H marks the spot .

2010-07-30T11:33:00.000-04:00

I just had an email that kickboxing is definitely ON for today (I’m not lying, I swear!!!)

Lately, I have not been feeling the thrill of making food in the kitchen, it’s not bringing me much happiness (is it the failed yogurt attempt that’s thrown me? All those damn dishes that accumulate?) so I feel like this weekend will be about easy kitchen attempts. Or maybe stuff that the kids can help me with, recipes that are simple and non-fail, kid-friendly ones.

I’m also feeling disconnected with house projects that bring me happiness and comfort and a sense of accomplishment. So I think I’ll be spending more time working on projects with the lads. We’ve been meaning to make that checkerboard all month and they’ve both wanted to do some sewing with me. I have such an overwhelming sense of urgency to clean this or organize that, I’m not doing well with balancing things.

So this weekend I’m all about balancing, not juggling, but balancing. And I want to keep up with getting the kids involved with chores. Dashiell’s been doing well feeding Monte, but half the time needs reminders – which is fine – but I think getting their involvement (while sometimes taking more time in the short term) in household stuff is supergood for everyone involved. May make them a bit less selfish, if they are a part of our family team. And keeping up with family meeting on Sunday night as well. Huxley’s getting used to the idea of using that time as a forum to air his frustration and share his ideas. YEAH!!! It’s working!!!

2009-03-17T11:20:00.001-04:00

Red Gate Farm

If we had a farm, it would be cool to have one like this. But, with luck, our mini-homestead will at least have some chickens NEXT spring (buff orpingtons, anyone?)

2009-02-11T17:38:00.002-05:00

Thrifty use of an ol' t-shirt

It's so easy to play around with t-shirts, we all have extras so they're readily available. Look at 'Swamp Yankees...' t-shirt reconstruction into lovely tank tops and a comfy skirt.

2009-01-16T14:13:00.002-05:00

Winter inside Western Massachusetts

Smith College Botanical Greenhouses: a lovely geranium blossom

Mass MoCA Video Installation

Mass MoCA Sol through a Window

2009-01-13T17:53:00.003-05:00

Kids Manners Matter (in the NYTimes)

The idea of someone creating guidelines and then telling me where my child's developmental social skills should be are about as welcome as physical milestones my pediatrician gives me, or like an ob/gyn telling me how to give birth.

BUT... Manners are super important to help communication between individuals and to get through conflicts, to resolve issues and to move forward together. PLUS... these are a wonderful couple of quotes that became an epiphany for understanding my children just a 'little' more:

" “Every infant is born adorable but selfish and the center of the universe,” she replied. It’s a parent’s job to teach that “there are other people, and other people have feelings.”...

But that first big counterintuitive lesson — that there are other people out there whose feelings must be considered — affects a child’s most basic moral development. For a child, as for an adult, manners represent a strategy for getting along in life, but also a successful intellectual engagement with the business of being human. "

AND THEN... tonight my older son, the gentler of the two lashed out repeatedly and finally, he and I got to the point where I could help him through by understanding it's ok to be mad, but not ok to hit because you're mad. That by hurting someone else he's gone beyond our acceptable boundaries.

Trying to balance how to parent a child feels, sometimes, like you're on a tenuously constructed bridge that could bow one way or another or that could be completely steady, depending on your choice of actions. Some of the article's insights make me feel like I can take on my childrens' episodes with a slightly firmer footing now. And teach them, gently but firmly (and consistently) how to be better with how they treat others.

2009-01-08T09:06:00.001-05:00

Shiney printer giveaway

Mommycoddle is giving away a printer this week - but again, I'm going to have to request no one else leave a comment on her blog as that would decrease my chances of receiving it.

Thanks! ~H

2008-12-08T10:31:00.003-05:00

Recycling is one very small part of the fix

The market for recycled paper, plastic, etc. is drying up in this economy of ours. We all need to begin reexamining not just how much money we spend (or don't spend), but how our consumption adds to the pile up of recycled materials that are now destined for landfills.

--Reuse what you can, whenever you can, as many times as you can.

--Buy items with minimal packaging.

*Leave a comment on the comment cards and/or write to manufacturers demand minimal packaging from your stores (Amazon is helping here, with 'Frustration-Free Packaging"...) Mum bought us a box of frozen Birds Nests from Trader Joes a couple months ago and I was horrified to find FOUR layers of packaging before we got to the actual food!!! HORRIFIED!

--Buy bulk when you can and reuse the bulk bags (or make your own). When you get home, repackage those items in reused jars. It makes storage easier and you can see how much of something you have left.

--Buy local: CSAs pick it, then give it to you (some dollars are passed in the process), but that sort of exchange couldn't be less complicated and less packaged. This, it turns out is even better since you can actually view, touch, and smell what you're about to take home.

--But at 2nd hand, consignment shops or have exchanges with friends, family, neighborhoods. Generally this can help out a local charity too, if you buy at a hospice shop. AND it's nice to chat with the retired ladies who work there...

2008-12-03T10:58:00.001-05:00

Our first snow

It's been a few days since this happened, but it was on the weekend, so the lads and I enjoyed it together. Until the snow turned to sleet (the really cold kind that will sting the cheeks of a sensitive four year old) and we had to leave the park to return home to some soothing oatmeal.

2008-11-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

What next?

So much community energy went into this election's win by Obama. What next?

The wave of enthusiasm and sense of hope that got him in office, needs to stay alive and move foward via community organization. Yes, Obama needs to stick to the ideals that got him elected. (I'm sure some of the promises will be broken, this is, after all, politics.) But he is just one man in a country full of millions of people who need to continue the responsibility of creating the type of world, country, state, city or town, and neighborhood that they believe in and support as much as they supported the ideals of this stranger from Illinois.

We all need to keep the spirit of involvement alive and not let the struggle cease merely because the race to the President's office has been called. Keep attending town meetings; play, eat and meet neighbors at a summer block party; find a local cause and devote a few hours a week to it and involve your kids; choose something you're good at and share it with others who could use that skill or find solace in your talents; bring back the 'smile' and say 'Good morning' as you pass a stranger on the street. Sometimes it's the little acts like this that can really change somebody's day around and make the proverbial difference.

And once we keep up with this community involvement, well, let's face it, it's rather difficult to shake. It brings a sense of belonging that has been erased from so many communities by the selfish 'I deserve' attitudes that have prevailed in the past. Instead of the American demands of 'I deserve to have...' from the manifest destiny that has been instilled in generations of us, it can be so easy to turn around and say 'I deserve to give...' because we do have so much to give, to offer everyone around us.

And it doesn't have to be by handing a check over to a charity or organization before the tax year comes to an end. For so long, that has been viewed as the way to give. But offer up some of your time by reprioritizing a little. If you take a walk around your neighborhood two times a week, take a bag and pick up trash along the way. It would only take a few extra minutes and when others see how you are contributing it helps to create a discussion and encourages other to follow that path. Choose a talent that you have and run with it. Good at cooking or baking? Help out at a food kitchen once a month. Good at sewing? Mend clothes in the 50 cent bin at the local hospice shop and then take them to a local shelter. What was once good can be fixed to look right again and given new life on someone who could use a warm jacket. Or embroider messages onto fallen autumn leaves and reattach them to trees to get a discussion going on a topic important to you.

Our country is at a historic place right now that has been witnessed all over the world and back again. Obama wants to show the world that America is a place that doesn't demand respect but one that is willing to earn it by taking part in discussions and not yelling out ultimatums. As individual citizens, we have to show that we are a part of that quilt that is a proud America where we all pitch in, not just to have a strong economy and keep the dollar going by buying even more 'stuff' that we can't afford, but to have a strong community at ALL levels by engaging ourselves in our environments. A strong community is what we can all afford with a little effort, that same effort that helped our new President Elect earn his place in the White House.

2008-11-10T10:30:00.004-05:00

Root Cellars/Bake Sales/Bike Sharing/Crank It Technology

New York Times' article on Root Cellars... maybe one day we'll get to that stage at our house. The closest we get is a bag of garlic that gets us through until March!

Interesting thoughts on Bake Sales for fundraisers - perhaps too many people were using the shortcut, cheating, horrible ingrediented boxed cake and cookie mixes...

But you can always work off those calories getting over to Barcelona and trying out their bike sharing program!

Or turn a dial for a minute for 45 minutes of mP3 playing.

2008-11-08T15:21:00.002-05:00

Outting

We drove out to Graves Farm, for our second visit ever and after passing a small group involved in an Audobon tour, we had the sanctuary to ourselves. And the peepers that are still peeping. And the efts that are still emerging from the fallen leaves when the drips of rain begin to seep through the branches. Then there were the crows and chickadees. The beaver (but, can I really count those? They were sleeping in their mud huts.) The fungi that was still growing, in smaller patches, but not quite done for the season. AND that Ravenel's stinkhorn that was growing in the middle of a dying tree stump! P-U!

What a lovely outting!

2008-11-04T22:26:00.002-05:00

Go Voting

Sorry Dashiell... When Daddy and I took you and Huxley to the polls this morning to experience the election as a family, we didn't say we were 'Going boating'.

We said we were 'Going voting.'

2008-10-31T11:10:00.003-04:00

Giant Lego Man Discovery

Mysterious lego man washes up on UK beach... Guerilla art lives on!

Read more at the BBC.

