Larissa Sousa

i’m so impressed and inspired by all of the amazing lunch ideas you all are leaving on this post! you’re making my new years resolution (to pack my lunch more often) much easier. for today’s recipe, we’re featuring another meatless option. we’re not at all opposed to the idea of meat but i’ve been personally trying to eat less of it and that feeling has trickled down to the blog and what we’ve been inspired to make. one thing i will say is that i’ve been saving a lot of money on my grocery bill by buying less meat which is certainly something to highlight! now on to hummus and other exciting things! – joanie

spinach hummus: 
• 1 can chickpeas (drained and skins removed)
• quarter cup feta cheese
• quarter cup walnuts
• 2 cups blanched spinach
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 lemon juiced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

one of my favorite food blogs is smitten kitchen and she introduced me to the important fact that for creamy hummus it’s very important to take the skin off of your chickpeas. it’s an added step for sure but it’s worth it. after you rinse them i place them on a paper towel, rub them around with a little pressure and then you can see the skin start to come loose. the perk of this hummus recipe is the added kick of a serving veggies with the addition of spinach!

to make: first blanch your spinach in boiling water for about 1 minute. in your blender, mix in all the ingredients except for the olive oil. turn the blender on medium and slowly add the olive oil as the blender is moving. adjust seasoning and oil as needed to reach desired consistency.

coleslaw: 
• 2 cups purple cabbage
• 3 carrots
• 1/3 cup mint
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 lemon juiced

thinly slice the purple cabbage, mint and carrots. place in a medium bowl and mix with the salt, white balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. the important step to this is thinly slicing the cabbage and carrots, it makes for a much better consistency.

yogurt spread: 
• 2 cups greeks yogurt
• 2 tablespoons dill
• 2 persian cucumbers
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lemon juiced

finely chop 2 tablespoons dill and dice the Persian cucumbers (Persian cucumbers are lighter in taste and softer in texture, but if you can’t find them in your grocery store, english cucumbers will also work) in a medium sized bowl, mix the greek yogurt with the dill, cucumbers, salt and lemon juice.

we love using this simple recipe for the homemade flatbreads.

serve buffet style and assemble flatbreads with all your favorite toppings, we also added olives, pickled turnips and parsley to the toppings for added flavors.

styling by: joanie cusack and ivan solis
photos by: ivan solis

The plan is coming together. Drew has lobbied hard. I mean, it’s not entirely fair, I’m feeling super pregnant right now, somewhat woozy if I stand up too quickly, major pregnancy brain and he’s whispering things like, “and it’s good for the environment…”

Drew wants to get a camper van.

He’s been following #vanlife for years, and he’s the one who told me about Foster Huntington (who beyond making a coffee table book of camper vans – does other crazy things like BUILDS HIMSELF A TREEHOUSE TO LIVE IN).
Drew has wanted this forever but I’ve been hesitant to purchase a vehicle or anything really that would tie us down again. We worked so hard to completely unencumbered.

But he’s right. Or I’m just pregnant. Now that we have a third child on the way, the idea of jetting off to SE Asia is quickly disappearing. We had a whim the other day like, “Oh let’s just go to Chiang Mai for a month, it’s been so long,” but then you look at roundtrip flights x4 and it’s like, “Can we swing a minimum of $4,800 this month? Just to fly?” And with three kids that just goes up even more.

Plus I have privately made it this year’s mission to start figuring out how to travel greener. I wrote about my concerns about global warming, specifically the sort of out-of-body realization that I was passively watching it and not changing my behavior. Flights are my major sin, and no matter how green I am at home I can swallow a year’s worth of pristine living with one long haul flight. The only thing to do is to start figuring out how to travel overland, with kids, more.

So I guess we’re getting a camper van. (And yes, next year we’re still getting the sailboat! That will be super green!)

I’ve been watching the Seattle and Vancouver Craigslists for a few months now, but yesterday someone turned me on to The Samba… which has hundreds of VW bus/van listings. Our friends had a Westfalia and we traveled a bit with them and fell in love with the design. The top pushes up and makes a loft bed on the roof, and the back seat folds down to make a second bed in the rear. They easily slept four all inside their van. They are so well-loved and rare that the price is quite high for a 40+ year old vehicle, but I haven’t been able to find anything else that compares with the same compact size and layout. It even has a mini-kitchenette with a stove, sink and fridge inside.
The main thing I love about it is that you can just use it as a regular vehicle too. It’s not like an RV that is truly single purpose, I wouldn’t want to have to drive and park a beast like that on school pick-ups days.

