Crudité platter.

I’m a  self-taught foodie who learned to cook because home-cooked meals were boring. My mother, an imaginative artist and teacher, had three well-prepared dishes in her repertoire and didn’t want to take the time to learn more.

To use up leftover anything, she put whatever it was in a casserole with cooked rice, a can of cream of mushroom soup and baked it. When it came out of the oven, she topped it with some crunchy chips. I thought everything, no matter what was in it, always tasted the same. Now, one of my hobbies is figuring out interesting ways to cook with leftovers without cream of anything soup.

Recently, I ran into friends who like to cook, and sometimes talk about food in their neo-hippie blog, Dirty Hippie and Bohemian Girl.  Knowing I had some bits of rice and vegetables in my refrigerator, I asked them if they had good recipes for leftovers.  They did. This is their ideal solution for leftover veggies.

Leftover Crudite Soup

Ever get a veggie tray for a party? You know, the kind with carrots, celery, broccoli and cherry tomatoes all sliced up and ready for dips? Sometimes they also have spring onions, pepper slices, snap peas, zucchini/squash or cauliflower, too.

Somehow, we always end up with a smattering of random veggies after we serve a crudite platter. There’s never the same amount of anything leftover. But from this we developed one of our favorite vegetable soups. Now we hope that guests leave behind veggies, so we can make soup from what’s left. This recipe isn’t perfectly precise — it has some flexibility, based on what you have leftover on your vegetable plate. Think of it more as a formula. You can  also use most vegetables you have around to fill it out, even if they weren’t crudites. We’ve added potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, peas, corn and canned tomatoes into the mix. The fun thing is, this recipe will never be the same thing twice — and you get to use up some leftovers!

How to Measure and Prepare Crudite Soup

1 cup chopped vegetables to every 1/2 cup of liquid plus 1 tsp. seasoning blend

Vegetables might include: carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, pepper slices, snap peas, zucchini, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, peas, corn or canned tomatoes. Measure all vegetables together for your total quantity.

Liquid can be water, vegetable stock or plain soy milk. Whichever you have on hand, or in combination.

Apply the formula and add your vegetables and liquid to a large soup pot. For example, if you have leftover carrots, celery and peppers, plus 1/2 an onion from the fridge, chop them all into approximately equally sized pieces. Then measure them and add to your soup pot. If you have 4 cups total veggies, add 2 cups of liquid, like vegetable stock.

For every one cup of veggies, we also add a teaspoon of seasoning blend. Some we have used: Italian Seasoning blend, Garlic and Herb, Lemon Pepper, Thai Seasoning, and Grilling Blend. It’s whatever you have on hand.  If you prefer blander foods, use half the amount of seasoning blend. If you like heat, try a few splashes of Tabasco or other hot sauce.

Add salt and pepper to taste.  (If your spice blend has salt, you may not need to add more.)

Cook over medium-high heat to boiling, then cover, reduce to low, and cook for about 20-30 minutes to soften vegetables.  Check and stir every 10 minutes or so. If too much liquid has cooked off, add a little more. The liquid line should be about 1 inch or less from the top of the vegetables.

When the veggies are soft, turn off the heat and use an immersion blender to puree the soup into a smooth, silky texture. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can do the same thing in batches in a regular blender or food processor.

Serve warm with your favorite bread or crackers, or pour over rice as a sauce.

I cannot wait to try this recipe! It is a variation on some things I do with leftover carrots or, worst of all, cauliflower (I cannot face it after two meals). I simmer leftover carrots, celery, onions, a little ginger and water or broth–enough to cover the veggies by 1/2 inch with 1/2 t olive oil. Generally I start with one-half cup of liquid to one cup of veggies but add a bit more liquid if you prefer it less viscous.When the vegetables are soft, I remove them from the stove and blend them, along with the cooking liquid with an immersion blender or puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. Optional: For a creamier texture, add a tablespoon of tofu before blending it.