2008-10-28T12:54:00.003-04:00

Silent Photos

I was looking through last season's photos and this one...

...reminded me how limiting photographs can be.

A still image can't relay to the viewer the tangy odor of the decaying apples on the grass. You don't see the mosquitoes that we were constantly swatting at. You can't hear the giggles and my requests to 'Smile' and 'Look over here!' while I try to get a good picture of both kids (and no blinking). You can't tell that we snuck a few berries off of the raspberry bushes. Or that we were about to pack-up and visit the sheep just down the road.

This is just a 'snapshot' of the moment, but the stories before, during and after swirl around the image from our memories.

2008-10-24T15:53:00.003-04:00

Wish Jar

Inspirational! Funny! Helpful! Ah, cute baby!
And one of her brilliant tomes:

2008-10-24T11:05:00.002-04:00

Margaret Atwood's Op/Ed in NYT

Indeed, thinking that the global economic mess is only about the 'others' out there and that we can't examine our own lives with a more critical lens is a recipe to continue down the foolish path of always living with debt.

'A Matter of Life or Debt' is just a one page article, nothing verbose, just concise and thought provoking.

2008-10-24T10:15:00.002-04:00

Weekly Walk to the Library

Past walks in my last two months have included:
- An unnecessary sighting of a librarian's butt crack (I averted my eyes VERY quickly);
- Discovering Natural Life magazine which has been around since 1976 (I have some backreading to get on with);
- Too many books on the New Non-Fiction shelf to mention having to do with knitting, crocheting and food;
- Picking up many ordered music cds and the occasional dvd.

This Week's Walk to the Library:
I ordered a few items from other Western Mass. libraries and this week came home with...
- Entourage, season 4 (we cheated and rented the first disc from our local video store, Pleasant Street Video) Drama and Ari are the highlights of the show - well, and Mrs. Ari too!
- For the Kids cd
- For the Kids Too! cd (I started with For the Kids Three! and, with the exception of song #18 talking about "I lacerate your throat and kick your face in half", it has become a staple in our household)
- Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith (this should have been my book, it seeps with all that I strive to create, accomplish and instill in anyone who would be willing to listen to my crazy ideas)

2008-10-24T10:06:00.004-04:00

Get out!

No child left inside has passed!

Read more about their efforts at the National Wildlife Foundation about getting more children (and parents) to re-connect with nature/the outdoors/their natural environment in a place where learning comes naturally, the senses are heightened and imagination is open to so much more than Super Mario Brothers.

2008-08-14T22:27:00.002-04:00

Weekly Walk to the Library

Every week I meander on over to a local public library, usually at my lunch hour. I use the library (on occasion, I might say abuse) system in Western Mass. I check out: books (mostly non-fiction), movies, tv shows on dvd and music. I read the magazines there and I'm convinced the librarians think I'm slightly 'off' mentally.

I have been going for so long, I feel it's time to chronicle my visits. This way, I can remember what I flipped through or checked out; read a chapter of or (gasp!) finished! So here it goes:

Returned:
Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery by David H. Albert. A decent book, although he's rather self-indulgent and too pithy for me on several occasions. His 'voice' can easily take over with his odd little notes, as if he were writing to his cousin Bill in Syracuse. I had to return it because hearing how AWFUL schools are was making me severely depressed since my older lad will start in kindergarten next September.
Sew What! Fleece: Really, I didn't like any of the patterns they had in there. Sew What! Skirts was much more inspirational to look at and read. Plus, I'm beginning to wonder exactly how healthy fleece really is - we are wrapping our babies and our bodies in modified plastic... Just a thought.

Picked Up:
Elbow cds: Cast of Thousands & The Seldom Seen Kid. I have yet to listen to the former, but the latter was lovely to hear when I was stuck in traffic and was ultimately late picking up my lads in preschool. Richard Hawley's voice is just a thrill to listen to. Purrrr... However, his lovely voice could NOT stop me from wishing there was a full explanation of some of their lyrics. Although I do get the lyrics of Mirrorball - it's about love. And The Fix is pretty straightforward and it would make a great film with that English actor who was in that movie with Julianne Moore about the near future where babies aren't born anymore. Yeah, that film.
Madmen, Season One on dvd: So many accolades, including a referral from my brother a few months ago when we talked on the phone.

New Non-Fiction Arrivals: None worthy of writing about. Sob...

While I Was There: FINALLY, I looked through People magazine's Brad & Angie's family photos. Can't say that I was as blown away as the hype might have built up for us consumers. Glad I didn't spend $4.95 on that! Checked out the cover of Cooks Illustrated and we had fish last night and their cover recipe would have been mightily handy yesterday when I was trying to figure it all out. No walk-in loan movies worthy of 1 1/2 hours of my time.

Weather for the Walk:
Just the most perfect early autumn afternoon you could ask for in New England! Even the mosquitoes took a break from sucking my blood so I could clear my head while I walked over.

I Walked In: The Naot sandals I bought a year or two ago. I found them yesterday when I was looking under my bed. It's like having new shoes all over again. Until a 10 o'clock meeting that I was in when I discovered I hadn't been wearing them because the cork soles were falling apart. Ah well.

2008-08-05T09:23:00.000-04:00

Blueberry Scones

Some mighty delicious blueberry scones, with fresh Hadley blueberries, topped with that crunchy and chunky sugar, and tasted JUST how I wanted them to taste!

Appreciative faces - With a drip of blueberry juice that his chin caught.

With a purple tongue!

2008-06-19T21:25:00.003-04:00

Mix Tape Zine & Whip Up

I'm so excited to get another package from Australia! I entered a Whip Up sign up and hey, presto was randomly chosen to receive 4 past issues of MixTapeZine! I followed the link to the Mix Tape blog only to discover they were giving away some local Aussie music, electronic style - osh10.

I signed up for that and lo, the kind peeps at MixTape emailed me a congratulatory note saying the cd would be sent to this hemisphere.

Thanks for the neat stuff, I can't wait to receive it and carve out some time to discover something new.

2008-06-12T10:49:00.000-04:00

Learning to skateboard from your big brother

2008-06-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

Homemade birthday card

To: Grandad / Love: Jackson
Doesn't this look like a great coat-of-arms? And yes, my dad (Jackson's grandad) is rather handy with tools.

2008-06-11T08:32:00.000-04:00

Hoggin' the strawberries

Our garden's first strawberries were deemed ripe enough by the little ones to eat. But with strawberries and kids, there's no time to dally, so I couldn't snap a pic of the bounty (2 small, pink strawberries). The next best thing was to take a pic of a newly sewn strawberry that the kids watched me make with awe. Huxley wanted to help, while Dashiell played with the filler fluff. Then it was fed to a seven inch cow who likes strawberries.

2008-06-10T11:10:00.001-04:00

Makin' it

Lately my days away from work have sent me into unchartered territories, swimming into the oceans of assorted flours and dipping my toes into tide pools of Active Dry Yeast. So far I've made two loads of pizza dough and made a Cracked Wheat Honey Bread (it made two loaves WHICH both got finished up before molding!), both from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.

I thought I might have let the yeast rise too quickly with the bread and I waited too long before I took the loaves out of the pans. I mis-read the instructions and I thought I had to wait an hour for the bread to cook before removing it from the pans. But you take the bread OUT of the pans first and THEN let it sit for an hour before cutting into it, slathering it with butter and strawberry/rhubarb jam and eating it. So the outside of the loaves were soggy.

No fear! Sunlight cures all and after 45 minutes of sitting on a sunny windowledge and some turning, they were crunchy loaves all over. There was also the issue of testing the bread to find out if it was done. Tap them. If they sound hollow, return them to the oven, but if they sound, I don't know, full (?) they're ready. But I was tapping the tin they were in, not realizing I should be tapping the underside of the bread. I mean, if you're not supposed to take the loaves out of the pan for an hour, how can you tap the actual bread?! Multi-tasking mistakes!

That's what I get for trying to make bread, clean laundry, prep for my stepsons' arrival, eat lunch, listen to my Harry Potter tapes, etc. all at once!

***Tip for letting yeasted thingies rise (from the very same book as mentioned above): Cover the bowl with a dishtowel and put it in your car to rise.
1. It leaves your kitchen counters clear for other cooking projects.
2. It seems to be the perfect temperature for rising in the alloted time.
3. It makes your car smell yummy.

2008-06-09T10:34:00.006-04:00

Spring semester's end

As the spring semester closes around our home, summer begins to slowly yawp open, until POP there are two more kids around!!!

Cameron, 17, and Jackson, 13, arrived last week and there's always plenty of house-prepping and family planning (which I'm sure is NOT the correct term to use) and budget revising to go over. But we did it and even cleared out a few more basement boxes, the contents which, have since been delivered to various local charities.

Now that we have passed through that tunnel, we're back out on the other side of light. Lots to do, people to visit with and house projects to complete, but it's all together as a full family again. Pics to follow and posts too. I hope!

2008-04-27T16:49:00.002-04:00

Busy April!

Between spring weekend at my weekend and the general, all-around end-of-the-semester for our family, this yummy springtime delight of flowering plants, shrubs and trees and planting seeds is having to vie for our time against: playing at the parks; extended pick up at preschool when the kids want to keep playing on the swings; barbecuing; and spring cleaning - oh and work!

