Today's Adventures
Jun. 19th, 2024 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday is Juneteenth. We have been celebrating it.
My partner Doug found this entry:
Delicious foods by Champaign-Urbana Black-owned businesses
A bunch of our favorite stores and eateries are listed here. :D
We found a tiny local event to visit. Fortunately it was held inside an air-conditioned building, because outside was sweltering. There were several black-owned businesses, not all of whom had business cards.
The first in the row was Mt. Zion Star, selling gift baskets. Most were meant for parties, birthdays, that sort of thing. But then there were the 4-piece goodie bags at $3 for kids, which included things like several pieces of sidewalk chalk, a rainbow popper fidget, bubble solution, and a stack of heart-shaped mini crayons that stuck together. A little slice of Terramagne! These are so much like the little bags of toys that I've seen my characters handing out during events like family gatherings or funerals. :D I also picked up a rainbow-handled diversity themed reusable bag.
Next was someone selling crochet, without a business card -- something she did mostly for fun, which is fine. Along with the usual hats, scarves, and scrunchies were a couple of large rainbow snakes that were adorable. They reminded me of Damballah. I found some rainbow snake crochet patterns if you want to make your own.
The beadworker didn't have a card either. She was doing all kinds of different beadwork including bracelets, necklaces, and really long ropes of beads. I picked out two things, both in African colors. The bracelet will become another necklace for our Hurricane Cock. (That's a craft rooster with real feathers, charmed Cuban-style to ward off violent weather.) The long rope will go somewhere in the fairy window. I want to get some Adinkra charms to string on it, maybe also crystals or bells or whatnot -- I've already found some charms online but need to do a more thorough search. Also we got to talking with the beadworker about our favorite African stores and restaurants in Champaign-Urbana.
Naj's Natural Tarot was set up for Tarot readings (long or short) and also does Reiki healing. It seemed pretty popular as there was always someone at the table getting a reading.
Mercury Bowen for Lake Land College had a diversity booth up with free swag. I picked up a couple of wooden ornaments (Black Fathers Matter & Emancipation Day) and a whole pile of stickers. I favored the slogans I already knew (Black Is Beautiful, You Be You I'll Be Me, Juneteenth, My Skin Color Is Not a Crime, and I Am Enough) but Legalize Melanin is new. One sticker was made by a design student: a fan of yellow solrads with the slogan We Rise by Lifting Others. \o/ And a pen, which I used to take notes on other business cards. They had a college fund for disadvantaged students, but sadly it was scantag only. If you're fundraising, options are good.
There were supposed to be food trucks, but the only food available consisted of donuts loaded with frosting or smoothie bowls all of which contained peanut sauce. :/ Seriously, if you're doing food at an event, try to have something that isn't full of major allergens. Peanut everything is just mean, especially with a fruit dish that does not normally contain peanut.
So we wound up looking elsewhere for lunch. We settled on Dunkin' Donuts because I wanted to try their croissant breakfast sandwiches, which are quite excellent. We got a few donut holes for dessert. I like being able to get a smaller, bite-sized dessert and also have a choice of multiple flavors.
While driving around, we saw a semitruck with spikes on the front wheels. Not the little decorative studs that you occasionally see, but very robust, full-size, at least six-inch-long offensive-defensive spikes like you'd see on a caravan truck in a road warrior situation. They're useful for attacking another vehicle's tires and for discouraging attacks against your tires. Front wheels only, it's more for offense than defense because the others are unprotected. But if you're not expecting a road raid, spikes are just trouble -- they can snag other vehicles, and forget driving anywhere with even a bit of brush near the road. Now a ramming grill, that's useful even outside of combat because it doubles as a brush grill and a frontal slide-under blocking bar. But the truck didn't have a ramming grill. No idea what the fuck the driver was thinking. I'm pretty sure that local-Earth gasoline raids are still just in Africa and parts of South and Central America.
After lunch, I decided to visit a thrift store since we were out early in the day and I need summer things. So we went to Goodwill. There I found:
* a plain navy T-shirt
* a tie-dye T-shirt in random splotches of lime, turquoise, and periwinkle
* beige shorts
* black shorts
* blue-gray shorts
* olive shorts (2 pairs)
* turquoise capris
* navi capris with a white seashell print
* red velour pants for winter
We went home for a while.
Eating out for supper sounded good. I checked, but couldn't find any black-owned restaurants in our county. We didn't really want to drive an hour to where there are some. :/ So we went out for Mexican food, which was quite good.
