Experiments in … Experimonth!

My friend, Erin, who left NC for IN a few years ago, is a pretty amazing lady.  She has a beautifully curious mind, an artist’s eye,  and such a generous heart.  Erin is a woman who experiments with life, as well.  This month she participated in a program called Experimonth, a program organized by the Museum of Life and Science here in Durham.  (This is Erin’s former employer.)  This month’s Experimonth theme was “Trade It Up”.  The idea was to encourage folks to give you something that you would then trade to another person for something they had on offer … and so on and so forth for the duration of the month.  Erin took it a step further by tacking on her own rule that everything traded had be to be something created by the giver.  The word created was given some freedom in this context.  Basically the item had to be made or crafted or explained or verbalized or physically enacted, etc. for Erin, and likewise she would trade this craft/experience/activity/whatever to the next recipient in the same manner. 

Here’s what I sent Erin:

I went a little overboard due to the fact I’ve not been a good penpal since Erin moved away.  I wanted her to be able to actually keep some of what I sent for herself.  So, I gave her the option of choosing what she kept and what she traded.  Enclosed in the package I sent her were some peanut butter bacon cookies (ala Joy the Baker) with recipe card, a pair of handmade mother of pearl earrings, a personally blended tin of herbal tea, and a card made out of a photo that I took during my visit to Greenville earlier this year.   I also got crafty with the packaging by wrapping various yarns around aluminum cans and jelly jars for some added pizzazz.  

The earrings were traded. 

This is what I was traded in return:

It’s a beautifully rendered recipe for homemade "world class" macaroni and cheese.  Delicious!  And I love the artfully drawn recipe image.  I haven’t made this yet, as mac + cheese seems more appealing in cooler weather to me, but I look forward to whipping up a bowl of the creamy goodness once Summer begins to fade into Autumn. 

Thanks, Erin!  And thanks to the Experimonth participant who contributed this recipe.  I’m sure to enjoy it!

Hoping all your experiments are blissful ...

xoxo,

Melanie