My participation in the 30 day macro challenge has definitely petered out. I have been taking more pictures and I have learned more on the first two weeks of the challenge about macro digital photography than I had since I started using a digital camera (Sony Mavica with a floppy disk back in 2001). And, honestly, I lasted longer than I thought I would!

Still, the business in and around our home and our community has been a fun, busy. The farmers market begins next week and we ate the first round of foodstuffs out of our backgarden: asparagus and chives! Delish!

2008-04-17T10:40:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day Uh, What?

Ice cream was requested and delivered.

2008-04-17T10:39:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day ? (I've lost track, I didn't think I'd lose track til the 20's and we're only in the teens!)

Brothers in ears

2008-04-17T10:37:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 16 (missed a few days - oops!)

Future amber

Lost limb

Forest bits

2008-04-14T13:13:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 14

An unexpected sunny day means one thing: Sandbox!

2008-04-14T11:22:00.002-04:00

Forest children in the WSJ

Every now and again I stumble across a Wall Street Journal and even more infrequently they have a thoroughly unexpected article that I connect with. Behold today's find: German Tots Learn To Answer the Call of Nature

The accompanying photo journal - especially the beautifully made mushroom (pic #10) - is inspiring!

2008-04-11T09:57:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 13 (2 days early)

X

2008-04-11T09:55:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 12 (1 day early)

Fingers from 3 of our hands.

Macro sure can capture the details.

2008-04-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 11

My 2 year old has a little blond mustache!

2008-04-10T08:43:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 9 (Redo!)
The painting close-up looks better at this angle, I think

2008-04-10T08:40:00.001-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 10

Through the shiny funnel.
Inspired by this photo courtesy of zooziis: Day 7

Dashiell helps out by transferring the turtle beans from the bag to the storage jar. Thanks kiddo!

2008-04-10T08:39:00.001-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 9 (Catching up)

Close up of beautiful painting... Notice the brush strokes, such command of the medium!

2008-04-10T08:37:00.001-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 8 (2nd attempt)

2008-04-09T17:30:00.002-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 8

Finally! Some color in the garden - we must live in New England!

2008-04-07T09:14:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 7

Under the oven's hood - uh, yuck.

2008-04-07T09:12:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 6

A late outting on a rather chilly spring evening. He had a tight clutch on his bowl of pretzels!

2008-04-07T09:10:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day 5

We've been eating grapefruit practically every day - even my 2 year old!!! 79 cent each at Trader Joes and they are always delicious and super juicy!

2008-04-05T14:12:00.002-04:00

Studio in a box

Strobist has a super-fantastic tutorial for a homemade macro studio in a box. Check it out!

2008-04-04T12:49:00.000-04:00

30 Day Marco Challenge: Day Four

One of four acquired birds from a tag sale last summer.

2008-04-03T20:48:00.003-04:00

Cute books

On ebay is a sweet collection of books and fabrics lurking under the name of 'Simply Japanese Bead Books', the three titles below contain some lovely images and designs... sigh After you click on a link, scroll down to see some of the books contents.

Adult Couture Stylish Dress Book It's cute stuff, but I wouldn't quite put it in the 'couture' category.

Design College for Kids 365 (adorable embroidery)

Everyday Handmade Clothes I can't quite tell if the title refers to what a gal might wear on a daily basis or if you could handmake these everyday.

2008-04-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day Three

Dashiell can sometimes be a 'little' mercurial. He joined the 2 year old club on Sunday! (Yikes!!!)

2008-04-03T10:04:00.001-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day Two

Someone turned 4 on Wednesday!

2008-04-01T09:43:00.000-04:00

30 Day Macro Challenge: Day One

I couldn't decide which one to post, so both are going up. I hope to gain discipline as the month goes on.

2008-03-31T10:00:00.003-04:00

30 Day Photography Challenge

Orange flower just announced a 30 day challenge using the MACRO feature of your camera. The dreaded tulip setting that instills fear into my ability to take an unshakey, unblurry image! Perhaps, over the course of 30 days, something recognizable will evolve.

This is kind of exciting!

2008-03-29T21:21:00.002-04:00

Mini Swap 3: Outgoing to Australia!

At this point in the process, with everything together (except for the candy which was purchased the day I sent out the package) I had NO interest in taking pictures of what I was sending out beyond something that was for nothing more documenting I had sewn something. The pics are lousy, one is sideways. I don't care, the package is finally OUT and has been for a while now. I hope it gets to Australia a-ok and I hope the bag fits Lily and that she likes strawberries! And Jude, if the Boston Baked Beans turn out to be absolutely awful, my apologies. Boston is so close, it seemed like I had to send them along. And the cow tales was something I'd never heard of before, but it turns out it was made in America, so why not! I hope the maple candy (made locally, about 20 miles away) made it without melting into a mass of goo.

So, when do we all start Mini Swap 4?!

2008-03-29T21:11:00.002-04:00

Mini Swap 3: Incoming from Australia!

Lily and Jude from Australia sent Huxley a marvelous package with a robot/outer space theme: a handmade robot, a Lego set complete with robot and Lego guy, space puzzle and space sticker book. The chocolate bilbies and other sweets might not have gone perfectly with the outer space theme, but we are easy to forgive when offered chocolate as a bribe.
Thanks molly coddle for putting together a successful mini swap for our kids!
Thanks to Lily and Jude for such a thoughtful package at such a busy time of year (and for being patient with our package being so darned late)/
Thanks to Jesica for looking at the other participants in the swap list and finding me! It has been great catching up on the last (gulp) ten years.

Some pics of Huxley enjoying his swap package (and Dashiell got to hold the precious robot too, though not for long.)

2008-03-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

When Pneumonia Keeps You Indoors

When you're stuck inside with pneumonia even though there's fresh snow outside, you have to recreate the inner environment. So the tent came out for two days of renewed fun!

2008-03-04T14:21:00.002-05:00

Lasagna - kid style!

Instead of making an uber vegetarian lasagna with a fancy ricotta chees mix, zukes, peppers, etc. We kept it very simple: noodles, ricotta, mozarella and sauce. Making it simple, means making it easy - so that's what we did. Dashiell tried to complicate it by stirring the finished product, but after a few swipes, I decided to discourage it.
It turned out delicious!

2008-01-31T12:01:00.000-05:00

January 2008 Music Wrap Up

New Music to Love
(and perhaps I can hook up some YouTube videos to this soon...)

Ice Cream by Muscles
South America by Shout Out Louds
Alex Boom Selector by Velella Velella
Myriad Harbor by The New Pornographers
Escape City Scrapers or Cinch Ring by Mono in VCF (reminiscent of Sky Cries Mary)
My Little Brother Just Discovered Rock & Roll by Art Brut (Huxley requests this song when his diaper is being changed so he can sing along)
Heart It Races by Dr. Dog (doing !!! much better and not half as annoying as when !!! sing/screeches it)
Sunrise or 2080 by Yeasayer

Oldies but goodies

Love Comes Quickly by Pet Shop Boys
Separate Ways by Journey
Hoover Dam by Sugar
Brimful of Asha by Cornershop
Golden Years by Bowie, D.
Everything Counts by Depeche Mode (although, anything by D. Mode counts)
Groove is in the Heart by Dee-Lite

2008-01-31T11:52:00.000-05:00

Hi Jesica!
Wonderful to reconnect with a long lost friend who ends up being so (relatively) close geographically! Here's a pic of our family from two weeks ago when there was a sunny, non-snowy day... ~H

2008-01-31T11:49:00.001-05:00

2008-01-28T17:19:00.000-05:00

Frankenchiladas

I finally did it! Frankenchiladas!

I took a very dull looking Martha Stewart enchilada recipe and combined it with an over-the-top-too-healthy sounding Mothering magazine enchilada recipe (from the web) to create a stunning debut, never-before-tasted (uh, to my knowledge) sweet potato & black bean enchilada.

And it�s even made BETTER with sour cream and fresh homemade salsa.

History & Anticipation:
As I watched the time tick down to the end of its time in the over, I kept saying to my husband, I haven�t made these before and I can�t be responsible for how they taste. Granted it smelled delicious, but warmed up enchilada sauce will do that to a kitchen. The last time I made enchiladas, that I can recall, was to get a Girl Scout cooking badge. In 6th grade. I think I�m in 33rd grade now (but I stopped attending classes some time ago).

Filling:
I cooked up some cubed sweet potato and chopped onions together in olive oil, garlic and smashed cumin seeds. Once the sweet potato was soft (and I might have added some water to steam them) I added enough homemade black beans to look pretty and so we could taste them. Once this whole thing had cooled off, I added shredded Monterey Jack cheese (because you don�t want it melting YET.)

