Green Photography Inspiration

No matter if it’s St. Patrick’s Day inspired or not, you can find green everywhere. Here are some of my favorite photos that incorporate green:

10 Ways to Cook with Bagels

I love cooking with bagels. Bagels are a versatile and delicious bread that can be enjoyed in many ways. If you are looking for some vegan recipes using bagels, here are 10 ideas that you can try:

• Vegan Bagel Toppings: You can make your own vegan cream cheese, hummus, pesto or chocolate spread and top your bagels with them. Add some fresh or dried fruits, nuts, seeds, or herbs for extra flavor and texture
• Vegan Bagel Sandwiches: Vegan bagel sandwiches are a great lunch or dinner meal. You can fill your bagels with tofu or tempeh for a meaty flavor. You can even use store bought veggie patties and use the bagel like a bun. Add vegan cheese, vegan mayo, mustard, ketchup or barbecue sauce for extra moisture and flavor. 
• Vegan Bagel Pizza: You can slice your bagels in half and spread some vegan pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings of your choice. Then bake them in the oven or toaster oven until the cheese is melted and the bagels are crispy. Try using vegan pesto or alfredo as the base sauce instead of tomato sauce. 
• Vegan Bagel Salad: Make your own bagel croutons by cubing your bagels and toss them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Bake in the oven until they are golden and crunchy. You can use them as croutons for your salad or mix them with some roasted vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and dressing1
• Vegan Bagel Casserole: Make a vegan bagel casserole.You can cube your bagels and layer them with some vegan cheese, cream of mushroom soup, milk, and spices. Then bake them in the oven until they are bubbly and cheesy. You can also add some broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, or other vegetables to the casserole3 
• Bagel French Toast: Use bagels instead of bread to  make your own french toast.You can slice your bagels and dip them in a mixture of plant-based milk, cornstarch, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then fry them in a skillet until they are golden and crisp. You can serve them with some maple syrup, vegan butter, berries, or whipped cream3
• Bagel Soup: You can cube your bagels and simmer them in some vegetable broth, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and bay leaf. Then blend the soup until it is smooth and creamy. You can season the soup with some salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parsley. You can also add some vegan cheese, cream, or yogurt to the soup3
• Vegan Bagel Bread Pudding: You can cube your bagels and soak them in a mixture of plant-based milk, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and spices. Then bake them in the oven until they are set and custardy. You can add some raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, or coconut flakes to the pudding3
• Vegan Bagel Scones: You can shred your bagels and mix them with some flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and vegan butter. Then add some plant-based milk and knead the dough until it is smooth. You can shape the dough into rounds and cut them into wedges. Then bake them in the oven until they are golden and flaky. You can add some lemon zest, cranberries, chocolate chips, or nuts to the dough3
• Vegan Bagel Chips: Slice your bagels thinly and brush them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then bake them in the oven until they are crisp and crunchy. You can use them as a snack or dip them in some salsa, guacamole, or hummus if 3

I hope you enjoy these vegan recipes using bagels. Let me know which one is your favorit

NuMe Mini Magic: Tiny Straightener, Big Sleek Energy

 

Whether you’re prepping for a weekend getaway or just love compact beauty tools, the NuMe Mini Hair Straightener in Blue might just become your new ride-or-die. I recently gave this petite hair straightener a full test run. 

Here’s my honest review. One thing I will about the NuMe Mini is it comes in a fun electric blue color. It is definitely a nicer color than black. It has a sleek design and is pretty small to fit in your hands. 

You get: 

• The straightener
• A heat-protective pouch
• User manual

This hair straightener heats up fast. It heats up to around 410°F (210°C). It took under a minute to heat up for me. It is perfect for your bands or mini touch ups. A bonus it is has dual voltage which means it's perfect for travel or sticking in your bang. 

I used it on both freshly washed and dry, second-day hair. It glides surprisingly well, and the compact size lets me get super close to the roots. 

For context, I have medium-length, fine hair with a slight wave. Here’s how the NuMe Mini performed:

It left my hair sleek and shiny with minimal effort when I straightened it. I needed to go over each section maybe twice. It handled flyaways like a pro! Overall, it is a little small for me, but perfect for touch ups. Perfect for taming post-workout frizz or smoothing bedhead. It’s now my go-to for quick styling on the fly.

You can even curl with this thing! The rounded edges on the plates mean you can create loose bends and flips, even with the smaller size. Great for bangs and framing pieces too.

The dual voltage feature makes it international-ready, and the size fits in a small pouch or even a purse. It’s officially part of my overnight essentials.

To protect your strands and lock in the style, I recommend pairing it with:

• A heat protectant spray 
• Lightweight serum or oil for added shine
• Dry shampoo for second-day volume

If you want a mini tool that delivers major results, the NuMe Mini Blue Straightener is a must-have. It’s cute, quick, and seriously effective — ideal for touch-ups, travel, and tight spaces.

M

Love Inspiration

 

Survey for Blog Viewers

I thought I'd try to get to know my blog readers/subscribers better. Feel free to fill out this survey. Just copy and paste the survey in to the comment box.