I treat leftover cooked cauliflower similarly, but I replace the ginger with curry powder to taste, and may add a tablespoon of tofu for an even creamier texture. If you use this as a topping on rice, add a few raisins or dried cranberries and a few sliced almonds before serving. To use as a thinner soup, add a little broth–as much as desired– and top with chopped parley or scallions.

How do you treat leftover veggies?

The way we receive information is changing. Some friends have completely abandoned hardcover books for e-books; others have never read a book in electronic form, and yet others have collections of both. Our public libraries increasingly offer patrons a choice of formats.

With the rapid development of technology, I think this was bound to happen. Books have been around for millennia — in essentially the same form for six centuries — and as a painting teacher once told our class, “The only constant in design is change.”

The relationship of artists to written communication has also changed. In the past, the destruction of a book meant the destruction of the information it contained. But when anyone can carry a library in his or her luggage, designers and artists are beginning to view bound, printed pages as art supplies. Several artists are exploring ways to keep books from landfills and preserve their shelf life.

Jim Rosenau takes that challenge literally. The son and grandson of book publishers, Rosenau was raised in a house with 5,000 books.  He is now a carpenter, comedy writer and software developer living in California, but he is perhaps best known for creating furniture — including bookshelves — from discarded hardbacks and salvaged lumber.

Shelf made from a set of three dictionaries by Jim Rosenau.

“Who Done It?” Shelf made from three carefully selected abandoned books by Jim Rosenau.

Bookcase made from rescued books by Jim Rosenau.

While majoring in 3D Design in college, British artist Laura Cahill kept track of the number of objects discarded within a mile radius of her school. In response to her findings, she began a collection, “Readable Furniture,” made from recycled books.  “I am fascinated in reusing objects in a way that gives them a new life,” she said.

Vase made from old books by Laura Cahill. The spines are wrapped around test tubes so that the vases don't get damaged when they are filled with water.

Table and lamp from old books by Laura Cahill.

The Dutch firm Bomdesign offers several sculptural reading lamps made from reclaimed books, and creates boxes from other recycled materials to ship them to clients throughout the world. Lamp sizes vary, depending on the size of the original books.

Reading lamps made from old books by Bomdesign.

Furniture made by stacking books has been around for a long time — almost any dorm-dweller can do it without special training. In college I made bookshelves by stacking out-of-date textbooks between custom-cut boards.

Here are some other designs that take this technique to the next level.

Stacked Book Tables.

When the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands needed a new reference desk, the staff created one from old intact library books.

The reference desk in the Technical University of Delft library.

Closeup view of the library reference desk in Delft.

Learn more about the artists at their websites:  Jim Rosenau, Laura Cahill and Atelier Bomdesign.

The growing popularity of keeping bees in the city is good for the bees, good for the local food supply, and good for the environment. But it brings up an interesting question: What the heck to do with all that honey?

Obviously, you can eat it. The chefs at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC, where they harvest 100 pounds of honey from their rooftop hives each year, provided some scrumptious ideas, not all for sweets.

An Artisan Cheese Plate with a honeycomb served at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC.

For an appetizer or dessert, combine a honeycomb with a plate of artisan cheeses, along with small baguette. For example, the chef has used a combination of Bijou, a semi-soft, ripened goat cheese from Vermont; Oregonzola, a semi-soft, blue-vein cow’s milk cheese from Oregon; and Talbot Reserve, a semi-hard, raw cow’s milk cheese from Maryland. Drizzle a little honey on the bread and on the cheese, for a more mellow taste.

City bees have a more varied diet than their sisters down on the farm because commercial hives tend to be dedicated to pollinating a single crop at a time. As a result, honey from urban hives has its own distinct flavor, based on what is in bloom when the bees forage in parks and gardens and balcony windowboxes. In San Francisco, locally produced honey is labeled with the neighborhood it comes from, and fans can tell the difference between a spring Golden Gate Park and an autumn Cow Hollow.

One note of caution: Babies under a year old should not eat honey to avoid the possibility of botulism.