Fill �er up & Throw �em together!:
I used corn tortillas and not the whole wheat flatbread suggested by Mothering.
I heated up our cast iron skillet and put down two corn tortillas. (If you don�t do this step, you�re screwed because the tortillas will prove difficult to wrap and fold, they will crack, fall apart and generally teach you a lesson for being impatient and skipping this essential step. So, put those two tortillas down on the hot skillet and dip your fingers in a cup of water. I know, sounds silly.) You�re not washing your hands with this step, what you are doing is flicking water onto the tortillas and once you�ve done that, you flip them over and flick water on the OTHER side as well. Turn off the skillet and remove the tortillas once they are soft and supple and ready to roll. Literally.
Dribble some enchilada sauce on the bottom of the serving dish. Whoa! Not too much, just enough to cover it lightly so it won�t all stick to the dish;
I use a clean tea cloth at this point, �cause these suckers are HOT!
I put one in a tea cloth and cup that tea cloth (without pain since the tea cloth is taking the heat at this point) and spoon in the sweet potato-onion-black bean-shredded jack combination;
You�ll have to decide for yourself is too much because it will all go to hell if you�ve put too much in and you�ll have to pick up the mess;
Roll the two sides of the tortilla around the sweet potato-onion-black bean-shredded jack combination;
Carefully place this little enchilada with the matching edges face down in the dish;
Continue until you run out of tortillas, sweet potato-onion-black bean-shredded jack combination or patience;

Top it off:
Once you have a full dish (or nearly full, or absolutely overflowing dish) try to evenly distribute the remaining enchilada sauce over the stuffed tortillas.
Sprinkle the remaining Monterey Jack cheese over it all as well. And look, if you don�t have Jack, Cheddar should work well too. I had to do that when I made too much sweet potato-onion-black bean-shredded jack filling and I had to go on to dish #2 and cheese option #2 as it�s all we had in the house (I lie, we had sliced Swiss cheese, but I just can�t see combining so-called Mexican food with sort-of European cheese. There�s already too much fusion food in the world!)

Heat it up:
Cook it in an over, I don�t know maybe around 350, that�s always a pretty safe bet for cooking or baking most things. Definitely no lower, maybe higher. Maybe for 40 minutes-ish. Just check on it after that so it doesn�t burn.

Optional:
I bought two Pablano petters to roast and add, in strips, to the dish. But I ran out of energy and patience, quite frankly. One can only give so much of oneself to an entirely new dish. Also, the sour cream added a lovely accent. Avocadoes? Those would be yummy too, but alas, we were out of this household essential.

The beginning of the Salsa Saga:
And fresh, homemade salsa. We make this at least once a week and god � I don�t know how I�d live without it and I don�t know how long I lived without it before I met Michael, my half-Mexican husband. He and his mother have both tutored me on how they make it and I have since taken over the salsa making in the house. The recipe varies and, oh. This will have to be an entirely different post. This one is already long and I refuse to take away from it with �Salsa Talk�.

2008-01-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

Making winter mornings delicious

Oatmeal – inspired by Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Book

Cut up walnuts and pecans and dry roast ‘em in a pan (sauce or skillet) with the whole oats (walnuts are the new snack of choice this week);

Put to one side and top it with a medium sprinkle of dried cinnamon and ginger and a small sprinkle of dried cardamum (sp);
Bring a combination of water and milk to a soft boil, then add in the nuts ‘n oats 'n spices;
Throw in some dried cranberries for color (ok, ok, and cause you like them);
Drop in some of those large coconut flakes that you finally found on the bottom shelf at the store because they add an extra layer of creaminess and another to-die-for texture that nuts, oats and cranberries just can’t live up to;

Stir and stir until the liquids are absorbed, then turn off the heat.

I didn’t mention this before, but while all this is going on, I’ve already made the coffee and had a huge mug of spearmint tea. (All of my mornings start with a mug of tea big enough to drown a mouse in, so I can start my day properly hydrated. Sorry Mr. Mouse.)

And I’ve been sipping on the piping hot coffee, that I supplemented with a large dose of half ‘n half, while I stir and stir. Because stirring only takes on hand, leaving the other hand free to bring the cup of coffee up from the counter and to my mouth.

So, what are you waiting for?!? Put the toasted-berried-coconuted oatmeal in a big bowl, find a spoon and eat!

Optional: you could add maple syrup or brown sugar, etc. etc. but I think it’s perfect the way it is and am pretty much telling you right now that you shouldn’t destroy its perfection with your selfish tendencies for overly sweet breakfasts.

2007-11-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

Advent Calendar

My mum made an advent calendar out of green felt that she attached 24 pieces of yarn to. Each piece of yarn had a hershey's kiss attached to it. One day=one piece of candy. I think it's a very cute idea, but I don't want my kids to count down with a piece of candy each day, especially since they're both still small. Whip Up's collection of advent tutorials got me thinking of ways to entertain my children each day of December and to build up the anticipation of opening an something new each day. And as we don't really buy much of anything for the Christmas holidays, opening up a little something each day is a sweet way to extend the holiday season.

But I'm noticing we're now at the end of November; uh, December starts on Saturday and it's already Wednesday! So thank you Whip Up for putting together a list of things to choose from.

Here's what I think we'll be going with this year.

But what sorts of trinkets could go into the daily advents? My three year old is still being weaned off of his limited Halloween candy, so I'd rather steer him clear of another sweet stash! Here's my brilliant idea: printing up pictures of our family that he hasn't seen yet and get an empty photo album to fill with autumn pictures for each day of the advent.

He loves looking at pictures of the family and reminiscing about our days together. Dashiell loves to name each person or thing in the pictures as his spoken vocabulary is increasing exponentially each day.

Although I love doing origami (I remember taking an origami folding class when I was a really little kid at the Mercer Island library and making Halloween origami fish head costumes for friends in high school), I think it could be too cumbersome to make origami cups that would be big enough to hold a 4x6 for each day of the advent. This year, I may go for the envelopes.

So now I have to come up with a game plan of what things to take care of each day so I have this up and running by Saturday. I could always use Saturday's naptime as the final push for whatever doesn't get done prior.

For
a little history on advent calendars

Another helpful way to remind oneself about what this time of year is all about.

And for a slightly less serious look at holiday consumerism, but meaningful nonetheless:
"What Would Jesus Buy?! Yes, really.

Perhaps it will convince just one more person to keep driving past their local WalMart or to pass over those super cheap kids toys that were made by other little kids in far off lands who should not be spending their childhood making cheap bits for other kids in first world countries!

2007-11-27T21:00:00.000-05:00

Handmade By Me

In college I took a class on Theater and the TAs described to us how the populations (of Europe, I'm assuming, this was 15 years ago and my memory has shifted slightly) in medieval times believed inanimate objects were infused with a part of the person who created the object. That by giving somebody something that you made left a part of you with them.
This also reminds me of the concept that some native cultures have that taking their picture took a part of them away. I think this was more a negative association, but through millenia, through cultures the world over, an association of person to object.

And along comes the Handmade culture. The person creates, sells or gives the creation and doesn't it feel - when the interaction is so personal - that the object humms with that person's talent, thoughtfulness, and passion?

I'm not saying that items that are made in far away lands aren't made with caring or aren't imparted with that person's energy. But when something is massed produced, each item is molded or stamped the same as the one before it and the same as the one that comes after it. We hear stories from the media of the factories who pay their workers a pittance of the final selling price. Individuals who work in these factories who, while they have a job, likely do not feel content that their potential is being reached or that their true talent and passion is in play.

A pledge to buy handmade...

Or better yet, why not create with those you enjoy spending time with: music playing in the background; getting caught up in conversation instead of getting caught up in the exchange of money; a memorable, friendly afternoon spent together, rather than with a mall full of strangers all sweating it out from stress rather than from hardwork. Someone bakes the cookies that everyone eats, another person mixes a special cd that is given to each participant, the host does nothing more than provide the space, and each person brings their own talent to the ring. Shouldn't the holidays be about the memories? There is the anticipation of the actual 'day of Christmas', but am I the only one out there that has, year after year, felt let down by the end of the day? I'm hoping to recapture what this time of year should be about... Slowing down as winter descends it's snowy blanket over our homes, enjoying the journey - each day of the advent having its own memories that my friends and family can recount years from now with fondness.

Give a part of yourself to those you love through time, teaching, laughter and memories.

2007-11-21T14:24:00.001-05:00

Book Needin'

My library is taking some time to return 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' to me. I've had it out three times and it's time they hand it back so I can move beyond October. In the meantime I have nothing to read. I am in desperate need to read.

I tried reading 'Culture Jam' again; I figured it'd been years since I last picked it up, but I feel like so much of it is in my daily consciousness already that I feel like I'm preaching to my own personal choir.

Next time I head out to the library (perhaps this afternoon?) I'll look in the section that houses 'Culture Jammers' and see what's living around it that could be of the same vein, but a new voice.

In the meantime, The Editors cover The Cure's Lullaby (pretty much the only Cure song I'm left liking still since all of the others have been taken from my memory by new, uglier and more annoying memories):
http://itsnotforthecock.dlpwd.co.uk/archives/134

This one remains the Cure song from my Wimbledon days when I would skip out on secretarial school and spend the entire day at a London museum, enjoying the history and art much more than I ever enjoyed learning shorthand or how to use a mimiograph machine. Yes, mimiograph. Ancient!!!

Now, listen to the song because it's effing beautiful!

2007-10-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

One week ago was the Blog Action Day - I signed up for it: I emailed Whip Up (one of my absolute favorite, check everyday blogs about this exciting event and then they posted my forward and posted a follow up and another follow up; and even put the cute banner up on my blog. But I did NOT follow through with a post. I'm glad Whip Up followed through since, ahem, some of us plain, outright did not. Until now.

I DID, however, follow up with an action that I really needed a nudge on: I switched my toddler to cloth diapers. I finally called an end to my research and instead of waiting for the 'perfect set up' (a streamlined, no stink, lidless pails here and there, enough money to actually pay for them, etc.) I just went ahead and bought four Fuzzi Bunz (new) from a local kids consignment store (Second Chances in South Amherst) to give it a go for a couple of days.