That style above isn’t very common in the US, it’s mostly the Westfalia Vanagon, but we found a pretty good one in Florida for $9,000:

But it’s been on the market for a while (which is concerning) and has a bit of rust.

Or this one in California, which looks a lot better but is $15,000:Can you just picture me?

One thing we noticed was that many of the listings in California seemed to be way off-the-charts more expensive. How do you pay $75K for a 1987 vehicle? Like this one:

It is totally kitted out with solar and satellite. We’re not there yet, I think we should start with a decent body, then consider solar down the road but how cool would it be to be totally off the grid and still have power? We loved our solar panels for the bike trip, it let us keep all of our devices charged just from whatever sunlight we hit while biking.

We haven’t found the perfect one yet, and I still have a few weeks of book-stuff to do, but we’re on the hunt! If you see any cool VW Westfalias out there on the more reasonable side of the range, let us know.

Meanwhile, I’m still planning our exact route through the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Jasper and so on, but it looks like we’ll be driving our new vehicle home with us to Mexico.

Hopefully this will be us, very soon:

#vanlifemovement via @idletheorybus #vanlife #vw #westfalia #camplife #travel #traveling

Una foto publicada por #VanLifeMovement ” src=”https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72×72/1f690.png”>” src=”https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72×72/1f690.png”>” src=”https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72×72/1f690.png”>” /> (@vanlifemovement) el 9 de May de 2016 a la(s) 5:05 PDT

Miro Dantas é um tatuador que doa seu trabalho para ajudar mulheres a recuperar a auto-estima depois da mastectomia.

Após a mastectomia, muitas mulheres refazem as mamas com implante de silicone e reconstrução do mamilo com pele de outro lugar (e repigmentação). Para algumas, porém, um novo processo cirúrgico está longe de cogitação. Seja por medo de passar por um procedimento invasivo novamente ou pelo custo. Porém, muito pouca gente cogita o redesenho apenas com tatuagens, um procedimento bem mais simples e barato que a cirurgia.

Sendlea, a mulher da foto, chegou a colocar silicone, mas por 8 anos não reconstruiu seu mamilo.

Eu pensava que não tinha nenhum problema com o fato de não ter o mamilo. Só que eu olhava para meu seio e não prestava atenção nele. Agora eu olho com outros olhos. Ficou lindo, perfeito.

O projeto do tatuador e fodão Miro Dantas é doar uma sessão por mês para ajudar as mulheres a voltarem a se olhar no espelho com a mesma alegria da Sendlea. Ele trabalha em SP e pra saber mais é só ir até o site site dele ou do estúdio e agendar um horário.

Ah, a Sendlea garante que não dói!

E, oh, obrigada, Miro, por doar um pouco do teu talento e fazer o mundo um lugar mais bonito, colorido e cheio de auto-estima. <3

hi there. how’s your friday going? i like this sunburned toast.

i’m on a plane to atlanta for one of my high school best friend’s wedding. i haven’t seen some of my friends in years, so i’m excited to dress up and have some fun with everyone!

my birthday is next week (aquarius, holla). 29 seems like such a strange age. but maybe it’s because i’m not a fan of odd numbers. but i’m just going to embrace it. i know i’ve talked a little bit about single life here on the blog. i gotta say, i finally feel like i’m adjusting to it and enjoying it. for a few months there, i felt a little anxious for all those stupid cliche reasons…”what if i don’t find someone? is every good guy taken? what if i’m single for years! everyone is married with kids except me.” i know, it’s pretty silly to write it out, but that IS what i thought for a while. i’d like to think i don’t feel very pressured to have kids and get married right away, but the older you get, it’s like someone shoves those thoughts in your brain whether you want them or not.

but now, i feel comfortable living alone. i go on dates and if there’s chemistry, awesome, and if not, oh well. i’ve been putting way less weight on it and feeling a lot better. i figure if i do meet someone special, this is my only time to live it up and be single. so i might as well make it enjoyable. do tell, what made you single transition easier? as a relationship kinda gal, it was definitely something i had to learn to like…

anyway, i’m going to be in new york with friends this month art directing this proctor & gamble beauty event. i’m excited to see this 3 month project actually come to life and spend some time in that awesome city. we rented a big house in brooklyn for us to all stay/work in. can’t wait!