Name:
Age:
Location:
Do you have an Etsy?
Do you have a blog?
Have you bought things off Etsy before?
Favorite type of craft?
Favorite artist? (whatever this means to you - musician, painter, writer, etc.)
Last book you read:
Last movie you watched:
Favorite quote:
Anything else:

You can feel free to use this form on your blog too if you have one.

Want to Be Reviewed?

 

Do you have a company with a product you want me to review? I am doing product reviews on this blog. Some examples of products I will review include:

• Handmade products from Etsy
• Vegan companies and products
• Art and art journaling supplies
• Business tools
• Digital products

I also do interviews and accept guest posts. Contact me for more details.

Random Wishlist Items

I like to keep word documents of wishlists, products I might buy in the future or just like to think of having. Here are some products on my current wishlist:

Strapless Pleated Floral Dress

I like cute, colorful dresses for spring like this dress from Forever 21.

Lush Rub Rub Rub Sea Salt

I've been looking for a good body scrub and I like Lush products so I think I want to try this sometime.

MAC Jeanius Eye Shadow



I love the cute packaging on this eye shadow that's made to look like denim. I've never really tried MAC eye shadows before.

What's on your wishlist?

Happy New Year's!

Happy New Year's! What are your resolutions for the new year? Let me know in the comments!

Blog Anniversary and Giveaway!

This week is My Thread of Thought's anniversary. To celebrate, I'm having a giveaway. The prize is a greeting card of your choice from my shop. To enter, you just have to leave a comment in this entry. If you post about the giveaway somewhere else (your blog, etsy forums, twitter, etc.), just let me know and you'll get an extra entry. The giveaway will be up until July 18th.

I can't believe it's been two years since I've had this blog. I posted my first entry on the Fourth of July of 2008. This blog has been a good way to talk about my Etsy shop and things going on in my life. I find it helps organize my thoughts and relieve stress when I write things down. I've gained 269 followers which is great. I thought I'd post some of my favorite entries over the years:

Fourth of July (July 4, 2008)
Getting Etsy on Other Sites (July 14, 2008)
First Sale! (July 21, 2008)
Craftster Challenge: Playing Cards (July 22, 2008)
Halloween Cards Tutorial (September 20, 2008)
Election Day Giveaway (October 28, 2008)
Valentine's Day Items (February 14, 2009)
World Autism day (April 1, 2009)
Record Store Day (April 18, 2009)
Etsy Day (April 23, 2009)
First Craft Show (July 13, 2009)
Luna's Famous! (July 21, 2009)
Vote for my Journal to be in the Gift Guide (July 28, 2009)
Giveaway and Hippo Treasury (August 11, 2009)
Vatican city Photo (August 24, 2009)
Worldwide Moment (September 8, 2009)
My Cousin's Wedding (October 24, 2009)
10 Things I'm Liking and New Card (November 17, 2009)
Gift Guide Part I (December 11, 2009)
Christmas & Snowflake Journal (December 24, 2009)
YouTube & Tumblr (February 6, 2010)
World Nutella Day (February 5, 2010)

Good luck on the giveaway!

Tie Greeting Cards

Every year for Father's Day, I make my Dad a mini greeting card shaped as a tie. I think it's fun to play with the shapes of cards. Here are some of the tie greeting cards I've made: 

I've never listed one in my shop, but let me know if you like them so I know if I should make some to sell. Did you do anything special for Father's Day?

Photography & Updates

I'm working on two new journals now. One has red flowers and is red on the inside. It started off good, but I made a few mistakes so hopefully I can fix it up and sell it. I really like how it looks though.

I also started one with the same pig fabric here and it's going to use glittery pink paper on the inside. I love how it looks, but I messed up the pages on the inside and might have to resew the whole paper part. Maybe I can find something to do with the pages I messed up. I might wait until I get my own paper cutter (which is coming in the mail) to try to do it again.

It's been hard to really work on items with school. I'm okay with that because you can't always do both. I've been doing a lot of photography in my Photography class. In our next assignment, we're supposed to make photos out of the words isolation, naked, contained, encompassing, and open. I have a few ideas for some of them, but let me know if you have any ideas. :)

Here's some photos I took sofar. These weren't for an assignment, they were just random photos I took:

This is a tree outside of the building I live in. I was just walking out and took a photo. I liked how it looked with the snow everywhere, my campus looks so pretty when it snows.


This is a photo of some fake flowers I have in my room. Once I lightened up the picture, I really like how it turned out.

I've also been doing a lot in my art journal lately. I got a moleskine sketchbook instead of using one of the journals I made. I felt weird about not using a journal I made at first (since I sell journals and everything), but I was curious about the moleskine. I really like it and it seems like the pages can hold a lot, which is nice.I might do some blog posts of scans of entries I've been making in my journal (I haven't been able to get my scanner to work lately though). There's some journal pages you can look at from my previous journals in my flickr.

When I sell journals, I also put a little note with journaling ideas and tell buyers they can always scan in journal pages (if it's something they want to share) and I can post it on my blog. I've only sold a few actual journals, so nobody's done that yet, but I hope someday people do so I can share what other people do with their journals on here.

So I noticed nobody did my game when I tagged them from the last entry. If you want, you can do the game from the post below. I didn't think I'd find a post that could relate to my shop and blog, but it happened that I found a good photo to talk about and maybe you will too. :)