We are the ONLY family at my child's progressive student cooperative preschool that is using cloth diapers. I was STUNNED to learn this when I brought up the thought with the director of the school.

This afternoon I'm off to buy another installment of Fuzzi Bunz. I still don't have the perfect set up at home. I still have to teach my husband how to use them (and how to care for them). I still have to tell his preschool that we've finally made the switch (I got the go-ahead from them a few weeks ago). But we've started. Finally.

The guilt load is lessened. PHEW! While my child's health and impact on the environment have always been important to me, now I have followed through with an action that can prove it (if only to myself).

And technically, disposable diapers are not REALLY all they're cracked up to be. Have you ever seen the very tiny, little, insignificant print on the box that tells you that with each poop diaper you should be putting that poop in the toilet before wrapping up the throw away diaper and tossing it into the diaper pail? I only figured that out in my first cloth diaper research project before my second baby was born. And when you think about the horrors, the pollution, the health risks associated with NOT putting the poop in its proper place and if you think about HOW MANY PEOPLE don't put poop in its place (because they don't know and it's merely more convenient to not even think about it), it's absolutely horrifying!!! So really, other than having to do a couple extra loads of laundry a week is (well, and the initial monetary investment) is the only hassle and I can handle that!

But, the options out there are so confusing. I wanted to do the AIO (all in one). It sounded easiest and, once you added up the cost of a regular cotton chinese folded type diaper with the cover and clips, it wasn't that much more to spend. But the AIOs don't last too long because numerous washings break down the waterproofing magic and they take longer to dry since all of the bulk is in there. So, I went with AOI2 (or something like that) where you remove the inner pad. That way you can add more pads for nighttimes or heavy soakers or fewer pads for daytime when you'll be changing more often and it dries faster (convenient). Fuzzi Bunz were sold locally and from a local store owner (bonus).

I wish someone had told me about all of this earlier. With all the information out there (from friends, family, internet, other media) and the more practical information from the birth classes, couldn't there be a class or info session from the hospital or 5 minutes of the birth class devoted to cloth diapers being an option for a family? They told me so much info about birthing that I knew wouldn't apply to our birth (the drugs, the vaginal incision, IVs, etc.) why not a few minutes about how to use cloth. Just like the choice between midwives and ob doctors. Just like breastfeeding and formula. Just like c-section and episiotomy and vaginal birth.

The technology has changed so quickly over the last few generations. My mother speaks of cloth diapers with me (her only option) and hauling pails of water and diapers through the house; dipping, swishing and swirling the diapers in the toilet to get the initial cleaning phase done - it sounded positively horrendous! So my mother couldn't inform me of the latest in cloth diapers. I'm sure she sees disposables as easier and hassle-free. Friends and acquantences (sp) who use them don't want to tell you - it might be too preachy. So how does the message get out there? Who tells new parents about the options out there?

Perhaps each of us needs to begin preaching. If people don't want to listen, they can tell you so. But this information needs to be given, whether or not an individual wants to take it and process it could be up to them.

2007-10-03T11:26:00.000-04:00

Blog Action Day is Monday, October 15. The topic is 'the environment' and all you have to do is:
1. Sign up and
2. Weave the topic of the environment into your blog on October 15.
Have you signed up your blog yet?
It's super easy at: http://blogactionday.com/

2007-09-14T13:40:00.000-04:00

Joy!

2007-09-14T13:38:00.000-04:00

3 County Fair: Part 2

2007-09-14T13:37:00.000-04:00

3 County Fair: Part 1

2007-09-14T13:28:00.000-04:00

Books are fun!

I really don't think I'd make this library available to my 3 year old, explaining Nazism and Satan might be a little difficult. The accompanying story is fun as well and makes my worst neighbors (the perenially partying college reggae band whose events generally ended in the cops breaking up their fete) look like church mice!

But what a fascinating look into another person's book collection:
http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/welcome-to-my-book-collection/index.html?hp

2007-07-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

Murky Days

These overcast days beg a person to hunker down and churn something out; take a nap; eat something fresh (maybe to remind us of the sunshine that had better be back soon); and just sit around in pajamas and catch up on the little details of our lives or have serious discussions that we’ve been meaning to have (about parenting, budgeting, etc.).

I could finish that pair of soft trousers I started this past Sunday, for my three year old. Maybe make a version for my one year old too since he’s starting to outgrow the pair I made for him in spring.

But the heavy air weighs us down, a storm promises to show up later today (better not be on my walk back from swimming), and with any luck the two homebound sick family members will be a little bit healthier upon my return home this afternoon.

2007-07-10T11:02:00.000-04:00

Beach views #2

Peaks Island: arrival & departure

Tide pool

Triangle pool

Flying

2007-07-10T10:56:00.000-04:00

Beach Views #1

Rockstar

Pokey rocks

Rock sculptures

Insane rock sculpture (we have a professional on our hands here and I'm sad to say, it's not me).

2007-07-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Graffiti Peaks Island style!

White horse

Handle

Hubris

2007-07-10T10:30:00.000-04:00

Making it

My first (and so far only) forray into creating with felt. I made this while my first son was napping (boy #2 was still just a future hope) and when he saw it he immediately suggested I make some more.

Lovely canvas-like fabric that will be something both useful and gorgeous one day, ah, one day. It seems so far away.

Plucky, the rooster, that my mum helped me make. H'es in his 'nest'. Or wearing headgear, as I like to say. I learned so many tips and secrets about sewing while we made this. For about three weeks after, I worked on a weekly sewing project, but never finished up Plucky... see next pic.

Plucky, the punk rooster. I always wondered how much it hurt to have a piercing 'down there'. Yikes!

2007-06-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

Letterboxing!

Thanks to Blair at Wise Craft for mentioning letterboxing as a fantastically fun enterprise for families all over the world. Our family has planted two up at Peaks Island, Maine (during our annual summer vacation - the next one starts NEXT Saturday!)!!!

Letterboxing is all about creating and exploring. It's like a modern day, low tech treasure hunt for anyone!

Here are the two boxes we've planted so far:

Battery Steele Conservation Area

Currently (well, for the last year and a half) this box has gone missing. I blame global warming since it was a nasty storm that took out the hiding place. But we shall overcome! And we'll plant a new box this summer. Mark my words!

Here's my husband and first born on their way up the hill to plant our second letterbox (the one that was washed away, sigh...)

Here is a view of one of the WWII bunkers very near to our missing box.

Ice Cream at Down Front (may I suggest Moose Tracks a perennial favorite) after a hard day of letterboxing.

The beach below our first Peaks Island letterbox. Dig, boy, dig!

Last I heard this box was still where it should be. Methinks we may consider checking for mold and repackaging it for future letterboxers.

As a sidenote, should anyone be in the area, Peaks Fest 2007 happens from June 22-24 this year and it's a wonderful celebration!

Otherwise, enjoy a weekend trying to find a letterbox near you and good luck!

2007-06-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

Stop right there or the lemon gets it!

2007-05-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

Livestock

Because there need to be more goats on the web...

...but then we wouldn't want May Day (el conejo) to feel left out!

2007-05-30T08:36:00.000-04:00

Kid pants! (Yeah, I actually finished something!)

Take a very soft 1980's boxy mens shirt (thanks Dad):

Add a little something from a pair of trousers I've had since the mid-90's (but are no longer wearable due to the lack of knees):

And my kid can walk in them, crawl in them and eat cookies in them!

2007-05-08T10:41:00.000-04:00

Library Love

Two of my requests have finally arrived:

1. Simple Sewing with a French Twist and
2. Big Love

I can predict fairly accurately that I won’t have a chance to sew anything out of the book, but can confirm I will likely add it to my wish list of books to acquire in the near future via birthday gifts. I’m sure I will be equally inspired (to create) and frustrated (by not having the time to create) by it.

As for the ‘Big Love’ dvd, aside from a few duds (the last few seasons of ‘The Sopranos’, ‘’Rome and ‘Carnivale’), we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the cable shows: ‘Entourage’ (we burned through the latest season in three nights), ‘Weeds’, ‘Deadwood’. I’ve heard good things about ‘Big Love’ and since the next season of ‘Deadwood’ isn’t out til June 12 and the next season of ‘Weeds’ isn’t out til July 24, I sure hope this show helps fill the void for May.

2007-05-07T12:09:00.000-04:00

1st Gardening Day of the Season
Yesterday was our first family day out in the garden. Before the weeds took over too many beds we hit the garden with force!

From getting lawn seed down; lettuce/chard/bok choi starts in; turning the compost (which in turn had a pair of tufted titmice/mousse yanking out some colorful yellow tomato skins that were left from last summer’s plants); digging out ALL of our daylilies; moving irises; prepping a bed for the SIX FOOT RED CANNA rhizomes I found labeled ‘FREE’ on a Saturday afternoon walk through the neighborhood; and many rides for the lads in both the wheelbarrow and the inherited human propelled little tikes car – we fit tons of activities into our Sunday and crossed many an item off of our TO DO list.

And I finally took the time to deflate the inflatable sled that we used in March. I figured we were probably done with the snow for the season.

Behond the deflating in progress.