Honey also has a number of properties that make it a natural for natural cosmetics. It has an astringent and antiseptic effect and acts as a humectant, drawing moisture into the skin. Lindsay Kujawa, a licensed esthetician, who worked in a medical spa for four years before opening her own, believes in a holistic approach for skin treatments. She develops remedial skin treatments from natural products and often shares her tips in a weekly blog, Delighted Momma. Here is her recipe for a pumpkin mask with honey that both hydrates and removes dead skin cells from our skin.

Lindsay Kujawa's pumpkin mask, which she applies with a brush.

Honey’s antiseptic quality has been used to heal wounds for millenia. Other medicinal uses include drinking honey and lemon in hot tea to soothe a sore throat and reduce the symptoms of the common cold, and the famed honey-and-apple-cider-vinegar cure-all. Honey has also been used as a diuretic, a laxative and a sleep aid throughout history.

A home hive will also yield honeycomb and beeswax, which can be made into soaps, candles or other useful household items. Susan Brackney’s book, Plan Bee explains how to prepare the wax once the honey is harvested.

Honeybees have been keeping busy in the city lately. Rooftops from San Francisco, which has long swarmed with local beekeeping clubs, to New York City, where beekeeping became legal in March 2010, are abuzz with honey-producing hives.

The worker bees also live at some of the most prestigious addresses. In the heart of Washington, DC, the Fairmont Hotel installed a three-hive apiary on its roof in 2009 as part of the lodging chain’s environmental stewardship program which currently yields 100 lbs. of honey a year.

Honey harvested from the Fairmont’s hives is used in a wide range of dishes served in the food service operation, and the honeycomb can also find its way into iced tea and a signature cocktail, the BeeTini, containing vanilla vodka, fresh lemon juice,and honey with a honeycomb garnish.

Executive Sous Chef Ian Ben removes honey from their hotel's rooftop hives (on the 10th floor) at the The Fairmont Hotel in Washington D.C.

The bees also help keep the Fairmont’s courtyard herb and flower garden— as well as the plants and flowers in the surrounding neighborhood — pollinated and healthy. Since honeybees can fly up to three miles in search of nectar, the DC bees also visit nearby Rock Creek Park with its variety of trees and blooming vegetation. Bens, who learned to farm honey recently told Expressnightout.com that the hobby has made him aware of new things. “I never stopped and looked at bees before,” he said. “Now I notice them everywhere, and I wonder if they’re ours.”

Urban beekeeping has become a global phenomenon, partly in response to various environmental threats to the honeybee population around the world. The City of London Festival maintains hives in strategic locations including near St. Paul’s Cathedral, while the London Wildlife Trust hosts a training apiary for aspiring beekeepers in King’s Cross. In Melbourne, Australia, the Urban Honey Co. delivers new hives — complete with queens, workers and drones — by bicycle-powered rickshaw only as far away as they can pedal.

It’s easy to become part of the buzz, provided you have access to an outdoor area with about 10 feet of landing space for your bees. Susan Brackney’s book, Plan Bee, provides everything you need to know about getting started in small-scale beekeeping, from setup to recipes for using the honey and beeswax.

Visit her website at planbeebook.com to learn how to install and feed honeybees, light a bee smoker, peek inside some hives in Bloomington, Indiana — and watch the video of Susan explaining how she felt stung by the lack of a queen in Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie.

Rev. Jacqueline Cherry, a Deacon in the Episcopal Church in California, has a beehive in her backyard. She sells the honey locally; proceeds are donated to the food pantry run by her church. Photo via The Daily Green from an article on urban beekeeping.

This interest in hyper-local honey has been spurred not only by the growing eat-local movement but the still-mysterious disappearance and decline of honeybees called Colony Collapse Disorder. CCD was first identified in North America in 2006 and has been studied extensively since. It’s been on the rise, with about 30 percent of the commercial bee population not surviving last winter, but a definitive cause has yet to be pinpointed.