Then we did a bit of grocery shopping. I was delighted to find a nice watermelon. :D I want to try it in a smoothie. I got some black cherries too, and a few other things.
I had wanted to make a batch of red drink today. I've got the dried hibiscus. I may or may not have the time and energy to find a recipe and make the stuff.
It's been a good day overall.
EDIT 6/19/24 -- I've started making the red drink. :D This is the recipe I'm using as a starting point. I want to add some Orange Old Fashioned bitters and probably some lemon juice. I actually have the orange flower water. \o/
EDIT 6/19/24 -- The red drink is almost done. It still needs to finish cooling before adding the orange flower water and bitters, but already it's quite good. :D
EDIT 6/19/24 -- I finished the red drink! It's really delicious. The last few ingredients make it taste extra-juicy. The flavor is floral, fruity, and citrusy. It's meant to be sweet-tart so I didn't add too much sugar, and I put in some lemon juice to brighten it. Even at room temperature it's awesome.
My partner Doug found this entry:
Delicious foods by Champaign-Urbana Black-owned businesses
A bunch of our favorite stores and eateries are listed here. :D
We found a tiny local event to visit. Fortunately it was held inside an air-conditioned building, because outside was sweltering. There were several black-owned businesses, not all of whom had business cards.
The first in the row was Mt. Zion Star, selling gift baskets. Most were meant for parties, birthdays, that sort of thing. But then there were the 4-piece goodie bags at $3 for kids, which included things like several pieces of sidewalk chalk, a rainbow popper fidget, bubble solution, and a stack of heart-shaped mini crayons that stuck together. A little slice of Terramagne! These are so much like the little bags of toys that I've seen my characters handing out during events like family gatherings or funerals. :D I also picked up a rainbow-handled diversity themed reusable bag.
Next was someone selling crochet, without a business card -- something she did mostly for fun, which is fine. Along with the usual hats, scarves, and scrunchies were a couple of large rainbow snakes that were adorable. They reminded me of Damballah. I found some rainbow snake crochet patterns if you want to make your own.
The beadworker didn't have a card either. She was doing all kinds of different beadwork including bracelets, necklaces, and really long ropes of beads. I picked out two things, both in African colors. The bracelet will become another necklace for our Hurricane Cock. (That's a craft rooster with real feathers, charmed Cuban-style to ward off violent weather.) The long rope will go somewhere in the fairy window. I want to get some Adinkra charms to string on it, maybe also crystals or bells or whatnot -- I've already found some charms online but need to do a more thorough search. Also we got to talking with the beadworker about our favorite African stores and restaurants in Champaign-Urbana.
Naj's Natural Tarot was set up for Tarot readings (long or short) and also does Reiki healing. It seemed pretty popular as there was always someone at the table getting a reading.
Mercury Bowen for Lake Land College had a diversity booth up with free swag. I picked up a couple of wooden ornaments (Black Fathers Matter & Emancipation Day) and a whole pile of stickers. I favored the slogans I already knew (Black Is Beautiful, You Be You I'll Be Me, Juneteenth, My Skin Color Is Not a Crime, and I Am Enough) but Legalize Melanin is new. One sticker was made by a design student: a fan of yellow solrads with the slogan We Rise by Lifting Others. \o/ And a pen, which I used to take notes on other business cards. They had a college fund for disadvantaged students, but sadly it was scantag only. If you're fundraising, options are good.
There were supposed to be food trucks, but the only food available consisted of donuts loaded with frosting or smoothie bowls all of which contained peanut sauce. :/ Seriously, if you're doing food at an event, try to have something that isn't full of major allergens. Peanut everything is just mean, especially with a fruit dish that does not normally contain peanut.
So we wound up looking elsewhere for lunch. We settled on Dunkin' Donuts because I wanted to try their croissant breakfast sandwiches, which are quite excellent. We got a few donut holes for dessert. I like being able to get a smaller, bite-sized dessert and also have a choice of multiple flavors.
While driving around, we saw a semitruck with spikes on the front wheels. Not the little decorative studs that you occasionally see, but very robust, full-size, at least six-inch-long offensive-defensive spikes like you'd see on a caravan truck in a road warrior situation. They're useful for attacking another vehicle's tires and for discouraging attacks against your tires. Front wheels only, it's more for offense than defense because the others are unprotected. But if you're not expecting a road raid, spikes are just trouble -- they can snag other vehicles, and forget driving anywhere with even a bit of brush near the road. Now a ramming grill, that's useful even outside of combat because it doubles as a brush grill and a frontal slide-under blocking bar. But the truck didn't have a ramming grill. No idea what the fuck the driver was thinking. I'm pretty sure that local-Earth gasoline raids are still just in Africa and parts of South and Central America.