Huxley and I even made chocolate chip cookies to finish the day off right! No, wait. What really finished the day off right was to watch Huxley share his still-warm cookie with his little brother. Very sweet…

2007-04-13T21:35:00.000-04:00

Friday Nights
I love Friday evenings. Sometimes I pass out early from the exhaustion the week has brought. Sometimes I'm up til 2am with an unsure 1 year old. But tonight it looked like both lads would be asleep by 9pm and I could finally do the personalized part of my Spring Swap.
But now I'm typing looking at Dashiell eating his second round of o's, his eyes open and bright, re-energized by that deep down power that can surface SO quickly in little ones.
But I might still get his to sleep, get that boy some snacks to fill his belly and encourage slumber! Then, hopefully then I can heat up that spiced hot dark chocolate I have on the stove top waiting to be warmed through and dig into my project!
Wish me luck...

2007-04-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

My kids crack me up!

I love seeing the lifelong bond developing between my three year old and one year old. They make each other laugh a lot and cry sometimes. They look almost nothing alike. But they'll always have one another to count on and celebrate with.

2007-04-11T09:12:00.000-04:00

My latest creation (which brings us to a grand total of: 2)

Please keep in mind I am quite new at sewing, embroidery, etc. But I'm still pretty happy with how they turned out!

Brown bunny beanbags for my big boy.

The one beanbag I was able to finish before Easter finished. And, no, your eyes are NOT deceiving you, he has a squared off butt.

What the hell - let's throw in the egg my husband painted. It's a rabbit too. Thought it might be nice to have a picture of the ground and some emerging tulips before all of that snow hits us again!

I found a pair of brown Polo cords for my husband for 50 cents at the local hospice store after getting the request for a brown pair of pants. However, turns out he's a little pickier than the rest of us thrifters and the trousers were a little too small. So husband put threw them in the basement where they were destined to become the latest rag for greasing something. (While I was at it I rescued a grey wool sweater he put down there, just because it had a hole in it! Felt that sucker!!!) But I was able to rescue them in time to put them in my fabric box.

They seemed like the best choice for bunny beanbags since they are so tactile. Might make it easier for my three year old to catch. The ears and tail are from a flannel baby blanket that was NEVER big enough to use for swaddling.
My bunny beanbags were inspired by the ones over at Two Straight Lines

I remember making beanbags with my Mum. I was the one who made the funnel to put the beans in and then filling them up just enough with kidney beans.

Since I wasn't able to finish all five (five is the magical default number for my three year old and has been for ages) to hide in time for easter, I brought my laddie into the fold and showed him how to make a paper funnel and how to put split peas in there.

I think working together was much more fun than having him be surprised by such an unusual gift from the easter rabbit.

While my mum was visiting, she and I worked on a project that taught me some wonderful basic sewing skills that I was able to recall only one week later (before I forgot them!) to use on these. More on that later!

2007-03-30T12:32:00.000-04:00

Rabbit love
In continuted preparation of the easter season...
Meet Dakota May Day. She joined our family a couple of years ago after the demise of Mississippi Buttercup. We stuck with the state+flower idea of pet names. While MB was usually shortened to Mississippi, with DMD, we've gone the opposite route, often refering to her as May Day.

2007-03-30T12:29:00.000-04:00

Ovals are so square!
I like floating ovals with built in shadows all squared together. NO rectangles here!
Toddle drawing holding it all up...

2007-03-29T13:35:00.000-04:00

Creative juices
Is my very nearly one year old teething? He slept for 2 hours, then had a break from sleep from midnight til 6:30am. In my wakefulness (because when Dashiell is awake, I’m awake) my brain was flooded with so many creative ideas I was wishing I was coherent enough to jot them down before they popped away as quickly as they’d appeared.

I suppose sleep deprivation encourages our brains to creep deep down into those crevices that we might not normally access and flush them of their primordial thoughts. Now it’s my turn to splatter them into some notebooks!

Update: I’ve taken some of those ideas and made them into images on paper and kinda like the way they look. Even if I don’t have time to make these things in the near future, at least I can free up my brain a little and see where they might take me in the weeks (well, more likely) months and years to come!

2007-03-28T12:02:00.000-04:00

Sewing
Oooh, Mum’s visiting this week from Seattle (uh, actually Mercer Island) and we’re working on a sewing project. She’s been sewing for years upon years and I don’t remember ever having a store bought nightgown, she always custom made them. Oftentimes my family nickname ‘Pooh’ was emblazoned across my chest.

So ‘Plucky’, the cover rooster from Plush-O-Rama is being constructed at our house. I’m so excited to be making something with her to glean any sewing skills from her that I can. We began at the weekend when my laddies were napping.

After Huxley woke up he wanted to help right away, so we put him to work! Of course, upon flipping the book’s pages he immediately fixated on the ice cream cone softie named ‘Sprinkles’ (I believe ‘sprinkles’ are called ‘jimmies’ over here on the east coast, not unlike the ‘Soda versus Pop’ debate that has divided the east and west coasts for decades). Unfortunately the ice cream critter reminds me of a pulled tooth, but I don’t want to put that air of prejudice over the project, so while I’ll share that with the blogging world, I refuse to utter those thoughts in our house.

2007-03-22T15:13:00.000-04:00

I can't wait til the day when I can create my own mast head for this blog. So many bloggers make such attractive ones and change them so often - change, tell me about it! - I know it can't be difficult to do.

2007-03-22T15:09:00.000-04:00

What an
amazing concept and I can't wait to read the book on how to live with NO IMPACT!
Check out this article in the NY Times as a family in NYC tries to live without impact on the environment. We should all have this kind of moxie!

2007-03-19T12:44:00.000-04:00

Ooo. I'm bad.
How many times are you allowed to change the name of your blog? 'Cause I've done it again. They keep letting me, but I feel like soon they'll tell me that enough's enough and please leave the blogosphere.
And each time I change the name of my blog, I have to go back and edit my first entry to try and re-reflect the idea behind the naming of the blog. Of course, now I'm regretting changing the name already. It's bad enough trying to name one of these the first time, but each time I wonder, is this right for me? It sounds great as I'm typing it in to find out if the name has been used by someone else. No?! Panic, should I change it before someone else comes out of no where to rip the precious new title out from under me?! Aaaargh! 'Edit', type it in, 'Save Settings' Now it's done.

2007-03-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

Robot love!
Daddy (to mummy): I love you very much
Huxley (to mummy): Yeah, and I love you very much too!
Daddy (to Huxley): And isn’t mummy so pretty?
Huxley (to mummy): Yeah, and mummy – are you a robot?
Daddy (to Huxley): Do you know something I don't know?

2007-03-07T10:38:00.000-05:00

What I’d like to be doing:
In this current life of working full time (wish I didn’t have to, but I’ll try not to whine about that too much) and having two kids under three years old (wonderful but crazy, wonderfully crazy!) and my husband who also works full time, he and I have brainstormed to come up with ways to keep us from going insane and to keep the madness of limited time and keeping score with each other to a minimum. But because this blog is about me, I’ll forego what his plan is.
For me, I was supposed to swim at lunchtime once a week, walk at lunchtime once a week and have ‘one hour’ a week to do with what I chose to do.

1. The swimming thing sounded good, I did it twice a week during my first pregnancy and loved the break in my day. But wintertime in New England is a bad time to walk across campus with a wet head. Yeah, a hat works a little bit, but when the winds start up (the winds that started in the Arctic and worked their way down here) a hat is not impervious to the chill and the wet hair only gets covered so much. The ends of my hair would literally end up with icicles on it. Sounds like a symbolic feature of a storybook character, but it does actually happen. So, swimming has been put on hiatus until warmer trends begin, hopefully this month.
2. I still love taking walks into town though and knowing something cool is waiting for me at the town library is extra incentive to make the journey. And if I have a couple of bucks in my pocket, I may even stop by the bakery and pick up a crumbly sweet treat to make up for the calories I’m using up in my jaunt going there and back.
3. The one hour a week sounds so paltry doesn’t it?! But I still haven’t done it! Hubby and I haven’t agreed on a weekly day and time other than a generally agreed upon weekend hour during nap. But, I guess just like I haven’t followed through with a weekly swim I haven’t really followed through with my end, etc. My list felt so daunting. So many projects and ideas of what I wanted to do and sink my teeth into. I actually started one this week. Rather unintentionally, but…

We have a Joann Fabrics near us (on the route between our house and work) and a neat quilting store in town, but I much prefer finding pretty fabrics from the Salvation Army and local thrift store. They NEVER seem to have pretty fabrics in their virgin form, so I have to rely on clothes, scarves, lots of sheets and pillowcases. I’m sure there’s lots I won’t be able to make simply because I don’t have ‘x’ number of yardage, but I think I’ll be starting with small projects anyway. I did find an attractive Martha Steward sheet, green ovals on green, that I’d like to use for practice bags. If they look good, I’ll actually use them, if they look gawd-awful, back to the thrifting circle they’ll go!

So anyway, I actually got around to folding all of those clothes, sheets, etc. that were lying (freshly laundered) on my side of the bedroom) and putting them all in one place. I’ve now put myself one step closer to starting some sewing projects and oh how much room has been freed up! I no longer trip over the piles! Our house is very small and we have precious little time and money to redecorate and give ourselves more shelves, etc. so I have to use the space we have. As we continue to relieve ourselves of our material goods (but not our goods that will be used as material) and as our basement continues to flood (as it did last week), we will be finding ourselves with a little more space in our basement. It isn’t terribly finished (hence the flooding) and it smells like the 1940’s oil tank that is still down there (that we are planning on removing this spring – HOO-effing-RAY!), but we do have plans to relieve our lack of room over the next year including making me a craft station so I can have a place for my stuff and pick up a project fairly easily when I have my ‘hour’ rather than using that hour hunting down the plastic bag that holds the Christmas ornaments that I started 4 ½ months ago that I’d like to finish already! (And, yeah, I finally found the bag in an old diaper box under a table cloth and next to some tutorials that I’d printed up.)