Theories abound, from use of pesticides made from chemicals in the nicotine family that damage the bees’ neurological system to infestations by the varroa mite; from electromagnetic radiation from cellphones and transmitters to the increased use of genetically modified crops. It could be a combination of all these factors, and more, or it could be sheer overwork.

Commercial beehives are responsible for pollinating more than a third of North America’s vegetable and fruit crops — almonds, apples and blueberries rely almost exclusively on bee pollination. After spending the spring and summer working on local peaches or grapes, commercial hives may be trucked from as far away as Colorado to pollinate California almonds in the winter. Hobby hives rest up over the winter, dedicated to keeping the queen warm until spring.

Somewhat ironically, city bees have a more varied diet than their sisters down on the farm. Commercial hives tend to be dedicated to a single crop at a time, while urban dwellers forage in parks and gardens and balcony windowboxes. In San Francisco, locally produced honey is labeled with the neighborhood it comes from, and fans can tell the difference between a spring Golden Gate Park and an autumn Cow Hollow.

Rag rugs were the first American-made rugs. Between mending clothes, sewing patchwork quilts, and making rugs, the colonials found a new use for every scrap of precious fabric.

Today, some fiber artists continue to work with these utilitarian techniques to preserve American traditional arts. Others are creating rag rugs to divert fabric from the landfill as well. It’s estimated that each U.S. family sheds 68 pounds of unwanted clothing and upholstery into the landfill each year.

Weaver Chris Gustin started making potholders when she was a child. To hone her weaving skills, she took workshops in college and craft schools before developing her own techniques.

Her commitment to weaving with waste fabric began in 1974 when she saw a patchwork “crazy quilt” called “Recycle and Re-use” at Expo, the World’s Fair in Spokane, Washington.

Chris Gustin's rugs woven from waste selvages produced during the weaving of fabric for upholstery and clothing.

“It made me think about what I could do to help the environment,” Gustin said, and she said began exploring new ways to weave with waste materials. She used supplies from thrift shops, sock factories, bedding manufacturers, weaving mills and scrap dealers.

Her work now diverts about a ton of industrial waste fabrics a year from the landfill into rugs, clothing, and home accessories. Gustin also teaches others how to work with unconventional supplies and find scrap materials for weaving in her studio in Brown County, Indiana.

Crispina ffrench has been reworking used clothing into one-of-a-kind new clothing, rugs, pillows and other useful things since 1987, when she sold her work from a backpack at music festivals. She bought supplies — old sweaters and t-shirts — from Goodwill stores throughout the Northeast.

Demand grew and she expanded by hiring homemakers and caretakers in her western Massachusetts town to create new stock.

Stone Soup Potholder Rug, made from 100% post consumer used wool sweaters by Crispina ffrench.

In 2008, when 40 people were creating new pieces for her, she closed her business to take care of her two younger children, now pre-teens. She taught workshops, wrote a book, and today sells some products which she makes in her spare time, on Etsy. Ffrench is also working on a commission from the Eileen Fisher Co. to create useful products from worn, unusable clothing returned to corporate headquarters in Irvington, New York.

Ffrench's Dino Ragamuffin doll hand sewn from recycled wool sweaters and stuffed with natural raw mohair.

“It is my hope to inspire and bring to light the value and vastness of discarded material in our culture,” ffrench said.

She also offered a unique tip for cleaning her rag rugs: On a fresh layer of snow.

“Spread the dirty rug out and walk all over it (don’t wear muddy boots!) then flip the rug over a new spot in the fresh snow and do the same,” she said. “This technique pulls all the animal hair, dust bunnies and lint balls off the surface. Spills can be cleaned with a gentle scrubbing brush and soapy water.”

Learn more about these artists at their websites: Chris Gustin and Crispina ffrench.

Maybe because the weather is turning, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how to keep eating locally sourced food during the winter. Depending on where you live and whether you have the time or space to preserve foods when they are in season, your options could get a bit tired come January or February.

