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I’m going to take off tomorrow for the holiday, and today I just have this short post to tell you to have a Happy Christmas! I will be back on Monday, January 2nd. xoxo

Here’s a Christmas time homage to snowflakes and snow for Grandmom.

For the first time ever in my life, I have made the decision to not decorate for the holidays. I usually spend a lot of time making homemade decorations, cutting out paper snowflakes, putting up a tree and decking all my halls—but not this year. There’s just too much going on in my personal life and I’ve really been stressing out, so I decided to drop something from my to-do list and it honestly was the best decision I could have made! My mood  regarding Christmas improved dramatically once I did. Luckily, other people in my family are hosting our family celebrations, so I can just sit back and get another glass of holiday punch and some Christmas cookies!

Since my own home isn’t decorated this year, I am living vicariously through other peep’s homes on the Internet. Here’s a sampling of my Christmas fix.

Here’s a new Valentines tradition for you lovers looking to try something beyond the old dozen roses: place two acorns in a bowl of water and watch to see if they move together or swim apart. If they meet in the middle, your love will be a “Great oak from which little acorns grow,” and if they separate, well, then…you’ll find below some more reliable uses for these nuts! The ancient Brits believed that a woman carrying an acorn would magically prevent aging by mirroring the resilience of the mighty oak. We here in the modern design world seem to believe that our acorns should be kept warm with the rest of us, via the “Acorn Cozy” featured below.

Wool Felted Acorn Ornaments by Angel Dog Designs | Acorn Hanger by Cattails | Acorn Wallflower by Bath and Body Works | Acorn Cozy by Jane Gotts

The squirrel’s teacup, the chipmunk’s cap, the ecochic lady’s locket…is now a sustainable book cover too! I scavenged dozens of acorns from a white oak tree and gave them a life very different from their previous fate of life inside a squirrel’s stash. These 480 “oak-horns” (!) form a blend of organic flora and rugged geometry to create wall art, a pinprickly hand rest, or an extra special book cover for a book yet to be written, as seen here.

To make your own, simply use a sturdy cardboard backing and heavy duty hot glue. Try to gather all your acorns from one tree to get the most uniform size, and then go nuts!

The nut of the oak tree is not just a treat for the squirrels. Acorn flour makes an excellent nut powder high in vitamins A and C and calcium, rich in fiber, and low in gluten. It’s hard to believe that by strolling through the fall leaves we are possibly treading on hundreds of these “ideal foods”, so termed by health junkies. They do hold bitter tannic acid, a kidney-hating particle that should be extracted out before you put that acorn anywhere near your mouth. Once the tannic acid is leached out via a several day process of crushing the acorns and rinsing the nuts in cold water, the resulting mush can be ground into acorn flour which makes a perfectly woodsy pancake, cookie, or bread with a fresh air taste. Just like eating outdoors, but without the frostbite!

For the ambitious, an entire meal can be constructed as an ode to the acorn. And it would be no small affair! On the menu we have: acorn burgers, acorn chili, acorn loaf, acorn jelly (dotorimuk) acorn cookies (and acorn molasses pancakes for breakfast the next day). Bonus points if you eat using reusable cloth napkins dyed with acorn powder that produces rich browns, tans, and blues (see The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes)!  This small nut is a robust substitute for starchy, earthy, and nutrient-rich ingredients such as beans, potatoes, oats, and high-fiber grains. Although acorns are not a staple of our modern diet, in the ancient world they were a common food, used in Korean noodle dishes, Greek mushes and salads, and German coffee.

To the indigenous peoples of America, acorns were traditionally a sacred food that symbolized a thriving harvest and communal well-being. Naturally, there is a native song to go along with this prized sentiment towards the acorn:

“And you women, strike out, gather wild onions, wild potatoes! Gather all you can! Gather all you can! Pound acorns, pound acorns, pound acorns! Cook, Cook! Make some bread, make some bread! So we can eat, so we can eat, so we can eat… Make acorn soup so that the people will eat it!… Don’t talk about starvation, because we never have much! Eat acorns! There is nothing to it.”