I would like to:
--Design and cut some linoleum blocks to make some cards, maybe print on fabric.
--Continue to practice embroidery
--Make some bags: drawstring and totes
--Jewelry, specifically beading. But I’d like to find out if our local bead store has classes on using silver wire so I can make my own earrings and embellish necklaces a bit more
--Quilting, but more for appliqué work
--Pillows! I want to redo the pillows we have upstairs. I think we’ll be inheriting a new couch soon and while I’d LOVE to re-cover it, I think we’ll have to settle for new pillows. In fact, I know that’s what we’ll have to settle for.
--Monsters, creatures, robots, letters – anything stuffy. My H boy is very into looking at my plush books or tutorials and as I turn the page says “We should make that.” And I’d sure like to show myself and him that I can.
--And I love Colorfool's fabric food. And now that my (nearly!) three year old is having tea parties at preschool, I have to get going on this, including how to quilt up some pot holders and hot mitts.

All over the map, lots to try I know! But these are all things that bring me pleasure and pleasure is one of things in life we should all have more of.

2007-01-02T10:55:00.000-05:00

No Logos!

After unpacking from our 10 day holiday 'vacation' in southern California and getting half way through Living Simply with Children, I have quickly discovered how much I hate clutter. We were given more stuff than we wanted or needed or have homes for and I even left behind some kids' clothes that were littered with logos.

'Designer' logos. Remember when they started to creep into fashion? LeSportSac? Izod alligator? Levis? I remember starting to see logos on clothes when I was in sixth grade, but now they are everywhere and I HATE the idea that big corporations are using me and my children as billboards. So I have an idea to get around this by trying to quilt over the logos.

I do most of my clothes shopping via thrift stores and extreme sales at places like Old Navy (although rarely and the guilt these excursions incur is never worth it) and my kids' clothes are also passed down from other families with kids. So I end up with more logos than I'd like. So rather than poo-poo free or extremely cheap secondhand clothes, I'm going to try and refashion them a bit.

Considering my total lack of sewing skills and non-mastering of fabrics, I am forseeing lots of mistakes and one or two ruined items, but there are plenty more where they came from and I'd rather have a kinda wrikley, sorta chopped up hoodie for my 9 month old rather than 'OLD NAVY' emblazoned across his precious little chest!

In reality, I probably won't get around to this anytime soon, but the potential is there for some innovative workpersonship. As my husband and I prioritize how to simplify our lives more efficiently, I'm noticing that we have to rid ourselves of excess basement boxes that haven't been opened in years, and whose contents can therefore be discarded (in an environmentally responsible, recycled, tax-deductibled way). THEN we make room for the tools that will create the SHELVES THAT I SO DESIRE so we can store items in appropriate places. THEN if we don't have space for items beyond our essentials they shall be discarded (in an environmentally responsible, etc. way). THEN I can get to a few more creative projects. AND No Logos!!!

2006-11-22T10:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend is about giving Thanks. Duh.

Last week I was home all week with my seven month old son while he worked through a lingering virus that had him up to 103.2 degrees. His lack of sleep, my lack of sleep, his misery, my misery. I'm thankful we have that behind us now! But there was ONE day that he took a mega-long nap and I FINALLY got to go through all of my copies of tutorials, inspirational images and how-tos that I've copied off the web and out of library books. I ordered them into their correct stacks and stuffed them into the appropriate plastic page sleeves:

1. Techniques: how to this & how to that; basic tools to create.
2. Inspirations: images from the web, magazines, blogs of clever & talented people.
3. Tutorials: projects from the blog world of crafters and creaters. One day, mark my words, I will get to these projects and one day somewhere beyond that I'll create something that resembles the pictures that go with the tutorials.

But then I ran out of plastic sleeves. So, while the overall organization project wasn't completely completed, it afforded me the chance to bring together oh so many piles of printed off materials and put them together. I also need some bigger binders. My mission to seek out as many neat-o tutorials, techniques and amazing pics for inspiration is neverending and I believe I'm correct in assuming I'll continue to print new finds and those will need their own plastic page before they can be added to the binder.

I am thankful for big binders and plastic pages.

I have also been attempting to bring order to my cluttered collection of fabrics. They've all been cleaned (except for my latest two pillowcase acquisitions), folded and stacked. But the stack keeps growing and it's growing under my bedroom window. Bad place to cultivate fabric. My husband pointed that out to me the other day. I think I'd have to agree with him on this one.

So one of our house projects for the long weekend is to organize parts of the basement. Then I can box up my fabric stashes and put them downstairs. While I'd usually think 'out of sight, out of mind' at least I'd have a place for them where my 2 1/2 year old isn't always knocking them down as he tries to ascend them on his way to the window blind string! As I said before, organization means finding a place for everything. That way, everything can be put away where it belongs when it's not in use. Once my room is cleaned and cleared, once I have a space to use my sewing machine (oh, and once I am given time by my precious children), then I can get some of that clean fabric and begin to play. What game will I play first? Hmmm... well, now that my techniques and tutorials are all in place (once I get my next batch of plastic pages and big binder home), I guess it'll be easy for me to find my first brilliant creative project.

Long story short:
--I'm thankful for whatever time I can get to organize;
--I'm thankful for all the craft bloggers out there who inspire and share their knowledge;
--I'm thankful that my husband doesn't see that pile of future pillows and bags, etc. that is currently fabric and drop it off at the local Salvation Army.
--I'm thankful that someone else is cooking the turkey this year. (Random addition, that last one, but I really am thankful for it nonetheless!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-07T15:12:00.000-05:00

Home, Ideal Home

An exerpt from Jane Cumberbatch's Pure Style Living, the very heavy (not intellecually or psychologically heavy, actually, physically heavy) square (and hip) book:
"Home is at the heart of daily life; it is the one place where we can communicate our honest feelings nad be our real selves, and this is reflected in teh colors and furnishings that we choose to decorate with, inhow we sleep, bathe, garden, or in what we choose to eat. Whatever else is goign on in the outside world, home is grounding, a refuge, and our main source of warmth and security. It should be light and airy, a living breathing environment furnished with natural textures and uncomplicated designs that minimize the daily grind."

When I think of the space I've created for myself on 'my' side of the bedroom, I don't think "light and airy" instead the space is a heavy breathing space whose walls loom tighter around me waiting to crumble down, falling and trapping me beneath the layers of clutter.

If/when I get these things organized and under control, once those basic steps are achieved, then I think I'll have a better chance at starting and completing projects and more importantly at practicing some creative skills. In the meantime I'm allowing myself to sketch more. I've never thought of myself as a drawing person, but after seeing so many blogs out there with cartoony-abstracty kinds of images I now know that what comes out of my pencils and pens and lands on the paper is perfectly legitimate! It's a simple form of expression that is so easy and flows without apprehension. Maybe I'll take these drawings one day and embroider them on to a scrap of fabric to try out a new stitch or do some Illustrator do-hickey.

So, home. I've figured out (and this was like a total light bulb moment that illuminated ALL that we've been doing wrong in our house) that our house is a disorganized horror because 'things' don't have a place. Ok, we have too many things and we have a small space; but we also have NO storage space and NO shelving. If 'things' had a place, then they wouldn't be left in piles all over the place and the countertops could be left clear and not be counteractive to a clean and clear lifestyle!

We need to get that table saw out of its box and make us some shelving! Our house, my creative side, both need to breathe.

2006-11-06T11:30:00.000-05:00

The Last Veg of the Season

The last vestiges of our garden veg: tomatoes & tomatillos. Both are like weeds by this time of year, the vines just creep and crawl more slowly across the ground we've given over to them. They began to invade our compost pile.

Add some halved cherry/pear tomatoes to already cooked mac n' cheese or, if you're making the creamy noodly dish from scratch, mix 'em in or place them on top and THEN sprinkle bread crumbs to the top to get an extra crunchy fragrant flavor that adds a gorgeous yumminess to mac n' cheese.

All hail the last flavors of summer!

2006-11-03T20:37:00.000-05:00

Sewing buttons onto shorts

Herein is my premiere sewing project. Buttons that had previously popped off of still useful shorts, needed mending. As both my husband and I had gained a bit more girth over the previous summer (perhaps explaining the button popping), I decided to put the buttons back a 'scosh' further out than they had originally been placed.

I hereby declare that a 'scosh' can be a little too far when attempting such a feat. I thought I was outwitting the tailoring gods and lo they declared "Uh, now we won't let the zipper close properly! Foolish mortal.." Be ye wise and heed my warning:
When replacing buttons do so with precision.

I used Martha Stewart's method of sewing on buttons, but boy did she forget what could have been some very (obvious) helpful information that I will now share with you:
1. Figure out what size button fits comfortably through the button hole. "Duh!" you say. But when was the last time you knew if a 9/16" button would fit through the hole of Old Navy shorts from 2001?
2. Use regular toothpicks, not the square kind (you'll understand once you read her instructions. Let's just say the pick ain't for cleaning the corn on the cob outta your teeth).
3. Give yourself LOTS OF THREAD! More than you think you'll need. Because who cares if you throw away those lsat 8" of thread? But if you run out of thread in the middle of sewing one of those little bastards back on... Well my friend, there you will find yourself up the proverbial creek.
4. Use nice sharp scissors that you reserve for your sewing projects. Regular, everyday kitchen scissors mangle the tender thread to a hacked up jumble that will then refuse entry into the needle. All the spit in your mouth won't be enough to slick it down and coax it through the eye.
5. How do sewers get that horrid little staple out of the button? You know, the staple that holds the button to its cardboard backing buddy? I found a little screwdriver in my pen cup and began priying it free.
6. Martha, a few questions for you my dear: What the fuck is a 'thread shank'? When you say "tie a knot" what sort of knot holds a button down long enough for me to wear the shorts out of the house? And, more pics please to if sorry assed sewers, such as myself, are to truly follow what it is you're trying to teach us. (How do you expect us to revere you if you only spread confusion?!)

Let's face it, if I'm dumb enough to not know how to sew on a harmless, little button, then I need to know more specifics than Martha provided. I give her tutorial a C+. It made me think about what I was doing. Despite printing it off months before I finally got around to finishing the project, the illustrations led me to believe I could do it all by myself, so I did end up sewing. (On the other hand perhaps that was me getting tired of my husband whining about his lack of shorts this summer.)

PS: Magnets help you find needles should you drop one. I can only assume that they would also help me find lost pins, but I'll get back to you on that one... It'd be just my luck that pins are made of some sort of metal that defies magnets.

2006-11-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

Rotting on the vine

It's bad to start a blog then leave it to rot on the vine for four months. I have been thinking of many things to put on there. I've taken photos to add. I've lost photos when our un-backed-up laptop went belly up in August.

Never fear, the brain has been hard at work, the fingers tingling to get going and with my mum in town, I may actually break out the sewing machine this weekend.

I've been going to the local Salvation Army lately to bring home gorgeous wayward fabrics. "Someone made you into drapes? I want to turn you into tote bags" That $1 pair of baggy-on-the -legs, painfully skinny on the waist brown velvet trousers... I easily dropped the buck and envision some sort of scarf thingy mixed with some men's silk ties quilted in. The visions have been popping through my head like a Flickr slideshow. But FIRST I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO SEW!

Despite budget cuts to our library system, I have been trying to keep the remaining employees busy with my obscene number of requests for embroidery books, sewing how-to books, and Jane Cumberpatch's voluminous tome: Pure Style Living. This thing is massive and must've dislocated several vertebrae in its move from East Springfield to Amherst Jones Library. It looked so innocent on-line and I have to admit, I never look at a books dimensions or weight. Why judge a book by it's waistline? But this honker of a book took me totally by surprise.
When I got it home my husband and I began making fun of it: how can a book about pure living (simple living) be filled with so much stuff? Oh behold the original Portugese grass wicker basket handmade by a blind octagenarian. Where can I get one of those. Target? Our local Stop n' Shop? Cause I can't really afford a round trip ticket to Portugal right now, as much as I'd like to go!

But once I got into it, actually reading what she has to say, I liked her view on things. (I mean, the view from a restored Spanish villa can make anything gorgeous) And while I don't think I'll be making the Seville Orange Marmalade from scratch, the general ideas behind the book of creating order to encourage calm and creativity has not been lost with me.

So this weekend will be about clearing some space and dusting off the long ignored sewing machine. No, I don't think I'll be emulating Jane's ruffled flamenco dress quite yet. Maybe I'll learn how to thread the machine first!

2006-07-27T13:04:00.000-04:00

The beginning of 'H marks the spot'...I am a crafty, make it myself kind of person. I want to be able to sew on a button, watch zinnias grow, make toys & clothes for my kids, create my own wardrobe, and whip out a pan of my brownies all in a day's work.

My 'Current Situation':
I don't know how to sew on a button with enough confidence that I'd wear any trousers that would do their part and actually stay up; I don't know how to sew; lastly, I have a full time job that limits how many brownies I can make, let alone catch up with my rainbow zinnias. As for the kids stuff, with a 2 year old and a nearly 4 month old, I'm barely able to find time to scratch my own head, so forget about digging out the sewing machine my mum gave me too many years ago to remember how to thread it!

So 'H marks the spot' is meant to represent several things for me here:
--As far as sewing and other arts & crafts, I don't know what the hell I'm doing! So I will be trying to keep things as simple as possible and starting simply. I will be teaching myself based on close observation of other blogs and their tutorials and suggested reading lists. Due to budget constraints (thanks to student loans, kids and a mortgage) I'll be relying heavily on our Western Massachusetts library system. And by the by, whomever invented 'Interlibrary Loan' should have received the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award and was likely a Rhoades Scholar to boot. Because if our little library doesn't have it, they can almost certainly locate it nearby. Alibris.com is also a resource I love to look at for very decently priced books (where shipping costs more than the actual book).

--When I bake or cook, I only make food from scratch and know what's going into my family's bellies. I try to use fresh and local ingredients whenever I can. Simple, simple, simple! Yummy, yummy, yummy!

--Gardening is all about using seeds I've collected from previous seasons. (We also buy from the local farmers markets and garden center to fill in the proverbial gaps AND for homegrown tips and suggestions). Sand Hill Preservation Center in Iowa is marvelous to get seeds from (IPM-some organic, cheaply priced, and lovingly grown).

--Whatever I end up creating, growing or baking, you know it's going to be on the cheap.

My Inspriation:
I've seen many way cool bloggers who craft like they're fish breathing water through embroidered gills. They are often asked 'How did you learn to sew?' or 'Where does someone like me, who knows nothing about interfacing, learn what to do with it. Because it sure sounds handy!'
FAQ pages of those clever crafters/bloggers inevitably end up with nothing more than 'Years of watching my Aunt Gracie thread a needle inspired me to teach myself after the birth of my first child...' I know there is no one resource. I'll grant you that and those clever crafters/bloggers have provided me with such inspiration that I want to LEARN how to do these things. They are my collective Aunt Gracie (I don't really have an Aunt Gracie) and I'd like to point other people in my current position of 'Duh, what's a hem?' to places that can simply tell them how to find what they need to reach the nirvana of hemming. But slowly!
I don't want anyone out there injured emotionally or physically from hemming. And I'm pretty sure hemming should be taken on with a certain amount of cautiousness so that everyone can work their way up to hemming with confidence and charm.
One day we should all be charming hemmers who hem charmingly.

My Wish (a much better word than 'Goal' whichs sounds so damned corporate):
With any luck (and the occasional moment to myself), I'll be able to eeek out some fragments of time to learn some craft nuggets to share with others with the long term goal (the office speak seeped in there, sorry) of creating my own legible Tutorials for amazing things (softie patterns of local fungi, sparkly bags in the shape of a milkshake (or frappe as they're known out here) or something that will turn the crafting world on its head)!

My Bank of Knowledge:
But beyond those disclaimers that make me sound like a flounder on a highway flopping about wondering what the first step is to making a zakka quilt, I do have some things going for me:

--I can bake. I love to bake. My confidence meter in that area is high. My first memories of 'baking' include improvising with rice krispie treats during a summer in between grade school grades. I have a favorite & highly trustworthy chocolate cake recipe (that I did not make up but that I can dress up in a million different ways) despite my general disregard for cake, and brownies that I can get in the oven in 10 minutes if there are no children blocking my path to the butter or trying to stick their hand in the flour that just puffed down to the linoleum (where it usually turns into a map of sorts when my 2 year old runs his finger through it over and over). And my strawberry muffins!

--I also garden lots and have been gardening for a number of years. Does this make me an expert? Hardly. And I should never be asked for advice. I grew up gardening in the Pacific Northwest watching my dad raise bees, collect manure (I have vague memories of hearing 'Africa' by Toto while watching horse poop being loaded in the back of a borrowed pick-up truck), picking backyard berries that mum would magically transform into jarred delights for the rest of the year.
Now that I live in New England I find the rules of the gardening game have shifted to a much shorter season and fewer plants survive this heat & humidity called summer (if you were out here the past few weeks, you know what I'm talking about). But there are some surprises: our rhubarb transplants that were brought over state lines (over about 37 state lines on my parents' trip out here several years ago) LOVE it out here. Something about Siberian roots and how our cold New England winters instantly transports the rhubarb back to thoughts of the motherland. We also have a horse manure source, even better an AGED horse manure source, Sarah. (For the record Sarah owns the horses, the horse isn't named Sarah.) As for making jam. I'm too scared to invest a flat of any berry, and definitely not one I spent hours picking, to make jam when I never really paid attention to what mum was doing. I DO remember her always using a huge antique brass put with a gorgeous wrought iron handle and an immense wooden spoon that would always get stained a particular by the berry depending on the time of summer.

Thanks to the blogger out there (who you were I know longer remember) who recommended Jean Railla's book 'Get Crafty'. I never would have considered cooking and gardening as 'crafty', but I see now I'm already on the road to being a true renaissance crafter (with any luck). Oh my, there is still sooo much to learn, but here I go!
...And my name is Heather (that's what the 'H' in 'H marks the spot' stands for. Hello there!