Maybe it's just my mugs, but whenever I have a hot drink, the mugs are always too hot to hold and I have to hold it by the handle which is awkward for me for some reason. 

So I made this little cosy for my mug.  Probably not ideal for people who drink coffee the normal way, but I use straws  

I already have some better stylistic ideas in mind for round two, I'll keep you posted!

I've been getting creative trying to find things to do with the super-cheap farmer's market eggplant and made this tonight...

Last week, I grilled eggplant and topped with pesto, then baked and it was delicious, but I made way too much, so I froze it (I was going out of town and knew it'd be a yucky mess by the time I got back if I just stuck it in the fridge) and tonight I thawed it out to see what I was working with.  It was too smushy for my taste, so I skinned it and dropped it in my food processor (that thing is the best $12 I've ever spent).  It made this really tasty concoction that I was tempted to make into some kind of panini but then I thought of pasta.



So I stuffed each shell with a little piece of mozzarella cheese and this eggplant pesto thing, then topped with a tomato sauce I made a couple days ago (nothing special) and baked to melt the cheese.  Easy and delicious!   Also very simple to make into a vegan dish -- the cheese made it more hearty and filling, but I think it'd be a very delicious cheeseless meal as well.

I'm new to crochet and have loved browsing through craftster for inspiration when the learning process was particularly painful!  This is the first project I've made without patterns or anything and I think it turned out kinda cute..There are certainly some things that could be modified to make it better, but I thought I'd share anyway.