A photo gallery from today's Love the Skin You're In fashion show. 

On Wednesday, February 6, Lebanon Valley College hosted a special event fashion show called Love the Skin You're In. The models promoted creative alternatives to buying from corporate brands, as all of the clothing in the show was made from organic or natural fibers, many recycled from friends or thrift stores. Watch the backstage video for more!

Senior Music Education major Kelly Ehrenfeuchter likes to get creative in the kitchen when she is not student teaching. Her latest recipe is healthy, easy to make, and has a kick to it.

Thai Red Curry with vegetables over orzo

Ingredients:
-orzo pasta
-Thai Palace red curry paste
- olive oil
-fresh basil
-1 can coconut milk
-chili paste
-garlic paste (or fresh minced
garlic)
-assorted vegetables-choose at your
discretion (tomato, onion, carrots, green peppers, mushroom, bean sprouts, etc.)

Preparation:
1)      Prep vegetables by chopping into bite size pieces
2)      Begin boiling water for orzo
3)      Put 1 TBSP of olive oil into a wok until hot (2-3 minutes on high heat)
4)      Add vegetables for 2-3 minutes for stir-fry
5)      Remove from heat
6)      Once water is boiling, cook pasta for 8-10 minutes
7)      Drain pasta, and let cool
8)      Return wok to heat and add garlic paste, chili, and curry paste (2 TBSPS, 1 tsp, 2 TBSPS) or other amount pending on your preferences
9)      Add fresh basil and stir fry for 3-5 minutes (onion should be translucent)
10)   Add coconut milk and let simmer on low heat for 5-7 minutes.
11)   Remove from heat and add Orzo pasta to wok
12)   Stir and let set for 3-5 minutes
13)  Add black pepper or other desired spices

This Thursday, February 7, the Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery will be hosting an artist lecture from 5-7pm. The current gallery exhibition features the photography of Gordon Parks (shown left).  One of the first African American photographers to shoot for Life magazine in 1949, his photography deals with social issues of gang violence, poverty, and other phenomena occurring in his lifetime.

Artist and photographer Adger Cowans has worked with Gordon Parks in the past and will be hoting a lecture titled "A Personal View of Gordon Parks by Adger Cowans." The lecture will take place in Zimmerman Recital Hall and is free and open to the public. Please consider attending to learn about art and social issues, as seen through the lens of Gorden Parks.

Photos from the Poetry In Ink exhibition opening Thursday, January 31. 

Student-made prints will be on view now through April in Lynch. On Thursday, January 31, the Poetry In Ink exhibition opened to the public, and I spoke with senior Art major Dave Yasenchak about his role as an art gallery intern and Professor Williams about her creative students and their print-making tasks.

I was also able to speak to some students about their thought process, inspiration for, and execution of their work.

Despite that we are not attending school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is Lebanon Valley College forming a Quidditch team? Such a team is currently in the works.

To anyone familiar with the Harry Potter franchise, Quidditch is a familiar word. But for the Muggles who are not aware, Quidditch is a sport played on broomsticks in which witches and wizards must throw balls (quaffles) into hoops, beware not to get hit by certain other balls (bludgers), and catch a tiny golden ball with wings called the snitch. How can such a magical game be played on a college campus?

"Quidditch is actually an international sport. Many colleges around here have teams, such as Franklin & Marshall and Shippensburg," says LVC junior Carolyn Baldwin. In non-magical terms, she describes the game as a mix between rugby, tag, and dodgeball. "The players run around while holding a broom between their legs and score by getting the Quaffle through the hoops," Baldwin says.

Forming a Quidditch team is certainly a creative idea stemming from creative fiction, which would be like no other club sport on campus. Baldwin says she was surprised by the large amount of student interest generated at the team's first interest meeting on January 30.  

So what are the next steps towards forming a campus Quidditch team? Those interested will have to conduct more informational meetings and appeal for probationary club status. According to Baldwin, "We have had contact from national and regional representatives who are willing to help in any way possible and look forward to seeing us at competitions."

Want a snack or light meal that won't take long to make? Mini english muffin pizzas are fun to make, and you can be creative by adding to the recipe whatever you want. The mini pizzas I made today (shown left) are made with vegan ingredients (marinara sauce, soy cheese, prepackaged vegan chicken, red and green bell peppers, and onions). However, you can garnish your pizzas whichever way you would like. Just preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake the pizzas for 10 minutes. I sauteed some veggies with paprika seasoning so my pizzas took a little longer to prepare, but this quick and easy meal can be made to suit any taste.
Any leftover veggies or meat used to prepare the pizzas can be saved and reused with flour tortillas, rice, salsa, and guacamole to make fast fajitas.

One of the ways that students are able to both enhance and showcase their creative writing skills is by taking creative writing classes at Lebanon Valley College. In fact, Creative Writing has been added as a major and minor concentration within the English department. On campus, a creative writing club called The Draft regularly holds meetings to discuss ways to improve submitted student fiction and poetry in a workshop setting.  Junior Mike Cripps serves as the President of the club and is a Creative Writing major.

Cripps has a special interest in poetry, and he submits some of the poems he writes to online literary journals for publication. As common to all writers, Cripps receives some rejection letters. However, after recently submitting a poem titled “Song to Walt Whitman,” Cripps received word of acceptance. 

“When I found out that I was getting published, I was ecstatic,” Cripps said. “It’s been an amazing experience, and I couldn’t be happier.”

The poem’s first draft was formed during a creative writing class last spring at Lebanon Valley College, and has endured many changes and multiple drafts since. 

“It’s a poem about writing a poem,” Cripps explains. “It’s about comparisons between Annville and my hometown, and between my family and my inspirations for writing.” 

Note: If interested in submitting any creative writing to an online journal, I recommend exploring the website called Poets & Writers. In addition to a plethora of literary magazines and journals to browse, there are also writing contests and helpful tools for creative writers. 

Whether writing creative fiction or a professional research paper, we all stumble across writer's block. Whenever this occurs, it is always good to know that you will not suffer from writer's block forever. In fact, there are some ways that we may overcome this trouble, and some tips may work better than others. 

Some methods that I have to gain back inspiration:
1. Listen to certain songs that may motivate or inspire in some way. Many people like listening to music as they write, and I think that angry songs, sad songs, love songs, or upbeat songs affect our minds in different ways. Try it to see if it can affect the mood of your writing. 

2. Don't get discouraged. If having a moment where you feel as if you cannot write, instead think of all the things that you can do really well. If writing fiction, incorporate some of the things that interest you most in your narrative and see if it will spark creativity and lend you will have more motivation to write. 

3. Make sure that you are well-rested and well-fed before taking up a writing assignment. Thinking too much about sleep or food, or even all of the other assignments that you should be completing that day, makes writer's block even worse. Also, you can always take a break from the computer to eat or hang out with friends and see if your mind is refreshed by the time you sit down at the computer once again. 

4. If writing fiction, find inspiration from your favorite fiction! The more you read, the better you write. Well-written fiction can boost your creativity and enthusiasm for writing, which in turn can stomp out writer's block.