PS. for those of you interested in the JOBS at designlovefest and blogshop, a little update… we hired a blogshop social media manager for blogshop, found a photographer for a designlovefest weekly column, and hired a few interns in NYC for that beauty event. we are STILL on the hunt for our new managing editor (runs 2 columns on DLF, handles emails and submissions, takes part of the creative process, helps with workshops etc.) see the job listing here. give us a shout if you’re interested. we’ll be hiring in february!

(photo here)

'Se a mulher não quer que mexa com ela, então não tem que usar roupa que provoca, passa aqui de moletom'

Eu não vou nem discutir o tanto de coisa errada que tem na afirmação acima (que aliás eu não inventei. Veja o vídeo abaixo pra ouvir e ver esse e mais um monte de absurdos). Se você concorda que é um absurdo, então você precisa ajudar o documentário Chega de Fiu Fiu, idealizado pelo projeto Think Olga, a sair do papel.

(E se você não concorda, e acha que a frase faz sentido, faça um favor pra mim: feche essa página e nunca mais volte aqui)

Há alguns meses o Think Olga divulgou o resultado de uma pesquisa que mostra que as cantadas na rua não tem nada de inofensivas: é um problema grave, e que tem sido ignorado há muito tempo. Eu já falei sobre esse assunto algumas vezes aqui no blog (quando contei sobre campanhas feministas que apoio no Reino Unido, como o Everyday Sexism e o No More Page 3), então não acho que preciso explicar novamente que assédio não é paquera (e cantada É assédio).

Agora, o Think Olga quer dar um passo adiante na luta contra o sexismo e produzir um documentário que mostra as situações super desagradáveis que as mulheres passam todos os dias. Veja o vídeo abaixo para entender certinho o contexto e o projeto.



Então, vamos doar? A primeira meta, de R$20 mil, já foi alcançada. Agora precisamos chegar a R$80 mil, pra garantir que o documentário saia do papel. Temos 46 dias, e ainda falta bastante,

Quanto mais eu penso nesse assunto, lembro de mais e mais cantadas (algumas bastante agressivas) que levei na rua. Engraçado como a normalização disso faz a gente 'deixar pra lá' e esquecer coisas que na verdade são traumatizantes. Chega disso, gente!

Clique aqui para fazer sua doação.

Minha nossa, lá vem esses negros encher a paciência novamente. Tudo para eles é racismo.

Fera, nós vivemos isso. Simples.

Michael Brown. Ferguson. Violência policial. Assassinato.

Ferguson está localizada no Estado do Missouri, EUA. Um pouco mais da metade dos seus habitantes são negros e pobres. Os índices de desemprego entre estes é quase o dobro dos moradores brancos. O número de abordagens policiais visando pessoas negras é desproporcional diante da distribuição da população(veja aqui). As perspectivas são poucas.

Enfim, chega de falar de números, falarei de seres humanos. Michael Brown tinha 18 anos quando foi abordado por um policial por ser suspeito de furto em uma loja de conveniência. Pelo relato de testemunhas, o policial estava dentro do carro e entrou em luta corporal com Michael, que levou um tiro no dedo e saiu correndo. Tirando as versões conflitantes, alguns fatos:

– Michael estava desarmado

– Ele levou dois tiros na cabeça (total: 6 tiros)

– Nenhuma testemunha relata luta corporal no momento dos tiros fatais, ou seja, Michael estava distante do policial.

Ferguson, 2014 (daqui)

Esta semana, um júri com nove pessoas brancas e três negras decidiram que o policial não deve ir a julgamento. O promotor responsável culpou as redes sociais pelos protestos e clamor social que o caso gerou. Não, caro promotor, você está errado. O clamor foi gerado pela forma que o caso foi tratado, sem fotos da cena do crime, com evidências sendo divulgadas quando deveriam permanecer secretas, etc.

Mas você fica falando de um caso que aconteceu em outro país, o que nós temos a ver com isso? Afinal, no Brasil essas coisas não acontecem.

Não? Tem certeza? Acontecem sim.