The best way to beat the winter-produce blahs is to find new ways to prepare old standbys. On a long train trip once, I spoke to the passenger beside me about cooking (we were hungry and the train was late). He stayed at a small boarding house in the Indian countryside for a year while he was a student. The family had a limited food supply, and everybody ate cauliflower for dinner for a month, he said. But nobody minded because the landlady cooked it differently most of the time and he thought it was always delicious.

For new ideas for what’s on hand,  visit a Slow Food website. Currently, my chapter has posted several tempting recipes for preparing kale.

It takes less time to make yogurt, hummus, bean dip and spaghetti sauce than it does to go to the store, and you can flavor them to your personal taste. Little adjustments can lead to interesting changes, so experiment.

When you find a particularly successful recipe, cook more than you need and freeze the rest. Be sure to label each container with its contents and date it went into the freezer with easily removable masking tape.

And find a tool that makes cooking easier for you. I bought a simple slow cooker — the manual kind with settings for Off, Low and High — on Craigslist a few years ago. It’s great for soups but it seemed of limited use until I discovered Kathy Hester’s “The Vegan Slow Cooker,” which is filled with recipes for international, spicy main courses in addition to breads, dips, breakfast dishes, puddings and hot drinks that require little effort. After I put the ingredients in the ceramic pot and turn it on, I set a separate timer and do something else until dinner’s ready.

It becomes easier, and more tempting, to cook and eat local all the time. Maybe I’ll develop a stable of varied kale recipes that will knock everybody’s socks off in a few more winters.

Kale, “the queen of greens.” It's supposed to provide cancer protection and lower cholesterol. I'm developing a recipe repertoire to prepare it. It contains oxalates, naturally occurring substances that interfere with calcium absorption. It's recommended to avid eating calcium-rich foods (like dairy) at the same time as kale to prevent any problems.

Colorado today is known for its general eco-consciousness. But back before anyone wanted to be friendly to the environmental, the U.S. Army made it home to a chemical weapons factory that eventually became the most contaminated EPA Superfund site ever.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal opened in 1943 on 20,000 of homesteaded prairie 10 miles northeast of Denver. During World War II, the Arsenal manufactured mustard gas, lewisite and chlorine gas, as well as incendiary bombs, in nearly 300 structures on the south end of the complex. In the early 1950s, another 100 structures were built on the north end to produce nerve gas for the Korean and Cold Wars, while the south plants were leased to Shell Oil Co. which made herbicides and pesticides there until 1982.

Waste from these operations was pumped into a 12,000-foot-deep well until 1966. By then the soil and groundwater were severely polluted, not only on the site but also under parts of the surrounding community.

The discovery of a roost of bald eagles on the site in 1986 prompted Congress to designate the Arsenal a future national wildlife refuge, and the Army and Shell started cleanup efforts in earnest in 1994.

The eco-friendly Visitors Center at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colorado, opened in May 2011, with a host of green features, including solar panels that also provide shaded parking spaces, some reserved for alternative-fuel vehicles. Photo by Kate Hawthorne Jeracki.

Fifteen years and $2.1 billion of environmental mitigation later, Shell handed over the last decontaminated parcel of land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2010. Tons of toxic soil have been encased in three feet of clay in two landfills still maintained by the Army; more than 750 million gallons of groundwater are treated annually at five onsite treatment plants. More than 10,000 tons of steel have been recycled from the demolished buildings.

The new Visitors Center not only provides a wide panorama of the wildlife refuge, it also tells the land's story from undisturbed short-grass prairie to farmland to chemical weapons plant to EPA Superfund site that underwent a decades-long cleanup to return to open space. Photo by Kate Hawthorne Jeracki.

Revegetation efforts are returning Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — at 15,000 acres, one of the nation’s largest urban refuges — to native prairie grasses, shrubs and wildflowers. The herd of reintroduced American Bison numbers about 50, and should grow to 250 over the next decade. Among the 300 species on the refuge are prairie dogs and other small mammals, mule and white-tailed deer, birds from great blue herons to tiny burrowing owls and, of course, the eagles.

Native vegetation now growing at the wildlife refuge.

