Dave and I are heading to St. Simon’s Island with his family for a whole week! In the spirit of sun, sand, and cocktails with tiny umbrellas, I thought a beachy roundup was in order this week.

Here’s what you’re lookin at:

1. A hibiscus print beach bag made from all vintage fabric and findings by masalachai.
2. Starlet Vintage’s awesome 80’s swimsuit.
3. An absolutely perfect beach hat (it’s reversible!) by Flipped Bird.
4. Element Clay Studio’s small scallop bowl.
5. An 8×8 fine art beach photo by Irene Suchocki.
6. A perfect little toy boat with organic cotton sails by Willow Baus.

This week, I wrote a couple of posts for Crafting a Green World on reusing materials that would otherwise head to the trash bin:

• Ten Projects for Plastic Bottles
• Making a Banner out of Fabric Scraps

The banner is now living at Brian and Kip’s house out in their garden! I wish I’d gotten a picture of it strung up in their garden, because it looked just lovely.

This week’s Vegetable Husband included a beautiful bunch of basil and a bag full of local sweet onions! Add the garlic I had left over from last week’s delivery, and this recipe really wrote itself.

This salad would be a perfect side to bring to a summer cookout!

Pasta Salad with Lime-Basil Aioli

• handful of fresh basil leaves
• juice of 1/2 a lime
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2c Veganaise
• 1/4c onion, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2T nutrutional yeast, optional
• 5c cooked pasta of your choice
• 1c frozen peas and carrots, defrosted and well drained

In a blender or food processor, whizz the basil, lime, and garlic until everything it nicely chopped. Stir in the Veganaise and onions. Add the salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast (if you’re using it).

In a large bowl, combine the pasta with the peas and carrots. Add the sauce, and stir well. Chill until you’re ready to serve!

[Image credit: Creative Commons photo by kabanski]

I sewed up a storm over the weekend and added five new Lunch Kits and some new Cup Gloves to the shop yesterday. Hurrah! Click right here to see what’s new!

Maybe it’s that I’m seeing my sweet nephews in just over a week, but I’ve got toys on the brain.

I guess I’ve also got a little thing for teal, red, and yellow this week? You’re lookin’ at:

1. A pair of limited editions plush mushrooms from Little Sparrow Nest.
2. Needlings’ beautiful Owl Mama.
3. SuperStar Deer Plush from Enna Design Shop.
4. A limited edition elephant by Maiden Love.
5. Nifty Kidstuff’s gnome finger puppets. (Not technically a plush, I know, but I love them!)
6. Teal Lightning Punky Kitty from Amy Jo’s Handmade.

Dave and I had a corn muffin craving, so the other night I whipped up a batch of a dozen corn muffins using this recipe from VegWeb. I used the extra margarine option (of course!) and also added a can of organic corn, because we both love corn muffins with kernels in them.

The muffins came out pretty well, but they’re a little bit drier than I’d like. All of this is a roundabout way of asking you guys a question:

What’s your favorite vegan corn muffin recipe?

I’m looking for a savory kind of corn muffin, and it would be really rad if the recipe included corn kernels, since I’d probably add them either way. Jalapeno corn muffin recipes are welcome. too!

[Ally fixing some ginger-, garlic-, and basil-infused vodkas. Somehow, the majority of our ideas were things that would go well in a bloody Mary.]

So around this time last year, Ally and I made a bunch of infused vodka. I guess the summer must put cocktails on my mind, because I’m thinking I’d like to do that again! If you want to read about how to make infusions of your own, check out my post over at Crafting a Green World!

Sometimes, you just need something a little heartier than regular old oatmeal. I first started making this in college, when I’d worked my schedule to only have class on Tuesday and Thursday. The rest of the week was fantastical, but those two days were so packed with classes, I needed something to hold me over for a long time.

This is a good, cheap, filling breakfast. Perfect recession worthy food, as Jess over at Cupcake Punk would call it!

I’ve got directions for making this with steel cut or with rolled oats. I’ve been on a steel cut oats kick lately, but they take a bit longer to make. What you use is up to you!
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OMG you guys. Crafty superstar Kathy Cano-Murillo of The Crafty Chica is publishing her first novel – Waking Up in the Land of Glitter!

Obviously, I need this book. It comes out March 1, 2010. Here’s her synopsis from over at CRAFT:

Struggling domestic-goddess-in-training Ofy is determined to turn heads at this year’s International CraftOlympics. To do that, she’ll need the help of her best friend, Star. Considering herself a serious artist, Star is hesitant, but finally agrees to help as a way to end her own creative slump. Truthfully she thinks Ofy is a little loca about the whole craft thing — and about her idol: local TV personality, Crafty Chloe. Star doesn’t trust the bottle-blonde, even after she becomes part of their crafting team. As the competition heats up, Star will learn Chloe’s dirty little secret, why crafting means so much to Ofy, and that beauty, art, and creativity can take many more forms than a canvas hanging in a gallery.

I’m pretty tempted to just pre-order it right this second!

Dave and I are huge designer toy fans. We have a cute little collection that’s sort of all over every surface in the living room. Of course, I’m also a little Munny-obsessed. I even modded out my own for a show at MINT gallery last year.

Munnies are blank vinyl toys produced by Kid Robot. The idea is to mod them out to be whatever you want them to be! Here are a few kickass Munny mods:

Here’s what you’re lookin’ at (clockwise from the top left):

1. San Smith’s beautiful 7 inch custom Munny with Baroque Rococo type design from that same MINT show.
2. Mr. Turnip by Steve Talkowski. I just loved his landscape belly and the little heart on the one leg!
3. A totally rad crochet-covered Munny by Pepperberry.
4. Mustachioed Munny that Bleeding Edges made as a gift for a tattoo artist friend.

My little sis gave me a 3″ Munny for Christmas that’s been calling to me from its spot on the bookshelf lately. Part of me wants to try something involving Sculpey this time.