Brasil, Bahia, Salvador. Davi Fiuza.
Davi mora em uma das comunidades mais pobres de Salvador. Assim como Ferguson, a Bahia possui uma imensa população negra, e em sua maioria pobre. Davi é negro e tem 16 anos. Em outubro, foi abordado em uma operação policial feita no bairro onde mora, foi encapuzado, amarrado e levado em uma viatura. Davi nunca mais apareceu. Ninguém sabe o que houve com ele. As investigações são lentas e os familiares não acreditam que ele ainda seja encontrado com vida. Uma intensa campanha nas redes sociais questionou o ocorrido com Davi. A polícia dá poucas respostas e alega que o adolescente era usuário de drogas. Por isso ele deveria sumir?

Adolescentes, negros, pobres, violência e polícia. Os dois casos servem apenas para exemplificar. Poderia descrever mais centenas deles.

Nas nossas cidades, os negros também são maioria nos bairros pobres. Em qualquer lugar, são preferencialmente suspeitos. Os autos de resistência tem entre suas maiores vítimas esses mesmos indivíduos.

Maré, 2014 (daqui)

Será uma grande coincidência?

Somos vítimas do chamado racismo institucional. Michael Brown era um delinquente, e não importa de que forma, o policial estava cumprindo seu dever e protegendo a sociedade. Davi não foi formalmente acusado e sumiu. O Estado que deveria proteger é aquele que agride e mata, esse mesmo que aborda pessoas apenas com base na sua origem étnica.

O clamor social que isso gera origina-se na opressão que todos nós sentimos. A presença do Estado deveria nos confortar e não amedrontar. Para nós negros e moradores da periferia, essa presença é sinônimo de terror.

Algo precisa mudar aqui também.

Ontem me lembrei da música Strange Fruit. Essa música foi composta nos anos 30 como forma de protesto pelo linchamento de negros no sul dos Estados Unidos. Billie Holiday a imortalizou. Abel Meeropol escreveu a música. Ele era branco. Essa é uma luta de todos.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,

And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

(Árvores do sul produzem frutos estranhos/ sangue nas folhas e sangue na raíz/ corpo negro balançando na brisa sulina/ frutos estranhos pendurados nos Álamos./ Cena pastoril do valente sul/ Os olhos saltados e a boca retorcida/O doce e fresco perfume da Magnólia/ E o repentino cheiro de carne queimada!/ Aqui está a fruta para os corvos arrancarem/ Para a chuva colher, para o vento levar/ Para o sol apodrecer, para a árvore deixar cair/ Aqui está a estranha e amarga colheita)

When I was 21, I moved to New York with almost no money but lots of nerves and excitement. Over the next fourteen years, I worked a bunch of different jobs and learned so much—sometimes the hard way! For career week, I'd love to share 10 things I've learned during my career...
Read More >

Marci and Dan Clark (and their cat Maude) live in a teeny tiny Manhattan apartment, where they've managed to maximize every square inch. Here are their 13 smart tips for decorating a small space...Read More >

Last night, I was a little out of sorts—feeling like a mama bear, bummed about daylight savings and just having an overall generalized anxiety kick, as is my wont. While surfing Pinterest, I came across this quote, and, while it focuses more on beauty, it was a lovely reminder to give yourself a break:

It doesn’t make sense to call ourselves ugly, because we don’t really see ourselves. We don’t watch ourselves sleeping in bed, curled up and silent with chests rising and falling with our own rhythm. We don’t see ourselves reading a book, eyes fluttering and glowing. You don’t see yourself looking at someone with love and care inside your heart. There’s no mirror in your way when you’re laughing and smiling and happiness is leaking out of you. You would know exactly how bright and beautiful you are if you saw yourself in the moments where you are truly yourself.

Beautiful, don't you think? And so true.

P.S. Another inspiring quote.

(Illustration by Roxanne Daner)

Every Monday (or holiday-after Tuesday), words to start the week.


Three more links, just because:
-Camel as cartographer.
-How to Drink All Night, In a Classy Way.
-More reading recommendations, from 50 cultural icons (Dolly Parton loves The Little Engine That Could; Donald Glover reads about kids with Aspergers; David Bowie has a hundred favorites).

More recommended reading, here. Image via Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them, by Isaac Fitzgerald and Wendy MacNaughton.