Among the recycled and reclaimed materials used in construction of the Visitors Center is wood harvested locally from pine trees killed by the mountain pine bark beetle. The blue-stained boards were used on the ceiling and trim throughout the building. Photo by Kate Hawthorne Jeracki.

To welcome about 25,000 annual visitors, a new LEED-certified visitors center opened in May 2011. Powered by solar panels and ground source heat pumps and constructed from reclaimed local materials such as cork flooring, ceramic tiles, recycled asphalt and mountain pine beetle-killed trees, the center features interactive exhibits, classrooms and the starting point for wildlife viewing tours along nine miles of trails.

Next on the Fish and Wildlife Service’s swords-into-habitat list, nearby Rocky Flats — a former nuclear plant between Denver and Boulder that was designated a national wildlife refuge in 2007 after six years of cleanup — is planning to expand by 600 acres. The trails in the two refuges could eventually link to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park through the Denver Metro Greenway Project.

Now that the garden is planted and growing, it’s a place to lounge and enjoy the view. But as you spend more time outside, along with the birds and bees, you might find bare spots or areas that need a little more texture or color.

People have turned to store bought fountains, flamingos, gnomes and mass-produced statuary to add oomph to gardens and lawns for years. But as the shabby-chic/reuse movement grows, both professional and weekend artists have started creating one-of-a-kind art from reused materials and broken furniture to add a touch of whimsy (and sometimes function) to their space.

Sculptor-turned-mosaic artist Cappi Phillips of Moe’s Ache (say it fast) Studio in Bloomington, Indiana, has developed a lively business creating public and private art by combining classic mosaic techniques with an eye for intriguing castoffs — scrap glass she collects from other artists, dishes from yard sales, and surprises neighbors leave on her front porch because they know she will eventually find a transformational use for them.

“Just Send Love Letters” mailbox by Cappi Phillips.

“Cornholio” by Cappi Phillips. The pig is made from glass, pottery shards, Italian tile and found objects.

Want to try this yourself? Phillips offers this technical tip: Attach glass and ceramic with silicone to hold it to your base. Then use sanded grout to fill in the spaces.

For more how-tos, she also recommends visiting www.Mosaicartists.org, which provides answers and links to artists who offer classes in the mosaic arts.

The web is filled with ideas for repurposing decorative elements into garden art. For example, we found these fun projects online:

An old wagon wheel and various spindles with “anything shiny” attached becomes an eye-catching mobile.

Shutters turn into window boxes.

Feed scoops turned upright and paired with candles in hurricane globes transform into garden lights.

An old drawer attached to a bed footboard is now a windowbox planter.

Tin can flower pots can be attached to a wall. I also put a small succulent in a small tin can as a party favor.

Recycled tires can be turned into plain black planters at home, but they aren't as attractive as some I've found for sale on the web, where you can also find instructions for a D-I-Y version.

See more about Cappi Phillips at her website.

Many ideas for repurposing “junk” at RoboJunker.

Ideas from Better Homes and Gardens, H&G How to decorate a garden.

How to reuse tin cans.

If you have images of repurposed garden furniture you use, please send them our way. We’d love to see them. They might inspire others, too.

Swaps — for everything from soup to nuts, literally — are in again. It’s an idea whose time has come back around, 21st-century style.
 
Neighbors who live in my condo leave tidbits — jewelry, mugs, clothing, food, whatever they don’t need or want — in the laundry room. In addition to finding new homes for your stuff it adds adventure to doing your laundry.

Sonia Rykiel pearl sunglasses.

Email and the internet have greatly enhanced the power of the swap. On Saturday I received an email from a funky book and sort-of-vintage clothing consignment shop downtown announcing a four-hour swap limited to sunglasses, sunhats and eyeglasses. It’s also a party: The clever invite tells thousands of us on the mailing list that we just need to bring our old to get our new; they’ll provide complimentary mimosas and churros.
 