- Song of Chief Yanapayak, Miwok, from “The Way We Lived,” edited by Malcolm Margolin, copyright 1981

To revive this old-worldy ingredient in the spirit of food gone wild, I hunted down a sack of acorn powder in a Korean market and set to acorn cake making. No acorns were pounded in the making of these cakes, but there was still a certain nutty satisfaction from baking with something that you find stuck in your shoe when taking a walk. I adapted this recipe to create a new spin on the acorn cake, and now {Tree}Household would like to present a bountiful harvest turned edible:

Acorn Molasses Cakes

1/2 cup acorn flour

1/2 cup cashews, chopped

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup raisins or dates

1 cup cooked brown rice

molasses to taste

agave to taste

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

pinch brown sugar or sucanat

Mix all ingredients together in large mixing bowl. Add enough molasses/honey so that concoction clumps together nicely without falling apart. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a thin spread of butter, and ball the mixture together into small-ish round cakes. Sprinkle the tops with brown sugar or sucanat. Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes.

High in fiber, rich in protein, dense, intense and filling, these cakes are best eaten like energy bars as the acorn nutrients will keep you going for hours of power!

From {Tree}Household, a nutty Holiday to everyone! Now go outdoors!

About the contributor:
	Heather Buzzard is a freshly hatched graduate of Emory University, where she studied creative writing, sociology, religion and environmental science. Her time is spent frolicking as a musician in two Atlanta bands, dressing up for silly photoshoots, inventing recipes, and drooling happily over her Indie Fixx work.

Click here to download…

You are in for a treat this Monday, a wintery Feed Your Soul: the free art project download from artist Lucy Engelman. Lucy is a recent BFA graduate and illustrator living in Northfield, IL. Her work is whimsical,  playful, and at times, slightly mysterious and she mostly likes to stick to traditional forms of illustration with pen and paint. Lucy enjoys drawing pretty much from morning until her head hits the pillow, but also takes time to ride her bike, play with her terriers, and spend as much time outdoors as possible. In addition to working with Indie Fixx, Lucy has had the joy of collaborating with several magazines and publishing houses listed on her site. To see more of her work and find her contact information, visit www.lucyengelman.com.

I asked Lucy a few questions about what inspires her and how she feeds her soul.

What do you do to feed your soul?

I love spending as much time outside as I can. In the warmer Midwestern months, I work outside all day long or as long as the wind will let me. I feel completely rejuvenated and inspired by nature and its constant growth. It inspires me and feeds my soul in every way. In a more intellectual way, I listen to podcasts on a daily basis. From storytelling to scientific explanations to historical recaps, I love learning and listening. Since I am out of school now, and still thirsty for knowledge, podcasts are the perfect fix.

What would you say are your biggest inspirations in your art and life?

I am most inspired by my animals and all animals for that matter. The way they move and interact completely fascinates me and I could watch them for hours. I also love plants—especially greenhouses. I am inspired by science, although it is not one of my strengths, I still find it to be very mysterious and beautiful.

Are you a sunset person or a sunrise person?

Sunset. Lake Michigan. Michigan-side. I am neither a morning person nor a night owl—I simply like my sleep.

A new kind of vinyl has been released at the record store, and it’s cute, cozy, and cool enough to hold all of your favorite monies. The re-purposed vinyl wallet was one of a thousand and something stuffs and things for sale at the maker’s paradise, Indie Craft Experience Atlanta, brain baby of Christy Petterson of a bardis and Shannon Mulkey from Patina. Local music hub Criminal Records recently morphed into a pop up shop for independently designed goods, or, more obviously, a place for price and environmentally conscious shoppers to get all their holiday gifting knocked out in one fell swoop.

Pop up shops are to grown-ups what pop up books are to the younger set: interactive, fun, exciting, and better and better with repetition. This year is Atlanta’s lucky 13th ICE market!

Originally modeled after handmade shopping ops in Austin and Chicago, the Atlanta tradition has now grown into a major indie arts mecca.

Notably, this year’s market featured many squid and cupcakes. Thankfully, there was no shortage of super heroes.

To follow in the footsteps of the indie aesthetic, the grand opening extravaganza featured well-loved food trucks, “Oh Goodie” bags chock-a-block with free swag, and local independent musical act Christ, Lord, a band that magically wrenched attendees from the checkout line to the dance floor and back again in the best of ways.

Watch out for one of these handily-dandily made Christmas markets to pop up under your feet and shake the ground with grassroots goodness!

About the contributor:
	Heather Buzzard is a freshly hatched graduate of Emory University, where she studied creative writing, sociology, religion and environmental science. Her time is spent frolicking as a musician in two Atlanta bands, dressing up for silly photoshoots, inventing recipes, and drooling happily over her Indie Fixx work.

In a holiday frame of mind, I curated a collection  from Papa Stour of some of my holiday decorating wishes.