approach, and we really like how it turned out!

To see more cute blog posts by these two cuties you can visit:

Christen at Two Happy Hearts

&

Kylie at Midnight & Dawn

and their cute shop as well!

Thanks so much ladies!

-Zon

A little spam of my little pup. 

She’s so darn cute. A mega snuggler and despite all the sleeping pictures she’s a pretty active thing. 

She loves car rides. LOVES THEM.

-Zon

My birthday is in a few weeks so I had a little gift coupon to Hello Bistro for a free entree.  So we went and got nice big salad, fries and Boylan creamy red. 

Then started walking down to the library and saw this sign…

They got me, dadgummit. I’m such a sucker for succulents.

We love the library! It’s a cheap date and we love looking through cool books and dreaming together. It’s the best!

We will be hitting up Conflict Kitchen sometime soon. Check out what these guys are doing here. They only serve food from countries that the US is in conflict with. An interesting way to raise awareness.

Also, how great is that design?

Came back to Dylan’s made some quinoa rosemary alfredo and then grabbed some soy ice cream with cookie butter and shaved dark chocolate and curled up and watched a movie.

I love Friday date days.

-Zon

Shawn Hale
Skateboarder
Hollywood California

My friend Katherine (who is crazy) makes some amazing ginger snaps and I asked her to make them again so I could share the recipe because they were that good. She received the recipe from a friend.

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 molasses

1 egg

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/3 cup white sugar for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, molasses and egg.

2, Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; stir into the molasses mixture.

3. Knead and roll dough into a giant turd (this is Katherine’s added instruction)

4. Roll dough into 1 1/4 in. balls and then roll each ball in the white sugar before placing them 2 in. apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven, or until firm. cool on wire racks.

6. Let your crazy friend serve you delicious cookies.

This is something my parents always did when I was a kid and apparently this is not common knowledge since people think i’m crazy when I do it. 

Enjoy your ginger snaps, they’re delicious!

-Zon

I shop in the men’s section, a lot. Largely due to me being 6 foot 1. It’s handy because I sew a bit so I can get something oversized and take it in and I don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s long enough, a problem I often have with woman’s clothes.  I try to dress as modest as possible. I used to be real self conscience of my height and felt like a freak for the better part of jr. high and high school when I was so much taller than my classmates, boys included. 

I’m 28 now, I can finally keep my pants up (most days) and have been able to come by some long enough jeans now and then. But womens shirts are typically pretty short so I layer a lot and tend to have a tank under most of my tops just to make sure I’m covered. Modest is hottest right?

We used to have a Gap in Joplin and I was seriously upset when I heard they were leaving because it was the only place I could buy tall jeans for a reasonable price (the clearance racks).

Every now and then I will pop into a Gap to peruse the clearance to see if any XL (extra longs) are in there, usually to no avail. Shortly after Christmas I swung by the one close to me here in Pittsburgh and I found some XXLs, I would be lying if I said I didn’t squeal a little. Dark denim is my favorite and extra extra longs and for only $25? Yes please! Too good to be true. These babies fit like a charm. 

Beanie: thrifted

Men’s cardigan: thrifted

Tank: anberlin – music festival

Denim: Gap – clearance

Duck boots: thrifted 

The cardigan/sweater will be in my shop soon. I just need some warm weather to happen so I can take some pictures. I have some fantastic dresses that I can’t wait to share!

-Zon

I consider myself a part time vegetarian for the past 2 years now, I choose to buy meat as little as possible but I will eat it now and then. I have listened and considered many different views on why some have chosen the veggie life and it was great, for them, but not for me. I just didn’t have those same convictions. Then I read a book titled, Living More with Less by Doris Longacre, in it was an interview that seemed to make more sense to me and aligned more with my lifestyle. An excellent book if you’re ever in need of a good read on simple living.

So when it comes to cooking I like to get creative and make substitutes for my occasional meat cravings and this recipe came out of one of those times when I was really craving a good burger. It seemed to hit the spot and I kind of surprised myself with how well they turned out so I decided to make them again and share my recipe. I do realize that they look like cow turds but they taste great and remind me of an egg roll a little bit and I love egg rolls! 

This recipe really could go any way you’d like as long as the consistency in the end is the same for baking. So you could use other veggies or a different variation of veggies. I used mostly what I had on hand at the time. In fact the green onions were some I just had growing on my windowsill.

I suggest using a food processor and an extra large mixing bowl for this recipe. It makes quite a bit so the larger bowl is nice when mixing your ingredients together. And the food processor, I have learned, is a glorious tool in the kitchen and has made my life a whole lot easier for certain recipes.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Break up your cauliflower* into smaller pieces to be blended in the food processor.  Blend cauliflower to a nice small consistency but don’t pulverize it. Pour into a large to extra large mixing bowl. 

2. Blend spinach, carrots, green onions, onion and garlic cloves to a nice fine consistency, again being careful to not pulverize. Add to cauliflower mixture. 

3. Add shredded cheese and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, beat 8 eggs** and add to mixture, mix thoroughly then add bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Add however much salt and pepper you feel desired.

Serve on a bun with fixings or by itself. These taste really good with bbq sauce (I’m from the midwest I love bbq with everything) or honey mustard. They keep well refrigerated or frozen for later meals. I like to prep my lunches for the week and these were great for that. Really easy.

Tip: I like to keep a bowl for compost close by, when chopping and peeling, for the garden. Also you can add your egg shells to the compost or wash them out and make some excellent plant food with them.

Enjoy your veggie burgers, If you try them another way I’d love to hear about it!

-Zon 

Friday date days are the best days. The Best!!

Went down to the farm to spend a little time with Dylan’s family and visited the aunties while they were making maple syrup. That was interesting. They have taps on several maple trees around the property and collect the sap to boil it down during this time of the year. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. This will forever change my view on the price of maple syrup. I never knew the full process and how much goes into it. 

Friday morning we headed to a local greasy spoon diner that Dylan has gone to since he was a kid. Its an old ice cream shop called the Palace where all the farmers go for breakfast and coffee. He has been dying to take me there for awhile. We had attempted a time of two but it finally panned out this time. The food was great and super filling. We were both stuffed.

What a handsome guy.

We hit up 3 thrift stores before we headed back to the city and found some sweet finds. I’m preparing to open my vintage shop again with some really sweet dresses. I am having a hard time convincing myself I don’t need some of them. It is a battle. 

-Zon