Swap.com says it has helped facilitate nearly four million swaps in their community of more than a million members. Recently it launched an iPhone app allowing users to scan barcodes of any book, movie, CD or video game to see what it is worth on the site or see how many members have it to swap. The app, launched in early May, attracts more members every day.
 
The app is new, but using the web for arranging swaps has been around almost as long as there’s been a web. Freecycle and Throwplace have been helping people get rid of what they don’t want and find what they need for years. I discovered a sophisticated postal scale on Throwplace. In perfect condition, it came from an Aveda Salon that was upgrading its system — and they elected to pay for shipping too.

 
We’re now seeing more specialty swaps. A mother and daughter team, Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson, has created National Costume Swap Day to help organize Halloween costume swaps as part of their overall mission to create eco-friendly and healthier holidays (see their book Celebrate Green.

Swapaholics facilitates clothing swaps for 250-300 people per month in auditoriums, gyms and warehouse spaces throughout the Boston area. Other large-scale fashion swap events are now held throughout the country. Check out their website’s virtual bulletin board to discover one near you.
 
Can’t get to a real time swap?  Check the web because there are more opportunities to swap everything from gently used kids’ clothing to books — hardcovers, paperbacks, audio books or textbooks to seed exchanges where gardeners can trade seeds for vegetables, flowers and herbs.  On January 22, 2011, the fifth National Soup Swap was celebrated throughout the country, and organized online.
 
The soup swap was part of National Swap Day, which helps people organize their own swaps or participate in online events announced on the site.

I welcome all of this. It is eco-friendly and also provides a diplomatic way to find a new home for the ruffly sweater a well-meaning friend gave me for Christmas.

Never imagined that I’d follow blogs — daily — but I have more come into my mailbox each week. I use them to flesh out the news I read and hear, and sometimes I share great posts with a geeky friend who sends me links to favorite homemade music videos on YouTube.
 
Usually I follow green- and art-related blogs but also enjoy some that, while not all eco- all the time, examine matters related to organic style.
 
I come by my interest in style naturally. My grandmother, Anna, was beautiful and loved to wear clothes and look at them in department stores. Several years ago, when she was in her eighties, I watched her sitting in front of her dressing table mirror, trying on a huge hat. She tipped it one way and then another. Laughing, she looked up and and said, “You don’t know me, kid. The more extreme the better.”
 
Recently I’ve been watching other long-lived fashion plates dressing with zest on photographer Ari Seth Cohen’s blog, Advanced Style. Cohen, 29, who lives in New York, takes pictures of well-dressed male and female passersby — mostly in their 70s, 80s and 90s. Aware of today’s taste, they put their own spin on it. Cohen agrees with one of his subjects who said, “Fashion says, ‘me too.’ Style says, ‘only me.’”

Images from Advanced Style post on April 19.

Another ingenious blog covers the whole package with style. Charissa wants “The Gifted Blog: Fresh, Thoughtful, and Green Gift Wrapping Ideas” to “become a place where we can share ideas, think about gift wrapping in a new way, and make the process that much more enjoyable.” It includes an ongoing series, Wrap Story, that documents every present she has wrapped since launching the blog in 2009; reviews of DIY gift wrapping ideas from the internet and other sources; and offers answers to readers’ questions such as: “I’m traveling this summer. How should I wrap the gift?” The April 20 post is a roundup of four other people’s gift wrapping ideas.

Sampling of The Gifted Blog's wrapping ideas. Upper left: gift wrap printed with celery; Upper right: oblong vintage scarf used to tie a gift; Lower left: An herb cutting decorates a gift; Lower right: Homemade granola in an old spaghetti sauce jar.

 
Mary Marino wrote about fashion trends professionally for twenty-five years. Finding traditional youth-centered fashion magazines irrelevant to women of a certain age, she started a boomer-oriented blog, The FLASHionista Report to provide “new ways of living, thinking, loving, and shopping for women 45 and older.” A crisp writer, she covers those wide-ranging questions lurking in the back of everyone’s mind: how to wear white clothing, how to boost your brain, and how to look better in photos.
 
Here’s Mary Marino’s Earth Day post: