Shakori Hills Music Festival April 22-25

The Shakori Hills music festival is on April 22-25th in Pittsboro, NC (about 45 mins south of Elon). Its an amazing 4-day grassroots event featuring lots of local and regional bands. The festival has a lot of dancing, local food, art and crafts. http://www.shakorihills.org/

Its a giant camping event, so you can pitch your tent, or park your car and sleep in that too.

A 4-day pass is $90, and daily passes to the festival range from $22-37 depending on the day you choose.

Or you can go for free by volunteering your time to help promote their solar cell project in the crowd while the bands are playing.

http://www.shakorihills.org/solarize-shakori-project/

Local Businesses Bring Bikes to Burlington

A new used bike shop has popped up on University Dr. right next to University Grill. Its called Elon Bike Shop Buy, Sell and Trade and they have a wide assortment of all types and sizes of bikes, including mountain bikes, nice road bikes, some vintage fixed gear bikes, and kids' bikes (training wheels included).

The shop seems to hold irregular hours (and likes to simultaneously hang open and closed signs in the window), so I wasn't able to go inside, but I just looked through the windows to see what they had. There was also a used, black drum set in the window.

All the bikes are very reasonably priced (all the price tags are dangling off the handle bars quite visibly) and probably in good working condition.

Have you thought of joining the cycling club at Elon but don't own a bike? Have you considered how fun it would be riding to school on a bike instead of driving this spring? There are probably a lot of reasons that's a really good idea, including being able to enjoy the weather on nice days, getting in a little bit of exercise, and saving gas and carbon emissions by keeping your car off the road a couple days each week.

If you're looking for high-end, new bikes, check out J&L Bicycle Co. in downtown Burlington, located at 216 Front St next to the future location of the Company Shops Market Co-op.

They offer a wide line of new bicycles of all kinds, as well as all the clothing, equipment and accessories you may want to go with your bike. They also have a couple weekly group rides that would be great to get involved in.

I noticed this sticker placed in the windows of a lot of stores downtown in solidarity, to help Company Shops Market raise funds and awareness for the local food co-op in Burlington's future. Keep it up CSM! Learn how to support them and the local food cause here.

If you have any desire or need for any kind of bike, Burlington's got you covered. Go snag one now so that you're ready to take an impromptu bike ride whenever our warm, spring days finally arrive.

Holiday Entertaining

Turkey. Stuffing. Cranberries. Mashed Potatoes, Yams and Marshmallows. Green Bean Casserole. Pumpkin Pie. Pecan Pie. All the usual suspects for a Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving has evolved into a lovely eating holiday for our country. Forget the fact that half of these foods were not present at the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims and Indians. Thanksgiving is undoubtingly one of America’s favorite holidays. It also is the official kickoff to the HOLIDAY SEASON!!! (not halloween, in case you were confused last time you entered a mall) If you need any ideas of some holiday recipes, I have collected a few for you to try. I have tested most of these recipes and you cannot go wrong with them on your table tonight. So if you have been talking about throwing a holiday party, now is your time to do it!

Over the next few weeks, I will post fun and festive holiday recipes. I guarantee that each recipe will be more delicious than the next. I will also give you the link to the recipe for you to find directly, as well as sneak in some perfected secret family recipes for holiday dining from some well respected chefs (my parents).

DIY #2: Shenee and Mica Fabricate a Corner Table Thing!

1. Did you notice the clever pun in the title? FABRICate? Ha Ha :)
[Ahem]

Mica's neighbors had a yard sale with some interesting finds: among them a plastic corner table, which was pretty boring and kind of disgusting on top. So, Shenee and Mica decided to cover it with awesome fabric to make it beautiful, one-of-a-kind, and a more exciting addition to whichever room in Mica's house had space for it.

Drawing the shape of the tabletop onto the fabric as an outline for cutting. *This step is especially important because of the odd shape.*

Cutting the fabric to size and shape. We used the outside edge as a guide, rather than cutting it too small by using the inside.

Hot gluing the corners so they will lie flat in the shape and size to fit in the inside of the tabletop.

Applying Velcro, sticky-side down. The two Velcro pieces were latched together, then the sticky side peeled off the top layer so it could be placed and stuck in the correct spot on the tabletop.

Attaching the Velcro to the tabletop-- we opted for Velcro in case these covers need to be removed and washed.

Some assembly required.

The artists and the finished product, voila :)

The fabric is from Malawi, and we tried to incorporate at least one whole fish per shelf.

It ended up in the bathroom.

Thanks for reading, have fun!

~Mica

DIY #1: Painting a Desk

- I bought a computer desk from a friend of mine, something that (AWESOMELY) folds up flat so I can put it into the trunk of my car when moving.

- It was a little bland, just plain wood.

- I bought a hutch from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Burlington, NC (be sure to measure the desk top space and hutch base before purchasing because you can't return items from such stores).

- It, too, was a little bland.

- Thus, I spruced them up a bit.

Step 1. Buy your wooden piece(s) to paint.

Step 2. Sand them down, if needed, to ensure a smooth painting surface.

Step 3. Purchase a bottle of gesso, a variety of brush sizes, and some acrylic paints from the painting section of a craft store. Gesso acts as a primer, of sorts, and is ideal if you'll be painting a dark wood piece in light colors. I opted for white gesso and a pack of different brushes from Hobby Lobby, which has occasional really good sales.

- My color scheme involved orange, fuchsia, gold, light yellow, dark brown, and bits of turquoise and white. It's important to not go overboard with the amount of colors, and try to keep them all of similar brightness but with some variety thrown in (like the dark brown to tie everything together). It's also nice to have one main color and several complimentary colors that are seen in smaller amounts. An art teacher of mine once ordered me to "never use the color directly from the tube!", so try experimenting with mixing your own color shades-- just be sure to mix enough so you don't run out!

Final Step. Cover the floor with an old shower curtain or drop cloth and let the creative juices flow :)

This turned out to be about a $15 project, not including the cost of the desk and hutch. Here are some detail photos:

to remind me of wonderful things (this is on the footrest part)

the part of the desk that faces me

view of the detail on the bars/rungs my kitten, Tupelo, loves to hang out on the keyboard drawer

Thanks for reading, enjoy :)

~Mica