After lunch, I decided to visit a thrift store since we were out early in the day and I need summer things. So we went to Goodwill. There I found:
* a plain navy T-shirt
* a tie-dye T-shirt in random splotches of lime, turquoise, and periwinkle
* beige shorts
* black shorts
* blue-gray shorts
* olive shorts (2 pairs)
* turquoise capris
* navi capris with a white seashell print
* red velour pants for winter
We went home for a while.
Eating out for supper sounded good. I checked, but couldn't find any black-owned restaurants in our county. We didn't really want to drive an hour to where there are some. :/ So we went out for Mexican food, which was quite good.
Then we did a bit of grocery shopping. I was delighted to find a nice watermelon. :D I want to try it in a smoothie. I got some black cherries too, and a few other things.
I had wanted to make a batch of red drink today. I've got the dried hibiscus. I may or may not have the time and energy to find a recipe and make the stuff.
It's been a good day overall.
EDIT 6/19/24 -- I've started making the red drink. :D This is the recipe I'm using as a starting point. I want to add some Orange Old Fashioned bitters and probably some lemon juice. I actually have the orange flower water. \o/
EDIT 6/19/24 -- The red drink is almost done. It still needs to finish cooling before adding the orange flower water and bitters, but already it's quite good. :D
EDIT 6/19/24 -- I finished the red drink! It's really delicious. The last few ingredients make it taste extra-juicy. The flavor is floral, fruity, and citrusy. It's meant to be sweet-tart so I didn't add too much sugar, and I put in some lemon juice to brighten it. Even at room temperature it's awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-20 03:42 am (UTC)The goodie bags sound so cute though.
Yes ...
Date: 2024-06-20 10:34 am (UTC)I figure if I spread the idea of the goodie bags, more folks will try things like that.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2024-06-20 12:51 pm (UTC)It does make me want to try something like that myself (on the rare occasion that I vend at festivals). It reminds me of mystery bags my mom used to get me when I was a kid ♥
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2024-06-20 07:04 pm (UTC)These were in a translucent bag, so I could see inside pretty well; it might have been cellophane or netting. This increases the chance of people seeing things inside, like I did, and becoming interested on that basis.
Some further thoughts ...
* You could do one type of bag for all ages, in which case you'd need to make sure it contain no small parts; or you could do two, one for mouthing-age infants/toddlers and one for older children.
* These selections were nongendered and I'd recommend keeping that approach.
* The selections were very cleverly made from the kind of things you could find cheaply at a dollar store or party store, that could be bought in bulk then combined into mixed sets. The fidgets might have come from an online assortment; you can buy that stuff by the bucket.
* I'd call the sidewalk chalk and bubble solution excellent choices, especially for summer when kids will be outside a lot. There were about 4 pieces of chalk per bag, and you can get a bucket of 20-30 pieces for a few bucks. There were 2 bottles per bag; small bottles of bubble solution with a wand inside are often sold cheaply in packs of 10-12. In winter you might want to substitute indoor toys.
* There was one fidget-type item per bag. The bags with a popper sold out, and the later batch had the little snap-together heart crayons. I'd go for an assortment of fidgets so people have different options. Snap or coil bracelets are popular. Twist toys come in several styles, and stress balls in many more. Chewable toys are a great all-ages option. I'd stay away from the various gel-type fidgets because some aren't good in high temperatures and you don't necessarily know what environmental conditions will be.
* Other good possibilities include tops, finger puzzles, finger puppets, a string loop for cat's cradle, and miniature slinkies. Consider a bouncy ball, hackeysack, or odd-shaped ball. A few places still have metal jacks sets; the plastic ones don't work as well.
* If you have a regular business, definitely consider buying a bulk lot of toys or tools with your business name and its contact info printed on them -- lots of companies sell cheap but good swag for that purpose.
Also consider that if you choose all-season toys, you have a bag that can be stuck in a purse, suitcase, or glove compartment for use as needed -- a handy thing for parents, grandparents, teachers, or anyone else who works with kids. It doesn't have to be dedicated to event sales, it'd work just as well with an online business. Just the marketing varies a little.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2024-06-25 07:18 am (UTC)I'll definitely keep these in mind.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2024-06-25 07:43 am (UTC)